New Challenges

With excitement I recently released my debut single, 'Waiting For You'. It was written early 2015 and I finished writing the end at some point in 2017. I recorded it in May 2018, the cellos were done later in 2018 and it took a few months until I was happy with the mix and finally master. I must admit my perfectionistic tendencies got the better of me and is part of the reason why it took so long. Plus I'm new, finding my people and establishing new working relationships. But this is the game, it requires a lot of patience, acceptance and allowing things to progress in good time.

One of the amazing things about the music industry today is our ability to reach a wide audience without the backing of a record label. It gives many of us the opportunity to get our stuff out there easily, but I'm realising it comes with its own pitfalls. I'm learning how to run my own little business, something for which I was not prepared. I'm not a great strategist and I don't know the industry well. In my haste to just "get the thing out," the 'thing', this beautiful song I had been sitting on and crafting for years, got released without me having a website or any tangible plan. I didn't even have a release date so it got published one day and I only knew it was out when I saw it on a web search. Whoops!

Needless to say there have been big learnings in this one. Without having my bases sorted, it came out and I was scrambling to get shit done. There were many pieces to sort out and it's taken me a while to get here. Things are far from where I want them to be, but I'm okay with that. I've received good feedback from my network and it's heartwarming to hear how this song has touched people. It's given me encouragement to keep spreading my wings and enter further into the industry side of music. So gigs will be coming and more songs etc... Hopefully with a bit more planning this time!

Music has always been a passion of mine. For as long as I can remember I've been whistling, singing, dancing, playing, making and analysing music. Now it's a kind of business of sorts. In all the scrambling I lost sight of the important part of this- that I bloody love making music. So for the last few weeks I got back to playing, writing and recording, and damn it feels good to CREATE! When I left my old job after burnout, and decided to spend more time on music, I had an important conversation with a friend of my dad's that has stuck with me. He had always been interested and supportive of my medical career and couldn't understand why I would leave it for music. After I explained it to him, he agreed that it made sense and gave me this most wonderful blessing: "I hope the challenges of your new career are more fulfilling than the challenges of the old one." Or something to that effect. This whole process has been a demonstration of that, that life and business can be frustrating, difficult and disappointing. But in these difficulties are lessons and truths that have extended me as a person and learnings that I can bring to my life and others. And of course, along the way I had a lot of fun playing, working with and meeting new people, and obsessing over minute details of songs that no one will ever hear.

So all to say, hip hip hooray! The first song is out and around for people to enjoy. Hopefully the next one will be a bit easier. Some exciting art making to flow on from this, including a remix and music video to come at some point. But in the mean time I'm going to get back to my piano and play some ditties.