Ethan French is a 25-year-old artist from Perth, Australia, whose daily creative practice has quietly become one of the most compelling stories in independent music. Eight months ago, he began posting an “Idea A Day” — a new piece of music, shared daily, no matter what. The result has been staggering: over 800,000 followers on Instagram, attention from artists like John Mayer, Justin Timberlake, Jon Batiste, Anderson .Paak, Tom Misch, and SZA, and a growing body of work distilled from nothing more than a humble daily habit and a deep love of creativity.
That practice now culminates in ideas of the day vol. 1 arriving October 2nd. The 25-song collection was written, tracked, and mixed entirely within French’s daily routine, moving fluidly between perspectives — some songs turned inward, others written about the people around him — with identity and the creative process running through as a common thread. The single, “it takes a lifetime – day 58,” pairs a lilting piano melody with an R&B-inflected beat as French reflects on truths that can’t be reasoned into being, only lived while his most recent “reckless and arranged – day 56” is built around a dramatic piano melody, a soft beat, and moody vocals, that calls comparisons to artists like Radiohead and Tame Impala. As with all his work, he wrote, produced, and performed every element of the track himself.
French’s relationship with music began quietly, at home, on the far west coast of Australia. His mother gave him his first keyboard at age four; his father filled the house with Pink Floyd on guitar. From there, his tinkering became a passion and by 15, French had won the prestigious Australian Children’s Music Foundation songwriting competition. His mastery, though, was built entirely from feel and curiosity rather than formal training. Self-taught and famously stubborn about it, he insisted on learning by ear even as his music teachers pushed him toward theory classes, nearly failing high school music classes as a result. Later, at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), he chose to study composition over formal piano performance, a deliberate rejection of what he calls “skill acquisition devoid of creation.” For French, the sounds always came first; the language to name them came later.
That same instinct — feeling first, structure second — is how “idea of the day” was born. “I get asked about how I came up with the idea and the truth is, I kind of stumbled into it,” French explains. He’d originally planned something simpler: a “chords of the day” video series for musicians, meant mostly to keep him posting consistently. But after the first attempt, it wasn’t fueling his creativity the way he wanted, so he pivoted. “I’ve always enjoyed making shorter, kind of ‘unfinished’ ideas and just putting them out there. I did a series of ‘song sketches’ a few years ago that’s a similar concept, without the daily thing. Sometimes people ask how I thought of it — but it’s not exactly a revolutionary concept!! I’m a musician, a creator, and I decided to create something and share it every day. It seems obvious in hindsight!”
The daily practice has reshaped how he works. “I think I’ve enjoyed the creative process on this project more than I ever have,” he says. “I’ve learned that when I place less pressure on each individual idea, it actually improves the quality of my writing. There’s a real risk of making things worse when you obsess over them for too long. I love tiny parts of songs and often dislike others — I’ll replay tiny snippets over and over. Run-time isn’t something that concerns me much. Even though a lot of these are ‘ideas’ and relatively short, I still think of them as standalone pieces of music.”
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