Over the last couple of months, post-lockdown musical burnout has really hit me, and like with anything creative, you cannot force yourself to 'create'. Even now, coming back into the world of music feels like a struggle. Like a mental barricade that one has to climb before the flows of production can start. Which is why I must apologise for my quiet on here.
Whilst working a fairly full on medical job, I am producing music for 2 labels, whilst trying to livestream on twitch at least 3 times per week and I was starting to feel pressure to create content, blogs and posts of some decent merit for PEAKD. I didn't just want to spam, to upload content for the hell of it, or in internet terms 'sh*tpost'. PEAKD and its community deserve quality or at least something trying to be quality, and so I put myself into a mental blank because I didn't know what to write about. I had lost the love of live DJing and a lot of the aspects of the music industry, and the amount of work that goes into creating music, remixes and releases for labels is high output with very little return.
It left me asking myself, "why do I do it?"
I think the thing is with creative people is that their is something inside them that MUST create. A little flame, a spark, that needs to be ignited to keep a creative's soul appeased. I create, therefor I am. If I didn't DJ, the very essence of who I am, and have been over the past 25 years will be lost. I know that people change over time, and interests and hobbies come and go, but doing something like music production or DJ for over 25 years isn't just an interest, it becomes part of the very fabric you are. Call it an identity crisis, or a spell of depression during the darkest part of the season. The important thing is that I recognised it, and I shall call it burnout.
I have cut back on needless livestreams, preserve my free time; and to be fair, the bottom is falling out of livestreams. My reason for this is most people are in a worse financial situation (unless youre riding the cryto train), with less leisure money in their pocket and so fewer people are 'tipping' the services of the online DJ (who is fast replacing radio broadcasts). Also, people can go out again, the clubs are open! So whilst the online DJ may provide your weekend warm up soundtrack, people are spending back in the clubs again - and what ridiculous prices they charge! I am lucky to have a very loyal core of followers on twitch so at least I have a small crowd; follow me on twitch and join the kitchen parties!
In other news, I am very excited that the first tracks of the newly relaunched 'Corrupted Data Recordings' label are out on sale now, and this is a label I am helping to co-manage - another thing that takes up my spare time.
Our latest track 'Lets Go' came out 25th Feb!
James Black Presents - Lets Go (WTF)
Been nice to chat to 
OUT OF THE DARKNESS AND INTO THE LIGHT..
take care x
