The world is a bit nuts right now. As a musician – a member of Forest Falls and freelance session violinist – it can be hard to make sense of everything all of the time. For some people, sensory overload is the perfect catalyst for creativity. Not for me. With all that’s going on, I’ve found it very useful to nut out these three tenets of creativity. Exposing myself to these conditions is what fuels my best work, so it’s useful to know what to fall back on when chaos gets the better of me. Tenet 1 – Diversity Like so many musicians, I’ve worked with a great many bands over the years. I’m classically trained as a violinist, but I’m just as home improvising as I am with sheet music. That skill set, thankfully, has lead me into a variety of music-making situations: into the studio with The Smith Street Band, at Sing Sing for an entire weekend with the wonderful Ali E, two weeks of recording with TANTRUMS in Pablo Clements and James Griffith’s (UNKLE) studio in Brighton (UK), and most recently to fiddle up a country noir storm touring high priestess Jemma Nicole’s debut album, My Darkest Hour. It’s a blessing, really, because I’ve had the chance to play in contexts as diverse as they are exhilarating. Being exposed to a variety of creative contexts does wonders for my inspiration. It also makes a lot of sense: I’m a Gemini! When I’m feeling a bit creatively starved, I savor the chance to try something completely different. I might put on an old favorite Against Me! record that I haven’t listed to for years, note down any ideas that spring to mind, then record a new work into the computer. My sound...