Listen:
I guess it's a matter of doing what you want to do. Or, if you don't know what you want to do, experimenting until you figure it out. This podcast has been an experiment from day one, from the moment I sat down in a coffee shop with Fenyxfyre to record the first episode. The early interview episodes were an experiment. The later interview episodes with longer intros were an experiments. The solosodes, superficial histories, musical theme episodes ... experiments. And they lead us here, to Episode #119, with me still trying to figure out what this thing is.
It can feel sometimes like you're beating your head against the wall, and with any creative process, you have to pay attention to moments like that. Either you're putting too much pressure on the thing or you're working from the wrong angle, or your process needs adjustment. Maybe it's your marketing if you're at the point where you're marketing. I don't know. I've said before that your job as a creative person is merely to create the art to the best of your ability, and put it into the world with due diligence, and then let it go. It can be tough when the results don't come back as you hope they will and that's the game.
So what to do?
Well, solicit your audience's thoughts, for starters. And at the same time check in with yourself to see what really feels right to you. Doing what doesn't feel right and getting poor results is an awful feeling. Doing what feels right and getting poor results doesn't feel a lot better, but at least you have the bit where you did what felt right and produced what you produce. Sometimes you have to hold on to that and keep going, whether you're a fine artist or podcaster or musician or entrepreneur or whatever. Again, that's the game.
Not going push this one too far. This week's episode is more of a hodgepodge than I've allowed myself to do very much since I brought the show back. I've been pressuring myself to produce something weightier and more polished, but if it feels better to hodgepodge, I reckon a fella should hodgepodge once in a while. Within that hodgepodge there are serious questions about the direction of the show, and what I think are fun discussions about outrageous re-seller ticket prices ($22k for Taylor Swift!?) and YouTube reaction videos. For goodies this week I'll include the live videos I mentioned of Geoff Tate singing with Queensryche and Mark Slaughter singing with Slaughter. Man, I miss those days.
Thanks as ever for listening. Contact me here for thoughts on the show, music recommendations, greetings, etc.
Queensryche: Take Hold Of The Flame (live)
Slaughter: Fly To The Angels (live)