Here’s a thought:

Who you think you are is not who you are because who you think you are is a thought.

Think about that for a minute.

What is a thought?

It’s an idea.

Vision boards, mission statements, letters from the future and goals are all well and good. Then you take your first step in to the reality gap between where you are now and where you want to be.

We become shadows of our former selves

I always thought I was a musician. In some respects I am. Yet in this last year, having decided to explore music production in greater depth, I found that actually I’m a creator, a coach and a sound fanatic.

That insight came with both pain and surprise as I now have no idea where these facts will lead me.

Experiences of this kind usually happen for one of two reasons:

1. The change that needs to happen to become the person you need to be is an awful lot of hard work, luck and uncertainty. It comes at a cost that it might not happen.

2. Deep down, your idea of how life will unfold (your vision) is not how life wants it to unfold. You could be someone quite different. I call this ‘the pain gap.’

The Reality Gap

In these situations we have to get real.

Who could we be?

Whilst it serves us positively to have ideas and plans for the future it is vital, for any vision to materialize, we focus our energies on engaging in the next step of whatever progress we are making in any given field. As odd and as uncertain as that step may seem, it’s much more powerful than not making a step, blocked with uncertainty.

We don’t know where this new path may lead us.

We don’t know who we are yet

Conscious engagement in everyday activities is a good first step to creating our most powerful results yet. The more present we are, the more our attention turns to energy that rewards us with new purpose and an elevated state of being.

Letting go of who we thought we were is often the first essential next step to becoming who we truly are.

It gives us clues.

Consciously we can sense a new path, the right path, whilst moving on towards our new realities.

To do this we need to bravely face uncertainty using the power of both non-judgement and total acceptance that we will be alright.

“When you know that you’re capable of dealing with whatever comes, you have the only security the world has to offer.” – Harry Browne

Let me know if any of this resonates with you in the COMMENTS below

Photo Credit: © Will Mankelow

Have you ever embarked on a well-intentioned journey only to take a detour?

Often we find ourselves embarking on a journey in life only to seemingly never get there.

We have grand plans with specific destinations in mind and vision boards to help us visualise what we would like to achieve. Yet, like a boat on rough waters, at best, we are forced to change course and, at worst, we become stuck.

“Life is what happens when you are busy making plans” – John Lennon

Why Setting Goals is Good For You

Last year, in an attempt to get unstuck, I took part in Ariel Hyatt’s Music Succes in Nine Weeks Blog Challenge. The blog challenge was open to any musician willing to blog about their journey through Ariel Hyatt’s book, “Music Success in Nine Weeks.”

Having blogged about my goals then it was obvious to share my results with you now, one year later.

In this post I reflect on each set of goals broken down in to 3, 6 and 12 months (so you might want to stick the kettle on or skim for the bits that are of value to you) followed by my insights and thoughts on each set of goals.

The goals that are crossed out have been achieved.

3 Month Review

1. It is November 12th 2010 and I have identified and completed the demo tracks (guitar and drums) for a new album next year
2. It is November 24th 2010 and my Gibson Les Paul has been repaired
3. It is December 12th 2010 and the additional elements of tracks are complete
4. It is January 12th 2010 and I have a dedicated musician website running
5. It is January 12th 2011 and I have identified a new mixing engineer to work with
6. It is January 12th 2011 and I have identified any additional, collaborative musicians I may require to complete the material
7. It is January 12th 2011 and I have 50 followers on Reverbnation and my Facebook musician page
8. It is January 12th 2011 and I have a mailing list running

Almost twelve months later almost all of my three month goals were reached. Goal #3 is yet to be complete as the concept of rewriting took me on a whole new journey as will be revealed.

This initial change of course towards improving my material was a frustrating one. I wanted to carry on creating new stuff yet I couldn’t see yet how this contributed to my ‘grander vision.’

Soon after, I knew I had to improve some of the old gold towards making the bigger stuff happen. It was the only way.

I accepted this new challenge and the fact that when you take action, life applies feedback and friction. This feedback gives you clues to what the next step is.

First Lesson: Expect new challenges to come along and take them.

