Andrew Watt describes how his collaboration with Paul McCartney on "The Boys of Dungeon Lane" began as a casual tea visit with no plan to make an album. The night before McCartney came over, Watt realized he was a lefty and had no left-handed guitars in the studio, so he rented every left-handed instrument he could find - a Rickenbacker, a Martin, an Epiphone, and more.
That preparation paid off. McCartney picked up a left-handed guitar, played a strange chord he didn't know what to do with, and that chord became the opening of the album. It's a concrete example of McCartney's own stated approach to songwriting: start with a chord that has no obvious resolution, and let the tension pull the music forward.
The broader lesson Watt draws out is about what a producer actually does. It's less about directing and more about creating the conditions for something to happen - having the right tools in the room, removing friction, and making the artist feel comfortable enough to just create. Watt is explicit that McCartney didn't need to be produced; he needed a collaborator who could hold the space.
For self-producing artists, the transferable idea is that environment design is part of the creative process. Whether you're working alone or with others, the decisions you make before a session - what gear is out, what's in reach, how open the setup feels - shape what gets made.