In this episode, we sit down with the exceptionally talented and uplifting Courtney Hayles, also known as CourtsWrites.
Not only is Courtney a multi discipline artist in the field of drama, but he is also known for his infectious positive energy and the profound impact it has on those around him. We explore Courtney's creative process and how he has used the challenges and struggles he has faced in life to fuel his artistic evolution.
We explore the importance of staying true to oneself and the value of staying positive, even when the going gets tough.
Join us as we sit down with this all-around good guy and discuss creativity, resilience, and the power of positivity.
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If you would like to contact the show you can email us lifeisgoodlifeissound@gmail.com
In this episode, we sit down with the exceptionally talented and uplifting Courtney Hayles, also known as CourtsWrites.
Not only is Courtney a multi discipline artist in the field of drama, but he is also known for his infectious positive energy and the profound impact it has on those around him. We explore Courtney's creative process and how he has used the challenges and struggles he has faced in life to fuel his artistic evolution.
We explore the importance of staying true to oneself and the value of staying positive, even when the going gets tough.
Join us as we sit down with this all-around good guy and discuss creativity, resilience, and the power of positivity.
Follow the show on Spotify HERE
Follow us on Instagram HERE
Follow us on Tik Tok HERE
Subscribe to our YouTube channel HERE
Subscribe and support the show here
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2039016/support
Donate to the podcast via PayPal
Have you resonated and gained something from us and our guests? Consider sending financial energy to help support the cost of creating this powerful content.
Thanks again for listening, be sure to like, subscribe and comment on our socials and be apart of our community of people who are here to learn and grow with each other.
More Life Is Sound:
Instagram | YouTube | Tik Tok
If you would like to contact the show you can email us lifeisgoodlifeissound@gmail.com
hello good people and welcome back to life is sound today we've got a treat for you this is a guy I've known for I couldn't even currently use to be fair but it's been a while and every time we've connected in life he's someone I'm just like he really like that positive is that really him and then over the years as I've known this guy I realized that the energy that he carries is so pure and I leave every interaction like so we'll just give me a little nugget of energy and I've just walked away like ah it's actually real positive people that have like a profound effect on your life and your interactions so I've always appreciated that with this brother and today we've got Courtney Hayles on and I'll let him introduce himself as I let every guest introduce themselves but we've known each other now I'd say 18 around 18 years which is mad to say and we've connected over the years I asked him to come on the podcast today and we're going to chop it up we're going to talk about Courtney's Journey as a creative and what he does so Coutney if you want to see hello to the listeners and what you're about and we'll get into it yeah how you doing everyone my name is Courtney Wilson in this course rights and then yeah um I'm a multi-disciplinary artist I've been in the city for a long time and it's been a blessed Journey um but for those of you that have come into contact with me a lot of my thoughts my words my ideas they all start from the pen and then from there I can I just disseminate that within my circles and let those ripples just constantly keep going out and out and out and out and just the sharing has to start from that first initial thought so yeah I'm here how you doing my brother I'm good you know I'm good I'm not when you said yeah I'm gonna come and do the podcast you start thinking about the timeline of well how long have I known this guy a memory so my first full memory of like interacting with you and leaving like yo he's proper safe you know he's a sound guy was I think we're in town like it would have been a club night somewhere our Circles of circles are like just so many Circles of people that know each other and we've all interlinked over the years and I remember like we were all just chatting saying hello and I remember just leaving like yo that guy's probably cool man he's a nice guy and then over the years but one of the things I remember I was like well he's not from Manchester where is he from so the interest Sparks because when you hear a different accent in your city but you're so familiar with my friends I'm like who is this guy man how do my friends know this guy like why is he here in Manchester so what what's your background bro like because you've been here for a while so what was your journey of uh getting to Manchester and you know being in the city here yeah so um so I moved up here in 2000 and 2019 yeah um originally it was just um to come up for University study contemporary theater and performance Manchester night and then essentially it was just to just the first time was I thought I was just going to do three years bang later straight back yeah but what ended up happening is I remember this isn't the start of my journey I remember going down Market Street and I was online at my two suitcases like back in the day yeah we used to actually carry two suitcases yeah and I'm walking and I'm just looking around and I remember this moment I remember seeing I stopped on Market Street and um hold that Rio I seen him there he was he handed me a CD and I was like no problem cool but then me and him Circle back and grab the CD from him and then we just from there we we're just we're brothers are left that's mud yeah that's the treadmill so but there was a moment that stood out to me and the moment was I started seeing different pockets of people hanging out and I was and I realized that I was one person and I'm going right look at those man them hanging together then I started looking at the buildings I started looking at the graffiti and I started looking at the artists on the streets the buskers I started looking at people in the cars the music was sounding I've gone you know what I want all of that so I went to um a Photoshop and bought one of those little handheld cameras here we didn't have the mobile too tough and I started taking pictures of people and things so I took a picture of a group of guys I was like yeah I said one day I'm gonna have some friends like that took fresh just loads of different inspiration went past all the fears all the spaces and started taking all these pictures and that was me going okay so I'm actually I'm in Manchester so once I started um once I was embedded in the city I like you know basically I started working from the jump studying was my university life wasn't as conventional as a most students it was part work and part networking which I didn't understand I was networking in the beginning my thing was I need to meet people the fact that I've been able to leave London and come to Manchester I already knew that that was my Edge so I used to meet people really quickly hence our interactions would have been bubbly yeah yeah because I was just I realized it very quickly that I have an opportunity to choose people to be my family for life that was something I had it became when you're on when you work from survival mode you start to think about what that looks like yeah so when I met people and they were like I'll show you around let me take you around let me let me show you my friends or let me show you that see I'm looking at them I'm not I'm saying yes but I'm also looking at them going okay please please please dislike each other yeah because the fact that you're doing this for me is I'm gonna I'm gonna remember this because I remember those acts of kindness that is a free thing it's nothing to cost nothing you know and I already know my worth at this time so fast track the city graduated 2005. um started getting very heavily involved in Creative Industries deep in education I mean I think within my second year of University whatever I was learning in there I was teaching kids on the street yeah that's a fact you know and um I was just sharing as much as I can I was always writing whatever you need here take it I don't know what do we do with it once I graduated I got very got busy in them creative Industries still doing the education but there were so many youngers under me that were just now I you know I saw it very very clearly that I can give you an opportunity that I didn't have and I'm okay to give it to you freely but I don't know what I didn't know is that I met the the Helm of those choices yeah so all those youngers that are coming under they're looking at you and you're going yeah this is what you need to do but what I was giving him was what my dreams felt like you know feeding them feeding them feeding them and I met I started meeting so many people you know so many people it's like my mum sometimes says to me she says you know your life's like a movie in it she's like you need to stop and think about what where you started to where you are now to who you know to what you've done in this city and the fact that you still smile regardless but we're gonna get into that part anyway this is what I wanted to ask you like where this comes from because as I said when we were met I would have been Young maybe 18 and growing up where I've grown up you come with a certain mindset you know you've been you've been around certain people we've all come up a certain way life was a bit Aggie about that and everyone was a bit you know garage days and you know Good Vibes but bad vibes in the clubs as well that kind of ended as we got to around 18 but the mindset of being you know younger from 15 16. when I bumped into someone like yourself and you were just pure positivity my mindset then was like he can't be that positive and I remember it took a few interactions with you for me to go nah that guy is genuine rather people like that are that genuine it's not a friend oh [ __ ] so you really shifted my mindset like in life of just seeing someone who is a high vibrational person as I've got older and my mindset shifted you know life's happened and I see the world completely different my vibrations come up and then we've linked on that level then I've started to realize every time we've linked the energy I get from you and the connection that we have I'm just like yo corny is just a good guy man like a positive Guy where you interact with people whether it's in a creative way or I might say yo bro I know we not spoke for a while but I'm going through this the words you give to people in that moment even though we might not seen each of five years or we might just crossed paths in the street like yo bro it's saying you're good the words you've given me in those moments have always been quite parallel like powerful and I've reflected like call is a good dude you know so where where does that come from bro what's the journey that's that's got you there has it been nurtured from family has it been instilled you know from Generations before you what's made you carry that energy through life and like you said you know you were already there at 19 coming to Manchester or even earlier saying what does my life so you had that maturity you did trying to design your life at that age where where does that come from yeah so it comes from an um a couple of couple of spaces and I can I can touch on them really well with you brother so I can go I'm from I've got a beautiful family structure it you know like all families things are Peak things you know what I will say is um from a very young age there were some very raw truths that were shown to me all based on making sure that I would grow and mature into the man I am from a very young age and it was underpinned so because of that I had a I was allowed to be a kid yeah but I had an under my family had to ensure that I had a grip on the world that you're a young man being raised by all