"You Are Not Your Art" — How SHOCKONE Strikes the Balance Between Creativity and Mental Health

Hailing from Perth, the epicenter of the Australian drum and bass scene, ShockOne (aka Karl Thomas) has been at the forefront of the genre for the past decade. He burst onto the scene in 2013 with his ground-breaking debut LP ‘Universus’ to critical acclaim. Today, ShockOne releases music under his own record label 'Dark Machine Records' and has created a sample pack with Splice drum and bass label, Test Press. In this interview, we get a closer look into the production process of SHOCKONE while also learning how he strikes the right balance between life and music to better care for his mental health.

I make fast-ish electronic music with large amounts of bass and loud obnoxious drums. Some of it is nice sounding. Some of it really isn’t. Regardless, people seem to like jumping around in large sweaty groups to it.

I don’t have a formula or anything like that, and the method is different almost every time. But the one constant is me sitting in my studio throwing s**t at the wall for hours on end until something sticks or catches my attention. I’m a big believer in the whole ‘the ideas don’t come from you, they come through you’ train of thought. So practically speaking, its just a matter of showing up every day and giving myself up to the practice, all the while paying very close attention so I don’t miss that spark or seed of an idea when it presents itself. This can often make for a long-winded, very nonlinear creative process. I’ve just accepted that that’s the way I operate these days, so it’s more a matter of just submitting to the process and being grateful that I get to dive into the void every day for a living. I very much listen with my body, so until something has me moving and excited, I know I’m still in searching mode. It’s very much a physical thing and I couldn’t tell you how or why certain sounds or ideas pique my curiosity…. It’s just a feeling I get where I can sense there is something to to an idea or a sound or a concept, and it’s a path worth exploring further. I think the main thing is remaining open while staying focussed on whatever little path you’re on, which is a bit of a dichotomy I guess… but then if this shit was simple everyone would do it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

In their own way. One of the things that fascinates me is how drastically different people can perceive a certain sound or sample. Context is everything, you can use the exact same sample in a different context to someone else and it will be totally unrecognisable. I hope these samples serve as a palette to help people get the ideas that are in their head out into reality, or better yet, I hope the samples can serve as seeds themselves to new interesting musical ideas. Let’s not forget that it’s not samples that make great songs, they’re just the ingredients. Take these sounds, combine them, destroy them, rebuild them back up, and work out how they can help you say whatever it is you want to say. Maybe they can even help you on the path to working out what it is you want to say in the first place. Use them to make art, something that will move people, something they resonate with, something that stands the test of time so in 10 or 15 years when they’ve forgotten about your song, and they rediscover it they go ‘Holy shit, I remember this song! I loved this tune!’ And your song can be the catalyst that brings them back to what it felt like to be alive at a certain moment in time. That’s the power of art and creativity, use it wisely!

Learn how to be nicer to yourself. You are not your art, it’s something you do, and it’s a big part of your life, but it’s not your identity. For a long time, I unknowingly associated my worth as a human being with my ability to be a successful artist. Long story short, if I felt like I was making crap music, that equated to me being a crap person. What exacerbates this problem further is the fact that (for me at least) this occupation involves sitting in a windowless room, alone, for 8, sometimes 10, sometimes 12 hours at a time. This is a perfect breeding ground for unhealthy neurosis.  After I finished my first album I was so depressed and drained that I didn’t know if I could even make music anymore, it just wasn’t sustainable mentally. So I had to work out ways of having a more constructive conversation with myself. The will be peaks of creative energy and output where you feel unstoppable and can’t keep up with the ideas coming out of you, and then there will be troughs, days, weeks, months even, where you just don’t feel like you have any music or creativity in you. Both are inevitable and both are ok. When you’re on a peak ride it, enjoy it! Be grateful for it as you’re experiencing it. When you’re in a trough, don’t beat yourself up, don’t resist it, let it be, and know it will pass. It’s okay to go and do something else. Find the things in life where your brain can switch off and be present. For me it’s surfing. Find the things in life that provide balance and perspective. Quite often, if I’ve been struggling, it’s when I surrender to it all, throw my hands up and give up, and go do something else, that’s when a seed of idea comes to me, and before I know it I’ve forgotten about the trough because I’m back in the throws of creativity, and the cycle continues.

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