Over the last couple of months, post-lockdown musical burnout has really hit me, and like with anything creative, you cannot force yourself to 'create'. Even now, coming back into the world of music feels like a struggle. Like a mental barricade that one has to climb before the flows of production can start. Which is why I must apologise for my quiet on here.
Whilst working a fairly full on medical job, I am producing music for 2 labels, whilst trying to livestream on twitch at least 3 times per week and I was starting to feel pressure to create content, blogs and posts of some decent merit for PEAKD. I didn't just want to spam, to upload content for the hell of it, or in internet terms 'sh*tpost'. PEAKD and its community deserve quality or at least something trying to be quality, and so I put myself into a mental blank because I didn't know what to write about. I had lost the love of live DJing and a lot of the aspects of the music industry, and the amount of work that goes into creating music, remixes and releases for labels is high output with very little return.
It left me asking myself, "why do I do it?"
I think the thing is with creative people is that their is something inside them that MUST create. A little flame, a spark, that needs to be ignited to keep a creative's soul appeased. I create, therefor I am. If I didn't DJ, the very essence of who I am, and have been over the past 25 years will be lost. I know that people change over time, and interests and hobbies come and go, but doing something like music production or DJ for over 25 years isn't just an interest, it becomes part of the very fabric you are. Call it an identity crisis, or a spell of depression during the darkest part of the season. The important thing is that I recognised it, and I shall call it burnout.
I have cut back on needless livestreams, preserve my free time; and to be fair, the bottom is falling out of livestreams. My reason for this is most people are in a worse financial situation (unless youre riding the cryto train), with less leisure money in their pocket and so fewer people are 'tipping' the services of the online DJ (who is fast replacing radio broadcasts). Also, people can go out again, the clubs are open! So whilst the online DJ may provide your weekend warm up soundtrack, people are spending back in the clubs again - and what ridiculous prices they charge! I am lucky to have a very loyal core of followers on twitch so at least I have a small crowd; follow me on twitch and join the kitchen parties!
In other news, I am very excited that the first tracks of the newly relaunched 'Corrupted Data Recordings' label are out on sale now, and this is a label I am helping to co-manage - another thing that takes up my spare time.
Our latest track 'Lets Go' came out 25th Feb!
James Black Presents - Lets Go (WTF)
Been nice to chat to @stickupboys again and glad to be back on production for them so watch this space as the spring season starts to shine through, a little more activity from myself...
OUT OF THE DARKNESS AND INTO THE LIGHT..
take care x
Thanks to ListNerds, where I got to this post. I followed, upvoted, reblogged and tipped your post :) How Positive is that?
!BBH
!ALIVE
thanks mate
You're welcome 😊
@djjamesblack! You Are Alive so I just staked 0.1 $ALIVE to your account on behalf of @bradleyarrow. (7/30)
The tip has been paid for by the We Are Alive Tribe through the earnings on @alive.chat, feel free to swing by our daily chat any time you want.
Managing a full-time job, a DJ career and trying to bring some quality stuff to HIVE is a BIG challenge. I know all about that. I had to cut down on my posting front already for more than a year since creating something cool and/or interesting enough not having the feeling of degrading the blog to a shit-posting blog, is time-consuming. Am glad you recognised your max and started to cut down on some of the activities. I suppose as long as you do things because you like to do them, all good. When it feels like you have to do it for other reasons than pleasure, activities, even in fields you like, will cause negative stress. Maybe easy for me to say since I'm not a musician of any kind, it's no problem to lay low on music, or HIVE, or anything else that you can decide for yourself. NJOY this wonderful Sunday afternoon (not sure what the weather is doing at your end, but at my end its simply wonderful, Spring-ish sun + temperatures this afternoon).
I hear ya. During lockdown I started seeing a counsellor for anxiety. Performing was about 80% of my income; but more important than that, it was fundamental to my identity and sense of self. Nearly 20 years of performance and I hadn’t realised how vital it was to my own mental health!
You might have been quiet on here lately, but this post more than makes up for it! We need to normalise talking about struggling, and help other guys realise it’s okay to reach out when you need help.
amazing! Thankyou so much for your wonderful comment. I think the worst part on being quiet on here was me thinking that I had nothing worthwhile to blog about, and that you all deserve more than just spammy gumff... which in turn then put up a huge mental block when it came to writing. Its taken this long for the wall to be broken down a bit and to find my voice again. The cost of living has soared recently due to inflation or whatever, so I may have to pick up the day I dropped a year or two ago to concentrate on my music and creativity, to gain some more financial stability.
Thankyou, ill try and keep the posts worthwhile and worthy of your time. Your time is precious and so I want to make sure I only put out stuff worthy of peoples time.
James
Aye James, time is precious, and it is important to remember that time spent doing nothing is important too. It can serve as a rest and reset when we block off some time to just sit and literally do nothing; let thoughts wander where they will; there is no outcome-based aim for this practice, if anything the goal should be to accomplish absolutely nothing, except simply 'be'
I find this works best for me if i am out in nature, just observing the world around me, but to each their own.
!hivebits
I recognize this and it has made me fall into smaller and sometimes bigger depressions every single year for a long time.
I shared your content on Listnerds to spread some positive vibes. Maybe you can consider joining at some point to promote your work.
Thankyou for replying to my post. I was a reach out as well as I feel I had neglected this wonderful community with my lack of interaction, but breaking out of a burnout is a bit like coming out of hibernation. putting yourself first and managing your energy levels effectively. The one thing I have learned about this whole burnout experience is that the world WILL forgive you if you're not feeling 100%.
Id love to join you on bringing positivity! let me know how I can get involved!
That's a great attitude and people will understand that well, especially during these times!
If you meant joining Listnerds, here's my ref link to join my team. click here It can be used in so many ways and it truly adds a good layer of extra rewards to the Hive journey.
Who shared this on Listnerds Sunshine? That's our boy James Black!
I did! Guilty as charged!
Great stuff bro
@djjamesblack
Glad your music is going well as well as working on a medical job and live streaming impressive have the best weekend
!ALIVE
thankyou
@djjamesblack! You Are Alive so I just staked 0.1 $ALIVE to your account on behalf of @benthomaswwd. (1/10)
The tip has been paid for by the We Are Alive Tribe through the earnings on @alive.chat, feel free to swing by our daily chat any time you want.
I came from listnerds and I did not know about you yet. I love the track! The piano tunes remind me of the 90ies !LUV
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thankyou so so much!
Because this is such an awesome post, here is a BBH Tip for you.
. Keep up the fantastic work
thankyou so much!
its cool to see that you broke out of your burn out..
Thankyou, its alot about listening to your needs, that little internal voice really speaks reasons. Hold back on demands on yourself or your time, its ok to say 'no'. Don't be pressured into anything and return to things in your own time, otherwise you'll grow to hate and resent the thing / creativity process you once loved.
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Great post. People should learn a lot from this post. Your post will be helpful to many. Thanks
Hope so, Im just a human, bumbling my way through life