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The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
I will say before releasing this, It's not so much a fear, but there's this sort of, there's this, maybe I don't experience actually where the fear is coming from, but there's a terrible unease. And I think usually before releasing an album, there's this awful purge of like cortisol that happens.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
And like, you know, I've talked to a lot of artists about this, where like you're in tears before it happens and you're exhausted. And there's catharsis that you'd hoped you would get from it. never arrives you know and so there is that I think there has to be maybe there's just there is some resource that you pull from that brings you to a place where you are in absolute commitment to
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
the fact that the work needs to exist. It doesn't matter what anybody has to say. The song wants to be written. The song has, in some ways, and I sometimes think of it like this when an idea comes through, the song is asking to be written. It feels ready to be worked on.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
And to deny it that is kind of, it's going against your nature, what you know you kind of have to do, what you have decided you're here to do. And so there's something that is willing to be made. It's willing itself to be made through you. And it's like you either do it or don't. But don't, sorry, excuse me, don't get annoyed when somebody else has the idea.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
Because there's a lot of parallel thinking in the world as well too. And someone else is going to put something similar out. Exactly. Yeah. And that actually happens. I mean, artists talk about this. I've certainly experienced it. You have an idea for a song and six months later you hear it on the radio and somebody else's has played with the themes that you were thinking of.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
And we're all living in the same, similar societies. So a lot of parallel thinking comes in because we all have very similar simulaces, whatever it is. You have to, I don't know, there is a resource that you pull from that needs to be made.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
you know 12 years later is there a different feeling at this season of life of an artist um you know before you launched the recent album and the feeling on the first song i was so like i was such an unknown and that i just was watching its its uptake slowly but surely there was these moments where okay it was reaching another audience so it's like oh my god it's like that the video has been seen by 10 000 people oh my god that was a huge deal for me at the time
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
I think it was like it got it was like on the first page of Reddit or something which at the time was like you know huge it was huge you know and then it was then it was starting to be played I think some of the earliest I think the first one of the first radio stations that played it in the States was like Alabama Mountain Radio and like it was being shazammed and we were watching like somebody was telling me oh yeah it's just been shazammed in like parts of the world parts of the States that I I'd never been to the States I'd never thought that it would I would be
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
where the music would be heard. At this point, people in Ireland didn't know that I was an Irish artist, you know? Really? Yeah, honestly. I think the song had started to be played on Irish radio, but they assumed that I was like an American import, you know, that I wasn't. They didn't know that I was from Ireland because I hadn't been releasing music all that long.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
And then there was this kind of dark sort of gospel rock sound, you know, in that song. this kind of swampy sort of vibe. And, yeah, so it's different, you know? I think there's sometimes you miss being the underdog a little bit, you know? There's a lot to be said for having... Some to that feeling, right? Yeah, having nothing to lose. The naive, like, oh, this is really exciting.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
It just... Yeah, yeah, exactly. And feeling like every inch you gain is a huge deal and is a big win and you've nothing to lose and you...
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
you have you can prove everything but also if nothing happens it's like it's okay you know go away come back when you're when you're ready you know what i mean but it's so it's trying to maintain that maybe there's there's something to be you can still maintain that sort of mindset a little bit of like i think when you and this is also maybe something that you can
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
it's good to practice or to investigate or think about is when the stakes seem higher or you've like on your second or third release, you feel like if it doesn't do something for you that it's somehow, you know, it could be a success by the metrics of what you would think beforehand or anyone else's, but you create this idea of like, I don't know, you just, you want more from it or, you know, so that's... How do you navigate that?
