Do people at your work/school know that you produce music?

[Castronova]

Well I work for a music-related business, choosing music for companies/commercials/events, so my co-workers are really interested in what I do outside of work. In fact, right now my boss is digging through his massive vinyl collection on the wall for a DJ gig he has tonight...


In the past though, if I tell a co-worker that I DJ or make music, it usually does nothing but haunt me.

For example:

"Can you DJ at my cousin's wedding?"

"Hey I'm in a band too, we're called Immortal Satanic Explosion. Let's jam!"
(this one is usually followed by daily updates every time the band member practices, plays or a show, or speaks to his bandmates)

[laza]

I get this allot;

A says} "Soooo... what did you do this weekend?"

B Says} "Urm..........hmmmmm...........I just sat at my computer in the same clothes i wore to work and friday all weekend; it was great"

haha same here nobody understands how this can be

[djones]

I'm curious because I tend to keep it a secret at work... and why? Well, I know that the people I work with have completely different tastes in music (top40, pop, rock, etc.) and they would not 'get' electronic music at all, especially minimal with all the clicks and pops and no singing and 8 minute tracks and all that. I simply don't want to enter a conversation where they will ask all their ignorant stupid questions and criticise my music even though they wouldn't know what they're talking about.

I know I am sensitive about other peoples' comments because my music is such a personal thing to me. It's such a powerful expression of what i like and who I am as a person, that if someone doesn't understand it then they obviously don't understand me. The last thing I need is for people to be picking on me about the music I like/produce, especially if they dont even know the genre.

Same problem here.
Although I actually never finished a track and therefore don't call myself a 'producer'.
But people really don't understand the music I'm interested in.
Btw, the genre of music I mostly produce is Psychedelic Trance.

Same as minimal music, this is very hard for people to understand, and understand why I like it.

[AVX23]

I play it down and rarely mention it, I am not the centre of my workmates world and same for them, it's just a non issue really, I just crack on with it.

I don't really talk to many folk about music other than other producers.

One thing that does annoy me is when I'm out at clubs and parties, seems I have made a name for myself here and so I always end up with people recognising me or wanting to talk to me about music (sounds great but is normally quite embarassing as I'm a very private person).

I don't drink, and am normally a bit stoned, so I'm pretty laidback, but I get a lot of really p1ssed up dudes trying to tell me about how Roni size is the saviour of electronic music and that how the use of non 4/4 time signatures is revolutionary and that I should try getting into Stevie Wonder. Either that or it's someone who's planning on getting into writing music for the past 10 years and just keeps on with the same spiel.

It's not that I find this sort of chat offensive, it's just after you've heard it for the ten millionth time and normally it's being yelled into your ear complete with spittle drenching, it begins to grate.

So now I'd rather people don't know I'm a producer or involved with music, I find it's much more fun to make music and be involved with projects than it is to talk about it, particularly when a lot of the chat is simply a matter of opinion.

Certain subjects are cool tho, like here recently there is a discussion about music and healing, which I find interesting, partly because it is genuinely interesting area to me and also because it's not being delivered as a drunken over-opinionated rant.

but yeah - the workmate thing is water off a ducks back to me also, I used to have workmates that liked techno, and we were in the majority , which was kinda nice for a while, but things change, so I keep it to myself now, we have a band at my work and most people are more interested in that, and it's my ultimate nightmare to be asked to participate there, so I'm keeping silent heheh

[Shepherd_of_Anu]

I think you should make an effort to be a little more open about what it is that you are fond of. Its all a matter of how you present it. Just boldly stick it out there, let them know thats just how it is.

Go to work one day and bring a sizable ghetto blaster and put on some tasteful deep groovy techno. Pick something so good that even the most obtuse person will involutarily end up bobbing their head.

For a couple years I moved to an area where techno is an almost non-existent music. The scene was clamped down on by the local police force pretty hard and the result is that nowdays the majority of people tend to be crackhead hip-hoppers or some kind of methhead heavy metal rockers. (Really bad homicide rate... there is a silver lining though... someone was shooting a lot of crackdealers, lol)

After awhile I just didn't bring up music because I generaly had nothing in common with others around me. In a way it was good though because I started exploring new/other avenues of music (not hiphop or heavy metal more classical and world music) in my spare time.

Often (despite the cultural environment) when I tried to expose people to my music I was surprised how receptive they could be.

I guess you have to weigh the gravity of the effect your openness will have with the people you are dealing with. If you think telling people about your music will have an extremely detrimental effect (jobwise or whatever) because of the mentality of the people you are dealing with then maybe the topic is better left untouched.

Let that alone be the critera that determines your openesss.

Don't ever be afraid to say it like it is.