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Fred again.. — who rarely gives extended interviews — recently appeared on Instagram’s Ask It Anyway series, speaking with a group of emerging creators during a break from his 10-weeks/10-songs/10-cities rollout for USB002. The session was equal parts mentorship and candid conversation about how he works and how he protects his creativity.

Reflecting on life on the road, he told the audience that touring with close friends has brought him a new sense of stability. “I’m feeling a bit more stable that I’m getting to travel with my best mates and play shows, and I feel very blessed if I’m honest,” he said.

On balancing writing and performing, Fred was blunt: if one stops, the other will too. He explained that songwriting is the foundation for everything he does. “My happy place is being on my ones or being with my mates making tunes — that’s always square one for me,” he said, adding that he always makes room in his schedule to return to London and write.

“I 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… I’ve always made sure that even if we’ve done mad stuff, that there’s always time to come back and be in London and write tunes.”

He called the recent period “mad stuff,” listing years of pop-up shows across the globe, a 2024 appearance at the Los Angeles Coliseum, extended tours in the U.S. and beyond, and a surprise Coachella 2023 headline slot alongside Skrillex and Four Tet.

To sustain his output, Fred prioritizes mental wellbeing: good sleep, exercise and removing distractions so he can consistently make music. He says this approach has raised the percentage of ideas that become finished work.

“I find moments… where maybe 1% of what we write feels like it can come out as opposed to 0.1%,” he said, describing how projects like USB give him a loose, practical outlet for releasing tracks that don’t need to serve as a grand statement. He also mentioned the possibility of side projects — “Or like, make an ambient album with Brian [Eno] or something like that.”

At 32, Fred reflected on how his release rate has changed with experience: “From 20 to 28, I reckon probably 0.0001% of things I made came out, and now I reckon 1% comes out, so that’s great.”

Daily practice remains central to his craft. He aims to generate ideas every day, even though most will be discarded — the point is to keep experimenting and fall in love with the process. “The best feeling to me is when you play back the thing you’ve made that day and you actually feel good about it. That’s the drug I’m chasing every day,” he said.

On tools and focus, his advice is practical: commit to a small set of instruments and plugins. “Just commit to two synths and five plugins that you’re going to use the next four years and save yourself all of that headspace,” he advised, urging producers to stop endlessly comparing gear and instead finish songs.

Fred also described the value of a trusted circle for feedback: he shares everything with a four-person WhatsApp group — many of them not musicians — and filters the responses that resonate. “Don’t listen to any criticism, listen to the criticism that resonates,” he suggested.

On resilience, he shared an anecdote about reaching out to Four Tet long before they collaborated. He once managed to get Four Tet’s email and sent a friendly message asking to meet; it went unanswered. Years later they connected and collaborated — a reminder that early rejections aren’t personal.

“It comes back to this trying to nurture your resilience so you can shoot a million shots and not take it personally. Because it’s not personal when they don’t land, it’s nothing to do with you.”

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