8 things I learned after selling 90% of my possessions (plus a couple of regrets)

“I had stored these dreams of the future me in labelled plastic tubs: wools, silks, cottons, linens, rayons, shirting, crepes, velvets, voiles. They contained the lives I would have lived, places I would have visited, friends I would have made.”

I’m just about to reach my three year anniversary learning and playing the double bass. I asked myself some of the questions beginner-me would have liked to know the answers to when just starting out.

In 2020 I took my music off Spotify, Apple Music and the other major streaming services in a moment of angry retaliation. Now, as I prepare to release my third album Enamel, I have found myself torn between standing by that boycott, and wanting to give my music the best chance of being heard by people who will connect with it and want to engage with more of what I do outside of streaming platforms.

Until the Covid-19 crisis really took hold I had been taking an extended break from online life. I’d come to the conclusion that my relationship with social media was almost identical to my relationship with alcohol, and like alcohol I found moderation almost impossible. It was far simpler to abstain completely. I have tried setting many different rules around my use of social media, but like trying to drink only three days a week, or stopping after one glass of wine, the willpower involved in enforcing these rules is exhausting, and the times when the object of your addiction gets the better of you become a source of shame and anxiety.

Alcohol had become, for me, a way to find the old fashioned drive that the internet destroyed when it stole our attention spans and turned our personal interactions virtual. Drinking was a reason to sit down and work, or a reason to leave the house and connect with others. Without the romance of alcohol, creative activities are simply work, yet the work is the essence of the thing.

A year ago I decided on a little bit of a whim to give learning the double bass a try.  What began as a curiosity quickly hooked me, and suddenly I was in a very serious and committed relationship with the most difficult instrument I have ever attempted to play.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the cycle of creative work. In my own creative life I seem to go through distinct phases, and rather than each phase co-existing I cycle through them, usually to a point of burnout, triggering an abrupt departure from one phase to the next.

I have been attempting to unpack this cycle, to try and understand it better, and I think it can be best divided into three phases: Practice, Creation and Promotion.

I have been working on a series of career development articles for CutCommon magazine, to be published in the lead up to my album launch at the Paris Cat on May 6.The first article, about establishing a mutual mentor relationship with a friend or creative colleague, has just gone live:

https://www.cutcommonmag.com/how-to-make-the-most-of-your-friends/

2017 was my first year as a completely freelance musician, however I kind of crashed my way into it without really thinking about how challenging it would be.

A wordless piece, the seed of the melody came from the bassline of yesterday's piece.  Named for the clear Melbourne winter weather of the last few days.

Here's yesterday's song.  It's late, so I won't write too much, instead I'll just share the lyrics. Very loosely inspired by the etymology of Tuesday, a love song

I am the square of sun
That moves across the room
Slow and languid

The fourth in a series of Tuesday improvisations.

I somehow made it to 200!  The third in a series of Tuesday improvisation games.

The second in a series of Tuesday improvisation games.

A series of little improvisation games using the letters of the word Tuesday.  Here is the first.

I pulled myself out of the fog of procrastination to write this one.  Taking cues from the etymology of the word Monday, specifically "Murk Monday", the Scottish name for a solar eclipse that occurred on Monday 29 March 1652, and thermometer.  The harmony also comes from the word Monday, which I serialised.  I don't really experience traditional Mondayitis any more, as I work unconventional hours, but I had plenty of past office job experience to draw on for this one.