STUCK IN FINISHING TRACK HELL
- heath holme
- Feb 9
- 5 min read
Why your internal struggle to finish isn't internal at all
Over 25 years of making and coaching electronic music, I started noticing something that changed how I approach finishing tracks.
It wasn’t a single moment. It was a pattern that kept repeating.
Artists would come to me stuck at the finishing stage. Different people, different tracks, different genres. But when I’d dig into what was blocking them, it was never actually technical.
They knew HOW to finish. They just couldn’t pull the trigger.
And the more coaching calls I had, the clearer it became: Their internal struggle to finish wasn’t internal at all. It was external voices they’d internalised without realising it.
The moment this became crystal clear was when I was coaching an artist who was using a reference track from Autechre
THE REFERENCE TRACK TRAP
He was doing what everyone recommends – using a professional track as a reference for structure and arrangement ideas.
Smart practice. Standard advice.
Except it was derailing him.
I can remember jumping into a coaching call, and being surprised to find him in a somewhat deflated mood. I started asking him how progress was going and as we dug into the details I soon learned he was disappointed he couldn’t get things to sound like Autechre. It was there and then I realised the idea of a reference track in this situation was causing problems. I have been wary of using them ever since.
He couldn’t help comparing his track to theirs. Not just technically – but musically as well. “I’m not good at this. I’ll never be THIS good.”
An external voice – that polished, mastered, professionally released track from one of the most respected acts in IDM – had become an internalised one. Every time he opened his project, he heard it: “You’re not good enough.”
I explained to him that comparing your work with a finished track by some of the best in the business isn’t a healthy practice. If the goal is to use a reference track for arrangement purposes, here’s what works: Mark out the important sections that define the structure, understand the arrangement approach, then delete the reference immediately. Don’t leave it in the project. Don’t keep comparing. The goal is to borrow ideas, not to measure yourself against mastery.
The whole experience made me realise: Reference tracks can be a perfect catalyst for Imposter Syndrome. And needless to say, I’m now very careful about who, when, and why working with reference tracks may or may not be a good idea.
But it’s not just reference tracks.
THE PROBLEM: IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK
Most producers think they’re struggling with HOW to finish. They’re not.
They’re struggling with WHO and WHAT voices to listen to. They’ve developed an information diet problem.
In this age of information abundance – YouTube tutorials, Instagram posts, AI tools, endless comparison – we’ve internalised so many external voices that we can’t hear our own anymore.
It’s YouTube tutorials that leave you thinking “I don’t know enough yet.”
It’s Instagram posts from producers showing their perfect studios that whisper “You don’t have the right gear.”
It’s that producer friend who always has an opinion about what you “should” do.
I had an artist who kept constantly changing their track every time they learned something new. I asked them to finish their track with the skills they currently have and add the new information to future projects. I see this pattern play out constantly – it’s one of the first things I look for in coaching now.
Your internal voice isn’t hijacking your finishing process. External voices you’ve internalised are.
And the stakes are real:
Abandoned projects after dozens of hours
Hard drives full of “almost finished” tracks
Growing doubt about whether you’re cut out for this
THE FRAMEWORK: YOUR INFORMATION DIET IS HIJACKING YOU
Here are the most common external voices that hijack finishing. See if you recognise any:
The YouTube Tutorial Trap
Voice: “You don’t know enough yet”
Reality: There’s always more to learn. ALWAYS. Waiting until you “know enough” means never finishing.
The Comparison Voice (Perfectionism/Imposter Syndrome)
Voice: “It’s not as good as [artist X]” (or in my coaching client’s case, Autechre)
Reality: Of course it’s not. They’ve been doing this for decades. You’re comparing your chapter 3 to their chapter 30.
The Future Self Critic
Voice: “I’ll hear what I’d do differently in six months”
Reality: Yes. You will. Because you’ll have learned more. That’s called growth. It’s not a reason to never release.
The Fear of Judgment Voice Voice: “People will judge how far I’ve come / who I was vs. who I am now” Reality: People who judge your progress aren’t your people. Your people will celebrate that you shipped something. And critically: You cannot control what others think. You never could. The Analysis Paralysis Voice Voice: “The next thing I learn will fix this” Reality: No it won’t. It’ll just reveal a new thing to fix. This never ends unless you create an endpoint. Steven Pressfield nailed it in The War of Art:
“Resistance knows that the amateur will never write his symphony because he is overly invested in its success and over-terrified of its failure.”
The question is: which of these voices have YOU internalised without realising it?
THE SYSTEM: THE “DONE” STAGE
Here’s how to protect yourself:
Create a stage in your process called “Done” – and understand that this stage has completely different rules than “Production.”
In Production: You’re creating, composing, designing, building, developing, experimenting, learning, adding.
In Done: You’re not working on music anymore. You’re making release decisions.
The Done Stage Framework (questions to ask):
Does this track have a payoff/memorable moment that executes my vision?
Does the arrangement tell the story I set out to tell?
Have I given this 100% of my current skill level at this point in time?
What’s specifically stopping me from letting it go? (Be brutally honest – is it YOUR voice or an internalised external voice?)
If you can answer yes to questions 1-3, and question 4 reveals an external voice you’ve internalised – ship it.
How professionals do this differently:
They understand Done is different from Production. They have systems. They protect themselves from their own overthinking.
They also control their information diet more carefully. The longer I’ve been in this game, the stricter I’ve become about who and what I listen to. There’s constant noise. Most of it isn’t helpful.
THE TAKEAWAY
Finishing tracks is a learnable skill. But it’s not only a technical skill – it’s also a psychological one.
Your struggle to finish is often not about what you don’t know. It’s about whose voices you’ve internalised without realising it.
Three things to do today:
Audit your information diet – Who are you listening to? Are they qualified? Do they have your best interests at heart?
Identify which external voices you’ve internalised – Use the framework above to spot which voice is hijacking you
Create your Done stage – A separate phase where you make release decisions, not production decisions
I’ve spent 25 years identifying these patterns across hundreds of artists. Most never see it themselves – and that’s exactly why coaching exists.
If you read my last newsletter about Feedback you’ll see how these pieces connect:
The Feedback Trap = Protect yourself from external voices DURING the release process
This = Silence external voices to GET to release
Your hard drive doesn’t need more unfinished tracks. Your audience needs to hear your work. Thanks for reading
Heath
"Ready to create a 'Done' stage that actually works?"
Download the Track Finishing Framework and learn how to separate production decisions from release decisions - so you can finally let tracks go. 👇 https://www.heathholme.net/track-finishing-framework
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