We recently connected with Duncan Therrell and have shared our conversation below.
Duncan, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
In my experience, my resilience comes from the drive to put creative art into the world. It’s been proved repeatedly that art is subjective, which means there will always be people who love your work and people who hate your work. Instead of letting the haters get to you, learn to filter the constructive criticism from the relevant comments. What matters is if you like it. If you’re making creative content that you don’t like, then who are you making it for? What’s the point of that? In summary, don’t let critics get to you, advice is your friend, and focus on making beautiful, meaningful art you enjoy.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My name is Duncan Therrell. I am a singer/songwriter and creative from Greenville, SC. I am the lead singer of the band Lost Foxes. In addition to writing and producing for Lost Foxes, I also compose instrumental soundtrack music such as composing the soundtrack for C. M. Chiang’s Plutopia audiobook. Besides music, i’ve been steadily expanding my creative expertise to creative art. I have a lot of plans for this year and I am extremely excited to share them with the world.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
These are three skills or qualities that I would say are especially helpful to learn as early as possible. Number one: Don’t give into comparison. Comparison is the death of many upcoming creatives. In any field, when you are starting out, you instinctively look to people who have inspired you. The problem with that is if you only look at others, you will think that you’re not as good as they are. Learn to focus on your own work and learn from your own mistakes. Number two: Don’t rush it. Another thing beginner creatives do is get frustrated when they’re not automatically a master at their craft. When I first started out writing music, I wondered why my work wasn’t as good as other people’s and why I didn’t see any improvement. The thing is that you’re always improving, you just don’t see it. You’re not going to automatically be amazing at what you’re doing, there’s a learning curve, but no matter what, you’ll always be improving. Number three: Just start. If you’re someone with a creative drive and you want to start a project, you may be afraid of starting. You set a mental bar for yourself and you are afraid that it won’t be as good as you want it to be. My solution is to just put your work out there anyway. Even if it’s not as good as you wanted it to be, at least you’ve started. In addition to this, you are always going to improve. You put out your first project, then the second one. The second is better than the first and the third is better than the second and so on.
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
I believe that my friends, family, and fans have helped me keep creating in general. They have supported me continuously and given me constructive and helpful feedback on all of my creative efforts. It’s a great thing to have people to rely on when you need some advice or an opinion on something. The people who will support you all the way through are the ones you need.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://duncantherrell.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/duncantherrell/
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7KyJVJ9rvSyMbPtlxXzdwC?si=boMLsGFUTaiFqOq01tccrg
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/duncan-therrell/1671792089
Image Credits
Duncan Therrell
