SOHO CREATE LONDON
INSPIRATION AND THE BLANK PAGE
WITH ROBERT ELMS AND HELEN DAVID
5.6.2014
ROBERT ELMS: We're here today to discuss the process of creativity. I think for many people creativity begins, rather terrifyingly, with a blank page. That could be a literal blank page on which you're going to draw or write or paint or dance or photograph or whatever it might be
It's of course also a metaphorical blank page of the mind. Where does it begin? Where does creativity start? What provokes it, what inspires it, what maintains it, what keeps us going?
Those are the kind of issues that I'd like to look at here today. This is a conversation between the three of us but also between all of us in here. It's not a formal question and answer session, I'll lead the dance
We are in fantastic company today. Helen David is an artist and a designer of the highest esteem and of course Toyah Willcox, actress and an singer, a musician, would you say?
TOYAH: I think that's the polite way to put it, yeah
ROBERT: To either of you first of all – is the blank page a fantastic set of possibilities or is it a terrifying nightmare? How do you see that start of the process?
HELEN: It depends what mood you're in, I think. Sometimes the blank page is something that you think "right, I'm going to make a total mess of this, do something and then I can stand back and come back to it" and something will work or it won't work so I think it's a challenge
But you have to feel that you can make a mess, you can make a mistake and you can make errors because if you don't do something daring then your work is only going to be mediocre. So I think that ability to rip things up and mess things up a bit is definitely a part of it - for me. Do you think so?
TOYAH: For me the ever increasing problem is getting to the blank page. I just feel that life is becoming so designed to distract us from being creative human beings. I only signed up to Spy TV last week and I've already had about 40 emails from them and about 40 phone calls
I really resent the intrusion into my blank space time. For me the blank space is infinite. It's something that can either be your enemy or you look on as something that's just going to open up and make your day something that's spontaneous and utterly wonderful. It helps that you know what you've got to do. With me there's a whole of ream of things that I need to get done -
ROBERT: Do you need a brief? Whether it is, from someone else or yourself. Do you need a set of goals for that day?
TOYAH: If I'm commissioned to write a book, yeah. I have to do 3000 words a day, which I actually don't find a problem with if I'm really interested in what I'm writing. I'm going to go right back to the two books that were last published. I had an autobiography out, which is called “Living Out Loud”. I was so bored writing that. Writing about yourself - it's heinous!
ROBERT: Speak for yourself! (laughs)
But the majority of times when I have to face the blank page I have to write about myself i.e. blog and I can't stand it. There's so little I want to share about myself with people I've never met, believe it or not, from someone who takes part in a lot of celebrity culture. So for me that blank page ... I would rather approach in finding a new dynamic in my day and a new emotion
I think one of the reasons Helen and I are close friends is I'm emotionally moved by colour. Colour gives me words. So when I go into Helen's studio and I see, say this shirt, which is one of Helen's and it started as a painting, words are flying off that for me
And if I have to write something creative I go straight to colour. Or I go straight to taste or I go straight to smell. I own virtually everything Helen has done in the last 25 years. I have room full of it. I go into that room and I can see the green man. I can see this colour blue, which is a deeply sacred colour
And just by looking at that colour takes me to the Popes. And the lives of the Popes. Then you go to the golden colour and that takes me to a deep spiritual place. So I feel that I've had a relationship with colour for a long time. Therefore the blank page is something incredibly rewarding when you're surrounded by the right influences
ROBERT: But are there days when you look at that blank page and nothing happens?
HELEN: No. There isn't really a day like that. But as I said there a days when the blank page doesn't work. I have a kind of ritual, several rituals actually. One is I always work in the same sketch work and if I'm feeling uninspired I might ... like Toyah I love colour - I just get a tube of colour and just paint a page of colour. That's a starting point because the colour itself, as you say, is evocative and it has emotional value. That can maybe grab a thought that's somewhere floating out of your subconscious
Because I think when you really get the best ideas is when you're really not doing anything at all. Staring out of a window, sitting on a bus, you're half asleep just waking up in the morning -
ROBERT: Do you jot them down? Are you constantly notebooking?
TOYAH AND HELEN: Yeah -
TOYAH: Notebooks by the bed, notebooks in the bathroom, notebooks in every handbag, notebooks in the car. It's dangerous in the car -
ROBERT: I think if it's any good it will come back to you -
TOYAH: No -
ROBERT: See, I intentionally don't make notes. If it's a good one it will return. It will push its way through
TOYAH: I disagree totally because when that inspiration hits you, does your energy level go up? When you actually get the muse?
HELEN: Yeah -
TOYAH: My heart speeds up and everything and I think "ooh, I'll feel like this forever" -
HELEN: You don't -
TOYAH:
You don't. And if a song is about to come … I've had songs take three
months to write and two minutes to write. I instantly act on that. For
me it's a like a morphic resonance
ROBERT: What's that?
