Making Music

I grew up around musicians, and eventually became a musician when in high school. I was surrounded by friends who played music, and grunge was exploding, so it was easy to maintain momentum in that world.

These days, I work in music, everyday. I earn a living from it. But I don’t make it, and I’ve been sad about it. Like a loss.

I think part of it is that I feel that in order to make music is needs to follow the formula that I’ve known since I was a teenager: make music, play shows, record an album, repeat forever.

And while I know there’s so many other avenues for music, I’ve been hesitant to really dive in. Mostly because it’s the unknown.

Of course, running has been a major part of my life the past few years, which requires a bit of energy and time. But lately the itch of music making has crept back into my thoughts.

It’s something that’s never gone away.

Performance vs Health

Sometimes we have to stay at the office late, or experience back-to-back days of drinking too much caffeine and cramming for exams, or take 12 flights in a month (and drink a few too many glasses of wine). That’s okay, as long as we invest in our health when that period of performance is over, and restore equilibrium, setting ourselves up for the next stretch where we’ll be tested.

Joe Holder

Go Outside

I’ve stared at my inbox, or my laptop screen in general, trying to think, forcing myself to be creative, to fix a problem, come up with a solution, and rarely does that method work.

Before you make a big decision, walk around the block.
If it’s raining out, take the dog for a run.
End the meeting a few minutes early and go for a stroll with the team.
Instead of an afternoon snack, consider some sunshine.
The less convenient, the more it pays.

A hard habit to create, but definitely worth it.
When in doubt, go outside. Especially when it’s inconvenient.

Seth Godin

Grabbing a jacket (or running shoes) and heading outside is very less convenient, yet I know, from experience, it’s usually the right course of action.

Low Tech Works

Did you know there’s a whole underground pirate radio network that’s delivered via… conference call?

The shows weren’t the traditional kinds you’d find by tuning to an AM or FM band; they were operated independently from media companies by ordinary Hmong citizens, aired live all-day, every day and were free to call into for as long as you’d like. They used free conference call software to do it, a network that is still in place to this day.

Dial Up! How the Hmong diaspora uses the  world’s most boring technology to  make something weird and wonderful

(via Ben Werdmuller)

Getting It Live

The best piece of advice my dad ever gave me was that you start learning to drive after you pass your test. To contrive that to serve my point: your software can only reach its potential when it’s live. You are not your users, so don’t pretend you know what they want/need. Give them the best thing you can make, then let them tell you how to do it better.

Jasper Tandy

I remember launching Noise Creep back in 2008. We had all these ideas at launch, that Tuesday would be one thing, and then on Thursdays we’d post another thing.

That lasted maybe two weeks.

Get your thing into the wild, ship it, publish it, make it live.

Ten Races in 2019

My tenth race of the 2019, my most ever since starting to run in 2016.

This is my second time running the Turkey Trot in Bethlehem PA today. Today was faster (28:02 vs 29:05), and with less effort (155 vs 160 bpm).

I dealt with stomach issues most of the week, which threw me off. That messed with my sleep, and I didn’t get to run much the past few days, so I didn’t run as well as I wanted – I actually stopped at one point to stretch a bit because I had some pain in my shins. But, I still showed up and had fun and told all the puppers I saw that they were doing a very good job.

Oh, and I lost ONE glove this week, too, so my hands with frozen by the end of the run. All in a great day, and I’m definitely stoked and content with the progress I’ve made at racing this year – the logistics, the timing, the pre-race fueling. So many details, but learning so much in the process.

Make the Time, Take the Time

Schedule time to be around the things you enjoy, or else your schedule will get filled with everything else. That other stuff isn’t bad – it pays the bills, most likely! But you gotta put your own oxygen mask on first before you can help anyone else.

If I’m only in react mode, checking things off a to-do list all morning, into the afternoon, there’s no room for magic. No wonder. No dreaming.

The dreaming is the work. It’s where the great things bloom, and become bigger than ourselves.

Pushing Energy

I believe that Metal Bandcamp Gift Club has helped sell over 1,000 albums since 2016. That’s better than nothing, right?

Then today we sold our first email sponsorship. We do sponsorships a little different, because we don’t want your money. You have to give it to a local girls rock chapter, send us the receipt, and then you can sponsor our newsletter.

Seth Godin says before you get hired to do a big for-real job, make stuff on your own. One example he mentions is to design a direct-mailer campaign for a local charity and raise $10,000 for them. “Don’t worry,” he says, “they won’t mind.”

When I started Skull Toaster back in 2011, I did it as a “living resume piece,” to show potential employers, “hey, I can do this.”

In rebooting Metal Bandcamp Gift Club recently, I’m doing it again. Giving, building, pushing energy like this for a common good, and it’s something I enjoy doing.