A plan & a Pat - 21.08.24
Watch me get a headstart on this journal!
Today, I’m sat in between meetings, with some pretty amazing music folks. I’ve been reaching out to people lately for advice & suggestions on my plan. It’s been building my confidence to get stuck in & make all of my dreams come true. Crazy what a plan & a pat on the back can do for you.
In my little artsy heart, I find it tough to do anything that I’m not completely in love with. The boring stuff is only worth doing if it’s directly related to the creative dream. So after the big break of my final year in college, building up momentum again has been a tough one. That’s why I’ve been focussing on this new album of mine. The creativity involved has been driving me forward. It’s been waking me up in the morning, & keeping me up at night. But I’ve been slow to do anything practical for myself… there are three things that I SHOULD do, that I’ve now started to do.
Create some decent social media content.
Look for shows to play.
Create songs with other artists.
This is a fine recipe for building momentum. I’m so lucky that I can use my previous work to prove what I’m capable of. I have years of friendships built up in Dublin & abroad that I can reach out to. I have contacts throughout the music industry, & a fecking degree in music business. It’s amazing that I feel like I’m starting at the bottom. I’m positioned to become ‘a next big thing’… if I can play my cards right. I know the songs are good… but I do need more of them.
This is where my ‘secret practical thing 0’ comes into play. I must, before all else, write & produce more & more songs. A writer must write. A musician must make. If I’m to work with other musicians, I’ll need to have some things to work with. I’ll need to have my skills sharpened. So, I’ll be writing a new song each week, & producing a song each month. Once upon a time I would produce a song for my patrons… so that’s gonna be fun. The songwriting will be a tougher ask, but I’ll be able to toss out a crappy song if I need to complete the brief. One thing that I’ve noticed about myself over the years is that I can be a little precious with my writing, only writing if the mood takes me. Only writing about ‘important’ things. Only writing in a way that I would sing. But this limits me to the possibility of more.
I saw an interesting video the other day. The lady said that our taste will always outpace our ability. What I like, will never truly match with what I’m capeable of. I think this is one of the reasons that art is so riddled with change & fluctuations. It’s why I keep reinventing myself. Luckily there’s precedent for artists who keep changing themselves… you just package things into ‘eras’ or ‘characters’ or ‘chapters’. Sure even in the world of painting, artists have ‘periods’. Musicians are no different. Right now, I’m leaving my ‘blue’ period, & transitioning into my ‘pink’ period. Before the next album comes out I have a lot of work to do, a lot of music to release, & a lot of friends to introduce you to. <3
I’m realising that this moment of elation really needs to be capitalised on. I could slip back into a hopeless mess any moment. I’m learning, slowly, that this is a feature of being me. Not to worry though. With the right momentum, with the right plan in place, with the right commitments… I can keep my chin up through the darker days. One of the biggest struggles I see with artists is not their struggles with managing their mental health. It’s trying to build up enough momentum to keep them active through their mental health struggles. So many of us can’t even get off the ground, let alone fly. No matter how successful you get, you still have your brain with you. If anything, the struggles become intensified from what I’ve heard. BUT!!! When you do have a level of success & momentum, you can continue through that in way that a lot of us can’t. For better & for worse. These are musings for another day… a day where I’m successful enough to suffer through this kind of ‘privileged momentum torture’.
For now, I’m a giddy wee music maker.
Time to make some music.
Nathan
