Whew. Almost done with the move – not quite, but almost. For a variety of reasons that are not exciting enough to talk about, the whole move process has taken a couple of months, but there should now only be one trip back to Nashville left; and with that being 3 and a half hours there and the same back (of course it’s the same back, did you think it was uphill one way and downhill the other? 😉 ), I will be very glad not to have to do that again in a hurry!
Although I haven’t had time to just “sit and enjoy it” much yet, I can already feel the beneficial effects of having sky, trees, grass, and wildlife as what I see out of my window. This will be a big boost to the music, the energy of this is so much better!
Not only that, but since anyone walking about in the parking lot could see straight in unobstructed, I had to leave the blinds closed; I am not a fan of being a goldfish in a bowl! But this meant no natural daylight – the doors above were the only source of light in my front room and kitchen, so it was artificial light all the time. Not good for mind, body, and soul.
The studio now has TWO windows letting light in, and looking out over the top of the monitors I get to see sky and trees (and my whole back yard if I stand up).
Also, now that I am all detached, I have got some studio monitors, the rather excellent Kali LP-6 powered speakers. My trusty Audio Technica headphones broke a couple of months back, after about 9 years of loyal service, and for now the monitors will be what I use. It will be interesting to see how this shapes the next music.
The chair is also new – turned out it would cost $2,600 to move my pretty trivial one-bedroom-apartment belongings, all of which were “assemble it yourself” off of Walmart and Amazon and the like, and it was cheaper just to buy all new stuff.
Cleaning the place is a challenge; the image above is what I found when I moved the old and very nasty fridge. “Built in 1977, last cleaned in 1976” is what I like to say about the house. This is one of the challenges I mentioned that has made the move take a wee while longer than expected! Still a lot of cleaning to go – nothing as bad as the nightmare above though!
So, for all the above and more, there hasn’t been any new music in a while, but at least things are settled (and clean) enough that I can return to it! It’s going to be interesting, as to economize a bit after the costs of buying the house and moving, I have cancelled my Roland Cloud and East-West Composer Cloud subscriptions (I still have my two lifetime Rolands that I picked though).
And I am not down about that, but instead somewhat excited! Sometimes you can just have too many options, too many synths, too many sounds. Narrowing that down is going to be interesting, I am keen to see how it focuses the music!
I am not a fan of the camera on my new 5G phone, the One Plus 8 (a back-up in case there are internet or power outages), but oh well, you can’t have everything. I guess I am spoiled having had a Pixel for so long! Anyway, the above view greeted me on one late night return from Nashville, and I love that being detached I can make music even if it’s 3am. No more worrying about what the neighbors think!
And as for photos, I have my Fuji camera dug out from the moving now, and doing some photography is something I plan to get back to now there are things worth photographing!
The weather is constantly changing – sometimes sparkling mornings, sometimes foggy; lots of epic thunderstorms with dark black clouds brooding over the hills and mountains; sometimes heavy rain, sometimes overcast but dry. Fantastic! I love that the world around me is constantly different, renewed, refreshed.
Sure was a challenge for a few weeks – a pillow for a sofa (but at least I finally got a PS5!), an airbed to sleep on, a horrible folding metal chair to sit at the computer, only a microwave to cook with and not a big one at that; but all that is a thing of the past now as things have been slowly and steadily upgraded (the delivery folks must be fed up with my address by now), and life is normal as of the end of last week (that’s Aug 13th).
Anyway, this is all related to the music, because it will definitely change the music I make. As a musician, your surroundings, your emotional state, the energies surrounding you, all color the creative process, whether you want it to or not.
So, just a little rest after months of uncertainty and hard work, and then it will be back to creating!
All the best!
Tom (Cu Sithe)