We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anson Jones. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anson below.
Hi Anson, so happy to have you with us today and there is so much we want to ask you about. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others developed certain skills or qualities that we are struggling with can be helpful. Along those lines, we’d love to hear from you about how you developed your ability to take risk?
Honestly, I’m still developing it. Academia can really teach you to be a perfectionist, where you have a lot of control, feedback, and specific ways to get a good grade, but it can really block the creative process. When I was studying jazz improvisation, I was always nervous about what the teacher and students thought of my solos. I was terrified of making mistakes onstage, and when they happened, (because mistakes always happen) I got in my head, embarrassed, and it would throw me off track for the rest of the song. This would happen almost every song, and I would be nearly paralyzed by the anxiety.
An instructor once told us that if you don’t embarrass yourself once or twice on stage, you’re probably being boring. It kind of blew my mind. Boring? That’s the worst thing to be in the arts! Much worse than making mistakes. So my whole thinking changed – when I got on stage, I planned to try new things, and I planned to make mistakes. Then, when one happened, I noticed, let it pass, and focused on what was happening next. I noticed that I usually had the best ideas right after I did something that sounded stupid.
When you start rewarding yourself for the right attitude, instead of chastising yourself for the outcome, you open up your creativity and have more fun. Most importantly, you learn about yourself – you’ll make different mistakes than anyone else, and in the arts, it is what makes us different that is the most exciting. Of course, it’s not like one comment can magically teach you to take risks. It’s something you learn, unlearn, and relearn every day.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m a singer-songwriter from New York City and my passion is mixing old and new styles of music. I started learning music pretty early – I followed in my older brother’s footsteps to take piano lessons and sing in the school choir. We were mostly doing classical music, but at home it was a lot of rock, jazz, and funk. Both of my parents have pretty exploratory music tastes, and they introduced us to many worlds of sounds. Eventually, it was clear that neither of us were committed to classical music, and my parents switched us over to a teacher that let us pick our own songs, showed us the classics, taught us about the blues, and let us improvise. We were finally more self-directed – which meant I learned a LOT of Adele songs in this period…. Later on, I had a lot of interests – I minored in architecture, computer science, cognitive science (yes, total nerd here) – but musically I focused in on jazz, throwing myself into theory and composition. I love quantitative thinking, so the theory was really exiting to me. Still, outside the classroom I mostly listened to glam rock and indie.
My last EP, “A Way With Words,” finally mixed all of those sounds together. It’s a collaboration with drummer and producer Adrian Harpham, and we created a shimmering fusion of jazz, rock, pop, and singer-songwriter. Amazingly, it got a 4 1/2 star review from Downbeat Magazine, which called it “poppy, expressive, vibrant, rich and textured.” A few weeks ago, we put out a video for the titular single by the French filmmaker Timothée Lambert. It’s a whole world, a kaleidoscopic dreamscape of memories, with amazing 3D spaces and effects – definitely worth checking out. You can find it on the label’s YouTube channel, Ropeadope.
Right now, I’m working on a new EP – a collaboration with singer-songwriter Jesse Harris, which takes inspiration from some cool retro sounds and cleaner songwriting. I’ve loved his songs for so long, so it’s been amazing to write with him and understand his process a little more. We finished recording it at his lovely place in New York this fall. It’s being mixed now and hopefully we will have news soon about where to find it! Check my Instagram (@ansonjonesmusic) for updates.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
1. Something I learned from free jazz: Listening – really listening. Opening your attention to everything that’s happening and only adding when you really feel it. When you have no plan, no rules, and no music in front of you, you have to rely on your instincts, but your instincts speak loudest when your mind is still and your senses are attentive.
2. Something I learned from math: Action. This is kind of the opposite of what I just said, but the way I got through those problem sets in college was just trying stuff. At first, a problem seemed totally opaque and overwhelming. As soon as I tried the first thing that came to mind, even if I knew it wouldn’t work, more ideas came after and eventually led to the right thing. Some situations call for the “listening” attitude, some for the “acting” attitude. If one isn’t working, try the other.
3. Something I learned from coding: Rubber ducking. It’s a debugging technique but it works for anything. Basically, you put a rubber duck across from you and explain the situation out loud to it. You have to slow down enough to really explain it from the beginning, what you want, what’s not working – clearly lay out all the information. You feel like a crazy person talking to a stuffed animal in your office but the way forward always feels so clear afterwards.
My general advice – branch out. You have to learn the skills and techniques of your specific field, but the things you learn elsewhere will be what set you apart. Everything you learn on the side will help you along your main journey if you practice connecting the dots.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
I get overwhelmed super easily, so I also have a lot of experience dealing with it. I graduated from Princeton just over a year and a half ago, and while I adored the school, everyone was overwhelmed all the time. I did three minors. I was music director of an acapella group. I was in two or three university performance groups every term. I was in a sorority (for part of the time). I was releasing singles. I was in a student government group for a year. I worked every summer in architecture firms or neuroscience labs. I was doing too much, and I loved it, but I was stressed.
The problem with doing so many things is that you never get to truly focus, and to me that’s the heart of overwhelm. When I feel overwhelmed, it’s usually because my attention is switching too rapidly between things, which burns energy and impedes productivity. The first challenge is recognizing the signs of overwhelm early. Once I’ve noticed it, my strategy is all about bringing back focus. I try to put everything whirling in my head onto paper, and build a plan of how to allot my time. If there’s more to do than time allows, I decide what doesn’t get done based on my long-term goals. Once the plan is written down, the second challenge is trusting it, committing to it, not second-guessing or re-writing it. Remember that everything is on the paper, so it doesn’t need to poke back into your mind and interrupt your focus. You think only about what’s in front of you for a certain chunk of time or until a particular milestone. Focusing is mostly about what you’re not thinking about.
This goes for a bigger picture too. A self-designed career is overwhelming because of the infinite paths to choose between. I find that the solution is the same: focus. Really committing to a project, initiative, strategy, philosophy, etc. for a given period of time (days, months, years) or milestone (release, showing, etc.). That sense of focus and commitment is grounding, and it’s my favorite antidote to overwhelm.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ansonvoice.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ansonjonesmusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnsonVoice
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anson-jones-71411353/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ansonjonesmusic?feature=shared
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ansonjonesmusic
- Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3xT97ey0BVfOXbVwm17s0s?si=95EGDPMjR2-J7wNnT7OLVg Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/anson-jones/1561271259 Deezer: https://deezer.page.link/kDgCuRzpDbxkjdtJ6
Image Credits
Aliya Ismagilova, Dane Jacobson, Timothée Lambert, Henri Charles.
