Creativity: Lessons from from MJ Lenderman
Scooters, Shooters and Deliberate Practice
I got three actionable lessons in creativity this week from one of my favorite musicians. Plus, I got an excuse to write about rock and roll again. Maybe this whole thing will turn into a music blog?
When I worked in corporate, I got a chance to see a wide swath of talented co-workers. There were always a couple of young go getters who were extremely talented, and just seemed to have “it”, whatever “it” was (charisma? drive? EQ?). You just sort of knew they were going to be successful if they didn’t get in their own way.
I thought of them as “naturals”, but over the years I realized that “naturals” don’t really exist. The reality: They start with some natural gifts, but they put those gifts to work through practice, intentional focus and ambition to do good or great work. Annoying? Sure. But, definitely effective.
You Know It When You See It
It’s fun when you spot the “naturals” in the wild, in other domains. And, for me now, I’m paying especially close attention to creative people1.
The podcast Song Exploder is a gem for music obsessives like me, but I was especially excited last week when they released an episode with the musician MJ Lenderman breaking down “You Don’t Know The Shape I’m in”. It’s a great song from one of the best records of 2024 (don’t just take my word for it, “Manning Fireworks” was at the top of a lot of “best of 2024” lists.)
Like a lot of folks, I have been fascinated with Lenderman, because he seems like one of those “naturals.” He is youngish at 26. He’s not modern; he seems like he’s a throwback from a different era, like a slack-rocker from the 90’s inserted, freaky-friday style, into the body of a gen-z. He reminds me of some greats you might already love: Neil Young (front Crazyhorse), the Band, Pavement, Car Wheels era Lucinda William, Dinosaur Jr, Wilco and Uncle Tupelo. If you made a complicated Venn diagram of all my favorite genres, styles and artists, you could put Lenderman in the center and I’d totally nod my head in agreement. His dad’s CD collection must be awesome.
He’s been busy! He’s got a surprisingly large discography for a someone under 30, everything from scuzzy DIY bedroom rock to a “live” record to showing up as a guest on my other favorite record of 2024.
Manning Fireworks is an all-timer. It’s deceptively simple album, though. It goes fast. The compositions and performances aren’t complicated: Pretty straightforward Americana instrumentation, guitars, bass, drums, violin, keyboards, noisy solos. The singing isn’t especially dynamic, but it’s very accessible.
The more you listen, though, the more you realize how deep it goes.
Lenderman is a little bit of conundrum. He looks like he’s not trying that hard, but he is clearly ambitious in some specific ways. He must be doing something to deliver so much. It’s not just inspiration.
To give you a sense of the guy, here’s a live performance of the song.
If you’re just paying attention to the music, though, you miss the quality of the words and writing. When you give it a close, focused listen you realize how sly he is, that he’s got a couple layers in the mix that he’s happy to hide with a couple easter eggs that reveal themselves later.
Here’s a couple lines from the song “She’s Leaving You”.
You said, "Vegas is beautiful at night"
And it's not about the money, you just like the lights
And though you know what is implied when your room is free
You're feeling lucky
I mean, c’mon.
Or, this from “Joker Lips”:
Kahlua shooter
DUI Scooter
with a rolling start on the hill
This morning’s tryna kill me
The morning wants to kill me
And you know I love my TV
But all I really want to see is see you near me
Who hasn’t felt that way on some morning (without the shooters, though).
And, he gets into the poetry zone in this song, “You Don’t Know the Shape I’m In”:
Some say distance grows the heart
But I know sometimes we just drift apart
Everybody's walking in twos
Leaving Noah's ark
It's Sunday at the water park
We sat under a half mast McDonald's flag
Broken birds tumble fast past my window
And you don't know the shape I'm in
Over the course of his body of work (yes, it’s weird to talk about a 26 year-old’s “body of work) he’s delivering on all the fronts: volume (He’s producing a lot of stuff), quality (it’s uniformly “very good” or “great” in my mind; very little throwaway) and he’s a strong collaborator (he’s performed with so many other bands as a key player).
How does he do it? Is he a prodigy? Just pure talent?
He’s Talented at Practicing Creativity
Lenderman is notably laconic, so he’s not giving away his secrets. He’s stingy with his words, perhaps to build mystique, perhaps to avoid scrutiny. It gives you the impression sometimes that stuff just comes out of him in some sort of hazy episode of inspiration.
