Day 11: Non-musical streams of income

I really want to make pots of money from music this year. I'm busy reading Robert Kiyosaki, so my mind is focused on his 3 Es: education, experience, excessive cash...

Sometimes I consider putting a non-musical business system in place, to earn a passive income form it. Then my musicometer kicks in and rejects the idea because it will distract me and it's not pure because the money is not from music. Am I being an idiot, or does this just mean I know what I want and I'm really focused? As Sting said in My Music Brain on Discovery with Daniel J. Levitin, "I'm happily lost. I don't know where we're going or what happens next." But at least that's musical... I just dunno...

Days to go: 354

Day 10: Busy-ness can be a bad thing...

You know, when I was throwing together my goals for 2010 at my mom's in Mpumalanga, it was easy. But being back in the big city, it's much harder to get around to those goals. Each day I have to remind myself that I must stay on track, as Donald Trump says. But, as John Lennon said, life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. So I need to be sure that in my daily activities I'm moving towards my goal.

Status thus far: 1 song written. 0 gigs. 0 albums. o CDs sold this year (I recently gave away 2, which doesn't count). Well, I better stick to the game plan.

Days to go: 355

Day 9: My BMus degree

When I left school, I opted for 4 possible study avenues: BMus (music), BA (communications), DipArch (architecture) and a BSc (town & regional planning). I eventually opted for the BA. Now, 20 years after I first started studying, I am going back to undergrad to do a Bachelor of Music degree. So far, it's been cool!

Of course, my fear is that I become so theoretical and technical about music that I never get around to playing and gigging and getting out there. I'm reminded of a musician in a little book called "Wisdom for a young musician" by Bruce Warren. This muso said he wished every day that he'd studied music, so that he could understand it better.

I'm also reminded of a scene from my favourite movie of all time, Rudy (with Sean Astin): Rudy complains that he has wasted his time trying to achieve a seemingly futile dream of playing football for the University of Notre Dame because he just doesn;t have the athletic talent for it. His boss, the grounds keeper at the stadium, tells him basically he's an idiot for being so ungrateful: not only did he get to play college football with the best team in the land, but he also got one year of top quality education from one of the best universities.

So yeah, let me not be ungrateful - I am so glad I get to do a BMus degree. Most people never have the opportunity...

Days to go: 356

Day 8: The Music Business Academy

This year I get to see one of my babies - a college for teaching students fresh out of school - really start to take off. I have to say, although I got on board early, the idea for the Music Business Academy - which teaches people music business skills - is the work of my friend and producer, Jonathan Shaw.

Jon sought to educate himself about the music industry, including elements of copyright law, finance, management and marketing. I attended his course at Wits University in Jo'burg 4 years ago already, and this is the natural progression of that. Sometimes I get a bot scared that these things will distract me from my real purpose, which is to write and sing and perform songs, but I also need to make a living - and I'm SO glad this allows me to keep doing that in the music field. I love working with Soul Candi.

But: songs! gigs! albums! I need to get a move on.

Days to go: 357

Day 7: No Regret...

FINALLY! I have an idea for a new song. Been working on it these past few days, and it's begun to crystallise.

I think it's something I really wanna say to the world - maybe at last I have found something I want to contribute. Here are the words:

1. 20 years from now, you and I will both be 20 years older, if we're around at all...
So when I'm 90, sitting in my rocking chair, I hope and pray that I will say,

No regret, I don't wanna be afraid anymore, no regret, no, no, no

2. I've already spent too much time living life without meaning, but that's about to change...
'Cos we were meant to fulfil our destinies, to live out our purpose, so we can say,

No regret, I'm not gonna be afraid anymore, no regret, no, no, no

I think it speaks to me - and I hope to others - about living our dreams, not just on a whim (which is also good, I feel) - but because it is our destiny to do so! I DO have regret that I didn't have the guts to do music full-time immediately after school, even though I did it part-time on the side during my studies and my first years of work. The truth is, if I have to be honest, I wasn't ready to do music straight after school - or even sure I wanted to (although I now know I have known since I was 3, maybe even younger...). And in hindsight, I first had to get the training to become really good at what I do. So I guess me feeling regret is unfair, besides which, it's such a waste of time.

But I also know two things: first, regret is a great motivator - I feel more driven than ever to catch up and succeed because I feel I wasted so much time (even though I didn't really, and even though my friend Jay at Soul Candi Music reminds me that all that we have gone through is part of the journey); second, the more I pursue my dream and love what I do, the less regret I feel, because I am finally living my purpose. That's such a wonderful feeling. I hope somebody can relate to these words, and feel inspired to live their dream. Be brave, dear friend! Life is short... You won't be sorry you lived your purpose.

Days to go: 358

Day 6: Mamma Mia

So anyways, I'm reading about Mamma Mia!, Benny & Bjorn's smash hit musical, and feeling very inspired...

It's truly cool how Judy Cramer was able to convince the two ABBA co-founders to write a musical that included their hits. I have learnt so much about the writing process, as well as the elements required to stage a musical. I thought the movie was crap, but I still think their music is amazing. Maybe I will write a musical some day, and I hope that I am able to at least meet the two Bs one day, if not work with them - and even though it flies in the face of rock 'n roll for some, I'm glad they're being inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in March.

Well, slowly making progress...

Days to go: 359

Day 5 - Namwaaka Day

Slowly recovering from my party last night...

Today, I probably won't get much songwriting done. I have a meeting with Tziporah, my partner in the Afro-World music venture "Namwaaka." We released our album 18 months ago (an awesome night for us) - but since it was our first album, we now know we made lots of mistakes. So, one of the 5 albums I'm aiming to release this year will be a re-release of that album.

Actually, we used to be called Platoon, but every time you do a search for Platoon, the first thing that pops up is the movie. In any case, you'd think that with my marketing background I would have used my brain to realise that Platoon does not say "Afro-Pop world music." "Namwaaka" is a Chichewa word (a local Malawi dialect) that means "years" or refers to time. It took Tziporah (I call her Flo) and me many years to get our first album together, partly because we weren't ready, and partly because we were reactive, hoping that a label would pick us up. I eventually saw the light and decided, thanks in large part to cool peeps like Bob Baker and Derek Sivers, to take my career into my own hands.

So, we are re-releasing our first album sans three tracks: two of the tracks will be transferred to my upcoming solo album of original music (the other song just doesn't work at all for us - we may decide to give it to another artist to do), and we will be adding three other tracks: Afrika (a new song we started working on in 2008), Thula (a song written by the late, very talented Joe Matsheka) and My Mother's Love (a song written by Flo, so that doesn't count for me).

Speaking of mothers, I just got off the phone with my mom, who lives 300 kilometres away (we were with her for Christmas and New Year), and she listened to my Christmas album last night - she said she really enjoyed it. Also, my friend Nan (who took copies of the album for her sisters in New Zealand) said it was played three times on Christmas Day (poor them). YAY! I have fans 15,000 kilometres away...

Anyway, that's me for today.

Days to go: 360.