My History or Life Revisited

The following post is taken from a message board I belong to called The905Board. An online community for pretty much everyone in the 905 area Code in Canada and people abroad, it began mostly as a forum for music people but has expanded. 

The question came up as to what everyone on the board does. And being that I need validation through posting to make me seem justified, I posted my response. I bit more extensive than some of the others you’ll see but thats me.

Check out the Original Post

My Response:

“Its equal parts Impressive and Depressing to read what everyone does.  I have always admired people who seem to have their shit together. Especially those of you who are younger.

As for me…

Hated high school. Became a part time student in grade 10, coincidently enough, the same year I discovered ICQ and Quake 2.  Actually tried my last year and got mostly A’s. Worked most of my time in school as a cook, skipping class to work 12-14hr days, ultimately spending my cash on beer, vacation money to the UK and Florida and music gear.

Worked various jobs after high school school, (Skate Sharpener Guy, Grocery Store Dude, Record Store Person, Purolator take a nap while loading the trucks at 4am Man etc.) finally attending Mohawk for Business/Marketing. Learned how to do the Pen Twirl around the finger, smoke drugs and waste roughly 2-3 Grand. Did succeed in getting my lowest grade EVER: Math 17%.  Dropped out halfway through second semester worked 3 jobs and pretty much just hung out with the girl I was dating, living vicariously through her Uni experience up at Western.  Went back to school a year later for advertising at Sheridan. Got my shit together and passed.

I again worked various jobs after college, not really wanting to get a REAL job. Finally resigning to my fate, I worked in the Ad Industry for almost 2 years. Mostly desk jockey stuff  and mind numbing work but I did live in downtown TO which was cool for a while but that grew tiresome after about 2 months.

During all of this I was playing in a band called First Time Fallen. We achieved some moderate local success and released 3 cds in about 6 years, though we never really toured, which I realized is what I really wanted to do. So after the band more or less stopped playing last year, I began a solo project and decided I would tour and make a go of being a musician. Couldn’t let all those years playing go to waste.

After quitting my TO job I took a gig working for my parents that would allow me to be on the road. I moved back to Burlington and in between tours, my roommate and I started a small indie label called C&B Records.   Since December 2007 we’ve released 3 cds under our Mix Tape Series collection highlighting acts from in and around the 905 area, as well as my two EPs. We also ran a side stage during the Burlington Sound of Music Festival out front of our apartment in downtown B-Town with 19 artists over two days. All acoustic, we had a wide range of bands like Bombing Neverland, Dark Pearl, Aitc(H), Robyn Dell’Unto, Dirty Love Band, etc. Currently were working on doing a multi-venue festival in Burlington for 2009.

Life isn’t perfect and I’m not 100% sure what I’m doing but at least I’m on some sort of track that makes sense and doesn’t leave me completely bitter about the world and society, though living in Burlington is pretty boring. And you can make money with music, just got to learn how. If it was easy everyone would do it.”