Im normally pretty good about avoiding oversharing. However, today is dreary weather and I dont really have anyone to talk to but Jack and the cats (Miles is asleep). Ive had to make some hard realizations and with them some decisions. First: I thought that I would be able to focus on one genre. I thought surely Techno would give me enough room to come up with my own way of doing things. Instead what has happened is that as soon as I told the Muse Hey, this is how were doing things now she replied with, Yeah sorry, you dont get to make that call and now Im withholding until you figure it out. My musical tastes change enormously on a frequent basis. I really cant control it. I might want to listen to and make Techno today but tomorrow and for the next six months I dont want to hear it and cant make it to save my life, because suddenly the thing thats moving me is, say, Ambient. On and on it goes. As Bono once said of himself, Im an interesting bunch of people. The problem with trying to establish any kind of musical career path is if you dont focus your sound then no one knows what to make of you and then you really dont develop much of an audience. This brings me to point two. Second: Lets face facts here. Im a hobbyist, even if by the technical definition of the word Im a professional musician. My real day job is stay at home dad. I cant tour. I cant go out late at night and network. I really cant even gig, because I gotta take care of these two boys. When push comes to shove, Im going to choose the path that benefits them every time. Given that I refuse to feed them to the public school machine when theyre of age, this isnt going to change anytime in the even remote future. Im a hobbyist musician. Im a hobbyist martial artist. Im even a hobbyist doctor at this point, despite being 6 figures into student loan debt for it. Im a professional SAHD and thats how it is. So to summarize: I cant focus on one genre/identity/sound as it kills my creative flow, and I dont really care anymore if it makes a touring & gigging career impossible because, truthfully, a touring & gigging career has been impossible for quite some time now. So, Im taking all my pseudonyms Ive come up with over the last few years and putting all their work back onto Soundcloud and Bandcamp. Im probably going to stop submitting to labels, Ill probably just use Bandcamps Name Your Price function, as what I really want is an audience to engage with more than I care about the tiny amount selling recordings pays. Im not saying Id turn down the right paid gig opportunity, Im just saying that gig isnt there right now. Therefore, Im going to pursue happiness via the way that leads to consistent output and let that be that. (Hopefully theres a couple folks out there who actually listen to this stuff and get something out of it. I know its my job as the musician to make work worth talking to others about and believe me Im trying. ) Ill post links once the Soundcloud page has been re-updated.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 16:59:50 +0000
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