Life and Soul

Ecuador -Part 1

It seems like once again I’m bored, bored of work, board of putting up with the restraints & restrictions of living in a society that is organised, governed & exploited by those privileged enough to have attained to seats of money & power.

Once you enter the arena that is business & politics your ethics & moralities can easily be swayed by the force of the man with the money or by the promises of the elusive, exclusive investors or big deal.
Many times had I found that the next gig is in Dutcha Bank, Morgan Stanley, Credit Swiss, Andersons, KPMG or any other big nasty financial or consulting company? It gets worse you can include Microsoft, Vodaphone, Cisco, BAT, MoD, the list goes on. I find myself working for the very people I have so much disagreement with, this gives me a unique fly on the wall situation.

It wasn’t always this way before entering the conference world of sound engineering I worked in so called “Rock & Roll” with bands touring for management companies & record companies. Same shit different year!
Most of the time, we the crew, try not to pay too much attention to the content of the show, you have to be careful what you fill you mind with, it’s surprising just how quick you can replace your current thoughts & habits.
Just by placing yourself into different surroundings with different people you will find your character change subtly, as time passes if you stay in the same surroundings for any length of time enough then you will become what is around you. I find I end up imitating, if I’m with posh speaking people I will talk more posh, if I’m with Irish people I tend to get a little Irish in me voice. We ran the sound at Cambridge folk festival for many years, three days of bands, 9am till 11pm, on three stages, 10 minuets between bands and 10/12 bands a day on each stage. I would say half the bands had at least one Irish member, by the end of the first day my tone was distinctly Irish. These were the early days when I was still green & hungry for experience, work wasn’t work then it was fun, good fun.

After record companies, artist management & now the conference world I am sick & tied of big business, global economies & consumer entrapment & exploitation.
There is only so much you can take, most of the time I try and tell myself,
Its ok, it’s alright – sounds like a song.

Be grateful to have a job with flexibility, the chance to view others doing their thing, it brings understanding of how things are; most of the time is spent reading books. Chill Winston!