Window cleaning was delayed by a few days as the team had trouble finding the anchor points on the building. That means instead of being a one week project, it’s now a two week one.
There are a list of units that can be entered at any time in order to access these anchors. I feel a bit bad for them because it was originally only one week of being on edge, and now it’s two weeks. At any time the condo FBI can bust down their door and ask to take a look at their balcony.
As for me, I’m just waiting for the most inopportune time for a man from the climbing gym to appear outside my window. Again, it was originally one week, and now it’s two.
Shaman Soundsystem on Elliott’s Podcast
This week’s show explored a few different effects with my combination of guitar, ceremonial vocals and the drum that I kick with my other foot.
My main instrument these days is the semi-hollow body guitar made by Epiphone. Their tagline is “Guitars for every stage”, and I must admit my two instruments from them have been very high quality for the price.
The key with any instrument at some point you’re going to have to make it work for you. And that means doing what it’s intended to do, make music with it.
On Finding Your Workspace
The bedroom is where I record a lot of these types of shows as I can close the door and play as loud as I want. The office is by the front door and it basically feels like I’m making music in the hallway.
For a while I thought I was nuts until I read this interview with Fatima Al Qadari:
I’m in L.A. right now. It’s hard to get your bearings to write in a new place. That’s actually one of the causes of anxiety for me. It’s not so much what is happening in my personal life as it is, Oh, this room, I hate it. I can’t work here. But I have to because I have nowhere else to go.
But my bedroom in Kuwait is this windowless room where there are no distractions, and it’s soundproof as a result. It’s a room within a room. There’s a side passageway to it, so there’s a double door of privacy. My dad passes out at like 8pm. My mom stays awake and watches Egyptian movies. She’s in thrall to her Egyptian movies. And I like to make music there from midnight to the morning call to prayer. That’s my alarm clock: Okay, you should go to bed now. So this, to me, is the magic hours of writing: midnight to 5am. It’s so quiet there, not a peep. I can’t see anything. I’m completely in my head.
It seems like one would ideally be able to pick the perfect workspace for themselves, but that’s not often how it works. You move into a new place and you have only a few options for where your desk will go. And either you get the vibes in that room or you end up just working at the kitchen table instead because all the pressure disappears there. Call it has the coffee shop effect or what have you.
My insight for the week to share with you is to approach everything as if it’s in “draft mode”. If you start a new work, it’s a draft for what will be finished later on and you shouldn’t have too many worries about how a draft turns out.
You might say, “well a live performance is surely not a draft”, and I do believe that performances and by extension sporting matches can be seen as drafts as well, as each outing lays the foundation for the next iteration of you.
Not necessarily a better version of you, but a new one takes shape as we show up to do the work. Don’t be afraid of working with a draft.
See you next week!
Elliott