John Hendow

I was recently challenged by a longtime friend to explain why I’m still playing music after all these years. I play music because I love it. In fact, I’ve never understood why anyone would play for any other reason… the hours are terrible, the pay generally isn’t any good (unless you’re U2 or something), it’s stinky backbreaking work, while the crowd is going home you’re hauling gear to the van, and you will encounter some less-than-entirely-scrupulous individuals in the entertainment industry. Oh, and while you’re starving and investing every ounce of your energy into creating music, people will ask you when you going to get a “real job”, which is painfully demoralizing. So why do it at all? Why do anything at all? In truth, most people don’t actually “do” much with their lives and ultimately lament having never found or followed their dream. The reason to do music (or anything) is because it’s your *passion*. Yep, being an adult means you have to pay bills and color inside the lines and otherwise be a good citizen. But if your dream is legal, morally appropriate and doesn’t harm little rainforest critters, then it seems you may have found a powerful truth in your lives.

I love playing music as much now as I did when I was in high school. I also happen to really enjoy my day job, too. Approaching music with passion and dedication meant having to take control over the things that were most likely to thwart success. That led to learning about running a business, which led to understanding tax law and incorporation, which led to forming a record label and publishing company to administer copyright, which led to some actual real-world knowledge of how actual “real jobs” work, which led to getting some useful college degrees, which led to getting a job where creativity and business and technology all play nicely together. Nothing has changed about my love for playing music. But now when I hang out with the same people who asked me “when are you going to get a ‘real job’ “, I can ask them “when are you going to do something that you love?”