Being out there...

[bbass75]

Hey Janek,

I was wondering what life was like for the first year or so after moving to NYC for the first time trying to make it as a bass player. I just graduated Berklee and moved to NYC and as for many, the work is slow. It would be great if you could shed some light on struggling at first and maybe even highlight a few low points of yours and how you got out of them. Could use all of the motivation I can get right now! Thanks for your help.

James

 

[user3653753]

it was very slow the first couple of years I lived in NYC. I played a lot of video games at home, and hung out at a lot of shows meeting as many people as I could.

I was fortunate to play on some pretty cool record dates early on when I was in NYC which kind of helped me stay afloat. And there was also 9/11 a little over a year after I moved there... so that was a massive shift in the amount of work that was available in the city.

Most of my work has been on the road though, so working in the city itself was never such a huge issue for me. I didn't seek it out every night, and when it happened it was cool.

Janek