Balancing Work & Music Production

What up MM! It’s your boy Ant Smith back with a well overdue blog post. Today I’ve got a subject that is a problem for most producers; balancing work and production. In an ideal world we would all love to give up the day jobs, whether you’re a banker, engineer, shop assistant, anything. Our love is for music and this is the biggest passion we have. Our dreams are to one day pay our bills by doing what we love, producing dope music.

Lets face it, this life, it ain’t fair and it ain’t easy. In my eyes, the way we react to different situations is what differentiates us from each other. This game involves us wedging match sticks in our eyes so we can finish our work. There isn’t enough time in the day and I know some of you have families, which makes it even more difficult. I’ve gotta hand it to some of y’all, you’re doing what you love and at the same time you’re supporting your families. Respect!!

Everyone will have there own way of doing things and routines that they have subconsciously gotten into. I have a pretty decent job that allows me to be flexible. I’m one of the lucky ones in this suppose. I still have to work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, but I try to make the most of my evenings and weekends while eliminating any distractions where possible. Of course I’m not constantly working on music in my spare time, but when I can I will. If I ever need a little motivation to get started, Youtube normally does the trick.

I once saw a picture that really stood out and I told myself I would never quit doing what I love. This picture was split into 2. There were 2 guys mining in a cave. 1 of the guys was old and had clearly been mining for a while, so he gave up. The other guy was young, eager and was still working to get that treasure. The old guy had put in a lot of effort to reach where he was, but he gave up when he was so close. The moral of this image was that the old man had essentially turned his back on his dream when he was so close to achieving it. In fact you can see this picture in this blog.

I think this relates pretty well with producing. We keep pumping out beats and never really know what is round the corner. The next beat could be the one, your breakthrough, but until you make that beat you just don’t know. What I am really trying to get at is if you really love producing music, stick to it. It’s hard to balance work and producing, but everyone’s been there. Ok, not everyone, some people get a golden ticket, but what can we do.

We are all different; our circumstances are different on many different levels. Only you can judge how much time you really have to work on music. If you have a busy week at work, you have the weekend or next week. Obviously we all wanna make this our lives, what we live for, but the simplest answer is that we ain’t all gonna make it. The only advice I can give you is to use your time wisely and effectively. Manage your time wisely, and keep working towards your goals. I hope this helps some of you guys out or at least gives you a different perspective. Until next time, keep digging!