Creative Connectors - No. 14- Jacob Collier
@jacobcollier - One of the Most Innovative Musicians of this Time
About this Resource:
*Creative Connectors is a series of case studies showing how “success-FULL” artists & creators are connecting with their true fans and a follow-up tool from the free resource The Connection Blueprint by Stop The Starving Artist.
Each example in this series is made up of the creator (or artist), the vehicle (or creation), and the 3 connection components - the belief, opponent, and story.
Use these case studies to see how YOU could better authentically connect with your audience through your own work, social media, and heART based marketing.
✅ The Creator (Musician): Jacob Collier
The creator we’re studying today is 28-year-old self-taught musical prodigy, Jacob Collier . He’s an English singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. At age 16, his video where he harmonizes with multiple versions of himself while playing every instrument of the cover music he wanted to feature in an inventive way went viral. But with his first album, In My Room, Collier proves that he can also write, arrange and produce his own original jazz-meets-funk-meets-pop tunes too. He is currently working on a four-album “DJESSE” project. Not everyone can be a prodigy and have full support from their family in order to build success, we get that, but pay special attention to the interesting and unique ways he connects with his fans.
✅ The Vehicle (The Creation): The Music
Let’s take a look at his newest project: DJESSE. In January of 2018, Jacob began designing and creating a recording project on an unprecedented scale – a quadruple album: 50 songs, divided between four volumes, with each operating within a separate musical universe of sound, style and genre. Scattered across the four volumes are 30+ collaborators from across every facet of the music world. The first DJESSE was "orchestral", the second "folky", the third R&B, "but volume four is about the human voice... which to me is the most crucial musical instrument of them all", he told Vogue in a recent article. He is the first UK artist to win a Grammy for each of his four consecutive records.
⚠️⚠️⚠️The 3 Components That Make It Connect:
NOW FOR THE GOLD! In the Connection Blueprint, we outline 3 important components that allow your fans to establish a quicker and more compelling connection with YOU as the artist: Your Belief, Opponent, and Story.
Check out the hand picked content below and let us know in the comments if you can spot the BELIEF, OPPONENT, and STORY in his videos.
Now.. Share what jumps out at you: What do you think he believes? Who is he opposing? Do you catch any of his story that helps others connect?
Here are just a few examples we spotted on how he uses these 3 components to connect with his audience in an authentic, true to self, and success-FULL way:
⚠️ Belief:
“If you stand for something you will have people for you and people against you. But if you stand for nothing you will have nobody for you and nobody against you.” -Maurice Saatchi
Jacob is very open about his experiences and beliefs around music. These are a couple that we’ve noticed:
You can see in the above videos, he often encourages the audience to sing with him at his concerts and even goes as far as to conduct them and make them a part of the show, this is indicative of his belief that music is for everyone.
Music doesn’t have to follow rules, we as people respond to “different” and “imperfect”. These elements can actually hold our attention.“When you learn music, you’re trained to think [in terms of a] “right way” and a “wrong way”. It’s all just made up. You have to find your own way. And so often [in making music], the things that are deemed wrong, or unconventional, or strange – those are the things that work the best and move people the most, because people are moved by things that aren’t perfect.” Collier said in an interview.
⚠️ Opponent:
”The formulation of the problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill.” ― Albert Einstein
The opponent defines the problem you and your fans are up against. If you know the problem well, the solution becomes more clear.
Jacob stands against the separation of genres on what’s perceived as good and bad music. His opponents are the one dimensional “old ways of thinking” when studying and attempting to understand music.
When he allows for audience participation, he opposes the “right and wrong” ways of sharing music as master vs mear listener and instead pushes shared experiences and knowledge.
⚠️ Story:
The London-based 28-year-old is dubbed by many as one of the most innovative musicians of his generation.
In 2012, Jacob's self-made YouTube videos achieved legendary status in the music world, attracting the praise of such luminaries as Herbie Hancock, David Crosby, Steve Vai, and Quincy Jones. His success has led to musical collaborators and fans including the likes of Coldplay, John Mayer, Ty Dolla $ign, Tori Kelly, Daniel Caesar, SZA, Stormzy, Jessie Reyez, T-Pain, Kehlani and more.
Fans of Collier’s know that he was raised by his violinist mother alongside two sisters, "I was brought up in this house solely by women. Their sensitivity and awakeness to the world [shaped] a huge amount for me as a child."
To see more of Jacob Collier’s music check out his YouTube channel @jacobcollier
What else did you notice? Got another creative you’d like us to do a case study on?