Kid Harpoon (aka Tom Hull) got his start in the mid-00s as a singer-songwriter, acoustic guitar in hand. But, in the time since, he’s become well known as an in-demand songwriter and producer. He’s co-written with Maggie Rogers and Florence Welch, and recently co-produced and co-wrote Harry Styles’s 2022 smash Harry’s House. What’s behind his success? You gotta do the work, he says.

Here are his five practical tactics for getting ahead as an artist, producer, or songwriter.

1. Show up

“I was in a local band in my hometown. All of my friends knew my band,” Kid Harpoon says. “So in my little world, we were this band that I needed to break out from. I got offered a show with Carl Barȃt, who was one of the Libertines, and there was literally no one there except me and the barman. I was kind of like, ‘This was my big shot in London to play for Carl of the Libertines.’ [But] the barman said, ‘You're really good. You should play for my friend. He does a club night.’ So I went and played his friend's club night a few weeks later, and his friend ended up becoming my manager. It sort of spiraled from there.”

2. Avoid writer’s block

“I'm such a worker bee, and I always feel like I'm like the kid whose legs are running, and then you just pick him up and you go, okay, go run here,” he says. “If you're constantly writing and constantly working, then writer's block isn't so much of an issue. You just have bad ideas and it's fine. I think writer's block seems to come about when I haven't written for a while and I build up this pressure to write. Just go and make a load of stuff.”

3. Talk less, listen more

“Some people really just need you to listen,” Kid Harpoon continues. “A lot of the time, [artists] will be having opinions and instincts and not be able to get them out because everyone around them is anxious about what the record's gonna sound like. So everyone's going, ‘You should do this,’ and, ‘Why don't you sound like this?’ and throwing ideas at them. I think a lot of the problem is people aren't asking, ‘What do you wanna do?’ My idea is to kind of get inspired by that and follow that. Usually that leads you somewhere kind of exciting and unique to that person.”

4. The music is the message

“The one thing I do care about more than the artist and their feelings and listening to them is the music, because I feel like that's my job for them. If I feel like something's pulling away from the quality of what we're doing, then it's also my job to maybe say something. Or push back a little and say, ‘We need to be doing more. This is not what you want. And I know you're not gonna like how this is gonna come out.’ The music has to be higher than everything.”

5. Don’t be a jerk

“Get good advice and get people that represent you in a way you want to be respected and want to be treated. I see a lot of management where it's like, ‘Oh, well, I've got this manager and he's a real dick for me.’ Well, he's not just a dick for you, that's an extension of you being a dick. So my advice is, treat people well and look after people.

And a bonus: The key to good music

“If you want to be a good musician, have good music. I think people weirdly forget that and they go, ‘If I want to be a good musician, I have to write a song like that.’ And they start copying other things. But the key to good music is writing something that's unique to you.”