Anxiety, creativity and the power of yes, with Matthew Barley

If there’s one thing that stops creative people releasing their full talents, it’s anxiety.

When anxiety takes over, you say NO to things. You stop having great ideas. You don’t do the things that allow other people to experience your work.

It isn’t easy to beat anxiety – but one of the best things to do is find ways around it.

That’s exactly what my guest Matthew Barley has done. An anxious child, teenager and adult, he’s become one of Britain’s leading solo musicians, in demand around the world for his boundary-less, innovative, generous collaborations.

We talk about:

• The time 16 doctors told him his career was over
• The flash of insight that turned his life around from his lowest point
• The one thing that Matthew isn’t afraid of, even when everything else is terrifying
• Why he was the shortest-serving principal cellist in the history of the London Symphony Orchestra
• The biggest lesson he took from The Beatles, that’s allowed him to continue to develop his work in ever-new directions