Pharrell and Miley Cyrus are teaching us creative lessons

THERE'S A HISTORY BEHIND THEIR COLLABORATION

Image from Rolling Stone

Pharrell and Miley Cyrus just released a song called “Doctor.” It’s a fun record with what you expect to hear from a Pharrell produced record, and in the video, Miley Cyrus is being Miley Cyrus.

But that’s not exactly what this piece is about.

Let’s go back to how this record was made. Back in 2012, when Miley was fresh off Hannah Montana and her hit record Party in the U.S.A., Pharrell decided to take a trip. He flew to California to meet the 19-year-old Cyrus at her home.

They spoke at her kitchen table for hours before Pharrell was finally able to convince Miley (and her mother) to leave California and record with him in Miami, where Pharrell was living at the time. When Miley made it out to Miami, she tells an interesting story about one of their early recording days in the studio.

Pharrell turned to Miley and said “We need to go shopping.” The two of them proceeded to go vintage shopping (Miley bought two Chanel bags) and while they were shopping, all of the creativity flowed into Miley and she was ready to head back to the studio to record.

One of the songs they recorded, back in 2012, was Doctor. The same Doctor that was just released on March 1st of 2024, the same song that is the number one trending video on YouTube, and a week from now, will probably be a top five or top ten song on Billboard.

In an interview with Zane Lowe, Pharrell and Miley said they purposely held onto this song until they felt it was the right time to put it out. They’ve made other songs over the years, some that were released on Miley’s Bangerz album, but they kept this one to themselves for twelve years. And twelve years later, it’s a hit.

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What can we learn? A few things:

First, the most underrated factor to determining creative success is timing. The currency of culture is always moving, always shifting and bending and as writers, as artists, sometimes we’re part of defining that culture, sometimes we’re reacting to it, and sometimes we create something that fits perfectly into the ether and captures the energy of the zeitgeist.

The thing about timing, though, is you actually never know. Not for real. It’s a vibe, an intuitive thing, something you need to feel more than understand and that can make it difficult to predict. But when you get it right, you know immediately. The response is usually overwhelming. You nailed it.

The other lesson, which is still connected to timing, is that creativity takes patience. I told you that Miley and Pharrell went shopping in the middle of a studio session. That wasn’t by accident. Pharrell is known for helping his artists source inspiration, and him suggesting the two of them go shopping was actually part of the creative process.

As Miley recalls, Pharrell told her that her music can sound like the fabric of a Chanel bag, or it can sound like a colour pattern. Pharrell taught Miley that “fashion, art, and design…can all be one expression.” You just need to give it the time and space to make it happen and sometimes that’s immediately and sometimes that’s twelve years later.

The larger lesson I learned from Pharrell and Miley is to keep creating. I read a headline recently that said Picasso created over 50,000 pieces of art yet we only acknowledge a few dozen as “iconic.” I’m not saying that you need to be that prolific at all. What I am saying is that Picasso clearly loved art and loved creating for creating sake. If Miley and Pharrell were looking purely for commercial success, they would’ve dropped this song a long time ago to increase their chances of commercial success. They didn’t.

Love what you write, write as often as you can, enjoy the process, and try your best to attract some attention to your writing. Simple, yes, but when we set our mindset in this way, we give ourselves the space we need to simply create and harness the love that drives those creations.