I am a new(ish) member and this is my first thread. A rant, naturally.
My days are spent as a stay-at-home dad, and my nights are spent as a musician. I've been working on a recording project for about 4 years (which is
also how old my kiddo is). It's a neat project: it's a "story album" where each song basically represents a chapter in a story. The music draws
heavily from American "roots" styles and classical music. It's all acoustic.
I'm recording on my own gear, in a room I rent at a rehearsal studio complex. There might be 30 or so separate rooms rented by bands (some of them
you've probably heard of), and though the rooms are separate, there is absolutely no acoustic treatment to prevent bleed of sound. If one band is
rehearsing, everyone hears it, and recording is out of the question.
The sole reason I rent at this particular studio is, as I read on the website before renting, there are quiet hours daily from 10p to 7a. The only
studio in town to offer such an accommodation (although it's because of the city noise ordinance, not by choice). It's great, because I MUST finish
this project before the end of the year, but my house is small and I can't work here at night, which is of course the only time I can work at all.
Anyways, during the quiet hours, amplifiers, PA systems, and drums are forbidden, but acoustic instruments and unamplified voice are allowed. Perfect
for my situation, right?
After I get my family in bed, I show up to work at 10 sharp every night. I am fortunate to have the luxury of working on music, but it is hard work.
All the tasks involved - as player of multiple instruments and voice, writing, engineering, and producing - are typically handled by different people
and for good reason. I chose to do everything myself for several reasons, understanding the limitations I was giving myself as a project-aesthetic,
self-recording singer-songwriter type of thing. I do the best I can.
Most nights when I arrive, there are three bands that are still playing. One is a cover band, and not particularly good. Think frat boys karaoking
"Johnny B. Goode" backed by out-of-time drums and "Top Gun" guitar. One is an industrial band whose singer sounds like Danzig, and the other is a
indie rock band that's actually pretty darn good. It varies, but they play until midnight, 1, 2am... A lot of the time it's more party than rehearsal.
There bottles clinking (even though alcohol is not supposed to be brought on-premises) and loud, laughing women.
It sucks. I sit there in my studio waiting for hours for these guys to shut it down. Sure, I can practice, I can touch up my lyrics...there's any
number of small tasks I can do while I'm waiting for my chance to hit the red button. But I'm there to GET SH!T DONE, not pussyfoot around while my
best hours are drowned out by the cacophonous wash of three drunk bands rocking out for whatever vapid, vacant, scene-clinging, junkie sluts they
lured back to the studio. By the time it's finally quiet enough to record, I'm so pissed, tired, and tense that I barely get out a few phoned-in
takes, go to bed by 4am, and wake up bleary eyed when I hear my daughter's voice saying "Daddy I'm hungry". Rinse and repeat. It's been weeks (maybe
months) of the same. It's hard to keep this sort of thing up when you don't get paid to do it. Hell, I PAY to do it.
I have mentioned this to the building manager. I told him that the quiet hours were a primary selling point for me, and he knows that I'm trying to
record at night. Either no action or no response, every time.
I am not good at confrontations. I am terrible at asserting myself. These traits are amplified by the fact that there is one of me, at least 15 of
them (all bands combined), and a spineless absentee building manager. It feels hopeless, and I haven't found another space to rent. Even if I did,
I've got a lot of gear in my studio, and it's all set up how I like it. I don't WANT to move.
I pay my rent on time. I'm courteous to others. I follow the rules. I've worked so hard to get where I am with this project and at this point it is
barely crawling along. In a very real way, I will measure myself as a man by my ability to finish this project, and by the results I get. The worst
part of it is I think the basic reason I am so frustrated is that I am confronted by my own cowardice, for not being able to assert myself. I have no
idea why I am saying this to the internet, when I come to think of it. I don't know - maybe some of you all can relate.
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