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On Music... & Life
Oct. 11th, 2017 08:42 pmThis year is shaping up as a very busy one, professionally speaking, at least. The company I joined in April have kept me running, often beyond the 5-day, 8-hour limit modern workers expect as a right. If the money was a little better, I might see it more clearly as the privilege it is in this uncertain world
It's certainly taken its toll on my regular extra-curricular activities - photography & music (Interesting that I now list them in that order... music used to be everything to me...) A lack of a regular working week timetable has made photography excursions, or even just getting the hell out of Dodge, hard to organise & even harder to spontaneously achieve. So, lots of trawling through my Archive for great moments of yesterday, yesteryear...
Which leaves music... An interesting & revealing on-road phone conversation with an erstwhile bandmate yesterday, threw up some off-the-cuff remarks I made that rang quite true, on reflection. Given my lack of 'personal time' I've become very selective about what musical opportunities I'm prepared to spend that time on. The problem with that approach is that if it doesn't feel 'right', then I don't do it... forgetting that no project I've ever been involved in has started perfectly. But maybe that's actually the point. I'm certainly not a household name in Australia's music industry - outside my own house that is, so it could be that I'm becoming belatedly selective... to the point of musical inactivity. So should I give more things a chance, even if they don't sound particularly 'together' & run the risk of wasting time, or wait around for the right one to come along? Are we still talking about music??
I certainly still have a lot of music playing in my head - ideas of what to do with older compositions, aural pictures of what my ideal 'sound' is... I also still wake up at odd times of the night with a guitar riff or melody playing on my mental iPod, triggered by who-knows-what in my dreams. So in my mad mind, I still think I have something to offer, but am a little weary of trudging through endless musical car yards looking for the perfect vehicle
Two offers are currently before me - a jam-session/catch-up with 2 old bandmates that promises little beyond nostalgia & vague promises of a future that never happened 10 years ago & probably won't this time either. But, they are on my musical wavelength, so it could be fun at least... And an offer from a singer I worked with on a few projects, of some new material, potential new collaborators & an uncertain future. Not the greatest musician I've ever worked with, but confident enough in their abilities to make things happen. How robust, or practical, or viable those things are, is uncertain. I've worked with more than one idiosyncratic talent that had limited appeal, so the opportunities were similarly limited &, sooner or later, one dead-end brick wall looks & sounds very much like any other
This weekend, L-SP & I are off to a wedding on the south coast. Plenty of photo opportunities down that way, provided we can keep the bridal party out of the shots!!
It's certainly taken its toll on my regular extra-curricular activities - photography & music (Interesting that I now list them in that order... music used to be everything to me...) A lack of a regular working week timetable has made photography excursions, or even just getting the hell out of Dodge, hard to organise & even harder to spontaneously achieve. So, lots of trawling through my Archive for great moments of yesterday, yesteryear...
Which leaves music... An interesting & revealing on-road phone conversation with an erstwhile bandmate yesterday, threw up some off-the-cuff remarks I made that rang quite true, on reflection. Given my lack of 'personal time' I've become very selective about what musical opportunities I'm prepared to spend that time on. The problem with that approach is that if it doesn't feel 'right', then I don't do it... forgetting that no project I've ever been involved in has started perfectly. But maybe that's actually the point. I'm certainly not a household name in Australia's music industry - outside my own house that is, so it could be that I'm becoming belatedly selective... to the point of musical inactivity. So should I give more things a chance, even if they don't sound particularly 'together' & run the risk of wasting time, or wait around for the right one to come along? Are we still talking about music??
I certainly still have a lot of music playing in my head - ideas of what to do with older compositions, aural pictures of what my ideal 'sound' is... I also still wake up at odd times of the night with a guitar riff or melody playing on my mental iPod, triggered by who-knows-what in my dreams. So in my mad mind, I still think I have something to offer, but am a little weary of trudging through endless musical car yards looking for the perfect vehicle
Two offers are currently before me - a jam-session/catch-up with 2 old bandmates that promises little beyond nostalgia & vague promises of a future that never happened 10 years ago & probably won't this time either. But, they are on my musical wavelength, so it could be fun at least... And an offer from a singer I worked with on a few projects, of some new material, potential new collaborators & an uncertain future. Not the greatest musician I've ever worked with, but confident enough in their abilities to make things happen. How robust, or practical, or viable those things are, is uncertain. I've worked with more than one idiosyncratic talent that had limited appeal, so the opportunities were similarly limited &, sooner or later, one dead-end brick wall looks & sounds very much like any other
This weekend, L-SP & I are off to a wedding on the south coast. Plenty of photo opportunities down that way, provided we can keep the bridal party out of the shots!!
