Well, here I am, four months out from my previous post. One of my goals this year, and the focus of my ongoing entries here on Monarch, was to produce a music concert with my dear friends and musicians Josh Rawlings, Evan Flory-Barnes, and Jeremy Jones of The Teaching. I am thrilled to say that a concert is happening on May 4th at the Triple Door, though not in the way I had been planning – but that’s perfectly okay. I find that it’s a wild journey bringing creative ideas to fruition, best pursued with a healthy dose of letting go and allowing things to unfold. See, back in late December, shortly after my volume 5 entry, the guys found out that they were nominated for a GRAMMY® for their collaborative track “BomBom” on Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ now GRAMMY® winning album, The Heist. What an incredible surprise! After experiencing the awards ceremony firsthand at the Kodak Theatre, the guys thought a celebratory homecoming concert was in order for their fan base in Seattle. That’s when they approached me and asked if I would be interested in both being their opening act and producing the concert. …nothing to say except, “I’M IN!” I have always been such a huge fan of their music and its magical multidimensionality. I am beyond excited to be able to participate in their concert in this way, and look forward to future collaborations.

In case you haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting Josh, Evan, and Jeremy, I have asked them each one question below. This should give you some insight into the beauty of their spirits, which collectively surge through their uplifting, soul-stirring music.

Join us for this feel-good, celebratory evening. Tickets are selling quickly, so grab them here if you’re interested.

Q. Josh, how has the way you experience music changed since becoming a dad?

A. That’s a fantastic question AND particularly relevant seeing as how my wife and I just had a baby girl on Sunday, April 20th! Our daughter, Freja Estella Rawlings, came into the world at 9:09am with bright blue eyes and on her mother’s birth date too! Double Birthday! So yeah, becoming a father has changed a lot in my life, and I’d definitely say for the better. My music life is so much richer now because I truly feel that my priorities and biggest fans are right here next to me. Emily, Leo and Freja help me filter the abundance of opportunities (for which I’m incredibly grateful) that flow into my life on a daily basis. I’ve had an incredibly hard time saying “no” over the years and it’s often resulted in me putting my needs secondary for most of my life…and, of course, being overwhelmed a lot of the time as well. So, being a parent has helped me focus on why “my time” is so precious and basically how I want to channel my creative energy and spend time in the world. Playing music is something that I’ve resonated with nearly my entire life. I tell a lot of people that I made my connection to music at the age of 3 and I honestly think it happened the moment I became into being. Sounds crazy, but it’s like this is just a part of my DNA or something. Anyway, what I mean to say is that something that is so much a part of who you are and is a part of your day-to-day can feel inseparable until you realize there are other things that you love and want to have time for in your life. Now, I’m learning to love the balance and being a family man while strategically focusing my creative musical pursuits in areas that feel almost as precious as my own children, ya dig? It’s quite a process and balancing act – and God knows I’m still on training wheels.

Something else that I’d like to share is a fun interaction I had with Allen Stone while touring with him over the Summer of 2013. Allen admitted when he was offering me the keyboard position for his Summer tour that he was a little nervous asking me to commit knowing I already had a wife and 2-year-old boy under my wing. He’s a very family focused guy and comes from a big family, so he knew it wasn’t going to be easy – and I learned it definitely wasn’t. I missed my family like hell on the road. All that said, though, I remember talking to him on the bus one time and saying I was on the fence about having a 2nd child with my wife and wasn’t sure what was in the cards, and I’ll never forget what Allen told me. He said, “Man, two beautiful people such as yourselves? They NEED to have babies, and lots of them. We need smart, beautiful people like you to be raising smart, beautiful people in this world. Period. Don’t let all the crazies out there have their kids while you sit around wondering if you should or shouldn’t. Bring beauty into the world – it’s a beautiful thing!” Nuff said! Preach it, Reverend Allen. LOL! Coincidentally, my wife and I got pregnant during a short trip home I made while I was still on tour with Allen in July. So, the moral of the story, for anyone thinking about having children and wondering how it’ll change your relationship to music – I can’t tell you how exactly it’s going to work, but I can tell you it’s a beautiful thing. Take a look at my son and newborn daughter sometime and tell me that you don’t see inspiration for a song right there.

Q. Evan, how do you experience progress in your life, individually and communally?

A. I experience progress in terms of what I call the flow of life around me. Individually it feels like a sense of fulfillment in doing what I want to do musically, artistically and in my self-care and relationships.  I love feeling balance in care for myself be it training often and performing with my favorite bands I am in or going to someone else’s show, opening or performance that feels inspiring.  Communally, I feel progress when I see dear ones and friends doing their thing expanding their passions moving into the things that were dreams years ago. Sometimes,  what I love feeling in Seattle is that we are all a superhero team growing and expanding into our gifts and community.  When I feel the moments of this feeling flourishing I feel progress.

Q. Jeremy, you left the corporate world to follow your own path. What might you share with others who feel compelled to make a similar transition?

A. I greatly enjoyed my job at Microsoft and felt thankful for the opportunity to work there and learn about how large businesses operate.  As time went on though, the desire to live a lifestyle of greater variety of schedule and freedom surged in me with increasing frequency and intensity.  As I was able to develop musically in parallel with working at Microsoft, I resolved that I would make the leap to full-time music when some concrete musical opportunity arose that could support me financially, and not before.  But there came a point where I changed spiritually and felt a sense of calm assurance that if I followed the desire to devote myself fully to music and other creative pursuits outside of the corporate structure I would find success, even without knowing the specifics of the path ahead.  One key step that I took was to save enough money to be able to perform the “experiment” of leaving Microsoft while supporting myself for 6 months on savings even if I didn’t make another dollar.  I also left the door open to return to Microsoft should I want to.  When I left my job and began pursuing new endeavors, I found a great sense of fulfillment and new avenues opening all around me. I have never looked back.  This is not to say that I would recommend to everyone that they quit their job in a vague search for freedom or increased creative expression. To anyone feeling compelled to make a transition out of a corporate job, I would recommend continuing to give 100% to your current job while putting continuous energy into self-reformation in the areas of time management, maintaining a perpetual positive attitude, thinking practically, and expressing your creative spirit in all duties.  In parallel you can develop new lines of initiative toward what you’d envision doing if you left your existing job.  Additionally, find time for regular periods of deep introspection, self observation, and analysis of your impulses and inclinations, so as to plunge underneath the waves of regular day-to-day consciousness and discover the calm voice of intuition, which points the way to success in all things.

Here’s a teaser of the show!