Today Might Not Be About Today

Sometimes the important work you do today isn’t what looks like the work.

For example, today’s studio session was great – we tracked three songs for the Aces in three hours, plus a little bonus track really quickly at the end! They worked hard, grew, and put down some great things for the next Aces record.

But the real work was getting them comfortable in the studio. They’re going to be back in in the spring, and the songs they’ll be recording will be much tougher and more important to get just right. The most important thing we did today was set the stage for that work in three months.

Of course, that’s not what we talked about. We talked about doing our best today on the project in front of us. But in the back of my mind, it was all about establishing precedent, norms, and expectations to make that next session really great.

Today was great, but it wasn’t really the point.