[00:00:00] welcome to episode 136 of the Bandhive Podcast. It is time for their episode of the Bandhive Podcast. My name is James Cross and I help independent artists tour smart. Now I gotta say mental health is often a struggle for lots of musicians and artists and people who are working in the music. Industry. now I'm far from being an expert, but I do know that it's vital to have a life and somewhat of a personality outside of the music world.

As tempting as it can be to make everything you do in your life about music. And trust me, it will suck you in. If you let it, you need to have some kind of activities outside of music, because that will make you a healthier person and could even lead to inspiration for your songs and your music. So on this episode, I'm gonna dive into some of the benefits of having a life outside of music, because all too often, I see people whose entire personality becomes the musician.

And it's great if that's branding, but if [00:01:00] that's really all you do, that's not necessarily a good thing for your mental health or for your career.

First and foremost, having some hobbies or activities or whatever you want to call them outside of music gives you a break. A lot of people who struggle with writer's block get locked in and focus so much on creating a new song that they don't even realize they're holding themselves back because they're not taking a break and trying to maintain laser focus.

And that's, what's actually making them have that writer's block because they. Giving themselves a moment to step back and enjoy life and do something else. So if you're struggling with writer's block, maybe the solution is Don't try to write for a couple days, go do something else, try something new. If you don't have a hobby, you know, find something new and it can be really beneficial to. ideally before you get to that point, before you get into writer's block or whatever, rut you're stuck in, or will be stuck in, you want to get [00:02:00] out of that before it even happens.

so for example, I'm not personally a songwriter or an artist, that's something that's just never appealed to me. I've always enjoyed more of the behind the scenes kind of work that I do. But even with that, It is easy to get burned out as much as I enjoy it, it can get old, it can get frustrating. It can get mind numbingly boring at times.

That's just the reality is the music industry. Isn't always fun and exciting. There are plenty of times where it gets boring. So some of the things I do to keep my mind fresh are some mild hiking. You know, I don't like go climb Mount Everest or anything like that. I just like you. Going outside and enjoying some fresh air, you know, doesn't have to be extra strenuous or anything like that, but getting outside, walking around, another thing I do is I volunteer for a local baseball team.

Now, granted, I do sound so I guess it's kind of music related, but it's more so like playing funny effects and clips and that kind of stuff. Although there is obviously some [00:03:00] music involved for the players, walk up songs, playing some organ music clips, that kind of stuff. And then last but not least flying.

And each of these activities, let me go out of my usual day to day routine in a different way. So starting off with hiking that just lets me enjoy nature. And it's very peaceful and relaxing. And I also, I see lots of dogs, which is always a plus I love seeing dogs out and about now that I don't have a dog on my own anymore for the last like year and a half.

It's really great to go out and meet a bunch of new dogs that are most of the time friendly. Just being able to go enjoy the sites, even if it's somewhere I've been a bunch of times, it's still, if it's the right spot kind of magical to be like, wow, like this is real. you know, one of my favorite spots is an old granite quarry and you can just walk through there and it looks beautiful.

Even though it's just like, you know, zits on the face of the earth by companies, mining, granite and making giant holes. It looks really cool and they're [00:04:00] filled with water and it just, it looks amazing. going to see that is like just a very Zen state of mind, the baseball team that gives me a regular boost of adrenaline, cuz we're never gonna know if we're gonna win or not.

Right now we are, I believe 10 and one on the season. Let me actually look this up. Let's see cbo.com

we're 11 and one. So the correction there that's insane. No other team has more than, uh, let's see. There's there's a team from Connecticut. That's 10 and two. So we're doing a little better than they are, but 11 and one, I don't think we've ever done that. Well at all. As a team, this is the Vermont mountaineers.

They were eight and one or eight and oh, before they lost that one game. But now we've after that loss won three more. That's actually incredible 11 and one. Wow. So we are far ahead. We're four and a half games ahead in the division. And the uh, worst place team is three and nine. So we have we have lost fewer games than the [00:05:00] worst team has won.

That is impressive. Anyway, the main thing about that team is that it gets me to go out and do something that I normally wouldn. Do. So in this case, if I play funny clips or if I play like some crowd prompts or something, and the crowd reacts to that, well, that's always a little bit of an ego boost, even though I'm just an anonymous guy, pressing buttons on a computer and running a mixer like that, all aside, it's still a fun thing to do that I enjoy.

