Heh, so much social work! It's funny, 'cause it's like my "family trade."
My mom (INFP, btw, and really tuned in psychically) is MSW/LCSW, my grandmother was MSW, and my uncle was MSW and has now upgraded to PhD in Psychology. Despite the fact that I definitely feel those natural tendencies (towards counseling/social work or mediating/diplomacy), I've taken a slightly different route.
After graduating college (the first time) with a BFA, I realized I kinda dug music a little more than visual art, so I switched over, and have been making music ever since. Music is hard to pay the bills with, so for a while I had the day-job of PC tech / network tech / WinNT server admin / etc. for a few small (tiny really) software companies. Loved those jobs for a minute, while the learning curve was steep, as I do love systems in general and figuring them out, but eventually I got kinda bored with the computer stuff, at least in the capacity that I was involved with them. [Anyone familiar with the term PEBCAK?]
During that time one of my musician friends and I started our own record label and distribution company, and eventually that grew to where it could support us both full-time, and I bailed out of the IT world. That was OK for a while too, because it definitely kept me well inside the music world. We were able to successfully put out our own records and not have to play the "ooh-can-I-have-a-deal?" game with the majors, and since we were our own bosses, taking off for a few months to go on tour was never an issue. The pay sucked though, it was unquestionably a labor of love.
During that time, I got over my stage fright (initially so bad that one show I totally froze up in the middle of a song and forgot what I was playing), and learned to really love performing. Bringing the beautiful music and good vibes to the people!! Woo-hoo, yeah!! Being part of a group that can conjure such powerful and positive energy, and (inherently in the process) being immersed in such positive energy, is truly one of the things I love most. But that said, I also realized that as the business grew, I actually had less time for my own music because I was so busy promoting and distributing other people's music. So one day a couple years ago, one of the labels we worked with decided to change some things up in a way that forced us to change some things up, and presented me with a blameless out. And I took it.
For the past couple years I've been working pretty menial jobs, but jobs that allowed me to still take off for a couple months a couple times a year to go out on tour and do what I really love. But... I got tired of that, too. (The menial jobs, not the touring.)
So now I'm back in school, a technical school for audio engineering, in an effort to be able to get music or audio related jobs, jobs that I can put creativity into and really enjoy, as my in-between-tours-day-job. I'll graduate in March, and I still haven't quite figured out what exactly I'm gonna do. Sound design / Foley or music composition for movies, or TV, or video games? Could be cool... but so could doing live sound for other bands and going out on tour with them (even though I won't be on stage)... and, so could being a studio engineer and recording bands and helping to make records...
So many options.
Bah! This has gone and got me all frustrated again...
[EDIT] Btw, anyone need an audio engineer / sound designer / Foley artist / composer for anything?
My mom (INFP, btw, and really tuned in psychically) is MSW/LCSW, my grandmother was MSW, and my uncle was MSW and has now upgraded to PhD in Psychology. Despite the fact that I definitely feel those natural tendencies (towards counseling/social work or mediating/diplomacy), I've taken a slightly different route.
After graduating college (the first time) with a BFA, I realized I kinda dug music a little more than visual art, so I switched over, and have been making music ever since. Music is hard to pay the bills with, so for a while I had the day-job of PC tech / network tech / WinNT server admin / etc. for a few small (tiny really) software companies. Loved those jobs for a minute, while the learning curve was steep, as I do love systems in general and figuring them out, but eventually I got kinda bored with the computer stuff, at least in the capacity that I was involved with them. [Anyone familiar with the term PEBCAK?]
During that time one of my musician friends and I started our own record label and distribution company, and eventually that grew to where it could support us both full-time, and I bailed out of the IT world. That was OK for a while too, because it definitely kept me well inside the music world. We were able to successfully put out our own records and not have to play the "ooh-can-I-have-a-deal?" game with the majors, and since we were our own bosses, taking off for a few months to go on tour was never an issue. The pay sucked though, it was unquestionably a labor of love.
During that time, I got over my stage fright (initially so bad that one show I totally froze up in the middle of a song and forgot what I was playing), and learned to really love performing. Bringing the beautiful music and good vibes to the people!! Woo-hoo, yeah!! Being part of a group that can conjure such powerful and positive energy, and (inherently in the process) being immersed in such positive energy, is truly one of the things I love most. But that said, I also realized that as the business grew, I actually had less time for my own music because I was so busy promoting and distributing other people's music. So one day a couple years ago, one of the labels we worked with decided to change some things up in a way that forced us to change some things up, and presented me with a blameless out. And I took it.
For the past couple years I've been working pretty menial jobs, but jobs that allowed me to still take off for a couple months a couple times a year to go out on tour and do what I really love. But... I got tired of that, too. (The menial jobs, not the touring.)
So now I'm back in school, a technical school for audio engineering, in an effort to be able to get music or audio related jobs, jobs that I can put creativity into and really enjoy, as my in-between-tours-day-job. I'll graduate in March, and I still haven't quite figured out what exactly I'm gonna do. Sound design / Foley or music composition for movies, or TV, or video games? Could be cool... but so could doing live sound for other bands and going out on tour with them (even though I won't be on stage)... and, so could being a studio engineer and recording bands and helping to make records...
So many options.
Bah! This has gone and got me all frustrated again...
[EDIT] Btw, anyone need an audio engineer / sound designer / Foley artist / composer for anything?
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