TOYAH: Morphic resonance is the idea of it is here we all are. We share
this planet together, no matter what country we're from, what language
we speak, what colour our skin is. We share the morphic psyche. And basically there's ideas around the planet that are forming from our
consciousness that we all plug into. I will give you an example. I knew
if I had idea for a lyric in 1981 that Kate Bush would have, Kim Wilde
would have and Hazel O'Connor would have it at the same
And I was never
proven wrong. We used to be like racing car drivers, trying to write the idea down and quickly as possible because we knew
(laughs) that we would release virtually the same subject matter
whenever we came to release our singles. We would've had a morphic
resonant moment
ROBERT:
That's interesting because I see in a much more workman like fashion.
I'm going to sit down and I'm going to work my way in a rational
sense through things and I'm going come to conclusions and then I'm
going to end up with something
The whole idea of things buzzing
around in the ether ... I don't want to know about that.
That's really not my world view or my way. Colours don't provoke
symbols and words provide words and thoughts and ideas and I work my way
through -
TOYAH:
OK. I'm dyslexic (Robert laughs) so I rely on many many tools. But I do
know from experience because my husband Robert Fripp is exactly like you -
ROBERT: Oh, really? Do you think it's male/female thing?
TOYAH: No. I think both you and Helen have a technique …
HELEN:
I think it's the way your brain is wired. For me a colour will evoke a
scent. Particularly, I get absolutely clear ideas and sometimes a sound
so that's synaesthesia, which is when your senses overlap sometimes. I
definitely have that and sounds like you do as well from what you're
saying. It's something that children have and then you grow out
of it or maybe you don't
But when I think about the creative process
that when you're doing what ever your new idea is and you're in love
with that idea and you get this buzz or adrenaline or whatever it is. That's because you fall in
love with that idea and you really have to do that thing and all the
other things you have to do. Don't like to do emails … Got to do some
work …
ROBERT: Is it even remotely a mystical process?
TOYAH:
No, the only thing mystical is I actually believe is that we are all
utterly connected. The whole thought of war is so
ironic. I think we're connected eternally. That's about as far as it
goes getting mystical. Er ...What was your question just then?
ROBERT:
The first one was whether creativity is at all a magical process or
a mystical process or is it a rational one? One that you can work it out?
TOYAH: I think it's probably not right to say it's mystical process because you then go into elitism, which I hate. Because I feel I'm as capable of coming up with a creative project as a
great brain. I probably would never be able to write Alice
Sebold's “Loving Bones” because that is an extraordinary piece of
writing but I think everyone has the right to be creative -
ROBERT: And the potential -
TOYAH:
Potential. And what I say to people, in this increasingly disabling
world of creativity, put pen to paper and write a thank
you letter to someone who's changed your life. The answer I
increasingly get back is "I hate writing letters"
ROBERT: What's the relationship – and I'll ask you first, Helen, between commerce and creativity in that sense? If you've got to, say, design a collection -
HELEN: Yeah, it's a good question -
ROBERT: And you know there is money at the other end of this if I deliver this ... Does that impede the creative process or does it spur it on?
HELEN: I think it does both actually, to be honest. When I was doing a lot of fashion collections and you have a really tight deadline and there's nothing quite as inspiring as tight deadline -
ROBERT: It certainly helps!
HELEN: I've got to do sixty outfits, done, ready. They've got to appear then and there on the runway, have your show happen or it doesn't happen. There's no time to mess around with it so that kind of discipline, I suppose, is good. When I'm working in fine art I try to give myself deadlines similar to that because that doesn't come from in the same way. It's not as immediate as fashion
ROBERT: What about you, Toyah? Is there an imperative or have you got a record company breathing down your throat -
TOYAH: Yeah. When I started writing albums and singles in 1977 everything was deadlines. To put that into perspective in '77 you would do three British tours and you would release four singles a year and two albums a year. That would be to reach about 85 000 people. I can reach four times that many people by just one posting on twitter and one video on Youtube
So the whole world has completely changed. Commerce ... it helps but it's an incredible distraction. I never ever was thankful to the A&R man. Never. Because for me when you've got a creative thread and you're writing a single, let's say, “I Want To Be Free”, which was written to a deadline
I was in the middle of shooting “Blue Marigold” for “Tales Of The Unexpected” (below). All the backing tracks arrived because I was on a film shoot for two months and I had to write the lyrics to a whole album in 14 days
ROBERT: But you did it. They're very good
TOYAH: I did it and they're good lyrics -
ROBERT: See, that's what I'm trying to say -
TOYAH: Do know how I did it? Diet pills
ROBERT: Sure, But you did
TOYAH: I did it
ROBERT: Would you have done it without that imperative?
