Creativity Quote by Jules Shear

There is a quiet flex buried in Jules Shear's shrug: he shows up with 25 or 30 songs, then opts out of the part of record-making that turns a pile of material into a story. The line reads like modesty, but it also signals a very particular self-conception. Shear positions himself as a pure songwriter, not a brand manager, not a curator of vibe. In a pop economy that increasingly rewards artists who can control every pixel of the rollout, "I'm not into doing that stuff" lands as both principled and faintly defiant.

The intent is practical - delegate to the producer - but the subtext is about trust and division of labor. Sequencing isn't clerical; it's narrative architecture, pacing, the emotional sine wave that tells listeners how to feel and when to breathe. By handing that off, Shear admits (or insists) that his job ends at the song. It's an old-school stance: producers as editors, artists as generators, records as collaborative artifacts rather than personal diaries.

Context matters because Shear came up in an era when the album still carried prestige, yet the assembly line was real. Having 25 or 30 songs suggests abundance and discard, a craftsman's surplus. Letting a producer choose implies he's willing to be shaped, even cut - a rarity in a culture that treats control as authenticity. The quote works because it punctures romantic myths about the auteur musician while quietly reminding you: the work is the songs. Everything else is packaging.