You dont 'work', you're a musician...

Sorry I havent posted in a while, since becoming a full time musician Ive been too busy doing absolutely nothing with my day. Only the good lord knows that when I show-up to play a 2 hour set in a venue, the 40+ songs that are about to come out of my mouth & guitar, just magically spring to mind as if conjured from the divine inspiration that momentarily electrocuted me in the face. Indulge me a brief backstory in order to gain a little perspective: When I was 13 I started delivering papers from door-to-door like the quintessential nerd of the neighbourhood, doing it on my rollerblades didnt help I suppose. At 15 & still in school, I worked as a budding tennis coach teaching kids as young as 5, the basics of the game. When I was old enough to work legally, I took a job in the londis around the corner from my school. I would finish school & go stack the shelves until the sun would set in its orange phantasmagoric sky. When I finished school, I worked 2 jobs while attending a full time course in Graphic design in the awesome Ballyfermot College of further education. I would get up at 5.45am to catch a bus that only came once every 2 hours in order to be on time for classes. I would get home in time to start work in a franchised Sony store in the local shopping centre before leap frogging into a concordant night-time shift at the cinema upstairs that same night, not usually getting home until 2am most mornings. After two years of that, I got a job as a sales executive at the most junior level in the multi-national giant that is IBM. There spawned 5 years of rigorous deal negotiation, 60 hour working weeks & little time for play. (It never stopped me letting loose mind you). However, I walked out of that job one day with no plan other than to pursue the music that had bounced off the 4 walls of my bedroom for so many lost years; And after all of the above, I can safely say that music is the hardest job I have ever had. Recently I have encountered one or two souls that seem to think that being a musician is a 'handy number' & that for some reason they get the impression that we only work 2 hours per day (If lucky enough to get a gig every day, which Im not). I dont begrudge people who simply dont understand or havent taken the moment to sit on that thought because quite honestly, I never truly understood the gravitas of such an undertaking myself, until recent years. The sheer volume of hours that goes into preparing to play for an audience for 20 minutes, let alone 2 hours is more staggering than the sight of mighty Thor's thundering boner. To be able to play & sing 40-50 songs without using a music sheet & to be prepared for requests aswell, is the ULTIMATE apex of something that appears deceptively simple. I can only assume that this consensus exists because music its something we take for granted when we're sitting there having a beer or eating dinner, as it wallows its way across the room & into our innocently ignorant ears. I can say from experience that it is no mean feat & I have a new found respect for the veterans & indeed anyone who takes to music as a profession. Not to mention the unsigned / original scene where countless musicians play their music for free & give up their time to network & respect others in the same boat. So what happens outside of the 2 hours of music you hear in the pub & after you've written your own songs? Well, I couldnt tell you how many hours I have sat at my computer this week; between going through the T's & C's of over 20 online music websites, in order to understand clearly how my music can be distributed legally; I couldnt denounce how many emails I have sent & letters I have posted trying to garner some gigs & radio play; how many microscopic alterations I have made to the artwork on my record, in the hope that everything down to the font-type, will improve the overall product. Not to mention understanding the physical distribution of a CD both online & in a music stores & working with suppliers to get the best deal on duplicating your product at the best possible price, while retaining excellent quality. How about booking a venue? Advertising? Enticing people to that venue? From designing posters to driving listeners to your music both live & online? To be a musician by profession, be it a cover artist, an original artist or both is not all that different to running your own business. Not to mention the dozens of hours that goes into recording the actual product in studio or the 100's of hours spent writing hundreds of songs in order to capture ones good enough to feature on a product that you're going to be asking people to reach into their pocket & buy. So, forgive me if I dont get out bed at 7am to go jogging in the misty morning dew; im doing well to be up most mornings at around 9.30am because I have likely been out until 2am playing music. Forgive me if I then, in the few spare hours that I do occasionally have from day to day, choose to go for a walk or read; or possibly spend some time alone or go for dinner with a friend rather than spend time labouring in a gym or catching up on politics. Bare in mind that when you're in work & im not that I am in work when you're not. Also bare in mind that musicianship is an ever-evolving practice that must be touched upon every day. Its not like riding a bike. Almost comparable to the ever expanding universe itself; you have to keep fresh with what you have while being able to grow & retain that growth sustainably. For me personally, this means going through my full set at least once a day & then setting time aside to both write & practice my musicianship with my instrument together with all of the grunt work that goes with managing oneself. Being an independent musician encompasses so many things: You're a sales person, a manager, an administrator, a performer, a distributor, a production designer, an agent, an advertiser, a designer & much much more. If you havent fallen asleep yet, thanks for reading. Eat shit