Inside Sleeve - A Conversation with Christina Lüthy
Two years ago, Christina Lüthy and I connected over some heavy topics: gender biases in music studios. She was the interviewer, and I was the interviewee. Fast forward to today, and here we are in my favorite third space, Klub, drinking coffee and talking about how creativity and the music industry clash and connect. Christina, now a published postdoc researcher from Lund University, knows a thing or two about the challenges artists face. Her insights into the tug-of-war between creative integrity and industry demands felt all too real. She put it like this:
“Often, artists try to fit themselves into the machine. The machine is this strong narrative about success: going viral, signing with a big label, constantly creating social media content, or getting the attention of gatekeepers. But it can feel too limiting, and there are heavy costs seeing that as the only way to create a sustainable career.”
The industry’s definition of “success” is usually tied to numbers and formulas—but, let’s face it, numbers don’t stir the soul. They don’t inspire us or bring meaning on their own.
Christina touched on what really fuels artists:
“What creates inspiration and motivation is connecting with people who care about your music, and feeling small progress, experiences of emotional resonance. That might be a live show where people respond, or a review, or just someone saying your music means something to them and being invested in your trajectory.”
Those moments of genuine connection, Christina says, are what helps artists build momentum and resilience. They’re what give purpose to the grind. She urged artists to ask themselves a simple but tricky question: What do you want from your music? She pinpointed the familiar inner conflict:
“As an artist, you need an artistic vision, which is rather uncompromising, but you also need to be flexible and pragmatic. So a lot of, especially young artists, feel that either they’re being guided too much, or they’re being too rigid, missing out on opportunities. That balance, I think, is a real struggle.”
Christina’s no stranger to the waiting game, either—she just published a paper she started writing in 2019! She likens it to an artist’s reality: “Sometimes it takes a long time until you have this ‘product,’ something that gives you real recognition. Many artists serve the industry, not focusing on what they want from their work or how technology could help them achieve it. So the strategy too often becomes to either opt-out or toughen up.”
Her parting question? One we could all stand to think about:
“What keeps you going? Can you organize your work in a way that gives you meaning, inspires you creatively, and gives you these moments of resonance? Achieving sustainable artistry is possible, but only if you find ways of interacting with and molding the industry so that it feeds into your own sense of fulfillment and reward.”
Here’s to carving our paths and finding those moments of resonance that keep the creative fire alive.
Stay tuned,
Anna
