It sure seems like I just made one of these… no natural disasters this year at least, although we came close!

I guess I’ll get the doom and gloom out of the way first. As I wrote about a few weeks ago, my band Saint Vrain basically imploded over the summer. I won’t repeat myself — you can just read the article as I try to forget. 

So I decided to join some new bands; it’s early days for both so I don’t have much to link yet. I also don’t want to let myself get too optimistic since most of my endeavors go nowhere, but I’m working with some pretty ambitious bandleaders, so here’s hoping. I still can’t shake the feeling that, as a drummer, I often don’t do a lot of drumming. 

That being said, I was way too patient with my old band, holding out for something that had no chance of ever playing out. So it’s time to say goodbye. 

Aside from new bands, I started a bit of a career change. I’ve got a new job, working at the Macky Theater at my alma mater. I really, really enjoy it, and I’ve had the opportunity to learn a lot of different skills. Rigging has probably been my favorite — Macky is unusual in that it uses both a counterweight system and an older hemp rail for rigging. I’m partially an Eagle Scout with my knot knowledge.  

Unfortunately, the work isn’t very consistent, so I can’t rely on it solely. I do have an interview lined up at another theater, so perhaps this is the start of a budding career. In the meantime, I just need to figure out how to juggle half a dozen income streams. 

All in all, I have a lot more to be excited about compared to last year, but there are still a lot of question marks. Nonetheless, working at a theater is by far and away the most rousing thing to happen to me since graduating college. 

More than anything else, I guess I’m in the “fed up” stage with my drumming career, having grown sick of putting time into crap that doesn’t go anywhere. I’m trying to meet as many musicians as possible, and as long as someone has the proper motivation I’m not saying no. Being too busy would be a nice problem to have…

Before we kick off the new year, I want to point out that I’m well aware some parts of my website are still busted after finally migrating it to WordPress. It’ll come together eventually.