Writer, musician, wizardly guide to platform independence
“I’m mentoring a young African photographer that does all his edits on his phone. Does anyone have a laptop they aren’t using?” @aundrelarrow
“The gentlest people I know are full of rage and grief.” @alexanderchee
“Happy to have cut my teeth in an industry that was more about supporting art and adding something beautiful to the world than being an “entrepreneur” and being cool and not understanding what it truly means to invest in something you believe in.” @misslujo
Just beeps and boops, bass-line and loops. Late night jamming, but loving the work. Head down, crank it out. And heck, this isn’t #14, this is like #114 if we’re counting all the files on my computer. This is where it’s at because I’m been messing with Abelton Live since 2017, which is probably the longest I’ve messed with a single piece of software since ScreenFlow.
One poem, one photograph, one beat can change someone’s life. Make your thing and ship it.
Video by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels
During a recent Instagram Stories doom-swipe session, I noticed Kendriana post about one of her posts being removed because IG thought it broke some rule. A physical trainer I follow had their entire account wiped out because of some unknown one-and-done rule breaking (thankfully they got their account back).
With each day that passes, it’s never been more important to move your followers to your website. To your email list. Get your biggest fans to follow you to a platform you own.
Social media is so enticing for artists, photographers, musicians, etc because of the instant feedback. The interaction. The release of endorphins that come from instant validation.
The entire system is built on that, but it’s a system to benefit them, not you.
You feed their system day and night with content, with engagement, with interaction. In turn, they harvest your user data, habits, track what you look at and like, and sell it to advertisers.
So long as you keep feeding social media your time and effort, they will make lots of money.
The alternative is update your own website. Send an email to your newsletter subscribers.
Neither give you the instant feedback, but stop and consider that instant isn’t alway better.
Sometimes you need to let your work cook.
Make your site something that’s so rad that people would miss it if it were gone (via Seth Godin). Make it something that is a part of people’s lives. Something worth typing into an address bar (or even bookmarking).
Make your thing so great that people will trade you their email address and the sacred access to their inbox just to keep up with you.
When you spend four hours a day on social media, you helped sell a lot of ads.
When you fill your site with two years worth of content, you had a body of work. Anyone with a web-browser can see your talent.
Your magic.
“There’s only so much trauma one single human brain can process, and Twitter is like an always-on trauma machine,” Brown said in an email. “It takes a huge mental toll to consume this content, day in and day out.”
‘Always on trauma machine’: Social media managers grapple with burnout, leaving the industry
My eyeballs are singed by Twitter lately, so tonight I struck back. I scrolled, found the first video I could I find, ripped the audio and chopped it up into a sample, which you can hear in today’s Daily Loop.
Video by Nazim Zafri from Pexels
I know I want to make music. I sit down, open up Abelton, and eh, we’ll see what happens. Sometimes I’m not in the mood for making music, so those nights I’ll work on my Goodnight, Metal Friend mixes.
Neither is “the thing,” I don’t think. Though I won’t know if I don’t keep at it. It helps that I enjoy the process.
Running became a thing. Been doing that since 2016, and more often than not I’m wearing a running shirt instead of a band shirt. How’d that happen?
Sitting in front of me is a fancy pants MIDI-controller, which makes working in Abelton even more fun. I’ve looked, and I’ve been toying with Abelton for since December 2017, so I guess that’s one of my things now, too.
The thing is, none of these “things” needs to be a thing. I’m probably not going to be an iconic producer or marathon legend, but that’s okay. That’s still living.
On a day with too many video calls, a crappy run, and force-feeding my eyeballs with way too much Capitol-siege footage, we get to here. By 8am I had most of this loop done, so when I sat down at about 7pm it was ready to bake.
I can go for a run without thinking of winning a race, which is a mindset I need to apply to this project. A steady practice of running got me here, nearing five years of running. Do I have trophies and winnings to show for it? Nope.
This daily practice of loop making, then, is not for press coverage or the myriad of other random goals that music makers could hope for. In the late 80s I just wanted to be shredder and travel in a rock and roll band. Priorities (and markets) change, so I’m okay with not holding out hope for that.
