What These Times Mean To Me

I am in my tenth year here in Los Angeles. Periodically, I feel a personal shift based on the inspiration I get from my surroundings.

It has never been more challenging for me to put together consistent work to survive. As I alluded to before, I do a number of things to keep myself alive in the business, which is essential.

But sometimes it doesn’t matter how many things you have going on, it’s just slow.

This is where I begin to feel a certain amount of life/vibrancy, though. Suddenly, a number of the things I was doing have either dried up or have gone away completely.

So I’m left thinking: What am I gonna do now? And it’s like a blank slate. I begin to get a strong sense of all the things I can pursue with the time that I have and the base I have built for myself.

Inspiration from my musical colleagues, for instance. I can’t tell you how many times in the last few weeks I’ve had important encounters with my musical friends where we brainstormed and talked about a band that we want to start together.

When we’re busy making a living, we tend to put the things we want the most by the wayside so that we make enough dough to survive.

Musicians go through the motions just like everybody else (more on this in a future post). But I still think we are a privileged few. What a blessing to wake up and realize that you can cultivate your own experiences instead of waiting for them to come to you.

Over the last year, I have also established my drum project studio. I went through a significant period of trial and error and through a huge learning curve to be able to play on people’s records by exchanging files and working solo.

But now I have created this amazing environment in which to produce, write and play and rehearse new ideas.

Creativity is more important than ever to me. I am constantly looking at how I can be a part of as many original, honest musical experiences as possible.

What I love about these times is that instead of getting freaked out, I look at all the empty time and think, ‘What a privilege. Now I can do…’ (insert dream project here).

We are in a period of great transition. Transitions are always the hardest – can’t grab the past or the future; nothing to hold on to.

But we have a blank slate to work with. Let’s paint with the brush that we want to paint with. Let’s play our hearts out.

People want to experience great music, they just can’t remember what it’s supposed to sound like anymore.

So let’s create some for them.

Advertisement