Mountain Stream
by Rob Roper
1st Draft June 20, 2016

the roar of the bass
high note arpeggios
improvised riffs
complex chords

polyrhythmic counterpoint
melodies in modes
clever phrasing
variations on a theme

playing a wah-wah pedal
with virtuostic subtlety
the water rushes through
a narrow opening of the rocks

layers layers layers
too many things happening at once
like a hundred delay pedals
impossible to resolve
much less notate

so I just sit
and listen.

OK, after that long, heavy post, here’s a short, humorous one.

Did you notice, a few years ago, that all the young boy hipster singer-songwriters starting growning long beards? One started it, and the others followed, just like sheep. They all look like Orthodox Jews. Or Bin Laden.

I’m currently running a Kickstarter fundraising campaign to raise money for my new hard rock recording project, Total Flower Chaos. Here’s the link:

Total Flower Chaos Kickstarter Campaign

But what I want to write about here is not so much the fundraiser campaign, or even the music that it’s funding. In this blog I’m going to discuss my decision to make music my career late in life.

When I was designing the fundraising campaign for the recording project, I wasn’t going to mention any of this. I didn’t think it would be relevant. I figured that it was the music that mattered. But in the process of writing the script for the video, and running the drafts by a few friends, I discovered that it was my decision to do leave a fairly good-paying job in the computer industry and do music full-time that appealed to people the most. One friend said that she admired me for this, and wanted to donate as a way of “living vicariously through me.” So I rewrote the video script to put that first.

The first week of the campaign confirmed this. Most of the donors are friends who aren’t really into hard rock music. Some donors have been people I used to work with, and congratulated me for “living the dream.”

Here’s how I came to “live the dream” and do music full-time.

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I began playing guitar at age 12. I was also into sports at the time– football, baseball, and later, soccer. In my last year of high school, I developed an interest in politics.

During my first two years of college, I began taking more guitar lessons, and trying to form bands. I was also coaching soccer, and getting involved in political activism. And all the while I was working part-time jobs.

It soon became apparent that I wouldn’t have time for all my interests. My parents could not afford to pay for college for me, so I had to work at least part-time. I decided to stay with political activism, and give up soccer and music. (That’s a whole ‘nother blog.) But of course I still found time to play guitar as a hobby.

I liked history and politics, and figured the only thing I could do in those fields was teach high school, so I graduated from college with a degree in Secondary Education. But I never really wanted to teach high school, so I never even applied for a job.

I worked factory jobs for a few years, and then went to a Community College and got an Associates Degree in Electronics– not because I liked electronics, but because I didn’t to teach, and didn’t want to be a laborer the rest of my life. Working as an electronics technician paid better and was a little more interesting.

Around this time, I shifted priorities in another way: the political activism subsided and I got back to music. I picked the electric guitar again, started taking lessons, and joined a few bands.

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I remember once, back in my early 30’s, after being laid off from an electronics technician job, I went to a career counselor. She talked to me, and gave me various tests, and the conclusion was that music should be my career. But I dismissed that, saying that I can’t make a living at it, playing the type of non-commercial music that I liked. It never occurred to me that the way you have to do it is, you work a day job while building up your music career. Then, when the music career is built up, you can quit the day job and do music full-time. But I didn’t understand that then, and I don’t remember the counselor suggesting it.

Meanwhile, music was growing in importance. I co-founded a band called Faded Innocence, and recorded two cassette albums at my apartment in Tucson.

As electronics work became outsourced overseas, I migrated to computers. In the 90’s UNIX was big, so I learned UNIX system administration, thinking that would get me a job anywhere, and pay pretty good. Sound familiar?

I used to hate the question, “What do you do?” because my job didn’t really reflect who I was. Perhaps it reminded me that I had failed to follow my heart for my career.

About 15 years later, in 2007, I figured it out. I decided that music would be my career. I developed a plan. I started calling my computer job “my day job”, and music my career. And from then on, whenever someone asked the dreaded question, “what do you do?”, I would answer, “I’m a musician.”

From then on, I no longer dreaded the question. I actually looked forward to it. Inevitably, the followup question would be, “You’re making a living as a musician?” And I would answer, “Oh no, I have a day job.” But it established who I am.

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Around this time, the company where I worked had been having layoffs every year. Laid off employees got a severance package, with several months pay. That started looking good to me. I realized that, with a severance package, I could live on that and do music full-time, at least for a few months, maybe a year. I wondered how much more I could accomplish musically if I didn’t have to work. How many more songs I could write. How much better a musician I could become if I had more time to practice.

About a year later, I told my boss, “next time there’s a layoff, pick me.” I also began cutting expenses and saving money. I cut off Comcast TV, which saved $75 a month. I didn’t buy a new car since mine was paid off. The stock market began rising, and and continued rising for the next 6 years, so my mutual funds were doing well.

The layoffs continued each year, and I went through 3 bosses, but none of them ever picked me for a layoff. I guess I took too much pride in my work.

By November, 2013 I had saved a full years pay. I approached my current boss and said, “I’m going to do you a favor. I know from talking to other managers that the thing they hate most about their job is having to lay people off. So I’m going to let you layoff someone who wants to be laid off.” I told him the reason– I wanted to do music full-time for awhile. He thanked me– he said that he couldn’t sleep for a week the last two years when he had to layoff people.

