My Art is Communication

I’ve been playing gigs at bars since before I was old enough to drink in them, and one thing has always amazed me:  I don’t get sick of playing the same cover songs night after night.  As I’m playing The Joker for the thousandth time on a stage in a bar somewhere I never think “oh here we go again…”, I’m still excited to hear people’s reaction and to make them want to sing a long.

 

The most beautiful thing about art is that it’s never boring.  It’s spontaneous, exciting and always changing.  It may seem that on the surface I play the same songs night after night but the music is not my art, my art is communication.  My art is how I interact with every single person that steps into the bar.  My art is how I call out to the girls walking by, telling them they should join us inside.  My art is the interaction with the listeners, and that is always changing, always exciting.

 

To me, music is and has always been about communication and interaction.  What I’m not saying is “music should always be about communication and interaction”, that’s not true.  For me, it’s what brings it home.  It’s the reason I started playing guitar in the first place… I saw how people reacted to a performance (I saw how girls reacted too).

 

Next time you see me play, keep that in the back of your mind.  If you want proof of all the things I just wrote here there is an easy way to do it.  Get a few friends together and start reacting to what I’m doing.  You can cheer, chant my name, dance, whatever, just get a little crazy and watch what happens. I’ll get even more excited, sing with more passion and feed that energy right back to you, it happens every time and nothing makes me happier.

 

How could I get sick of that?

 

What Motivates You?

I got this question the other day in an interview.  It’s an interesting question that I’ve never really felt like I had a good answer to until now so I thought I’d share it.

I’m motivated by the clock on the wall.

I’m motivated by the seconds that tick away, the minutes that pass by and the days and weeks they become.

I’m fully conscious of the fact that we are only here for a limited time, and soon we’ll all be gone.  Too often we act as if we’ll be here forever, and so many people don’t have a sense of urgency.  It’s crazy, that phrase use to get tossed around while I was a midshipman at the Naval Academy all the time.  As I had coffee with a classmate of mine yesterday, I realized it has a totally new meaning for me.  It means that there really is no time to waste.  Does that mean you won’t find me playing the occasional mindless game on my iPhone?  No.  It means that the big decisions in my life are built around the principle that I’m here for a finite amount of years and my job is to give my gift.  My job is to see that through and given then choice between something with short term benefits or something that will live on after I’m gone, I’ll always choose what contributes to my legacy.

You’re on your own

Here I go again on my own,

Goin down the only road I’ve ever known

Like a drifter I was born to walk alone.

I’ve made up my mind,

I ain’t wastin no more time,

Here I go again.


The past two weeks I had the pleasure of training at Septien Entertainment Group in Dallas, TX. SEG brings in the most talented and driven musicians from around the country and trains them to be stars in the music business.

Aside from the amazing coaching going on and the talent level of the artists, I was surprised by how many young kids were there. When I learned more I found out that they have a masters program where you can audition and be selected for a 9 month or longer program that gives students a comprehensive training package to get them ready for bigger opportunities in the music business. Many of these masters students were 15 or 16 years old and although a few of them were local to the Dallas area, many of them had packed up and moved to Dallas and are now living on their own, working on a career in music. After hearing a few of their stories I was really inspired by their sense of independence at such a young age. It’s always been something I’ve felt. One girl named Jordana left South Africa at age 16 to come to the US and pursue a music career (she’s now 19 and a masters student at SEG). When I asked her how that was she said it was tough, because her parents were very involved in her life, so much so that she hadn’t really learned many of the skills she needed to survive on her own. With a smile, she said “I didn’t even know how to boil water, I had to learn everything.”

From what I’ve learned, there are two types of people when it comes to personal independence. The first kind of person reads that last statement and thinks, “gosh, that must have been terrible having to learn everything on your own”, the second reads that and thinks, “that’s amazing, what an incredible and exciting opportunity”.

I’m lucky. For whatever reason, I’m the second person. Maybe my parents tied my shoes for me one too many times or maybe they did just enough to give me a taste of what it’s like to figure things out for yourself, who knows. All I know is I LOVE that feeling. I’m sure you recognized the song I quoted above.

Here I go again on my own, going down the only road I’ve ever known.

