Justin Boreta is a founding member of The Glitch Mob (TW/IG: @THE GLITCHMOB, THEGLITCHMOB.COM). Their last album, Love Death Immortality, debuted on the Billboard charts as the #1 Electronic Album, #1 Indie Label, and #4 Overall Digital Album. The Glitch Mob is an artist-owned group, so it’s a true self-made startup. Their music has been featured in movies like Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Edge of Tomorrow, Captain America: The First Avenger, and The Amazing Spider-Man. Their remix for “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes is featured in the most-viewed video game trailer of all time, Battlefield 1.
• Do you live your life by any quotes?
“Be the silence that listens.”—Tara Brach
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow! What a Ride!’”—Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955–1967
JUSTIN: “I have a reminder on Hunter S. Thompson’s birthday each year. This one in particular reminds me to not take myself so seriously and to have fun with the process. I also keep a handful of blank pages in my morning journal to build a quote section over the course of the journal (pulling quotes from reading, podcasts, etc.). That way, I can easily refer back to it and flip through when looking for some insight.”
Spirit animal: Giant squid
• If you could take one album, one book, and one luxury item to a desert island, what would they be?
Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and a Chemex for coffee.
• One of Justin’s favorite artists—Boards of Canada
“It’s very droney, beautiful music, and their albums, for me, are like a familiar old friend that I can revisit over and over again.”
• Best advice ever received?
“It’s something my father told me when I was very, very little, I was probably 5 or 6, and that was, ‘Don’t force it.’ It’s seemingly such a simple thing…. I think that for the creative process, that’s really our guiding light…. [Trying to force a square peg into the round hole] very rarely has the intended results, whether it’s something creative, or in life in general….”
TF: The question I ask whenever I’m straining for extended periods is, “What would this look like if it were easy?”
• What is the worst advice you see or hear given in your trade or area of expertise?
“There’s a lot of bad advice thrown around about getting inspired and searching for a revelation. Like Chuck Close says, ‘Inspiration is for amateurs—the rest of us just show up and get to work. And the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself and that you will—through work—bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never have dreamt of if you were just sitting around looking for a great ‘art idea.’”
• If you could give your 20-year-old self one piece of advice, what would it be?
“‘Chill out. Calm down.’ I feel like myself and other people I know that are in their early- to mid-20s get really wound up about things having to be a certain way. It doesn’t matter as much as you think it does.”
TIM: “Yeah, that’s the truth. Will you remember this in 10 years? Probably not.”
JUSTIN: “No. People don’t even remember a tweet 12 minutes later.”
• What are three people or sources you’ve learned from—or followed closely—in the last year?
“Nautilus magazine, Brain Pickings, Esther Perel.”
• What is the best or most worthwhile investment you’ve ever made?
“After being laid off from my job, I decided to switch paths and dive into music headfirst. I maxed out a credit card to buy my first pair of pro studio monitors (speakers): Genelec 8040A. Monitors are arguably the most important studio purchase you will make. I still use this same pair today.”
• Podcast recommendation
Radiolab “In The Dust of This Planet”: The episode explores why a little-known academic treatise suddenly ended up appearing in pop culture (in True Detective and fashion magazines, on one of Jay Z’s jackets, etc.).
• Morning routine
Every morning, Justin does 20 minutes of Transcendental Meditation followed by outdoor kettlebell swings with 24 kg (53 lbs). I do exactly the same thing 2 to 3 times per week, aiming for 50 to 75 repetitions of two-handed swings per The 4-Hour Body.
• Music for sleep
Justin listens to Max Richter’s From Sleep, a composed album with a shortened version on Spotify. “I put it on very quietly as I am starting my bedtime routine, so it usually ends 15 to 20 minutes after I’m asleep. Or I will use the Sonos sleep timer, if I’m at home. It started to have this Pavlovian knockout effect after a while, if I use it every day, like a lullaby. If that’s too much melody, there’s an artist called Mute Button that has high-quality, long-field recordings. The gentle rain sounds plus sleep timer are fantastic. I find it great to drown out hotel sounds when traveling.”