New Album: Tiger Seth's 10

Shout out to my son Tiger Seth who just released his debut album 10!

At just 10 years old Tiger Seth is already an accomplished electronic musician who can be heard on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and Pandora. Just ask your favorite streaming device to "play 10 by Tiger Seth" or you can listen to music clips here

You'll forget you're listening to the music of a 10 year old kid within seconds of hearing it. All 10 tracks feature his cutting edge mashup style of house, trance, and Industrial EDM.

Yes, I produced the album, but the music is 100% his. With vocals by his little sister, 8 year old Nikita Seth!

After speaking to corporate groups for years about creativity, communication, and collaboration, this project really put those ideas to the test.

Here are some takeaways from this experience for leaders:

1. Creativity: Always encourage it, never criticize it, but but do guide it.

Tiger worked on this project for the better part of a year. Not all the tracks were winners. But there were seeds of his sound in even the earliest experiments. Sometimes it takes an experienced guide to identify the areas worth nutureing and prune away the rest. It's all about iteration. Doing a thing over and over with the intention to improve what's good about it and eliminate what isn't. I once built a grape aror and planted the seeds that would become vines and eventually bear fruit. They grew suprisingly quickly and branched out in all sorts of wild directions. It took time and attention and a steady hand, but eventually those branches woves themselves into a tapestry of color, bursting with flavor, stable and strong for years. Producing this album reminds me a lot of that process. Some small adjustments to guide things at the start can yeild a bountiful harvest over time. 

2. Collaboration: The results are greater than the sum of it's parts. Tiger is the creative engine behind this product, but it wouldn't exist without all of us playing our respective roles. One of the biggest lessons I learned from my 15 year career in Hollywood is that it takes a team to create a great product. No one does it alone. And everyone's role is important. Nikita only did vocals on 2 of the tracks on this album, but those tracks wouldn't have made the cut without her contribution. Yes, every team needs a leader but so too does every leader need a team to lead. That's how great things get done. Togther. Focused on a common goal. United in a shared vision. Creativity is enhanced by collaboration.

3. Communication: Clearly and repeatedly communicating the goal of the project is essential to turning a creative idea into a marketable product. That's the difference between creativity and innovation. Actually taking that idea and bringing it to market. And to do that, it's necessary for everyone to have a voice, for everyone to feel heard, and for everyone to be able to articulate the objective in their own words. That's what keeps the project on track over time. Otherwise it can become easy to lose sight of WHY we're doing it, at which point everyone starts to go in different directions or the project just never gets done.

Vision

We knew where we wanted to go and then we set out on the journey to get there. In that order. We had a release date in mind from the start (Tiger's 11th birthday), a marketing hook (10 tracks by a 10 year old for $10), a central image (we made the album cover before any of the music that's actual on the album), and a vision for the future that includes this creative product as the first building block to be laid down. It's much easier to reach a destination when you know where you're going from the start.

That said, the joy is in the journey, the creative process itself, but that process isn't complete until you share what you've made with the world. At some point you have to put it out there and see what people do with it. 

Needless to say, I'm extremely proud of my son for accomplishing this at such a young age. I love the album and expect it will be the first of many. But even if it's the only one, we had a lot of fun making it, grew closer together, and learned a lot along the way. 

Listen to 10 by Tiger Seth here