Why do you produce music?

[Hades]

I've seen situations of people that are/were convinced their sole purpose on this planet is to make music, and they refused to do sh!t else in their lives.
It's not a thing I think to be proud about, to be honest.

but you have to be careful when you say stuff like that, because that assumes that making music is not doing something with their lives.
i'm pretty sure John Lennon probably thought he was put on this planet to make music, was his life wasted ?
think of the amount of pleasure and inspiration that guy gave to millions of people...

i'm sorry but i dont buy into the 'music isnt a real job' bullshit.

ive been involved in the music industry all my life, it employs millions and millions of people, doing every kind of job imaginable, roadies, truck drivers, lighting, sound reinforcement, agencies, PR, instrument manufacturers, pressing plants, printers, magazines, promoters, studio engineers, software designers - infact i could go on all day listing the thousands of jobs which put food on the table and enrich the lives of millions of people, and thats not even taking into account the music itself.

where would it be without the grassroots musicians ? the innovators, the visionaries ?

if you really believe you are a musician, believe in yourself, get out there and do it, and stop thinking its just something only worthy of mucking about in your sparetime, (not aimed at anyone in particular)

what profession should you be proud of ? - a banker ?

edit; sorry, a bit of a rant i know, but it really bothers me that being a musician is somehow not considered something worthy of dedicating your life too.

I think you misunderstood me steevio.
I never said being a musician isn't a proper job. Plus I definitely say "go for your dreams", or at least try to.
I'm convinced that at the end of your life you will regret the things you haven't done, not the things you have done.
What irritated me to hell with the first guy I mentioned was the fact that he was plain and simple preying on his girlfriend like a parasite.
Like I said above : it's one thing to say "ok, honey can I quit working and give it a true go for maybe a year, two at the most ?" and she agrees you should. But then, in my opinion, you should at least :
1. put in as much hours in the studio as you would on a normal working day. In fact, even more, because you should take this opportunity with both arms and be very grateful that you have a partner which is so supportive.
2. at least be man enough to do a bigger part in the household since you now are permanently at home and can easily do so. This shouldn't take you maybe more than 1,5 hours a day, and would help her a lot when she gets home.
None of these I saw happening. The guy was not doing a single thing in the house, she had to do it all. And I suspect he wasn't putting in a whole lot more than a coupe of hours a day in the studio.
Then I can't help but seeing his attitude as selfish and arrogant, sorry.

If the guy would have money coming in from his music at some point, or him or his girlfriend was stinking rich, then I wouldn't see a problem in that. But now she basically had to go to work every single day, perhaps doing a job she didn't like very much, only to come home to clean up his mess and see all her money disappear into his music.
If you want to do this whole artist-lifestyle, and go completely for the life of an artist and nothing else, fine. But don't let others pay the price for it. It's your life, you take responsibility for it !

And it's not like I'm saying : you are only allowed to make music if it brings in money. No, I'm just trying to say that if you're not stinking rich and you gotta work for a living, then don't be a prick and leave her to do all the work forever because you want to be an artist.

I mean, whenever my oldest daughter walks into my studio, should I just get angry that she's bothering me while I'm making music ?
If you want to be a "fulltime artist", fine, but don't let others pay the price, that's all I'm trying to say.

[Hades]

what profession should you be proud of ? - a banker ?

I wasn't saying you can't be proud of being a musician. not at all.
I was saying that in my opinion you don't have a hell lot to be proud of if you refuse to take any responsabilities in your life and let others pay for everything because you are convinced your sole purpose in this life is making music.

[Hades]

I'd imagine people like your acquaintance might be victims of that - he clearly dreams a lot about being a producer and having this international musician lifestyle and isn't afraid to talk about his passion but when he sits down to work it's not doing him any favours, while for all he knows there's some young guy in his bedroom somewhere whose friends don't even know he writes tunes, staying up late and writing amazing stuff...

the thing is, he does spend every evening snorting coke and making music for hours. (I might have kept him clean for 2 months, but I'm quite sure he's back into his old lifestyle now). So yes, he puts in a lot of hours.
But I gave him the opportunity to use a far better studio than his, and he didn't do sh!t with it.
I gave him the opportunity to see places in Europe (to do some of the travelling he always dreamt of), and he didn't do sh!t unless I took him by the hand and dragged him to places.
Instead of making music using a good studio and actually going out to see stuff, he preferred to sit in front of the laptop blabbering away on facebook and fora. That's what I mean with people preferring to nag about their life instead of actually doing something about it and taking an opportunity when you get one.

anyways, I'll stop nagging now

[NoAffiliation]

we should all just pick some random village and move there.

it's a nice idea, but just to play devils advocate... that's kinda like saying the grass is greener. like i need this (small village) to facilitate something within myself. it's close to the same impulse as people buying gear. not saying it's bad but it's a delusion of grandeur for sure.

[Phase Ghost]

I've been living without television for 15 years, and I go nuts when I see how people can waste night after night watching the crap they feed you on tv.
Why not try to do something more constructive with that time ?

That's so spot on man. I have a tv, but it's mainly for playing xbox and the occasional movie or the nightly news (which is usually muted anyways). The last thing I want to do after being at work all day is plop my ass down on the couch and watch some bullshit tv show.

[steevio]

@ Hades

i realised you were talking about one dickhead you know there, but be careful not to use one extreme example like that be in any way representative of the way things are.

sorry if i missunderstood you mate

[Hades]

@ Hades

i realised you were talking about one dickhead you know there, but be careful not to use one extreme example like that be in any way representative of the way things are.

sorry if i missunderstood you mate

no problem mate, no offence taken in any way

I've been thinking a little more about this thing, the "quit the job and have a real go at it".
why is it people are usually more inclined to do such a thing, and not say : work double shifts for a year or two and try to live as cheap as you can so you have saved the extra cash to then quit the job and take a year or two to fulltime musicianship.
I know I can't generalize, but every situation where I have seen this happen (I can count 3 in total from people who I know), it's always the girlfriend/wife/... that ends up paying for it.
I think that's not a very cool thing to do.
Like I said above, I've come across some money in the last 3 years, and I could easily quit the job and have a go at this music-thing fulltime. I could afford it now, I couldn't a few years ago.
But I don't want to do this.
If I get quite a bit better, and have the feeling I'm almost sure it would pay off to take a year or two off for it,
then, maybe then, I would feel I was "allowed" to have a go at it. And it would probably take the mrs weeks to talk into me to completely convince me.
At this point, I certainly don't have that feeling.
And I wouldn't want to waste so much money on a selfish wish of mine.
It would take so many years of working just to save back the money you wasted with 2 years or so of not working.
I wouldn't feel good about it. Not if you have a family to take care of.

You know what my sister did the last year of her life ?
She didn't go on some exotic vacation, she didn't go parachute-jumping or whatever.
She spent every minute possible with her kids. She helped her oldest to learn how to read.
Only if her kids were at school, she would go in her art room and start painting.
You think her kids will later remember her for the paintings she made ? Nah !
They will (hopefully) remember her for having cared so much about them and having spent so much time with them.
(and since they are so young, I doubt that anyone but the oldest will have active memories about his mother later)

anyways, don't want to sound like a bitter person.
trust me, I'm not.

anyone that feels like they should quit the day job and go for the fulltime music-thing should just go and do it.
But don't let others pay the price for it, that's all I'm trying to say.

[oblioblioblio]

nice posts Hades.