OT: I'm curious about the Portland/Seattle area

[smoggrocks]

willy, you need a car to get around seattle. everything is quite spread out and public transport, while ok, doesn't run as late nor as frequently.

i agree austin has more musical opps. portland, too. as gaddy states, i do not see an easy portland-seattle crossover.

personally, i think if you want new york, do new york. so you live in williamsburg (brooklyn). it's a 10 minute subway ride. bit cheaper to live. astoria, queens is also a very good option. there are musical opps in new york, but it is absolutely not at all what it once was. AT ALL. austin, nashville and even parts of nebraska for crap's sake, seem to offer more musical promise.

[Don Worth]

Portland to Seattle is closer to a 5 hour drive on some days with traffic. Yes Mike and Damien live here, but Mike can hardly book his band (play for tips sometimes) and Damien travels a lot to gig. I have started teaching full time as the pay is not very good for gigs. I know guys that will play every night of the week and come home with maybe $225-$250 for a week of one nighters. There are lots of gigs, just do not expect to mka emuch money on these gigs. It seems music has become fun to play so you should not get paid since you are having fun. The standard of at least a $100 a night on the weekends has fallen to $75 and $80. Only way to make money these days it seems is to go on the road. But, I have a house, teaching full time and a wife. Not giving up the full time teaching to make less money going on the road at this point. Willy, you are still young, go on the road.

Don

[Da Chooch]

Portland to Seattle is closer to a 5 hour drive on some days with traffic. Yes Mike and Damien live here, but Mike can hardly book his band (play for tips sometimes) and Damien travels a lot to gig. I have started teaching full time as the pay is not very good for gigs. I know guys that will play every night of the week and come home with maybe $225-$250 for a week of one nighters. There are lots of gigs, just do not expect to mka emuch money on these gigs. It seems music has become fun to play so you should not get paid since you are having fun. The standard of at least a $100 a night on the weekends has fallen to $75 and $80. Only way to make money these days it seems is to go on the road. But, I have a house, teaching full time and a wife. Not giving up the full time teaching to make less money going on the road at this point. Willy, you are still young, go on the road.

Don

wow.. sounds alot like Austin.

[drum6282]

There was a time I was always looking to head to the next town to try out this scene or that scene, but honestly, in general, it seems the music biz is slow everywhere. Nothing is what it once was anywhere. The one thing I learned and still practice is patience. I'm not a patient person either. But, learning this has helped me tremendously. If you've accomplished your goals in Austin, set more goals - the people living outside Austin see it as a live music mecca - keep networking - you'll get to where you want to go - with the way things are these days, it's hard justifying a move to start over - I'm sure you've heard this, but personally, I'd stay in Austin, work the day job if you have one (and feel good about having one) and keep networking and gigging, maybe teach some students privately to help with money as well. You're young enough to start over, but what happens when you keep searching and searching and starting from scratch each time - time flies by. I'm just playing devil's advocate and certainly don't know you or your entire situation going on there, but it seems to me you should give Austin more time. From what I gather in talking to many musicians across the country, the scene is about the same everywhere - work is tough to come by and if you have it, hold on to it for dear life. There's a lot less work and more people trying to get it everywhere. Most musicians are probably cool, but when you're a newbie, you're also a threat to those who have work - "what are you doing on my turf" type mentality. Politics play into the music biz as much as it does in any other business. You don't have to be the best player to have work. Though I'm currently in a small music town, comparatively, I'm still able to get paid playing drums and have fun doing it. It certainly isn't enough work to be full time to live comfortably - my definition of comfortable may differ from your definition - so I teach private lessons and work a tolerable day job. I pretty much freelance - I've done some big gigs, toured a little, done sessions, gig in clubs, play weddings, etc. and I consider myself successful. I'm doing what I love to do and get paid for it. My dream band is a group like Steve's Altered, but that would have to be for fun here. That wouldn't appeal to most and clubs wouldn't book it. I'm still trying to get a group like that to jam and hope a local club would book it every now and then just for fun. Anyway, I guess it depends on your overall goals, but patience is also something to consider when making a bold move and starting over. Once I stopped trying so hard to get to the next level, things just started happening in my favor. I had to sit back and relax - allow things to develop - but always making sure I was in the situation to be picked up for the next gig when someone needed me. I try to never turn down a gig...no matter what. I had to really change my attitude, because for a while there, I was hating it gigging. There are threads where I posted about it in the past. Now, even though I'm in a small music scene comparatively, I'm working with a group that was offered a management contract. This past weekend I recorded a jingle for a local major corporation. I did a session recording 4 tracks for one album and 3 for another. I was recently paid to fly to CA to play in two festivals in Sept. I never thought it to be possible from where I live. I guess there's something to be said for being outside the hornets nests of NY, LA and Nashville. I won't change drumming or be in the Modern Drummer top players, but I groove, play for the song and know who I am behind the kit - and have fun doing it.

I'm currently reading The Big Gig by Zoro - so far, it's very fitting to me and it's a great read - you may benefit from reading it too.

Just my .02

[drum6282]

Portland to Seattle is closer to a 5 hour drive on some days with traffic. Yes Mike and Damien live here, but Mike can hardly book his band (play for tips sometimes) and Damien travels a lot to gig. I have started teaching full time as the pay is not very good for gigs. I know guys that will play every night of the week and come home with maybe $225-$250 for a week of one nighters. There are lots of gigs, just do not expect to mka emuch money on these gigs. It seems music has become fun to play so you should not get paid since you are having fun. The standard of at least a $100 a night on the weekends has fallen to $75 and $80. Only way to make money these days it seems is to go on the road. But, I have a house, teaching full time and a wife. Not giving up the full time teaching to make less money going on the road at this point. Willy, you are still young, go on the road.

Don

wow.. sounds alot like Austin.

Sounds like where I live too.