of these women and you've got a couple of discourses in your life that are gonna shift and cause you some pain and as the women raising the masculine man we're going to come into Conflict at some point and not understand how to comprehend how to get your mind in that space so I'm I'm bodied with with um with empathy can you hear that yeah the feminine side but in the masculine are bodied by empathy bro like females in my life have been the the strength I've learned a lot from my dad but I didn't grow yeah and the impact of seeing strong females in my family you do realize you do carry that feminine energy and you do miss that that masculine side and even though my dad has served me with you know real life truths and that came from my Grandad which have probably been passed on from his dad and they've really shaped my masculine side but there's a power when you're raised by strong women in the family yeah I agree I agree I agree I agree I I also say is that um you eat I enjoyed being raised by all those women you know but I also enjoyed the conflict of trying to figure out who I was and that comes from the different discourses in my family you know great best and birth like doing so much truths there's another person I'm gonna touch on my grandma she was like the Helm of the family that was it you know we're talking Sunday dinner and everyone's there yeah yeah people that don't go Church were like yeah I've got to go to church you know so I got a chance to visit my grandma's house on top of that I am a product of being raised by my grandma in the 80s yeah I'm talking cleaning jobs in the city in the city center London age four with the the Henry Hoover yeah my sister running to jump on a bus we're talking cracker Dawn Behavior a bunch of keys on my side she happened to trust us she's going in that office block to clean and me and my sister are going in that one and we're having to and it was just having to tell me treat it like a game and my sister's if I'm four my sisters what six yeah she's like listen you gotta go up these lifts just get those bags and bring them down I'm like yeah so in those way in those spaces and then when we would do all of those jobs and calm down and we'd see how my grandma was treated and she'd tell us like you see this money what we're making this is what this does and this is why you're doing it yeah and then when we would eat together she said you see how you eat instead of food to feel good for you and I'm like yeah she go because you work for it yeah so we're starting to see on my mind's starting to understand value of things from the smallest space yeah yeah moving forward just in London random just in general in general things move quick you age quicker um just because there's just so much going on I didn't realize there were things that I was doing yeah sorry mum yeah but really when I look at it now that's what that was that mindset of like an 18 year old 19 year old but it was normalized what was good is that along my path I think my path is being ordered because just one of the points when I wanted to sort of Veer off I had friends they were like now of course that's not your path mate yeah that's not for you you're supposed to be the one that holds us down you're the ones you're the ones but when we see you we're supposed to see you go into school that's what we want to see we want to see you going to school and coming back we want to hear that you've been grounded today like what does that feel like do you know so all of those blessings and all of those sort of sort of limitations and lessons and stuff sort of helped me to form and shape an appreciation for my life and I have really I know loads of people but I understand the importance of an incubated Circle yeah yeah yeah but that incubated Circle doesn't mean that you're shut off from the world it just means that there's been such a heavy investment in understanding what it means to be a good person or to love your friend love your boy love your girl argue with them whatever it is be there really be there like if you say oh I was thinking about this idea and for as that good friend remembering coming back to them two weeks three weeks a year later you go yo listen you remember the idea you're saying I've come out with this not just before maybe with something you've written in that incubated Circle as long as that was strong and that was it was we always I was always feeding it nurturing that space what ends up happening is my perception and perspective of the world was always in that space so whenever I met people it was always from love first yeah yeah you know listen we can get busy but it was always loved first I'm like I'm seeing you because I'm going maybe we can build something together yeah and that's something doesn't always as you know as you get older it's not always about work that's something could just be brave can you just be of someone that I know that you I can call on or you can call on me and that's where when I've come up here into Manchester it's just a it's a chance I literally put my hand on the map and when Hotel education I was like that doesn't look far yeah yeah and I ended up here and I was told my mama was going up the road and she's like all right cool his name is in Manchester yeah so now I was here it was a case of me just meeting anyone and everyone and having a good time and just trying to get to know him and and also being please invite me into your friendship circles but telling them as well like yeah I really want to know you yeah yeah yeah which who who even says that that's a rare thing right that will throw people off like I want to get to know you like it's not in our natural thing where people our culture like British culture is very like what what we want to get to why what do you want from me like that's how we're kind of we're very standoffish in a way in it and our our people are our people but the process that you said about you know coming up here and the energy that you've given out I've seen you do that through the years and it continue and we've always said we know we're gonna connect on something at some point and we try to think you know when was it last year or the year before and the project didn't fully like resolve but I realize these connections we've always known something we're going to do something at some point so when I've shouted you you know come and do this podcast straight away yo bro it's perfect time I'm ready and when you've got people like that that you can show and they're just down for a conversation or to do something creative that thing might not lead to the big thing you think but you never know what it will transition to the next creative thing in a year or two or three years or five years ten years just when you keep those connections with people you never know how they're going to transpire whether that project resolves and it's complete and it's released to the world or it lasted a week and it didn't fully reach its creative potential but I noticed when we have connected you know the projects I did ask you to get involved in but you were so committed and there was no Courtney I'm gonna pay you this bro it's at the moment there's nothing I can really you know financially give to you and you're like bro say no more I'm on it I've realized that my perception of you is you're a true artist like you you're you know you're a writer you've you're involved in you know the drama side of of Life there you know in that world which from my life as a musician it's a weird thing like we all do the same thing but it's very different so I can stand and admire someone else's craft and be like what what must it be like to be in that world because you know it's like I know what writing's like I know what creating a stories like putting it together putting that out into the world I know what performance like but it's a different thing so what is your process like when you approach somebody else's project or even talk about your own projects as well because you you do a lot you're somebody who has never stopped being creative and to make a living out of being creative is not easy so like what what's your process would you say I say my first part of my process um this is how Jesus my grandma's line listen more slowly and with that by listening more slowly when you're whenever I approach a project whether it's my personal projects or whether someone asks me it's the point where I have to take in what is being said and then by allowing that allowing the idea to marinate and it's often sporadic as you know when you've got an idea like oh brother I've got this thing I want to kind of do yeah it's going to kind of work you know and then yeah it's going to do this you know just tell me what the project is and tell me what you want that's where I start from do what do you want also is what do I want and where do I sit within those ideas then because within that I I what do I want what do you want there's also can you do it Courtney like do you want to do it yeah to see all hearing all the ones can you do it Courtney do you want to do it how much do you want to do it yeah and each time I'm clearing all of this up in like seconds because the natural thing for me as an artist is yeah I want to just be creative because we're taught nowadays that to be seen as to be an artist is to be busy doing random stuff but ultimately if you keep doing lots of random projects that are all they could be beautiful projects but if it's not along your your branch you will lose yourself you do not you end up creating work but you create nothing for yourself yeah and you can be part of people's projects and this is where I'm linking up the line when when you approach me with one of your projects yeah you can you can do a project for someone with someone and not have not bat an eyelid and worry about yo what about what where do I sit in it if you if you know it's for you and if it's for that and you're doing it for the right reasons that is the contribution to your own Ripple do you get what I'm trying to say so for me when I create something when I create work or I'm approached to do work it's straight away about the Synergy between myself and that project can I connect with it and am I gonna and am I gonna give my very best yeah nine times out ten is the street yeah of course I am because I love the person anyway to get what I mean yeah when I create my personal work oh that's the journey because the vision of it has been existing immune for Moon many moons yeah so I've got my last time my lifetime now so you know listeners I know you're feeling this but I've got my lifetime now yeah my lifespan and my experience is that I can comprehend but then prior to that my subconscious mind they're a thing when I have ideas they have come I don't even know where they come from so that must be another life that's something else I've stepped into yeah so when it comes to my own work the conflict the war that I go through to decide that I'm going to do this piece of work he goes on his own Journey but I do a lot of that process in my head this is my part this is my artistic practice actually so I will write a whole play top to bottom 100 Pages 200 Pages whatever it is top to bottom in my head I'll probably do in a couple of days so yeah and then the pro and then putting pen to paper once I've done I've written the first page out I know how long the rest is going to take me yeah so once I'm now in that creative space in terms of creating my work there's always a conversation I have with all my eyes it's listen what you know is what you know but what I'm about to offer you is a different perspective where we can do this like ethically together meaning I've got a very clear Vision however if you see something different please share it yeah and if it tops trumps my my vision we're coming in with it and a new lead you lead so I have no I have no heirs and Graces about oh I'm the director or I'm the I'm the lead this person because everything's a tone Key System do you know everything's a turnkey system you know it's like you create music but then boom an artist might come in this the artist's term to step up to go in the booth and do what the