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
I think it's always just about, I try to just bring myself right back to, because you do and you look, you work with, you partner up with business, like labels and stuff like that.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
You know, yeah. And they're competitive by nature. And it's great that you have a team that thinks like that, that wants to bring your work to a large audience. And there's a lot of different ways that different artists will think about this, independent artists, maybe, you know, and
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
What I have settled on is that if I believe in the work, I want to give it every chance that it can reach as many years as possible and let those years decide. And I just try to bring it back to the work. Do I believe in it? If I believe in it and I love it. enough that I feel it's worth releasing, it's worth being out in the world. I'm at peace with it whether somebody listens to it or doesn't.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
I'm at peace with it if nobody listens to it. There's some songs that I'm quite proud of such that if they weren't heard by a hundred people I would say that song is still of the quality that I wanted it to be of. The quality of the work doesn't change whether it's listened to, listened by
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
a million people or a billion billion times or it's listened by a thousand thousand people or a hundred people or ten people the quality of the work doesn't change wow so i just try to bring it down to am i happy with the with its quality that's beautiful i think that's a good uh lesson for any artist yeah author or anyone it's like are you happy with the quality yes
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
They can go to hosier.com for your tour dates and everything like that, is right? Yes, yeah, tour dates. Unfortunately, not many shows left. Left. Then you get notified when you do do more. Exactly, exactly.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
stuff I've learned about myself is, I mean, I've, I've done a lot of personal, personal work. I used to think that realizing that creating, maybe this is one thing I can offer that being creative and creating and my relationship with, with myself was also, you know, My relationship with the work is very often dependent on my relationship with myself. What do you mean by that? That it's a thing.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
It's like whether it's self-doubt or it's self-criticism and an internal monologue that is largely negative. Something I took for granted my whole life. It didn't catch up with me until a couple of years ago when I realized I honestly felt I was never going to write another song. Really? Yeah, sometime during the pandemic. I hit this kind of wall where I couldn't move forward anymore.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
And I felt I'd written my very last song. And I had to come round to, okay, no, this is, this is, this is just, it's the same voices, but they're just louder now because there's nothing to distract me, you know? So I think that was, you know, in the pandemic, that was part of it.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
distract yourself not that tour is a distraction but you weren't able to you had to sit still now yeah and hear everything coming in yeah and in some ways tour is a magnificent distraction and it's a job in which you're constantly putting out fires you know and every day is another little crisis you know and you know i still get i won't say would you call it stage fright but like i'm still having to regulate my body constantly i'm terrible you know what i mean every day is like really
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
Oh yeah, 10 minutes before stage. Yeah, I'm like, I can't do this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on. Yeah, yeah. There's an element of like nerves and like, I'm not able to do this. It's so funny. I was joking with some of the band and this is maybe a magician thing. We had a few weeks break. I was a month into, a couple of weeks after break and I was trying to think
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
This is maybe because a lot of playing is muscle memory. You don't think about when it's automatic. But I was trying to think to myself, how do I play that song on guitar? I couldn't visualize a fretboard. I couldn't visualize finger movement. But yeah, there is always this creeping voice that's... You know, and it's, look, it's immaterial.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
You, you, you find your way around it, find your step over it, you know, and you, and you ground yourself and stuff. But, um, yeah, but in, in, so, but creatively, I think when you are exactly as you described, there was no distractions like in during the pandemic.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
So, but tour is, there's plenty, there's always something to do, whether it's press, promo, you know, meetings, I'm oftentimes releasing music at the same time. So it's looking at artwork, video edits, mixes, mastering. And I'm constantly, I'll be honest, like constantly a little bit overwhelmed, like just a little bit under overwhelmed, you know, and like, I'm just,
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
The nose is like, you know... You're on the line.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
And part of me, you know, is also realizing, okay, is this by design? Am I trying to keep myself up here? Interesting. And because... Because you didn't want to face yourself, maybe. Yeah, you just... Yeah, you operate well in that space, or at least you function in that way. But yeah.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
Yeah, you're operating, or you're... And yeah, you're operating, you're getting everything that needs to be done, done.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
I can't recall exactly if it was a feeling of fear. There was a feeling of maybe sorrow that came with it and sort of... It's just a lowness, you know what I mean? Just a sort of a very... And I think... I think anybody who's maybe prone to sort of depressive episodes or is, you know, will be familiar with it, but it's this kind of... I just slowed down in all forms and I just felt no route.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
I saw no ability to write. It was... And any attempt to make it seemed impossible. I also fully believe... And this is a funny thing about when you're in that mindset, I fully believe that I could not, I did not know how to write a song despite all evidence against it. I was like, oh no, I actually don't know how to do this. Um, so. How many songs have you written at this point?
