Signing Off...

Wiki Commons:The_End.jpg

I love writing. Maybe more specifically, I love ranting. I like creative writing, developing a blogging voice, thinking about what to post about, editing posts, forgetting to proof-read posts, finding pictures to go along with my post topics, and the like.

But blogging is not writing music. Or playing music. It's a different creative outlet - one that I think I'm not half-bad at. But not one that I feel I should be spending so much time doing. I've been thinking a lot about blogging lately.

After much deliberating, and with so many things vying for my time at this point in my life, I've decided to focus my minutes more specifically on music for a while - writing and playing it.

To all of my subscribers and followers, I would like to say thank you for keeping up with my blog... I'd also like to let you know that I'm not completely done with this sort of journaling either. I'd like you all to join me on Twitter, following me there (which is here: http://twitter.com/jaymathesmusic). Yes, it's shorter bursts of words, but words none-the-less. You can also Like me on Facebook, here: http://facebook.com/jaymathesmusic. And, you can subscribe to my Jaymathes.com news posts, here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/jaymathesnews. Or, of course, I have a monthly newsletter. Sign up here: http://jaymathes.com/?page_id=33. The point is, you'll still be able to read words from me - just not here.

So please come along! Hop on a different train with me and continue reading with me...

Twitter: http://twitter.com/jaymathesmusic
Facebook: http://facebook.com/jaymathesmusic
Jaymathes.com News: http://feeds.feedburner.com/jaymathesnews
My Newsletter: http://jaymathes.com/?page_id=33

Also, I still have some unfinished blog business here, too. I do plan to finish up my top 25 albums of all time list, but I may not post that here... I'll make sure you're all able to see it, though.

So here's to a new year of opportunity ahead and 232 posts behind. Cheers!

Starting Over

Have you ever wished that life had a "do over" button?

When I was younger, I used to say, literally, "This is my life. No regrets. I am who I am today because of what happened yesterday. End of story."

Do I still believe it? That's a hard question to answer.

Yes, I'm a product of my past, so at least that much is true.

But do I regret any of my past? Maybe the answer is "It doesn't matter, even if you do."

As a famous meerkat once said, "You got to put your past behind you."

Tonight I've got the whole evening to work on writing new music. My wife has graciously let me out of the house (and agreed to watch the chiluns). But I'm tired and having a hard time getting inspired. So I'm blogging instead, for now.

I'm hoping this whole process will inspire me - and you - to remember that "life's a dance, you learn as you go..."

PS: Anybody else getting freaked out by these crazy "appeals" on Wikipedia?!?!

Do over button image: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCPDB0QlqNs

I Don't HAVE to, I GET to

I love my family.

Sometimes they're difficult. Sometimes they prevent me from doing the things I love to do. But this is all just a part of life, isn't it? Anything can cause us difficulty or keep us from having fun, etc...

I think I'm learning that when you truly love, you're choosing to be in pain - as you love. Here's why:

Love is sacrificial - self-giving, other-oriented, not selfish at all. What does selfishness look like? Putting your desires above the desires of those you love, and when you don't get what you want, you make a big stink about it. (Keep in mind, love isn't one-way - it happens in relationship, so both people have to be giving of themselves, and sometimes it works out that someone is sacrificially loving you - you're the receiver.)

Next, when you hang your heart on the line - when you love - you're bound to be let down by the people you love. People suck. People hurt the people they love the most. Why? They don't really do it on purpose. It's a product of the fact that we spend the majority of our time with the people we love the most. People are prone to act contrary to the way they were originally designed to act (in perfect love).

Now here's how this post relates to my title:

A selfish man would say, "I have to stay home with my children during the day, so my wife can work a steady job." A loving man would say, "I get to stay home with my kids..." I'll be honest. I'm definitely feeling somewhere in between today. Of course, it's because I'm not perfect and I struggle with selfishness - probably more than the next man! But you can't say I'm not trying to work on or figure out how to fully, truly say "I get to..."

Also, my kids are cute. Seth in the leaves and Eleanor with wide eyes.

"THAT Neighbor"

Until recently, I had never heard of someone described as "THAT neighbor" before. I had no idea what the phrase meant. I have since figured it out.

Ironically, the one who first introduced me to the term has turned out to be the purest embodiment of the word's definition that I have ever encountered. Now knowing the definition, I can say that over the course of my lifetime, I have had several "THAT neighbors": growing up, the pot smoker next door; the drug dealer upstairs; the video game-playing insomniac raver; and now... well, I'd rather not give a description yet.

