IT'S SPECIAL FESTIVE SEASON 4! Until the New Year, instead of sharing my progress in starting my 4th album, I'm going to put my coaching hat on and run you through a coaching process. This is a new process I've developed and am using myself to get clear on what I want to do in 2024 to make next year an even better musical year than this one.

This has been my favourite album-making process (and album) so far! But now it's over - we have to move on to bigger and better things...after a review, of course. :)

I now understand WHY finishing and releasing has to be the last (crucial) part of any creative process...

Amazingly, I'm excited to share this mixtape with you. Now that's progress...

Album 1: Deadline HIT! Album 2: Deadline MISS! Album 3: ???

It's one of my greatest joys in life when a piece of music takes on a life of it's own. EVEN when they don't leave you alone and you're on deadline!

When you're finishing a piece or an album and you think "I'm not good enough" then this is a sign the process of finishing is WORKING - not that it isn't. Here's why...

Over the weekend, I managed to clear the boards regarding my business work! So now I can focus on the last 7 days of completing the mixtape version of this album. Here are 3 pointers I'm staying focused on to stop me falling into the many rabbit holes that can appear when in the final stages...

I'm getting to the SHARP END! One week to go until the deadline. But while the end is SHARP - this has a series of welcome outcomes for your creativity which you can't get any other way...

One of the reasons I decided to make this current album was to help me decide if I wanted to make more next year. So now I'm in the final stages of this one, I've made a decision...

ALWAYS put why first, and you'll save time and money. (Particularly at this time of year!) And more importantly, you'll make much better music...

Improving your music involves being brutally honest with yourself...

I'm reading a book at the moment which has clarified the fundamental problem we face as artists in finishing art...

I'm in a new situation right now with this album which I'm viewing as a big opportunity...

It's fair to say that I have a few regrets about choosing to make this album about a highly conceptual book. So, what's my strategy for getting the Purpose across? How am I going to express The Beginning of Infinity in an album?

Continuing the questions around results vs growth - after completing my Drafting Challenge, I'm now firmly in the finishing 3rd of this album...

That moment you realise the album is nowhere near as far along as you thought..

Here's a great example of why I prefer to "do to learn" before I "learn to do"...

There is a MASSIVE benefit in going ALL OUT when making music. What happens when you take everything to the extreme?

That AHA moment that highlights the line between "Discover" and "Draft"...

How exactly am I going to "properly" release all these albums I'm making?

The Discovery stage on this album has gone WAY better than any other. But weirdly not because I hit my Discovery Challenge goal...

Over the last few days, I feel like the sun has risen on my music-making. Not so much through what I've been doing in the studio, although that has been going well. It's more like I've realised something crucial about my journey over the last decade...

About half way through my Discovery Challenge, and I struggled to do Discovery on a few of my Splurges - until I realised the mistake I'm making...

Now I've processed all my Splurges....time for the next stage: DISCOVERY! But this time, I've learnt from the problems I hit on the last album at this stage and figured out a way of staying on track...