Wet shaving, leather shoes and DAW templates are just three things I've always had long-held views about. Of course, there are plenty more if I start digging into the principles and values that make up this complex, odd life I live. How I arrived at each one of them I'm not sure, it's not as if I have a preference setting like a DAW and went through and made my choices. In many ways, I can't even recall when I decided my position on the removal of facial hair, footwear, or software shortcuts, but they are just a small selection of preferences that make me who I am.

If you've never wet shaved then perhaps you don't understand the pleasure of soaking one's face with water so hot you could make tea. This apparently opens up the facial pores making the shave smoother. Then one applies the shaving lubricant, and there's a large selection, in my case, the weapon of choice was Kiel's Ultimate Brushless Shave Cream - Blue Eagle, a container about the size of a toothpaste tube and costing £16. I'd tried many things over the years ranging from the shaving cream used to make clown's custard pies and costing about 50p a can to blue gunk that smelt of teenage boys and did more to clog up the razor than help make it glide across the face. 

Making a choice to wet shave was never about money, have you ever bought replacement blades for most popular razors? In all the time I've been buying replacement blades I've never stopped being shocked by the cost of bits of tiny metal and plastic. It seemed every time I went to buy some I'd spend an inordinate amount of time doing mental arithmetic, wondering if it was cheaper to buy a new razor that came with some free blades or more recently standing in shops Googling to see if I could save a pound by ordering them off eBay... I once even considered nearly new ones. If you've ever had to buy them then perhaps like me you go through that struggle each time. It seems to avoid gouging one's face you have to allow the manufacturer of razor blades to gouge your wallet!

All that said neither the cost or the faff turned me off wet shaving, in my opinion, it's the best way to shave. Correction, in my view it's the only way to shave.

I've not yet mentioned that one other hazard of wet shaving is cutting one's self. This typically happens when one has not bothered to take the regime of preparation seriously, or if one is in a rush and tries to set a world record for removal of facial hair. I have to admit that although having an almost religious stance on wet shaving I have sometimes shaved like an amateur when in a rush and let down my fellow wet shavers. It's a fool's approach because for the next half an hour you are walking around with tiny bits of toilet roll stuck to your skin and for at least a day you look like you've had a cat pounce on your face.

Over the years I was determined to avoid cutting myself so imagine my surprise when I cut under my chin. I did the toilet roll trick expecting it to stop within a few minutes but an hour later it was still bleeding. It was so bad I had to put a plaster on it as we were going out to a family dinner. The problem was that the only plaster left in the house was the size of a bed sheet, but it was either turn up with blood dripping from my face like a vampire or deal with the embarrassment of having half my face covered by a plaster and explaining that I had a cut the size of a pin. I stuck the medical bed sheet over the wound and determined I’d make up a story to suit the circumstance rather than look like I’d overreacted to my shaving cut.

It took a week for the bleeding to stop, despite extensive Google searches in a search for a home remedy which included everything from covering it in Vaseline to a suggestion of taking a soldering iron to my face. One clear example of why you shouldn't believe all advice found in web searches.

Three months later the cut kept returning each time I shaved. More Googling ensued despite me knowing that half of the answers were about as helpful as someone suggesting I chop my head off to fix the problem.

Then I decided to take a dramatic, life-changing decision, to buy an electric razor. Was I mad? Was this tiny little bleed really going to overturn a 30-year principle? This was something that defined who I am, to my mind wet shaving is a craft, done by those who know the value of things, an almost classical art that could not be replaced by some plastic device that buzzes like an electronic mosquito. But needs must, and it was that or spend the rest of my life bleeding out.

As one does these days, I spent far too long reading shaver reviews as I tried to choose what would replace (albeit temporarily) my beloved razor. When I stop to think about consumer reviews, it seems that some of my crucial purchasing decisions have been determined by Fred from Swansea or Brenda from Wellington, New Zealand! After more research than it took to discover DNA, I made my decision, and the piece of plastic crap was ordered.

I recall opening the box and thinking to myself 'traitor!' as I unpacked the electric razor. It came with various accessories including a small velvet travelling bag which I assumed was to hide the shame when it was discovered during an airport security search. I'd rather they found a stash of weed or a 36" dildo than an electric razor, I'd be less embarrassed.