What a powerful line. For most of us who can identify with Jordana and myself, independence feels more like destiny than just an option in the game of life. Like Frodo carrying the ring to Mordor, we may be supported by others, but the burden is ours, and that’s the only way we’d ever want it.

You’re on your own. Go get em.

Music Is Not My Passion

So this may seem odd, right? I love playing music, I love writing songs and I definitely love performing, but music isn’t my passion, it’s not my purpose, and I think that’s an important distinction.  It took me a while to figure it out but after many years of reflection, I realized that what I really love is the chance to inspire people.  I guess music found me because it’s a pretty awesome way to inspire people, right?  Music is the vehicle through which I am able to inspire people.  If I have something to say, I could give a speech, write a book or write a song, and for me music is always the best way to truly reach people.

As I grow as a performer, singer and songwriter I’ll always have one thing on my mind – inspiration.  It’s simple.  The bigger (and more powerful) my sphere of influence is, the more I will be living out my purpose, and to do that I see no better way than by making music that reaches millions.

So that’s the plan.

I can’t wait to hire my parents

In my eternal search for self-awareness, I often examine my strengths & weaknesses, not just to identify them, but to see where they came from.  One of my strengths is following through on promises, but I can’t take any credit for it.  Ever since I was old enough to remember, my parents have followed through on literally every promise they’ve made to me.  I don’t mean most of the time, and I don’t mean when they remember, I mean EVERY time.  I don’t even think they have any sort of “to do lists” or planners to assist them, they just remember, and take care of it.  It’s amazing.

If I said to them, “Hey parents, I know this is a strange request, but I need you to ship me the pair of shoes I wore in 8th grade, I have no idea where they are and I need you to wait 2 months to ship them…” in exactly 2 months, they’d be shipped to my door step, no reminding, no forgetting.  It’s given me quite a standard to live up to, and all I can say is I do my best.

Back in 2001 while I was a freshman at the Naval Academy, one of the upper class that I reported to asked me to find out who said a quote that was loosely paraphrased as “the more I screw up, the more people seem to like me”.  The fact that he didn’t recite the quote exactly really made it tough to look up, so it wasn’t as simple as whipping out my iPhone and googling it (can you imagine iPhones in 2001…?!?).  I talked to my parents that night and casually asked them, they didn’t know, but they said they’d find out.  3 months later I get a call from my Mom who said she figured out it was JFK, and he was responding to the Bay of Pigs fiasco.  I was pretty shocked to hear that she even remembered our conversation.  Since then I’ve actually been careful to not ask my parents anything that I don’t really think is that important, because whether it’s important or not, they will spend the time and effort to get it done for me (don’t worry… I still ask them for plenty).

Since I plan on building the business of my music to extend far beyond what I can do myself, I’m always thinking about who I’m going to involve when the time comes that I can pay others to help me.  I’ve got a lot of loyal friends, some of the best fans, but I’ll need some one who’s extremely dependable and consistent as a rock.

Who do you think will be on the top of my list?

Why I Don’t Need a Plan B

A lot of motivational types always talk about “there is no plan B”, and a lot of people get scared by that. It’s completely natural to be worried, after all no one wants to be left in the dark after some bad luck or unfortunate circumstances. My take is a little different.

I don’t need a plan.  Why?  I know that I can get hired by any company I want, whenever I want. I will scratch, claw and bleed for the life I want, as Will Smith says in the video I posted a few blogs ago, “I’m not afraid die on the treadmill”.  I know with 100% confidence that any company in the world would benefit by having me as a part of their team.  That belief allows me to be persistent and not stop until everyone realizes what I can contribute.

Derek Sivers (one of my favorite authors) sums it up in his blog post about getting hired.  When I read this I knew it was the kind of person I am, and it’s exactly why I don’t need to worry about “not making it in music”.  Please give it a read (my post isn’t complete unless you read his!)

http://sivers.org/gethired

How I got started

I get asked this question a lot and more specifically I think people want to know my motivation behind playing and singing. I’ve always had a long answer but lately I’ve found a simpler way to describe it.

