#968038 - 06/11/01 03:08 AM
What did you want to do when you started...
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MarkMartin
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Registered: 08/16/00
Posts: 27
Loc: Nashville,TN,UNITED STATES
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and what do you do now? With the many different career choices in the business, it seems that plans change....What did you want to do? Did it change/work out? What made you change course?
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#968039 - 06/12/01 01:47 PM
Re: What did you want to do when you started...
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Anderton
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 01/28/00
Posts: 7346
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My career has had so many twists and turns it resembles the Amalfi drive. This is all because I've always wanted to be involved with music, but just playing music on stage is not always a reliable way to make a living. So, my "musician" career goes in cycles -- right now it's chugging along pretty good, but when grunge was happening, I couldn't get arrested for the techno kind of stuff I was doing.
During the first "Big Lull" I ended up doing studio work in New York for several years, then got really involved in writing for magazines. In the late 70s I was having a very hard time doing anything musically, so I did some ad agency work while writing about musical stuff. In the 80s, the music took off again, and I ended up doing a lot of production and mixing on various new age CDs, culminating in the launch of my "Forward Motion" solo CD. Then things quieted down in the early 90s, but picked up again at the end of the decade.
The point of all this is that you really do need a well-rounded education. If you just concentrate on music, you have nothing to fall back on. If you play music, then you're by definition a creative type, and you will need to call on that creativity. If I was going to go to a recording school, I would definitely take courses in audio for video, how to write commercials, that sort of thing...anything that would give me an advantage in terms of making a living.
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#968040 - 06/13/01 03:33 PM
Re: What did you want to do when you started...
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Gus Lozada
10k Club
Registered: 03/19/01
Posts: 12208
Loc: Bunda Léle Studios - Mexico
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I actually did not know what was gonna happen when I started playing piano at age 6... today I am 29 and yes, I do have a lot of goals regarding music, but I am not still sure if it has a limit.
Music has been a part of my whole life but I don't make currently a living from it. I am working about it...
What did I want when it all started? ... To play like my Dad ...
What do I do now? ... I still admire Dad ... and live showing him the monster he created ...
GusTraX
_________________________
W o M
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#968041 - 06/14/01 06:53 PM
Re: What did you want to do when you started...
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AudioMaverick
Platinum Member
Registered: 05/19/01
Posts: 1790
Loc: Outskirts of Big Bear, CA,UNIT...
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I'm coming from another direction. I did play an instrument in intermediate school. But, I discovered the soldering iron in 6th grade, too. After 3 years of doing both, I dropped the musical instrument and began making analog circuits.
As much as I went into analog and digital electronics in the 1980s, I still kept the audiophile bug in me. I DJ'd when it wasn't cool, and spun CDs in 1985. With the help of a PC with a database, I matched beats -- not beat-matched.
In 1995, I got my first CD burner, and began restoring old tapes and records to CDs (had to be out of print). Now, I am putting the final touches on a rolling 16-track PC-based recorder, with live sound capability!
I still have another job maintaining a network of computers. But, you never know what'll happen tomorrow...
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AudioMaverick(.com)
"If it sounds good, well..."
_________________________
"It's all about the... um-m-m, uh-h-h..."
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#968042 - 06/15/01 04:06 AM
Re: What did you want to do when you started...
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Chip McDonald
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 01/19/00
Posts: 4792
Loc: Augusta, Ga. USA
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Originally posted by MarkMartin:
and what do you do now? With the many different career choices in the business, it seems that plans change....What did you want to do? Did it change/work out? What made you change course?
When I started - I wanted to "do music".
I currently teach guitar for a meager existance.
I still want to "do music", and that's not going to change, for better or worse. I would like to branch into other avenues; I've done music for a jingle or two, I'd like to do more. I'd like to get enough gear to a point where I can do the occasional location recording job, since I still get a lot of calls for recording jobs... I suppose I also wouldn't mind doing some engineering again. Keep trying to work on a method book for guitar, but not having a clue as to how to go about getting it published (and really not be appraised of the chances/market) makes it slow going.
Do the occasional gig for "grocery money". Try to sell CD's when I can at gigs. Hope to get by.
Has to be in music, though. Being away from it makes me loonier than I presently think we are.
