Someone asked me recently if I make music for others, or for myself, and how I answered that question would greatly impact the trajectory of my success.
I was stumped and momentarily offended. We are coached for our entire musical existence to not put our validation in what others think of our song - in spite of having to perform to pass tests, juries, competitions, or even the jury of peers - just to maintain that sense of self-worth and drive to continue. This moment of decision felt like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't," scenario.
Of course they were referring to the business side of branding, marketing, algorithm hunting (the side that I do not understand & go cross-eyed caring about) rather than the human side of just making music because the deepest part of your soul depends on it.
So maybe that will be where I hit my threshold and I plateau, because I never graduated to primarily making music for others. I have played too many background gigs to dozens of chattering crowds to drown me out to suddenly start honestly saying I make music for others. I would have quit a long time ago.
I make music to feed my family, exercise my creativity, hang out with my friends, be able to sleep at night, witness to strangers about what Jesus has changed in me, and hopefully somewhere in that, some folks end up liking my music too.
But I am truly afraid of how much of myself I'd lose if I started making music for everyone else's sake. If it isn't for me, is it REALLY even for you?
Saying all that, I'm putting out some more music soon. 🤣
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