- Oct 31
- 4 min read
burning out, settling in, taping down cables, and clenching my teeth
I couldn't be happier to say that I have no shows on the horizon. After a glorious summer of harpgoonerhood ranging from polyphonic Newsom pluckery to the pastel beefcake that Debussy be, I'm taking a break from live shows to catch a breath since accidentally committed the artistic sin of saying yes to too many things and burning out.
I also desperately need to take some time off to actually write new things. Which I know, I've been saying since April - but it's true this time!
I've realized I need to be able to tape down the cables in my studio to claim the headspace needed to create something hopefully meaningful.
Wish me luck...
but first, Phone Mic Tutorials!
Being the yahoo freelancer that I be, I keep accumulating side hustles. (Maybe I'm not so good at this whole taking a break to write thing).
One of my recent fixations being altering old telephones in microphones: I figured I'd start sharing tutorials for those who wanna make their own on the cheap.
Thus! I made this phone microphone tutorial with nothing but scissors, screwdriver, XLR, and an old phone.
For those who just want the phones sans the builds - I've listed a few on Reverb, but if your a Toronto local and want one just shoot me an email if you want local pickup (+ discounted rates).
aka a melodramatic what's the point?
As I've been trolloping around figuring out what purpose I can bring to living (as one does every year or so), I've been debating the pros and cons of making music for a 'living'.
There's kitchen jams with pals, improvising with friends in my lil basement studio, and singing bar karaoke. All glorious lil jello gems of tart delight that is connecting with other people outside of a pressing need to make a buck from it. It's grant season in the Canadian music cycle, so that means having to write gobs of words on why I'm an 'artist', why I should receive grant funding, for what purpose I exist, and how I would utilize it and on and on and on.
Which are hard questions to answer if I'm thinking realistically. Maybe I've just gotten a bit burnt out over the summer so I'm just feeling a lil ~extra~ selfish or demanding when I think about trying to validate being paid fairly to perform my own work.
Mostly because I'm of the opinion audiences shouldn't be paying more than they already are for show tickets, merch, physical media, et al. I do believe there's more than enough to go around in the age of streaming. Fairer royalty payments for musicians would go a long way in protecting and valuing creative works from corporations who only seek to profit from them without any investment in future creative works.
I don't have a cohesive answer to this outside of grumblings about Spotify's AI vampiric approach to commodifying music and devaluing human musicians (cough playlisting and promoting their own AI generated music to avoid paying real people cough) alongside excitement for Subvert's co-op platform (and Bandcamp alternative) that prioritizes 100% artist payouts.
Because when I think about the economics of time, and who can afford to take time to create music, I do believe if Spotify stopped hoarding profit gained from our music, we would all be able to eat a little bit better and make weirder things.
If Ticketmaster had less of a monopoly on venues, and better protected audiences from scalping, we could all enjoy the music (or world series games) we want to see without getting priced out by reseller bots.
All these jello jumbly thoughts aside, on a personal note I do think I've achieved the level of musiciandom where I debate the merits of quitting music altogether.
The economics of time are wearing me thin, and I don't think squeezing more $ out of ya'll to fund my pluckings is any sort of answer. Thus find below ye olde classic questions such as:
Should I simply become a hobbyist and stop releasing music publicly altogether?
Should I rename myself Bridgitte Smithe and go hard on harp covers a la the wedding gig grind?
Should I switch industries and become a full-timer with a tasty retirement savings plan.
Should I time travel until I'm 13 again and then spend my glorious high school years of food and board becoming a mega harpstar?
I'll let you know once I come to some sort of conclusion. In the meantime I'll be hiding in my basement writing and hoping that I'll have an answer to this age old musician's debate in a month or two.
SOME RECOMMENDATIONS:
If you make the switch from Spotify to Apple Music, Tidal, or YouTube Music you are battling the AI music industry with your $ and supporting better artist payouts via those platforms. Use Tune My Music to seamlessly shift your playlists elsewhere.
Karaoke version of "to Perth, before the border closes" by Julia Jacklin
Portrait Artist of the Year 2014 - I especially loved this episode and the final painting. Real intriguing behind the scenes on portraiture and creative process.
For Halloween, if I could be just the incense swinging peon in this pinnacle of pagan catholic-esque operatic design for Norma I would swoon.
If you wanna learn more about musicians and push for fairer wages, this article is a nice start.
Something about Ten Meter Tower. I feel like I'm half little girl and half old woman in approach. You?
This research study on "How Raves Can Invoke Identity Fusion and Lasting Co-operation via Transformative Experiences".
Newsletter title generated from Place for a Person
thanks for reading
<3 plucks & ..... <3
grace