what the artist does once the artist is done and now oh listen I need to go back to the engineer see you mate Engineers times it's your time and if we could just remember that as creatives then actually the way the ways that we type we create work and the ways and the p and the ways that we create and we interact with people's art it means it wouldn't be transitory because we know what that feels like and this is where we say I'm just I'm touching on that line about why it's struck it's hard to be an artist is because it actually is hard to the first moment when you tell someone about your idea we've all been there you're telling someone that you think that you admire or you respect or you think would understand and you see it in their eyes they're just they're listening to you but they're not there but your mouth is moving your mouth is moving now because you're aware that's the first time that you're speaking your idea out and you don't always speak it in the way you've been envisioning it for the last two years or however long and then when you finish that conversation you go why did I say that way because that's so someone can never full that Vision you've got in your mind those words that are you can never create it a hundred percent the way you see it I've I'm I'm a musician I'm a producer I'm a writer I've done it for more than half my life I remember being at my friend's house uh I'd had a smoke I was high I was at his back door my friends were in his living room yeah I'm at the back door and I'm looking up to the sky bro I heard a whole classical music composition in my head I don't know how to get that out of my head because I can't write music I can't go and you know put that on paper in music notation and give it to an orchestra and go hey this instrument was doing this it was so complex I actually sat there and I think I shared a tear because I was like I heard it clear as day bro but I can never get that out of my head into the form of what I heard ever because I don't have the full skill set to do that but I have the creative mind to hear it if I was to tell someone oh I heard this I heard the violin do this and then there was a cello doing this and there was a big Crescendo that went here and there must have been about 18 instruments the person I'm telling that to is not receiving that thing that I heard and that's the hardest part about being a creative and an artist is having the vision the idea whether you try and do it all yourself if you're if you need help with that idea to make it you know as close to that thing that you think you can get it because I believe we can only ever get close we can never fully get there because when you see something on film or you hear something in a song you might love it how close was it to that original idea it might be 98 it might be 80. but I don't think we can ever get 100 and that's why we struggle to let things go because there's something ever finished but I think that's such a good point like to say you know when you choose to open that up to somebody it's a really difficult thing to do and this is why I see you as a true creator of an artist because you don't get involved in projects like where you like is this going to make me look cooler how much credit am I going to get for this thing how do I come across in this thing when this thing's finished do I look like a sick guy I don't see you as someone approaching out like that I see you someone is like how good can this thing be and I think that's a beautiful thing that you just said it took me back to being in the studio or you know with my friends when we were younger and someone's got this melody or this chorus you've been writing that chorus for a week at home you're coming into the studio yo boys I've got this fire chorus he shows someone and they might go sick amazing boom put it down you might show someone they go yes it's all right you think it's the best thing ever when you get that lay it down you're like sit they love it then the toughest part is a creative is is the battle with ego when you're creating in a environment with other people you might have this chorus which was sounds incredible super catchy someone might come in and go oh you see that line there I was thinking that could be that you might not agree with that because you've had this set in stone for weeks for months for years that's the hardest part I think of collaborating as a creative is stepping back and going you know his melody or her Melody is actually stronger and what you said there I think is a real life lesson for creatives like you said you're not like I'm the director I'm doing this I get the final say it's who's bringing the strongest idea and are we all in agreeance that this thing here might be a little bit stronger than this here okay I've got to get on my own way and my own ego and realize it's for the great good of the art and that's how I perceive you as someone who approaches approaches creativity as like for the greater good of this thing that none of us know where these ideas come from like you said you'd be in this in the shower and you thinking I've got to do this today banging ideas comes into yet from nowhere you weren't even thinking about this idea but it's just like someone just went there's an idea now your mind's a thousand miles an hour and you don't even want to think about today's work I need to get this thing out of me and it's such a strange thing that we all experience in different ways but you really to me are someone who approaches art for the greater good of art whether it's your uh other people's art and that's another thing that resonated you said you know the battle with yourself when it's your personal stuff and I can relate to that when I make my personal music my artist music that's a real battle man when you're taking real life experiences and putting them into a creative form battling with what should this sound like am I saying the right thing how am I being perceived as an artist is this too real am I sharing too much of myself do I want people to see this vulnerability that's a really push and pull battle that I think we all have like I've been in a band with my friends I didn't really have that push and pull as much because you got other people around you like no bro trust me this is right actually I think this is wrong yeah we might not be heading down the right path there when you're on your own and you're doing it and I know you're someone that writes a lot on your own you know similar to me I think you spend a lot of time creating creatively on your own as well as collaborating that push and pulleys vet is very real and what would you say like the real life dramas you've experienced in life you know the things that are just not related to why it's just the things you've experienced just going through life we all experience these tough moments that we just don't get a choice about we can be going through life and everything's sweet and you might get blindsided by one of the biggest things that's happened to you in your life however you transitioned those things and push them through into your art like what would you say some of the biggest things that you've been through if you don't mind talking about and how that's ended up in your creative flow yeah so there's a couple that will just jumping that into my mind so obviously you've had the softer side of like me moving to Manchester from London making that decision to move to Manchester was there was one part where it was quite a flippant choice and the immature Choice Young Star but then there was also a a focus I've got two brothers and life was moving differently down in London you know I weren't a bad boy I was in the mix you know when I I tried to be in a bit because I like to say I like to say I tried to be in the mix but I had a lot of responsibility to my friends and there was just a couple of Secrets of events that just kept happening and it was random because I kept looking at my brothers and I remember just going no I'm gonna move and I'm gonna and I knew the sacrifice because what was going to happen is I was going to build a life up here which means my journey with my brothers was going to stop they're little and the only guarantee I could have was if I bust through up here then I could go you can come and you can do any any whatever you want to do on Manchester whatever you need you can do it and this is why that was a massive burden on my soul because of the same breath of that I ended up you know working with some beautiful people um shock out the big dance provision now a university but in the inertia of it it was like four students four students in Liverpool now what I'm trying to say where they're the connection to my brother is my brothers are and my family is I'm training and working with young kids the same age as my brothers and my nephews or my cousins ones that I love and I'm pouring love into these little ones you know and we're talking from the age of four up and now those my in my lifespan they're all adults who know me like courts you've been in my life for 15 years 18 years and then I look at my brothers who are just so beautiful and they're big and I've got little disconnects with them because of the time so that was a massive one a massive like a massive burden of my a massive sacrifice that's you know it enforces my art all the time but just me as a human those challenges to keep going um I like to always I want to mention this one um I remember when I am I lost my house like properly lost my house done and my whole relationship broke down all at the same time and I was like homeless for like 18 months you know and I'll say on the negative side it was the most traumatic thing ever I mean imagine this like Bravada putting your hand in your litter box to get your letters um signing on at the gym it's just so you can shower gotta keep clean you know what I mean to hear the negative and positive so I was training but I was like no way this homeless situation is not defeating me in this way but I've got to figure this one out you know working in a sandwich shop and haven't been told every morning gotta make like 800 baguettes like before like nine o'clock yeah that's something with like some anything bread now yeah you know and then that reminded of me of my childhood it's like learning how to be a self-sufficient man you know knowing how to cook for yourself and working from nothing so these are the other positive spins and the net you know how this is how I navigated these such these circumstances but during those times and I've thrown those two in um I remember that I thought the world was that was it I was like this is rock rock bottom this is it I I failed completely and then I remember um watching them Pursuit for happiness like just randomly just just put it on the TV just sat there telling myself I need to watch it so these times what's that 2012 2012 2011 2012 those two so I'm I'm still around we probably would have not crossed paths yeah you know what's good you're right bro what's happening probably done my little raving whatever you but knowing that my life realistically my structure was broken down I'm still I'm still teaching I'm still giving still doing my bits and pieces you know they you know but the reality of it is my world is upside down and I remember sitting down watching Pursuit for happiness and the reason I watched it is because I said I'd been so strong for so long and in survival mode for so long that I didn't know how to cry I wasn't crying I was going through all of this stuff but I wasn't crying you know and I remember so I said I said I need to see something else I need to understand someone that I need to need to see and I remember so I remember what sitting down watching Will Smith and you know in that scene when he's in the in the train station he's like trying to hook the door and he's like he's just holding his son he's bawling and I remember just like just randomly disappeared that's coming down my face and I remember just it just kept coming and I walked to a mirror and that's and it's looking at myself and I've gone I've gone now this is what pain feels like Courtney is this sadness are you