A Tale From The Woods

[SteveL]

I just thought I'd take a little time to post this for others with similar interests to me that may be approaching the usual mid-life crisis/tree change scenario (I'm closing in on 50).... It may help others thinking about making a change to hear about someone else's experience with it, so sorry if it rambles a bit.

As some of you may know, I'm a writer/composer with my own small label that is really just a vanity thing for pushing my own stuff through via other performers. Fortunately I've had some great experiences including having my songs recorded at Abbey Road by The London Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonia Orchestra, so for a hack composer (ie untrained) I've surprised myself with where my music has managed to take me.

Like some here, I never relied on music for my day to day income, it's been a passionate hobby that grew with my successes,but still stayed secondary to my main job which was in the property business for 15 years.

Anyway, about a year ago, after our only child moved out of home, my wife and I decided we were tired of Sydney traffic, crowding etc etc and decided to move to the Southern Tablelands (2.5 hrs from Sydney) and move onto the in-laws sheep property on a separate cottage and give them a hand (both now in their 80s). Fortunately, having bought a house in Sydney in 1987 just before the property boom took off, we were able to sell in Sydney and move debt-free, buy a holiday home by the coast and put cash in the bank.

Being a keen composer, songwriter, recordist/home engineer, it did really nag me that I was moving to a small country town where I had no musical contacts, and the musical scene just simply did not seem to exist. So what to do? Of course I'd decided to splash out on a nice new console/converters, so I had a great music-making and recording setup in my comfy country cottage, but so far just me to entertain myself in (not unhappy about that....) . No business plan, just time on my hands.

So one day I notice a flyer promoting a regular Bush Poets get-together at a small village pub they do once a month. I go along, meet a number of nice folks that had come from up to 200km radius to read their poems, had a great time. Went home and thought about it and thought how spoken words can have so much more/different impact with different music behind them. Decided to write my own 'bush poem" to take along to the next meeting, but one with a musical background I composed for the piece that I would play them on CD in the pub lounge. Well, they loved it, but probably more so they loved the fact that I obviously knew how to record a voice well in addition to writing and mixing music and somehow magically blending the two together.

So I now have a number of poets around the area asking if I could record their poems onto CD (there's a surprisingly active bush poets circuit in the bush that really has existed for well over a hundred years and never gone away). One of the poets happens to be organising an inaugural event for my town honouring one of Australia's great poets (on the $10 note) who happened to have a strong local connection a hundred years ago. How would I feel about compiling a commemorative CD featuring local poets and musicians reading and playing the poet's material as part of the event (minimal funding available, probably enough to cover production costs, but not my time). Well, that didn't concern me so much, it seemed a great opportunity to meet a whole bunch of local creative folk.

So within days of hearing about the project (news travels fast in and between small towns) everyone wants to be on the CD, I have dozens of poets, singers, writers, authors, television screenwriters, getting in touch to come up and records poems, the famous poet's poems, local history recollections, traditional bush songs, bush bands (just recorded my first tea-chest bass). Enough material is recorded for a double CD, but with a shoe-string budget I get it all on one CD in time for the weekend launch, do a deal with the organisers on a cut that will see me cover costs for my materials and time on any sales we make. Turns out the fact we are producing a CD for the event using local performers is a great assistance to them applying for a funding grant through state arts bodies, which they get with funding for two years (which means next year is now locked in).

The CD is a hit with the locals, and sells strongly (ie profitable for me) and gets played all around town venues, gets written up in the local press etc. etc. One of the CD participants now wants to record a nine song album, another has a CD/DVD/Audio Book project for me to do, someone else wants me to record a live "comedy poetry" CD for him around local pubs, one of the musos ( a harmonica virtuoso) wants to record an album of material, several other projects are looming and all of a sudden the town that I thought was creatively "dead" is seething with people wanting to record a huge range of things and I'm doing what I love and actually getting paid decent money to do it.

I'm not saying go and make a move without a plan, but I guess the point of my lengthy post is just don't NOT do things because you don't know what might happen (unless of course you are borrowing a lot of money to do them, then you DO need a plan!)

I thought about just deleting this post as it's probably more cathartic for me than anyone else, but then I thought if it helps inspire somebody else who might be thinking of getting out of the suburban hell of our big cities, you will be surprised by the opportunities that are out there if you look for them. I now wake up looking at sheep in the paddock instead of my neighbours 200HP yamaha outboard motor on his boat 1m from my bedroom window. I haven't been happier in my life.

Steve

[Lee]

I'm glad you didn't delete that post as you can never have enough inspiration. Cool post.

[rightintheface]

Great post, thanks steve!

[mylesgm]

great post and great to hear that there are a lot of ways to make fulfilling art and put food on the table that isn't chasing the recording 'holy grail' of big studios, big budgets, big names and coke habits...

[NYMo]

Great post...I know how you feel !

[graemeh]

Good on you Steve - looks like you've landed on your feet!

Nice to hear a good news story...

[Wiz]

congrats...good story, enjoyed reading it.

[vege-mity-mite]

I like stories where things happen just because you're living and not chasing. Great stuff and thanks for sharing!

[The Tasmanian]

Great story, mine is similar
I moved to Tasmania 5 years ago -
Best thing I ever did was get out of the city.
Edit: rant............

[heathen]

Great story.

[DwaneHollands]

Thanks for posting that Steve! Thoroughly enjoyed reading that!

[Mazystar]

Thats an absolute corker of a story!!!