The Return to My Sonic Sanctuary
The joy of mixing. My ears are my paintbrush as I delve back into the colors of sound.
Sometimes on the road of life there are uninspiring detours but an artist always comes backs full circle to where they started. Their canvas.
P.o.p. the writer
When I wrote my subtitle, I thought about when my high school art teacher taught me to paint. I remember the mixture of precise detail and freedom. When he showed me how to paint trees in watercolor, he showed me how to let the water guide the paint instead of the other way around.
When he showed me how to add accents on the blades of grass blowing in the wind, I remember being laser-focused. I probably took those two painting lessons into every form of art. I returned to music after about three years today.
Writing has been such a beautiful journey in these two years (I'm not going anywhere). I'm just reflecting on where I've been and where I'm at right now. I left writing for ten years because I remember I was in a community where I wrote for the validation and attention of women. Ironically when I was married, I had no desire to write.
Then not long after that, I became a sought-after producer for about five years. I made pretty good money and was in high demand. I think I lost my creativity somewhere along the way. Feeling like an employee can do that.
I was producing classic albums for clients who barely mentioned my name when their album came out. It felt like a very transactional situation. Please give me my songs, and here's your money on the dresser. You can leave. Harsh?
If anyone from that network reads this, hey, I'm telling my truth. Producing music for hire made me never want to work with recording artists again. It wasn't enjoyable. I think that's why I left that chapter for a while.
It broke my heart twice. I met my ex-wife in that same network. So I divorced everyone else in that season of my life that I left behind. When I came to Medium, I was pleasantly surprised by how this platform awakened the love within.
Writing has led me to places this last two years that I've never been to before. Now that I'm exploring this instrument called my voice and showing myself on YouTube, I've realized I'm going to need some original music for the shows I'm creating.
Do you think I'm paying for that? Hell to the no. I have a vast library of my songs. Today when I came home from work, I put my headphones on and turned on my music production program that's been collecting dust. I started to mix the song and submerged into the waves of sound.
I was that kid in art class again. I remember how my teacher dropped that paint in the water and told me just to let it run. The color was free.
That's how I learned how to paint trees, which transferred to music, and those lessons stayed with me. The blades of grass were my mathematical approach to giving balance, detail, and space to all instruments in the mix.
It doesn't feel like a job, and I'm not on anyone's time. The track is the theme for my show. I'm doing what I want to, and I'm finally emerging from the darkness. The artist has come into the light. The writer in me was reborn, and the producer within has been born again.
