Blog
Word is blog
Being Nervous is Good For You
I often get asked by friends and fans if I get nervous before I get on stage, and my answer for the past 10 years has always been “no.” When I say I don’t get nervous most people think it’s because I’ve got nerves of steel or that my confidence is just so high that I can’t be shaken by being in front of unfamiliar crowds, but the truth is a little more complicated than that.
Early in my career, I wasn’t nervous because I was too nieve to be nervous. I was playing shows in my city but hadn’t really left yet and could still count on knowing the majority of the faces in the crowd. Shows were social events more than shows back then and it was easy to be comfortable. At that point being nervous about performing would’ve meant that I actually understood the long term scope of what I had gotten myself into, and that I wasn’t just out there having fun. It was easy to be comfortable when you don’t know how bad things could go, and what you could lose in terms of fan support by doing really bad shows. Truth be told, if i would’ve actually understood things a bit more at this stage I probably would’ve been nervous enough to piss my pants. Everybody goes thru this stage.
The Struggle of Getting Music Out
2012 marks the tenth year that I’ve been a full-time artist. Without a doubt it’s the most rewarding career I’ve ever had. It’s also the most challenging, although in completely different ways than my previous jobs.
I remember when I was considering resigning from my job back in 2001, I went around getting advice from other self-employed people, in hopes of getting encouragement or advice before I made the leap. One of the people I spoke to was named Todd Buck and he ran an in-home studio on the west side of Cincinnati that I would routinely use for mastering the first few albums I ever released. He had just made the decision to move his studio and business out of his basement and to a larger one on the opposite side of town. He had only been self-employed for a year at the time so I asked him for some advice.
The Best of Printmatic.net 2011
2011 was a very real year for me. After taking a departure to learn about music and get my life in order I released my sophomore solo album Adventures in Counter-Culture and toured the United States, Canada, & Europe. My brother got sick and my mother moved in with me for most of the year to help handle his affairs. I learned how to kick it without alchohol, became more focused on family than ever, and my brothers situation forced me to put things into perspective. I realized along the way that writing helps me get through things, and understand the world around me more, so I continued to write here at printmatic.net, and I thank you all for reading and allowing me to use this as an outlet. I was going back through some of my posts from this year and figured I would post a “best of” list for those who may have missed some of the things I consider to be my best writing, and for those that may want to reread or share some of these with friends.Eyedea: One Year Later, Before and After
the downside of giving up on yourself
Blueprint, MTV, and “Selling Out”
The Adventures of Blueprint: Episode 2 – What happened to the radio?
The Adventures of Blueprint: Episode 1 – “The story of Radio-Inactive”
I’ve got a lot of plans for 2012, and I’m in the lab really heavy hoping to bring a bunch of new music to you. As usual, this is where you will hear about everything first.
Thanks for the support.
Resolutions are stupid but I’mma do it anyways
While part of me completely understands the extreme amount of predictability and cliche attached with making new years resolutions and remains cynical of the whole thing, another part of me thinks it can be a pretty decent tool for self-improvement if used properly. For most people resolutions are typically about losing weight, spending more time with their family, and finally taking some time off work–all good but nothing I’m too concerned about right now. So I figured it would be a cool exercise to write down a few things that I would like to actually achieve that aren’t difficult, and I can stick with next year. Partly because they’re easy, and partly because I think it will be pretty funny to look back on these in five or six months and see where I’m at.So with no further ado, here are my fucking new years resolutions: (dont front you know you’ve got some too)
RESOLUTION #1 – To use my Phone as more than a texting and rhyme writing device
Apparently these things can do a lot more than text, tell time, and store my lethal raps. I had actually forgotten because that’s all I use my phone for. The instances where I actually call people are very rare, and if I had to guess I would say that I only talk to people on the phone no more than once per day. Two phone conversations in one day would probably freak me out, and holidays where you have to talk more than that can potentially make my head explode. But fuck that, in 2012 I’m gonna take it back to the essence, and actually use my phone for verbal communication. I’m not gonna stop texting people, but I am gonna actually call people and try to talk to them more, with my mouth, and my voice. It sounds weird even writing it, but I’m gonna do it!Sell Your Crap, Pay Off Your Debt, Do What You Love
For the past few weeks I’ve been having a lot of thoughts about simplifying my life; evaluating my relationship with my material possessions, how they effect my mood, my so-called happiness, and my ability to adapt to change. Then I stumbled upon this video by Adam Baker, who runs a blog that I really like called Man vs Debt, that touches on the exact thing I was feeling inside, and puts it into words perfectly. Please take a few minutes and watch this video. It’s very inspiring.
