Blood on The Creative Floor

Can Creative Differences Be Managed?

Most artistes arenât any good at handling interpersonal creative differences. If you have any doubts about this, just look at various musicians around you who always seem to be in the news for all the wrong reasons. Also, take a look at these classic examples of how they try to 'work out' their differences.

-Paul Doherty, then of The Libertines, broke into his partner's home and burgled it while his partner, Carl Barat, was away.

-Roger Daltrey sent his partner, Peter Townshend all the way to the hospital by bashing him over the head with a guitar⦠an electric guitar to make matters worse.

-And, of course, everyone's favourite example: John Lennon and Paul McCartney who spent a lifetime (a short one in Lennon's case) bitching about each other.
 

Talking about bitching, most of you would remember the Spice Girls attacking one another, the sniping continuing long after the group was history. Back in India, the situation doesn't change... Shankar-Jaikishen, Indus Creed, Viva - all ripped apart by creative differences that were too strong to handle.

Personally, I think that there is a high degree of possessiveness among artistes, each wanting full creative control. That's all very well for solo artistes, but put two or more together and conflict is a foregone conclusion. I have looked at this issue very closely while I was managing Sanjo and Chandrani during the making of their debut album, Barson Huey.
 

Both Sanjo and Chandrani are equally creative and equally temperamental. Prima facie, there are no grounds for creative conflict. Chandrani writes the lyrics. Sanjo composes and arranges the songs. Then they sing the songs, each sometimes providing the backing vocals for the other. Sanjo is a multifaceted musician who plays all the musical instruments himself, so he doesnât have to direct musicians in the studio. Itâs more like a Do-It-Yourself initiative. And when Chandrani sings, Sanjo directs her.
 

When Chandrani writes, Sanjo never questions her. Hence, there are no grounds for conflict at this stage. Similarly, when Sanjo composes, Chandrani does not interfere at all - she knows that this is Sanjo's area of core competence.

However, creative differences come to the fore during recording sessions when Chandrani is in the glass room and Sanjo is directing her from the control room. The precise issues vary. Sometimes itâs the scale of a song, at other times itâs a particular vocal inflexion needed for a certain note. A small disagreement snowballs. Tempers flare. Voices rise. And the studio guys run for cover.

Broaching this sensitive subject with Sanjo and Chandrani doesn't get you anywhere closer to a solution. Both artistes tend to gloss over it, attaching no great importance to the issue. Recently, a reporter from a well-known youth magazine asked Chandrani how she handles creative conflicts with Sanjo. She simply smiled and said: "The only time we are seen fighting is when Sanjo wears the Music Director's cap and I am singing inside the glass room. There were times, rather quite frequent, during the recording sessions when he made me explore the range and elasticity of my voice and I revolted. But now when I look back, I thank him for being so experimental with my voice."
 

Chandrani certainly sounds distinctly mellow and charitable right now, but come the next occasion for creative sword-crossing, and sparks will fly all over again. Thatâs something you can be sure of! And you know what, I think this friction is a good thing. There is a certain ineffable quality that emanates from this churn, this conflict. After all, both Sanjo and Chandrani are fighting to deliver the best output⦠and invariably, after they are through with their fisticuffs, there is a noticeable improvement in the song. Both of them know it.

As a producer and artiste manager, I see my role as being focussed on managing the underlying conflict in such a way that the final song emerging from the studio is tempered and perfected by the forces that constitute such conflict. 

So at the end of it all, this creative conflict is a damned good thing! As long as they don't go bashing each other over their heads with electric guitars