Writer, musician, wizardly guide to platform independence
Thanks to MTV and ‘Paradise City’ by Guns N’ Roses, I’m where I’m at today. I was surrounded by people in bands, always making music, then always writing about music, covering music… I’d say this all really started in 1991, when I started playing (my moms) bass. That was 30 years ago.
And I started a music blog in 2001, which really put me on the path to where I am today. That was 20 years ago.
Humbled, grateful, filled with bees at all times.
This is the second streak I’ve ended this year. The first was a 70 day running streak, where I ran at least a mile everyday. And now I made it 72 days posting not just an audio loop, but a video to go with it.
Instead of getting up early and working on a loop, I stayed in bed. Work ran late. Once I had the space to actually work on a loop, eh, I didn’t. And really, it’s not a big deal at all. I still make music. I still create things. That’s enough.
I guess it’s just important to follow your energy. Like, I ended my run streak, but I still run. I ended my loop streak, I’ll still make music. It’s okay. Our best creative moments can happen when not being creative. Our best runs happen because on the days we don’t run our bodies recover and grow stronger.
Streaks are neat, and all. Seems like 70ish is my limit. Onto the next, I guess.
A year of Groundhog Day, on repeat, on every TV in the house, at full volume. Cut out all the random events of your day, like running into old friends, or meeting new people, cut out every leisure social activity like going to the movies, going out for dinner, or meeting up for coffee.
Then, replace and amplify everything else which, face it, work. Then every work item, and to-do, and video call, and weekend task turns into a pebble that you have to carry and not put down. Eventually those pebbles turn into a landslide.
“social media gigs in 2021 all basically include at least 4 full time jobs,” @thecultureofme
Video by Ruvim Miksanskiy and Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels
Loop Daddy returned today with a new set-up and a ferocious mix of sleaze and funk. It was nearly two and a half hours of magic, and it totally brightened up my weekend.
I think this is my first complete song, if you count a 15 second, 200BPM chaos-fest like this a song. It’s here now, in the world for all the world to completely ignore, which is fine. I had so much fun making this, editing this (audio and video). This is joy to me. This isn’t work, this is all play.
Chances are most everything you write, make, capture, put out – it won’t be a hit. It won’t register. It won’t move. It won’t shake the world.
I mean, there’s people who forgot about “This is America” by Childish Gambino (hey, 2018 was a long time ago). There’s people who still never watched any of the Star Wars movies. People who’ve never read classic books, poems.
Keep making your thing regardless.
“I think the first concert back I’m legit gonna be crying. Like if you see me breakdown in tears in the pit mind your business” @TheKodakChris
Driving footage by Kelly Lacy from Pexels
Video game controller footage by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels
Video game arcade footage by cottonbro from Pexels
My run streak that I started in November 2020 ended at day 71. I though of stopping these Daily Loops today, but then realized that the two streaks are different, but also similar.
Ending a run streak doesn’t mean I stop running, I can always run tomorrow. But ending a Daily Loop streak means that maybe a certain beat doesn’t get made, or a riff doesn’t come to me.
What if today’s loop, or loop #45, or whatever – what if that was the one? The one bit of magic captured in time that leads to… something?
I like run streaks, but there’s no real revelation in the moment I guess. But for something like making music, that one day of pushing ahead and creating something can lead to something beautiful.
Not saying you have to make and produce a thing every single day to reach some sort of spiritual enlightenment that this silly post claims to conjure, just relaying my story. Your mileage may vary. Post a photo every week. Publish a poem on the weekends. I don’t know, make it up as you go.
“This is a PSA because the creative world is tearing itself apart. The panicked spread of misinformation and lack of nuance are deeper than crypto art, however. These are markers of untreated trauma,” Danielle Evans
As a young musician, a fledgling artist, a photographer just trying to find some work, do you need to get in on this NFT train?
No.
There are a zillion more people out there who trade in dollars and credit cards who aren’t giving you money already.
Figure out how to sell one more item this week. Read a book or watch some videos about sales. Spruce up your online shop.
Have you seriously done everything there is to sell your wares to people holding debit cards? Explored every nook and cranny of e-commerce, which has a track record of decades? Have you even started an email list, which has a higher conversion rate than social media?
You don’t need to jump on the NFT train anymore than you have to jump on the TikTok train.
Meet your clients, customers, your people where they’re at. They probably get paid in dollars.
One of the writing prompts for folks is to just write. Fill up that blank page at all costs. That’s how today’s loop felt. Just fill up the space with an idea, with a riff, with a bit, and release it to the world. One never knows where they’ll end up.
My run streak from November ended at 70 runs, but I’m feeling pretty good at loop #70. I’m still learning, adding, growing this thing. It’s funny… I’ve done 70 of these in a row and some people I know on social media aren’t even aware because of algorithms.
“i make looms in the kitchen, my roommate makes tiktoks in the bathroom. we share a 1b apartment. such is life in your 20s,” @saraduit
“Can men stop commenting on threads of women recounting their abuse/harassment. Let them speak and be heard; not everything has to be about you,” @old_rake
Oh, to sit around all day and work on music, right? Or make art. Work on photos.
While a career in creative work isn’t a guanrantee, you can at least fake it. That’s me most every morning (or late night). Pretending for a mere hour or so per day, just 60 or so minutes, I get to create some magic and release it to the world. That just wasn’t possible 20 years ago.
“Another day, another evening spent explaining NFTs to my bandmate and being like “also, we are never doing this,” @useyourtanuki
“When a job listing says the words ‘fast-paced environment’ that means toxic,” @1followernodad (this thread is amazing)
“Stay sane, creative friends. Focus on the long-haul. If you’re spending more times studying this garbage tech instead of making things that people talk about, then idk,” @PaulJun_
Inspired by my pal Jocelyn Aucoin I started drawing a little more in hopes of turning them into animations. Of course I go for the most mundane thing, a fucking flip phone that’s freaking out, but I think it works with the the music.
Trying out a new plugin called Bass Fingers, which you can maybe hear in this loop. Basically some smooth sounding bass tones that you can play via a MIDI controller.
“Art being called content and artists being called content creators has to be one of the worst things to happen in the art space in years,” @KyWilliamsDraws
