Here is some FM, baby. This rant comes courtesy of young Jimmy from team kman. Here is his interpretation of the U2 clip we watched during practice 86. Take his challenge and get comfortable in your wasteland, my friends. Get comfortable a bit closer to your wall…
“You have to reject one expression before you move onto the next. And in between you have nothing. You have to risk it all.”
In Berlin, nobody built near “the wall”. Acres of land along the wall known as the “wasteland” was the land that only the gypsies were willing to occupy. When the wall came down, that land became prime real estate…and those gypsies, that were willing to embrace the “nothing” and get close to the wall in its dark days, were the ones who had privilege and reaped the harvest in the brighter days. As U2 found their new expression they too had to be willing to get close to the “nothing”, embrace the shit, and question what they were even doing there. After many dark months, failed sonic experiments, isolation, and divorce, U2 found a light. It was chord progression that would become the foundation for the song “One”. Things turned around, got brighter, they were laughing again, and had their next expression.
If we as a company and a team are going to find our next expression, we are going to have to reject our current expression, and settle into that uncomfortable middle space as we work hard through the creative process. Just because we reject our current expression doesn’t mean we are out of it though. Every time a band comes out with a new album that has a new sound, they still practice their old songs and play them at their concerts. For KDEV it will be the same as we run TGNA, 6G, 801, and 250, all while we explore our next expression. If we as a team walk away from the U2 documentary feeling cheery and inspired we are cheating ourselves. The U2 story ended on a bright note, because they walked their process to the end. We are not at the end. We are just entering “nothing”. We must embrace the shit and live in the wasteland. But when the wall comes down, we will be rewarded like gypsies.
Good writing, young Jimmy. Good writing…
BUILT TO LEAD 