Quote:
Originally Posted by nek
I currently live in the Cleveland, Ohio area and very badly would like spend the rest of my life as an AE (and maybe Producer) making music. Opportunities to make any kind of living in this field in the Cleveland, Ohio area are very limited.
I have a degree in recording and I am Pro Tools certified. I thought that both of those would help, but the market is so over saturated with other engineers looking for studios to hire them on and new startup studios, if they are going the independent route, that even guys who have been recording for years and years are starting to get nervous. The AE and producer to artist ratio is completely out of whack.
So I was thinking: the writing is on the wall, if I stay in the Cleveland area it is going to be really hard to make a living and hard to learn as much as I want to, too. But if I move to Nashville, I would have a lot more studios (and mentors) to choose from. I was hoping to find a nice Assistant Engineering/Pro Tools Op gig where I could work and learn more at the same time.
It seams like such a no brainer thing, but am I missing something?
I don't mind long days and hard work and I have worked so hard to get as far as I have that it seams pointless to give up now (and maybe staying in Cleveland would be giving up).
So what do you think should I move?
Thanks for reading my ramblings.
Nicholas
I have not been to Nashville myself, so I can't comment that much about it. But it would be a dream come true if I would be able to do something meant for me in a music city like Nashville. What I feel is really good about Nashville, besides the fact that I love modern country music a lot, is that I think it would be very inspiring to live in a city where music is such a very big part of the overall way and style of living. I think there might be a number of additional positive side effects with that... Besides this, Nashville is famous for great session players, which is a good thing for things around music and recording. I would also guess that Nashville is a more Christian city than Cleveland, I think that could further make the quality of living, better. As far as your PT expertise is concirned I think it is not a problem, but it is certainly something you could "build" around in terms of more competence that is suitable overall in Nashville.
I bet the competition is hard and so forth, but these days I think the competition is generally quite hard everywhere and you also need to think about the pros about Nashville as well as long term goals in your life, about finding out who you are, experience new things in your life, get a lot of good insight about how music can be perceived and felt like in different cities...
Today Nashville also includes a lot of additional popular genres besides country and it is a city that almost all good bands have on their tour list.
Overall I think it would make sense for you if you would move to Nashville if you now are considering to do so. If you go alone maybe you should take a pet of some kind, just to easen the overall pain of being alone in a new big city. If you are not a Christian, moving to Nashville might also give you deeper values that you are currently not aware of but can make your life richer and you'll might become a more happy person, which is really something that would be good for you in that case. Cleveland is a city quite oriented around heavy manufacturing, construction and industry work, might be that you feel that Nashville is more beautiful and will feel a little more like YOUR home.
Besides this, most comments about Nashville are on the positive side rather than on the negative side, might be an important thing to pay attention to... I think however, that if you plan to go to Nashville, learn to like country music before you go there. In that way you might get attached to Nashville before you have even moved there. I think country music today offers something for everyone. You can go the old traditional route (George Strait, Dolly Parton, Alan Jackson), the bluegrass route (Ricky Skaggs), the popular route (Rascal Flatts, Bon Jovi, Carrie Underwood) or something in between (Brooks & Dunn, Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, Trisha Yearwood, Diamond Rio, Lee-Ann Rimes...) I basically like them all in one way or another... Country is the music genre that has stayed rock solid through the modernisation/globalisation/external fixation... It's a general sign of high quality... If you are used to a more hard "climate" in every imaginable way, Nashville might feel like heaven...
No matter what decision you make, good luck brother!