When I was 9 I started taking guitar lessons but I stopped playing in middle school to pick up the trumpet. Sophomore year in high school I needed to play the guitar for a Spanish project so I dusted off the guitar and sang a song in class. Turns out that people liked it when I played the guitar and sang (aaaaand I didn’t mind the extra attention I was noticing from the ladies). I loved the way people truly adored listening to me play, it was almost like I was able to bring them into my world for a few minutes and let them relax in bliss. 11 years after that spanish project I’m playing and singing with the same enthusiasm.

That’s why I started, and that’s why I still do it. Simple as that

Why I brag a lot

It may seem like to some people I “brag” a lot, meaning I highlight the awesome areas of my life in an effort to make others feel bad.  I don’t see it that way.  To me, I love inspiring people, and by showing some of the cool things I do, I want people to understand that I’m no different from them, everything I have, they can have too, it’s just a matter of working to achieve it.  Tim Ferriss, the author of The Four Hour Workweek is one of my favorite people in the world because he inspired me to live a better life.  If you look at his blog, many times it’s not filled with advice, but rather stories of really cool things he’s done. 

You know how to get what you want, it’s just a question of motivation.

What I’ve Learned About Happiness

Happiness is THE hardest thing in life to achieve.  It’s not a big house you can buy and it’s not an amount of money you can make.  It’s not a sleek car, or an attractive spouse.  It’s intangible, and once you find it you don’t necessarily get to keep it. 

How do we find it?  The answer is different for everyone.  We all have our own desires, needs and dreams.  Happiness for some can mean becoming a master chief in the Navy, for others it can mean having the freedom to surf twice a day.  It may be raising children and being a devoted parent, or successfully opening your own business.  Whatever the result, happiness will always be the progressive realization of a worthy and personally fulfilling ideal.  I’ll say that again because it’s important.

Happiness is the progressive realization of a worthy and personally fulfilling ideal.

Pick something you want to do then work towards achieving it.  Sounds easy enough, right?  The problem is, when we take a look around, we find that 95% of people don’t do it.  Sure there are moments when things are going great, but most people are either living by someone else’s standards or not measuring up to their own.

So how do we achieve happiness?  Unfortunately that’s not easy either.  However, realizing that it’s difficult is the first step.  If it were easy, everyone would do it.  There is one term that stands out in my mind above all else.  HUSTLE.  Hustle is the difference between people who want it and people who get it.

How can hustle help us achieve our goals and lead us to happiness? While I was in the Navy it became clear to me that I wanted to pursue a career in music, so in 2006 I decided to hustle. I used to joke that my day began when I got off work, because in my mind, I was focused and dedicated to not just thinking about building a music career, but DOING it. Sometimes I would leave during lunch to go to voice lessons, other times I would just use the down time, underway and in port to read and study about my future career. There was a lot of work to be done, and I wanted it bad. When I moved from San Diego to New Orleans in the summer of 2008 instead of driving straight to my destination I booked a tour. I played in Phoenix, Amarillo, Oklahoma City, Kansas City and Austin. In the 6 months I lived in New Orleans I played in Austin twice, San Antonio, Dallas, Mobile twice, Monroe twice, Jacksonville 3 times and Key West. One story that I’m always hesitant to tell is about a gig in Austin on a Sunday night. I had the chance to play a showcase that I knew was going to be a great way to connect with a lot of the talented musicians that lived there but I couldn’t take Monday off from work. I knew I could do it, but I’d have to drive through the night to make it back to New Orleans, which was 8 hours away. Three red bulls, 2 snickers bars and a quick nap later I drove into work Monday morning after playing at the club in Austin Sunday night. Why did I do it? Simple. I WANTED it. It wasn’t pretty but the gig was amazing and I still keep in touch with the musicians I met that night. (Note: this was a LAST resort and I slept almost the whole day prior to that night, I don’t EVER recommend driving while fatigued or tired)

In the four years since I decided to truly make music my focus, I’ve taken my free time and directed it toward playing gigs, writing songs and contributing as much as I can to the music community I’ve become a part of in San Diego and Los Angeles.  In 5 years active duty I played gigs in over 20 different states, met and connected with hundreds of musicians across the country and got signed to an artist development deal with a management company, not to mention being a part of two deployments with the Navy.  Towards the end of my time in the service I was playing an average of 10 gigs per month, some months as many as 15, all with 6 day duty rotation and a busy ship’s schedule.  I can now make $2,000-$3,000 a month just playing music.  Hustle.  If I can do it, anyone can.

