A little over a week ago, my wife, our bunny Wembley, and myself packed ourselves into our Elantra and drove two days, from Toronto, Ontario to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where our new home nestles in the form of a cute, cottage-like building.
Our reasons for leaving are too complicated and personal to put down here – suffice to say we both needed a change and a fresh start in a new place where we knew almost nobody.
There have been some unwelcome surprises – renovations, a minor rodent problem, Wembley loves chewing on the furniture – but we love how rural it is (at least compared to Toronto), and the smell of the air from the ocean, just a five-minute walk away.
I have spread out over the dining room table like the Borg assimilating a hapless species, and have resumed testing DAWs to see which I like enough to purchase. (Spoiler – really, REALLY enjoying working with Ableton right now). Hoping to finish by Thanksgiving, or at least Xmas, in order to grab a sale.
I’ve also been offered a position at a nearby dance studio, which I both excitedly and nervously accepted. Excited, because hey, it would be nice to dust off the ‘ol dance shoes again, and nervous because I don’t want it to slow or stop my progress with music production.
I admit I’m getting in my own way here. On one hand, I very much want to have some cashflow going by the time the quarantine ends – one of my biggest fears is leeching off my wife’s income – while on the other, I would love to get started on a career in the music industry.
Trouble with that latter possibility is, I’m scared to go back to the process of looking for a job in a new industry – cold calling, dropping off resumes, etc. I hated doing it after university, and wasn’t much good at it either.
I plan at some point to scout out recording studios and whatnot in Halifax, but between working on music, getting the house up and running, and preparing for the new dance position… It just hasn’t been happening.
These aren’t priorities that will just go away, so I’ve set a reminder to start looking for music work in a couple days. The plan is to take my time to get to know what’s there, the places I’d really like to work, and then basically bug them until they have to take me on in some capacity.
If I can just get close enough to the equipment to start seeing how it’s used, I could start picking up some real hands-on experience. I’ll let you know how it goes!