The Need to Produce

Once you come to the point where you recognize your own talent; probably well before, actually, you start to feel almost obligated to produce.
I'm a musician, so I eat, I breathe and I make music, right?

I guess not always would be the more realistic answer.
A writer has to write, and birds gotta fly. But the ones I notice spend a lot of time sitting and observing. Preening & cleaning. All sort of things but not flying.

Because music is part of your DNA doesn't mean when you poop it comes out musically.
Quite the contrary.

There is much time that is not singularly dedicated to making your craft, but it is just as necessary as the act of creating.
The minute I feel guilty about not having churned something out, I realize how foolish that premise is from the start. Shaken, not churned.

Craft is an act of finessing it out of you, not pinching a loaf, pushing to give birth or evacuate anything.
There is a spark that resides inside me and it takes a lot of work to get that spark to dance its heart out.
I'm sure some creations were acts of birth, but I would hope most are not so painful.
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Listen to me on Rocker's Dive Radio and BBC Introducing - Jazz on 3 on BBC Radio 3 - from free jazz to fusion, post-bop to electronica.

A pal and I exchanged emails in which we bemoaned our current state of affairs. I said, I am doing something positive to change my life.
How 'bout you?
Thank You Blue - My latest piece.

BBC Introducing

One has to sign up for every opportunity available.

Social Media - Lies and Damned Lies...

In 2008? I joined FaceBook. Not as a means to reaching out to those far away. No, in an effort to generate some buzz.
I had a MySpace page that got me absolutely nowhere, musically speaking. One nibble in the, literally years I had taken to "craft" a MySpace page and persona. And the reason for the nibble was that we were connected in life and used MySpace as a communication tool.
But not one band needing a guitar player...no A&R guy looking for the next big thing. And funny, but everyone and their mother had product for sale. This was becoming a marketplace, not a networking tool.
And so I left.

What is FaceBook now? Beyond the obvious; lunch snapshots, pictures of people on airplanes...and God Bless America, but fucking advertisements. And no, I don't mean Mark Zuckerbergs ads. I have a very effective ad blocking plugin for my browser.
No, it all the purported musician "friends," my so called network selling their latest CD or Kickstarter campaign or gig. (Isn't that what the "Invites" are for? And NOT my newsfeed?)

Gawd...
At least with Twitter it is a simple thing to cull those whose only input are services they offer. I am not buying 100 CDs and jackets with promo material all for the low price of two hundred fifteen dollars.
If you know an A&R person, great...can sign me, awesome...want to propose a route to stardom, I am here to listen.

Understand that I get the use of social media as a free advertising channel and I do not begrudge them the space or bandwith involved. Ain't my dime.

But I will stop following you the way I switch channels on the television every time an ad comes on.
I am the worlds worst consumer, I know what I want for the most part and only need a few choices made clear. One whiff of salesman and I run.
Same applies to servers in restaurants - be friendly, not sycophantic, be accessible, not hovering.

Some people really get it.