TOYAH: All I can remember, looking back, is this incredible pressure. I was writing the lyrics in the morning and going to the studio by 2 o'clock to record what I'd written that morning. And then record execs were coming in and listening. So I took diet pills. They were legal – they wanted me very slim on Top Of The Pops. But boy, these these diet pills really helped (Robert laughs)
When a very famous female cook said that she took substances to write a cookery book I went "don't we all?!" I mean it's just one of those cliches. But for “Anthem”, which was a multi-platinum album, I had 14 days to deliver it
I would get up at crack of dawn every morning and I would just sit down starving hungry, which made my heart race anyway because the lack of food put you in survival mode … You're going to think I'm completely mad! I don't work like this anymore! But I literally had to starve my way through the 80s because the pressure was on to be thin and the pressure was on to write write write
I would suddenly feel this surge of energy come through me and I would just write and write and write. Pages and pages and pages. And then slowly I would lift a line like “So what if I I die my hair, still got a brain up there” and think, "oh God that's really imbecilic! That's really young"
But then I'd manage to match it against something like “turn the world upside down” - which is a teenage ideal. And slowly I would chop together and put together all these images. I also had to be thinking about the video at the same time. Eventually you get a meter, because when you're writing lyrics, as long as you've got enough words in front of you, you can get the meter going. You can say anything and make sense of it. That's quite a simplistic way to put it down. I wanted, let's say, a middle eight that was close to this new thing coming from America called rapping and I thought I want to be one of the first white women to do this
So (raps) “Tear out the wallpaper, turf out the cat, tear up the carpet and get rid of that, blow up the TV, blow up the car, without these things you don't know where you are. Burn down the scum, all magazines, pull down the abattoirs and all that's obscene, everything in life should be totally free, live and let live, all live your dreams!”. I had such fun writing that middle 8! (Robert laughs) And it came very very quickly. I knew that my audience was relatively young. Commerce and creativity, meeting schedules ... terrifying!
ROBERT: Do you always know when you've done good work? I've written two or three books and I've also written a couple of books that I knew should never be published (Toyah and Helen both laugh) but I've done it. I'd finish and think "no, that's really" -
HELEN: Did you know at the time?
ROBERT: Yes! But I think secretly you do whether you admit it to yourself or not. Can you tell when you're doing good or bad?
HELEN: I also think it's brilliant at the time (everyone laughs) because I'm always in love with it. You're in love with that piece of work. You have to be just to focus on it. Make it happen and conjure it up and do the things required to make it. Then there's a bit of objectivity maybe three months, a year later and then … "what?" That's kind of in the drawer ... “We're not going to look at that again” ….
ROBERT: Do you have stuff in the “not very good” drawer?
TOYAH: It's a very good question because I love taboos and because I didn't get on with my mum particularly well until the last two years of her life, I think I wrote “Diary Of A Facelift” to outrage her. But I think it's a fabulous piece of writing. You can't put it down. It's not about me, it's about an attitude
Song wise the only thing I'm ashamed of I was forced into some cover versions on albums. Totally ashamed of doing that. But my own writing? No, I go back to it very occasionally “how the hell could the critics have put that down?!” (Robert laughs) I see why I did it and I see the progression. I feel I'm an OK song writer as I get older as well
ROBERT: Does life get in the way of creativity?
TOYAH: Gah! Yeah!!!
TOYAH: Like Helen I don't have a family. My parents are now gone, they've moved on. I looked after them for ten years and I always thought when they're gone I'm going to be so creative. Now they're gone I actually miss them like hell
I'll tell you what makes me very angry about the modern world ... I actually believe that e-commerce, everything that happens on the computer is now just the chain and ball chain around our ankles. I get up some morning, I don't turn the computer on, I don't turn the telephone on, never turn the TV on and I think "right, I'm going to connect with that creative person I used to be"
ROBERT: What about you?
HELEN: I agree. Not life, because creativity is part of life, it's not and or either thing -
ROBERT: Say there's a day when you don't create something where instead you go to lunch with a friend and drink some wine. Or you clear up the house or whatever it might be … Is that a lesser day?
HELEN: Yeah
ROBERT: Is it?
HELEN: For me, I always feel slightly guilty if I do that. Which I often do because I love cooking, I love friends and I love parties and all that stuff but there's only so many days in anyone's life that you can be creative -
ROBERT: Sometimes I'm the opposite. Days that I've spent by a computer or in a radio studio, I haven't spent enough time with my family or haven't phoned up a friend … I think those are sometimes the wasted days because life is real stuff and all that other stuff is just frippery if you like. Does that make sense?
HELEN: No, it's not how I see it -
TOYAH: No, I mean for me my friends are just so inspiring and they have such different lives to me. Helen, who's had children, has allowed me an inside to the responsibilities of motherhood, which I think is utterly inspiring. Having children is inspiring. My friends are great people and I love the conversations I have with them
ROBERT: Is being with your friends a creative process?
TOYAH: I think it should be
HELEN: It's a part of it. These things feed into each other, conversations you have with your friends and ideas you discuss with your children and family
TOYAH: I would just like to say at this point that I have in my office a pile of 20 unfinished books -
ROBERT: That you've written or read? (laughs)
TOYAH: No! Written! Thing is publishers say to you “deliver the first three chapters”. That's almost the easiest thing to do. You deliver the first three chapters. My weakness is writing character lines. I can come up with the plot, I can come up with the beginning, the middle and the end
Plot, no problem at all! Because that's what song writing is all about but going into the third person, going into a different character ... I hate reading books where you've got twenty characters because you think "who's that, who's that, who's that? "
And then if you've got to write something that has twenty characters ... By the time I get to the 5th chapter, I'm just so bored of the story because I've disconnected with the character line. It's only through meeting my friends, going to different countries, sitting on street corners having a cup of tea or a cup of coffee that I find that way to escape from me and the tedium and the limitation of my own writing style ... Then I can find the words to go into that story
ROBERT:
When you're creating whether it's writing or songs or art or whatever –
what's your relationship with other artists and creators? Can you read
book by someone else if you're writing a book? Can you look at art by
someone else if you're creating? Or are you worried about being
influenced by them? Becoming a bit too much like them?