Art is never finished so you have to draw a line in the sand somewhere but don’t let that prevent you from taking an idea as far as you can and then revisiting it if you find a compelling reason to do so. For example, I called it ‘finished’ and stopped the rewriting process once I realised that rewriting wasn’t improving (emphasising) the original idea. I also came back to ideas that I knew would benefit from a new technique I had just learned.

“Art is never finished, only abandoned.” – Leonardo da Vinci

Second Lesson: Draw the line and move on.

Having experimented with a bandzoogle website, and thus achieved goal #4, I felt there’s no point investing in a new website without a new product so decided to invest no further time in it. That said, I did make exception and create a new about.me and onesheet as both of these sites were quick and simple to create providing more presence in the meantime. This would work if you are a musician and do or do not yet have a website.

The danger of other creative goals such as building websites (and not writing music) is that they are goals that distract you from your core product. Without a good core product you are nothing. It’s easy to find excuses to concentrate on other projects rather than the one you’re supposed to be working on and I found myself doing this with websites. So I gave myself a few more hours to tidy up then quit. Until I have a new, solid product, that is.

Third Lesson: Without a good core product you are nothing.

6 Month Review

1. It is April 12th 2011 and I have identified a graphics/artwork specialist to help complete the album work
2. It is April 12th 2011 and I have secured any ‘real’ studio time I require to complete the material (for August)
3. It is April 12th 2011 and I have 200 followers on my mailing list

Two out of three on the six month goal path is pretty good. Investing in an artwork specialist became a lower priority because of the reasons mentioned about having a good, solid product. Having made some initial enquiries with designers I chose not to burn more energy on getting graphics done (for now.)

From previous work I know that if you want something doing it’s often worth doing properly and neither myself or the three designers I spoke to were able to commit to this work in the way it needed to be done.

Working on art isn’t always working directly on our art, it’s about working on our art business too, however, we can’t let this distract us from burning 80% of our energy doing what needs to be done: what only we, and nobody else, can do.

In my case that was to write and write music.

Fourth Lesson: Burn most of your daily energy on your core skill or product.

12 Month Review

1. It is June 12th 2011 and I have bought a MIDI keyboard to complete the additional elements for the demo process
2. It is July 12th 2011 and I have completed the demo process
3. It is August 12th 2011 and the album artwork is complete
4. It is August 12th 2011 and I have 500 followers on my mailing list
5. It is September 12th 2011 and the album is recorded, mixed and mastered and ready for release
6. It is October 12th 2011 and I have 750 followers on my mailing list

There’s a reason that I only achieved one out of my six twelve month goals.

My journey suddenly got a lot better.

Fifth Lesson: Expect your journey to suddenly get better.

Shiny Detours Are Worth Taking

Six months after Music Success in Nine Weeks I was presented with offers I couldn’t refuse which required my time, money, effort and sheer hard work. All of a sudden more attractive roads to my destination appeared and unexpectedly. Not wishing to jump straight into shiny new opportunities I did a quick sanity check and asked myself the following seven questions first:

1. Does this opportunity fit in to my very long term goals?
2. Does this opportunity reflect my values and believes? i.e. will I remain in integrity?
3. What will this opportunity cost me in terms of my current resources?
4. What am I giving up to take up this new opportunity?
5. What could be a fantastic outcome from this opportunity?
6. Do I like who I will be working with? i.e. Will I add value to their own goals?
7. What will I need to let go of to make this happen?

When you set your heading for New York and you find yourself on a heading for Boston, don’t panic. Maybe that is where your boat is supposed to go. Once we let go of our need to control how life ‘should go’ it can take us to some fascinating and interesting places we would have never otherwise considered.

More importantly, you learn powerful insights about yourself along the journey there.

Sixth Lesson: Set your heading then see where it takes you.

