Meet Monk Turner

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Monk Turner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Monk below.

Monk, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?

For the most part, generating creative ideas is never an issue and the ideas for concept albums just come to me. As do song ideas and melodies. I’m not sure where they come from, they just do. Whenever I get stuck, I usually take a break, or do another activity for a bit. When it comes to the refinement of an idea, things can definitely slow down a bit. Especially when it comes to writing and finding the right words for a song.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I write concept albums. That means every song on the album follows a central theme. In the past I’ve done albums about emotions, division, the Greek Gods, instrumental songs about my friends, and songs about colors just to name a few. I tend to write the music, or sometimes I’ll collaborate with others to write the music. Then I work with talented musicians and singers to bring the songs to life. I’ve released over thirty concept albums at this point, and I’ve been doing this for over 20 years.

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?

The first is not owning a television. I used to be addicted to TV. Once I quit, I found I suddenly had a lot of extra time on my hands. I was bored, so I started making concept albums. I think that one of the issues we have in the age of the smart phone is that we don’t take the time to just be bored. So much can come from a brain at rest. When we are always taking in information, we’re not allowing our brains to offer new ideas.

The second is finding pockets of time to do things. Rarely do I have a full day to work on stuff. Usually, I take things thirty minutes to one hour at a time. I find this incremental process to help with perspective and it keeps me from getting stuck. It is also good to do it this way so my ears don’t get tired, especially when it comes to the editing and mixing process.

Last is making a self-imposed deadline. If I don’t have a goal for when I want to release an album, it’ll likely never get done. I try to always make sure to begin with the end in mind as Mr. Covey says. I am careful about when I officially start an album because I don’t want to dive into the process unless I know I have the bandwidth that I need to complete it. But once I do start, I keep things on a timeline to make sure it will be released.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I’m always looking for singers who like to write words and understand the craft of songwriting. If this is you, please reach out. Collaborating on music is one of my favorite things to do. Having two people in the room can be great so when one person gets stuck, the other can help move along the process.

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