Article Contributed by Universal Music Group
Published on 2026-10-02
Aussie virtuoso Ethan French has officially shared his project ideas of the day vol. 1—out now. A wildly cool project born from an equally wild idea, ideas of the day vol. 1 features 25 tracks—some minute-long sketches and others fully fleshed-out songs.
The project was born from his “Idea A Day” series, which began on Instagram at the start of the year. The idea was to share a piece of music daily, no matter what. The results have been exceptional: more than 850,000 followers on Instagram alone, attention from artists like John Mayer, Justin Timberlake, Jon Batiste, Anderson .Paak, Tom Misch, SZA and more, and an exemplary body of work distilled from this humble daily practice and love of creativity.
Listen to ideas of the day vol. 1
“I think I’ve enjoyed the creative process on this project more than I ever have,” says French. “I’ve learned that when I place less pressure on each individual idea, it actually improves the quality of my writing. There’s a real risk of making things worse when you obsess over them for too long.”
With the project’s release, he’s also shared the new single “way that i do - day 32,” featuring BJ the Chicago Kid. French remembers seeing BJ’s comment on the original day 32 video, hoping they could actually make a collaboration happen—a moment only possible in a digital age.
“It’s pretty amazing to be part of one of those moments you hear about that can only really arise online like that. I love how this track turned out, it’s got a raw and distorted kinda style whilst being super R&B—definitely a sound I want to explore more. I’m honoured to have BJ on it.”
Listen to “way that i do - day 32” featuring BJ the Chicago Kid
The project features the previously released tracks “sticks and stones to telephones - day 52,” an extended version of “reckless and arranged - day 56,” a track that sparked a wave of online buzz and excitement from fans across the globe and inspired remixes from artists like Kerri Chandler and T-Pain, as well as “it takes a lifetime - day 58,” “fake it till you make it - day 42” and “sight of me - day 10.”
ideas of the day vol. 1 began as exactly that: an idea a day, shared with no bigger plan attached. Twenty-five songs deep, all written, tracked and mixed during that daily practice, the collection moves between perspectives—some songs turn inward, while others are written about the people around him—with identity and the creative process as the thread that ties them together.
Growing up on the far west coast of Australia, Ethan French spent his childhood tinkering on guitars and mucking around with melodies, chasing sounds long before he had names for them. His relationship with music emerged quietly at home. His mother bought him a small keyboard at age four, and his father would noodle around on the guitar, playing Pink Floyd tunes. The tinkering turned into a passion, and at just 15, he won the prestigious Australian Children’s Music Foundation songwriting competition.
His mastery was hard-won, built entirely from scratch through feel and curiosity. Self-taught and obsessive, he still plays largely by ear. Growing up, his music teachers pleaded with him to attend formal theory classes, but he stubbornly insisted on learning by ear instead, and he almost didn’t make it through high school music studies because of it.
When he eventually studied composition at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, he chose composition over formal piano performance, refusing what he calls “skill acquisition devoid of creation.” He felt the sounds first and only later learned the formal language to name what he’d already played.
That instinct shaped how his “Idea of the Day” series came together.
“I get asked about how I came up with the idea and the truth is, I kind of stumbled into it,” French explains. He’d initially planned something lower-effort—a “chords of the day” video for musicians, a simple way to post consistently on social media. But after the first one, he realised it wasn’t fuelling his creativity the way he wanted and pivoted to “idea of the day” instead.
“I’ve always enjoyed making shorter, kind of ‘unfinished’ ideas and just putting them out there. I did a series of ‘song sketches’ a few years ago that’s a similar concept, without the daily thing. Sometimes people ask how I thought of it—but it’s not exactly a revolutionary concept!
“I’m a musician, a creator, and I decided to create something and share it every day. It seems obvious in hindsight!”