There is a quote from Henry David Thoreau that resonates with me.  He said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”  I think about that EVERY DAY.  What does that mean to us?  It means if we take only what is given and become like the silent majority, we will be left wanting more.  This is a scary idea, because chances are what you want to do is not the norm, and achieving that will take you well outside your comfort zone.  You must be prepared for discomfort, and embrace uncertainty.  You MUST be different.

My biggest fear in life is REGRET.  Regret that I never took enough chances, regret that I felt the need to feel “safe”, regret that I didn’t do everything I possibly could to be whom I was meant to be.  Think about that for a second.  Be whom you are meant to be.  You know it when you look in the mirror, you dream about it at night.  Everyone thinks about being the man or woman they were meant to be, but most people can’t overcome the fear and BECOME it.  Your time is now, because soon you’ll be gone.

Not everyone will die happy.  This is the sad truth that you don’t see in movies or read about in magazines.  As you lay on your deathbed years and years from now you won’t look back and wish you had spent more time at the office, and you won’t have the chance to go back and spend more time doing what you love and with people you care about.  If you go through life as a victim, taking what comes to you and adjusting your standard of happiness to whatever is easiest at the time, your legacy will be someone who settled, someone who always played things safe, someone who never pushed themselves to be extraordinary.  You only get one shot at life, and then you die.  It’s as simple as that.

How do you want to be remembered?

25 Things About Me

So in case you’re not a facebooker, there has been this things going around facebook right now where people write 25 random facts about them, then post it for all their friends. I figured I’d re-post mine here, enjoy!

1. I love talking about myself. When I talk to people 99% of my energy is used to suppress that urge, but I’ve gotten pretty good at it.

2.  I love talking about myself so much that I actually love getting interviewed, so much so that I think that’s 29% of the reason I signed up for the big brother program (they have an extensive interview process… it was awesome).

3.  I’m secretly a life coach, and the world is my client.

4.  I’m going to write a book in 10 years and it’s going to be called “People are Important”.

5.  I really like Obama but I’m not really sure why.  I hope it’s not because everyone else likes him.

6.  My friend Mal Hall (local comedian) once said that we love being on stage so much because we weren’t that cool in high school, and he’s right.

7.  I wasn’t THAT un-cool in high school, but I wasn’t exactly the prom king, ya know?

8.  Ok listen, stop judging me, high school was 8 years ago and I’m a lot cooler now.

9.  I believe that we never let go of our high school years.

10.  I love the look on people’s faces when I walk them in my house and open the door to my porch.  90% of the time this is the exact conversation:

Them:  “Wow, you really do live RIGHT on the ocean!”
Me: “Yeah, sucks huh?” (sarcastically of course)

11.  I hung out with Jason Mraz at my show Sunday, he watched my whole set and we hung out afterward.  It made me feel pretty sweet, but now that we’re “friends”, I’m going to play it off like it was nothing.

12.  I think the first time I smoke pot after I get out of the Navy it’s not going to be nearly as awesome as I think it’s going to be.

13.  I’m slowly turning into one of those “whole foods” guys.

14.  I’ve seen more beautiful women walk by my porch while writing this in the last 20 minutes than I saw in 2 months living in New Orleans.

15.  Don’t get me wrong, New Orleans was great, but San Diego is a permanent vacation.

16.  My sister is the shit.

17. In almost every email I write, the word “anyway” always shows up.  Most of hte time I have to edit what I write so I don’t end up using it more than once.

18.  I really want to write a general statement about love and loving each other but my dude friends will make fun of me.

19.  I’m a sucker for back scratches.

20.  Seriously, I’ll do anything you want, just scratch my back.

21.  I really dig Buddhism, but I think too many people use it to give themselves a title so I don’t like talking about it or decorating my room with little Buddhas.

22.  It took me 3 years to convince myself that I should use the name “Dave Booda” as my stage name instead of “Dave Boodakian”.

23.  I can’t wait to live in my car.

24.  My longest relationship has been 6 months and that seemed like an eternity.

25.  If I had to rewind the clock to high school, before I went to the Naval Academy, I would do it all again and be sitting right here, right now.  I wouldn’t change a thing.