“Creativity is a base element of the human soul.” So says Steven Leavitt, the host of the Language of Creativity podcast. In this very special episode, Steve’s very first guest on the podcast flips the tables in this tell-all reverse interview guest-hosted by his long-time collaborator Adam Sears!

As a music producer, Steve has helped Sears craft his last 3 projects with Progressive Rock band Lobate Scarp. Their 2016 recording of Beautiful Light has won awards and recognition as “a masterpiece” and in 2022 Steve Co-Executive Produced Lobate Scarp’s latest album You Have It All. The ambitious full-length album has received high praise from reviewers and fans alike. 

But it wasn’t always easy… Steven was born into a family of motion-picture stunt performers but always felt way more at home in front of a microphone, piano or a mixing console. Steve began learning the piano at 8 years old “to express what I was feeling when I couldn’t express it in words.” Lyrically blocked, bullied as a kid and extremely sensitive as a boy he was certainly an odd fit in a family that worked in such a rough and tumble industry. But he stuck with it, choosing to pursue audio engineering in college at Musician’s Institute in Hollywood after realizing that there was an ideal career path for using his skills and talents: music producer. Steve graduated in 2000, unfortunately right as Napster was crashing the music industry. The dot-com bust made it hard to enter the job market (thanks Enron) so he began to freelance making websites, editing video demo-reels for stunt-people, and started working on films as a background precision driver. He recorded for independent musicians to build experience, joined a band, and edited videos for his dad’s stunt-company producing “featurettes” with celebrity talent and assisted with MTV shoots. Steve kept a “web journal” before blogging got big and considered himself a multimedia artist a whole five years before the advent of YouTube. When he started Don’t Call Us Tori in 2004, a music showcase he co-founded with with singer-songwriter Shannon Hurley, in Hollywood, Steve’s music network really began to grow leading to a fateful introduction to Adam who approached Steve to produce his band’s debut album Time and Space in 2008. The album’s production coincided with what Steve describes as “an unexpected spiritual awakening” during the lead up to the album’s 2012 release “that felt like I was coming home to myself.” 

Adam talks with Steve about their very fruitful creative partnership and Steve’s relentlessly perfectionistic work ethic in the studio. They discuss starting this podcast and how it has been a major creative outlet for Steve (he probably could have pursued a career in Radio). They talk about what it was like growing up attending “backflips down the aisles churches” and discovering hit singles on KIIS FM while coming of age thinking it’s only okay to listen to Christian music but finding Christian grunge, loving Weird Al… about dropping out, burnout, ptsd, and… Just why the heck did Steve choose not to go into the stunt business? Steve shares  about learning the importance of infusing joy into your work, finding your inner creative spark, and how sometimes we can be doing the right thing while going about it the wrong way!

** if show-notes cut off click here

Guest: Steven Leavitt

Producer Website: stevenleavitt.com

Featured Music

The Mirror by Lobate Scarp

Safe With You by Skillet

The Dime by performed (and re-recorded) by Steven Leavitt, lyrics by Steven Leavitt and Tony Khan a parody of Sign (originally performed by Ace of Base) written by Jenny Cecilia Berggren (STIM), Jonas Petter Berggren (STIM), Malin Sofia Katarina Berggren (STIM), and Ulf Gunnar Ekberg (STIM) published by Megasong Publishing (KODA) and Warner-Tamarlane Publishing Group (BMI) Copyright 1992.

Episode References

Ender’s Game (IMDB)

Serendipity & Synchronicity (Dr. Carder Stout for Goop)

Rich Mouser (discogs.com)

The Highly Sensitive Person (hsperson.com)

Debbie Evans (Steve’s mom, professional stuntwoman)

Precision Driving

Toni Koch on The Language of Creativity Ep. 11 “The Times They Are a Changin

Amy Grant album Lead Me On (title track: YouTube | Wikipedia)

35 Best 90s Christian Alternative Rock Bands (Ranker.com)

Jonie Blinman (Apple Music)

Roger Waters - Amused to Death (Wikipedia | Last 3 tracks: YouTube)

Weird Al work ethic in the studio (Behind the Scenes on the making of Strait Outta Lynwood)

Beautiful Light by Lobate Scarp (Lyric Video: YouTube)

Malcolm Gladwell’s “Connectors”: People Who Spread Ideas (ShortForm.com)

Sony Pictures Harrison MPC4-D mixing console

The (2000) Dot-com Collapse (internationalbanker.com)

Geoff Downes (​​Wikipedia)

PYT (Pretty Young Thing) - Michael Jackson (YouTube)

Drake Bell (IMDB)

Talyn Edelson on Language of Creativity Ep. 25 “Someone Else’s Dream”

Website: https://thelanguageofcreativity.com/

Facebook Group: The Language of Creativity Discussion Group - Facebook

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