032: High Stakes

“Sometimes you find yourself in positions where falling would mean death. So you don’t fall.”

Those are the words of Piero Rava. It’s not a famous quote, but an off the cuff remark Piero made to a climber. You see, Piero runs a trekking company in Chad and at the time he was wheeling a Land Rover full of some of the world’s best climbers through endless sand as they headed to a remote climbing spot. They were several days into the trip, which did not involve travelling on roads, but across the open dessert with few landmarks to guide the way. It was at this point they came across a group of Nomads travelling by camel and using only the sun and the direction of the wind to navigate. One of the climbers asked how it was that the Nomads could navigate in the desert in this way, especially when even a slight error could result in them missing a well and dying of dehydration.  To which Piero replied - “Sometimes you find yourself in positions where falling would mean death. So you don’t fall”.*

The climber that asked this question was named Alex Honnold. For those of you who do not know who Alex is - I highly suggest you watch the documentary Free Solo, it’s about so much more than climbing. The name 'Free Solo' comes from the type of climbing Alex is most known for. Scaling huge rock faces, thousands of feet in the air without using any aid or protection - no ropes, no harnesses, just him and the wall. One mistake and he falls. One mistake means death. This is why Piero’s analogy rang true for Alex. He understood that when the stakes are that high, you can perform at your best. There is no other option. 

I’m not going to try and draw some direct parallel between creating music and risking your life on a mountain, (although Honnold would argue that he’s not taking risks at all). However I do think it raises an important point about our ability to perform at our best, and what happens if we set up too many safety nets.

The digital age of recording has given us the ability to re-do everything. To cut and paste, to punch in for single words of a phrase. To rework until it is ‘perfect’. That’s a huge safety net.

When was the last time you recorded something and thought - ‘this is it, no matter what, this take is going on the record, no edits, no changes, this is it’. Have you ever done that? I’m sure you have a sense of the headspace you would put yourself into for that. You would do everything in your power to make sure you were going to perform at your best. When you have unlimited re-do’s, you’re never holding yourself to that level. You may get a great take, but was it truly your best?

I also feel this mentality can spill over into live performances. When there is always another show coming up, another set, another opportunity. You never put yourself in the position of ‘Falling means death, so I don’t fall’. We become apathetic of the moment, because there will always be another one.

There is a narrative in the music industry these days that ‘the audience’ doesn’t care as much about live music and supporting the arts as they used to. Yet there are artists out there that are constantly selling out shows - I’ve seen some of them perform, and there is no safety net. You know without a shadow of a doubt that they are not holding back, that they are committing everything they have to the performance. And that resonates with people.

There is no guarantee that the audience will be there, you cannot expect that, or control that. What you can do is put everything into your performance; into your art. Put yourself into the position where falling would mean death - and then don’t fall. Do this like your livelihood depends on it, because it does.

~ Steve

*Honnold, Alex with Roberts, David: Alone On The Wall. New York - W.W. Norton & Co, Inc. 2016.