For being a music writer, I had really become disinterested in music. I had gotten sick of it. After months and months of receiving a lot of albums and listening to music nonstop, I had burned myself out.
I’m not sure exactly what it was, but around April and May, I was going to shows multiple times a week and listening to music more than I was doing anything else. I had just started a music Web site, and I wanted it to be awesome.
It started to become a job though, and not fun anymore. I overdid myself on my biggest passion.
New albums from some of my favorite artists came out (Art Brut, St. Vincent and Steve Earle), and I didn’t really care. I just wanted a break from it all, so I did. I cut my music listening by about half.
I have always used music as a coping mechanism. When something bad happened, I listened to music. When something went well, I celebrated by listening to some music. It was always there.
Cutting back meant a lot. Instead of just trimming down my music listening time, I had less motivation to go to concerts. So I didn’t (hope I didn’t miss anything too fantastic).
This led to me spending a lot of time doing work in complete silence. Whilst I used to always do work with music on, I now just sat there in silence, concentrating.
The one thing that got me out of the slump was the release of a new album by Wilco, my favorite band for way too long. I started listening to it more and more, and eventually, I started listening to all the new music I had missed out on (Levon Helm, Conor Oberst and Moby). It kind of triggered me to get back into it.
Of all this, only one thing rings true: taking a break is okay. Music is a medium from which a lot of new things happen very quickly, and if you try to take all of it in at once, you are going to lose interest.
It’s okay to take a break, even though there are bands that may seem to be important now, they can wait a little bit (look, even though Cymbals Eat Guitars were the cool thing in January, they are still kind of cool…).
I recently accepted a job as a copy editor and page designer for a group of newspapers in Louisiana. Being a music editor for Smile Politely is/was one of the only things journalism-related that I was doing.
When I start my new job, music is going to simply be a passion, and not work. And if that gets me burned out, well, I may have something wrong with me.