He’s an example of an archetype that someone should name: The quiet person who is easily underestimated, but is quietly, humbly doing some genius stuff the hard way.
He appears to be the antithesis of the try-hard, the desperate careerist raising their hand and pressing hard on Linkedin. If you saw him walking down the street, you’d think he’s on his way to a shift at the pizza place. You’d never imagine what he could do with a guitar, an amp and a notebook.
While the gunner is out there polishing their linkedin profiles, folks like Lenderman are quietly doing the work, getting in their reps, loving the process as much as the outcome.
In the Song Exploder episode he talks about his practice and it’s a bit clearer how he makes it look easy.
The key takeaway: He leans on deliberate practice, though I don’t think he’d call it that.
“And like I said, it was partially an exercise, just like wanting to jam, but being by myself. And the way I did that was just to first take each track and go back to the beginning and play 20 minutes every time with each instrument. And just try to be present and try to practice restraint and just listen to what else is going on.”
I love the goal of practicing “listening” and “restraint.” How many 26 year olds do that? Most musicians probably lean too far into “solos” and complexity, but that doesn’t always work great in a band (or work) setting. Great teammates and (and co-workers) know how important “listening”, empathy, and restraint are, too.
And, here he is discussing his writing practice, one that’s separate from the “music” part of songwriting:
“One of the writing exercises I kind of would practice would be just going to like a coffee shop or something and writing in 20 lines that weren't really connected to anything. So some of them came from there. I think the first lyric I probably had was about the half-mast McDonalds flag. That was something I remember seeing on the New Jersey Turnpike on tour. It was a funny image. It's kind of sad.”
I loved the clarity and honesty about the need to produce a ton of non-usable stuff before the quality lines become clear. It takes some creative courage to keep going, to turn off the “judgement” mode in your brain so new ideas can come forward. It takes practice to build up that courage.
“I always have to remind myself that one of the harder parts about just wanting to sit down and write is that 99% of it's going to be garbage. And I don't always have it in me to interface with that. Like, even if I'm alone, I'm like embarrassed…. I think the main job... Not even writing… is more about clearing my brain and shutting off voices that say an idea is stupid before it comes out.
What Can Marketers Learn from a 26 Year Old Rising Rocker?
Why should business nerds pay attention to the creative process of a promising, but still-not-conventionally-successful artist?
Our favorite artists give us hope, remind us of what humans are capable of. They surprise us with what seems like magic: Meaningful, potentially life affirming work, spun from their brains, a gift for us to do something with.
They are reminders that magic can happen and if we’re really luck, it might come from inside us.
But, we’re not all artists. Most of us do our “art” in Powerpoint, Excel and email.
This particular interview, though, reminded me that anyone can bring a creative spirit to their work. The practices of an artist can help us be better and more impactful at our “day jobs”.
A couple key points I’ll be returning to in the future:
There’s intention to his work; he’s taking the development of his skills seriously. He’s emphasizing work, effort, repetition instead of “magic.” We can all do that, no matter how old or experienced we are.
He’s practicing the main parts of creativity with stressing about the quality of the output (initially): Generation, editing, listening, being mindfully open minded
He’s doing it individually (i.e. “woodshedding”) so he can be at his best with others on stage. That includes the skills that make a great band-mate (or coworker): Listening, restraint, finesse, etc.
He knows it’s work. He’s just got to put in the time. He knows 99 percent won’t be used in its initial form.
More and more, the actual thing we’re doing at “work” is creative collaboration. And, it will only increase as more is given over to AI. Strategies and tactics require close collaboration across groups and disciplines. The output from marketing teams - the posts, the stories, the programs, the ads - is, at its core, creative production. The “magic” of work will be in the creative, collaborative parts.
Being creative is hard. We focus too much on the output vs. the process. It’s hard to learn how to do it, much less how to be “good” or “great” at it. We don’t get a lot of training on how to be good at it and what we do know is passed down like lore or locked up in expensive classes.
So, when you hear an actual creative expert talk openly about their process, you gotta take note.
And, when that guy put out your favorite record from 2024 it’s even better.
It’s the one skill AI can’t do (yet). And, creative people, when they can harness their generative energy, will probably be the best co-workers in the future.