Here's my working, evolving definition of "THAT neighbor":

Someone who lives next door to you (or above or below you) who habitually, carelessly breaks the spoken or unspoken rules of your neighborhood.

A shorter definition might be much simpler:

"THAT neighbor" = the neighbor that nobody ever wants

Or:

"THAT neighbor" = a bad neighbor

So here's the real issue at hand: now that we have identified who these people are and what they do, we have to decide how we're going to deal with, and interact with, them.

The bottom line is this: I'm convinced that God demands of us all that we treat all others with infinite respect, as we would wish to be treated - even when we screw up - because all people are inherently valuable to him. But more than that, I believe that I am personally expected to act with an impossible amount of grace and patience - to demonstrate a level of love that I am incapable of showing to anyone in my own strength.

With great difficulty, I say here: "I love my neighbor." Now comes the hard part: showing it. By how I act, what I say - both to her and to others about her, and how often I go out of my way to show her that I care.

Music Clout. Seriously?

Wow. Same junk, new name: Taxi. Sonicbids. Reverb Nation. G2.fm. Music Clout. Companies preying on gullible artists, asking them to pay for exposure or concerts or song placement or whatever. Will Music Clout succeed? My guess is yes. Why? Because most artists are looking for a pipe dream: the easy way to musical success. Don't get me wrong: I'm tempted by the same things.

This Music Clout-sort of a business model works on numbers: get enough artists to sign up (IE: "buy in") and, for every submission from every artist, the company makes bank. The only cost to the company is the up-front cost in convincing songwriters and bands of the illusion that *their* organization can *truly* "make" a band - make them lots of money - with one of their "opportunities".

Songwriters and bands, listen up:

NEVER PAY SOMEBODY UP FRONT FOR A CHANCE TO GET HEARD BY A PARTICULAR PERSON, AGENCY, VENUE, OR LABEL.

It's been said that anything worth having takes work to get. It's true. 99.99% of the time, these companies will steal your money and leave you in the same place you started: nowhere. You can't build a music career simply by submitting innumerable entries to virtual businesses. You need to be *there*, in person, pounding the *pavement*. Physical. Work. Sweat.

Wow. Venting. Seriously.

Blurb from My Latest Newsletter

I don't do this - ever, but I thought it would be good for you all to hear, if you haven't already read it in my latest newsletter... This is a cut and paste from the email I sent out to my music mailing list just a couple days ago, on August 26, 2011 (by the way, if you're not already on it, please sign up for my mailing list at http://jaymathes.com, filling out the mailing list form on the right side of the page, towards the top):

WHERE I'VE BEEN, WHERE I'M GOING

In just a few, short weeks, I will be the father of two, beautiful children. Having kids makes you think, and, paradoxically, gives you less time. Maybe what really happens is you just think better with what little time you have to think.

I've put in a lot of time - and money - into my music over the years. (I just realized that this past February marked the 10-year anniversary of the release of my album, Leave it All Behind.) Don't worry. This isn't a break-up letter.

I'm not losing steam - just trying to evaluate things. What I can say is that I'm even more inspired today by life than I ever have been. I can't help but write and perform. And I'm also even more excited by what I call a genuine musical experience. What I long to see in other recording artists - and what I long to show to you - is a picture of who the artist really is - not some projected image - some amalgamation of marketing tactics and strategies.

In an effort to better show you who I am, I'm going to continue doing what I do: writing music that comes from my heart, my experiences, and reflects who I am and how I feel. I might blog less. I might tweet more. I might be on Facebook less. I will write more music. I will post that music online. I will beg and ask for your support of that music.

Music keeps me going. If I lost my hearing, I'd self-combust.

Thanks for your support, and come on out on 9/4 if you can!

-Jay

Thoughts on the John Mayer Q and A at Berklee

If you're a songwriter and you haven't read this yet, check it out:

http://www.berklee-blogs.com/2011/07/john-mayer-2011-clinic-manage-the-temptation-to-publish-yourself/

It seems as though Mr. Mayer has gotten a hold of himself and regained some serious perspective on life, music, and success. I've always had respect for the man's music and guitar playing, but he hit a serious low last year with his quest for the Joshua Tree of... Just look up his Rolling Stone interview if you have no idea what I'm talking about. Actually, one more thing about his music: using the word "respect" to describe how I feel about his music would be an understatement. I would say he's one of my top 10 favorite artists of all time, actually. I wish that artists more often lived how their music sounded. Is it too much to expect the writers of extraordinary music to live extraordinarily virtuous lives?

