Increasingly, the work that stand out will be more raw and i...

Increasingly, the work that stand out will be more raw and incomplete (because — by definition — new ideas haven’t been optimized because…they are new). Eno explains: "[On one end, you have] auto-tune that perfectly puts music into tune…which is sort of flawless and faultless. [In contrast, the other side] is clumsy, awkward, crude and unfinished things that we all actually like in the right context. The reason we like the Velvet Underground is not for their gloss. It's for their roughness. For the feeling we have that this was…just breaking out and they didn't know how to make it better. Because when something is new, you don't know how to make it better. In fact, you don't even consider that you could make it better. You just think, ‘Jesus, this is amazing.’ I think the newness is such a big thrill that you don't care about [a polished product]." Eno also cautions against introducing polish too early in the process. He calls it “premature sheen”. You can basically take any raw music and make it “sound good” right away. But if you do that too early, you’re short-circuiting the exploration process of what you are actually trying to create: "You can make anything look really good really quickly if you've got the right [software tools]. Suddenly, you think ‘wow I've got something here.’ But you've gotten away from the actual original soul and purpose of [the work]. It's now very easy in studios to get premature sheen and it makes you think ‘wow, look it's nearly done’ [but it’s actually a long way from being done]."

Increasingly, the work that stand out will be more raw and incomplete (because — by definition — new ideas haven’t been optimized because…they are new).

Eno explains:

"[On one end, you have] auto-tune that perfectly puts music into tune…which is sort of flawless and faultless. [In contrast, the other side] is clumsy, awkward, crude and unfinished things that we all actually like in the right context.

The reason we like the Velvet Underground is not for their gloss. It's for their roughness. For the feeling we have that this was…just breaking out and they didn't know how to make it better. Because when something is new, you don't know how to make it better. In fact, you don't even consider that you could make it better.

You just think, ‘Jesus, this is amazing.’

I think the newness is such a big thrill that you don't care about [a polished product]."

Eno also cautions against introducing polish too early in the process.

He calls it “premature sheen”. You can basically take any raw music and make it “sound good” right away. But if you do that too early, you’re short-circuiting the exploration process of what you are actually trying to create:

"You can make anything look really good really quickly if you've got the right [software tools]. Suddenly, you think ‘wow I've got something here.’ But you've gotten away from the actual original soul and purpose of [the work].

It's now very easy in studios to get premature sheen and it makes you think ‘wow, look it's nearly done’ [but it’s actually a long way from being done]."

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