Picture this: We live in a world where Dr’s start their training young, like between the ages of 5 and 10 sort of young. These kids train through their childhood and as teenagers decide to dedicate their lives to the craft. The adults around them encourage this with their guidance and support, telling them if they work hard they’ll become a GP one day. They go to uni and train some more, putting all their time, money and identity into this career path.

Suddenly the message shifts, “wait, you thought you could live off being a GP?”, “There’s no money in medicine”, “If you love being a GP you’ll do it on the side while working a day job” and most destructively “you can always teach! That way you get to practice all day” failing to explain the teaching jobs you’ll have access to are teaching basic first aid to apathetic people who would rather not be there, and those teaching jobs will never pay an appropriate wage, will expect you to do lesson prep/admin outside of your designated hours and leaving you with little time or energy to pursue your practice outside of class.

In this world, if you want to practice as a GP you need to run your practice practically unpaid on the side for 10 - 15 years and hope you’ll get an un-isolated lucky break allowing you to actually pursue this career in a meaningful way.

Now, replace Dr with musician and you’ve got a tiny glimpse into my career and creative practice over the last decade or so. The professional pathway I consciously pursued as a child, which was presented as an attainable profession has morphed into this impossible dream I have no hope of achieving, particularly during a pandemic when even established performers can’t make ends meet.

This is going to be a whole other post, but teaching isn’t part of “living the musician dream” for me. Performing/Writing and Teaching music do not scratch the same itch, are not equally satisfying and do not allow for artistic growth in the same ways. They are different skill sets, and I’m so tired of the “well if you can’t make enough performing/writing there’s ALWAYS TEACHING” as if it’s the same thing.

From what I’ve seen of the music industry, it’s set up to keep as many people as possible out, even when they’re trained (formally or informally) and skilled. During my education, the path to a music career in performance/composition was presented as a meritocracy - work hard and you’ll find a path. I supposed the meritocracy to a financially sound music career does exist at a certain level, but one needs at least $50,000 to access it.

Since I graduated University I have watched as my unbelievably accomplished and skilled peers slowly leave the music industry (not just performers and composers, but also as instrumental teachers) for decent pay, increased stability and decent workers rights. They didn’t see a way to be musicians and not give up every semblance of building a normal and fulfilling life.

I’m not really sure how to end this post. I’m tired of having this conversation with literally every musician I know but never seeing it discussed in a meaningful way by those in positions of power. I’m tired of finding out I’ve aged out of YET ANOTHER paid and or prestigious pathway out of obscurity. I’m tired of yelling into the void and fighting with the only promotional tools available to me.
One Practical step I’ve taken to vent this frustration in a direction that might actually create change is joining the Union Musicians Australia. They are using collective activism to fight for real change and are giving me real hope that there might actually be a future for every professional musician in Australia.

ABOUT THE OUTFIT: These photos were taken this time last year just after I sewed this ludicrous green sheep jumpsuit! I feel like a lime farmer in this fit, and I’m not mad ;) I’ve paired it with a thrifted black blouse, thrifted wool poncho, black hat and Dr Martens.

Latest Video: Grandparents for Sale, an emergency protest song for the residents of Blue Haven Kiama to raise awareness and gather support to prevent the sale of their retirement village by Kiama Council.

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FINANCIAL REALISM SEGMENT!

I’m trying to be more open about my finances/the time/money and energy that goes into this creative work. I’ve reached a point where I no longer have the energy to work creatively and work a day job. Many hours of labour go into a post like this - I sewed the pants, which took me a day, the photos took 1 hour to shoot, 3 hours to edit/upload.

Writing this post in particular took 1 hour, and the social media management and promotion takes an additional hour. my website is with Squarespace which also costs $$

If you’d like to support my endeavour to make this sort of work my “real job” (this includes my music and upcoming sewing videos) you can do so for the price of a coffee by using the form to your left. If you’d like to support me AND get a thing in return for your $$, consider buying my music on BANDCAMP or hopping over to my ONLINE STORE and buying a print, bow, music ETC :)

Big thanks to my regular Ko-Fi Supporter Gemma! If you’d like to join her in my super exclusive community and support my art for $5 a month, click over to my Ko Fi Page! You’ll get access to videos and blog posts early, and I’ll thankyou (like this!) when I release the things.