The received wisdom is that your audience need to roughly know what to expect when you perform. They would like to hear the songs they know and love. And when they’ve come for some heavy metal, they don’t want you to start singing confessional ballads.

It can be a dilemma for many creative artists though. Creativity doesn’t feel like it is something that should be tied down then tied up with a ribbon in a pre-defined box.

One answer to the dilemma might be to get people into the habit of expecting the unexpected. Or to seek out an audience that actually prefer things that way in the first place. (Personally, I’d be in that audience).

All creativity that speaks to people involves a fine balance between creating something that is both familiar enough and unusual enough. Where we place ourselves on the spectrum between those two end markers is a very personal decision. In truth, the wrong decision can hamper our progress, turning the listeners perception of us either into something that is dull and predictable or, at the other end of the scale, completely inaccessible.

Although given the choice, it might be better to play with fire and risk complete alienation, than send anyone to sleep.