As some of you know, I’m quite the Twitter freak. I personally find Twitter to be a revolutionary tool. It’s found me some cool new friends, new bands, and also has allowed me to contact (and sometimes be retorted back to) by some of my favourite ‘celebrities’ and musicians, as well as instantly find out about breaking news and any other cool things happening in my area. One of these musicians who I got to know better was Amanda Palmer, solo artist and from the band The Dresden Dolls (as well as Neil Gaimans other half) who lately on her Twitter has been talking about how everyone in life should go and shoot for their Plan A, and fuck their Plan B. Of course, this can be seen by some as an idealistic view on life, as some peoples Plan A’s are either entirely impossible due to circumstance, or are unobtainable due to their situation in life. Me, I believe my Plan A is not only obtainable, but will happen. And I will MAKE it happen.
Ever since I was a small child, I always wanted to be a musician. While I got tempted later in my life to pursue a career or degree in either History, Politics or IT, music was always there for me, and something that was just NATURAL. Of course, I come from a musical family, so it wasn’t hard for me to become musical. My 2 siblings have dabbled or are dabbling in music too. My dad started teaching me some basic music theory and piano lessons when I was around 5. I wasn’t so interested in that. I took up clarinet for many years, I was more than able to play it (after all, it was partly how I got into my music degree in college, playing a piece of music that some clarinet players in my degree course played for their final performance in their final year), I also sang for many years as a child and won various music festivals around Northern Ireland, but I was just striving and searching for something else. It was then that I discovered drums. It was a sheer coincidence how I found them really.
I was at a youth church service (yes, believe it or not this Humanist/Atheist was made to go to church…) and the whole time I was just watching the drummer. Something in my head clicked. I had never felt this way about an instrument before. I was so engrossed in performing classical music that I had entirely ignored drums. I then finally worked out what it was I wanted to play. I liked creating melodies (and still do), but rhythm was my main passion all along. I literally went to the drums after the service and played the exact same beats the drummer was doing. Please bear in mind I had NO previous experience in playing drums. I wasn’t quite able to play the bass drum patterns yet, but I was more than capable with my hands already. It didn’t take me long to work it out. I was playing every Sunday morning in my church in-front of usually around 50-100 people, and on one occasion, a full house (over 250 if I recall correctly). I was around 14 when I started, and playing to a crowd was just in my blood. It felt NATURAL.
Fast forward a few years later, and I was in my first band. We played some good gigs, and I experienced playing in bars and venues for the first time. It wasn’t quite what I expected, but I learned that I had to work from the bottom up. No shortcuts. It was here that I knew my Plan A. And that was to be as damn successful as a drummer that I could be, and making it my career and ‘money maker’. And here I am, in 2011. I’ve gone through several bands in 2 different continents, some were for pure fun, some were bands with a limited and deliberately so timeframe, and some (including the current band I am in) were a little more serious. I’ve played so many different genres within the 10 years of drumming, from black metal to commercial pop, and everything in-between, it has certainly made me more of a jack-of-all-trades type (and master of at least some!) drummer, as opposed to just playing one style and limiting myself.
My current band, Minor Stars, are about to go ‘postal’. We are all determined, passionate and driven to make this project work. We have the music, the attitude and the aforementioned determination to ‘make it’. We’ve blown people away at every show we’ve played. We’ve got stellar reviews about our live performance, as well as our album (which I wasn’t a part of, but will be for the next one obviously.) All we need is the right ears to hear it. This is my Plan A at full work, and I’m more than determined for this to work out. After all, it is my Plan A. Putting extra effort into a Plan B is worthless at this point because I could be spending that energy on making my Plan A work out better.
I don’t want to be the unemployed bum any longer. I feel that I’m too talented to be lazying around every day. No company wants to hire me because I go and tour in order to fulfill my Plan A. Of course, fulfilling Plan A requires money for touring, and for the meantime I’m somewhat covered for that thanks to understanding parents and me saving some of my small income I make from drum lessons. I’m 24, turning 25 in a month, I gotta make Plan A happen before I get too old and have too many commitments that fulfilling Plan A might become impossible. I will succeed!