HELEN: No, I think there is no such thing as originality, really
ROBERT: Really?
HELEN:
Yeah. I think we all see things and you can not be influenced by the
things you see. But you might want to go, say, Tate Modern to see
something and it will filter through but you won't copy it. It's like a lot
of what me and Colin do when we're working art. We travel and we
lived in Japan for a while, which is incredibly inspiring and changed the
way we thought about lots of different things. It was my 30th
ROBERT: Whether you are inspired by all that or you're worried of being being influenced by it, I think, is the question?
HELEN:
I think it's all food for the mind, really. When you're a student it's quite good to copy people's style until you
find your own
ROBERT: (To Toyah) Say, you're acting in a piece and someone else has famously performed that piece in a film -
ROBERT: Would you watch their performance?
TOYAH: Yes. I'm not worried about influence at all. There was a time when every critic I used to read 25 years ago, where you're grouped together with a certain genre of other females. You actively tried to do anything not to look as if though you're influenced by them even though you respect them
But for me I often go to France to write and the first thing I put on is Muse's “Supermassive Black Hole”. I don't want to write a new song, I want to be amused. They just utterly transport me to another place. There's a few things, I see people writing notes. I just want to quickly mention this
There's a bird called the male Bowerbird, that to attract mates
will build structures that look like different homes for the mates to
walk through. Look this up online because I always think that humans are
elusively the creative race on this planet
But the Bowerbird creates
incredible sculptures that look like Andy Goldsworthy sculptures. I have
a book list that I will read. I will read anything by Alice Sebold to unlock
my head. I will read anything by Lauren Beukes, a South African writer
ROBERT: Do you have music on when you're writing and when you're creating?
HELEN:
I don't have anything with lyrics if I'm writing. Obviously that is
impossible to do that but will have some music that doesn't have lyrics
ROBERT: Do think it's impossible to do that -
HELEN: Because if you're thinking in words you don't want to listen to other peoples words. It's confusing
TOYAH:
For me, I would watch a film. I would go to Youtube and watch rock
videos. But I wouldn't have them on when I'm writing and it goes with collaboration as well. There's only two people in this
world that I can collaborate with as a songwriter. If I'm put together
with a stranger to collaborate I actually find it impossible to be
creative
ROBERT: Is that because creativity is a selfish process for you?
TOYAH:
I think it is selfish because I don't think like anyone else I know.
The two people I collaborate with seem to understand the way I'm wired
ROBERT: It's all the slimming pills! (laughs)
TOYAH:
That was a long time ago. But they seem to understand my use of language. When I'm writing with The Humans (below), which is my American band, I
do cut and paste music through Garage Band. I do very basic
arrangements, write all the lyrics and the melody lines
Then I sit down
with my collaborators with almost a finished album and they go “nah, we
don't want to do this”. They will take it and re-arrange it. Then two
months later they go back to my original idea. But I do find creativity
a solitary thing …
HELEN: I do too
ROBERT: And yet for many acting is the opposite of solitary -
TOYAH: Stage is collaborative -
ROBERT: How about film?
You're in your ensemble, you've got a director, you've got a producer, a camera man, all of those things -
TOYAH:
Yeah, I agree. But I think a lot actors don't even acknowledge the
camera or the director or the lighting people there. They are so in
charge of their persona. I really would be surprised if Tilda Swinton is
on camera thinking about the camera, the director and the lighting man.
Because there's certain actors you look at them and they are completely
possessed in their bubble, which I think utterly magnificent
But
there are ensemble pieces. “Burn After Reading” I think is a great
ensemble piece. But for me stage work, Shakespeare work, it's
about the whole team. If you've got one egoist or one loose chain in a
Shakespeare … it falls apart
ROBERT: It's interesting because acting is the opposite of the blank page because you're given the words
ROBERT: Is that very different in that sense? I'm not saying you're going to think “ah, I'm going to improve on that Shakepeare a bit.” But sometimes do you think “they wouldn't say it like that ...”. What's the relationship with the opposite of a blank page if you've got a script?
TOYAH:
Sometimes if you're working with a new scriptwriter you feel such a
force to say “you can't take this scene there”. But you're there as a
tool for their words and I respect that a lot. We have a wonderful
scriptwriter in here, I'm not going to say her name but I've done her
last movie and the script was an absolute joy to perform. It was about
three women and it just was … My God ....
ROBERT: So you weren't tempted to re-write it?
