this is a bit more on that article at Huffington Post. One of the reader’s comments contained this nugget:
"Can an artist truly develop if they are trying to book all their own shows, market themselves, manage their myspace, facebook, twitter, etc.? When exactly do you have the solitude to write? And who provides the guidance – the "editing"- that some of the great music producers and executives provided to our generation’s best artists?"
Well, even that’s an understatement! Add to that running separate businesses to support ourselves. Then there’s rehearsing, booking and actually playing shows, creating posters, sending newsletters, submitting show announcements to newspapers, blogging;-) , updating websites, editing video footage… and you see the dilemma. There just seems to be so little time to create and so very much to do!
We have a huge backlog of songs we’ve begun writing and not yet finished… and the large amount of songs we’ve still not finished mixing nags at us all the time. We’re also still learning the nuances of our recording program, reading manuals and watching tutorials – wow! And time just keeps running. My challenge is to avoid feeling guilty if I just want to do nothing once in a while!
When you think about it, it’s really amazing that humans can do all this and still have time to do other stuff – like garden or hike – Stuff that refreshes the soul and brings those songs out. How do we do it?
And even though it’s all exhausting, isn’t it great that as human beings we are capable of doing all these things? Is this multi-task ability an evolutionary thing? Rather than complaining about it, perhaps we should be amazed and happy that we’re constantly being forced to grow into acquiring all these various skills. Not that we won’t welcome help from wherever it comes, but I’m just thinking that maybe we need to change the way we look at all our tasks.
Which leads to a very cool quote by Robert Heinlein from “Time Enough for Love”:
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
You can see I’m torn between feeling overwhelmed and feeling grateful. I’d like to know what you think. Especially those of you who, like us, are creative and just busy! (Seems like most of our friends and fans are creative people!)
PS) And if you’ve got skills and want to be part of our team, we’ll welcome your input!