Maybe not.

But this time around, I think Mayer has reformed some of his previous errors.

The biggest take-aways from this short interview/article are Mayer's comments on social media. Mayer admits that this crap is addicting, distracting, and creatively worthless.

I've heard one artist, when asked "How did you get to where you are today?" say, "I just turned off the T.V." What he was getting at is that media is a distraction and, ultimately, it is a progress killer.

Does anybody find it ironic that I'm blogging about this topic?

Music Licensing Opportunities

Over the last few weeks, I've been exploring new ways to generate some cash from the music that I write and record. The good news? There are a lot of ways to generate the money, as I have found. The bad news? It seems like every other artist has discovered the same thing that I have. I've found a bunch of websites that claim to "specialize" in what is called song placement or music licensing - places called "pitching houses" (basically just a new name for a music publisher). The problem is that I'm having trouble navigating this over-crowded sea of music speculators.

For lack of a better comparison - actually, no, I think it's a perfect comparison - the digital music licensing world looks *exactly* like the California gold rush days: everybody is vying for the same territory, the "mining" technology (a content delivery system) is readily available to almost all artists, and the value of the commodity (good, quality music) is fluctuating based on its availability.

So what does this mean for my music and the music that Swiftly Running Records represents? It means that now, more than ever before, I have to rely on personal contacts to exploit song placement opportunities. And the best way to continue to establish those relationships is to be where those decision-makers are - to live where the music supervisors live, eat where they eat, attend the events they attend, invite them over for dinner, take them out for coffee. I know a heck of a lot of them live in L.A., a few in Nashville (I think), and maybe some in NYC(?). But I'm not so sure I'm willing to relocate just so that I can pitch my songs. (Maybe I can get somebody else to do it[?].)

I want to play. I want to perform the music I write. I want to be on stage. I'm just looking for a way to make enough money to keep doing what I love.

Instrumental Record?

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. Always a bad sign. Why? Because it means that you're not happy, I think. I have a lot of "unfinished" songs sitting in a drawer right now, and I was thinking about the best way to finish the songs. I listened to some of the sketch recordings I made and I came to a conclusion: one way to finish all of these songs is to keep them instrumental. They range the gamut, stylistically, and not all of them even need words to stand - the melodies and instrumentation can hold themselves up as is. So I just might do that. It would be yet another non-Jay Mathes "project" that I'm a part of, but it might be worthwhile, especially considering it might give me more material to pitch to advertisers, TV, movies, and video games. Just a thought. I'll keep you posted.

A Human Struggle for Recognition

This morning, I had a little bit of time to think about why people blog. It was on my mind because I actually took some time today to read the blogs of a couple of good friends of mine. We don't read our friends' blogs (usually) because we already know what's going on in their lives, how they feel about things, and how they're continuing down this strange path of existence we call life.

The bottom line? We all struggle with a lot of different things, but there are common ones, too. Though there are obviously many reasons, I think blogging is motivated primarily by a desire to be recognized as a person, separate from everyone else. It's a desire to find meaning behind why we're alive; because if we're all pretty much the same, we all live, we all die, we're simply a part of the lineage of the human race, then what's really the point?

Humans don't just want to exist. They want to matter.

I don't think that I blog because I'm searching for answers so much myself, but that I kind of hope that I can help other people cope with that struggle - that desire - and can move them in the direction of discovery for themselves...

My new album, Fundamental, really is the closest I've come so far to expressing this and other struggles common to the human experience in my music. If you haven't yet, you should check it out, here:

http://jaymathes.com/music/fundamental

To some of you, I know I still owe you copies of the album. I'll try to make that happen this week. Sorry for the delay!

Picture: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:V-J_Day_Times_Square_NYWTS.jpg

Luck and the Art of Waiting

Waiting isn't exactly the same thing as trusting in something to happen.

One of my favorite college professors (his name was Jun) once said that luck isn't being in the right place at the right time, it's putting yourself in a position to be in the right place at the right time.

And I believe him. If we're just talking semantics.