TOYAH:
No, not at all. We didn't do any rewriting. She did because she
watched us perform on camera. She could see areas we could go into but also when you're working with a writer
they sometimes work to your ability, which I think is sign of respect
rather than sign of disrespect. But I'd only say sometimes with very
new writers, when they get the actors on the floor - they sometimes feel
the need to rewrite
I've been in rewrites right up until
the curtain goes up on the first night, which is terrifying. I did with a
version of “Therese Raqcuin” where the rewrites were going in
literally not only when the curtain went up but in the interval as well.
And when you're a lead actress your head is just exploding! It's
terrifying!
ROBERT: Helen, you were saying you work with your husband. Do you work collaboratively or the at same time together but apart?
HELEN: We do because of the studio. We work on the same theme and we'll discuss our themes and we critique each others work
ROBERT: Do you go “you'll show me yours if I'll show you mine”?
HELEN: Kind of - (both laugh)
ROBERT: Does that affect the process for you? Is it good to have a sounding board?
HELEN:
I really like it. It's very good to have a sounding board. When things are in progress and they're
half formed they're very fragile and you're protective
of it. There's only a few people you trust
and you would show your work to ... Like Colin, for example. Most people
you don't want to
The other thing is that if you're in a collaborative
thing that the other person can do something that you can't do. For
example he's very good at sculpture. I'm good at colour, painting, flat
things so they compliment each other. It's inspiring
to see where somebody else is taking an idea that you both have because
it's probably really different to where I would be taking it. And then
it feeds back into where I am taking it
ROBERT: Do you like talking about your work?
Do you like the process of analysing it because I really
don't like it. I like to do my work and then forget it. I
don't want to discuss if it was good or bad. I
don't want to sit and analyse it and pull it apart. Some people love
that!
TOYAH:
I think to a certain extent you need to be very purist about your idea.
I think you need to say “right, I believe in that. Keep it intact”. If someone pulls apart something I've written I'm literally feeling
“what the hell have you done with your life?” I get quite arsey about it
ROBERT: Can't believe that!
TOYAH:
I think if you've written something that you must believe that it
can exist as a whole on its own when you've gone. I like to think of
leaving a body of work behind and I think that's actually more important
than your actual life in many ways. Something being left behind that
has meaning
HELEN:
I agree. I think that's very much part of the creative process. That's what I was talking about earlier when I said
there's only so many days in your life you can be creative. Because if
you don't make that thing and you die it's never going to be made. It
won't happen at all, it won't exist. So there's almost a
duty to the thing your making -
TOYAH:
And I think also there's beauty in everything that we create and leave
whole. From your grandmother's cookery recipes to Victorian diaries to
books of fiction to books of fact. There's a beauty in it, it's
something that transcends. I think we should see it that way
ROBERT:
Isn't there also creativity in a life well lived? For the person who
might never write a great book or make a great painting?
Dare I say it, the wonderful Kate Bush, whom I've known recently ... We know she's staggeringly creative but she doesn't want to be in the public world. So it's not all about commerce
ROBERT: Is there a relationship between creativity and vanity or arrogance and believing that you've got something important to say?
TOYAH: Well, that's just misguided in some people, isn't it?
ROBERT: Does the person have to be an arrogant person? Do they have to think that they've got something worth showing the world?
HELEN: I don't think it's arrogance. I think it's more you just have to do it, you have to do the thing. There's lots of people, who are artists, who aren't arrogant at all and they're not trying to make money out of their art. They just do it because they are compelled to do it. That's part of the process
And that's probably a much better place to come from than doing some art because you sold some art in a gallery and the gallery says “oh, do something more like that”. That's not going to be so interesting
TOYAH: Are you talking about the relationship between the critic and creativity?
ROBERT: I'm talking about relationship between ego and creativity
TOYAH: Oh, my ego was huge 25 years ago. Not now. But I actually feel I'm a better artist now because I got rid of the ego. I found it quite intrusive. I'm more analytical about what I do now - in a good way
ROBERT: Does creativity diminish as we get older?
TOYAH: I totally disagree. If you look at Doris Lessing's work throughout her life I now find her work more relevant to me as a 56 year old than ever before. “Marriage Between Zones” makes so much sense to me now whereas when I read it when I was 25 ... “what the hell is she going on about?” Memoirs Of A Survivor” makes so much sense to me now
I think biologically – this is going to sound almost verging on sexist – but women, because we are so driven by hormonal stages in our lives, I personally think that we get more creative the freer we get from our hormones
So I think when I look at myself as a late teen and a 20 year old I was driven by incredible emotional shifts through hormones. Now I feel completely liberated from all of that. I actually think I'm going to do my best work now right through to my 60s. There's probably less drive -
ROBERT: I was going to say you're less driven when you're young. There's always a sense of imperatives. You want to siege the day, you want to do it all now -
HELEN: And you have to. Most of us started with nothing. You just have to make it happen. We created ourselves and our own lives. When I was a student the industry was falling apart. So I had to make it happen by having a little market stall. I was making things by hand and printing them and sowing them. The amount of energy required to do that was 24/7. I could not do that now
ROBERT: When you get older you get hopefully a bit more financially comfortable and you've got nice things around you. You don't need to do it anymore. You could go and sit on a beach or whatever -
TOYAH: Oh, Robert! (all laugh) I have to do it. I'm talking about being engaged with the world. What I do engages me with the world. I have to do it. If I never had to work and earn a living again I would just wither and die
ROBERT: Isn't there something sad about that because surely you can be engaged with other people, with nature, with all of those things -
TOYAH: I do and I will do but I watched my parents get increasingly frustrated with not being connected with the world. I think that we have this myth that we hit 70, we hit 80, we retire. What the hell does that mean?
