The Trouble with Day Jobs

I am feeling exceedingly frustrated. One of the nagging thorns in our sides is the need to create income. Since we haven't quite figured out how to make enough as musicians, this means we need to pick up side jobs. Now, when you have a group of 7 people with different levels of education, different aptitudes, different areas of skill, and different backgrounds, it can be tough to find jobs with schedules that don't conflict with one another. Add a depressed economy within one of the most economically depressed regions of the country, and it seems impossible to stand in a room at the same time, never mind hold a rehearsal. How can we have jobs and be able to hold the rigorous commitment it requires to be a stellar original band on the path to success?

So here is what I am dealing with: Rudy works Mondays and Wednesdays and every other Saturday and Sunday from 7 am to 6 pm. Steve works M-F from 12-3, Tim now works from 1-8 pm, and Ravi works an erratic evening schedule that can be anywhere from 4 pm to 2 am. Now pile family obligations on top of this, and see how difficult it gets to hold rehearsals and the critical band meetings that keep us on inspired and on track?

Ah, I stare out the window in quiet bewilderment. The question has always been how do we become a viable business? With the internet moving increasingly toward the free distribution of music and the club scene so oversaturated that a living wage -- never mind a fair wage -- is beyond reach, how can we both have the time to excel as musicians and performers AND make enough money to eat, have a roof over our heads, and have fuel for tour?

I know it is my fault. I am the manager of the project and the buck stops with me. I do accept responsibility. Maybe I have not been convincing enough in sales calls. Maybe I don't manage my time well enough. Maybe I don't make the right marketing choices. Maybe I have not guided us properly in songwriting or performance. Maybe I just simply have not gotten us into the right hands.

I know it is complicated and frankly, though we struggle, I embrace it all because each day shapes me more and more into the person I am meant to be. But in the meantime, it is hard on us, it is hard on my band mates whom I watch toil every day to bring the dream that they have been given to fruition. They sacrifice and make due and sacrifice again, and I hold deep in my heart the utmost respect and love for each of them.

But then again, I think, there is more to it. We cannot do this alone. If people want to experience TapWater, if people want to feel the joy that the music brings, if people want us to achieve our vision, if people want us to make it -- and keep making music for all the world to hear -- then the people must support us. It is a two-way street: we have committed our lives to serving you. And we will. But we can only serve you if you help us get into the position that allows us to serve you. And right now, we are not in it.

So help us. Encourage us. Tell your friends about us. Make a donation to us. Come to our shows. Request us for radio and internet air play. Refer us to booking agencies. Demand us at festivals. It is only through the power of your unified voices that we may rise up to become what we are truly meant to be: the link that unites all households across the country and across the world in the creation of true and loving community that works for the good of all people.