Those whose artistry is a side job or a hobby have the added rigors of keeping up with a day job to pay the bills while finding time to spend on their chosen medium. As an artist, even if the desire to create is a hobby, that drive to create means extra time is still essential for stimulating that inner drive and keeping those creative juices flowing. Being a musician who loves the thrill of performing on a stage can add numerous layers of challenges from dealing with the coordination of your daily work hours and band practice with other band members to those late nights on stage leaving little time to rest before getting out of bed and starting your daily routine over again.
Most musicians spend the bulk of their day doing something other than what they love. They are not lucky enough to find a job that not only pays the bills but also allows for the flexibility of those late-night gigs and other band events that can cause extra scheduling stress and sleepless nights. But as most musicians will tell you, that love and ambition to create and the thrill of performing is too great a desire to allow a day job to stand in their way.
Matt Reish is one of the few fortunate to find a day job that can not only coexist with his artistry but also be an extension of his creativity. Spending his workdays as a guitar inspector for Sweetwater’s Guitar Gallery and creating event flyers for the unique craft brew and wine arcade Bonus Pints in Logansport, Indiana, allows him to stay connected with the music world. Growing up, Matt had been surrounded by music and art in some fashion, but it was his fourth and fifth grade years spent at a magnet school centered around the arts in Kalamazoo, Michigan that had its biggest impact during those formative years and instilled the drive of being a musician and his direction in life.
"Grind while they rest! No one knows better about the grind than musicians… the late nights, the physical demands of the art…the demands of life while you are just trying to do your thing and live out your dream."
Other than the standard elementary music education and some experience playing alto-sax in
the high school band, even then he found learning was easier for him when he just winged it on his own, most of his musical education has been self-taught. In 2016, Matt found a way to merge his day job with his love of music and performing as a career touring with area bands, Hailshot and Mobile Deathcamp. A few years later, touring would come to a standstill and future goals and plans all had to be re-evaluated and reformulated.
Matt feels blessed having his wife, Amanda, and his father who are the biggest supporters of his musical endeavors and, during times of hardships, bolster his drive to stay proactively moving forward in his career. That backbone and strength of support may have directly attributed to his view of success in life which is simply to keep finding a way to do what he loves. When one door closes, open the next one and take on the challenges waiting behind it. “If you’re willing to try, you’ve already succeeded.”
Over the years, his wife’s unrelenting support continues to provide him with inspiration while the speed of technology has changed his modes of creativity. With new technology providing
more avenues with vast and convenient options available almost instantaneously for digital recording and photo editing, he has found scaling back and embracing the mentality of the less is more approach has warranted more interesting results, making the best out of the fewest options possible.
Comments