actually sad are you are you authentically sad so my brain is like going I'm going why am I why am I breaking down my own physical form and this point but it's because I've been strong for too long and I didn't want to dismantle that strength to a point where it's like no that's the reason why I I needed to get a balance and that was a point of having to go forward I'll never ever forget it and I wrote my best work I had the best time in those in those in that 18 months that point of being free to be anything you want to be and that point of going if this is that moment where you literally restart your engine this is what it looks like because there is no one in the real world you know you know our society Behavior you if people know you a certain way and then your life is that way like you okay we're blessed with you and I we're blessed people so we've got enough people around us like don't worry what are you doing come and see her come and see us but if you're the same person who's not inclined to speak into people you're used to being the vessel of giving you take all of that burden on yourself don't you yeah yeah so going through that process taught me and showed me how powerful I what I am I remember the one thing I did is I gathered all my work that was it when I couldn't get into the flat and all of this stuff I gaveled all of my work it was closed you could we need clothes but my work because I was like No And I remember lining it all up and going one of you in here one if you were getting me out of this I don't know which one it is I'm looking at all this paper and I'm talking to this paper stuck a plastered everywhere I was like that was it so it was that self-belief there my friend yeah yeah so there are always carried through had to in the darkest times I had to that resonates a lot like my darkest moment was and I spoke about this on the podcast like when my girlfriend passed away I was in a band with my friends we were doing pretty well we'd been in the industry to the highest levels experience being signed seeing the bright lights all that stuff then it you know coming down a bit but we're still at a point where it was like do we want to still you know have a go at this do we still believe and we're like yeah we still believe by the personal you know loss which just put me in a different space and I didn't know who I was in relation to the world anymore and I didn't know if I was in relation to the bandest thing that I was essentially like a lead singer with my friends like people are looking to me like yo you're ready you're ready to come back and I was so lost in the world at that point but one thing that saved me was I just picked up a guitar that I'd never played before as I'm going to teach myself guitar and in doing that I was writing these songs that I would have never written before because that wasn't the artist that I was but this real life experience that changed me my voice changed when I was singing I went from using my throat and singing really hard to singing soft with emotion I remember just playing these chords that I was learning and as I was getting better you know after three months six months I was like I can play a full song but I'm crying singing these songs that were all pretty much about losing my girlfriend but that thing there are a recorded songs but never to release it was just that's part of my process you know if you write something it's really hard to just leave it in the ether of it not being a thing you can come back to and listen it's a really difficult thing you know if you have an idea as a writer you're not putting pen to paper and then being able to flip back in three years time and go oh that's where I was at at that point these things are like small documentations of our journey and our personal experience but it was the art that saved me but I also had to let go of a an artist that I knew that was a really weird transition because I was this guy this artist this musician performer in a band life would change me I was a different artist no I was a different writer and I really struggled to go back and they did lead me to you know making the decision to leave leave the band that was a tough decision man because these are my brothers these are my boys but my life Journey was in a different space and it wasn't I'm gonna leave I'm gonna be on my own I'm gonna blow it was just mentally I can't do that at the moment and I have those doubts as a creative like was that the right decision but I also now as this point in my life as this person no you're always exactly where you are meant to be when you were going through that toughest time and you know you lost your house in your relationship at the same time you were exactly where you were meant to be for the cree if that you are for those lessons to be learned to then transform that into uh put that out and inspire people in other ways or be be allowed to take that real life pain and when you're teaching kids about how to be a writer or a performer you're tapping into that lowest point it can't be all like Glitz and glamor it's not like I feel like true creatives really have to suffer for the for their art we have to feel that you had to you had to drop that too you can't go through life as a creative without crying bro you can't do it please we just can't do it so my thing now is at this point and I know where you know we're more mature at this age we we reflect on life a bit different as the years are rolling on but I'm a big believer that when you're going through a dark time that is where the most growth happens and when you come out of that period you like a new version of you with a whole new perspective on approaching everything and how tough would you say your journey as an artist has been because anyone who's a creative it's very rare you get those stories where someone starts at 15 and it's just up up up up I think the only story I've heard like that is John Mayer he seem to have like started gigged next gig was a bigger gig gig after that was a bigger gig and he just never stops he just went went but I'm sure if you spoke to him he would have his own take on that in his own Journey but how how hard has you have you found it as an artist like as a creative from when you say you started to to where you're at now which I know it's hard to feel that into you know a few paragraphs or you know 10 minutes but how hard would you say it's actually been so before I tap on that I just want to say to you that you know when you talked about the darkness um because I just like our freelance when you're in the darkness there's how you get through that darkness is your gratitude if you can't exit to get through your Darkness shift you have to accept that you're in your Darkness yeah yeah and in that point that's the one that's one of the most rawest states where you feel all of your urine you have a full license and acceptance in your body to go upon the world or burn that or blame that person or because of this and am I going to be accountable no I'm not going to be accountable because it's this and this situation and that situation or you know it's that darkness is the most truthful space that you will ever be in because it is it is like the cousin of anger you know when you're angry you allow yourself to be angry you might want to flip a table you flip a table don't you yes because I'm angry but Darkness has a different type of thing because it says depending on how you behave in this play in this space your outcome at the end once it all subsides because everything does yeah would it be you're determined the denominator for the next couple of years of your life so I just wanted to touch on that because yeah yeah the darkness that Darkness phase and is about there's Beauty in there if you are brave enough to understand it and there's a very strange thing now I've learned more about the mind I've studied language the subconscious changing programs there's a very weird thing there's a conflicting thing as I'm learning the logic to behaviors I've also experienced Dark Times depression as an artist and it is a part of us that likes to be there because we're Gathering Intel while we're in that place we're gathering information so I know a lot of humans you know we keep ourselves there's always a reason we we can keep ourselves in these spaces for longer it might not even be a creative person you know they might have a dependency on drugs or alcohol or there's something serving them to be in this space because they can say oh I'm this which means I'm behaving like this well I think for creatives is a part of us that kind of likes to be there because we know we're gaining something from that and as I've learned this other side it's a really strange thing to learn the behaviors and know how to change it but then also really appreciate the side of it as an artist where when we're in these spaces I know it's serving the art the thing that's going to come like you said two three years later where you look back and go well how that thing I went through then in you know whatever year it was now that's coming through to my creativity and that's a really strange thing to experience different timelines where you think oh I'm done with that period of my life and as an artist you might as a person you might feel like you've moved on but as an artist I'm going to draw from that I can hop back to that experience and still pluck from that and one thing I had a new respect for you was when you invite I don't know where we crossed past but you invited us to a show and I think I came with Simeon so I think maybe you bumped into one of us or both of us and you were like come down to this show we're doing this I'm doing this showing I remember coming to that and I just it was the first time I had witnessed your project on a stage and I was Blown Away bro I was humbled by the performers the age of the performers the strength of them but then knowing you'd put all this thing together and again I can only sit from the artist perspective as a musician as a writer getting on and getting on stage and singing songs and knowing what that feels like but as a Cree if you're breaking down all these ah so there are they choose this and they they say it like this and that's the Cadence for that and why did they go this way so when it's hard as a creative to watch something because you're not just taking it in for what it is it's a really difficult thing to do because you're applying it to your perspective of how you write in your creation but when I watch that show and if you want to speak a bit about that show I was just in the theater like wow that was insane how difficult is it to put a show like that together and do you feel like hey how long have you been doing those shows was that like the first one because I could I just saw your journey in that yeah and you weren't performing in that but I could see you in it so I'll say is this um I've been in Manchester 20 odd years my steps are not by chance there's a there's there's been a focus for such a long time and within that process I've touched a lot of spaces and I've also shared ideas and collaborated freely and from behind the scenes because sometimes someone's just ready to go yeah do you get what I mean I'm not probably wasn't emotionally mature enough to ready to take that step but could see that Vision clearly so go go and run with it yeah you know um so when I have the opportunity to when I get an opportunity to create from Myspace it comes out in things like imprint which is with young identity which I'm associate artistic director for um um that piece what I found is funny interesting because we were saying I remember seeing you in the audience when you're talking and stuff putting that piece together being in the moment with those artists it was like for me it's Art Is War for me yeah yeah and it's like if I'm in here then you're in here and that clocks don't exist if someone catches a clock can you manage the cow in time boy you got lucky yeah you know but the process only becomes all-encompassing Not only was it important for me to understand the level of the artists the writers the performers but also it was important