Let me know what you think in the comments section and if you can relate to what he’s talking about.
Word is Blog
Quote of the week: Robert M. Pirsig
“When analytic thought, the knife, is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process. That is fairly well understood, at least in the arts. Mark Twain’s experience comes to mind, in which after he mastered the analytic knowledge to pilot the Mississippi he discovered the river had lost its beauty. Something is always killed, but what’s less noticed in the arts is something is always created too.”
Is 50 cent really smart or really lucky?
Regardless of how you feel about his albums or his current releases, it goes without saying that 50 cent is a successful artist. Aside from his obvious knack for beef, he’s always had something about him that stood out amongst his peers, and most of the time that wasn’t even the music he made, most of the time it was his personality. For years, he’s stirred up just enough controversy, and exposed just enough of his personal life to stay relevant and keep us tuned in. He does charity work, movies, gives great interviews, and always has a well thought-out strategy for developing his artists. While the music he’s been making since his debut album has left a lot to be desired, I’ve always thought this cat was pretty entertaining, and pretty much chalked his success up to his personality and story.But lately I’ve started to admire him for another reason, that has nothing to do with his personality. The fact of the matter is that 50 cent is a pretty damn smart dude, and his personality is just a function of that intelligence.
Columbus Producer Community
To all my friends out there that do beats and are from the Columbus area, as the winter approaches we start to get close to that time that is typically the most depressing yet the most productive for us. Since we can’t go out, we make beats. If you are one of those people, and would like to get out of the house and share your work, I have an idea. I would like to build a Columbus Producer Community. Nothing even very formal, but just a place where we can all meet up and share our work (either weekly, biweekly, or monthly), at a spot with a nice PA, probably during happy hour or something. If there’s enough interest I will get the spot.I think it would help build community and inspire us all, two things that are always needed. I’ve never been one for beat battles myself, because I always felt like the beats had to fit a certain type of sound or style for a producer to be successful in that format, and also because they don’t really build community. So I would like to try something different. I’ve got a lot of cats in mind already, and you probably already know who you are. If I don’t know who you are and you’re interested in participating in this please e-mail me at info(at)printmatic.net and send me the links to your work.
Thanks in advance.
Eyedea: One Year Later, Before and After
I just woke up and realized that it’s been one year since Eyedea passed. It really hit me today that my dude is gone. Not that I didn’t feel it before but I would be lying if i said there wasn’t a decent amount of denial going on. It’s just hard to believe that somebody who did so much and was such a big part of my hip-hop experience is gone, and that I won’t see him again. The past year I’ve been so many places and talked to so many people who he has touched with his music. He touched people in the way that you wish you could touch people as an artist.
I was at a show recently and a cat asked me to tell him the story of how me and Eyedea met, how we became friends, and the story behind the song “Before and After”. He said he’s always wanted to know because we never really spoke about it in public.
Last year I wanted to write something but his passing was too fresh and hurt too much so I never did. I kept putting it off and didn’t want to be throwing our personal stuff out there in the public realm. But now I realize that sharing stories about people we love and have lost is part of celebrating their lives, and part of the healing process; and because I never allowed myself to take part in that I had never allowed myself the opportunity to mourn and heal.
So here it goes.
Artists that have influenced me: Bjork
More than ever, since the release of Adventures in Counter-Culture, one of the questions I get asked the most often is who my favorite artists are and what artists have influenced me. I guess back when my album 1988 came out it was pretty obvious, but now its not so clear since adventures is such an eclectic album.I realized the other day that while the people who hang around with me know that my taste in music is extremely varied, the people who listen to my music may not, so I always thought it would be cool to actually write about artist or songs that influenced and inspired me.
