Tag: inspiration

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Remember to save some art for yourself

self-preservation, art appreciation
Self-preservation is important. Don't make everything you enjoy into work.

Music writing can be a double-edged sword as far as fandom is concerned. The fact you’re in a position to influence a group of consumers makes it possible for you to get closer to your favorite artists than you probably would otherwise, but it also means you have to continue following those artists’ every move long after your initial interest in their work has begun to fade. This is honestly a best-case scenario because more often than not writing about music means you have to not only know but learn to appreciate the works of many artists whom you would otherwise not make time to experience. Establishing a career in writing requires that you be engaged with the wide world of music, and that entails keeping tabs on far more artists than those you personally enjoy. Over time this can make the joy of writing feel a lot more like work than most would care to admit. But that’s because writing is just that — work.

This is not a complaint, per say, but rather a matter of fact. You cannot make it in music writing simply by covering the artists you enjoy when you enjoy them. You need follow-through, and more importantly, you need to engage the fans of artists regularly to ensure people continue to care about your writing and/or publication exists.

When I began writing about music I did so because I felt there were artists I knew and enjoyed that most of the world had yet to recognize. If you could find my first hundred articles, I can almost guarantee every single one would be based on an artist or group I admired at the time, and if I’m completely honest, I would also wager most of those posts are fairly similar. They each praise a group I loved at the time, and they each argue others should feel the same. I built my initial following by covering bands like A Day To Remember, Chiodos, Secret Secret Dino Club, and The Wonder Years whenever possible, and I made it a point to interview someone from the band every time a new piece of news presented an opportunity for discussion. As word of my work grew, so did interest from others bands and labels about having their talent promoted through my channels. I was completely blown away by these requests, so of course, I agree to almost everyone that hit my inbox, and as I began to network with the industry at large my writing began to encompass more and more bands. Some acts I enjoyed, but most were perfectly average in my mind, and looking back now I know the only reason I covered them is that I felt that it is what my (arguably non-existent) audience wanted. Whether or not that was true is something I’ll never truly know, but I do know that covering a wide array of talent helped me navigate the industry and secure full-time work in the business I love the most. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Do I continue to cover any and everything that comes my way as a result? Hell no.

It’s incredibly difficult to land a job in music that allows you to share everything you love all the time. Most jobs are far more focused than that, be it covering solely alternative music or perhaps just hip-hop. Finding a paid position that covers everything is rarer than a Morrissey performance that goes off without a hitch, and they are becoming increasingly hard to come by as the demand for specific content curators continues to rise. I used to have a big problem with this because I felt, and still do believe, that everyone is able to enjoy a little bit of everything. I might not love country music, but there are several country artists I enjoy. The same goes for musicals, top 40 radio pop, and obscure shoegaze bands. None of these areas of music are where I spend the majority of my time, but they each are filled with wonderful talent that is deserving of exposure and praise. Just because this is true however does not mean I am the person to tell you these acts exist. I can tweet about it, sure, but I cannot dedicate every minute of my day to telling you about everything I love as I once did. That is not my job.

At first, the need to separate the work I am paid to do the work I would like to do was incredibly frustrating. I felt as though my initial mission to help more people discover great music had been compromised by the need for a paycheck, but over time I came to realize that was not true. Having full-time employment gave me more freedom than I had ever had before as far as creative pursuits were concerned, and though I couldn’t argue the need to cover everything I could do more to help a specific set of artists and bands than ever before. Instead of writing about 40 or 50 acts a week I wrote about 10 at most, but I made sure to make each piece released as good as it could be. Having fewer artists to cover made it possible for me to dig deeper into my coverage and, ultimately, provide higher quality content to my readers.

But what about all that other stuff I loved? Did I turn my back on a world of talent just because they didn’t fit my 9-5 lifestyle?

Of course not.

I still love a wide array of bands as I always have, but these days I keep some things I love to myself if for no other reason than the ability to enjoy certain songs or records without turning that enjoyment into work. Before I had full-time work in music, I viewed everything I enjoyed as something I would eventually cover, which in turn made everything I enjoyed some form of work. Maybe it wasn’t hard work, but it was work nonetheless, and as a result, my relationship with music began to change. The idea of listening to music for the sake of simply enjoying it became an absurd concept, as I hadn’t purely enjoyed music for years on end. I liked it, and I wouldn’t know what to do without it, but at the end of the day I was trying to put food on my table based on what I was listening to, and that put a lot of undue pressure on myself, as well as the talent.

