It's summer! Swimming pools, music festivals and tomato sandwiches. I know a few #summerhaters read my blog, but we can still be friends, right?
I did a bizarre thing this year -- something I haven't done in 15+ years of teaching private music lessons: I took July off. On one hand, this means I don't get paid this month (hence, all the tomato sandwiches). On the other, I have some extra time, in between the swim lessons and band rehearsals and gigs and staying-home-with-the-2-year-old-duty.
Okay, maybe I don't actually have all that much time.
But I'm trying to actually make a record. If I don't get it finished this month, then there is zero chance it'll be ready by the time the Americana Music conference rolls around in September, and that means I will cry myself to sleep the rest of the year and probably quit music forever because if I can't get a record finished every seven years, then what good am I?
But I will finish it, right? Because that's a pretty strong last paragraph -- impetus to just do it already??
Eight years ago, I started a Kickstarter campaign application that I never actually hit "submit" on because I still feel like it is a terrible thing to have to crowdsource funding for an album. That said, I have donated to plenty of other Kickstarters and Pledgemusics and Indiegogos, and I have no problem funding other people's albums. Why is it so hard to ask for money for my own projects?
I need some pushing, friends. I need some, "Yes, it's totally okay to be an independent artist and ask for pre-orders." I need some, "We haven't forgotten about you, and your music still makes me smile." And I need some, "I don't need a fancy glossy studio record from you. Just sing your songs and have Steve Cooley put a banjo on it."
Pretty sage advice, if you're gonna make an Americana album. #putabanjoonit Is that a thing yet? Off to google it ... after just one more tomato sandwich, that is.
I grabbed a voice-memo recording on my phone of Steve picking some banjo on a new tune of mine ... check it out on Soundcloud.
I did a bizarre thing this year -- something I haven't done in 15+ years of teaching private music lessons: I took July off. On one hand, this means I don't get paid this month (hence, all the tomato sandwiches). On the other, I have some extra time, in between the swim lessons and band rehearsals and gigs and staying-home-with-the-2-year-old-duty.
Okay, maybe I don't actually have all that much time.
 |
| Me trying not to puke while SC records some banjo on one of my songs. We were on a houseboat recording studio. My stomach was weak that day. No one else was remotely ill. Gotta pull myself together! |
But I will finish it, right? Because that's a pretty strong last paragraph -- impetus to just do it already??
Eight years ago, I started a Kickstarter campaign application that I never actually hit "submit" on because I still feel like it is a terrible thing to have to crowdsource funding for an album. That said, I have donated to plenty of other Kickstarters and Pledgemusics and Indiegogos, and I have no problem funding other people's albums. Why is it so hard to ask for money for my own projects?
I need some pushing, friends. I need some, "Yes, it's totally okay to be an independent artist and ask for pre-orders." I need some, "We haven't forgotten about you, and your music still makes me smile." And I need some, "I don't need a fancy glossy studio record from you. Just sing your songs and have Steve Cooley put a banjo on it."
Pretty sage advice, if you're gonna make an Americana album. #putabanjoonit Is that a thing yet? Off to google it ... after just one more tomato sandwich, that is.
I grabbed a voice-memo recording on my phone of Steve picking some banjo on a new tune of mine ... check it out on Soundcloud.
0 comments