Theres a TIme for Everything

Its completely odd the curve balls this universe sometimes throws you.  You really need to be careful what it is you wish for, in due time it will come true.  Patience and persistence, an inner drive you can't really explain just to sometimes keep you above water.  When in reality you were always above the surface floating.  Your reality always seems the harshest, while in pursuit I think the biggest challenge is to think of the journey as the reward, Steve Jobs said that best.  Theres always room to improve and grow and unfortunately it doesn't happen overnight.  

Having an end goal in mind is key to keeping you moving.  If you didn't have an end thing that you wanted what would you have enough faith in to fight for.  No one ever talks about the hard times.  Its a pride thing.  It doesn't matter how deep the motivation is for doing something, at the end of the day we sometimes question what its all for.  

This past week I held my brothers daughter, she fell asleep in my arms.  I could of stayed there forever but I packed my things and left to go back to New York.  Every fiber of me asked, why leave love?  There is so much love in my family, why would I leave to go somewhere so cold?  What is it all for?  As an artist we all ask on some level these same questions.  Its a tiring game of explaining, pursuing and convincing and sometimes all you have at the end of the day is yourself (hence my song called Believer).  You have to keep it alive everyday.  Its how you make it through the bad stuff, trust me sometimes it straight up knocks me on my ass but its how you breathe life into it again that matters.  

http://soundcloud.com/daniandthemadmen10/a-believer

 "Every creative journey begins with a problem. It starts with a feeling of frustration, the dull ache of not being able to find the answer. When we tell one another stories about creativity, we tend to leave out this phase of the creative process. We neglect to mention those days when we wanted to quit, when we believed that our problems were impossible to solve. Instead, we skip straight to the bbreakthroughs. The danger of telling this narrative is that the feeling of frustration – the act of being stumped – is an essential part of the creative process. Before we can find the answer – before we probably even know the question – we must be immersed in disappointment, convinced that a solution is beyond our reach. It's often only at this point, after we've stopped searching for the answer, that the answer arrives. All of a sudden, the answer to the problem that seemed so daunting becomes incredibly obvious." --Jonah Lehrer, "The neuroscience of Bob Dylan's Genius"

Keep going and if you don't know, ask.  

This Process is Like a Grilled Cheese.

I have zero concept of time here in New York.  I mean I get it on a day to day basis but I have lived here since Oct.24th by myself.  Time has flown but from the moment my feet touched Manhattan pavement I have been running ever since.  I needed to create something beautiful for myself.  I started writing aggressively with Nick Lancaster and 18 songs later I breathe a sign of relief that this time I think I have said what I have needed to say.  Its only just begun.  I hold onto these songs with dear life, every one unique and with every song telling its own story.

Let me tell you at least the process for me.  I had an idea.  Not exactly the idea I brought to life, but it starts with that and changes.  I have revamped my idea so many times that from the original sketch to now it seems like a whole different idea however the main thing is that I didn't stop with it.  I didn't stop working on it.  I still don't stop and my biggest advantage is I have never heard no.  I'm kinda waiting to hear it though, its a motivator.  Once you start fully going into something its important to know that there will be a process to a process with whatever it is your trying to create.  This is where most give up, throw the towel in.  It makes you either want it or hate it.  Make sure you protect it enough to never hate it.  Its music after all for me and there is no greater joy.  I have been without it and I have been with it and in this world I prefer to watch it grow.  These things take time and sometimes people get so impatient.  The truth is I wouldn't want ANYTHING overnight, having earned something makes me feel complete ownership. Makes me understand the process.  I need to preform in the back of a dirty Irish pub, yeah it sucks but on every level its no different if I was on the subway or at home or say on Jay Leno.

Its the process.  Whatever it is you believe in or are trying to create the most important thing to remember is you will have to start somewhere and there is no shame in that.  And work your way up anything that happens to quickly losses its charm, becomes a "try to hard."  This process is like a grilled cheese.  Too much heat and you burn the bread and the cheese doesn't melt.  Give it time and the bread toasts and the cheese melts to perfection, the most simple things need time to develop.  You wouldn't plant a seed and expect a flower the next day.

Just never loss your love for what it is your doing and never try to force it.  It will come and it will change.  But always respect the process behind everything and never give up.  We need more people in this world that follow their art, their gut instead of being put in the corporate cookie cutter.  

It started here.  http://soundcloud.com/daniandthemadmen10

And

Its not ending anytime soon..

A Poem for You.

That Day

By: Dani Mueller 

Can you meet me here again? 

Come back to the place where it all begun

When you arrive I will make you stay

Those days stopped me

It made me see something 

A thing I thought I had given to someone else

As sure as the grass grows

For as long as the winter feels

It was real

This I know for sure

Like when the tide comes back to the sand

Like when the golden rays rise to wake the earth

And the moon makes a child less curious 

You had me

I had you

This I know for sure.

The only question now is

When...

When will I see you again?

When..

Will you come back to me?