HOW TO BE A CREATIVE BOHEMIAN AND STILL KEEP A CLEAN HOUSE

Creative types learn not to be a slave to domestic duties. Dust mites and soap scum are as constant as Sisyphus’ stone.

He rolled the stone up, the stone rolled down…he rolled the stone up, the stone rolled down…oh eee oh, eee-OHHHHH oh…for all eternity.

You’d never get anything written or painted or invented if you obsessed over chores, although mopping and mowing and taking out the garbage make excellent avoidance techniques for creatives who are afraid of an empty page.

On the other hand, chaos and grime are not conducive to fine art or godliness. Outsourcing the chores is a spectacular dream, but we all know that the starving artist phase of a creative career leaves no budget for such luxuries.

Besides, no one is exempt from chores. Even if you live in your car, you’ve got to keep her running, find a place to shower and brush your teeth, find a nice Walmart parking lot for the evening, oh, and call your Mom now and then so she can give you the “get a real job” lecture again.

So, here you are, with a thousand songs waiting to be written, or a movie script better than Casa Blanca playing in your head, and all you need is time.

EVERYTHING will interfere the moment you feel inspired, and if you pay attention, it will most often be menial tasks, albeit, sometimes the distractions involve trips to the emergency room or natural disasters.

Here’s what you do about the unpredictable uncontrollable disasters. Stay ready. When the floodwaters rise, make sure you have a waterproof pen.

Pay attention all the time. This also applies to spousal disputes and rearing children, especially if you’re writing a Country song. Life is one grand creative adventure after another, and the first one to make it rhyme or brush it onto a canvas wins the posteritous prize.

As for the house cleaning…it’s on the list of predictable things within your control. The thing to do is use it to your advantage.

Housework can be like driving on a road trip for a creative. It keeps your hands busy so you can think, or to put it more scientifically, occupies the left-brain so the right-brain can get a word in edgewise.

The trick is to get an idea going first. Commit to what you are going to work on, a concept, a title, an image, and then, grab a broom. Start sweeping…and dreaming. People will actually leave you alone so that you CAN think, because nothing deters a lazy crowd more than chores.

They’ll scatter on the four winds, and you’ll be free to “stare into space.” They just won’t know you’re doing it. Your hands are moving, your feet are shuffling, but you’re actually “being still.”

Try sitting in a chair or on a porch swing or at your desk and do this. Unless it’s a Sunday afternoon and everyone is napping, they’ll find you, and everything will be urgent. They’ll demand answers, or they’ll tell you you’re wasting time.

You can’t explain to them that your thoughts are invisible entities that are going to change the world and make you lots of money. They won’t get it, or worse, you’ll buy into their idea of productivity and get a government job.

Once you get past the thinking phase of your project du jour, you can actually get to work getting it down. By then you’ve got a fairly clean place, you feel good about yourself, you’re no slob, and the real time bandits have run off to bug somebody else who is trying to do something important with her life.

So, grab a bottle of Mr. Clean and a sponge-bob square mop, and write a hit!

Now, about those incessant errands you’ve been running…

D is for Devil

I wrote a song today. It's called, "Lie to the Devil." It has a bluesy feel and I put it in drop-D tuning. All my "devil songs" drop the D. It's a devious sexy sound.

I mentioned this title to a few people and the reaction was something between awkward discomfort and fear. Weird. But I had to write it. I woke up and the title popped into my head. I was intrigued. Said a little prayer and grabbed my guitar. It's a swampy little song, though I will have to play it a few hundred times to make sure it's done. I wanted to take the lyric a certain direction, but the song had a mind of it's own, and as always, the song won. Leave to a devil song to give me grief.

I love it when a song takes me over. I didn't get my errands done or a single phone call returned, but I was blissfully lost in composing, which is mostly about listening.

I'm not going to tell you what the song is about, yet. Maybe I can record it soon and share it that way.

...and no, I don't write all my God songs in G.

Write on!!

Oxygen Songs

Sometimes when I do shows I am torn between doing the songs I think everyone wants to hear and the songs I really want to sing. I know, it sounds like insecurities talking. Don't audiences want to you to be real, to sing what YOU love, and then they'll love it, too? I use to think so, but many friends and the industry have "guided" me as to what my audience wants to hear.

Maybe it's a win-win situation. I don't hate any, well, many of my songs. No, it's not win-win, because I'm only singing the presumed popular or acceptable songs. I'm denying myself that smooth luxurious feeling of crooning out the melodies and deep abstract lyrics that inspire the rest of my music. I have to write the "art-y stuff" before I can get to the other. Certain songs are my oxygen; you know, like on an airplane. Take the oxygen for yourself first and then you'll be able to help others.

So then the question is, do I need to display my oxygen songs to the world, or just sing them to my dog? My collie loves them. She's very deep. She tilts her head from side to side and wags her tale when I'm done.

I have a show coming up in Nashville, and a song that scares me to death to think about singing in public. Shall I go for it?

When In Doubt, Write

The Music Industry is going through a wrenching transition. They said so today on NPR. That settles it; cat's out of the bag. We knew this was coming, of course.

It's a great time for music, though; the art-form, not the business.

I think the best advice for songwriters during this alleged crisis is this: KEEP WRITING. Create. Make the music that's in your heart - that always pays off one way or another.

The music business cannot survive without great music, but great music will go on with or without the business.

Which Came First, the Art or the Money?

Another great article I found through Twitter.


What Truly “Wealthy” People Know about Money

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Write on!!
Kim




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How to Pitch Your Demo

Hi Everyone.
Found this article today, and thought you might benefit from it. It's an older article, but still relevant. Hope you find it helpful! Just click on "How to Pitch Your Demo."


How to Pitch Your Demo

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"Bleep" Bohemian

I'm reading the Diary of Anais Nin. I have four volumes. Anybody out there a Nin fan? She was one of the most insightful, exquisite writers I have ever encountered. (I have not read the sexual Bohemian stuff.) She was an art spirit, a literary Rembrandt living in an Art Deco world.

Nin seems inherently sad because of her compassionate heart. This is what I perceive in her words, anyway. But today it is not something particularly deep or artistic Nin has to say to me. She says this in Diary 1, February 1934:

"Then I sat at my typewriter, saying to myself, 'Write, you neurotic, you weakling, you; rebellion is a negative form of living. Write!'"

I laughed out loud. So out of character for her to be so crass. Nonetheless, this was my struggle today, too, and I was being every bit as hard on myself. I feel a song inside, and I cannot seem to discipline myself away from my duties long enough to find it.

Thanks, Anais. I'm picking up my guitar...so to speak.