I was one false move from being completely naked. Trying not to drown, I held my breath waiting for the washing-machine-like wave to end. Luckily, my shorts stayed around my ankles, so I was able to slip them back on before being exposed to an entire crowd of beachgoers. My family was on our annual summer trip to San Diego to escape the Phoenix heat. San Diego has it all- great weather, a world famous zoo, Seaworld, shopping, seafood...but I lived for the ocean. I was a boogie-board master. However, at this moment, Mother Nature put me in my place with a wave that, as a ten-year-old, looked like a towering tsunami as it crashed down on my head. (I swear it cast a shadow, but the wave was probably only four feet high.) I decided to get out at that point, catch my breath, and try to digest all the seawater I’d just swallowed. But before you could say Shamu, I was back out there, riding some gnarlatious surf.  I love the ocean. My sister tells me that because I’m a Cancer, I have a connection to water. I can’t disagree with her; whether I'm harnessing the wind with a sailboat on the Great Lakes, tubing down rushing rivers, or surfing the ocean swell, I’m the happiest guy on earth.  

Music is incredible. For me, it’s more than just something I enjoy listening to. It’s my career, a second language, and a way to express myself. Continuing to keep it a career, however, means I have to work a lot, especially as a self-employed musician. I’m definitely not complaining about making my own hours, but sometimes those hours stretch on and on through the night, until I watch the sunrise. If I’m not careful, a song I’m writing or a track I’m producing becomes totally all-consuming and I’m lucky if I go outside to breathe fresh air.  From what I’ve heard, to be really successful in this business, you have to have almost no life. At the ASCAP We Create Music EXPO last year, I heard a TV/film composer speak about his work. When asked how many hours he works a day, he had an unsettling answer.  Basically, before he had kids, he composed from about 8 am until...well, whenever he stopped. Now that he has a family, he takes a couple hour dinner break, then goes back to work until midnight every night. If you’re writing for major network television shows, I get it.  You have deadlines, episode after episode to finish, and they're paying you big bucks. But if that's your life, than you really have no life.  

I love to work, but it's important to take time to live life. This is the only life you get, and if you spend it all working, you’ll miss a lot of great things. My hometown pastor, Pastor Garman, always said, “You make time for the things you want to do.” Whether that’s traveling, going to see movies, photography, playing in a softball league...don’t make excuses. Make time. For me, on a weekly basis, that’s surfing. I have to go, even if there’s no waves, or if I’ve been up until 2 am the night before. Getting outside my work and into the ocean clears my mind and puts my career into perspective. Taking a break to just live focuses my life the same way that cross-training creates clarity. The stress of my own manufactured problems melts away as I sit on my surfboard, and what I thought was life and death, suddenly doesn’t matter at all. Don’t get lost in a workaholic struggle. Seek out the amazing experiences life has to offer and take time to enjoy them.




Ross

(that's me on the wave below!)





Upcoming events:June 12, acoustic set at the 5 Star gastropub, State Social House on Sunset. Free.
June 26, full band show at the vibey Room 5 Lounge on La Brea. Double birthday party with Rayvon Owen! $10.