Studio Update - Motivation

     As I wrote a while back, I had set up a temporary studio in the garage space to work on some projects and as often happens it stayed that way longer than I intended. The truth is that once everything was in there it was daunting to contemplate taking it all apart. 

Motivation

    What finally got me going was a lull in bookings and going on a short vacation to the ocean. This may be a universal thing, but when I'm on a trip after a few days of leisure I start thinking about the things I want to accomplish, large and small. Maybe that's a function of getting recharged. At any rate, when we got back I dove into the room...almost.

There was kind of a Tetris game that had to be played with the stuff that was already in the garage proper.

    Before I could begin I needed to add some storage in the garage which involved getting some materials to build some shelves and put a floor in the attic. I try to use recycled materials and we have a Habitat for Humanity store nearby. I got some salvage plywood ($1 a sheet!) some 2x4s and a bag of 3" screws and spent an afternoon to put it all together. Now that I had a place to put it all, I started taking the studio apart. It took a couple of hours to dismantle everything and get it out of the way.

Progress!

    Now with the room empty I could tackle the first task; insulation. Off to Home Depot where I also got 8 sheets of wall board. This room wasn't built using the standard eight foot ceilings...they are the same height as the garage...10 feet...so there was a lot of extra work including putting wallboard in a closet and the storage space above it. As of now I'm about halfway through getting it all taped, which includes a fair amount of redoing some past work on the exterior wall. This room was intended to be storage so those walls were just perfunctorily finished.

    Another thing I was looking for at Habitat was a replacement for the old single pane garage window. I'd check in there once a week to see if one that fit had been donated and I'd just about given up hope when the perfect one showed up. Getting the original removed took a day because it had been installed with the siding over the window flange, which meant that I had to carefully cut around the window to get it out and prepare for the newer window. More extra work...

    There's an old saying, "A rested field will produce a bountiful crop". What I realized is that between other projects, gigs and the everyday stuff I was just too distracted. Once I took a step back, basically doing nothing for a few days but walk on the beach, I was able to reactivate my motivation. 

    By slowing down, just a little, I opened up some space to look at the project not as a chore, but something enjoyable, a journey to be taken for it's own sake. It will take some time and simply accepting that gave me the energy to get going on it. 

Also, while at the beach we made a video of a new song that I'll put out next month.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Singer/Songwriter Rick Millward lived and worked on the West Coast until moving to Nashville in 2000. He was part of the Music City songwriter community, collaborating with other artists and producing projects in his boutique studio, including two EMMY nominated soundtracks. Now in Southern Oregon, Rick has discovered a vibrant local music scene centered around the many tasting rooms. 

His records: "Limited Edition", "Home for Good", and “Loveland” are available on Spotify and other streaming platforms. His new recordings, "Astronomy", will be released later this year.

LOVELAND ON SPOTIFY