The Journey
It hasn’t been quite a year since I started and what a journey it’s been! It’s been a steep learning curve, but fun. As I learn my equipment better and my recording software better, I listen to my first songs and hear all the stuff I wish I would have done differently. Some stuff makes me wish I hadn’t made such simple mixing and recording mistakes. This past year, I’ve tried to read books, take classes, watch tutorials and keep learning how to fully use the powerful software that we as independent artists have in this day and age, that heroes from our past would have given anything to have. I’m going through my first songs and trying to mix them better with the things I’ve learned over the past year. I don’t want to rerecord anything, just take what is there and make it sound more professional and polished (no autotune or quantizing though!).
One thing I’ve noticed in recording everything myself and mixing everything myself, is I subconsciously tend to highlight the things that gave me the most trouble during recording. For example, if I was having difficulty getting a cello sound I liked, I didn’t realize until listening much later, that I had that turned up more than it probably should be. And I’m well aware that there are tips, tricks and rules to writing, recording and mixing that I’m not following. And that’s what I find so refreshing and free about being an independent artist. There is no one to answer to. There is no one to say those lyrics are to vague or too specific. There is no one to say, that chord isn’t supposed to go there.
The joy of making music is just letting the emotion and the expression flow from you. Many of us enjoy that the most. Would it be nice to make an extravagant living by playing music? Of course! Who wouldn’t want to get rich doing the things they love. But the most satisfaction and joy just comes from getting the music out of your heart and mind. If someone else enjoys it, that’s even better! Being independent gives us artists the freedom to make whatever music we want (or take a break) and you can’t put a price on that.