Happy 2025! I've been recently reviewing my latest writings so I could go deeper with some of the ideas, and the trend I uncovered determined the title of this month's newsletter.

Sometimes an idea arrives fully formed, but my experience is that life tugs at you from different angles and with various situations, to help you arrive at the message it wants you to uncover.

Even the building of this newsletter is a prime example of the creative process in motion. I recently added a new step which helps me visualize the different ideas that I would like to share for the next edition. Each subsequent step further polishes the overall message that I wish to share. As Dan Koe so eloquently put it -

For instance, I use Obsidian to write down all of my ideas, but I just began using their Canvas feature. As you can see in the screenshot below, it allows me group my recent writings, and easily connect them to larger ideas, or any media I want to link to.

I decided to start revisiting my most recent writings that I've shared online because those always appear in short-form. That's just me executing on ideas faster so that I'm taking advantage of the exciting, and very dynamic, energy that comes with a NEW idea. These quick thoughts are always worth another look to see if more value can be extracted from the ideas contained within them. When you approach these ideas from different angles, you can uncover a wealth of information that would've remained hidden. I know that YOU, the reader, is most likely interested in the creative aspect of this newsletter, so I'm working on concepts over a longer period of time to bring you more value.

There's this fine balance between chaos and order that we must strike in our creative endeavors. This ensures that there is enough consistency and follow-through to build something of value, but also with enough space for life to insert it's unexpected wisdom. This is where we use our intuition to connect the dots to a personal understanding of something. Last week, we lost a legendary human always in pursuit of the most beautiful creative expression, the film director/writer, David Lynch. In this video, he talks about the use of intuition to unravel life's abstractions, and that which is hard to explain ↴

Roberto Lange, better known as Helado Negro, also shared a similar sentiment when referring to the ambiguity in his lyrics on his sixth studio album This Is How You Smile -

You're not leaving your audience in the dark on purpose. It's just that when you over-explain, what you created loses an important dimension that is better understood from the perspective of each individual. That dimension of personal discovery is highly specific to each follower, and it is what helps create a deeper bond with each of them. It's not for you the artist to define it, it's just up to you to leave space for it.

On the other end of that balance is order. The routines inserted in your daily life, and the commitment to your craft which will guide you ever further into the creative richness that you seek. I've been slowly reading the book, Body of Work by Pamela Slim, over months and months, and recently she had a lot to say about the importance of being committed to your craft:

It's not about perfection, because that would be overwhelming, and it would dissuade many from ever developing a routine that they visit daily. It's about accepting the reality that you must wade through your self-doubt, you must take on many risks, there have to be many failures, for you to arrive at the other side of a great idea. These various challenges are necessary trials, which unearth & sharpen the skills required to complete the journey.

Put another way, if you're experiencing challenges while working on an idea, then take it as a sign that there is a skill (or skills) somewhere in the process that needs to be worked on. If your response is always to give up right away, you never give yourself the chance to level up your skills, or to create at an elevated level of quality.

In this picture below, I'm standing in Criteria's Studio E next to two musical giants, Juan Luis Guerra and Daniela Mercury. In retrospect, it was one of many highlights in my career, but at that moment I also had nowhere to live. I can't say it lasted more than one or two days, but it's tough to have your head in the game when you don't know exactly where you're going to lay your head down at the end of the day. If you knew me then, you'd be able to tell that even superficially there were telltale signs that I was going through a tough moment. Couple this with a non-stop work schedule (12+ hour days was the norm) and the situation was ripe for disaster. Despite all of this, I stayed focused and committed to a high level of service to the clients. I decided this before I even stepped foot in the studio. I decided this because I had a level of respect for my craft that wouldn't allow me to throw in the towel.

Just remember, that the creative journey is yours to define. You get to choose when and how much time you dedicate to it. The quality of the results will be defined by your level of commitment.

The Finds, The Gems, The Updates

For this third edition, there are just a few updates from Lucesca Publishing clients:

• partywatcher, closed out his time in the Dominican Republic with a very successful show at the Irish Pub in Santo Domingo - IG Video

• Le Montro, had a second sold out show in homage to Gustavo Cerati at Chao Cafe Teatro, also in Santo Domingo - IG Pics

• DJ Pho experiments with Teenage Engineering's OP-XY synth - IG Video

• Fvck Error resurfaces with some new housey goodness and some live bass guitar - IG Video

Some housekeeping updates:

• I've decided to rearrange my website to revolve around my writings. This is a major update in conceptualization, but I think it will help focus my various offers around the one thing that I do most consistently, which is to write.

• Look out for a couple of artist interviews that I recently did for The Tonearm. Both talented artists are from South America, and they should be out in the next couple of weeks.

• New products I'm exploring for showcasing my publishing catalog: pCloud and Bridge Audio.

Lastly, some exciting finds from this past month:

• Just a reminder that “Eno," the generative documentary film on Brian Eno will stream for 24 hours this January 24th!

•  Los Propios Bateros documentary (a big thanks to my brother for putting me on to this one)

• Dream Time with Zakia Sewell on BBC 6 Radio (my very early morning music companion)

• Cien Años de Soledad Netflix Series

• Blake Leyh Unlocks the Imagined Domain of the Gravikord

• Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda

As always, if you’re interested in my creative consulting, music publishing, audio engineering, or writing services, or you just want to speak further about anything I wrote about in this edition, you can book a date on my calendar HERE or just reach out wherever we follow each other and we can work something out.

‘til next month! Abrazos!