A Day In The Life Of...You?

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[16 February 2025]

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Last week, I spent four days in my old studio in Wedding. I moved out a little over a year ago when my plan to move to Toronto started taking shape. After a change of plans and my return to Berlin last summer, I set up an improvised workspace in my kitchen—and I love working there. (What better place to cook up great art than the kitchen?)

Still, I’m grateful the lovely people in my old studio always welcome me back. Last week was one of those times.

I mixed 40 Nights in Toronto in my kitchen, bit by bit, over two months. After finishing this milestone, all that remained was mastering. I hesitated to start, struggling to focus on this final step.

After letting the mixed songs sit untouched for a week or two, I decided to master them in my old studio. I love the convenience of working from home, but everyday distractions make it hard to disconnect and fully immerse myself for hours—or days, if needed. Going to the studio meant being able to focus solely on the final touches.

I gave myself four days—three for work, one for a final listen. But by the afternoon of day two, I had exported a mastered version of all 14 songs.

Excited but nervous, I presented the songs and video to L, who came by that evening to give a pottery workshop. We sat on the worn-out but comfortable, light brown, fake-silky couch—studio monitors and a 23-inch screen in front of us. It was the first time I shared the full project. I was alert, listening critically, making sure I didn’t miss anything.

Halfway through the album, I relaxed. I hadn’t taken a single note—and wouldn’t for the rest of the session. Nothing stuck out as unharmonic. Listening to the mastered songs start to finish, with the video (which I had only edited rudimentarily and may leave as is), felt well-rounded.

Still skeptical that I was already done, I packed up, telling myself I’d listen with fresh ears the next day.

As I left, I bumped into J at the door. We got caught up talking about how hard it is to find fulfilling work. She told me she enjoys my newsletter because it helps her regain focus. That meant a lot. Losing focus and getting caught up in thoughts instead of being present—without even noticing—is something I struggle with.

That conversation made me reflect on what helps me (re)focus. Just recently, sitting at home on a Sunday, planning my week, I came up with a strategy that not only helps me focus, create time and space, and complete what I need to do, but also makes my days more fun.

What do I do? I imagine someone is constantly documenting my day. If I watched this documentary later, would I find it interesting? Would I want to watch it all? This thought experiment has given my days greater clarity. Instead of coasting or reacting passively, I’m fully present—creating and observing at the same time.

The next morning, I doubted going back to the studio. After two intense days, I thought—if I hadn’t found anything to change, why keep searching? I decided to trust my intuition: the songs were done.

But one thing made me hesitate. Assuming I’d return, I had left my laptop at the studio. Besides my brain, my laptop is the thing I use the most—for music, video, writing, my website. And since I finished mastering faster than expected, my first thought was: How can I make good use of this extra time? Most answers involved my laptop.

But not all of them.

I remembered something from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s newsletter (a great source of inspiration, even if you’re not into bodybuilding). He wrote about how rest days can improve performance:

“While everyone thinks about the downsides of days off, downshifting your training every now and then could help you level up your results. [...] After the easier training period and prioritizing recovery, every performance metric improved. [...] One step back appeared to have led to five steps forward.”

So I decided to spend the day without my laptop—for probably the first time in a year. And I liked it. It felt light. And not only did I not work on my laptop, I avoided anything I’d consider work.

As I usually do on Thursdays, I spent time alone. I walked around Charlottenburg, visited the birds at Kranzler Eck, stopped by the C/O photography museum. Before heading home, I had a decaf cappuccino at the C/O café, sitting behind the glass façade, taking in the quiet evening. I watched people on the sidewalk, the trains passing through Bahnhof Zoo. The whole afternoon and evening, I didn’t take notes of my thoughts or photos of spaces I found interesting, as I usually do. I was completely disconnected from my usual mindset of getting the most out of every moment—and somehow, I got even more out of it.

The next day, I woke up energized. Confident, happy, and proud that I finished the songs for 40 NiT. After half a year on this project, I felt an urge to create something entirely new, without an objective or outcome in mind. And since I had realized it takes me about eight hours to produce a song and three to mix it, I became intrigued by the idea of doing both in one day.

I arrived at the studio at 11 AM on Friday. Thirty hours later, at 5 PM on Saturday, I left. Not only had I produced and mixed a new song—applying the Gedankenspiel of someone documenting my day gave me so much focus that I spontaneously recorded and edited a video to go with it.

I took the latest live performance by hormoneS (who took over the studio after I left) at Overflow Berlin and flipped it into something that reminds me of what got me into producing music in the first place. I think it could pass as a 2012 A$AP Rocky/Clams Casino type beat.