The time came for me to try the electric razor, there was no hot water, no artful application of the cream, and no careful route of sweeping strokes across my face. It was just a case of flipping a switch and swirling it around the skin for a few minutes until I looked less like a drunk and more like someone who could go to a meeting with the bank.

I continued using the electric razor for several days and then suddenly realised I'd begun to like this cordless companion. As the days became weeks, I found myself not only liking the electric razor but thinking that it was far less of a pain than the ritual I'd had for 30 years. I found myself preferring it, in fact, now I love using my electric razor!

A few weeks ago you may recall I wrote how I thought that a lot of the modern home studio dream seemed to be an endless list of technical issues that most of us never signed up for, an article that appeared to resonate with many of you.

On the podcast a few days later we discussed the article, and we got around to talking about using templates. Like wet shaving, my view on templates was long and deeply held. I saw templates as unnecessary and something that limited my creative choices. I considered them a cookie-cutter approach to recording, after all, what was the chance I was going to use the same recording set up twice or indeed the same set of virtual instruments and plug-ins when composing.

However, after the discussion about templates and realising that every time I came to create a new track I was having to set up the routing for my interface and create tracks for my VIs, I tried creating a template. It includes all the routing for my interface and my most used tracks, VI and plug-ins. I can imagine some of you are reading this in amazement and trotting out the usual mantra levelled at us by a tiny number of unimaginative critics "call yourself an expert!"

After a couple of weeks of using my new template, I have to say that rather than limit me I feel liberated. Having a template means I don't reinvent the wheel and it frees me from one of the many aforementioned pain in the ass things that can distract me from the creative process. When Steve Jobs was asked why he always wore his trademark black turtleneck, jeans and white sneakers he said it was one less thing he had to think about each day. I'm a huge fan of Jobs, and yet I'd somehow not translated that value to my own creative routine.

Our recording communities are filled with those who have deeply held views, be that about their DAW of choice, their brand of choice, analogue or digital, valve or condenser microphone, comp before EQ or EQ before the comp? These views, like my shaving regime, are often deeply and passionately held. I recall an occasion when Avid had paid to have a mailshot sent to Studio One users to tell them about the benefits of using Pro Tools, all brands do it, so there was nothing either original or odd about this approach, it was targeted marketing. After the mailshot arrived in the inboxes of Studio One users, you would have thought they had been sent a video of puppies being tortured or told they had 24 hours to leave their homes after being a victim of a compulsory purchase order, given the reaction by a small minority of Studio One fans. They took to social media, wrote to us and even wrote to PreSonus, the makers of Studio One, although I'm not sure what they thought PreSonus could do about it.

As you will find when reading comments here, in forums and on social media, that just as with sports fans, our recording communities are filled with those passionate about their choices. That's why on-the-whole I avoid social media and forums, I just don't have the bandwidth to sort the well-considered recording and production advice from those frothing at the mouth as they type IN CAPS about their opinion on a compressor, mic stand or plectrum. One can't help but wish they had the same passion for childhood poverty or the lack of clean drinking water around the world, imagine what could be done? Perhaps they do fight these things with equal intensity, forgive me if I don't think that's the case.

The problem is that sometimes our passionate values can become dogma and prejudice. We think we've made smart decisions, perhaps when we made them, they were smart, but technology may have changed that particular aspect of the industry and improved it beyond recognition. That not always the case, Skype is one such application, which seems to get worse with every update!

Rather than liberate us, our long-held views and processes, however sincere and purely motivated, may box us in and limit our creativity.

I was forced to change my shaving method, and I made a choice to start using templates. Both decisions have been a revelation to me. I changed my mind, and it seems my life has improved by making changes to these long-held and perhaps dogmatic views. 

I suppose what I'm trying to say is don't allow yourself to become limited by your choices, however passionate you may be about something, passion has a way of clouding our judgement. I'm not writing this to suggest you change your DAW, sell your Studer 2" or buy a Mac, or vice versa, I'm suggesting that staying open-minded is not a bad thing. 

It may be time for you to try something new and to make some changes to your creative world, who knows you might find yourself liberated and more productive than you could have ever imagined.

You may be thinking what about leather shoes? My answer to that is simple, from my cold dead feet!

PS: I've seen the Doctor about my spot, and I'm now on meds to clear it up, thanks for asking.