Be Your Own Media
Everyday Music Every Day # 7
I was listening to an interview with Otis Gibbs — usually he’s the one doing the interviews. Super nice guy. He said that he does what he does to be his own media. It got me thinking about what this blog really is.
It meanders, sure. But it reminds me of what John Steinbeck wrote in Travels with Charley — he mentioned the Mexican verb VACILAR, roughly translating to travel without caring too much about a destination. That’s exactly what this feels like. You keep moving, see where it takes you.
At some point, I hope all this harmonizes — that it makes sense. And that it stays Interesting enough that people actually read it. If a hundred people read and ten percent of them click through to listen to something, that’s a win. Or maybe some who already know the music seek out and read the posts. Either way, the point is to trace what it looks like to be an independent musician right now.
For instance, today I’m out of town, in Orange CA. I’ve got my OP-1 and my iPad with me. For whatever reason, I’ve never really been able to make music on an iPad — it just doesn’t click.
This is part of why it’s a shame there aren’t more music stores anymore. You really shouldn’t be guessing when you buy gear, which might explain why people get so worked up about the Teenage Engineering OP-1 Field. It’s an expensive gamble.
Still, it’s what I brought. My day’s simple: walk, think, have breakfast with my parents, my sister, and my wife, then try to steal an hour to make a demo. The good thing about the OP-1 is it acts like a tape machine — I mentioned that in an earlier post — basically a four-track that runs forever on a battery NASA must’ve built.
The goal is to have something usable. A sketch I can later add acoustic guitar, bass, and voice to. Maybe it becomes a song, maybe it just sits in the cache waiting to be used.
Either way, being an artist means at least one interesting problem shows up every day. That’s what ends up here — the real process, in real time.