Grimes: ‘People told me I would have to become a much better ‘musician’ to improve my career’

Canadian musician explains how to be a young female boss in new essay

Grimes has written an essay explaining how she manages her own career and offering advice to others looking to follow in her footsteps as a “young female boss”.

The musician wrote the essay for Rookie, with excerpts published earlier this week by Elle. In the piece, which will feature in Rookie’s Yearbook 3 when it is published on October 3, Grimes discusses the changes she has had to undergo as her career took off and how she has adapted to these changes as a person.

The artist, who recently shared pictures of herself in the studio with Lizzo, also explains how the success of her 2012 album ‘Visions’ led to her receiving lots of advice on how to take it to “the next level”, all of which she felt compelled to ignore.

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“Something I didn’t realise when I started making music was that any entrepreneurial endeavor involves hiring people, creating a company, and becoming a businessperson,” reads one excerpt from the essay. “So, while you may know me as a musician, in practice I am also a boss. I’m the CEO of two companies, Grimes Creative Corp and Fairy Tour Corp, and I just started Roco-Prime Productions with my brother. This is simultaneously very cool and very stressful. I’m definitely not the best or most experienced boss. I’m also a young, female boss, which can present a very particular set of practical and emotional challenges.”

Another excerpt reads: “You will never hear more people tell you that you’re wrong than when you’re succeeding. After my album ‘Visions’ came out, I spent a really long time freaking out because people were telling me that in order to take ‘the next step’ in my career, I would have to become a much better ‘musician’, that I’d need a backing band, etc. I now realise that (a) none of those people have music careers, and (b) I wasted a lot of time trying to do things I was told were ‘important for every professional musician’ to do, without realising that as a fan, I am far more interested in things that I’ve never seen before. The point is, listening to haters is pointless. People are judgmental about everything—often because they feel threatened. Ignore them. I think this applies to any business or creative thing, because tomorrow’s world will not look like today’s. Doing something different is probably better than doing the same things that other people do.”

Grimes recently revealed that she is half way through making her next album and suggested it could be a double album. This followed comments made in a separate interview in which she said that she had “scrapped” the follow-up to 2012 record ‘Visions’.

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