• Audio
  • Video
  • About
  • Blog
    • Published Work
    • Instructional Stuff
      • Audio Instruction
      • Music Business
      • Music Instruments
      • Music Genres
      • Programming And Such
    • Music Thoughts, Rants, Randomness
    • Production And Song Stories
  • Store
  • Contact
  •  

shannon-curtis

Getting Back

August 9, 2016 by Aaron
Music Thoughts, Rants, Randomness
aaron j. trumm, art, being moved, connection, house concerts, inspiration, intimacy, music, nquit music, shannon curtis, songwriting

So I’ve been trying to “get back” to something quite a few years now – and I’ve been trying to “Get back” to this thing in a different way, so that I’m not poor all the time, not neglecting my health, and not running around in lonely worlds trying to connect. Really it’s not going back – it’s going forward toward something I’d touched before, but is also out there in front of me.

The “thing” I’ve been trying to get back to is really connection, and it’s a thing that I did experience a whole bunch when I was a serious slam poet. It’s why we DO this thing, where we perform or make music or art – we’re really trying to dock our hearts into other hearts and become one again and there’s really zero other things more compelling on Earth.

Check this TedX talk by Shannon Curtis, who really spoke to this:

She mostly tours around doing house concerts – shows in people’s houses, in intimate settings. I did a few of those back in the day, and I had plenty of moments in those and other intimate venues like she describes. Her talking about it, and the music video she describes, where she had fans write their struggles on a paper and film them, made me cry like crazy. I started to really remember again why I was doing what I was doing when I was touring a lot as a poet.

I’ve been very focused for 3 years – ever since my epic lung transplant saga – on business, learning, growing, and making a viable and sustainable business. I’ve been so focused that I damn near forgot WHY I wanted to build that business in the first place. It’s because I couldn’t sustain that job of moving, inspiring and connecting with people if I didn’t have a proper business in place. I just kept having to stop and get some day job I didn’t want and which never really made a dent financially, and eventually it kind of fell apart, and culminated in the destruction of my health.

I LEFT the life she describes on purpose, but I always intended to rebuild that job of connecting, and go back to work. It’s a whole new world now, and I’m new, and the job is new. I don’t wish I was on the road all the time. But doing work that makes that thing happen, where people are moved, and you connect, that’s my role in life, and I think maybe it’s everyone’s role.

It really doesn’t even have to be “art” (whatever that means). If you’re a social worker or a teacher, or a lawyer working to advocate for kids, even if you make something like video games or popcorn or whatever it is, you’re doing that for other people, and your main work is connecting.

So – if you ever wondered about me, or any of my colleagues, why we do what we do, Shannon hits the nail on the head pretty good.

Thanks Shannon!

— A

ps:
oh jeeze almost forgot my requisite link to free music – here! 🙂 www.aarontrumm.com/free-download

Latest Posts

  • Mastering Good Stage Organization
  • 13 Books Every Musician Should Read Yesterday
  • The Abbey Road Trick and Friends
  • Start With the Drums: Cleaning Up Your Stage Sound from the Ground Up
  • 6 Tips for Audio Mixing on the Go

Archives

  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • May 2022
  • February 2022
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • May 2020
  • March 2020
  • November 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • February 2018
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • October 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • February 2016
  • November 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • November 2006

Follow and Listen

 
 
 
 
 
 

2022 © Copyright @ NQuit Music –  All Rights Reserved – Website by nquit.com