For those of you who have or had several music projects at the same time, how do you handle them? How do you set aside time for all of them? Do you have a clear focus what’s your main project and what are only side projects? Most importantly, how do you decide to which project material goes if you come up with a nice beat, melody, lyrics, concept or artwork?
I currently have my band, which I would say is my main project. It’s the most fun and productive. My companions are well more versed in making music and are pushing my ideas to levels I imo can’t reach solo myself yet. I also like that I’m not responsible for everything. It also has the highest chance of me ever performing live or releasing something a few people at least locally might listen to.
Then I have my solo music. I mostly see it as exercise to learn the skills I need for other projects right now. It’s also nice to know that everything is me and I’m proud of that in a different way than with shared projects. But I don’t particularly like the burden of having to do everything myself and also be responsible for all of the decisions and getting shit done.
I have a third project which is somewhat on hiatus since my creative partner had to move continents and take care of a sick parent. We used to jam around four weekends a year for a bit more than a year. There’s some really cool material that still needs to be arranged and produced to a more complete form.
So far, I’ve used one of my own beats for the band project, my best one imo. Other than that, I prefer to only work with material that originated with all of us in the same room and build on that. I feel like I could evolve things a bit more in between sessions if I spent the time I used for my own music for working on that material.
I’m also torn about one of my own tracks that I’ve said I’d commit to my third project. And I have one song for this project almost done. I did. about 80% of the work and feel like it’s maybe my best production so far. I’m wondering whether to use these two tracks for my own music because I also think they would fit others to make a nice EP. I also think I could contribute other ideas to this project instead or will come up with new ideas. And hopefully when things are sorted out for my partner, maybe we can come up with new ideas together again. That being said, I would feel kinda bad if I took these two tracks for my own work, even though I know he would say he’s okay with it. Which leads me to the question: is there any problem of just putting it on my own EP and eventually also on the project’s EP without making any changes?
So that’s what I’m pondering, curious about your thoughts and experiences.
At present I have 2 monikers, one for my more focused song based music where I care about format, and one for everything else that isn’t neat ‘product’.
I’m presently in the unusual position of not having tons of simultaneous projects but I typically have.
I’m usually in a couple of bands, have several solo electronic projects, and typically one collaborative electronic project, sometimes more. Right now it’s just solo electronic stuff (under several monikers), a very casual slow burner project with my wife, I sit in with a few bands but am not a member of any, and I’ve been writing a bunch of material for a future band that will hopefully happen.
When it’s been more full on the time management has been the hard part because it’s the only finite aspect. The main vs side project thing I’ve always just let be whatever seemed natural. It’s dynamic too, plenty of times a little side project has become my main thing and vice versa. As for deciding which material goes to which project, wherever it will work best, nothing is precious. Plus I try not to have multiple simultaneous projects be too similar which makes it easier to decide where to use what. I have tons and tons of orphan material that doesn’t really fit with anything, whether full tracks or pieces, and I just sit on it. Once in a while I’ll make something that reminds me of one of those and a theme will start to develop or a band mate will come up with a riff that would be complemented by one of those tracks so I’ll use it. This collage type approach works well for me and it gets better over time as the pool grows (thirty something years of recording myself now) but it only works if I don’t get bogged down by sticking to original intentions or themes or whatever. Some of the best art comes from messing up context.
Work on them when I can. Finish them when I can.
No one is paying me to do music, Ive got no fans bashing my door down for gigs, I sell a few albums on bandcamp once in a while, thats about it. Ive got a day job to keep my self fed watered and housed.
In my band, two members are well versed guitarists first and foremost. Both of them also have a lot of experience with a this, drum machines and making songs with them. They’re also both really interested in beats generally, one of them also plays drums for us (in combination with ST beats that I mostly handle). The fourth member is a straight up bass player that has the most focused role in our band.