Creativity Quote by Tom Jenkinson

There is a quiet flex in that throwaway "rough idea". In a studio culture that loves mythmaking - the lone genius struck by lightning, the producer as mystic channel - Tom Jenkinson (Squarepusher) frames creativity as something closer to navigation than revelation. He is not claiming a blueprint, and he is definitely not confessing to winging it. The phrase splits the difference: enough intention to steer the session, enough openness to let accidents become material.

The subtext is control without rigidity. Electronic music, especially the kind Jenkinson is known for, is often fetishized as either hyper-planned (grids, edits, precision) or totally improvised (jammer heroics, gear chaos). "Rough idea" punctures that binary. It suggests a working method where the initial concept is just a launchpad - a rhythmic shape, a sound palette, a problem to solve - and the track becomes an argument with the tools. In that world, the studio isn't merely a place to record; it's an instrument that pushes back.

Context matters: Jenkinson came up in an era when DAWs and hardware let a single person simulate an entire ecosystem of musicianship, but also demanded a producer's discipline to avoid infinite options. Saying he walks in with a "rough idea" reads like a practical ethic for surviving abundance: start with a direction, then earn the surprise.