#canongate

Admittedly, I was at first skeptical when the book caught my eye in a bookstore window. I was like, That Rick Rubin, the producer?  Well, why shouldn't an immensely successful record producer know something about creativity? It was more the framing of this knowledge as a way of being that caused a brief spate of disbelief on my part. Growing up in Los Angeles (The Land of Fruits and Nuts, as my hard-scrabble relatives in South Boston referred to California in general) I was used to seeing books from dime-store gurus. Edgar Cayce, Ram Dass and Timothy Leary paperbacks lined my mother's bookshelves. I had girlfriends who went to Golden Dawn temples, friends who dragged me along to channeling sessions for some deity from Venus. It was hard for me to take any of this very seriously.

Maybe it was the extreme disconnect between Rubin's commercial background and his espoused role as a seer that pushed me over the edge and caused me to buy the book. The opening quote from American artist Robert Henri sets the tone for what follows: The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable. The book therefore provides less a toolbox for working on one's life than a series of vignettes where Rubin extrapolates on various contingencies related to achieving a state of mind and spirit where creativity is possible. Some of these topics include, Listening, Self-Doubt, Non-Competition, Freedom, Inspiration and Awareness. Basically anything which Rubin feels has pertained to his creative process is included in this book.

Ironically, what came more to mind while reading this was not Rick Rubin's background but the German artist Joseph Beuys' famous dictum, Everyone is an artist (Jeder Mensch ist ein Künstler). Unlike Rubin, Beuys did not frame his belief as much in the context of a spiritual journey, but like Rubin he did see himself as a kind of shaman or teacher who could lead society onward to a new — and more positive — direction by unleashing the creative possibilities each person innately possessed but perhaps did not know they had. For Beuys, this would later morph into a concept of social sculpture, where the creative state in each person would further society as a productive, forward-thinking organism.

This would also be the gist of Rubin's book. He's not trying to tell us how to make a better record, write a more catchy song, more successfully promote an artist's career (although all these things are mentioned tangentially throughout the book) but to help people realize their own unique creative strengths in the hopes of steering society in a less self-destructive direction. Though the main text and sprinkling of aphorisms scattered liberally throughout the book often verged for me on a kind of treacly sweetness, in the end I came away feeling that Rubin had really made a sincere attempt to show people the way to something they might not have realized they'd had all along.

The most inspiring take-away from the book would be this sense that even in a person's everyday life there is this great wellspring of energy to approach the most mundane tasks from a creative standpoint. That being creative doesn't necessarily mean creating something, making some beautiful object. It's about a state of mind where creativity equates with a way of existence, of approaching life with an awareness that will put one in a place where they can reconnect to a life energy which, at the very least, will lead one to experiencing a more personally fulfilling existence.

All this being said, the book also includes many concrete examples of how to circumvent creative dilemmas and meltdowns, whether this be in the recording studio or just trying to make it through a workday. Though Rubin seldom mentions people he's collaborated with by name in the book, he gives numerous examples of how he works in the studio — not necessarily microphone placement or which effects he used, but more how he guided various recording artists on an inspirational or spiritual level to realize their full creative potential. And in this context the book moves beyond its often sentimental, esoteric trappings to provide some real-world advice for people, whatever their vocation in life, to find a new way of being.