for me to understand the words behind it the meaning I needed to understand them because they the words were just they they went so far into my cerebral I went so intricate yeah I had to actually at once they tried to avoid not having to make notes I was like no no I can [ __ ] figure that day that that word sounds kind of cool and it's like no I need to know what it means once I started understanding the meaning it started it started informing the language on stage and it started I started I was able to then learn just what I needed to strip away and I was like I remember a division came to us it has to just be about their bodies it's just them and their movement and it's the sequencing so the different formations that you saw within that piece were just the sequences that I was seeing in my head of how I was breaking down their language and then through that I had lots of one-to-one conversations with the different young people to figure out like this is your time this is your piece what does your piece stand for this is what it means to me this what does it stand for for you and who in if there was someone in the audience that you were afraid to have in the audience who you'd be the most nervous to have that conversation with or who who would that be I've got that information yeah yeah and we invited those things yeah yeah but the bottom line of it was is that the peace became so authentic because now I'm operating from a space I'm I'm operating from once I got around the time frame of how long I had to turn it around I think it's like two weeks or something like that it was something crazy once I got that out the way my brain shifted into and this is that darkest line right once I shifted into that space you and I'm doing things I'm having I'm having out of body experiences because I'm going who's directing this is it me because I'm saying this and this is working or I'm figuring they're going they will turn to me go what's this scene I'm going yeah that one goes there and that will happen here that's it right cool let's go I'm going who's done that but you know it's been in my body because I've been doing theater and I've been directing that and I'm an observer I watch everything I go to shows all the time I go to things I sit on my own I I watch things four times over you know I just I just like absorbing I just absorb stuff so when I have my opportunity I see it all clearly and I just and it comes out as it's a release yeah it is literally like a because I understand that aren't that when we get this opportunity to create something it can take Years bro you can I've got to play on my desk that when I first wrote it came to me like a dream 13 years later 14 years later this place still hasn't hasn't seen its last day but now in my 20th year in Manchester I found someone who's ready to look at they're like yo where's this come from I've gone 20 years 12 years ago they're like what and I'm like I've been trying to like know your emotionally mature for it now um so you have to understand that Journey yeah yeah so yeah so this when I when distance comes down to creating and how I see things it's very clear and it's it does match up like there's there are some things pop but there were loads of things about my life that are not by chance bro like you know um and this relates to that question about how we how I overcome those struggles and what that feels like um when you've done this amount of years what happens is it's a gift and a curse because there are people that know if I say a birthday present people go I need to buy Courtney a pad and in one size you go oh you know me but in the other side you go that means you've known that I've been trying to do this for this amount of time yeah yeah how do I feel about that on top of that you you go through so many different emotions I mean I can tell you like just even yesterday I received like my uh uh rejection letter for a pro an opportunity to to basically just learn be surrounded by the creatives that I've had on my my vision board and they they felt like the stage of my career and what I'm doing supersedes it so can you imagine the complexity the the the conflict I'm going but they're on my mood board yeah yeah I hear who I want to work with a York out there going looking at my stuff and they're going now you've gone clear bro the soul is the conflict because then the rest of Life still has to move like as an artist you either you either get through quite quickly and you remain within your team and you go for your ups and downs and then you start feeding and you you essentially someone within the team buses and um breaks through sorry yeah and then they feed the team who's next within that Vision if that was the intended part if that was the inertia of the reason why you all came together yeah the other version what happens is you're a creative around many genius creatives and you know life lives ups and downs some people get through quickly and so forth and so forth and you remain still waiting for your moment that in terms in that in compared and in comparison to when as you get older your wants change you might start wanting different things you know I remember waking up and it was like yeah man I want a house like I've always wanted a house but it wasn't a fort the the gravitas of wanting it didn't wasn't as prevalent in my mind as going out and trying to network and do some filming or do some acting or whatever it was so my wants have changed because I've evolved so how did so now you've got your underline which is this is my create it's my creativity what I've been doing for all these years and I have to do it so now you've got something that in the real world which is going to provide your foundation your security your home your home bro your home your structure where you can rest and paint and do whatever you want to do in there now that's coming to conflicts now you're realizing that your art is a sacrifice now you're you are at that space of sacrifice and what does this mean everything becomes high stake so how I feel sometimes I feel overwhelming happiness about my journey and then sometimes I feel the most deepest sadness for why the whys and the houses how this has this not happened in the way that I've seen it in my mind and then I've also experienced through chance meetings you know any of those friends or those people let's go listen I've just seen something you've done that really moved me and you go oh I am on the right path so how I've learned to navigate this journey now where I am now right in front of you is I actually know what I'm doing my thing my line is um God has this God has the plan yeah as human stuff you just have to walk the steps with faith yeah as a human we will constantly try and break down the convention that come on let me just try and put you know you try to push you know hmm but you have to just walk it and believe it and I'm in that space now where I know exactly what I need to do I even can see the unknown part I've looked at my journey now and the branch and the things I've created and there's some things I now place in the miscellaneous pile you know you know the parts where we've done great stuff but you didn't know how to document it or so forth and so forth yeah or there's a lot of pain that's done and all the stuff that never sees the light of day thank you that part of you that I I related to putting songs or music to the world there's so much stuff that never leaves the hard drive or the computer or but that's still part of your journey those things that like you said what what was that that I did I just went through that period of a year of just making that type of thing well that was different but it was still a part of your creative process and I think a big thing you said there was sacrifice for anyone coming into the world of creativity and you'll experience it you know when you're teaching the youngers and the parents are wanting them to be a creative from this perspective now at the age we're at I mean I've missed if I think about early twenties a bit before so many birthday parties so many family events maybe weddings things that are like real memories like you said you know if your brothers having to sacrifice going to a different city you know you sacrificing seeing your brothers grow up and having that connection there's so much sacrifice that goes into being a creative throughout your life when you've been doing it this long and also how people perceive you so I would imagine for you to start right Courtney is a writer he's an actor oh you've been on TV yet anything I would have seen you in so those things then you have this gauging mechanism also people see TV as success so if I'm not on TV I'm not successful so the strange thing is recently someone said to me and initially my ego fled up and I'm just paraphrasing but it was basically I was talking about music and my journey and we were kind of talking about like spirituality as well and she kind of implied oh X Y and Z is the reason you never made it so I'm like oh your perception of me as I never made it as a creative my perception though at this is like you said is I wake up and get paid to be creative I made it somebody pays me money to do what I love to do in the world I made it maybe at 21 my perception of making it was being on TV which we did with the boys we went on different TV shows being on radio being on big stages that's making it but as you get older unless you're trying to stay in that world which is not an easy thing to do that's a whole different battle which I'm kind of glad I've not have not had my perceptions change success to me now means I wake up I want my dog I have a coffee have a shower I sit down and I do what I love to do someone goes there's some there's some peace for that thank you that's that's success and that's one one thing I would really like to say to people is don't let other people's expectations of success Define how you view your success because being a creative is not easy it's years of being dedicated to something we see a lot of people on this path as well like we've known each other for a long time so when I connect with people like yourself and still see people doing the thing they were doing when we were 18. do you know how commendable I'm like bro to see you being create I know so many people are reaching this age MidFirst is still doing the thing and I'll just throw them a message and going bro we were doing this from early man congratulations you're still doing it and you look at someone like a day or bipolar Sunshine who we know he's gone clear he's living in L.A his music is accumulating a crazy amount of streams every year and I'm like to see where we've come from to that dreams dreams happen but you know like you said the people that you come up with everyone has different paths and different Journeys and it's hard not to compare sometimes when you you've come from the same place but he's relayed a few truths to me recently that I've like been so grateful for of how he perceives me from where he's got you know could you work on this for me because I love how you mix tracks me and my world our mixed song finish a song listen to another guy's mixing God his mix is always on fire man why does my stuff not sound like that but then my friend my boy who's known me for ages is listening to my stuff that I've been mixing going Jay's stuff always sounds fire I'm going to ask him to make some stuff so and I said it's crazy how you perceive that because I don't perceive my mixes how you perceive it then I'll ask the question can you ever perceive your own art how somebody perceives it so there's this complex thing that even at this age all this experience we have seeing our friends be super successful we're still creative we're still making money from being creative so we're successful as well it's so strange that we still have these conflicts even though we've gathered all this experience with us 20 years plus but we still have these doubts and what do you say to you know the people you're teaching do you let them know how I'm sure you do it's probably I'm answering the own question but do you let them know like the work that is involved