"A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner."
— English Proverb
Five Questions With Sing It Loud Frontman Pat Brown

What do you do?
I am the frontman and rhythm guitar player for a band called Sing It Loud.  We travel the country and sometimes the world writing and playing music.

When did you realize that you were passionate about your job?
When I was in high school I was in different bands with friends and what not.  The thought that there are people in the world that make a living by writing music and traveling the country was so intriguing to me.  I wanted to be one of those people.

How did you go about getting such as awesome job?
Lots of “research.”  Playing in different bands with different types of people.  Examining what people who are more successful as i am are doing and why.  I started playing guitar and singing at a young age.  Basically the same things you need to do to to progress in any other job.  Start small and work your ass off and chase it until you are where you want to be.

Describe a typical day on the job?
Every morning i wake up and eat breakfast.   I then walk into the venue with my suitcase and backpack and take a shower inside (usually clubs have showers) and help our guitar tech/band members unload the trailer after I am done.  When the show starts I usually stand around our merch table and talk to people that came to the show and then I play.   After that I hang out inside the club around the crowd until everyone is gone.  I then go and party with all my friends!  It’s weird because even though I’m only on stage for 30 minutes a day, it is a job that starts the second you leave for a tour and ends the minute you get home.

What advice would you give to someone who is trying to find a job that they absolutely love?
Follow your dreams.  Get your feet wet.  There’s too many friends and people I know that are stuck doing something that they hate.  Do it for yourself and not for someone else.  Rather than getting upset when people knock you down or don’t have faith in you, just put it back into what you are trying to do.  Prove them wrong!

———

You can learn more about Sing It Loud, check out their music, and find out where they’re playing next on their official MySpace page.

‘Tis the Season

Thanksgiving has come and past, meaning it’s now time for many Americans to pull out boxes of ornaments and lights from the basement .  As we push closer to Christmas Day, you’ll find yourself with more shopping to do, increased traffic, and greater amounts of holiday stress.

When you find yourself being overcome by a sense of seasonal panic, take a deep breath and remember the true joys of the holiday.  Enjoy time spent with friends and family.  Bake a batch of Christmas cookies and share them with co-workers.  Take a half hour drive around town to catch a view of all the lights in peoples’ yards.

The holidays should reduce your stress level, not increase it, so don’t go getting too worked up throughout December.

Work, Life, or Home?

I must confess, I often think that I have to separate my life into these three boxes. But I really don’t need to, when I think about it. Why can’t work be at home, why cant my life be at work? I like doing all three of these things, and I want them all together! Here are some ways we have found at FFPM that work for us.

- Don’t metally separate work from home.
- Treat home and work equally, neither is better than the other.
- Life is more than home and work!

Choices, Choices

Here at FFPM, we aren’t saying that you should hate your job, because you shouldn’t. We are just trying to encourage you to do what you really love, so it doesn’t even feel like work. From the interview with Adam Amin we posted yesterday, that dude works some serious hours, and he works really hard, but he loves what he does which is why he is so good at it. He works harder, and puts more time in, and gets the reward of showing up everyday to do what he likes. We will probably not all have a such a clear vocation in life as Adam, but we all make the choices that lead us to where we find ourselves.

1 of 8
Themed by: Hunson