Persist On Ur Passion!

April 2nd 2007 - Resigned from Synchrosound Music and stepped down as the company's A&R Manager. 2 1/2 years of income stability (not financial stability however) and suddenly I'm jobless... Oh my. What am I doin?

I'm chasing my dream that's what I'm doing. Yes that dream that I've had since the age of 5... that dream that most advised would be a dead end chase... that dream that came so close back in 2003 but yet was so far...

Singer, Performer, Recording Artist, or whatever you wanna call it, Yep that's the one. For most of my 28 years on earth I was so scared to approach it fully as I've seen many talented musicians fail and live very unstable lives... so I spent most my time setting up a just-in-case safety net. Problem with that is that my focus shifted to this safety plan and barely any left on the ambition part.

With a stroke of luck I came to attend a life changing self-discovery course several months back. It finally got me to question "all this effort on the safety net but is the net itself safe? I'd probably have to create a safety net for this safety net!"

Then it hit me. Nothing in this world is for sure. If I keep going this way, I'll just be weaving nets and eventually completely lose focus of what I wanted in the first place. And in the end, regardless of how so-called 'successful' I'll become, no amount of money in the world could compensate for an unsatisfied heart.

So I made a choice. I chose my dream... because when I close my eyes that's all I see myself doing so why not go for it. We have 1 life... why waste it on meaningless ventures?

I remember when I was a teenager and my friends (whom all shared the same dreams as me) and I would daydream about how famous we were gonna be... all the fame, fortune and girls... and I recall how involved I used to be in music and performing arts.

I remember how I used to record my demo's. Not earning anything at the time I made do with what I had and never complained about it.

I had a stereo that had 2 cass players, the 2nd one able to record the 1st. So I would grab the cheap mic that was lying around, sticky tape it round my ikea lamp (it had this mechanical arm so it acted a little like a mic stand), picked up my brothers old nylon string guitar, pressed record and strummed away the chords. When I was done, I would rewind the tape, switch the cassette into the 1st player, and put in another blank cass in the recordable 2nd.

Play no.1 and press record no.2. This time I would sing on top of the guitar I had recorded earlier. After that, repeat the process until I layered all the sounds I wanted. You guessed it: That was my multitracker!

Of course quality dropped DRAMATICALLY in doing so, but it got the job done.

Here's a photo of the actual stereo taken recently on my visit to Perth. Can't believe it's still around!


Eventually I evolved into a simple software called 'e-tracker' that allowed me to program samples... oooh I had fun with that. Then dance e-jay came out and that was simply bliss!

I then got into a proper digital multitracker called Cakewalk and finally I was introduced to proper multichannel recording.

I mentioned all this because I never quite realised how much more proactive I was when I was younger because I wasn't scared. If only I had kept it up I probably would be a decent producer by now.

So now I'm turning over a new leaf. I'm now running Cubase SX2.2 and I'm spending roughly 8-10 hours per day making music on my computer. In just one month I have learnt much more than I have in my whole lifetime doing it half-arsed.

I've learnt a lot about various softwares, arranging, clean recording, room sound treatment, how an SB audigy2 value soundcard makes such a difference compared to the onboard, and how a specific music production soundcard like my current Maya 44 makes such a difference compared to the SB audigy2 value (hehe), etc etc...

Of course this is nothing compared to what I will learn as I keep progressing but the moral of the story is this: I absolutely love what I do now and if I didn't walk around scared most of my life I wouldn't have wasted so much of its precious time.

But no regrets of course. Im sure it was the best choice I had at the time (or else why else would I have made 'em). But it's time to make the choice whether to continue with it or shift. So I'm shifting.

Now I get to make my own music, sing, and with enough persistence, will get to pursue the career that I've always wanted. No safety nets. No fear. No excuses. Just pure focus. Because guys, whether you like it or not, we all have a countdown timer imprinted in us. What meaningful thing are YOU going to do before it reaches 0?

Persist on ur passion!