in this thing if you're gonna be committed this long yeah you know I was just thinking about what you're saying there you know and I'm it's really interesting because when you know yourself when you know yourself you can start to begin to have an appreciation and a hyper awareness of all of the wants and needs and things all around you the people that you perceive to LeapFrog you know go you know you can have that when you know yourself and then when such people you know that are now gone super clear and they come back and they tap in and they're like yo I love what you do you then can start remember I said to you when you know yourself you can then start to shift that energy and go and yeah of course you would call me of course yeah I 100 know myself that when you work with me you will get exactly what you need it will be something it will be what you need and what you feel but it will it will embody what course rights does yeah so there's that saying isn't it everyone can pick up the pen but no one pickups the pen No One writes the same if one picks up a brush but no one paints that you know everyone can pick up a paintbrush but no one's Strokes are the same yeah you know I can have all of the same mixing stuff that you have but it does not matter how much generals and dummies I have around me saying yeah press this button I will not be able to do it the way that you do it so you have to get to that space where it's like this is my craft this is my thing so um and that thing is something when you when you know say I'm doing my thing what I like to do now is layer that when someone says I see you doing your thing I go yeah you know what I do if they if it doesn't go any further I go yeah you know what I'm actually working on this really amazing incredible script and it's a melodrama and it's doing this I just throw that out there whether they are capturing that it's because I can't allow my thing I can't even allow myself to demote my years in the game yeah personally all right industry great but personally when I'm at home when I'm thinking about it when I'm in the shower when I'm walking when I'm making those those decisions on how my life is going to go those are things I cannot allow to I Can't Forget so when I have the opportunity and I'm going to branch on just a little touch on this the Journey of the young people because I've got a big thing about this right now at the moment where you know we have to invest in the young people and we do we will always do that however I've got friends that are my age that are lost um so what hang on hang on well I'm gonna keep giving the little the little young jeez the the trinkets when I've got people when it's guys my age who I'm going to access for the help because to support and to talk to that where what we're just we're supposed to be lost in the wind no so what I always say to the young people one of them one of my tasks I was doing I always give them a blank piece of paper before I work with them and I go and write yourself on monologue about yourself I don't care it can be a pain it's a there's your piece of paper if you end up writing two lines then that's what you've written there's the accountability right there and then it's before I've I'm trying to teach people before you go and ask someone for something know what you're asking yeah know what you're asking and also it's teaching you to Value people's time but also value your own mind if you don't know what you're on and you've called someone out you know you've articulated A really lovely text email phone call whatever voice note and then they've left their house you don't know what their day's been like and then they come and you have don't have the faintest idea about what yours what you're saying you've just seen something on the hype you've seen someone that they've placed up you know I know you get this a lot when you place because I I love I love your work bro when I tell you openly yeah you know I love your work and I love when you explain yourself and you're like oh you know I haven't done this for a while and I'm like bro just do you're such a G oh yeah you're such a g bro you're you're a technical genius in your game I see it but that's the perception isn't it and these are the years now you say yeah two years ago three years I've got to a point where I'm like oh I'm actually good at this thing because like I said people people are willing to pay me exactly for this and it's not always about money but that's the thing that Society lets us gauge oh you're doing well yeah but it's really made me realize that maybe it comes with maturity and something shifted and then conversations I'm having like you know like with Adele who you know you're like he's doing the numbers he's in he's in L.A he's got that you know that is what we all would think actors creatives musicians Hollywood he lives literally in Hollywood he's smashing it like unreal and it's when those conversations come back you're like oh that's just he's still my boy from like we may start making music at 15. it's still that same connection and it's a musical connection and it's a long journey of friendship and you forget that because you've not done x amount of numbers or you've not appeared on 20 TV shows or whatever it is you forget that you really are great and it's so strange and that's again the conflict I'm saying it takes sometimes another creative to tell you how great you are because whilst you're in the process of 20 years experience you still forget along the way of how good you are I'm going to add on to that um you know what you do and it's one thing I do and then I think I think a lot more if I should do is give yourself some days times in your months I don't know how you can figure out your sort of flow to look just listen listen read look at your work privately personally like appreciate it like really play your music when we play other artists and read over all these books and all of this stuff and we're investing all that in these dope people that have come up that have managed to get their Creative Vision into a space where it's now reached you you need to do the same thing for yourself yeah I tell you I know before the TV you know accolades mate that's in the Stars before the TV accolades if I'm not even reading my own scripts my own scripts that I've set month after month years some some of those worked a job come home chugged it didn't know if it was the right form run done a rewrite and I've completed it end to end and I can't sit myself and read my own work like I'm telling you taking time to invest in your own craft which is just appreciating what you do yeah and knowing where that came from gives you all of the helps you combat what Society teaches you about what is the definition of making it I I now have my I have my goals and I know what I like and I can go yeah I would love to touch this and I touch that however if you're not loving this part this part this journey part in the middle you're gonna miss the debt when you get you up to your destination you're going to miss it it's just going to be like a blip yeah it's not you're not real you know and that will come in so many different forms the wrong people be around you you might be on your own it might not look and feel how it's supposed to have felt you know you might not process someone might someone read someone you might have that chance moment where someone asks you about your craft or your work I said hey I really loved what you did and because you'll be focused so far ahead you don't answer that question the right way yeah so you miss it so what was it all for so like the same thing when I said well I do with my young people you know and I stopped teaching for a while after I I just had a massive after I had given my soul to these kids because I really believed in them that I mean they can I'm still in I'm still connected to them to this day but I remember one kid in particular Tilly she's doing big big big things but this is what she said to me as I've said until he was like maybe that 9 12 9 9 10 she said to me I was going to teach and she turned to me and I didn't know that she was already doing stuff in the industry because she was traveling from Leeds coming to Manchester and she turned to me and she went when are you going to do for you Courtney I'm like hmm she's like when are you good she says when are you gonna give back to yourself and I'm like what are you talking about I'm like my mind I'm going tell it I love you now but yeah you know then she's like so I said I asked her what her day was like like what does she do in her life and she started explaining she looked at what picked up a script and then she broke it down from her Indus what she does in the industry and this is a youngster but her information was extensive so I'm now going do I need to take notes I'm saying this in my mind I'm going do I need to take notes Fast Track by the end of this conversation I said to her you need to go and teach her you need to go and teach the lesson so she's like I can't teach I said dear you can you've just taught a fully grown adult you've just told me out of all of this given you've just told me that I need to stop and I need to go and focus and do something for myself so I said you need to go and tell your kids she's like my kids I said yeah you're the teacher now you need to go and tell your kids how this how this into how this war runs and I'm going to sit as a student in your classroom and I that's how I do it and I sat in there watched her and I I've never seen students respond in the way that they did the light in the room because they were hearing it from someone their own age and I realized how they were looking at me now they're like well you're older than us Courtney and you're going to go this way and I used to always say to the young people I said I said with the information I give you you're going to Eclipse me I said but I'm it's good I said because the information I give you is gold it's from my body it's from my soul it's from everything there's no it's unfiltered so that journey and how it feels for us you know struggling and being in these years if we do not invest in our own craft and that means by listening giving the love back to our own work then we will mess up and Miss opportunities interacting whether we're networking whether it's collaborating whether it's hearing someone else's art we'll miss all of those nuances because we're lost and we can't be lost if we go back to our own drawing board because that's what we do it for 100 that resonates because I listen to a lot of my old music I think because I I write music create music produce it mix it engineer it when you create it straight to the car wherever I'm going in the car for weeks if I'm getting ready to release a song every journey is me listening intently every time I step by the house airpods I'm listening to that song but then years later I'll go back to songs I release the even unreleased stuff in it it made me realize recently having a conversation with my friend a Dale saying you know bro your mix is a on point I'm like yeah and this is again struggling to accept a compliment it's like you say that bro but I was listening to some songs from 2016. I didn't release them but whatever I was doing at that point was golden because I'm listening to those mixes like that wasn't me doing those mixes everything is perfection placed perfectly like happy time it was your happy space it was it was me not going for the best of times but like we said Throwing It All into that art and whatever I was doing was perfect and it was actually a time when USD came around to to my mum's guy and I played you a couple of songs it was those songs I listened to him recently and I'm like wow that makes us the wrong point so now I'm like I'm trying to reverse engineer like what was I doing what was I listening to at that point what was I getting inspired by for those mixes to sound amazing and sometimes you forget the knowledge that we've accumulated because I'm a very practicing person so if you ask me to make something sound this way I can do it if you go Jay break down the steps of everything you've done and what that