Australian-born, New York-based producer BRUX has just released her transcendent ambient album ‘Halcyon Phase’, and with us she shares invaluable insights from her creative journey. Known for her boundary-pushing club productions, BRUX ventured into new sonic territories with this deeply personal record, which originated during a period of isolation in Australia’s Blue Mountains. Shaped by time, distance, and a profound connection to nature, ‘Halcyon Phase’ is a testament to the power of intentional creation. Fresh off this transformative experience, BRUX opens up about the studio practices that fuel her innovative approach, offering five essential tips for fellow producers seeking to expand their creative horizons.
1. Stop overthinking
Analysis-paralysis is a real thing, and in the studio it’s so easy to give power to over-analysing creative decisions. My trick is to break the circuit by setting strict limitations for yourself. One way to do this is to give yourself a time limit to create within (ie. set a 20 minute timer to sketch out a track arrangement). Another way to achieve this is to limit your creative resources (ie. only using 6 musical elements/layers total to compose with). Our brains thrive when we need to problem-solve roadblocks.
2. Switch up surroundings
If you’re ever stuck in a creative rut, sometimes it works to simply change the surroundings of where you regularly create. I have a home studio that I work out of everyday and if I’m feeling stagnant on an idea I’ll bring my laptop and headphones to the local park or cafe and give myself an hour to troubleshoot. Shifting perspective shifts your output.
3. Keep files organized
I’ve learnt over the years to be as organized as possible with my samples & project folder organisation. This means having dedicated folders to save certain projects within ie “2026 demos” or “Collaborations 2026”. For my demo folder I’ll then have separate folders for each song & for the collaboration folder I’ll have separate folders for each artist I collaborate with. Taking care of these obvious but necessary details means that I have more time to use my creative brain when I’m in flow, and less time using my logical brain to organize files. Workflow is key!
4. All ideas are good ideas
It can be intimidating to collaborate with other people, especially if you’ve never worked together before. Sharing ideas in this setting is such a vulnerable exercise, it’s intense and it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
But, from my experience the best sessions are the ones where egos are left at the door and people lose their inhibitions. You all have the common goal of digging for the song so in this context, all ideas are good ideas because they’re puzzle pieces to finding it.
5. Set goals & manifest
The physics and neuroscience behind setting goals and manifesting is very interesting, and it works, I swear to you. Thoughts and emotions emit vibrations and the more specific your goals and intentions are (ie. releasing a project on X date, collaborating with X artist, playing at X venue on X date), the more attuned the vibrations are to attract the outcome. Just thinking the idea though isn’t enough, taking aligned actions of course is also a big part of this. For the last 4 years, I’ve made small vision boards (in my notebook) at the start of each month where I write down 8-10 specific things I want to happen that month. All of this to say, I’ve lost count of how many times my specific intentions have played out true each month.