Thursday 10th November, 2022
We we’re doing so well with the Wednesday uploads. A very talented songwriter even reminded me to write yesterday… but life has once again, gotten in the way. Let’s talk about that, & let’s talk about a problem that I’ve happened upon… What seems to be a common theme among the recently graduated artists & friends in my life.
Where do I go from here? Do I really have to start again?
Recently a best friend of mine left Ireland to explore Asia. They’d been building up to it for years. Working & saving away… when they left, we were describing it as the end of a chapter, until a wise man told us that it wasn’t the end of a chapter. It was the end of a book. You’ve just left college? You just arrived in a new country? A book has been closed, & you get to start a new one… which can feel like starting all over again, but it’s more like a sequel. (& let’s be real, Shrek 2 is better than Shrek 1)
For a lot of us lucky souls… aka: mature students. We usually have a career or project outside of college to work on while we’re studying. This lets us direct our education at something that we’re going to continue after we leave that education. For a lot of the unfortunate people, fresh out of education for the first time in their lives, they mostly don’t have a project ready to go. Instead, they spend 3 to 4 years building up expertise & skills, only to find that there’s nowhere to put them. Underutilised & unappreciated talent, combined with a musically creative & imaginative mind, can be terrifying to deal with. (so be sure to talk to your other graduates about all these feelings… you’ll find that you’re not alone in this)
How do I handle an artist with no direction? I usually tell them about all of the missteps & mistakes I made when I first began the whole music thing.
I was convinced, in 2018, that I didn’t need to perform live to have a career. (turns out I was just unhappy with my live show & didn’t know how to find a band to improve it)
In 2019, I U-turned & tried to gig every single week. (which turned me into an acoustic singer-songwriter)
In 2020, I released music as soon as I had it & didn’t really plan anything ahead of time. (leaving me disappointed with almost each release, & feeling like people didn’t care.)
In 2021, I was actually pretty good with everything I was doing. (although I still struggled to plan my releases)
Now in 2022 what’s my problem? What am I doing wrong? (I think I’m still struggling to plan & network well…)
Anyways, beyond that wee tangent of my failings, I then try to ask some questions to get to the core of that persons desires, expectations, fears, & doubts… Simple things like what do you want. (insert answer here), then… How far away are you from reaching it. (insert another answer here), then… Who can you think of with that thing? (insert answer here) Then the conversation tends to get too intense for that person & I give them a break… so…
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Breathe. :)
This advice, you will hear from a million sources. Figure out what you want, even if it’s ridiculous. Then, using other people or artists as examples, figure out a way there. Work backwards. You wanna be a successful songwriter? (btw, I’m defining success against your ability to pay the bills & eat) Look at some songwriters… listen to Ross Golan’s podcast: And the Writer is… Find a prominent songwriter in your own country, or city. Find a songwriter that’s just gotten a song on the radio. Find a songwriter who’s played at your local open mic night for a while… these people are out there & they can help you plan your steps.
Maybe you need to move country to a bigger market, LA is the songwriting capital of the world. Maybe London is where you need to be to get some sessions. (let’s assume you’re a good songwriter who can write with other people if needs be…) Figure out how much songs can make, how much you need to live, & how much work you might need to do to make it all work. I dunno… (it’s hard to plan without you.)
What I’m really getting at here is people, other people who’ve walked the path you’re looking at. You are not alone, you are not the first, you are not unique, but you are special. (I was starting to sound mean…) So, reach out to people. Invite them for a coffee. Go to events & meet ups. Connect with institutions. & MOST importantly, do the thing you want to do… if you want to be a songwriter, stop spending all of your time learning about publishing & write some f**king songs. Of course, learn about publishing & do all the other things, but don’t stop working on what you wanna be directly. You may end up drifting into a pocket of the industry that you never wanted to. (which ain’t always a bad thing)
Phew, I feel like I’ve not really gotten to the point… with any luck, you’ll glean something from this.
Okay, let’s move on to part 2. ‘Why do birds suddenly appear?’
