I have two plates, one for life and one for hobbies. I’m pretty good at keeping my life plate clear of clutter but my hobby plate is almost always too full.
Hobby plate: music (various bands and solo projects), film photography and the chemical experiment s associated with it, poetry, creative web-work, aquascaping and the occasional odd-job hobby like a bat-house or refinishing of a piece of furniture.
I’ve always heard it’s good to keep putting your brain in different places but sometimes there is just not enough time in the month to focus on more than one thing. Now is one of those times.
Music: For the last three years I have found myself desiring the influence of music on my psyche. In the several years prior to that I was occupied with photography. From 2014 to very recently, film photos were my way of getting into the city and absorbing it. But it trickled in: Laverty-Torres Group and múnbút in 2015, Bolabit, and recently the resurgence of Ignorant Mob. This trickle up has led to me rebuilding my “rig” which I am almost certainly done doing. It’s “balls out,” now.
Having left Portland, Oregon in 2005 after a couple of months of trying to “live” there, I sold my entire keyboard rig and headed back to the Midwest. Then I started my first masters degree and essentially forgot about years of recording, touring and recording. I pushed away a large element of my life in search of something less bohemian and a life with more economic certainty. Being in a shitty van got old. The brotherhood I missed, but the limbo — I was happy to be done with that.
Now I have my old babies back, Hammond, Rhodes, and I’m rekindling old loves like Chicano ska, Reggae, the synth-driven emotions of Bolabit, and there’s a Tomas Laverty Trio (fusion) in the works here in Detroit. I’ve recorded a single with Scott Pellegrom and we plan on doing more work. Now, there are places for my brain to go when the daydreaming starts. If dreams die, daydreams get boring. They aren’t boring anymore. There are dreams to make come true.
Sometimes lessons are learned when the going gets tough, and I can say that a number of times over the last several non-musical years I have had felt the emptiness a born-musician feels when not engaging in the craft. I started seeking the solace of singing in other things. Nothing is the same. All birds must sing. I’ll be happy to sing for you.
Stay tuned here and check out ignorantmob.com and Bolabit.com for info on upcoming shows.
i like the phrase, “ do what you love” but here’s my version: “Find a way to do what you love.”