From nomad to digital nomad

From nomad to digital nomad | Ecency

Hi all and welcome to my blog. I was just led to steemit by some amazing friends who wanted to help me try to make the transition from nomad to digital nomad.

Here's my backstory:

How it all began

I left my home country (US) about 22 years ago planning to teach English for a year for a little adventure and then go back home and do what all my friends were doing - get a cushy job, a wife, a house, and all the trappings of a 'normal' life. Well that didn't go as planned at all. I actually LOVED living abroad from day one, even though my first gig was in small port town (Mokpo, Korea, 1995), there were no comfort foods or comfort anything really, it was Christmas and my apartment was freezing and the town was covered in snow, and there were only a handful of expats I could turn to for guidance. But I realized then that challenges were what made life exciting.

Here's a pro-democracy demonstration in front of my apartment and university in 1996 in Kwangju, S. Korea. Got tear-gassed all the time back in those crazy days.

But wait, I'm getting way too comfortable again

A few years, some proper teaching qualifications, and several university jobs later however, I realized that I had basically just created another "normal' life - just in another country. It was time for something completely different. Just to keep my creative juices flowing I had started playing drums in the indie music scene in Seoul when two amazing things happened. One, I met a Canadian musician who was one of the most gifted singers, songwriters and performers I had ever known and we started a band that would change my life (no, it didn't make me rich and famous). But we did do well enough in Korea to be able to move the whole band to Vancouver, Canada and sign a three album deal with Light Organ Records, go to Japan to make a music video and release one very solid album. (IMHO).

You can listen to We Need Surgery here

You can buy We Need Surgery here on iTunes

At a festival in Korea.

Making a video in an abandoned Japanese high school.

At the same time I was doing music with my band in Korea, I became friends with and drummer for a year for Lasse Lindh, a Swedish songwriter who I was a fan of and who had found fame in Korea when one of his songs blew up on a Korean TV drama. (You never know what will happen when you write an artist you like an email). But touring Korea, playing festivals and TV shows and just spending a year with Lasse was one of the most exciting years of my life for sure.

Here's the Lasse touring band and a photo from recording some electronic drums on a track.

This song was a big one for him in Korea.. C'mon Through

As you may have heard, it ain't easy making it in the music biz, and despite the potential I thought we had and one very catchy album, all good things must come to an end.

And now for something completely different...

I was pretty depressed that I was not going to earn my bacon drumming for We Need Surgery but at least I still had options and a lust for new adventures. As a landing pad I went back to Korea to teach for a year and consider my options. That's when the proverbial phone rang and I got offered a job as a financial editor at a Chinese bank in Hong Kong. I had actually never set foot in Hong Kong and had not worked full time in an office setting since I'd left the US 18 years earlier. So of course I took the job. (Yes I was lucky to have some very good connections). And here we are almost 4 years later working in the world of finance in one of the most interesting cities in the world.

What's next?

After working in banking for a few years, it seems like it's time for a major reboot. So here's what's next...

I hope to travel the globe to track down some of the amazing expats I have met over the years who, like me, have made some not-your-average career or life choices and record them for a podcast. If you read this far, I hope you'll follow me and stay tuned for the podcast (working title "Rutabaga" - you'll find out why later. You'll meet some of the characters mentioned above, a Korean spiritual guru who lives off the grid and travels the world, a French expat violin maker, expat restauranteurs, poets, an author, a model, and more, I hope.

Was in Tokyo recently interviewing my pal, PhD, poet, professor, pamily man J. Smith in Omotesando Tokyo.