Do it yourself

My late grandfather was a renaissance man in the true meaning of the phrase. Above all, he was an avid painter who left behind almost two hundred different works. Although music is my life’s choice, grandpa has also transferred me the love toward visual arts as well as toward the “do it yourself” principle.

Indeed, the music I’m primary into is the embodiment of the mentioned concept. Being the performer, instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and producer at the same time is its basic and inseparable part. Taking into account the fact that I’ve become proficient in all these fields almost completely by myself and without the mentorship of any kind, brings a great feeling of fulfillment, but also a certain sense of lassitude. Particularly when you are constantly facing a new set of obstacles and uncertainties, despite all previous efforts and renunciations.

Observing other people from the world of art, including music, the examples of those who do everything completely by themselves are really not so common, especially amongst the successful ones. For example, at the beginning of almost every book I’ve read, the authors usually mention the whole team of people who actively work with them: from their editors, managers, publishers, various consultants, graphic designers, and other experts. Therefore it seems that the writers can withdraw to some secluded corner and devote themselves to what matters the most - writing. Things are similar in most genres of music: people are usually only the performers or singer-songwriters, behind whose success stands a small army of various collaborators.

At the moment, I’m doing preparations for releasing my first official album. As usual, I’m going through almost everything alone - part out of unfortunate circumstances, part out of personal satisfaction. I must admit that I frequently wish that things were different. The activities related to creating the music itself are complex enough, but there is also a whole bunch of additional technical details, like mastering, graphic design, publishing, let alone marketing and promotion. More and more I realize that I’m going to need some concrete help from others in order to finally adequately capitalize on my long-term work. The computers and the Internet seemingly provide infinite possibilities and allow you to manage by yourself in almost every area, however, this is often only a semblance and utopia. A person simply cannot be an expert in every field, although these modern times and available technology tend to speak otherwise. Despite all this potential, the luckiest are still the ones who also have human resources on hand. For those of us not as fortunate, remains the DIY method along with plenty of hope and positive thinking. ;)