ROBERT: Picasso never retired
TOYAH: No. Stay engaged with the world. I would love to be able to be a creative person without thinking about it being related to money. That is something that I'm learning to do but I could not just back off from what I do …
HELEN: I don't think it's motivated by money and don't think it's motivated by age either. I think it's to do with living in the present moment. When I'm making something with that paintbrush in my hand I know that I'm really happy and that feels right
So it's actually about moments of your life. I'm equally quite happy making lunch to a whole load of friends in the country. So it's just part of a full life. It doesn't stop you leading a full life, it's not like being a nun - (laughs)
TOYAH: I think also because we travel a lot so many fantastic happy accidents happen
ROBERT: You mean plane crashes? (laughs)
TOYAH: No! I've created accidents. Something that is completely spontaneous that you didn't intend to happen. It happens when you're out of a familiar environment. To see things and to be in communities that are so different from the community that I live in in Worcester makes me think "so that's how they approach their day” or “wow! That's how they spend their hour out of the office.” I don't want to disengage with that. It's ever changing, it's fluid
ROBERT: (To Toyah) You live out in Worcester, (to Helen) you live in London. Does the environment, strictly where you live and where you work – does it affect you? Do you need to be in the country, do you need to be in the city? Or can you be in either?
TOYAH: I need to be in both
HELEN: It does affect you. I live in King's Cross so I can look out the window and see all the trains buzzing away and bus stops and people and students from St Martins (art school). It's terribly exciting and I really like that because it gives me a sense of urgency. “Get on with it!” rather than just sitting there thinking what am I going to do next and there's all this stuff going on. So I think being in town is great
TOYAH: My creative meditation is walking. I live next to a drama school in London and get to see these vibrant kids on the green who are just so full of ambition. The world is theirs, the world is about them. To see that and to identify with that and to remember how I felt at that age is really good for me
I
commute to Seattle in America a lot. Where I live in Worcestershire and where I tend to base myself in
Seattle I see people who are just struggling to pay for food each day -
which is common sight, the way the world economics is
at the moment. And just to observe these people, to observe how they
engage with life without being utterly angry at the system is really
good for me
ROBERT: Is it really good for them? I mean they're -
TOYAH:
Well, I witnessed in Seattle people going into
shops and buying food for people on the streets. It was the done thing
without any depth, without any emotional connection. “Here,
brother, here's your lunch”
ROBERT:
Is there any relationship between anger - whether it's political anger
or personal – and creativity? Are you creative when you're angry?
TOYAH:
Yeah. This is what I'm trying to get to. I think there's a creative
responsibility as you get older. You're starting to think "well, what can I do
that could change something? That could swap something around? Could I donate an idea to these people?" I think (to Helen) you think a
lot like that. How can you use your creativity to help someone
empower themselves in some way?
I think that comes with age as well.
I was 25 living off 30 quid a week when I had a platinum album but I
was struggling to eat. I think you need to remain connected and it
does become slightly political in a kind of art/political way
ROBERT:
It's a funny thing about a place. I have a house in Spain. When I first bought it I thought “I'll
come here and write”. But I go there and I drink! I can't write there. I
can write in London. I can write with people in my house, with sirens
going off, with the telly on. In fact I can write better like that.
Solitude and me don't work in a creative sense. I just can not do
it
TOYAH: All my writing places are in cities
ROBERT: It's interesting because you tend to think that the pastoral, the rural,
will somehow bring out the creative in you. It does exactly the
opposite. I find it soporific. I quite like it
ROBERT: Yeah, you might be charging the batteries -
HELEN: Exactly. When you get back to London, you're kind of whoomf! You've got something to go with. I think it's fragile and a difficult thing to analyse. I'm sure various stages of mind, things that are going on and you might not even know they're going on because they're on a unconscious level ... but things could well be going on. And then you process it when you get back to town -
ROBERT: Do you suddenly think "I want to do something completely outside of what you normally do?" (To Toyah) You do so many things it would be hard to think of anything that would be outside of your -
TOYAH: I never think I want to do something outside the bubble. Things come to me
ROBERT: My wife suddenly decided to learn the piano aged 47
TOYAH: Oh, I'm taking piano lessons at the moment
ROBERT: I can't imagine that. The idea of doing something badly but I can't do – really appals me. I don't do anything that I can't do (laughs)
TOYAH: I disagree. It re-wires the brain. I'm working with two choirs next month and I'm having to sight read. I took up piano lessons so I became more instinctive as a sight reader and it re-wires the brain. It's a good thing
ROBERT: So could you suddenly do visual art? Could you suddenly write?
