Affirmations (An Entry written in July 2012) From Marauder # 6 - Fall 2012
I find myself in a familiar situation, in a familiar home, a situation that can only be arranged by the universe. We are in London and have been traveling and playing our music in England for almost a month now and at this moment the cosmos has given us time. Something mentioned in a past article with accusations of time moving too fast.
It was in my first or second Marauder newsletter write-up, where I recall talking about how to avoid this exact dilemma. It was something like ‘stop and smell the flowers’. Well in the early stages of this big move we called European Money Shot 2012, an offer to stop and take a breather was given to us and it was something of a necessity.
In this merciless non-stop world we all find ourselves in, I realized that it is not a negative thing to say ‘hold on, I am not moving forward any longer until I’m done with what I was working on”. We all pile more than we can handle on our plates, that’s a known fact, and most of the time it's not even our choice. We have to be able to multi-task and take on projects upon projects just to make one ideal come to life.
If you’re an artist, you have to create your art, find a place to display it or perform it, practice, set up and run your online media for people to see, create fliers and cards to give to people that you meet that MIGHT be of help, make connections, book future events, create more art and realistically have a day job and inevitably a family. Let’s not forget the bills, and rent that are swiftly delivered to your front door every month!
You all know that we live for our music and for our music to live and be successful we take on all projects and do it all ourselves. It’s a philosophy that reflects the ‘I can’t rely on others to do it’ and in many cases this is true. Just like in personal matters, if you want something done, if YOU WANT something done, it is YOU that will make it happen. Why would someone else want to help you? Usually it’s because they want something out of it, if not monetarily then in other ways would say the pessimist.
Of course we live for our art, we don’t live for the money and you may know that I’m not the pessimistic type. There are people and friends that genuinely want to help but you need to be genuine with yourself first; with your art with your ACTIONS.
We were in Forward Motion Studios near central London for a week and there we made a new brother. Someone who genuinely has offered to help us in any and every way so that we can be as ready as possible for the rest of our travels in this European tour and there was no chance that I or any of us in the Clepto tribe would have ever considered the fact that a help like this was possible.
We decided to extend our stay in the UK for more England shows but also to more correctly organize and ‘catch up’ with ourselves and with your help making it over the Atlantic and getting our new gear and new van (interestingly license plated EO02UHR; sounds like “Europe Tour”) we were again given yet another opportunity to REALLY catch up with a full on studio to our disposal. It felt like the London version of our Olystis LA studio! Another home!
Speaking of lists, mine’s getting longer and longer as I write this article so until next Marauder newsletter, good luck, breathe deep, live and love. Always keep positive and real as the Universe hears and sees all and DOES give back so long as you are true to yourself and true to your cause.
Written by Philip Al-Hajj
I find myself in a familiar situation, in a familiar home, a situation that can only be arranged by the universe. We are in London and have been traveling and playing our music in England for almost a month now and at this moment the cosmos has given us time. Something mentioned in a past article with accusations of time moving too fast.
It was in my first or second Marauder newsletter write-up, where I recall talking about how to avoid this exact dilemma. It was something like ‘stop and smell the flowers’. Well in the early stages of this big move we called European Money Shot 2012, an offer to stop and take a breather was given to us and it was something of a necessity.
In this merciless non-stop world we all find ourselves in, I realized that it is not a negative thing to say ‘hold on, I am not moving forward any longer until I’m done with what I was working on”. We all pile more than we can handle on our plates, that’s a known fact, and most of the time it's not even our choice. We have to be able to multi-task and take on projects upon projects just to make one ideal come to life.
If you’re an artist, you have to create your art, find a place to display it or perform it, practice, set up and run your online media for people to see, create fliers and cards to give to people that you meet that MIGHT be of help, make connections, book future events, create more art and realistically have a day job and inevitably a family. Let’s not forget the bills, and rent that are swiftly delivered to your front door every month!
Of course we live for our art, we don’t live for the money and you may know that I’m not the pessimistic type. There are people and friends that genuinely want to help but you need to be genuine with yourself first; with your art with your ACTIONS.
We were in Forward Motion Studios near central London for a week and there we made a new brother. Someone who genuinely has offered to help us in any and every way so that we can be as ready as possible for the rest of our travels in this European tour and there was no chance that I or any of us in the Clepto tribe would have ever considered the fact that a help like this was possible.
We decided to extend our stay in the UK for more England shows but also to more correctly organize and ‘catch up’ with ourselves and with your help making it over the Atlantic and getting our new gear and new van (interestingly license plated EO02UHR; sounds like “Europe Tour”) we were again given yet another opportunity to REALLY catch up with a full on studio to our disposal. It felt like the London version of our Olystis LA studio! Another home!
Ironically, in the name of slowing down and taking a breather we started doing more! That’s the funny thing of this all, do less to do more sounds contradicting but it IS the way to do it. You have this long list of things to do, and the long list of what you want to do, and the long list you have to and many times hate to do. In any case, it’s one step at a time, one action at a time one meditation at a time will get things done. It might even lead making the lists shorter and we all want that!
Speaking of lists, mine’s getting longer and longer as I write this article so until next Marauder newsletter, good luck, breathe deep, live and love. Always keep positive and real as the Universe hears and sees all and DOES give back so long as you are true to yourself and true to your cause.
Written by Philip Al-Hajj
Photos Courtesy of Chris Evans Photography, Seb and Albert's Photography