And I've been doing it for a few years now I like it. You know, it's like two months during the summer, easy work, It's a good time hanging out with good people. Who all love baseball. I would much rather go do that than sit at a pro baseball game and just, you know, watch, like, I, I love baseball, but just watch it and gets boring after a while, unless it's an exciting game or it's the playoffs or something.

if I'm gonna go watch baseball, I might as well have fun while I do it. So that's what I do. And then last but not least [00:06:00] Flying gives me a sense of adventure and it has the opportunity to explore new places all while I'm challenging myself, learning something new and enjoying really amazing views.

I had a flight last week and just, oh, it was bonkers. Uh, It was not quite sunset, but it was probably about an hour before sunset when the sun is starting to get low over the mountains and it just looked incredible. It was a beautiful day for flying. And so each of these hobbies. Fulfills my non-musical desires in a different way.

They all kind of, they don't overlap, but they're complimentary, which means I have a healthier and more rounded mindset when I go back to work the next day. And you can absolutely do the same thing. It doesn't necessarily have to be the same hobbies and I don't expect them to be, but you probably already have an idea of what you like to do in your downtime.

And you know, if you've just packed your schedule so much that you don't know what your hobbies are. Look at what you enjoy and find something similar that is not work or music related to [00:07:00] keep you going. So for example, you know, I know people who restore old arcade games, it's super nerdy, but I love it.

That's so cool. Like that takes a very specific skill set. You gotta learn how to do that. And you have to have a real passion for it because you know, why else would you do that? Now? I have no idea how expensive it is. It's probably pretty pricey to get these old antique games, but still that's such a cool hobby.

You could also do something like, I don't know, crocheting, if you like crocheting. Go do that. It doesn't have to be anything that is super exciting or unique. It just has to be something that takes your mind off of whatever you're struggling with. Because as much as we make music out of passion, it is a business and we do have to run it like a business.

So we have to treat it as work. Now I'm not saying. We have to say, oh, I hate doing this. Like, oh, it's my nine to five. No, that's not it. But it does take both a creative skill and an analytical and management skill set. And if [00:08:00] you get stuck on either one of those it's time for a break. So as much as I hate to say it, if your schedule is jam packed, like minus, maybe you should take some time away from your music each week.

Now I know you're saying, well, if you wanna spend as much time as possible on your music, but what use is spending 30 hours INE effectively working on your music when you could accomplish twice as much in 20 hours during a time when you're feeling great about yourself, because you feel personally fulfilled and you've been spending all week on your hobbies, getting to do something that you enjoy. That's not music related. You're getting out of the time suck, or you're getting out of the writer's block or whatever rut you're stuck in.

Why not go and spend a few hours a week on something else? If that is going to help you become a more effective artist who can then spend less time and accomplish more. The main thing is you want to avoid that rut. You want to avoid [00:09:00] writer's block or burnout or anything like that. So I'm really curious.

Let me know, what do you do in your spare time? To keep yourself inspired and excited about making music. We'll have a thread in the Bandhive community on Facebook, which you can find by searching for Bandhive, all one word on Facebook, or you can go to Bandhive.rocks/group group to be automatically redirected to that Facebook group again, that's Bandhive dot rocks slash group, or searching for Bandhive on Facebook.

That does it for this episode of the Bandhive Podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in listening. I really appreciate it. And I hope that this episode has given you some ideas on how you can get out of that rut, how you can, you know, avoid writer's block and how you can be a healthier human being, mentally speaking.

so, like I said, at the end of the episode, I would love to know what you do to keep yourself grounded and, you know, unblocked, just let us know in the Bandhive community. There'll be a thread for this very [00:10:00] episode. you can find it by going to Bandhive.rocks/group, or searching for Bandhive on Facebook. We'll be back with another brand new episode next Tuesday at 6:00 AM. Eastern time in your favorite podcasting app. do me a favor. Don't forget to subscribe as well. So you don't miss that episode. And it also helps the algorithm tell people that we actually put out good content and that will help more artists find this advice and boost their careers.

Just remember it's free to subscribe and a rising tide raises all ships. So it's in your interest to have more artists find the show and improve their work because. As we all improve the industry as a whole gets better. Thanks again for listening. Like I said, we will be back next Tuesday at 6:00 AM Eastern time until then I hope you have a great week stay safe. And of course, as always keep rockin'.