HELEN: I could write
TOYAH: I do life drawing. Helen and I and Helen's husband, we sit down and do life drawing anyway. I'm rubbish, Helen is brilliant. I think participating is just as good as being creative
HELEN: I think the problem that you're talking about Robert, is that we're
experts. Whenever you've done your 10 000 hours of whatever it is,
you've become an expert at that. So when you're challenged – like recently we were trying to do some
Salsa dancing and (laughs) you think “I'm not as good at this as
I might be”. It's weird. It's actually very good for your
brain. It's probably very good for the ego as well but it's just
uncomfortable being outside your comfort zone
ROBERT: Can you teach creativity?
TOYAH:
I think you can teach people to just observe and see differently,
personally. Some people think it's wonderfully glamorous to
be a singer or an actress and to write. You talk to them and you
think “actually, you've had a fantastic life. You've known fantastic
people”. You just open their eyes to see things
differently
Helen opened my eyes to see colour because I see the
spectrum of the rainbow whereas actually the relationship between those
colours in infinite. I love being with Helen because she makes me
see the world differently
ROBERT: Can you pass on creativity?
HELEN:
I don't think you can pass on creativity to, say, students but you can
certainly help people harness what they've got and make the most of the
talents that they have in themselves
TOYAH: It's making the individual see what they can do. I always say do not fight your weaknesses. Work on your weaknesses. If
you're writing a story use your weaknesses. Don't pretend to be someone
else. Know yourself, be yourself, go into your own experiences to find
your way through a story line
ROBERT:
It's interesting you (Helen) said about 10 000 hours because
we haven't yet discussed the dichotomy between inspiration or
perspiration. Hard work does play a part in this, doesn't it?
TOYAH: Technique and hard work
ROBERT: They have to be mastered to some degree -
ROBERT: So to master your craft you have to work though. There is a process, there is skill to master and it does involve work
HELEN: Yeah. It takes time and there's no point in a huge rush trying to be brilliant at something because you probably won't be. Your ideas might be but your ability to express them properly takes a while sometimes
TOYAH: It can take a lifetime. And what's wrong with that?
ROBERT: Nothing. Except we live in a society where people want things instantly. They think they can get anything at the click of a button. But you can't get skill and talent at a click of a button …
TOYAH: No. I think technique is incredibly important and being able to value technique in others as well. My neighbour Cressida Connolly, who's a wonderful historian and a reviewer. She will lock herself away for three months in a bedsit until she's delivered the book
I just think that is such a discipline. It's incredible. To divorce yourself from the world and make yourself write that book and put yourself through that with incredible discipline. That to me is sweat and pain -
HELEN: (To Toyah) You do that. How many performances are you doing at the moment? That's huge discipline -
TOYAH: It's instinctive -
HELEN: Running around the country and jumping on stages and at the same time writing. That's incredible discipline. You don't realise it but it is. That's amazing
TOYAH: I think since my feet are on the stage, I know what the mission is and I'm there. Can we take some questions?
ROBERT: Let's do just that. Hand up first. Well, there's a gentleman there
A MEMBER OF THE AUDIENCE: It's a question for Toyah. I just wondered how much you've felt the influence of dyslexia over your career. It is positive, negative or not at all?
TOYAH: If they said to me tomorrow it could be cured I'd really have to think hard about it because dyslexia has made me who I am today. I'm only ever embarrassed about it when I talk to people who are really intellectual. Because my husband is such a fantastic success worldwide I get to meet great people. Sometimes I talk to fabulous authors and after half an hour of conversation I say "well, I'm dyslexic so when I read your books I always go over a page again and again and again" and they say "yeah, we can tell by talking to you"
I feel a bit of shame there because there is nothing I can do about it. There's absolutely nothing. But I've worked out these little gains like a rat in a run trying to find a reward that if I work my way through my dyslexia, I can get to the point I need to be eventually. I think that's why my creativity is so insular. I need to be alone for quite a bit
MOTA: I asked the question because a lot of people who I know who are dyslexic are incredibly successful. Some of the greatest brains in the industry and some of the most creative people I've ever met have that level of dyslexia, which causes them to work that much harder to drive their own personal creativity and success
ROBERT: Perhaps there's a way to see things in a slightly different way -
TOYAH: Yeah, we just see things differently. One example is my husband is amazed I don't need Sat Nav because I know every city by heart in my head. I have visual memory. I can literally take you to any road like a taxi driver can. I have always used visual memory and I think that's why colour triggers all my emotions
But it's equally frustrating and it can be ridiculous. I always say to people if you're dyslexic see it as a gift. You usually excel at something if you're dyslexic
ROBERT: Other hands raised. There's one -
MOTA: Suppose somebody comes to you with a brief while you're working on an idea. You've got your creative process, you absolutely know in your heart that that is the right way forward but they want to fiddle and they want to change. How do you talk them back round because you won't let go of that idea because you know it's rightful?