When I speak to aspiring writers and music professionals today, I encourage them to experience as much music as possible. As soon as I do this, I immediately tag my comments by adding that not every great song or record needs to become the sole focus of their work moving forward. It’s not only perfectly acceptable, but it’s also needed. If you lose your ability to simply enjoy music, you will be unable to accurately critique it. The reason anyone begins chasing after a career in music in the first place is based on their love of enjoying music in their youth, and when you lose the ability to appreciate music in that way you begin to lose track of why you work in music. It’s not about clicks, and it’s certainly not about being the first person to hear the next buzz-worthy release. It’s about celebrating art and the appreciation of art, as well as making others aware of undiscovered talent. You can only do this to the best of your abilities if you too are still able to be wowed by music. If you’ve lost that passion, or even if you believe it has begun to fade, take a step back from writing and unplug from everything except your stereo. Put on the records that first inspired your career aspirations and reconnect with the source of your drive to succeed. Never lose your passion.

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Tear it down. Start again.

Not long ago, my life fell apart. In a matter of weeks I found myself with no relationship, no office, no apartment, and no real plan of what I was going to do next. I moved back in with my parents, who were thrilled to see their son for more than two days in a row for the first time in years, and setup a desk in the back of their living room. I’m sitting in that same place now as I write this post.

I could not have anticipated most of the changes that came my way, and I certainly could not have guessed how many would seemingly happen all at once. Depression came knocking, but I refused to answer the door. It never has anything productive to offer anyways.

Deep down I knew if there were a way to keep my life and career in tact it would have to come from within, even if I did not know where to find it.

To focus, I stopped…..

-Talking to people who didn’t help me create value.

-Opening Facebook/Twitter.

-Paying attention to politics 24/7.

-Watching T.V. and Netflix.

-Going out to eat.

-Making excuses to spend money just so I had something to do

-Writing about things I knew I did not care about

The first few days were the hardest. Instead of thinking about my situation or the work in front of me I wanted to check in with the rest of the world. The news makes things seem so terrible right now, and to some extent they legitimately are, but I found a sense of escape in occupying my time with the woes of the planet. I escaped further by engaging in conversations about these things, all of which would inevitably amount to nothing more than me agreeing with people who agree with me on things we’ve likely always agreed on. I wasn’t helping them or the planet, and I certainly wasn’t helping myself.

Then I heard a song. I would share it now, but the truth is that the particular track doesn’t matter nearly as much as the spark it ignited within me. I couldn’t shake the song. I couldn’t shake the band. I wanted to know everything about the music and I wanted to tell people everything I was able to learn. Passion had found me while I was busy trying to run from it and here I was, back where I always wanted to be.

When I wrote about that song I felt the freedom that only comes from doing the thing you love for no reason other than your love of doing it. That is what really matters, after all. Money, fame, popularity, even jobs will eventually disappear. The only real reason anyone has to pursue something is because it makes them feel alive. It gives them purpose.

As this realization sat in I began to evaluate how I came to such a conclusion. I thought about my fight with myself to avoid work and the mounting personal problems that needed addressing, as well as why I fought so hard to ignore them. That inner monologue then turned into a post about that subject, which gave way to another, and another, and now to this post.

I had made a classic mistake that many of us encounter when things go awry in our lives: I lost focus of what made me feel alive. Instead of running from that fact I chose to write about it, which in turn helped me find my way back to the thing that first ignited my passion for music and writing in the first place. All the chaos that had kept me up at night stressing over what the future might hold had transformed – through no one’s doing other than my own – into material that would serve as the path I followed back to finding my center in life once more.

There is a great country song that features the hook, “If you’re going through hell, keep on goin’”. That may sound simple to many of you reading this now, but in reality it is not. Keeping on, or in other words moving forward when life gets tough is one of the hardest things we as people must learn to do. If we fail to do so life has a way of consuming us and making us feel small, insignificant, and even stupid, but believe me when I tell you that is not the case with you or I. We are better than that. YOU are better than that. Believe in yourself and stay true to what you know. The rest will still need to be sorted, but as long as you maintain personal your course in life things will inevitably work out. Choose to move forward and wake up every day with the goal of doing just that. After all, what is the alternative?

