That Really Was It.

What does a 22 year old muso know about happiness. Well not everything. Only the vital parts I've learned so far.

With so many of us working full time jobs, working three jobs to feed a family or even working to find work, its so easy to lose sight of whats really important... What we're working for. For so many people work has become the thing that fills in time between 9 to 5 and stresses us out most hours in between. But throw in one little thing and all of that changes. One thing thats been said so many times on reality shows like "Idol" it makes me cringe a kind of cringe thats usually only reserved for times like when you're watching one of your best friends go down in flames trying to hit on a girl he hasn't stopped talking about all night, or if you've got a boss like Michael Scott or David Brent from 'The Office's ( I guess thats how you plural that). That one thing is "Passion". A word so cheesy and lame it hurts. But I've learned that cliches are that way for a reason. This thing turns a chore into an event.

Lately I've been doing so much tedious work FOR my music that I had almost forgotten to do any work ON my music.

Then I saw a film called 'This Is It'. I dont know if you've heard of it but its about this guy Michael Jackson who was going to put on a whole heap of shows but unforunately passed away before he got the chance to.

Within the first 10 minutes of watching this amazing rehearsal footage, I had a realisation which is the reason for my first little blog. That realisation was "I truly love music!". I love performing, I love writing songs, I love singing other peoples songs, I love creating with other people, I love travelling on a coach with my headphones on and being able to go other places the bus had no idea about, I just love music. Now I know as a musican I'm supposed to say this, but after months of travelling, reading contracts and meeting 'somebody's people', fatigue can kick in and make even the most charismatic people an absolute bitch. So bitchy you wonder "why are you even doing this?". Then you look back at those months and realise, there was very little of the thing that I love most in there. That thing that made me feel like I did when I was 16 years old in my high school music class jamming with my mates not caring whether a song was too long for radio or not, instead knowing you were communicating in a way that not everyone on the planet fully gets to do but fully understands.

Now Im not saying music is the answer to everyone's happiness. Im saying passion is. One of my best friends in the world is a sports journalist and I know that although making deadlines on time is awesome, its the ridiculous things he gets to do while putting those stories together that get him off most.

There's so much importance on completeing the perfect dish to serve, we forget the importance of dancing around the kitchen with other people and seeing how much mess we can make while taking liberties with the recipe (I got caught up in Masterchef too, hence the cooking metaphor).

We put our heads down and toil with very little regard to anyone, even ourselves. To take a lesson that was tattooed in my head during year 12, its not always about the destination but experiencing the journey.

Now whether you loved, hated or didn't care about Michael Jackson isn't the point.

The point is if you're not enjoying what you're doing, try doing something you love. If you're not doing something you love, or you're not doing something FOR something you love,

then WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!