{"id":211458,"date":"2025-12-04T12:18:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T17:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/12\/04\/fred-again-talks-about-dealing-with-criticism-the-unanswered-email-he-once-sent-to-four-tet\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T12:18:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T17:18:28","slug":"fred-again-talks-about-dealing-with-criticism-the-unanswered-email-he-once-sent-to-four-tet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/12\/04\/fred-again-talks-about-dealing-with-criticism-the-unanswered-email-he-once-sent-to-four-tet\/","title":{"rendered":"Fred again.. Talks About Dealing With Criticism & the Unanswered Email He Once Sent to Four\u00a0Tet"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tFred again..<\/a> rarely does interviews, but he recently sat down for a long conversation as part of Instagram\u2019s Ask It Anyway <\/em>series. <\/p>\n

\n\tFilmed during a break from the British producer\u2019s current 10 weeks\/10 songs\/10 cities rollout tour<\/a> for his USB002<\/em> project, the discussion functions as a mentoring session for the young creators in attendance, as Fred elaborated on his creative process and much more. Watch the complete interview below. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe conversation started with the artist discussing his current tour, of which he said, \u201cI\u2019m feeling a bit more stable that I\u2019m getting to travel with my best mates and play shows, and I feel very blessed if I\u2019m honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Fred<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tInside Fred again..\u2019s 10 Shows in 10 Cities in 10 Weeks Run\u00a0(Updating)\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Justice<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tJustice Select Amyl and The Sniffers as Their Favorite New Australian Band\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Taylor<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tTaylor Swift, ‘Ordinary’ and The Wiggles: Here’s What Australians Stanned on Spotify In 2025\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tIn terms of finding a balance between writing music and playing it, Fred added that, \u201cI think for me there was just a clear thing, with touring at least. If you think of writing and touring, if you stop one of them, the other one stops. Like, writing leads to touring. So I\u2019m really clear in my mind what\u2019s the most important thing, and it\u2019s writing music. My happy place is being on my ones or being with my mates making tunes, that\u2019s always square one for me. I\u2019ve always made sure that even if we\u2019ve done mad stuff, that there\u2019s always time to come back and be in London and write tunes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe list of \u201cmad stuff\u201d he referred to was indeed long, with the last few years finding Fred and his team putting on pop-up shows around the world<\/a>, including a 2024 show the Los Angeles Coliseum, touring the U.S. and beyond and joining the Coachella 2023 as a last minute headliner<\/a> alongside Skrillex<\/a> and Four Tet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor me, I\u2019m trying to just protect my mental so that I can feel good to make music every day, so everything just kind of feeds into that,\u201d Fred said of maintaining balance amid these big moments. \u201cI definitely haven\u2019t always been good at this, but as I get older I care more about getting good sleep or exercising, so when I wake up I can have the cleanest line between here and here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued that creating this \u201ccleanest line\u201d has lead to an increase in useable output over the last few years.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI find moments sometimes where we\u2019re lucky with me\u2026 and both my brothers who I work with, to find ways where maybe 1% of what we write starts feels like it can come out as opposed to 0.1%. Having the record like USB<\/em>, where it\u2019s just tunes that I\u2019m making for my USB, it doesn\u2019t need to be like, some deep album statement always,\u201d he said. \u201cThen I\u2019ve always got albums, so there\u2019s a few different avenues that I get to put tunes out in. Or like, make an ambient album with Brian [Eno] or something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 32-year-old artist also noted that from the ages of 20 to 28, \u201cI reckon probably 0.0001% of things I made came out, and now I reckon 1% comes out, so that\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Beatie<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tBrian Eno & Beatie Wolfe on Broadcasting Their New Ambient Album Into Space: \u2018It Felt\u00a0Fitting\u2019\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tHe told the rapt audience that making music every day is key to his process. \u201cI try and make a few ideas a day, and most of them are rubbish\u2026 The thing is for me, the joy and the journey of finding out what you like, just like closing your eyes and throwing paint and seeing what sticks,\u201d he said. \u201cI would definitely preach all day about, the more you can fall in love with the obsession of it and the craft and just chasing chasing, to me that\u2019s the win. The best feeling to me is when you play back the thing you\u2019ve made that day and you actually feel good about it. That\u2019s the drug I\u2019m chasing every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd while modern day producers have an endless number of software and plugins with which to create, Fred\u2019s advice was \u201cto just commit to two synths and five plugins that you\u2019re going to use the next four years and save yourself all of that headspace and all of that wasted time comparing whether this compressor sounds slightly better than this compressor. Like, fix the chorus. I really, really feel this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe also recommended having a close group of friends to run ideas by, revealing that he has \u201ca WhatsApp group with four of us and I\u2019ll send everything to that group. All of them aren\u2019t musicians, and that\u2019s almost why I value their thoughts\u2026 You can take the feedback that resonates. That\u2019s the most important thing. Don\u2019t listen to any criticism, listen to the criticism that resonates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe also schooled the audience on not getting worn down by rejection, revealing that before he went on to become a frequent collaborator with Four Tet, he once sent the fellow producer an email that Four Tet never responded to.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFour Tet is a producer who I\u2019ve worked with a lot, an artist, and he loves to show people the email I sent to him years before we actually met of me being like \u2018Hey mate!\u201d Fred recalled. \u201cI managed to get his email, that was like a huge win, and then I sent him this email like \u2018Please, can we do anything? Not even music, can we just have a cup or whatever?\u2019 And then a few years after that we actually met, and he just loves getting that email out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the end, he said, \u201cIt comes back to this trying to nurture your resilience so you can shoot a million shots and not take it personally. Because it\u2019s not personal when they don\u2019t land, it\u2019s nothing to do with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch the complete interview with Fred here. <\/p>\n

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