Three years have passed by in what feels like the blink of an eye. One moment, I am shakily walking up to take the stage for my first ever solo gig, nerves through the roof, feeling like any minute I’d freeze up and forget where I am. The next, here I am in a packed venue in the middle of Scotland’s Capital, going from song to song without so much as a second thought. Everyone is dancing and singing along, completely unaware of the journey I’ve taken to get here.
It’s safe to say that it’s not been an easy journey: there have been countless disappointments, mistakes, and hard lessons learned along the way; but there’s nothing quite like looking back on a path you’ve taken and letting it all wash all over you. This is something I hope I’ll manage to do as I write this post.
It’s difficult to remember exactly where you started when it seems like you’ve reached a totally different place. I didn’t think it at the beginning, but being a gigging musician has meant constant innovation, and fast-paced changes to every part of my job. This has always been true in the most immediate sense, because of the nature of the environments you are usually working in: bustling pubs necessitate thinking on your feet, sometimes literally! However, most importantly, innovating in this job means constantly working to improve every aspect of your service in the medium to long-term: everything from your equipment set-up to the way you reach new clients and the types of services you offer.
This would all seem to be overcomplicating things if you happened to be speaking to me when I started out: the job was just about turning up with a guitar and a microphone, singing a few songs, getting paid and then heading home; but I suppose the longer you go at anything, the more complicated things get.
This has also been true of my personal life, and as with any self-employed person, there’s not much separation between my work and personal lives. Just over a year after moving to a 1-bed flat in Edinburgh with my then-girlfriend-now-wife, Claire, and starting to pursue music full-time, we ended up moving to to a house in Dunfermline. This of course afforded us both a lot more space to relax (quite the novelty being able to choose between more than two rooms to spend time in), but it was also quite an important change to the way I had to operate my business.
Moving away from Edinburgh meant I would have to drive to most of my gigs, rather than ride public transport. It also meant that rather than spending 20 minutes getting to gigs, my commute would look more like 40 minutes. Needless to say, it’s also far more mentally taxing driving to work and finding somewhere to park than it is bouncing off a bus 20 minutes before you have to perform. However, the extra space proved far more useful both personally and commercially for me, as I found I was much more able to concentrate on how I was going to expand and improve my work: whether it was by having a dedicated workspace to send invoices, or a decent sized rehearsal space. I also found that having a whiteboard up in your office is, indeed, a game-changer.
Things at home got even more (legally) complicated when Claire and I got married in May last year. Fortunately for our bank accounts, but alas for the wedding industry, we opted for a small ceremony at the Dunfermline City Chambers. It did mean, however, that I was coerced into providing my own services free of charge by playing Claire down the aisle myself. I usually ask clients to give me more than 24 hours notice for this service, though. It’s possible that Claire simply exhausted all other options before approaching me. I suppose we’ll never know.
Of course, it’s not just the cumulative weight of your ring finger that changes once you get married, you also have to start thinking about things a bit more clearly. At the end of the day, the choices you make aren’t just affecting one person anymore. This has meant having to think more long-term about the operations of my business. Writing this blog is one of the manifestations of this new mindset: trying to find new ways of expressing my thoughts and adding greater depth to my performances.
It’s safe to say that the last three years have been an amazing journey, and I have grown so much as a person and as a musician through it. While my repertoire (and the list of kit I bring to gigs) has gotten a lot longer, I’m thrilled to say that, while I don’t think I make the same worried look as I did when I started, every time I pick up my guitar, I do still get that little giddy feeling; bewildered to be able to do what I do for a living.
And the best part is, I don’t think it’s going away any time soon.
Finlay
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