Prepare to be Suprised

Here’s what I’ve achieved since the blog challenge last year:

1. Played a secret acoustic gig in a friends garden with two former members of the band, Reef.
2. Co-wrote and launched a book called, ‘Get Noticed‘ with Marcus Taylor from The Musicians Guide.
3. Met Ariel Hyatt, Sally Jackson Freeman and the fabulous Jordan Reyne in London at PRS House.
4. Identified several sound engineers to work with and now learning how to become one.
5. Attended a home recording boot-camp with legendary producer, Ronan Chris Murphy, in Italy.
6. Offered and accepted the opportunity as recording assistant for Nicotine Alley working at Abnegat Records Studio in Vicenza, Italy to develop my recording ‘know how’ skills.
7. Studying audio production full-time at a globally recognised institute.

Read and Read Again

It’s not been without hard work. Having a few ambitious yet achievable 3 to 6 month goals that will push you is the way to go, however, expect your emotions to be both high and low and for periods at a time. This is part of the process of adjusting to better opportunities for you.

Planning for twelve months is healthy yet it’s important not to get too attached to the outcome. The sooner you start taking action the sooner your long-term goals will likely change, in a good way.

Music Success in Nine Weeks now needs another read. With talk on the grapevine of a revised edition with new ideas and approaches, it will be a useful companion for a new journey in 2012.

One final thought, accept better offers with consideration. Particularly ones to collaborate.

You might just change your life.

Good luck!

Have you ever found yourself on a different heading after setting goals? Share with me in the COMMENTS below.

Photo Credit: ©Sandra Farrow

Musicians, have you ever made money from playing a gig online?

Jordan Reyne has.

Hailed by New Zealand’s National Radio as the pioneer of a new sound, Jordan’s music has been variously described as “Celtic industrial”, “Folk noir” and “Antipodean steam-punk” – imagine the trouble that causes on websites when you have to find her in a genre listing.

With the launch of her new album this week, “Children of a Factory Nation,” Jordan was kind enough to share some of the inspiration and details behind her unique new album with me on Agenda Red.

You’re from New Zealand, Jordan, and now based in London. Can you tell us a bit about your move and how London works for you as an artist? What appeals to you most?

The move was a little long winded. Back in the mid 1800s, a time period I am quite enamoured with, the first NZ pioneers took about 90 days to sail from NZ to London. Somehow, it took me 5 years to get from NZ to London, reason being, I got somewhat sidetracked by a medieval village called Lübeck, in Germany, then by Hamburg. There is something about ex-plague towns and towns with a 24-hour red light district that attracts anyone who loves stories. In the end though, the UK called me away. It was because of interest from endorsers and record labels in the UK that I made the move, but I’d always loved the UK from visits to see friends and family.

You’ve got five releases behind you. What’s been the biggest change in the evolution of your music so far?

I would say the storytelling side. I have always had a passion for found sound, and recreating environments with the everyday noises, like transport sounds, machinery and so on, that I could put characters in. Earlier on though I’ve been a bit unsure with what to do with those characters. This is where I am glad to have writer friends who have been a good influence on me. I think that the stories have emerged a lot more strongly from that bed of sound now. There are tales within each song and an overriding tale. I love being able to try and work such things out. It doesn’t make for 3 minute radio friendly stuff, as you can’t really tell a good yarn in three minutes, but good yarns are a hook of their own in my eyes – at least they are what have always hooked me, so I hope that that is the part I have managed to get right.

Can you remember how and when the inspiration for the concept of your new album first struck you?

It was one of those weird albums that seemed to write itself, so it’s hard to say. The catalyst was my Grandma’s death. At her funeral there were 4 generations – each one more red-headed than the last, and my uncle, who I had never met before, began telling the stories of my Grandparents families. They were coal miners from Bleanavon in Wales, and my Grancha had gone back even further – where things started to get patchy. I was already hooked though. I went hunting about for information. One thing about my love of yarns though, is that I am easily distracted. The people I ended up writing stories about are not actually relatives, rather some interesting people I came across in my search of the areas my family had come from. Johnathan made me wonder because he was a sailor and yet managed to drown near his own home at a young age. I later found out that it was quite common that sailors couldn’t swim, but I had already written a story around him.

What’s been your toughest challenge as an artist so far and how have you overcome that challenge?

