Boots and Cats

Welcome! We'll be using this blog to document and update our adventurous struggle to create unique music from within the life of a normal full-time working person. The biggest issues with trying to be a musician and also supporting yourself full time are expenses, time, and convenience.

Expenses are a problem for any unestablished musician, because all the needed equipment is obviously very expensive. What this means for the amateur musician is that they must do more with less... while at first this may sound disadvantageous, I think it adds a certain quality of heart and rawness to every track. In my experience thus far, I've created far better recordings when I first began my journey, and had nothing but a guitar, a cheap omnidirectional microphone, and some $50 limited cakewalk program. I have much better equipment now, but it seems like it is too easy to get lost in playing with the technology instead of creating the music.

Convenience is a pretty big issue as well, because if you set aside a few hours each day to work on music, that may not be the time frame that your brain chooses to be at it's most creative. I, for one seem to have hundreds of ideas flying through my mind all at once for the entire hour-long drive home from work. I'm sitting in my vehicle, thinking, Tonight is gonna be so great, I have the perfect set of ideas, I NEED to record them! But as soon as I get home and settle in at my work station, everything has somehow disappeared, and has been lost forever. Very frustrating. Another thing about convenience in a normal life is sometimes you have to move things around, unplug things, replug things, etc. One of the few times where my mind is still buzzing with ideas and I'm ready and waiting at my station, suddenly the equipment decides that it doesn't like the way I plugged it back in or set it back up, and something doesn't work. Five hours later of troubleshooting, things are finally working; but alas, the inspiration is gone, again, forever.

Finally, time is by far the biggest concern. As a fellow slave to to money, I must work 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week. And there is the commute. Because of traffic, its about an hour each way. Don't forget the time it takes to get ready in the morning and eating breakfast! That's another hour at least! That's 11 hours of the day that I could have been doing what I love, but instead I'm slaving or preparing for a day full of slaving. But that's not all, you have to try and be healthy and get those 6 - 8 hours of sleep. 19 hours gone. You have to eat dinner, can't be creative on an empty stomach. Gotta cook my own food to save money. That's another hour. Some days, there might be some responsibilities to take care of, like bills, grocery store, gas, etc. There's always something. That's at least another hour. We're up to 21 hours gone. How many hours are in a day, again? That leaves 3 hours a day to do what I want to do. The thing I want to do with my life, and am passionate about. And that's if I don't care about exercising or staying in shape by running or going to the gym, or if I don't care about having any fun with friends or video games. Seems like the normal working person just isn't cut out for making music.

...But I'm gonna do it anyway. Stay tuned.