The emotion will wear off, and that's okay

When I’m working on an emotional song, and I’m in that critical handoff between production and mixing, there will be a moment where what I’m doing clicks, and the emotion all of a sudden feels very intense at the apex of the song.

That’s so exciting! That’s the moment you wait for, you know? The moment where you can tell that it’s finally working.

But here’s the thing: that feeling doesn’t last. You are going to listen to that song 100 more times after that. And there will be all sorts of other feelings in there along the way also. Frustration … revelation … exhaustion … second-guessing … they run the gamut.

And, somewhere toward the end of the process, you may realize that that emotional peak — that perfect moment that you’d felt before — is no longer working on you in the same way.

And I just want to reassure you: it’s probably okay. It’s probably working fine still. But you’re probably totally burnt out, and numb to its magic, and temporarily unable to connect with it. It’s probably not it — it’s probably you.

Sometimes the biggest sacrifice we can make for a piece of music is working on it to the point where it no longer holds mysteries for us. And that’s all right, I think. The work becomes a gift for future listeners. It’s not always about us.

Leaving it all on the floor — jamie