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Time is never on our side

Today was one of those days we never want to experience. One of our team members received a call early this morning that informed them a close family member had passed away. Though they had lived a long and adventurous life the news of their passing still came as a shock coupled with great sadness. All of us felt it, and it seems safe to imagine a few of you will feel it as well. Death is never easy.

We spend a lot of time discussing about the need to stop talking about the things we want and instead learning to chase after them. We do this because we have seen the wonderful things that can happen when you take a chance in life. We’ve admittedly had things go the other way when taking a risk as well, but those moments have ultimately helped us grow as people and therefore – in our minds – aren’t really that bad after all.

There is another reason we do this, and it’s one we tend to not discuss as often. Not long ago one of our team members lost a close friend to a horrible disease. That friend was only twenty-five at the time, and most of our team had known them for years. Their passing was the first time many of us had lost someone who was essentially our age, and in the weeks that passed we grew to have a new appreciation for the frailty of existence. We knew the goals left unachieved and understood the dreams that were never going to be realized. We felt a sense of loss as we never had before, and it lingers with many of us to this day.

Before they passed, that same close friends asked us to continue on in their honor. This probably happens all the time in similar situations, but for us this was a first. We were no longer a group of individuals who enjoyed one another’s company in between solo adventures through life, we were something more. Every success was a success for the team, including those no longer with us, and every decision to ignore something was immediately met with a reminder of just how quickly our time together can pass.

This morning when the news of another passing in our extended Haulix family came I was reminded of those we lost before and how their legacy is now ours to carry. Somedays it feels like we lost those people years ago, which we did, but all too often it still feels like they were with us just yesterday. Time is a funny thing like that.

When terrible things happen, the first thing you should do is be with those you love and check on those too far away to hug. Take time to mourn and remember those who have passed. Celebrate their lives and find a way to begin accepting what has happened. This is the most important thing you can do for yourself and those around you because those feelings are not going to go away. You have to deal with these big changes. There is no other option.

When you get through that, which could take anywhere from days to months or even years (everyone is different), you must find a way to carry on. Not just for yourself, but for those who can no longer do so. You cannot afford to wait for the perfect opportunity to come your way because there is no guarantee you have that kind of time to spare. If you know what you want or what needs to be done in order for life to be how you want it then you need to act. Not the next day, not in a few weeks, but as soon as the feeling hits you. Do whatever you feel driven to do and do it to the best of your ability so that you can honor those you have lost through your actions. If not for yourself then for them because they believed in you, they loved you, and they wanted the world to see you for the great person they knew you to be.

James Shotwell is the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. He is also the host of the Haulix podcast, Inside Music, which features insight into the experiences of entertainment professionals from all walks of life. You should probably follow him on Twitter or at the very least visit his official website.

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Monday Motivation: Lil Yachty

I would hesitate before ever claiming there was too much music in the world, but sometimes I do worry over the state of the unknown talent. There was a brief window in time not all that long ago where a catchy song and a working knowledge of social media would be enough to at least land you a few blog mentions, but today’s competition is so fierce the most artists need more than that to even be considered for coverage. Most artists either need to know a music writer, know an artist music writers like to cover, or somehow create a viral smash hit that becomes so popular music writers have no choice other than to shut up and pay attention to what you’re doing. All of three of those options are harder than they seem, but they do work if you work them.

Every year a few artists manage to emerge from the underground in a way that makes everyone turn their heads. You might not ‘get it’ or enjoy what is being created, but the level of notoriety they are able to reach in an incredibly short amount of time is so immediate and overwhelming that you cannot avoid their presence. Fetty Wap did this incredibly in 2015 well while making the most of “Trap Queen”. The song’s viral success lead into a string of chart-topping singles that dominated radio and rap blogs for the majority of the year. 

Remember how much you loved(then eventually hated) this song last year?

