My personal journey, disclaimer.
Most of my adult life, there’s been many folks online to talk to about bipolar disorder and not many folks here at home to talk to about it.
While I don’t wish to encourage folks making themselves vulnerable by talking about their mental health online like I do, I do wish folks knew more about mental health. I weighed my options. I’m not vulnerable by revealing my Bipolar Disorder. Everyone I know has told me something’s off with me my whole life. I’m merely cutting to the chase with revealing my diagnosis, you’d get there eventually. I save you the work. Please understand the decision to reveal your diagnosis is personal and case by case, in my opinion. I do not intend to encourage anyone in that regard. Voting? sure. But exposing private information? That’s up to you and perfectly fine that way.
What is “normal” anyway?
What I see in “normies,” and in regular folks with mental illness like myself is a lot of effort spent at making folks understand what life is like for them. It seems normal to be doing that, even professionally. The problem is you can’t do that. It’s not something that is possible. Folks obviously feel differently, but unless you’re into mind control, you can’t force your life on anyone on the web. It’s not their issue, for one. Two, they likely have issues of their own.
“I was born in a small town..”
A lot of music you hear is about how folks grow up and how proud they are of it. The reason they do that is there’s lots of small towns and whoever’s singing is gambling that it hits a nerve. They’re right to! Most folks are from a small town. There’s even a few small town songsters from big cities. 🤷 There’s nothing personal in that, it’s statistics. But writing something that is attempt to relate your life or plight in 3 mins is a chore! That’s not what singing about small towns is, that’s just ratings.
Rough day at the office? Let’s all do some mental exercises now..
See, most folks don’t want to think about others when they’ve had a rough day. They want to think about themselves. That’s fine. It’s an off day for us musicians, we just wait for their day off. I’m never hankering for a different point of view after a hard day’s work. Cover bands know this. This is why I make recordings, actually.. so folks can listen on their time and place. No rush with quasi-permanent records.
If you build it, they will come.. unfortunately.
Expressing thoughts and protest, plights, histories, and difficult topics is hard work. Even if it’s comedy, there’s a massive amount of folks who give you shit for it. A reason is you aren’t looking to entertain them. They find that offensive. They will get on your website and in your email to tell you about messages never aimed at them to begin with. Can verify.
It’s never wise to carry a message lightly, I say to myself sometimes. It’s pretty much guaranteed anything I feel important to say is going to piss someone out there off. That’s not a selling point. I’m difficult even if I’m not that hard. I get lots of flack. I guess I just don’t care anymore, so I keep doing it. Ignore buttons work.
$20 Mic (download)
We recorded this last weekend with a 20 dollar microphone. Enjoy a GetMusic free download. Thanks!
The answers lie within.
If you make art, music, whatever.. and your goal is to get your story out there, or preach, or change people, I’d look inward. Chances are that’s where the good stuff is anyway. Not that they’ll care. But a postcard from your journey inward is as meaningful a message as anything.
When it’s done, I am too. Pretty much.
Expecting to gain something from a song I make is always there. But practice at releasing music has taught me the glory of the jam comes out when the song is done. Even if a song is well-liked, I’m coming down from the high of making it when folks tell me they like it. It’s nice. It helps. But it’s not the high of getting close to that final mix. I am my target audience. The final mix is payday.
If you know what you like, it’s better than thinking you know what they like.
I understand what I like. I think a lot of artists have a hard time realizing what they like is everything. They may think their job is to make what other folks like. But I’ve found guessing what folks want to hear from me is foolish. I’m merely showing them what I like. Makes more sense in my brain.
It’s about being real. “I enjoy this,” is a genuine statement, hopefully.
Your preferences as an artist are what you’re releasing, along with your abilities. “Message” is in there, but it’s the preferences that sculpt it. What you like is what you’re actually saying, regardless of what you’re saying, (even if it’s not liking something..lol, I did the math). If you don’t like it, it’s a real trick to convince others to enjoy it. The superpower of you as an artist is the self-sufficiency in being capable of making things you like, not what others like. They just happen to like what you do. In essence, your job as an artist is telling folks what you like and hoping they agree with you.
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