does I'm not going to give you the full technical analysis I'll give you the roof because I don't fully go into depth of these things it's just I've done it since I was 15. so it's like an autopilot thing and there's always going to be people out there that you know you think are better than you and there is people that are better than you at a certain thing but we can't underestimate how great we are you can't underestimate the power of self yeah yeah because that's where your wealth is bro you understand if you start if you devaluate your wealth devalue yourself and you what you do you allow yourself to be susceptible to others to speak on you yeah and you have to rate yourself in it because otherwise and you know what one thing you said that's just triggered something my girlfriend works out in America a lot so she deals a lot with American culture and again keep going back to Adele's out there so he he's experiencing it and I know obviously we've been there but I think our culture is very reserved when we're like I'm James what that's it what do you do James that's like the next question I'm a music producer other cool interesting people then have to ask you more about that for you to reveal more about that thing that's kind of our culture Americans are more hey this is what I do this is what I've done nice to meet you because within that delivery they're opening themselves up to opportunity this is what I this is who I am this is what I do do you have anything we can exchange to be successful their coach is more about that this is me this is what I do and the more open and forthright with it and I feel like us British people in our like we were more closed down we're more guarded I I'm corny I do this you know so when you said that you talk that extra thing I think we all need to do that as creatives because we really like it we just go oh yeah I'm just a music producer what do you mean just the music producer like talk talk you talk tell people what you do and I'm talking to myself saying this because in that you're engaging in Opportunity you're engaging in the next experience with that person might have been waiting for that sentence to land in their brain because they've been looking for you in their world they've been waiting to hear oh and I need a music producer well actually I need a screenplay writer is that what you do tell me more if we're reserved about what we do we're missing opportunities and I think Americans are so much better and it kind of shows why they're entertainment industry is so big and so huge because they live within that culture of hey this is who I am this is what I've done yeah speak on that and let's connect and it was it's great to hear you say and that's what you do now as well yeah you talk it up you don't let someone's impression be what they think you could be it's this is what I do and I'm working on this great thing what I do is great yeah you have to um there are there were certain spaces that I've been off late where I've had to I knew I would for example I knew I'm going into it I'm in the I'm about to I'm in an unknown space in my life at the moment where everything is going to be checked it's inevitable yeah I remember speaking to my mentor and just said ah listen I said I don't know what's happening but I don't think I've got any choice on what happens to my life at this point as I can just feel it's going to change and different things were happening over the last couple of weeks and the way I was navigating through these situations I realized I had to manage how emotionally connected I was to those situations like say something was bad how angry how long was I going to remain in a in a funk was that actually you know what that just let it go so like moving into the space now it's really important like bro it's so important that um that you just know why like you know you said to you saying oh when there was some music you wrote and he was like how do you how did I how was I creating that and I said happy space and I said I said happy space and use that you was like no it was a dark time do you remember what I said about that that dark space how we negate that that space so how we Channel ourselves do you understand what I'm trying to say bro the I'm sorry say that again reload that right your dark space is your happy time because of how you're choosing to be in that dark space yeah you have to negate in that space there it's like your attitude people people use like attitude of gratitude and stuff like that you know and and I'm throwing it away because sometimes when you listen to this think about when we do these things we we say sometimes we say such profound things but actually because we have not learned our first part which is to appreciate what we have you know this is outside of anyone telling us yeah you know like sometimes when one time I made a beans on toast yeah brother the beans and toast tastes so cold to me and I'm sat there and I'm going bro these beans on toes up amazing right now in that moment I'm appreciating the simple simple thing I've got but this is what I've got I've got free pan in my pocket I've made this work the cheese everything's working and I'm grateful yeah I know that's we're creative so you understand where we go with this bringing it back into what I mean by this dark space is that in that time in those places where you don't know what is going on or someone is in someone has said an energy or someone has made you feel a certain way or you've made yourself feel a certain way in that space your life is now changing you have to in that space figure out where is the joy where's the beauty in there okay if it's if it's immense pain what am I doing with that immense pain yeah what is it and you create from that space and as you come out of it my brother as you come out of that space yeah you don't even know how far you've grown you don't even know like you say you listening to them that music then you're like brah I need to do that um I need to do that years later so it's that thing you were doing then because it's a juxtaposition that that's a juxtaposition of our of a really traumatic time because whereas as artists we're taught yo when I'm in my pain I wonder if I wanna I need to create from Pain however it was a juxtaposition you've got your pain but then you've got your passion yeah your your right your gift and your gift with the pain and all different what's going on your your gift just was like okay yo we're gonna just we're gonna just create this thing here James yeah he's saying you're right bro we're just gonna just do what we're doing here you know I'm gonna get back out of it and you'll laugh and there's things subside you're gonna continue with your life but you know what bro you're going to have a marker you're gonna you're gonna have a definite Mark of something that's personal to you but it's what is essentially the closest to your best work did you get it yeah yeah is that is that investment in yourself that will keep you running in those years that helps you to top up because as the art game is we can talk about it not being fruitful it being fruitful it being for this you know the game is supposed to be it's supposed to be fluid it's supposed to have these Ebbs and flows it's supposed to test you because you're actually testing yourself you're saying to the world when you wake up I'm going to be up for me I'm going to write a play and this play is going to be seen by a hundred thousand people who are you of course I'm I'm Courtney in my flat and I am going to write this play maybe three to four hours a day around everything else I've got to do in comparison to her well other screenplay writers they do it every single day in the mountains free on you well I've got to go to work I've got to go link my pleasure in I might even go for a rave but when inspiration catches me I'm going to write yeah but my play is going to get there barbecue this is how mad that sounds yet it's to believe my brother you have to recognize your you have to remember your you have to remember what you're you have to remember your power man yeah and it's going to be overlooked I always knew when I moved up here I was going to be overlooked in my craft because I was there were certain things in my body I hadn't learned I hadn't like I was London understood the money game yeah then I moved up here wasn't interested was it was my focus was more people as you guys are born here your life is evolving differently you've grown up from school you this is your this is your home so you're thinking about different things go listen I need to get a job on this on at this level at this stage and so forth we all are at different stages but one thing for sure what your art does and I come back to your art is it is your truth and if you're brave enough and you want it enough you know it will stick with you even when you fall out of love with it art just remains yeah it just sticks yeah it does it just sticks with you and you can tap into it and tap out but if you really want it then you have to go you have to build it as a relationship like you would with anyone else I'm going to argue with you I'm going to talk to you I'm going to I'm going to introduce you to people please don't be rude yeah you know we're going to fail we're gonna fail and we're gonna have triumphant moments but those triumphant moments might actually only happen in our headphones yeah how'd you feel about it well you think that's in it we've got to go that's the thing I think I've had conversations recently I don't think I can ever stop this thing it's never stopping and is those sometimes it is oh I made a song today and I'm I'm walking down the street and I'm listening to it it didn't exist this morning that's a win that's a win because it's even about us sometimes like I said it's coming from elsewhere and we need to get out of our own way and channel listing and turn it into something we can observe listen to see through our senses our limited senses and go oh that was interesting and whether five billion people listening to it or just you it exists and that's what it's about and that's a really big battle as an artist I think is we live in a numbers Society now everything's likes you know likes and love what if you never got anyone liking any or uh ever again you're gonna stop doing it I think I tried to at one stage yeah hey I'm buttoning questions yeah yeah so yeah it is something we can't escape and I think a thread what we're trying to see through this is you know through the darkest times it's a weird thing being a creative and there might be people who aren't creatives listening being a career if is synonymous with mental health the art and the creativity can make your mental health suffer but whilst you're going through an episode of like life is affecting your mental health it can also be the thing that saves your mental health that's if I was to summarize being an artist for me that's what it is like when life is hitting you hard this thing here Gets You Through It but sometimes this thing here can be the thing that's making life feel hard because especially again the sacrifice mid twin is people are now in successful jobs big wages big houses big cars married 2.4 children and you're here the artists like yo bro what's my next screenplay in your gas and that's a that's a thing that is a struggle that a lot of people don't talk about but the people like I said that have stayed dedicated throughout these years that we've known each other I just look at people like bro I love to Ste still see you doing your thing like you know steering we could name everyone from our Circle there's so many and I want to start bringing people to as we're talking now I'm like who could I bring into this conversation with us too that I know is is gonna just be another great experience for the people that are tapping in and listening here because we're building a nice community of people that want to grow and they want to learn from people's stories and experiences and we've all got something to speak about we've all been through like you said individual things that when you start bringing conversations together there's power in