In 2016, few new artists have been as divisive upon entering the global music conversation as Canadian solo artist Lil Yachty. Some might call him a rapper, but to do so would be to set unfair expectations for his music. Yachty is not a rapper just like Adele is not necessarily a pop artist. Both Yachty and Adele are capable of being those things, and sometimes they are nothing other than that, but the extent of their artistic talent and expression has the ability to transcend those genre classifications. Like most major artists today, Yachty fall in between everything that is popular today, and in by doing so has enabled himself to do just about whatever he wants from song to song. Maybe he raps the whole time, or maybe he sings with a heavily slathering of autotune on his vocals. Anything is possible and that plays a big role in his continued success.

It’s safe to safe say Yachty has some buzzworthy friends.

Yachty recently told The New York Times, a publication he mentioned in his 2015 single “Minnesota”:

“I’m not a rapper, I’m an artist. And I’m more than an artist. I’m a brand.”

Hip-hop notables were among the first to recognize what Yachty was doing with his music. By the time Yachty’s now frequent ‘best of 2016 nominee′ mixtape release Lil Boat was the talk of the internet he had already booked a number of guest verses, including D.R.A.M.’s “Broccoli” and Charlie XCX’s woefully underrated “After Party”. 

It is nearly impossible to walk away from an encounter with Yachty’s music without having an opinion. It’s intentionally polarizing. Yachty wants you to decide how you feel up front and act on it. He knows If you connect with his vibe and pursuit of endless happiness through sing-song hooks with deeply personal, yet deceptively amateur lyrics that you’ll subscribe to his social media accounts and eagerly anticipate more of his material. If you don’t then you will likely will do none of those things, but you may be so turned off that you decide to talk about Yachty on social media or some corner of the rap digital universe. 

Yachy’s music is cleverly constructed to both entertain and inspire immediate reaction, which in turn creates a currently unstoppable wave of opinion, news, and conversation in a digital space that demands new content 24/7. This is no doubt a nightmare for those who are immediately turned off by his free-wheeling musical spirit , but for those who ride his wave it is a pleasant disruption in a time when music – and perhaps the world – needs more original thought and perspective than ever.

In an age where the smartest way to navigate the music business is by developing a unique sound you own without the backing of a questionable contract no one has done it better this year than the young man born Miles Parks McCollum in August of 1997*. To deny his intelligence because you do not connect with his sound is just foolish. Instead of judging or hating Yachty’s critics would be wise to learn from his moves. He’s younger than 99% of the so-called industry professionals, myself included, and he’s done more to change the way we believe artist development works in the last twelve months than anyone. He took a risk and it paid off. Whether it not he can harness it again in 2017 doesn’t really matter because his rise has made it possible for another new thinker to rise through the ranks.

The lesson here is simple: With a new year on the horizon there has never been a better time to embrace the person you always wanted to be, both as a professional and in your daily life. Be weird, and realize your idea of weird is often just a lack of familiarity. Take risks. Be bold. Commit to being yourself more than ever before, and find a way to express yourself through your creativity. 

* = As someone who will be 30 in 2017 this is both inspiring and heartbreaking. A tidal wave of emotions, if you will.

James Shotwell is the Digital Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. He is also the Film Editor for Substream Magazine and the host of the Inside Music podcast. You should consider following him on Twitter.

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Journalism Tips: Curiosity may kill cats, but it will save your writing

People are not machines. This may seem obvious on paper, but it’s a bit harder to discern when applied to real life. Many people feel they are put on this Earth to do one very specific thing, and every morning they set to doing that one thing over and over, again and again, until they whither and die. If they’re an accountant, they account. If they’re a teacher, they teach. Like machines, these people feel the only have one task and that is the only task they set to do. While this method of living may work in some careers, it is a recipe for disaster, or at the very least lethargy, when it comes to the creative arts. Whether you’re a writer, artist, poet, musician, filmmaker, or working under some experimental title I don’t even know exists just yet, variety is key to your success, and not just in the work you do. Let me explain:

A toaster’s sole purpose is to toast, and in order to do this it needs electricity. You can toast anything you can fit into your toaster, but virtually every toaster on this planet only functions if it has power provided through an electrical. There is no variety in the diet of your toaster. It needs one thing and one thing only to work. If you try and run your toaster of something else, like water or wind, you’re not going to toast anything anytime soon.

People are not toasters, or any other machine for that matter because we cannot rely on a single source of any kind to survive. We need a variety of foods in order to gain energy, just like we need a variety of influences in order to feel consistently inspired. We all have our go-to foods and sources of inspiration, but if we only rely on those things our palettes will tell us they have grown stale in a very short matter of time.

