Coming out of school as a music graduate, I had a few career paths. Behind door one was the freelance musician option, where I could write for various media projects (commercials, TV, etc) while establishing a client base. This was an interesting proposition, but I was not interested in staying in Utah and networking with the music scene there. What can I say, I missed California.
Option two was to move to LA and do the the whole music scene as a singer/songwriter. This idea was nixed almost immediately based on my writing style and personal preferences – I prefer to stay more behind the scenes as a composer. And in reality, I do a lot more writing/arranging instead of performing.
Option three was to get a real job and funnel the money into music on the side. This was the option I chose, and though not for everyone, has made me the happiest. Mostly , this boiled down to the fact that I didn’t want to eat ramen for three straight years. Somehow, I lucked into a job that that provides enough work/life balance that I can work towards a career in business and write music on the side. And although the job itself isn’t music related, I’ve been involved in a few random side projects at work that have allowed me to stretch my mixing and engineering skills.
When I’m not working on mixing rap songs about finance, I writing songs to submit to TAXI. TAXI is an online A&R company that will allow you to submit music towards various listings created by music professionals. For a small fee, TAXI will screen and review your music. If the music is deemed appropriate, they’ll send the music on to the execs or music publishers behind the listing.
Granted, I actually haven’t placed any music yet. But the benefit of TAXI is this: it allows me to receive critique and grow as a musician. Plus, I still feel like I’m in touch with what is going on in the industry, even though I’m working an 8-5 job.
Oh, and I finally have something to upload today. This is a piece Elise Burrell and I cowrote. Elise, if you ever come back down here to California, I need to record your comps and backup vox for this song!
You know…I think that’s how most people start out anyway (having a day job until the dream job pans out). This is in a different vein, but I was listening to an interview ith The Offspring the other day on KROQ and back in ’94 when their second album made it big, one of the band members was still working his day job as a janitor for an entire year before he finally quit it to work on music exclusively.
Yeah, it’s kind of romantic to give it all up and live off of nothing, devote yourself full-time to your music aspirations, work part time as a barrista at Starbucks, and rent a loft in Hollywood for 8 years before you actually find something that gets you more than $15 an hour, or you can at least build a normal resume and then achieve your dreams a little more responsibly and a lot less recklessly.