Nuf is Fun spelled backwards, and just a funner way of spelling it for me.
You gotta have Nuf as you’re pursuing your creative endeavors. It makes it a lot easier to tap into the freewheeling energy that leads us to undiscovered and unthinkable parts of ourselves.
When I was recording my last album, Do You Feel The World?, in Nashville with Brad Jones, I came to a cross-roads when I needed to be reminded of this. We were doing overdubs one day. I had been singing harmonies, playing tack piano and rhythm guitar. The overdubbing process allows you to play a certain part over and over again until you feel you got it right. My old friend, the perfectionist, was perking up a lot on this day. Nothing seemed good enough, and I just wasn’t having fun. I felt I was sucking all the life out of the music. Tensed up, closed down. No joy, in or out. That night I took a long walk and put up these signs …
Redecorating Alex The Great Studios in Nashville
In the morning, I was planning to go for a run – in fact I was counting on it to shake me up. But what happened instead was totally unexpected and far more effective. It all went down at the laundromat at 8 in the morning. It was pouring rain, and I decided my original plan of running while my clothes were getting clean was not gonna happen. What to do then?
I discovered this Ms. Pacman machine in the corner. Growing up I never played much Pacman, so I was curious. I hopped to the machine to see what it was saying. It didn’t take me long to get sucked in – I was on my tippy-toes, tilting left and right as Ms. Pacman made her way through her world. I was transfixed, obsessed. I played it for 30 straight minutes – had to be careful not to blow my dryer change.
By the time I made it back to the studio, I barely had enough time for my usual “getting tuned” routine of yoga. Did a few stretches while listening to Sweet Emma and then jumped in the shower. I was thrown into the new day with just a 30 minute Ms. Pacman workout under my belt.
But what a day it was!
Skipping a vocal warmup, I bluffed my way through the backup vocals for “Sweet Emma’s Group” and “Shuffleboard Prince”. And my voice was open, man. It had vibe and I was hitting notes I didn’t know I could hit. I sounded like Nilsson at times. Jim Hoke arrived and laid down boisterous sax and clarinet for those two songs next.
Post playing
Everything was flowing. One or two takes. No second-guessing. After a leisurely late lunch at Calypso Cafe, my friends Bill and Melanie (who are now engaged) showed up and we sang backup vocals for “Do You Feel The World”, “Sweet Emma’s Group”, “We’ll Meet Again” and “Gotta Sing”.
All the while I was conscious not to let the atmosphere get too serious, which was hard! It took some faith. Sometimes desperate measure were needed, like in this instance:
Me and Melanie, she's probably still in shock
Sometimes it doesn’t come naturally – this ability to just have fun when I’m making music – but it’s worth pursuing, because I think it brings great spirit and depth to the music and ultimately brings out the best in the performance, whether in the studio, live or even while writing songs.
Over the years of performing, I’ve definitely been learning to relax more and do something fun before I hit the stage, instead of just warming up and thinking about it so much. It could be playing ping-pong, pool, climbing a tree, sketching, playing Hang-man, or dancing. Sometimes these are better warm-ups than the conventional ones.
photo by Ezra Soiferman
I would say that I’m definitely still on the road with this. Still learning. Still evolving. There’s lot of room for improvement. But it’s a start.
When have you found that Nuf has been more effective than the old-fashioned work-ethic?
Next Tuesday, I’ll be talking about “just doing it”. See you then!