The same idea also applies to writing: If all you do day in and day out is write about the same thing the same way your creative drive will stall long before it should. If you’re a pop-punk critic who only listens to pop-punk your ability to denote the small differences between various artists will abound, but after several months or maybe even years you will find yourself becoming increasingly burnt out on the genre that once felt like your musical home. This is because all great writing, and by that I mean everything from criticism to novel writing, thrives on original ideas born from a variety of life experiences. Writing solely about pop-punk is perfectly acceptable, but if the only thing you’re putting into your ears is the sound of three chords and gang vocals your mind and body will begin to hate the idea of continuing to rely on that musical diet. You brain can only take so much of the same input before it stops responding as it typically would, and the only way to prevent that from happening is by diversifying your musical and/or entertainment palette.

It’s important to remember when you find yourself stuck on a creative plateau that literally every other person who has tried to create something from nothing has found themselves in the exact same place. Creativity stems from original thought, and those are born from your personal experiences, including all the media you consume throughout the day. Your creativity needs nourishment just like your body, and it can only survive on a single source for so long before it begins to breakdown. The responsibility to prevent that from happening rests entirely on your shoulders, and that is something you should never take for granted. We live in a big, beautiful world of creativity, and you owe it to your own career to experience as much of it as possible. So next time you’re feeling down, stuck, or otherwise lethargic toward your passion, step outside your comfort zone and take in something radically different. Truth be told you might not like what you find, but even if that is the case you will walk away with a new influence and a bevy of new ideas born out of what you have just experience. In those ideas you might find your next big move, and if not at least you’ll have a new story to share with those around you.

Life is short. Take my advice and experience as much of it as possible.

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Monday Motivation: Diamond Youth

If you’re anything like me, you probably started the day by recognizing the start of a new work week had indeed arrived and then immediately began shaking your fists at the sky in anger. Monday is rarely  anyone’s favorite day, and from what I have seen firsthand it feels safe to say it’s the one day of the week some people outright hate. I guess to them the arrival of the work week symbolizes the end of their quote/unquote freedom, and as a result they head into the office/factory/restaurant/store with a negative outlook already on their mind. This leads to bad attitudes, which only makes the experience of being at work worse, and for some reason it also seems to make time slow to a crawl. We’re not about that life, and we hope this post can do the same you that the song contained within it did for us.

Diamond Youth have been considered a ‘buzzworthy’ band for the better part of the last half decade, but it isn’t until this very week that their debut full-length album arrives in stores through our longtime clients/friends at Topshelf Records. Their sound is hard to nail down, but it’s largely a fuzz-heavy affair, with pop-sensibilities and instantly relatable lyrics buried amongst the wall of sound delivered on every single track. The song featured above, “Thought I Had It Right,” is the first song off nothing matters that hit me like a baseball bat swung straight at my chest. I can clearly remember finding myself unable to continue typing as it began to pour through my headphones in mid-April, and every time I have heard it sense the same inability to do just about anything other than admire its craftsmanship has overcome me. I hope it has the same impact on you.

Now you may be thinking something along the lines of how a song so good it prevents you from doing work is the probably the opposite of what you need on Monday morning, but I disagree. The reason “Thought I Had It Right” stops me in my tracks is because when I hear it I know I am capable of something more than whatever I am doing in that moment. This song is so good is inspires me to demand more from myself, and in turn I find myself working harder to do my job as well as Diamond Youth pen melancholy songs. What we do is not the same by any stretch of the imagination, but to pretend like we are unable to influence one another is a very narrow-minded way to think. Inspiration, at least from my experience, is most often found in things whose creation you do not fully understand. When you encounter a song, a book, a painting, or anything else created by someone with a unique perspective on the world you can feel the passion that went into its creation. You feed on it, and in turn attempt to create something equally appealing through doing whatever it is you do.  

This week, try and find something so incredibly well made it stops you in your tracks. Find something that, when you see it, causes you to rethink the way you have been doing your business. That is where inspiration lies, and it’s from that interaction that your best ideas will be born. You should also buy the Diamond Youth album because, well, it’s freaking spectacular. Click here for more details.

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