The one I think most musicians suffer from – being broke all the time. I was very lucky to find a way to support myself that is purely from music – it took a time to get there, of course, and there were a lot of shameful and dodgy part-time jobs on the way. The thing with the net is that it bubbles and boils with ideas, which means new niches crop up daily. It was seeing something that could work for the style of music I play which made me go head on into the world of online performance that works for me now.

In 2010 you played over 200 live shows both on and offline – that’s quite an achievement! For those who aren’t yet familiar with your online shows, can you tell us a little bit more about when you started doing that and how?

It actually happened by chance when I was living in Hamburg. A friend of mine, who is also a musician, was going on tour, so I stopped by to say bye and have a chat before she left. We got a bottle of wine and in a very giggly moment, she asked me if I would like to “do a show.” My mind sank into the gutter and I asked her what she meant not knowing if I wanted to hear the answer. It didn’t help when she replied “Come on – we have to do it in front of the computer. You get money you know.” I wondered what the hell was in the wine but after plonking me in front of her computer she jumped up and grabbed her guitar. She tapped about on the keyboard until a 3D world came on the screen. Then we started taking turns singing songs. Having stopped playing online “games” after Everquest sucked me into a hole back in 2000, it was rather an out there experience. All the avatars began dancing and throwing money. I was fascinated and, more motivatingly, newly unemployed. I wondered if it could be something to build up into a way of paying the bills. It was.

What one piece of advice would you give to musicians grappling with promoting their music online today?

Doing what everyone tells you will work, doesn’t always work. The internet is full of communities. Communities are social systems and sociology is not an exact science. It’s about emergent behaviours that are more than the sum of their measurable parts. The net is a sea of social niches, just as the offline world is, but those social niches are no longer geographically isolated. If everyone tries to do the tried and true things in only a few of those communities, it becomes uninteresting, like it does in the offline world, ‘cos the fringes starve away. Musicians are not all built the same. We have different sets of strengths and weaknesses that may sit perfectly with one social group and not at all with others. Its about finding the place, or places, that connect for you and that connect for your music. It’s about working within those communities rather than jumping from horse to horse with everyone else just because it promises you a win.

Where is “Children From a Factory Nation” for sale?

Right here on iTunes or from my own website here.

And where can we find details of your up and coming shows?

Right here, Jordan Reyne gigs.

Thanks for your time Jordan. Best of luck with your new album and forthcoming tour.

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From the moment you wake up to the moment you crash out again do you think about, experience, listen to and consider sound?

We can’t touch it but we know it’s there. It changes us and it makes us feel certain things.

Sound moves us

It can scare us. It can make us happy. It can take us somewhere else. It can take us to somewhere before.

ZZ Top takes me back to newspaper-rounds whereas Kyuss takes me to California and a road-trip with two best buddies.

Where does it take you?

“Music is the soundtrack of our lives” – Dick Clark, American radio and television personality

Listen

We get rich information about our environment from sound. Listen for a minute. What do you hear?

Right now I can hear the refrigerator pump whirring, the laptop hard disk and the tick of the kitchen clock.

There are textures, harmonies, melodies, rhythms and richness everywhere.

There is music amongst our everyday sound. It tells us about the world we live and who we are.

“The earth has music for those who listen.” – William Shakespear, playwright and poet

Why sound?

I share my sound on SoundCloud and I will be sharing a lot more over the coming year. SoundCloud are passionate about helping people find new ways to capture and share their sounds. So why not check out this short video from sound experts about why sound is important to them and then tell me why sound is important to you.

Enjoy!

Let me know why sound is important to you in the comments below.

Photo Credit: © Agenda Red 2011

Evelyn Glennie is a unique musician.

Not just because she is a Grammy-winning percussionist and the first person in musical history to successfully create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist.

Not just because she has worked with Bjork, Julian Lloyd Weber and Sir James Galway. And then become a commander of the British Empire in 2007.

No, Dame Evelyn Glennie is deaf.

Evelyn Glennie lost nearly all of her hearing by the age of 12 yet this loss came with a greater connection to music she loves.

And now she teaches us how to listen.

Listening is not about hearing, it’s about how we perceive.

Watch this TED video to see how Evelyn plays with immense sensitivity and compassion and learn what she can teach you about how to hear music. With your body, your sight as well as your ears.

