Turning the Page: From Survival to Strategy on My Music Journey
This Follow Your Art Music Tour I have largely been referring to as my own personal choose your own adventure book. I’ve had to make split decisions that, given one the other and maybe even the other or the other, take me in wide ranging directions from where I currently will have been at the time of making it. I didn’t know that going into this the massive amounts of date that would become pouring in and yet I had to be alright with whatever decision that was made so I am ready again for the next onslaught of information.
On top of that, my psychoses aren’t particular fond of me being around too many people for too long periods of time not to mention the unpredictability of everything from social media to getting my foot in the door of various locations I want to perform at to just something as simple as getting something to eat at a nearby vendor being almost too much for me socially speaking if I’m not mentally prepared. I must also take into account the culture I’m surrounded with and how dipping in and out of these various cultures can affect one’s psyche beyond my normal everyday experience. Now, I have had to keep going anyways, not having a clear direction yet the clear direction being inward and absorption of the information the world is trying to throw my way as it’s coming in from all directions now.
With that in mind, I recognize that choose your own adventure books don’t typically have chapters per se. However, I have reached a definite no going back point. The last chapter is over. The new chapter begins today. The last chapter I would call, which has taken the last 6 months to unfold beginning from January until now, ‘Hitting the Ground Running.’ The chapter was about just getting started. Just doing it. Just pulling myself up from my bootstraps and getting started one way or another because one way or another, I did not have a choice outside of showing up regardless of the inner turmoil, the bullshit experienced on the inside. I just needed to do something, anything, and it didn’t need to be the right move because there was no right move which means the only thing you do when first setting out is show the fuck up, take in what you can, and keep moving.
Now, with that in mind, I’ve taken to implementing a new strategy going forward. Something I have not yet tried on this music tour or my last one. I have set the next three countries forward for which ones I will be in over the next three months. I have chosen these locations for various reasons but ultimately, my choice is my own of implementing the strategy I am setting forth. I do not know if this strategy will work. I am not adamant that it will work out. But strategic implementation is about experimentation. Testing an idea, a hypothesis. If this strategic intervention works, I can refine. If it doesn’t, adjustments must be made for further experimentation, seeing where I’ve gone wrong and continually testing and checking against what’s working and what isn’t.
With that on the agenda, Chapter 2 of this Music Tour I would call, “Uncaging Birds” as my overall strategy is directly tied to having made some major experiments I am doing inside of this larger experiment called ‘Strategy’ for pushing the game forward. These next 3 months, if not more depending on how the strategy persists, will tell me what to do next and maybe even where I’ll go. The journey continues.