I like the idea of adding chapters to these journal entries. Seems like it’ll help when someone posthumously publishes them into a book. (cause obviously I’m gonna reach that level of fame)
When you’re laying out plans, you gotta account for life, but you can never account for the birds. A friend of mine was leaving a fast-food restaurant with a burger one afternoon, when a seagull landed on his shoulder. The surprise distracted him long enough for a SECOND BIRD to stoop & steal that burger from his hands. He’d taken one bite.
The thing is this: My friend planned on eating the whole burger, but birds suddenly appeared & life got in the way. His choices were to buy another burger, go hungry for a bit, or degrade himself by wrestling two seagulls to the ground for a chance to salvage the remains of this burger. He went hungry.
No matter who you are, life will happen. When you’re a self-employed, self-managing, & self-motivated individual, life happening can take a slightly larger toll on your life. The knock on effects of consistently letting some work slip by has finally started catching up to me. Multiple deadlines & requests are coming at a time when I need to be picking up the pieces from a previous project, & planning the future of my career… the convergence of this workload has forced me to pick & choose what I do & what I don’t. It’s ‘no man left behind’ until there are 20 men. Then I’m leaving behind 19 of you.
Moments of overwhelm are inevitable. When they do happen, it’s easy to recoil into the fetal position & watch shitty Youtube videos all day, while eating entire baguettes covered in butter, with several cups of coffee in your system. (too specific?) In my wiser moments, I take a ‘zen'-like’ approach. Like that cartoon dog, in the meme, who’s house is on fire, & he’s like: “this is fine”… like that thing.
You will have to accept that you won’t get everything done at once, & some things, should they be time sensitive, you might never get done… that’s okay. Unless you’re a firefighter, a nurse, etc… you’re not gonna kill anyone by missing some opportunities. In these crisis moments of overwhelm you have two jobs: stay sane, & do what you can. You’re no good to anyone if you’re forcing yourself through an awful situation… cause you’ll bury things that will pop up like a zombies. You can run from them, but at what point do you stop being human, & become one of them? (okay… catching myself before I slide down a silly rabbit hole of a metaphor… get your sht together Nathan…)
Some people will tell you that you need to prioritise & makes lists, etc… I will do these things usually… but let’s assume that the sight of a to do list will paralyse you. What I’ll say is stop, sit, breathe for a second, & do the first thing you see. That single sock in the corner of your room that you were holding onto just incase you found the other one? Throw it out now. (too specific?) The dish next to your bed, or under your bed… wash it now. That half written song? Write it now. That’s all I’ll say… cause when you do that one thing, you just repeat the process. Don’t sit down & rest. Don’t ‘reward yourself’ for cleaning the dishes with another massive & messy dinner… just keep doing whatever it is you see, until you feel lighter. If you can do this for a few days, then have a look at that to do list. Have a bunch of things you need to do in the city? Do them all together on the same day. Grouping tasks together is really handy… but that’s to-do list stuff. You’ll get there. For now… do what you see.
That’s why this post is a day late. I had dinner to make. I had emails to send. I had a room to clean. Do I have 1,000,000 more things to do? Of course, I always will… but I’ll do what I can now, & then do what’s beyond that in the future.
To finish off this whole thing about life catching up to you I will say one thing to those of you not in crisis mode: finish the little tasks.
When you get home, don’t kick your shoes off into the corner, don’t throw your jacket on the floor. When you finish a meal, or a cup of tea, don’t leave the dish lying there. It’s easy, SO EASY, to hand on that task to future you… but you’re also handing that person your current to do list, & all of the work that needed to wait, & all of the responsibility to plan the future.
Basically, do it now, & finish it now.
Again, with any luck that was helpful & not just another bombardment of advice ordering you around.
One thing I’m always telling artists is to be careful of the industry people who tell you what to do. (I realise the silliness of ‘telling’ someone to do that… but whatever, okay!?)
Now, I leave, I will do something now, & I’ll finish it now. (hopefully a bird doesn’t interru
