We were lucky to catch up with Alex Creighton recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Alex with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
My parents always had high expectations of me. Both of them were very successful in their careers and always expected the best grades and behavior from me. For the majority of my childhood I never accomplished this. I was pretty lazy and didn’t apply myself all that much. I mostly just wanted to get high with my friends and play guitar. But, something changed for me in my senior year of high school. I decided to apply myself in school and take it seriously. Nothing really happened I just decided to have some focus in what I did. I think all of the seeds my parents planted in me were finally starting to bloom. I wasn’t a straight A student that year but I did much better than I ever had in school and it did me well enough to get into college where I graduated with honors.
My real drive didn’t come until the pandemic. I left a long term relationship in May of 2020 and moved back in with my mom. I was heartbroken and traumatized. The only thing I knew to do in this pain was to work as hard as I could. I used the work to cover up the heartbreak. I started working out three hours a day, making music incessantly, and creating content to promote myself. I used work to cover up my feelings so hard that it became unhealthy. My relationships started to suffer and so did my health. Eventually I treated myself so poorly and did so much damage to the people around me that I had a falling out with my closest friend of 15 years. This was my wake up call to find balance in my life.
I remembered being a teenager when all I cared about was getting high and being with my friends and thought about how I had gone to the other extreme. I had completely flipped my working habits from laziness to as intense as possible. My work ethic is closer to a healthy medium between those two things now. I am focused when I need to be and present with my loved ones when I need to be more consistently. Although I still struggle with overworking sometimes. Half because it is a vice to me and half because I whole heartedly love what I work towards and I will die for it. My work ethic is a huge part of my life and one of my most valuable assets. I am learning that part of the work is having the discipline to stop working. To anyone that struggles with this, keep working. But don’t be afraid to go see a movie or be with the people you love truly and presently every once in a while.
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?
Right now I am creating music under the moniker “Fun Machine”. I am playing shows all summer and going on tour this fall. I love expressing myself on stage and writing songs that I’m always hoping people connect with.
I have EP coming out in September with a tour kickoff show at Skylark Lounge on September 5th.
I am also currently booking and promoting multiple concerts at venues like Dazzle, Lost Lake, HQ, Larimer Lounge, Goosetown Tavern, and multiple DIY spaces and warehouses through my Company Coastless Creatives.
follow my band and my company for more!
@coastlesscreatives
@funmachineofficial
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
-Sickening Persistance. No matter what, never give up. -Be fair. Don’t be selfish, be a good person, Don’t screw people over. Greed will always come back and hurt you.
-Be clear in your vision. Plan ahead, have a flexible but tangible idea of where you are going and what you want to do.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
Here’s three
The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
The Creative Act by Rick Rubin
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Kathryn Fernandez Instagram: @let_it_gogh