Consider how, if we can perceive sound and music this way, how else we can apply these insights in to all aspects of our lives.

• When we are having conversation with others.
• When we learn music.
• When we listen to music.
• When we listen to natural phenomena.

Are we present? Are we listening with our whole selves?

Remember You’ll Be Dead Soon Too

‘Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.’

Steve Jobs, 2005, commencement speech at Stanford University

Ever written like there’s a gun to your head?

Following my own advice to take more breaks, I applied the discipline (not my favourite word) to get the job done today.

Having finished a session of five 90-minute bursts of re-writing, it feels good to get another big chapter (pun intended) of another project finally done.

‘Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone’ – Pablo Picasso

There’s Nothing Like Pressure

I often feel both nausea and excitement at the idea of a deadline. For someone who goes crazy without creativity, it’s the structure I need to get any project finished. If ever you find yourself idling along try this three-step trick:

1. Give it a Date

When does your project REALLY need to be done by?

If it hasn’t got an end date – give it one!

2. Bring it Forward

Now halve that time. Yep – by bringing it forward.

There’s nothing like a little self-induced pressure. Projects often take twice the time you expect to complete so by halving the time you’ll still be within your original deadline date.

3. Take Aim

Commit only to your project and no other during this dedicated time-frame with sniper-like focus.

If you find yourself distracted, take a sip of water, then it’s back on the job!

Gettin’ Across The Line

This three-step trick will get it done if you commit to it. You’ll feel great and you’ll give less time for your inner perfectionist to rattle.

‘Art is never finished. Only abandoned.’ – Pablo Picasso

How do you create your own pressure? Let me know in the COMMENTS below.

Photo Credit: © Get Noticed

Study the picture above carefully. What can you see?

One fine September morning I’m tracking some new ideas in the home studio and the guitar sound starts getting a little crazy. Nothing too bad. A little nasty rasp somewhere in the upper mid-range.

First I check:

1. The output signal path consisting of my monitors and sound-card – with some pre-recorded music from the computer.
2. The input signal path connections – on this occasion between my guitar and sound-card which included a compressor and amp simulator.
3. A few settings in the input chain such as levels, drive and EQ

No luck.

The Charvel Jackson I was using has an active EMG-81 pick-up that I slammed in when I was a teen and it occurred to me that maybe the battery power was getting low. That would makes sense.

How do I know this?

When you have a battery powered device such as a transistor radio and the battery power starts to run low, one of the first things you hear is distortion out of the speaker. I was hearing a distorted signal. An unwanted one.

Did you study the picture above carefully? What did you see?

What I found was:

• A battery that has an expiry of 2001
• Corrosion on the terminal so bad that the connector came away from the internal pick-up wiring – stuck to the battery!

It goes to show that active pick-ups consume very little power and can last a long time running reliably on a single battery.

Was it really over ten years since I put this battery in?

When did you last check yours?

To learn more tips on the art of recording SUBSCRIBE in the box below

Photo Credit: © Sandra Farrow

SINAH (pronounced XENA) is a warrior of another kind. Originally from Berlin, Germany, Sinah discovered her love for music early on by learning the piano at the age of 8.

Eventually, Sinah got introduced to the bass guitar, which would keep her attention until today.

Having just been picked up by Brownswood management, we managed to catch up with London based, SINAH, to learn more about her and her music and to mark the launch of Sinah’s artist profile here on Agenda Red.

Sinah, you’re originally from Berlin. What was growing up in Berlin like for you?

Niicceeee…

What significant moments stand our for you having grown up around music in Berlin?

Not many, that’s one of the reasons why I left.

What instruments do you play and what’s your process for making and writing music?

I started playing the piano at the age of 8, but lost interest in sight reading quite quickly, so I started using the piano as a composing tool. When I was 14 I discovered the bass guitar and couldn’t get my mind off it. My parents thought it’s just a phase, but my bass teacher saw my ambition and his trust really helped me believe in myself at that time. He introduced me to the music software Logic and I started messing around with sounds and recordings. I can also play a bit of Cello and Guitar, but shouldn’t mention those, because it’s not as enjoyable to hear me play them

You spent a year in the U.S. working as a session musician. What was the most valuable part of that experience?