Four months later he called me and asked if I really wanted to do this. I told him yes. He let me pick my date. I chose March 14, 2014.

I’ve been doing music full-time ever since.

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I’m not making a living at it. Far from it. I’m mostly living off my savings. And unless I find a way for my music to make more money soon– a lot more– I’ll have to eventually take another day job.

But I have been able to accomplish a lot more without a day job. I’m learning piano and music theory. I’m practicing more and improving myself as a guitar player.

I’m playing in two bands, Scupanon and Dorian.

I’ve been composing music for my hard rock project Total Flower Chaos, and have begun recording for that.

I also have written songs that don’t fit into any of the above categories. I have three spoken word songs, recorded them at home, and am now in the process of remixing them with a good engineer. Those will be released in the next few months.

And I have written other songs– enough for a new solo album.

I couldn’t have done all that with a day job. I could have done some of it; obviously, I wrote, recorded and performed music with a day job the past 10 years; but the above accomplishments would have taken 3 years, not one.

So I’d love to continue with music full-time for the rest of my life. If I can’t make enough money from it, I’ll get another day job. But I’d rather focus on music full-time. I think I have something original to contribute.

-Rob Roper July 20, 2015

This month marks my one-year anniversary as a full time musician. I’ve played live shows with two bands, Scupanon and Dorian, played solo, and hosted an open mic. But I haven’t been very good about blogging. Sorry. Mainly I’ve been working on new music, and am now preparing to record some of it. Here’s what’s happening:

Rob Roper Solo Album(s)

This actually might be two or three albums or EPs. I have 3 spoken word songs that I have written and recorded demos at home over the past few years. They are “Wave the Flag and Give ’em God” from 2006, “Indigenous” from 2009, and “Accept, Embrace, Surrender”, co-written by Nancy Farmer, from 2012. Some of you may have heard the demos. They are now being re-mixed by Brian Hunter and myself at Sawtelle Studio at Swallow Hill. We are improving the sound quality and also adding a few new wrinkles to the songs.

I’ve also written some “normal” songs in the last couple of years that need to be recorded, both electric and acoustic, rock and folk in style. At this point I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to combine the three categories of songs. I could do three small EP’s, or combine the three categories in some way.

Or I could just release all of them as digital download singles, with no album. That is certainly a lot less expensive. Personally I still like to have a hard copy record, with notes about the songs, a list of musicians, and so forth. Not to mention that the sound quality of a CD is significantly better than mp3’s. What do y’all think?

Total Flower Chaos

The record will be the debut album of Total Flower Chaos, which is what I call my hard rock and spacey rock music project. It will sound very different from all my previous recordings. I will record at Evergroove Studio, a beautiful studio owned by Brad and Jenny Smalling in the mountains outside of Evergreen, Colorado.

I will serve as the overall producer, but I’m also excited to be bringing Dan Tracy as a co-producer. Dan is a very talented New York City-based actor, singer, pianist, songwriter and guitarist. I ran some of my song ideas by him, and his critical comments were among the best feedback I’ve ever received. So I decided to hire him. Brad Smalling will also serve as a co-producer, as well as the engineer for the project.

This recording will be done differently than my other recordings. Brad and I are putting together a team of musicians. I’ll be bringing in unfinished demos, jamming with the musicians, and finishing them in the studio. For many, I’ll be writing lyrics after the music been recorded. Other songs will remain as instrumentals. It’s risky and scary for me, but also exciting.

I’m still writing music for this project, and will continue to do so right up to the recording date in June. If you’re curious, you can hear the rough demos I’ve recorded at home at http://soundcloud.com/totalflowerchaos/sets/demos Keep in mind that these are NOT the finished recordings; they are just demos that I’ll bring into the studio to get the process started. They will be reworked substantially in the studio by the other producers and musicians (and recorded better).

Funding

As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, I am now a full time musician. I’m loving it. But that also means I can no longer pay for recording projects from my own savings. I’m going to have to reach out to my fans and friends to help make these projects happen. I’ll be creating a fund raising campaign on Kickstarter or one of the other crowd funding sites. I’ll announce that in the next month or two.

I hope you’re ready to hear some new music from me! I’m very, very excited about these projects!

–Rob

by Rob Roper  January 16, 2014

I want to write a love song for you.
But what would I say?

I would tell you
that I love you
like the stars above
except
stars are suns
and they’re really hot.
Fireballs.
So that would be telling you
that I want you to burn up
and die
which is
hardly romantic.

I would tell you that
as long as the sun is shining
I will always love you
except
I’ll die
long before the sun stops shining.
You will, too.
So that would be a lie
and you probably don’t want a liar
for a boyfriend.

Yes, there could be a hereafter
in which case
I could love you
for as long as the sun is shining
but the hereafter is just a theory
and you don’t want promises
based on mere theories
do you?

I would tell you
that my love is
as deep as the ocean
but you would drown down there
so that sounds like a threat
and you might have me arrested.

Let’s just forget about it.