If you were to look at my creative CV, it might seem as though I have not been very active over the past couple of years. It may also seem like it's taking me a really long time to finish album number seven, as this has been a work-in-progress for over a year now.
The reality is that most of my daily music-making time is dedicated to rehearsing my existing songs. Of my seventy or so tunes, there are about twenty that I practice multiple times per week, some of which have mutated a bit over the years since I initially recorded them. Basically, I have been working out a pretty solid setlist of original material, while also trying to put a band together to play these songs live.
As a result, I have not been developing new material at the same rate as in the past, even though I've probably been playing more music over the past two years than ever before. I have also had some technical issues with my computer that I use for recording, and I have made a conscious choice to take my time with this album. These factors have all slowed down the process.
Furthermore, some major life changes have impacted my creative output as well. First, I got divorced rather unexpectedly, and then I accepted a full-time teaching gig about a thousand miles from where my two kids and the rest of my family live. It's all been an adjustment, to say the least. Music is what gets me through it.
That said, I feel like my singing and guitar/piano playing have never been better. Although I don't perform publicly all that often right now, as I indicated earlier, I do practice my songs a lot, to the point where I know my setlist inside and out. My neighbors probably know it pretty well by now, too. Once we've got these songs worked out as a full band, then the next step is to take them live.
In the meantime, I keep slowly piecing away at the new album. Once this current semester is over, I hope to have more time and energy to dedicate toward its completion.
