Music Vampires

 

Steve Pavlina has recently embarked on a musical experimental journey.

One of his latest realizations is that he has realized what many of us involved in the music industry already know:

“This music vibe doesn’t seem to mesh very well with being an early riser! Is there something about music production that transform people into vampires?”

Yes Steve.  It’s true.  Music production happens at night.  It’s nearly impossible to do it any other way.

My husband, JS Ohlander, has been a professional musician for many years.  He ran a record label, signed bands, had his own band, multiple releases, cross country tours…and for the past few years he has pushed himself into practical hibernation to write his first solo album to be released in early 2012.

JS writes music, and both of us are also very immersed into the pursuit of our own personal development.

JS and I live similar lives to other personal development authors.  We:

• Read voraciously
• Conduct many personal experiments, usually simultaneously
• Have publicly experimented online with various personal experiments
• Enjoy biographies and biopics of successful people
• Are passionate about time management, personal freedom and minimalism, among other things

If you line us up against the other big names in the industry, we’d match up…..except one thing.

We stay up late.  And we like it that way.

We can’t help it.

Music simply does not happen until sundown.  The Muse does not wake up until the moon rises on the horizon.

We have tried a W I D E variety of work schedules.

Waking up at 6am.  Going to bed at 6am.  And everything in-between.

The conclusion JS and I have come to is that the ideal schedule for us is:

• Wake up at 10 am

• Music begins at sundown

• Late dinner at 10 pm

• Another music session until 1-2 am

• Try to go to bed at 2am, final lights out at 3-4 am

Music creation happens at night.  That’s just the way it works.

Now I will agree ….once you have a body of work, then you can schedule time to:

•  Edit the work

•  Record the work in a studio

•  Have the music mastered for sound quality

•  Rehearse the work for a later performance.

…Speaking of performance…

Performance also happens at night.

The music magic isn’t there until night falls.

After all, when was the last time you were REALLY excited about a 2pm Sunday afternoon show?

* crickets *

I didn’t think so.

I have been to a few day time shows, and some shows happening around 6-7pm.

THEY ALL SUCKED.

The magic isn’t there.

So it totally drives me crazy when all these personal development/self-help online gurus profess the importance of waking up early…

 THEY JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND.

All of these guys listen to music created by musicians who live in the night.  And these musicians are worth millions of dollars.  And they have to get things done.  They write. They create. They record. They go on tour.

And all their favorite musicians stay up late.

So if you stay up late, I salute you.

Here’s to the crazy ones.  The ones who live by the creative Muse directing their biorhythms, orchestrating a daily schedule outside “the norm”.

And I’m sure your creative Muse salutes you for knowing when to work.

~H. 

P.S.  Vampires rarely get things done.  They are obsessed with sucking on blood and looking for girls to profess their love to so they can get a steady stream of bloodletting.  No.  Musicians are not vampires.  They are night owls.

But that is a story for another time.

(Photo adapted from the very talented landscape and astronomical phenomenon photographer lrargerich)