Hey, I’m Thorne Davis

This Substack is partly a journal, partly a public lab.
I’m writing to sharpen my own thinking, to protect against the kind of creative decay that comes from endless algorithmic noise and to record my journey in real time.

I believe I’m here to contribute something meaningful to the world, through art, music, design, ideas, or systems. Writing helps me make sense of that process: what’s working, what isn’t, and what patterns keep revealing themselves over time.

If any of this resonates with you, if you’re someone who’s building something from scratch, experimenting with your craft, or trying to stay awake in a world that wants to automate your curiosity, I think you’ll find something valuable here.

What I share

You’ll find essays and reflections on independence, creativity, and systems thinking.
Sometimes I’ll write about music and art, sometimes design and business, and sometimes the invisible frameworks that connect them all.

As a drummer and producer behind Tora, I’ve spent the last 10+ years navigating the wild intersection between art, technology, and business building a sustainable creative career entirely outside the traditional system. Along the way, I’ve learned that independence isn’t just about making things, it’s about understanding how and why you make them.

More recently I’ve translated this knowledge and experience into an ever-growing set of tools and templates for musicians and creatives — a project called ThorneLabs — but this space is more personal. It’s where I share what I’m still learning, not just what I’ve built.

Why subscribe

Subscribing means joining me as I document the process, the messy, nonlinear path of building things that matter. It’s a window into the behind-the-scenes thinking that fuels my creative work.

And maybe, in the process, I’ll find my tribe, the creators, thinkers, artists, and friends who see the world a little differently and want to build things that last.