I actually don't believe in luck at all, which is why I made my first statement about waiting. I actually think that a better way to describe my professor's idea of luck is to call it "active waiting". You see, it's knowing (or trusting) that something is going to happen if you just keep going for it. You take steps that move you forward, and sometimes, if you're going the right direction, you'll hit opportunities that can push you even higher.

This is in contrast to just plain ol' "waiting", which means that you're sitting on your keister and still expecting something to happen. And you'd be right - something will: you'll get fat, dumb, anti-productive, and altogether zombified by that glowing box you sit in front of.

So as for me, I find myself in a season of active waiting. Actually, I can't remember a time when I haven't been in this sort of a season. I expect big things to happen and I am actively engaged in trying to make them happen. But I don't think they'll happen because of what I do. Does that make sense? Ultimately, I think they'll happen because they were destined to. (And yes, I do believe in destiny; but not the kind that is most common today, in our culture.)

It's a really uncomfortable place to be, but isn't all of life really uncomfortable anyways? Isn't it better to actually be able to identify the discomfort and just deal with what you believe to be going on through it all? I think so.

One of Top-Ten Most-Depressing Professions

I just read an article from Health.com about 10 Careers With High Rates of Depression, and guess what? Artists/Entertainers/Writers made the list! Nice. Well, isn't that odd? These very people have sought to make a living doing the very thing which they are most compelled to do - most would say most inspired to do. Even so, artists strive for creative "success", and once found, they still find something to complain - nay, to be downright depressed - about. How is this?

Rabbit trail: for starters, let me say that there's quite a buzz about this article on the music industry blogs... that is, of course, how I found it myself. Specifically, I read about it HERE. And for the record, I mostly agree with what Chris R. at CDBaby.com has said. We differ mostly in our worldviews, which is to say, I think Chris would say that self-help tactics (such as those he has listed) actually work, where as I would say that, ultimately, they do not.

Now to answer the question how...

Let me preface this by saying that I haven't worked out all of the details of my argument here and I'm open to discussion. If I have something wrong, I'd like to hear about it.

I really think it's quite simple. There are two things going on in the minds of artists:

1) Artists channel their feelings to create art. You can't just create excellent art void of any feeling. I don't believe it happens. Art requires emotion.

2) Artists, like those in all other professions as well - all humans! - are on some level discontent with life. I believe that this sense of discontentment is the dominating emotion of our culture - and maybe of every culture that has ever existed. Thus, when channeling emotions to create art, an overwhelming majority of the time, the art produced will represent an aspect of a life of discontentment.

Simple enough logic?

Now, two major questions to tackle on this one:

A) What about love songs? I thought there were more songs about love than anything else.

Yes, you'll often here it said that the most popular song topic is love. But, I, for one, have never seen a study on the subject, so I'm hesitant to agree with answers.com. [Who do they have answering this junk anyway?] And in any case, I'm going to guess that half of the songs about love are actually songs about heartbreak. And even if that's not the case, underneath the words of many, many a love song is, in fact, a longing to be understood, to belong, to be content.

B) So how do we truly solve this human issue of discontentment?

Artists try to solve it by writing about it. Many non-artists try to solve it by listening to art, by watching art, by looking at it or eating it or consuming it. There are other ways that people try, too. "Love" - whatever that means - is also another way that we try to solve it.

But it never works.

The songwriter always has to write one more song. The investment manager always has to get one more paycheck. The church always just needs one more program. But this is also just a part of life in this world. We need certain things to survive, don't we? Money. Clothing. Shelter. Food. For the man or woman of this world - and for most artists - there is no contentment to be found here.

But I have found contentment somewhere, though many of my closest friends witness my chronic struggle with being discontent week in and week out:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Late Nights Can Kill You

I've been spending so much time at the computer again that my forearms are starting to bother me again. I feel like I already mentioned that in a recent post, some time in the last month. As you can tell by the time of this post, it's because I'm getting in to the groove late at night, after my family has gone to bed. I've found that my most productive "computer work" comes after hours, if you will. It sucks, but it's the only time that I have, really.

But, alas, the time has come to go to bed. Goodnight, computer. I will see you tomorrow evening. Until then, I know that others will caress your pretty back-lit keys, but please don't enjoy it, okay? If you can muster up any sort of passionate desire within your uni-body frame, may it only be for the soft pressing of my very fingertips over all of your buttons.