Music Industry Pro's - What happened in my 1st Year off in 15+ years.

An interaction with a possible collaborator sparked this train of thought today. It got me thinking about the importance of stopping and reassessing your life if you work at an intense, "always on" high level or simply are obsessed with your professional goals whatever they might be.

Interestingly and unexpectedly, during the lead-up to my first son being born, I received a mix of reactions from first-time parents (also industry lifer types) who had already gone through the first steps. In the music business, whether you are a producer, engineer, mixer, artist, manager, or anything else, the prevailing thought process is that you hustle nonstop and take no time off. I often hear you might only be as "good as your last project" as some people like to say. Some of the advice from peers was that having a child and being forced into time off wouldn't change a thing once you come out on the other side of it, and others said it will change everything. Naturally, the idea of taking time off was pretty new for me outside of being lucky enough to travel the globe for cheap while living in the UK for 18 years (up to the time of writing).

Then it hit me, the baby was born in London and all of a sudden I wasn't able to think about work for a while. I'd be lying if I said I didn't though because old habits die hard. It was definitely a major adjustment period because I had been getting a taste of what my definition of success had always been and my reasons for getting into music in the first place. A spot of Grammy acknowledgment over subsequent years (3 nominations in a row), a wall of plaques, cutting deals behind the scenes on publishing, neighboring rights, distribution as artist/label, setting up new ventures with valued partners, big syncs, and the list goes on. I was actually horrified at the idea of time off until I actually was forced to consider it properly. Only then was I able to figure out who I had been and wanted to become in the next stage of my life.

At some point, years ago, I was told by someone important to me to start thinking about others and not just myself and my career. Now was the time, and figuring out how to take care of this new creature, while balancing a nonstop hustle mindset was my problem. The true answer is that absolutely everything changed for me, and I want to share this because in my consulting work, or even on sessions through the years, this is viewed as a major problem for the creative industries (and in fact, most work lives in Western Europe/North America). I pushed the reset button on my goals and gave myself time to figure out how we can level up family life with as much obsession and energy as I put into my career. Taking a chance on setting myself up for the future and having my family became my goal almost in an obsessive way. Acquiring property, aligning investments, ensuring protection for the future, and setting up the child's future was the goal. Spending time with people who mattered in my life and not just the ones who have something to offer me professionally. I even moved across the world again to ensure the setup was optimal.

I realized that my freelance life was effectively so meaningless to me at that point, that I wasn't even sure if I wanted to go back to it at all. A perfect example is when you have sessions with the type of artist who believes it is worth spending 3 hours discussing their hi-hat sound (sorry for those who are like this and reading this). I became disgusted with the idea of how I used to spend my time, and yet somehow amazed that was me for so many years. Let's just be clear, I am saying that even after just receiving a plaque for 10+ billion career high streams 2 months ago, and to be honest, I still love mixing so there are exceptions. But that is how I know the feeling was real and not being propped up by nice things and more titles. I was, and am still excelling at what I did, and at the same time, looking for something new and challenging because I fell out of interest with the caliber of humans in that world and the complete lack of drive from the 90% I came across.

So for those who have the chance to pursue new things or different strains of their career at the right time and are wondering what to do, get started now! I am having more fun helping artists navigate the industry while they learn the business than I was with the singular goals I had as a freelancer which was basically making everything sound good (they don't call me the 'The Finisher' for nothing!) but I also have found more respect for anyone who actually hits their goals in anything instead of relying on hope and dreams. It doesn't take a baby to do this (although it was the trigger for me), but it was because I never took the time to think about how and what I wanted my life to be since I was a teenager.

People like to say, "We all have the same amount of time in a day, and once it is gone, you don't get it back". This process has confirmed that for me, and I believe you can't go wrong by making choices to pivot for the betterment of your life. I also said earlier the prevailing thought process is that you hustle nonstop and take no time off and that you might only be as "good as your last project". I will confirm that this is absolute nonsense so do it how you like because nobody cares in the end anyway except for the ones who support you. The benefit of taking time off is clarity and I will now take that any day over being too "busy" and having things pass me by.

"the prevailing thought process is that you hustle nonstop and take no time off and that you might only be as "good as your last project". I will confirm that this is absolute nonsense.

I like using platforms like Linkedin for this purpose because there are more real people experiencing and going through real things. I would love to hear more about ways to protect your time and mind here so please drop a message below. This article is a reach out to the human aspect of our industry and also much deeper than I ever get but, if you want to hear my no holds barred opinions on being a working professional, watch for my book currently being written ;). I think I will call it "From Sweeping Floors To The Grammys: A Journey With Geniuses & Idiots". Or it might be a midlife crisis at 37. Don't care either way.

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