California (cont.) / Waiting [Week 1]

Life’s been good overall. I’ve just finished 1.5 weeks in California. Here’s the daily routine:

  • Wake at 9AM EST

  • Music till 1030/11AM

  • Work through 630/7PM (or later depending on the day)

  • Eat with Mom and Dad

  • Take a walk around the neighborhood till 8/830PM

  • Music for a couple hours

  • Read before falling asleep

Slight variations (I sometimes watch a lil too much Youtube—been bingeing on Impractical Jokers these days) but more or less the same.

Beyond the repetition of the weekdays I was able to go biking on Saturday. We got bikes from Ventura and rode towards Ojai. Mom was exhausted halfway through (to be fair the bikes we rented were pretty heavy) so we stopped in a small town called Oak View. I literally had no idea this town existed until that day we went biking. Small town seemingly in the middle of nowhere with not much besides a few mom n pop restaurants and a grocery store.

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It was in this grocery store (OV Ranch Market) we found a barbecue spot called Q Time BBQ. I love it when there are restaurants running out of random places. We got the Tri Tip sandwich, Pulled Chicken Sandwich and Burger. Pretty fire. Not the easiest bbq spot to reach but I’m glad we went. Made me realize that even in these dreaded suburbs there’s still a lot that I still haven’t discovered.

The following day I got lunch with an old high school friend. Probably one of my longest running friends? It’s been 10 years (WOW!). Lucky for me he’s back in town living with his parents while rona goes down so at least I have a friend to hang with while I’m back home.

In the music realm: I put up my song on Spotify! It’s been a small dream to hear my music one day on the platform I use the most swirling around with all my other favorite music. And there’s nowhere to go but up from here—partly because I’m starting at the very bottom (just hit five followers!) but also because I believe in the trajectory of my music.

There’s a whole world of releasing music I hadn’t realized before I put my song up. First you have to go through a distributor—these are companies that are set up to help you put your music out on all platforms. Some of them provide additional services like marketing but the bread and butter is made by helping musicians get their music on platforms. Especially during corona times it reminds me of that saying

“you can mine for gold or you can sell pickaxes.”

Beyond the distributors the next step seems to get your music on playlists. That seems to be the single best method to grow your listeners. Makes me wonder if that’s reshaped the way we make music. If getting your song on a playlist is the easiest way to grow your listeners are you incentivized to craft pieces that might have better chances of making it onto these specific playlists?

After having put my music on Spotify I do feel more motivated to consistently put out music. Now that I’ve finished the first song I have a better idea of what it takes to put a song out there.

On that note I’m currently working on my next song.

Here’s the rough draft:

Still have a ways to go with this one. All I know is that I have a beautiful piano part that I want to squeeze in there.