Creative Wellness Letters - 🧐 how many roles do we play?

Hi Reader, 

My new album is finally out in the world, and I did a concert to celebrate on June 2! (You can watch the recording here if you want. 🎶)

Now I finally have some mental space to reflect on this whole process: the last 9 months of planning, funding, recording, and promoting, but also the last 10 years of musical and personal growth since I started writing this music.

Do you ever have moments when you finally slow down, and think, “Did I actually do all of that?!”

All along, I kept saying that it probably wouldn’t really feel real until I did the album release show, and that did help, but wow, it’s still surreal.

I think that part of this disorientation is from the incredible busyness that came from layering a huge project on top of the usual month of May-hem, but also that I had to take on so many roles in order to make an album.

In my regular work life, I am already a creative coach, music educator, collaborative pianist, composer, and performer.

As a person making an album, besides my normal roles mentioned above, I had to be:

• concert booker
• graphic designer
• copywriter (of words)
• copyist (layout / editing of sheet music)
• video creator
• artist (I created sticker designs for the Kickstarter)
• bookkeeper
• product distributor (mailing out Kickstarter rewards)
• marketer
• publicist
• project manager
• researcher (to learn everything about the business of releasing music that’s changed in the last 6 years)

…and other things I’m sure I’m forgetting. (I’m tired reading this, too!)

I’m not unique, in that most independent creators are dealing with the same thing, and I did choose to do most of the project myself (besides the recording, mixing, and mastering), to keep it more economical. Also, I enjoy learning new skills and DIYing.

I’m not listing these things to complain (although there is plenty to complain about in the music industry, and the increasingly superhuman expectations put on us as independent artists - another topic entirely), but this is a LOT.

Whether it felt impossibly large or doable depended on the day, but the most difficult roles for me were the ones around marketing and promotion, because of the vulnerability involved.

I expected rejection and lack of response (and got plenty), because that’s part of the deal - it’s a numbers game. Having realistic expectations and trying to stay detached from taking everything personally helped.

What helped even more was reconnecting with the reasons that I want to do the work, and why I want to share my music.

The thread that runs through all of my work, from creating music to encouraging other creative folks, is joy - that we all deserve to find it and experience it.

So, if I didn’t want to write yet another press email to someone who might not even reply, I reminded myself that each effort I made to get my music out there was possibly planting a seed of joy for someone.

I also tried to find my own seeds of joy in the more tedious parts of the process.

For example, Spotify* suggests that you make a 3-8 second video for each track, to increase the chances of people listening, saving to playlists, etc.

* Spotify is incredibly problematic (as of April 2024 any track with under 1000 streams in the past year now earns absolutely nothing, not even a fraction of a penny!), but I’m choosing to have my music there in hopes that it can reach more people. For an alternative, I like and subscribe to Tidal (which isn’t perfect, but better).

This perspective from Sam Buckingham on Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s recent comment that “the cost of creating ‘content’ is close to zero” 🤦‍♀️ and why she still puts her music on Spotify aligns closely with how I think about it.

Did I have to do that for all 22 tracks on my album? No, but I got into making time lapse digital drawing videos using the Procreate app, and it was actually a fun little creative diversion amidst everything else.

I could write lots more about embracing the many roles we play during creative projects, and also about the importance of asking for help, but I’m going to leave it at that for now.

If you’ve done a similarly large artistic project, I hope that my list is permission-giving. We all deserve to recognize ourselves for our efforts, and you get to take a moment to step back, reflect, and be proud of yourself for the work you’ve done, as well as the results of that work.

Wishing you seeds of joy at every step of the process!

How do you embrace the various roles you play as a creative person, even when you don't want to? I’d love to know!

🕸️ Staying on the good side of the internet 🕸️

• Who am I without my voice? (NYT Magazine gift link) Singer / rapper / writer Dessa talks about the lessons she learned from losing her voice.

• Who will stand up for the fading diminuendo: Thinking about classical music in a nuance-flattening cultural moment - I loved this take on the inimitable magic of musicians, together in a room, doing something collaboratively, and still think humans have the upper hand over robots here!
• Microadventures - I always talk about taking "micro-vacations" (tiny, fun ways to break out of our routines) in my self care workshops, and recently learned about Alastair Humphreys and his book. It's going on my reading list!