Stig Rästa identifies three barriers facing musicians

Musicians are often trapped in their own thoughts, Estonian musician Stig Rästa said on ERR’s Raadio 2 programme “R2 Päev”, identifying overthinking, comparing themselves with other artists and staying in their comfort zone as key obstacles to creative work.

Rästa recalled that he began posting videos on social media in 2023 showing how he wrote music and how quickly the process could happen. He posted his song “Päev” on Instagram and received substantial encouragement to release it.

However, the song was released only three and a half years later. “Some things simply take longer to mature,” Rästa said, adding that artists can get their dopamine from posting a video and then immediately move on to another song to see how it performs.

He said he had not initially considered that listeners would want to hear the song in full on their devices. “That is what makes it a complicated and difficult path for creative people,” Rästa said.

Rästa described “Päev” as a simple love song about a friendship that turns into love for a boy, who remembers the girl in the song.

“When I start writing lyrics, the words simply come out of me,” he said. “When you put on your headphones and the music is ready, you start to see a story inside it and begin putting it together.”

Rästa estimated that he has around 3,000 songs or song fragments in total, not all of them stored on his computer.

He said artists can also be held back by excessive self-consciousness and the fear that one wrong move will make the entire country laugh at them. According to Rästa, people can build an enormous story in their heads that has little connection to reality.

He said that getting away, travelling or even living in another country for a while can help put those fears into perspective. “When you finally understand that, you realise you have been a prisoner of your own thoughts for decades,” he said.

Rästa said musicians often sit alone in studios and check social media to see how well other artists are doing. During his training sessions, he said, discussions regularly show that many musicians think in the same way.

“Understanding that and getting rid of it takes time. You have to keep reminding yourself not to overthink things. Talking to one another helps a lot,” Rästa said.