The first artist I would like to talk about is Bjork.
The Fire Curtain
photo credit Irok Torres This picture was taken from our show Friday night in Miami Beach, Florida. It’s me with the Keytar and my bass player Bobby Silver on stage doing our thing. The thing that you don’t see in this picture is my DJ, Rare Groove. He’s actually there but can’t be seen because of this big black curtain behind us that’s covering him, which is where things get interesting.
That black curtain is called a Fire Curtain. Most really big venues have them installed so that in the event of a fire on stage a button is pressed and this huge curtain drops, cutting off the fire so that it doesn’t spread and burn the whole building down. The curtain is at least 40-50 feet wide and at the base of it is a giant metal rod that helps it fall faster from the ceiling where it’s held. It’s huge and impossible for the average person to lift or move by themselves once it’s on the ground.
The Last Five Albums I Bought
People ask me all the time what I’m currently listening to. Sometimes it’s easy to remember and share, but other times it’s hard to remember because i listen to a lot of different music sometimes. Then there’s also the dont-speak-about-other-rappers policy that I try to subscribe to. This policy keeps me from getting into arguments with people who judge me for what I might be listening to, as well as preventing me from accidentally saying I don’t listen to somebody’s favorite rapper. But I decided that instead of trying to summarize everything I’m listening to, it would be better to just list the last 5 albums I’ve purchased, because that says a lot more than anything else.
So here’s a list of the last 5 albums I’ve bought and my thoughts on each:
1. Nikki Jean – Pennies in a Jar
Before I share my thoughts on this I have to admit that I am a bit biased. Nikki Jean is a friend of mine. I met her about 3-4 years ago while I was working on Adventures in Counter-Culture and we became friends instantly. She’s a pretty awesome person and artist so I don’t feel bad about that bias at all.
Quote of the week: Chuck D
Ppl make the drug game look like a joke while the pimps exploit the youth masquerading it like freedom.Then the damaged are sidestepped...
@MrChuckDMistachuckTell ’em Chuck!
Word is Blog
Things I regret buying: Novation Remote SL midi controller
Instead of talking about a piece of musical gear I own and love, I thought it would be more interesting to dedicate this post to a purchase that I absolutely regret making.See, artists have to have gear to make music, so there is almost an endless search for the right setup. The right recording space, mics, keyboards, midi controllers, recording software, etc. All of it has to be right for you so that when you get in there to make music your creativity isn’t interrupted by technical problems.
So you scope out gear, make lists, and demo things, going back and forth to Guitar Center making sure it’s what you what. And then one day, when you’re money is right, you finally make that purchase. Most of the time, it’s a great experience. You get a great piece of gear that compliments what you do, and your music benefits because of it.
But every now and then it goes horribly wrong.
So I’m gonna direct a music video…for myself
If you’ve been reading this blog for the past year then you know I’ve developed an interest in video/film. It began last year when I stopped drinking and picked up a ton of books on video production and movie making. Basically all I did last summer was read and ride my bike all over the place, two things I rarely did while I was drinking. Shortly thereafter, I borrowed a friends camera and decided to get my feet wet by working on some projects for my friend and fellow artist Latimore Platz. The first was a series of videos called “Who is Latimore Platz?” and the second was a music video for his song “10 Stone”.
After those I felt a little more confident in my work, and decided to put together the concept for what turned into The Adventures of Blueprint. I pitched it to Rhymesayers as something that I would direct and produce and they liked it enough to use as the main on-line component for Adventures in Counter-Culture, which to me was a huge confidence booster, especially knowing how critical they are. It made me feel like maybe I could take on more and more ambitious things, but once the campaign for my record started I found that I didn’t have nearly as much time to work on video projects as I initially thought I would. I started touring in February of this year and prior to June I had only been home a combined 2 weeks. While I was on tour in Austin I found somebody on craigslist that was selling the camera I had my eyes on (canon t2i) for super cheap, so I picked it up and started taking pictures again, in hopes that when I had time to sit back down with video I would have a better understanding of photography and therefore be able to capture better images.
Well, it’s time to get busy.