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New and Improved Music Soon: http://www.mp3.com/chipmcdonald
_________________________
www.chipmcdonald.com (tagline inlieu of having a representational page of downloadable music for the moment...) / "big ass windbag" - Bruce Swedien
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#968043 - 07/08/01 07:43 AM
Re: What did you want to do when you started...
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mwisniewski
Senior Member
Registered: 06/17/01
Posts: 343
Loc: San Francisco,CA,UNITED STATES
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I came about it ass backwards.
Took piano lessons from the ages of 9-17 and hated every minute of cuz I had better things to do. Didn't touch a keyboard between the ages of 26-30.
Took off at 18 and became a bartender, scuba diving instructor, software trainer, network admin, database admin, programmer, and finally entrepreneur.
Then after getting sick of the whole "bidniz" world, I started slowly hanging out with my musician friends more and more as a nice balance in my life.
Then a good musician friend said, hey don't you play the keyboard? Why don't you have one? (I am 31). And something inside me said, "yeah, why don't you have a keyboard?" So I walked down to the nearest store looked around and walked out with a nice Roland XV-88.
Been playing it 2 hours a day everyday! Can't imagine why the hell I ever gave it up.
And now I'm about 2 months from opening my own music studio, and I can't remember what all that other stuff was that I was doing before.
Funny thing is I really don't care if the studio makes a ton of money, as long as it lets me continue making music.
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#968044 - 07/10/01 01:38 AM
Re: What did you want to do when you started...
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MarkMartin
Member
Registered: 08/16/00
Posts: 27
Loc: Nashville,TN,UNITED STATES
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Great Attitude!
Like most of us know (or are learning) This is the wrong industry to be in if money is your measure of success...If that was an accurate measure, most of us would be failures...Definately have to have a passion about what you're doing
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#968045 - 07/26/01 06:56 PM
Re: What did you want to do when you started...
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neonjohn
Senior Member
Registered: 11/21/00
Posts: 70
Loc: New Haven, CT USA
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I started out, like most kids of my generation (I'm 43), wanting to be a Beatle. In the 70s, I left college after one semester to go on the road for two years as keys, guitar and lead vocal with a rock band, and lived the wild life. I used to cart around a B3, Leslie and Rhodes, in addition to my guitar set up- though we did have roadies. It was fun at first, but the life burned me to a crisp! It's real fun to look back and laugh at the stories, but that life was really hell at times.
After that, I settled in with a local club band, and did lots of studio recording and writing. While I had a measure of success songwriting, I found that the craft of sound engineering and production began to take more and more of my time and interest. My Zen mentality told me to follow the path that life presents, so I did.
While I started by recording and producing strictly music, I soon discovered the whole world of commercial and corporate sound-for-picture, and began a whole new life as a sound and music-for-TV, and now, software and Internet, kind of guy. Unless you are one of the very few Hollywood sound design "stars," this is a non-glamourous section of the audio field. But it is an area where many can make a very comfortable living, without the stress level of trying to make it big. And it can often be done without moving to a mega-city.
True, it's not ALWAYS rewarding, but what job is? There are days when I'm doing fun original music or creative SFX tracks sync'd to video or animation; but there are also days when I'm in the field or studio holding a boom with a mixer around my neck waiting for the 23rd take. But I rarely have arrogant egotists who know less than me breathing down my neck!
I have since held two staff jobs with major non-commercial producers, and had many years of successful free-lancing. I've long since completed a BA, and an MA as well. I play in a wedding/party band, and teach a sound production course with a highly-regarded university degree program. I try to inspire my students to follow their not just their dreams, but their own paths. A very few people can be audio "stars." But a whole lot of people can have rich and finacially rewarding, if not glamorous, audio careers. My dream and my path diverged, and I'm glad I had acquired the good sense, and humility, to let go of the dream. I've been much happier ever since!
John
PS: If you told me at 19 that someday I'd be making music for corporations and playing in a wedding band, I would have said "Shoot me now; don't let me get there!" But actually, here is pretty good.
_________________________
neon
Mixville Productions, LLC
Creative Music and Sound Design
"I guess all songs is folk songs. Never heard no horse sing 'em."
Big Bill Broonzy
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