our stories and you don't necessarily always have to be a celebrity you know with that big 10 million Instagram following to be able to impact on someone's life conversation and words are powerful you'll know that being a writer like someone who studies Words Words of Power so I can feel how great this conversation you know is and people how people are going to receive it if you could summarize this is a not an easy question I don't think what's been one of your biggest life lessons okay one of my biggest life lessons was to remember the power of my voice and how to use it um what I mean by that is for me to make certain steps and changes in my life I had to and I would go to people that I wanted to speak to about those changes there was another requirement that I didn't realize and ending that knowledge at the time and it was going you need to be the reason you've chosen that person is because you see that these are their values this is their value system that you see in them whether they're No Nonsense whether they're straight to the point whether they're good listeners they're deep thinkers you know whether they take on your gibberish but they ingest it whilst you're thinking that you've walked off and then you know so when I understood that understanding the power of my voice and my thoughts is the been the most impactful phase in my life because it's helped me to channel the way that I my thoughts my insecure is it's helped me to be more specific and value of my own time and of people's time it's helped me to really start to see map out paths and actually see what my habits are and that as a gift is a testament to the way that I was born from being born to now and all of those confusions because if you forget if you don't feel you know your voice and you're scared to be truthful you know you know and say how you feel then you're wasting time you really are you're wasting time because what happens is you will always know you've heard that saying you know like when you say and you're outside in the world you're like yeah man everything's cool man everything's cool corn and you shut your door and you everyone has experienced that door the moment you shut your door and that silence thing is like it's just you and me you know that feeling so you know it can happen for a second but you know you've done all the hey hey and then the door shuts and it's just uh oh is it us yeah yeah so I have now learned to be more more focused more real with when I speak with people and that means that's not through just need that's like if someone speaks to me like when we first when we were speaking about your music video it was yes bro whatever you need it doesn't matter to me I just you're my guy I love you like there's no heirs and Graces for me it's just like yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes and let's get so now I want to know how you feel you know and so I can help you navigate how you're you know because you're such a respectful man so you'll be like I just want to value your time yeah both we need to chop this up for 10 hours and it needs to go over a course of a week that's all we need to say we're doing and I've got y'all and it's that power of our voice is the thing that I've I think if more people do it you know and you'd get more a happier ecosystem in the world yeah I know also just last thing sorry is creatives we're all creatives you know I have friends that are like doctors and have friends that have opened coffee houses and I have friends that smash it on paperwork you know like that documents you're an artist because your brain is wired and geared to figure to figure that thing out it's that's your music yeah if you're a cleaner and you have an ability to go and look at a big gigantic office space and go yeah I'll do that in an hour and you're whistling away and people are looking at you and you you can pick up the rubbish and all of those things that people you know um turn their nose up but you don't see it as that you see it as no I'm actually I'm contributing to creating a cleaning space yeah and by being clean means that you guys stay healthy which means that your home lives continue that means everything your ecosystems work to get what I'm trying to say so we're all creatives it's just understanding our creativity and being proud of it a lot more and actually understanding and being honest about whether your creativity is about the win that the glitz and glamor or if you want to start enjoying it from now and let all of those raw feelings like oh I just want more to happen now it's up to you so yeah understanding your voice externally and internally yeah yeah truth is the foundation to everything I think as as we go you know we grow older and and you get to know yourself more and more life experiences and you're more sure of yourself you operate from Australian place as young men it's like let me go gym and see how big I can get and there's a lot of bravado or amongst your friends and you might be thinking about girls and going out and getting drunk it's pretty much our life when we're young as you get older you realize it's friendships and realness to me is tied in what type of conversation can I have with you as a person if I come to you have a problem How Deeply are you going to be able to help me and vice versa it's more those real connected things that we appreciate and as you grow I definitely find myself speaking in more truth sometimes as well you might finish a sentence and you go wow is that me did I really just flow like that and it's taking that moment and going oh that's the true version of me and the world when you when you then reinforce that with you know I need to do more of that I need to speak more of the truth start to realize your life shifts and more positive things come in and I think that's why we've known probably this conversation was going to happen we probably weren't aware years ago but we we knew we're going to connect and I'm glad we've been able to do this because you're someone that I look to and if I see someone new like you still doing it I'm still gonna do it do you know what I mean if I see if I was like if I if I bumped into you in the street I was like yes bro you do anything ah just stuck to all you know I'd be like [ __ ] is it that time of life then is it does that mean I'm gonna stop it soon so I look at you like as a creative Beacon I really respect what you do and what you're about what are your future plans where do you see life going from now what are you trying to manifest yeah this is a nice question so um um right now I've been my future focus is um I've got I'm building a universe at the moment um a project that's been well essentially I believe is my my best work it will be my it's my life's work in fact yeah I know it's my last work um and that will basically that will open up all my possibilities in my life um because it's gonna be it's informed by everything that I've ever wanted from a child family positive bonds with my friends upkeep of my brotherhood being a being a stand-up guy being a a guy that can provide you know provide and I mean providing sternly but also providing for myself my spirituality it's everything it's just my whole world and I've been working on it for such a long time but it's now at a space where I'm going to start sharing it out there now I'm smiling because even your smile yeah well it is it's just because I've been I you know because I've been working on it for a while and I've done a number of different things that are out in the IFA and if at some point you'll see it you go oh my gosh it was all connected but it's I've kept it as a very private space for me yeah um and there are the right voices and ears are around it now and it's it has to be this way so um my future for my my future prospects are I'm going to be I'm still going to be making my films I'm going to push forever in my directing I'm still mentoring teaching will never ever leave me it would just never leave me yeah you don't teach you don't the things that you would do for free you know you don't even believe you are you know so that will always be there I'm looking forward to connecting with more and more creatives and more and more people um that are at their space of wanting to make a leap but understanding what that leap is um I'm looking forward to just really building some of these new wants in my mind that have started to manifest you know like I said I started thinking more about family structures and stuff and I started thinking a lot about what this survival thing this survival living I've been doing for such a long time um sometimes everyone I've wanted to break down that Convention of when people see me they're like our course is always good in one sense I am yes I am I'm very blessed but I also struggle like everyone else I just haven't forgotten that everyone I just haven't forgotten how life you know how people you know to be grateful for other people's lives so yeah my life is going to be moving creatively down a very um strong path and it will cross over into many different mediums and stuff and yeah I love to hear it man and bro you're you're one of Life's Good Guys man trust me people who are listening please go back and listen to this again because I swear on the second list and third you will hear gems that you might have missed first time around I'll be going to edit this and then I'll be listening again so I'm looking forward to hearing what I've missed whilst we're in the flow because on that second process that third process you're someone who I know who has a lot of wealth of knowledge but the way you deliver that in words because of your art form and the things you've studied you're just someone who I I respect and admire with your craft and I wish you all the best bro this is not me saying goodbye we're gonna do this I said to Connie like I said sort of a guest I just want to get people in a conversation back on get listeners familiar with this great community that we've known for a long time and even you know new people coming through and connect's not just creators but you know people like Maureen on the show who is a emotional therapist that shines lights on things that make sense that we've probably suffered with as creatives for 20 years and it's starting to work this whole new circuit and we've got lessons on the other end of it which is a beautiful thing but bro I wish you all the best Monday I really do and I'm excited for your next journey and if you ever see Courtney's name on a show or go and see this guy just if he's created a show or he's performing and you're in Manchester or wherever that that show is take time to do it because you'll come away from it like wow I've just learned something but I appreciate you coming bro today and we'll do this again and for everyone listening where can people find you yeah so um um the best thing to do is to connect with me on Instagram you know it's just it's a nice comfortable space um it's a good it's a good space right now so you can connect let me there at Courtz Writes um and yeah you want to reach out just message me you know the social media world is Bonkers but you know you're talking to a real person behind it so you send a message you'll get a message back and we'll just chat yeah man if you ever need me bro you know where I am you can like we've always supported each other in that way you've always dropped super kind words when they're needed and I'm seeing that straight back to you if you ever need me in life anything creative hit me up the same way and I've got you like you've always had me appreciate that if you want to support the podcast you can find the links in the description it's a labor of love we're not doing it for you know monetary game but if you want to show some love and support you can do that the biggest thing you can do is pass this on to someone who might benefit from this conversation with Courtney and thanks again for listening thanks to Courtney I can't wait to go back and listen to this one bro so appreciate you remember no matter what you're going through no matter how hard life gets life is good life is sound stay blessed and we'll see you on the next one