Allgemein

Being a part time artist!

Wouldn´t it be nice to work on your creative songwriting projects all day every day? Being an artist (of whichever kind) is hard work, but ever so fulfilling! You know how to say: Do what you love and you won´t work a day in your life! Uhm hm…

However, making a living from your songwriting alone, isn´t a reality for most of us!

The opposite is true! Most of us creative minds need to earn our living from something else.

Whether you work full time or are lucky enough to cover your costs through a part time job, you probably often feel exhausted and drained and not in the mood to add in those extra hours for songwriting- for doing what you love most!

Here´s the good news: I feel ya!

However, I believe part of our problem is the romantic idea, that “making it as a songwriter” means living the life! Working as a songwriter full time! Earning the dollars and the like!

The truth looks different though!

A huge portion of successful artists (throughout history) had and have to sustain themselves with a side hustle!

Here are some examples of “successful” artists that worked another job for a long time:

  • Jeff Koons
  • Julian Schnabel
  • Art Garfunkel
  • Charles Yves

And there´s many more! If you are interested in finding out about how these people structured their day, I recommend peaking into “Daily rituals- how great minds make time, find inspiration and get to work” by Mason Currey.

This is a great collection of stories all about some of the greatest masterminds in music, theater, literature and the like!

Anyways, as soon as we set our minds up for a more realistic scenario (which is working two jobs, one that feeds the belly, and one that feeds the soul), things will get better!

Being an artist is not so much about what you “do”, but about who you “are”. It´s not a job, it´s a way of life!

Look! You might think…being successful (as a songwriter) means earning a decent amount of money from your art! But is that really your only definition of success?

Woulnd´t it be a success to land a song on an Adele album or having a song featured in your favorite TV series? Or winning an award? Will those accomplishments necessarily pay your bills? No! Not for sure!

Success is something you have to define for yourself!

And so is a “fulfilled life”. Who says working two jobs in order to do what you love aint fulfilling?

Who says you can only be happy if you can write songs all day every day?

I´ll tell you what! Kill that dream! I´m not saying it isn´t doable…work towards that goal! But don´t let this define the value and success of your artistry!

You rock! Right now! Already! Keep on rocking!

Love,

Katie