Balance is defined as…
- Physical equilibrium
- Stability produced by even distribution of weight on each side of the vertical axis
- An aesthetically pleasing integration of elements
- Mental and emotional steadiness
And when said out loud, it seems so black and white, as if it would be easy to recognize if and when you are living a balanced life. But 9/10, artists and producers end up abandoning what they once felt so passionate about because they either burn out or never saw the results they wanted in the time they expected.
Both of these are a result of an improper balance in one’s life.
This is a concept that has been resonating with Denver-based producer Discognition heavily over the past year, so for 2022’s last episode of the Magnetic Meaning podcast, we invited him on to dive deep into the meaning of the word and how it affects your journey as an artist through the music industry.
How To Stay Balanced In Your Musical Life
Chad says in the episode that his secret weapon to maintaining a balance between your personal life, work life, and music is simple; make a schedule and keep to it, and that this simple approach to organizing his own life has made all the difference.
And this becomes even more prevalent as you get older, as more and more responsibilities and obligations get packed onto your plate. If you don’t find a way to manage your time well, sooner or later these obligations will pull you away from your passion for music. Or conversely, you could get so soaked up in producing and working on your craft that you ignore the other aspects of your life.
And no matter how many different obligations and responsibilities you have in life, they all can feed into and off of each other, bettering your life as a whole. Your personal life with friends and leisure activities can help recharge you for the next time that you hit the studio. Your romantic life or devotion to your partner can help bring new inspirations to your music. Even your music itself can act as a way to recenter yourself after work.
But you need to prioritize all of these pillars of your life if you ever want to keep it all aloft. And you must prioritize them all at all costs.
For Chad, that means that he wakes up early before work every single day to work on music before work since he knows that not much work will get done once he’s off work in the evening. Chad admits that it’s not always easy, but making it a priority allows him to stay balanced and focused on the long term goals.
How Can Balance Affects You
Having a good center of balance in your music can affect many different aspects of your life and here are the two primary ones that stuck out to me after having the conversation with Discognition.
Your Creativity
As mentioned above, having proper balance in your own life allows you to stay inspired and creative, doing your best work over a longer period of time.
Just because you spend all day in the studio doesn’t mean you are guaranteed to come out of the studio that day with more work than a producer who only spent three hours in their DAW. In fact, studies have shown that humans can really only handle up to four hours of deep concentration on any specific task before diminishing returns set in.
So it’s important to keep all of this in mind and not go overboard with anything, even if it’s something you are deeply passionate about. It will only lead to burnout and abandoning the thing which you once loved so dearly.
Your Career
The music industry is never perfectly balanced, and you can use that to your advantage to tip the scales in your favor. Always remember that there are always more DJs and artists than opportunities.
But you can better your chances of success and land the gigs that you’re after by contributing back to the community in ways that are meaningful. We all have skills and resources outside of our talent in the studio that we can lend to promoters, agents, managers, and artists bigger than ourselves.
For Chad, it is his skills in graphic design that would help artists construct unique EPKs for their artist projects. I myself have always considered myself a fairly component writer and spent much of my early career knocking on doors and offering my skills in writing as a way to get my name in front of the movers and shakers I looked up to in the industry.
It’s this level of balance that can help you leverage your skills and resources to further your career and get a step ahead of the competition who are all after the same things you are.
WHAT IS THE MAGNETIC MEANING PODCAST?
This podcast about words and music is sponsored by Point Blank Music School. Too often, people working or pursuing careers in the music industry get so caught up in the excitement, clout, and daily grind of it all that they forget this whole industry is just about communication.
Magnetic Meaning unpacks this notion and dissects the words and ideas that connect the music and resonate with those who work with it. Each episode will feature different guests from the music industry, each doing amazing things in their own right. These guests will each bring a word to the table that has impacted their life or career in one way or another.
From there, we will tackle that word from every conceivable angle to add a bit more context to the music industry.
Episodes are published on a bi-weekly basis, first thing every other Thursday.
Shoutout to the sponsors of the podcast, Point Blank Music School. At Point Blank’s brand new LA campus, you can study music production and sound engineering, DJing, radio broadcasting, singing and songwriting, and music business, and also benefit from 1-2-1 expert lecturers and a range of exclusive support services, including accessing industry-standard studios all while being supported via Point Blank’s expert team of Studio Assistants, Student Services, Wellbeing, Student Engagement and Events, A&R Mentoring and Careers Advice, exclusive competitions, artist masterclasses and more.
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