Most valuable part : Don’t give people you work with money upfront! Don’t trust flakey musicians …(they stole my expensive microphone) and …hm, a lot of other negative things actually, but I still wouldn’t exchange that experience for anything else.

How are you finding London as a musician today?

I LOVE it! I didn’t always love it though, but that was due to living conditions and other factors, but since all that is sorted I am finally able to enjoy the diversity of music in London. I’m absolutely sure this is the place to be if you are an upcoming producer/artist – no matter what genre. The city is full of talent and the competition keeps it moving quickly. A lot of new music styles have evolved here and I believe that it’s always going to be a source of innovation.

Can you tell us a little bit more about your latest projects?

My latest projects: ABORTING LOADS! I’ve been playing in a lot of different Bands over the past few years and came to the conclusion that it will never completely satisfy me. My passion lays in music production. I am working with the Rapper Levi at the moment but the biggest focus in my life is SINAH (my own music). Sounds very selfish, but this is where all the years of working for others have lead me to. It was always the end of the line for me to perform my own music.

Thanks Sinah!

Click here to hear some of Sinah’s music courtesy of Sinah on SoundCloud.

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Michael Laskow started TAXI music at age 37. That was 1992 and TAXI music is still going strong helping musicians get their music heard by record labels and film and TV publishers today. According to last night’s TAXI TV episode, Michael and his wife didn’t have enough money to both eat and pay rent when they first started TAXI. It has grown in to 10,000 members today.

Watching award-winning, hit songwriter Michael Anderson with Michael Laskow late last night on TAXI TV I was inspired to learn a number of key ideas every aspirational song-writer ought to consider in the context of how committed we are to our art, our craft, our business.

In this episode Michael and Michael share a number of tips that can help all aspirational song-writers improve their craft. I’ve compiled ten of the many highlights for you here.

The episode is well worth a watch, you can find it below.

1. The hardest thing to do is try to explain your song to someone else

The song has to do the talking, not you. You won’t be there to explain the song when they are listening to it. You need to work at your songs so they talk for themselves.

2. A song ought to be as fun to listen to as it is to make

To keep the spirit of a song it must 100% retain the initial excitement and energy that the original inspiration contained.

3. Remain in the zone of creation – overwrite if necessary

It pays, on the first draft, to write way too much. It’s important you get the emotion and inspiration down on paper writing ten verses if necessary.

4. Edit the next morning

Michael Anderson sometimes leaves it until later that day as to remain in the spirit of the song but not to lose the energy. Editing, or re-writing, later can help you trim those ten verses down to three.

5. Our subconcious is where our creativity comes from

When your mind is busy with ‘logic work’ your subconscious sits back. Inspiration strikes when you least expect it: when you’re going to bed, driving somewhere, or any time you disengage your logic. Be ready to capture your inspiration whenever it strikes.

6. Every songwriter should critique someone else’s song

What could you learn from critiquing someone else’s song? What can you learn from those that offer a critical ear for a song? What can you learn from your own critiques? Michael Anderson learned a lot about song-writing in the year he worked on the panel at TAXI critiquing songs.

7. Make sure your song strikes the heart

It’s important to get to heart of the matter in every song. If another person is not ‘getting’ your song, your song isn’t working.

8. The most important thing is the IDEA

You can’t polish a bad idea, however, you can improve a good one.

9. A song is like a child – at some point it is it’s own thing

Once you’ve done all you can with your song it will likely take on a life of it’s own. This important realisation could be the key to success for your song. Let go. Submit. Detach. Re-write if necessary.

10. Take the time, do something now – writing takes so much time

To be a successful songwriter is a full-time gig. If you’re not doing it 24/7, 365 days a year, someone somewhere else is. Never find yourself bored. Always make time to write.

Do you treat your song-writing gig as a profession or a hobby? Leave a COMMENT below:

Listen to these tips in detail and a live version of Michael Anderson performing “Maybe It Was Memphis” on TAXI TV here:

Video streaming by UstreamPhoto Credit: © Abnegat Records