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
Oh, like, you know, probably, you know, over 100 or, you know, obviously ones that don't get released. Right. Like, yeah, but like, it's something I do all the time. But there's something enters into the mind. And then I realize it's like, oh, no, this has nothing to do with this. This is something else. So, again, it's about relationship itself, you know. And so that was something I learned.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
What was your relationship with yourself like? I think I don't have much of one, you know, so and it was more just realizing, OK, I'm going to have to cultivate a very positive relationship with myself, you know, and actually kind of put, you know, begin to address the root of some of this stuff and put an arm around myself. Wow.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
So that was the beginning of one of the more significant changes in my life I would say is tending to actually you know by the time I was 30 actually like tending to let's say mental health and a relationship with self and which I had just avoided doing, you know, because I could sort of, I felt maybe I could work my way around it or I could, you know.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
But once you can't run anymore, you know, it's, I'd sometimes describe it as the hamster wheel had to stop spinning, you know what I mean? And so then you're forced to sit in your little cage, you know what I mean? Wow. Kind of look around and take it in and go, okay, something's not right about this thing.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
I'd say you could say it was defined by, I had largely a combative relationship with myself. So I was absolutely at war with myself constantly. Really? Yeah, yeah, for sure.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
It's like I couldn't have a thought without an opposing thought, you know? So it's like my brain was kind of split in two, that I'd have a thought and then a thought to combat with that.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
This is the truth. This is real. Yeah. Back and forth. Yeah. But at times, I guess like your state, you're not always, sometimes you're a seven, some days are a three, some days are a nine, some days are, you know. And creatively, it's like, that could really slow me down because it's like, I think this is a nice idea. I think this is beautiful. No, it's not.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
So I couldn't hold one thought at the same time, oftentimes. So it was challenging. I won't go into the nitty and the gritty of my whole experience, but that's probably for another. But no, it definitely put roadblocks up. So that was a big change when I started to address that. how did you navigate the process?
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
there wasn't, there wasn't really, you know, and, and especially it's not something even more so my parents' generation would have had any sort of, uh, not, not really, you know, um, not in a kind of a, this is something we can talk about. It's a day-to-day thing, you know. Kind of like suck it up and let's not talk about it and keep moving forward and just everything's good.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
Very 1970s, you know, very 70s. But I'm very grateful to sort of, to have access to more, to be more present in the day-to-day with my actual lived experiences as opposed to just... Yeah, just having this kind of... Wow, man.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
Yeah. The whole sharing from or writing from... Also, let me just... I just want to address. It's like... Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. And it's beautiful. It's also very similar to what you describe. And I think 30 also took me 30 years of living in a way where I realized I can't do this anymore. I can't live like this anymore. And I've waited too long to feel like I can cope.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
You know what I mean?
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
Yeah, 100%. Isn't that interesting?
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
You still have to turn around and look at yourself at some point. Totally. And I think it's largely unconscious and this driving, but that sort of thing of, And I do think about this a lot, whether would I be driven to be, you know, because surely the work, it's this question, surely the work is enough. Like, if I just loved songs and I just wanted to write them, do I need everybody to hear them?
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
You know, why did I need it? So there is, I sometimes wonder, you know, what part of me needed to be witnessed, you know, or what, you know, and I think a lot of, people who are driven towards work in the public view. I'm not saying everybody.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
I'm just saying generally, I think you might be correct in that all of us are driven in some way from maybe some unobserved place that in some way that all of us think, okay, if I get this thing or I do this thing, all my problems will be solved. We all imagine this picture in our heads of That arrival point that just never comes. Or you get there.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
You'll see the picture and it'll align with the picture in your mind. But the feeling is not there. Or it's still not enough.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
Yeah. Yeah, totally. And it's something you shared about, you know, that thing. It's kind of that self-parenting thing of like getting a relationship with yourself as a child. And a friend of mine once described it quite beautifully, I have to say, of like...
