Prince's Six Principles of Artistic Yield
Insights into the real genius of Prince Rogers Nelson
Prince and Michael Jackson were both born in 1958.
I was born in the same year too. So, I’ve not only grown up with these two American musical icons, I’ve developed an outsized affinity for their creative talents.
When you can track your life along the same path as these giants, there is a connection to them, whether superficial or real.
As a creative person, this is beneficial for your psyche.
The Man, Symbol and Creative Machine
Prince defined the term enigma. He was fluid. He was a mystery.
No one really ever understood the man. We all adored the persona as much as the music. And the songs flowed out like a raging stream of purple, pop consciousness.
How did Prince become so prolific as an artist? He was a master at reducing noise.
The Signal-to-noise ratio is an important concept that compares desired activities that help achieve goals against those that don’t contribute to the cause. Think of it as a kind of constant background noise that obscures your concentration.
Signal moves you forward. Noise is a distraction.
Prince amplified his signal to stratospheric levels. There was no busywork in his day, only meaningful creative endeavors. This is part of his genius.
There is a bank-like vault built in Prince’s home. It houses a lifetime of artistic output. But the majority of the stored material is unreleased albums and music videos. Think about that.
Prince released 39 albums in roughly 40 years. He wrote an estimated 500 to 1,000 songs. He sold over 100 million records.
These are insane numbers to inspire any creative person.
If you remember, he also had a few names: Prince, the “Love Symbol," The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, or simply The Artist.
But the moniker did not really matter, the music was all sublime:
I Wanna Be Your Lover - Prince (1979)
Little Red Corvette - 1999 (1983)
Purple Rain - Purple Rain (1984)
I Would Die 4 U - Purple Rain (1984)
When Doves Cry - Purple Rain (1984)
Let’s Go Crazy - Purple Rain (1984)
Raspberry Beret - Around the World in a Day (1985)
Kiss - Parade (1986)
Six Principles of Artistic Yield
What can we learn from Prince’s prolific output of art?
Luckily, someone on YouTube attempted to address this question. Make Art Not Content extracted the six lessons below from Prince’s work ethic. They selected snippets from interviews and documentaries with musicians and engineers, who worked in the studio or on concert tours.
The video provides the most unique insights into the daily grind of an artist in flow.
I chose to reframe the lessons as principles to better reflect their value to create output or artistic yield. Output occurs over a loose timeline; yield is the quantity created within a given period of time.
To me, output is not the real problem; it is the lack of yield that matters. Why?
Because the backlog of songs, lyric ideas and recorded riffs stifle the creative process. The energy from the initial burst is lost. Momentum is dead. Looking back prevents you from moving forward with thrust.
Prince yielded a bumper crop every year.
Here are the six principles with my notes:
1. Work Fast
In the early days, Prince, like most artists, had to rent out studio time to record songs for an album. This meant that time was actually money. So he insisted on fast production and zero friction from sound engineers and audio techs.
As a talented musician, Prince played all the instruments and mixed tracks during the process. With lyrics in hand, he usually completed an album within a week.
2. Become a Finisher
Obsessing over details and lingering in the process is slow death for a song. When the muse is present and the song is fresh, that’s the best time to finish. The idea is red hot and the performance is genuine.
That initial flush of melodic energy happens when you first start to feel the song. Do not miss the chance for an authentic session. Slogging over a song makes it stale.
3. Abandon Perfectionism
We all know perfectionism is a disruptor. It makes noise. It slows down creative output. Don’t be picky over things that won’t really matter in the end.
For Prince, it was all about being in the moment. He avoided multiple takes and overproducing. If it’s a good song, just get it recorded. Don’t overthink. Keep it moving. Even mistakes on the first take don’t matter as much as capturing the emotion state.
4. Make Art Every Day
According to his longtime recording engineer, Prince was a hypercreative. The fountain of ideas flowed endlessly. This resulted in a torrent of artistic yield and a supersized work ethic.
For regular creatives, we can note this aspect of Prince’s genius and take away a valuable lesson: be possessed with your work, make it a mission and deem it a gift from the universe.
5. Sleep
Yes, this is an odd principle. But it is very insightful.
Eat, sleep and make music. This was the lifelong mantra that Prince seemed to live by. Of course, music was first and foremost. Sleep was secondary, but necessary. He installed a bed at a private recording studio and slept on buses and planes during transit.
Prince was a creative machine. His active mind did not allow him to take breaks. He overdosed on fentanyl at his Paisley Park home studio. Maybe sleep was too elusive.
6. Develop Vault Mentality
This is another lesson from a genius perspective.
Prince was not only crafting songs each day, he was solidifying his legacy. Every working session began with “roll tape” and ended with another reel added to the vault. Many excellent songs never made the cut for his albums, so they are now in storage.
A vault mentality offers two key frameworks: 1) be output driven and 2) think about the big picture and your legacy left behind.
Coda
Prince died in 2016 at the age of 57. Michael died in 2009 at the age of 50.
I turn 67 in another month. Despite their deaths, I still feel their presence as influential artists. Their lifetimes are my lifetime.
As an older creative, I try to tap into genius at every opportunity.
Prince grew up in Minnesota. Michael grew up in Indiana. They both lived in everyday, run-of-the-mill midwestern cities. Nothing special.
The special part was being surrounded by music and performing from an early age. But Prince was a master at ramping up signal and squelching noise.
The Jackson 5 and Purple Rain were really part of my early musical training. I had no idea that a songwriter laid dormant inside of me for over four decades.
Creativity is a gift to explore at any age.
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This is awesome! It really resonates! Thank you so much!