I’m sitting here in the studio tonight, but I haven’t started creating any music yet.  I’ve noticed something about the way I work these days.  I think putting it down in words will help me to gain focus… or at least, to understand how to focus and what it means when I cannot.  I find myself discouraged when I don’t have huge blocks of time to work on music consecutively, or when I do have a huge block and I feel inclined to use it doing something other than something I am normally so passionate about.  You see, due to some major changes in my life a few years back, I lost a lot of momentum.  And I’m talking about 3 or 4 years that my music-making libido has been fighting against me.

I suppose a brief history lesson is in order.  Rewinding to about 6-7 years ago, I was 21 and newly married.  And my marriage was a disaster.  I ended up spending the next year or two fighting a losing battle, but there was one thing I was able to do… spend time making music.  It was my escape from the reality of my crappy situation at home.  Eventually, it all came to a head and the marriage was over.  My way of dealing with this (after the initial shock and woe-is-me feeling went away) was to go out for nights on the town as often as possible, surrounding myself with friends, alcohol (etc.), music, dancing… just keeping myself busy, for the most part.  It wasn’t long at all before I met the woman I now share a home with, and she rocked my world.  So, of course, there were those initial stages of dating where you do nothing but spend time with each other and everything else goes to the wayside.  Eventually, we bought a house together, but the place I wanted to put my studio… the basement… needed re-finished.

So I spent the next year or more with no place to work on music.  To keep myself satisfied in the meantime, I began to start focusing more on DJing rather than producing.  At the time, the electronic scene in my town was essentially non-existent, so I began throwing my own shows.  Now, I find myself focusing on DJing AND promotions.  Things finally started to move on their own steam in the DJ department, and now it doesn’t require so much attention… I’ve “put in my time” so to speak, to the point where people come to me and ask me to play now, rather than me having to hunt and beg for gigs.  But, when all was said and done, I didn’t even know how to make music anymore.  Well, I knew how to make it… I just was so used to not being in the studio that I just continued not being in the studio, out of habit.

My life at home is much different now than it was when I was married.  We are raising a child, we actually enjoy doing some of the same things, Stacey runs a dog rescue out of the home… and for most of the main hours of the day our house can be somewhat chaotic.  I was used to working on music in large chunks or not at all.  A few years back, if I didn’t have an entire afternoon or evening to dedicate to working on music, I didn’t feel there was any point.  That way of thinking carried over into the present.  If I only have an hour or two of free time, I typically turn on the X-box or something equally unproductive because I feel like I won’t be able to get anything done.

However, I have noticed as of late that I find myself working on songs all day long.  I might spend an hour working on a song and then walk away from it… or go to the basement to put clothes in the wash and spend 5 minutes tweaking a kick drum before going upstairs.  My software just stays open on the screen now and I tweak something here or there every time I walk past it.  It’s funny, because I would have never thought that one could get anything done this way… but it’s actually working.  And to be honest, in the grand scheme of things, I’m getting things done more quickly.  (Why wait 2 months to have 5 solid hours of time to work on a song when I can find 5 hours of random time throughout 1 week?)  The funny thing is, this method actually has its benefits.  People who work on music for hours on end suffer from what they call “ear fatigue”.  Basically, you get used to hearing the same thing over and over again and your brain convinces you over time that it sounds better than it really does.  Now, every time I sit down to tweak something, I’m coming at it with a fresh perspective… it’s actually kinda nice!  I’m now getting a lot more done overall in the past few weeks than I have in several months prior.

Anyway, the moral of the story here is that if you really enjoy something, you will find a way to fit it into your life… and you don’t need an “avalanche of momentum” to get something done… sometimes the snowball effect works just fine.  What matters is that your methodology works for YOU.