Sure, there are 100 different articles I could link to and discuss here tonight. Lord knows I read 1000 Tweets, streamed a few hours of news coverage. But tonight, right here, this is for a Daily Loop. A soft place, an open invitation… permission, I guess. Make the thing, do the thing, ship the thing (as Seth Godin says). To hold back is to withhold our magic from the world.
Seriously started out this Daily Loop with just a few hours to go, but got it done. Even with a new piece of hardware.
I ordered an Akai Professional APC40 MKII Pad Controller about a month ago, and it finally showed up today. I’ve been messing around with Abelton Live a bit for the past few years, and well, it’s come to this, I guess.
Broke out my bass for the first time in a long time, too, inspired by a conversation I had earlier in the day with a friend about Victor Wooten. That just got me thinking a bit about chunky chords and odd phrasing.
Also thought about how there’s so many things I could do to this track, adding effects and all that, but wanted to just get this out there. Perfection is the enemy of done, and I just wanted to make sure I stuck to my daily schedule.
What happened last Wednesday will be in history books. People will talk about the insurrection 100 years from now. Yet another horrible stain in our nation’s history.
Then I thought of the images of the zip-tie guy. Antlers guy. The guy with his feet up on Nancy Pelosi’s desk. They’re going to be in history books, too. They’ll be in video montages in December, in those cheesy look-back clips.
Then I remembered NJ Rep. Andy Kim helping clean up from the aftermath.
“I’ve spent a lot of time in Afghanistan and Iraq, I’ve been in war zones where I’ve had to shelter in place, but I never would have imagined that this would happen here,” he said, noting that he didn’t know at the time whether the rioters were armed. “It was a terrifying experience.”
There is ample room for everyone’s reactions, hot takes, and snarky comebacks. I don’t mean to take that from anyone. But for many, it just aren’t hard-wired. The reaction is more about mobilization, helping, donating. Less hard. Soft. Just as important.
Even if you’re not introducing articles of impeachment, or delivering a monologue of zingers on late night TV, that does not mean you’re not part of the positive reaction to this event.
Some of the people who were arrested for this invasion will probably serve light sentences. They’ll lose their jobs. But then out will come the GoFundMe campaigns, and they’ll make a chunk of change.
On the other side, we’ll send money to our local food bank, mutual aid, hell… write a friend a postcard.
Every positive step forward, no matter the size, will get us where we’re going.
Photo Andrew Harnik / AP, via NBC News
This week started with bean dad, and ended with an attempted coup. Thousands of COVID-19 deaths. Talk of impeachment.
They’ll be talking about these event 100 years from now. Well, probably not bean dad, but still.
For the week ahead we’ll all try and show up for work as if any of this is normal, dealing with the ambient dread however we can. Lots of coffee, mid-day walks, mid-day naps – whatever. Wild times call for wild coping strategies.
Sit down, do the work. That’s the running theme throughout ‘Turning Pro‘ by Steven Pressfield. Don’t wait for inspiration to strike. Get your ass in the chair and work.
Sure, I’ve been playing bass since 1991, but the past TWO DECADES have seen me doing everything but making music. Several stops and starts, of course, but I’m trying.
These Daily Loops are a by-product of sitting down and doing the work. I’ve been showing up, opening up Abelton Live damn near every day the past few months, and just trying to crank out something.
Sure, the goal is to someday release an album on Bandcamp, but I don’t even know what that would sound like. In the meantime, I’m going to ship. If I wait, it dies. If I hesitate, I’m gonna fall right back to sleep.
It’s like writing. Best to do it every day. Stretch, eat well, drink water, floss. The every day thing adds up. That’s my Daily Loop. My work.
Is it my job? My career? No, but why else am I here? To update Google Docs and answer emails?
Our work is to delight, bring joy, create goodness. It’s 10 days in and I feel pretty good about this.
Video by Madam M.A (Akari M.) from Pexels