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
getting to this point in that process of then looking out from some moment of their life and just reminding, pausing to remind themselves to invite their child to watch it with them. And to stand in space, whether through the window of their home or at some event that they were at, and to imagine in their mind's eye that their child was there and to say, hey, look, you know, look where we are.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
You did this, you know. And I'm quite moved by that, just to bring your child into that and go like, because there's some, sometimes there's this sort of switch that happens where we think, no, I took myself away from these circumstances and I did all of this on my own. But to turn around to your kid and say, hey, You know, I want you to see this. Wow.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
How how great you did, you know, and how you you did this, you know, we did this together. Isn't this cool? And just to to let your kids sort of smile at that.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
And yeah, I think it's that one. I think that's a that is a life changing relationship thing, you know, I think with yourself, if you can do that. And, but again, yeah, I mean, I had no language for this until I was after. A few years ago. Yeah, until a couple of years ago. So I'm still, why my reluctance also to speak too much on it is because I'm so early in it, you know.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
Yeah, I think so. I'm realizing that it's also imperative for the work I want to make. And it's also, it's like to not do it. I think when you start on that, by the time you're ready to sort of do your own little work on yourself, you're ready to realize that not doing this isn't an option. Or it's an option, but you've done that. You know what I mean?
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
Or for what's ahead of you and what it is that you want for your life and you feel the experience of living that you would like to get to. It's like you realize, okay, I just kind of have to do this.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
I think this is maybe not just necessary for the work as well, too, for being creative. I just want to walk in step with myself in a way that feels aligned with myself and aligned with the work. I guess, to feel at peace in whatever the work is that needs to be made.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
It happens. I won't give examples. It happens. Or you catch yourself, you catch yourself in a thought of like, um, yeah, there's always this sort of one more stone to turn. You know, it's like, I always approached things with like, leave no stone unturned. It's like, you know, just do everything. Yeah. And I'll,
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
Yeah, a little bit, yeah. That can be draining and exhausting, right? It can be draining, yeah. And learning to say no to stuff is something that I'm still cultivating a relationship with or a habit of. I think...
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
Yeah, or I'm a real, and I think this is an, I'm proud of this trade in myself, but that extra hour that I'll put in or that extra 30 minutes or that extra hour, I can focus, hyper focus on something in those last few, you know, but what happens is sometimes I'll agree to do something. I'll be fully in my mind of like, I do want to do this.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
It's like, will you do a little bit extra here and add more rather than take this break? Will I use this time to work? And it's like, Yeah, I'll do that, I'll do that. And then afterwards, I realized, okay, why am I feeling exhausted? Why am I burnt out? And now I can't function. I can't work as I want to work. So I do want to address, hopefully, get better at that.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
There's definitely moving experiences. I was going to joke that I think the spiritual experiences for to be in the crowd. I've been in shows and I've been in such elation. I've been like so ecstatic and kind of lifted by being in crowd energy and all enjoying the same thing. And maybe I was going to make a joke. It's like the preacher is the least spiritual of all people.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
You know, the person at the top, it's everyone else is engaging in a spiritual experience. The half preacher is, I'm just kidding. But I think when I'm on stage, there's a kind of a flow state, you know, that you hope to come into. That's another thing where it's like calming my mind. And this is all connected. It's all connected with mental health.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
It's all connected with like wellness, but then also like mindfulness as well too. And mindfulness was a big change for me. It was realizing how many conversations were going on, how unpresent my mind was, you know, even sometimes when I was on stage and wanting to just... Yeah, it can happen. It can happen. And realizing I...
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
you know, remaining grounded on stage, remaining present on stage, so you're not... So meditating before shows I find really, really helpful. How would you get distracted on stage before? It can happen where, again, if I'm releasing music, there's a lot of emails that I haven't unanswered.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
Yeah, but you could be on stage in the middle of a song, playing a chord and singing lyrics, And in your mind, I'm not present in that. I'm thinking it's happened where I'm like, I didn't email back. Come on. Really? Yeah, yeah. Holy cow. Yeah. Oh, no, you're doing laundry lists in your head while you're in the middle of like singing a song and the crowd are doing their thing.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
And how is that even possible?
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
It's not great. It's like and I don't I think that I think the show My worry is that the show, I think because it's muscle memory, that you just can do it. But it's it's it doesn't you don't feel great about the about the show, you know, because you weren't present, you know. So it's been a while now since I would.
The School of Greatness
How To Unlock Your Creativity & Access Your Visionary Mind
There's also that's kind of before that's when my mind was totally just like haywire. And so mindfulness, you know, meditation and stuff and super helpful. That helps you keep keep you present now on stage. On stage. Yeah.