Inspiration and Energy

In the world of faith healing/energy work, there are some practitioners who claim that working on someone drains them of energy, while some feeling energized after giving a healing. Creative pursuits are no different. For me, songwriting can leave me either buzzing or exhausted, or both, depending on the situation.

The past few months, call it the winter blahs, but I have been struggling to find inspiration. I've sat down to write and found my mind and soul blank - and not in the good "Zen" sense. In times like this, while I don't try to force it, it can be helpful to write something, even if it's crap. Yesterday, I started writing on an idea I had during the Ron Sexsmith show I attended last week. I wrote a couple verses and a chorus, and reading it back I decided that it wasn't particularly inspired.

Then later, I started playing guitar around what I had written and realized that there was something to be salvaged from it. The music and chords came really easily - it was one of those moments where stuff "falls from the sky" and the creative process comes effortlessly. I was in a trance. It lasted about 20 minutes, and when I came out of it, I was totally bagged. I had to go to bed.

It amazed me how 20 minutes of work could leave me completely exhausted. But with creative work, you have to think that you're working with forces that are somewhat beyond your control.

100-Mile Musical Diet

Are you tired of big factory music that is too processed and nutritionally bankrupt? Do you worry about how far your music travels before it reaches your CD player or iPod? Are you concerned about how non-organic production methods and the heavy use of auto-tuners are affecting your listening health?

There are other options! Local farmers' markets and coffeeshops are great places to hear locally-produced, organic music. You can actually talk to the songwriter who lovingly grew the music. And their CDs are often the same price or cheaper than the big factory brands!

The 100-mile musical diet encourages you to get the majority of your music within 100 miles of your home. It's good for your health, your community and the planet!

OK, so I'm being a little tongue-in-cheek, but lots of people are discovering that "buying local" with music as well as food is good for communities. Check out some more thoughts on this issue in Exclaim! magazine here: http://exclaim.ca/MusicSchool/NeedToKnow/slow_music_now

Music and Selling

Lots of creative people have internal conflicts over selling the art they create. And in today's music industry, emerging artists need to prove their business acumen as much as they need to show their musicality.

A small but critical part of this equation is deciding what price to put on your CDs. I've struggled with this for a while. You want to honour the work that went into producing it, but you also have to realize that not everyone is willing to throw down $20 for a CD, even if they enjoyed your live show.

Lately, I've been experimenting with a "pay what you feel" approach. My rationale is two-fold: 1) It is more important to me, at this stage in my career, that my music is spread far and wide than it is to make a certain amount from CD sales, and 2) I think people come away from the transaction with a good feeling - they have gotten what they wanted at a price that made sense to them.

The surprise that came from the first few shows in this experiment is that my sales income was amazing. It was difficult to track it precisely, but I brought in about triple what I would usually expect.

Hmmm...I think there might be something to this...

This Guitar Kills Fascists

Is music important? Lots of people would say yes without being able to articulate why. It is important to them personally because of the way music cultivates emotion. But as Woody Guthrie's guitar boldly implies, there are societal functions as well. These are a little harder to pin down but there is no doubt that politics and history can be influenced by music (e.g. would anyone under the age of 50 know about the Kent State shootings if it weren't for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's "Ohio"?).

As an independent musician struggling to be heard, sometimes it's hard to feel as if what I'm doing is worthwhile. As I scour the job listings, I see how much society values a millwright or a nurse by how much they earn and the service they perform. My value to society is less tangible. But part of my job is to be confident and unwavering in my belief that music has value. It might not always be immediately apparent, but it's there, just under the surface.

Convenience vs. environment

I do a lot of thinking about humanity's place on the planet. It's an obsession I can't get away from. I guess the big question is "Why are we so different?" Practically every other animal does little more than "eat, shit and fuck", and of course, raise their offspring. Sure, we can say that some animals use "tools" but the tools are taken directly from the environment with little modification. Hell, we've learned to modify molecules!

And sure, you can trace back through the evidence to see how we've evolved big frontal cortices (look at that! my frontal cortex is big enough to Google the plural of cortex!!), but it's still seems strange to me that people are such freaks! It's beautiful, bizarre and frightening at the same time.

Frightening because of our potential for destruction. And frightening because part of us is wired to use any advantage we can - to be greedy and lazy. Our biology kinda wants us to take the easy way out - find a place where the food is plentiful and the predators are few, then enjoy eating, shitting and fucking. We are wired for convenience.

But it is our desire for convenience that is killing us - on an individual and planetary level. Oil is a convenient source of energy, but look what oil is doing to us. "Convenience foods" are convenient, but look at what convenience foods are doing to us. Cable TV is convenient, but look at what cable TV is doing to us.

Yet, in the crisis lies the opportunity. Our big brains are what is going to pull us out of this. Not everyone lives so mindlessly. There are lots of people out there who are living by their principles rather than coasting through life by the most convenient route. It's not always easy, but I think that in living by what we believe, there is hope for a future that is not only sustainable, but harmonious.

Tour Prepping

Less than month to go.

I'm embarking on my first real tour (i.e. outside the Maritimes and longer than a weekend) with Halifax singer-songwriter Mushkat (a.k.a. Bill Travis). When I started considering a tour, I was daunted by the planning required. You might guess from my songwriting style that I'm a bit of a scatter-brain. (When I worked in academia, I was the kind of prof who was surrounded by mountains of helter-skelter files and books on his desk).

But having another person along to take on the booking and arrangements not only lightened the load, but inspired me to get organized enough to pull it together. So we're down to the nitty-gritty, and have most of our schedule nailed down.

(See http://www.mikeaube.com/tour.htm for details)

Now, it's to the point where I can't wait to just get out and do it! Lots of work still to be done, but all I want to do is get on the road. Wish me luck!

New Website

Welcome to the new website! If you haven't already noticed, the biggest change is that both my albums are available in their entirety for streaming. For those of you who haven't bought the CDs yet, this will give you a full try-before-you-buy experience. Downloading is still available at typical rates at CDBaby, iTunes, etc., and physical CD from CDBaby. See the "Store" section for details.