I just got back from a bit of a break visiting my family in New Zealand. Was great and a bit hectic as families often are, but always lovely to visit NZ in the summertime and hang with old friends.
Since my return I’ve been playing a lot of drums (Maybe too much?:). I’m still at Joe’s Apartment on Granville st singing and drumming Thursday & Saturday nights of course and I love it, but also lots more recording sessions for people both inside and outside of my studio Vintage Digital. I have finally launched my own ‘online’ or ‘virtual’ drum tracking business and here is a link to some details, or simply click above on “drum tracking.” I have a great set up here at my studio so I’m pretty excited about it. I’ve been doing a number of projects this month for various artists; from Jazz to contemporary orchestral to Punk Rock. It’s actually been a ton of fun and I really enjoy it. Now that I have written a lot of my own music and worked as a songwriter, I have such a different (and perhaps more economical) approach to drumming than I did say 10 years ago. I really enjoy working and coming up with the ‘best’ (or most musically fitting) part I can for a song.
MY next plan is to get some more content on the website and finish up a bunch of music I’ve been writing and working on. It all takes time I guess and the balance between practical (paying the bills) and creative projects (songwriting- which I WISH payed the bills) is continuing to be somewhat elusive, however I AM getting better at it! I never quite realized how much work it is being a musician until lately. Keeping up with practicing, writing, recording, business, websites, video, content, media, press, gigs, and taxes!
There is that word again. Every year it haunts me. There is nothing more I love to put off doing than taxes. Part of it is the accounting and part of it is the realization of just how little income I make relative to the price of real estate (or rent) in Vancouver.
So….that is all for now, and I hope you are getting better at it too. The balance between heart and mind, that is. 🙂
Joel