If you are looking to make your first album, you probably have lots of inspirations and ideas coming from all over. And you typically are very excited about the project. That's not a bad thing at all. You just have to know to use it to your advantage rather than it weighing you down. And that's what this is all about. This is xxavv's guide to a debut album.

1. Work ethic

So, the first thing that you must know is to NOT work on music sporadically and prolifically on your first go. This creates a lot of material that you don't know what to do with yet and can lead to writer's block. It also leaves you with no sense of direction for the project. Additionally, catalogue as much of what you work on as possible (this doesn't have to be anything elaborate, even just a simple tracker in your notes app works) so you don't lose your masters or demos.

2. Start with the lead single

Instead of falling into the trap of part one, start with working on your lead single. So not 10 different songs, but just one. This sets you up for success and gives you a clear path to follow with what comes next.

Once you have your lead single, shape the rest of the album around it so you have a coherent sound and style for the rest of the songs. Now, it is important to note that this doesn't mean every song has to sound the same, have the same tempo, same structure, or even talk about the same thing, that's quite the opposite of what you want, it creates a bland, non-dynamic body of work which the listener would get bored of quick. To me, keeping a coherent sound means just creating a profile of the mood that you used on the lead single and applying it to the other songs with variation.

Additionally, this is around the time when you should start thinking about or working on the visual style/direction for the album. That means the album art, videos, and associated materials and platforms (profile pictures, banners, websites, merch, etc). There's a common misconception that you should wait until the album is finished to start on this, but it's not. Develop the two in parallel and you usually get a better result.

3. Discipline

Finally, this part is less about the album and more about you. Don't be too critical of yourself and don't be too easy on yourself either. You have to strike a fair balance, so you don't ever release anything and so you don't just release whatever, you need to have a standard if you want to make it professionally.

For any project you work on, especially in the beginning, I recommend writing or mentally tracking a SMART goal that you use as a broad guide. And use it in this way:

• Specific: I want to create a [mood] album called [name] that talks about [themes].

• Measurable: I want to create this album in [specific amount of months] with [number of] songs. (or you could say: I want to release this album by [specific date].)

• Achievable: I'm going to make this album with [tools or apps or instruments].

• Relevant: I am creating this album to [what is the album supposed to do for you?]

• Timely: This album should be complete and/or released no later than [date].

Being specific helps you create a tunnel vision that allows you to see the project through. Keeping it measurable helps you identify when the project is finished. Making sure you are keeping the album attainable allows you to define a scope and not become overly ambitious with one record. You have the rest of your career to fulfill all of your aspirations! Making sure that the album is relevant tells you why it exists and why you are working on it and why you shouldn't give up and stay within the scope. And staying time-bound gives you a redundancy for being measurable, you might just keep saying "Oh just one more song," or "What if I do this..." which causes a recursion and is one of the most common failure modes in the music industry.

So to summarize, this is everything I think you need to know while creating your first album. This is not something you have to follow to a T, but rather something you can take bits and pieces of and create a framework that works best for you. The system I've described above is the same one that I use, and if my discography is anything to prove my point, then take a look and see what I've done in 5 years!

~ xxavv