Jody Whitesides

Tag: creative resilience in music

  • Beating Bronchitis in the Studio: An Independent Musician’s Survival Week

    Beating Bronchitis in the Studio: An Independent Musician’s Survival Week

    I’m gonna go right out there and say sore throats suck. I’m pretty sure there’s very few people on this planet that actually like them.

    When

    Right after I pretty much get my digital life back on track, I came down with some mild bronchitis. Maybe its some sort of bodily retaliation for spending so much time on something other than music?!? Eh, no. I don’t believe that. Obviously I came into contact with someone somewhere that probably had it.

    It might have been the trip to California. Namely the plane ride. Recently read that you’re only likely to get ill within a few passenger rows of someone else. Which means it would most likely have been the flight to Los Angeles. As that flight was full. The return flight was probably 10% full, if that. Very light flight.

    Coughing Goo

    Around Thursday of last week I started feeling rather beat when I woke up. Mind you this would have been about a week plus of incubation. I woke up to feeling a little lethargic and coughing profusely and wanting to get something out of my lungs.

    Could I have been singing to hard the several days before that? Tough to say. Yes, I’ve been in the studio working on a few new projects, especially now that my digital life is up and running again. I had been pushing pretty hard on a couple of heavier tunes destined for film/tv worlds. My throat was a little overtaxed, but nothing that a night of sleep wouldn’t cure.

    Instead  I started hacking up bright green goo. I hate sore throats, and shortly after the goo, one kicked in.

    Progress

    As things go, being ill means it progressively gets worse before it gets better. Not the case here. It has remained mild enough that I’m still quite functional. Not 100% full capacity but still functional.

    Despite feeling beat down for the past few days, I’m taking in as much rest as I can – while still attempting to get things done. Which means that today I’ll be opening up to singing again. I’m coughing less, throat is less sore. Will need to keep an eye on it, because pushing too hard means I may fall completely down the illness rabbit hole where I don’t want to be.

    Wish you well and hope you’re in great health, have a great rest of your Monday.

     

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  • Live at Martini Blues: Standing Ovations, Compliments, and Creative Momentum

    Been a busy little bee for the past couple of weeks. I got called upon to do a bunch of audio editing – in addition to the self imposed stuff I’ve been doing. Now I’m mastering audio for a new book coming soon on Drum Loops. I’ve also finished up some audio editing for a financial course. Now it’s back to my regular self imposed editing as I’m almost finished with making my licensing library.

    I did play a show in Huntington Beach a week ago friday. I played in a songwriters in the round. I shared the stage with Warren Sellars, James Grey, and Dee Biggs. It was an interesting evening. I did what I could do to keep up with these songwriting heavyweights. All of whom who’ve had cuts on some major records it seems. In the end I apparently woke the crowd up and stole the show. Heck I even got a great compliment from Warren, on stage and in front of the whole crowd. That was cool. James Grey talked to me after the show and has asked if I’d play some other venues on his bills. So expect to see more of me in the O.C.

    Another cool thing was I was approached by and Artist in an earlier round who proceeded to tell me he never wanted to be on the same stage with me at the same time. He felt I was “too good”. A rather nice compliment. Overall the evening was a success and I enjoyed my time there at Martini Blues.

    I’ve also been toying with the concept of giving the option for HTML e-mails to those signed up on my e-mail list, however, I’m not sure I’ll go through with it just yet. It’s an involved process and I don’t want to use an outside company as I value your information. In fact, I’ve just been upgraded to an SPF account on my e-mails at my domain. Meaning you can authenticate that I actually sent you an e-mail, the spam stops here.

    Movie Pick of the Week: The Upside of Anger & Robots. I’ll be brief, I know it’s a Monday morning. First, The Upside of Anger is an outrageously good movie. I’d put it up on par with something along the lines of Ordinary People. Its a movie about life and how we as people deal with it when shit goes wrong. The two main characters are played by Kevin Costner and Joan Allen. Awesome performance. Unfortunately I doubt it will do well at the box-office as it has no cars blowing up. On to Robots… Now, I got the chance to see this in IMAX. Visually this movie is astounding along the levels of The Incredibles. Storywise, this movie falls a little flat. There’s tons of gags, and a hint of something heartfelt, but it really failed to pull me in. It was enjoyable for the references to Star Wars, and other movies and did have some touching moments but they were kinda few and far between.

    Jody

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