TOYAH: I've had this as a songwriter a lot. I usually let them go with the idea until they know it's a bummer. Their changes are not right and they go “let's go back to what you originally did.” So sometimes I can predictably go that route
Where I find it hardest is creative writing with publishers and editors. I think if you truly believe in what you're doing, you truly believe in the audience for what you're doing ... you have to stick with it
ROBERT: But does that mean you must never listen to outside -
TOYAH: I think. Most of the times I listen. I go away and I do a bit of tweaking but I think when you're talking about plays or you're talking about stories – sometimes someone else's ideas just lead you up an alley. It's so destructive and I think for me the people I really admire dig their heels in about that creative nature
MOTA: Take it one step further then. So someone wants a change to an idea and they take you off in a different direction. How do you allow yourself to go in their direction and perhaps improve upon their idea?
TOYAH: For me it would be how much you respect them as a creative person. If I was sitting down and writing with Michel Faber, who is my favourite author, I wouldn't dare argue with him. What I love about Michel Faber's writing is he never will finish a story off. He's brave enough to create tangents and at the end of the book you're still on a cliffhanger. You don't know where it's going to go. It doesn't necessarily mean there will ever be a sequel
So I think depends who
you're working with and the nature of the person you're working with. If you really respect them, great. I've been with A&R men
musically, who I have not respected one iota and I've just literally
thrown the album away
ROBERT: When I was first
starting out as a journalist and a writer, there were a couple of editors who said "it would be better if you did this or you shape it like that
and just change the structure”. Invaluable advice!
If I'd been digging
my heels in and saying “no, I'm not having any of that!” I would've not
been half the writer I am. There are times when -
TOYAH:
There's one key to what you just said there. He said “Robert,
if you”. Some people say "I want to do this" or they come in to a see a
project but they never mention your name. They never mention the form of
the project you've given them. It's just “I want to do this”. Sometimes
that's when you dig your heels in because you go “wait a minute, are
just trying to earn your living here?”
ROBERT: Would you be swayed by criticism? In the same kind of sense?
HELEN: Yeah, definitely. Absolutely
ROBERT: Do you respond to it?
HELEN:
Yeah, I do. Sometimes I think “no, this is definitely right” and
sometimes I think “oh yeah, why didn't I do it like that?” Some people like friends
will come to the studio sometimes and say one or two things and they're
always helpful. I think it depends, like Toyah said, on the respect you
have for the person and how creative they are. Maybe even what their motive
is as well
ROBERT: What about critics? People who's job it is -
TOYAH: I just phone them up and threaten to kill them (Robert laughs)
ROBERT: Do you read them?
TOYAH:
No, I don't anymore because a lot of the time they're just buttering
their bread on my name. The very spiteful critics are just spiteful to
get the people to read the paper. So, no. I don't read them. But there
are people I trust like Helen, like the group I work with, who I would
definitely sit down and say "pull this apart. Tell me - what are its weaknesses?"
Definitely
But when you read a paper online and read the comments under the article you're only ever reading
trolling these days. I'm not wasting my life, it's too short
to read this. I think a good critic is a very rare and a magnificent
thing
ROBERT: Because it is a skill -
TOYAH:
It's a skill. The majority of the time with me it's just spite on the
page so I just don't read it. Can we have some more questions because
I'm really interested in you guys being here
MOTA:
When the demand isn't there, there is no buyer for the works, it's not
a commission - how do you motivate yourselves to paint, to draw or write
or whatever. Where does the motivation come from when you could just lie
on the couch?
TOYAH:
It's a question I find really interesting because as I get older I've
got more and more space and there's probably less and less demand at my
time so I have to create things. I think as a creative person
how do I want to connect with the world? Whereas a lot of the last 35
years the world has wanted to connect with me. So I'm constantly
thinking, as a cretive person, what can I give? What can I give to this country I live in?
To this world I live in?
That to me is quite
spurring, it's woohoo! It's how do I make that connection still? So for me,
if I get moved by a story a lot of
my creativity comes from empathy now. I think the world has never
been more frightening and there's a lot of things to empathise with and I
find creativity in that. I totally get where you're coming from
If
someone has not commissioned you or not drawing you to the page
every day - why do it? I think do it for you and that's a voice that's
so personal, it's so seductive. Allow yourself to love your thoughts and
do it for you. I see no waste of time in that at all
ROBERT: (To Helen) You wanted to say?
ROBERT: But you're all working to pay the bills
HELEN: Is your question about not having that pressure of doing it for money?
MOTA: Yes, when there's no deadline -
HELEN: There's no deadline, there's no financial pressure – why do it? Well, that's the thing about it. You have to do it because it's a part of who you are
ROBERT: My response to that is definitely different. I can only do it because it's my job. If it wasn't I'd get drunk every day and sit in the sun. I have to think of it as work
TOYAH: For me I do it to stop being bitter (All laugh) If I wasn't creative I would just become so bitter. I've learned this lesson. You meet people after shows and they present to you your drawings or a book they've written. Something they've done off their own back. I think that's so honourable, there's nothing wrong with that at all
ROBERT: I think that's it but let me say what a privilege it has been to be with such a creative audience and also two fantastically creative people to talk to
TOYAH: I hope you all got something out of it. I hope it's been informative
ROBERT: And enjoyable. Thank you very very much
TOYAH: Thank you
(Applause)
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