Short and Sweet

Once again, I find myself with the familiar feeling of crushing guilt for not having kept any kind of reasonable schedule for these newsletters. I have three drafts of different subjects started, all in about the same place. They have beginnings, some middles, and then a vast emptiness where the rest of them should be. My problem (as if there is only one) is time and my skewed perception of it. I tend to take on a subject that requires not only a great deal of time to get all of my thoughts and ideas about down on “paper”, but I also tend to be meticulous about editing, often re-writing large sections several times. Before I know it, some of these end up taking me a better part of a day to complete. So, what has now happened is that when I think about sitting down to write something, I have it in my head that it will take my whole day, and that I can’t possibly take a whole day away from other responsibilities to just write.

Yes, I know it’s ludicrous. Of course I could set aside ten or fifteen minutes a day to work a little on it until I feel it is worthy of publication. That’s what a reasonable human person would do. But, this endeavor just doesn’t work like that for me. Actually, most creative things don’t work like that for me, music included. When I try to go back to drafts or ideas I’ve had, I feel I’ve lost my momentum for it and it usually takes me quite a while to get back into the same mindset in order to add anything more of value. It’s a poor way of working, but it’s part of the “all or nothing” cycle I’ve found myself in with creativity. That is an area in my own journey I could definitely work to improve on, but for now, this is yet another long winded way of saying, I am changing my approach to this newsletter.

I would like to try to use this as more of a diary of sorts. A place to share thoughts throughout my working life as they happen, whether it being thoughts about technical things I’m doing, stories of current or past projects, or anything about life in general. I aim to keep them short and sweet, as they say. In fact, this is already way too long. If the mood strikes me and I feel like going on, I will, but for the most part, I’m going to try to keep myself in check and see where that gets us.

So, in the spirit of my new “process”, I’ll keep it at that for now. For those of you who are still with me and wish to continue along the journey, I am eternally grateful.

More soon…

-Mike

Mike Butler is a professional mix engineer, guitarist and producer currently based in Southern California. His list of credits range from The Rolling Stones, Phoebe Bridgers, The Pretenders, The Shins, Ray LaMontagne, Five For Fighting, Reba McIntire, Fleetwood Mac, The Doobie Brothers, Eminem, and many more. He’s recently mixed music for the hit HBO animated series, “Batwheels”, has composed and produced music for commercial clients including Netflix, Shure Microphones and Progressive Insurance, and recorded and mixed a new double live album for The White Buffalo.