How Being In A Rock Band Made Me A Better Designer and Project Manager
Long ago, in the late-90s/early-2000s, my mission in life was simple. Rock stardom. I was going to be a lead guitarist in some great rock band. Graphic design was my Plan B. I spent my late-teens and half of my 20s with the single-minded goal of “making it” in a band. I didn’t want a corporate job.
Okay. For a moment, let’s put aside the fact that I was neither a realist nor a visionary. And let’s forget for second that I was not a terribly good long-term planner, nor was I in touch with the realities of life and the music business. All that aside, I had somewhat of a roadmap for this:
- Put out an ad looking for talented musicians
- Find the right group of people to play music with
- Write some songs with them
- Play some shows
- Get adoring fans
- World domination
From the get-go, I had the hardest time with Steps 2 and 3. Every VH1 Behind The Music made Step 2 look easy. It took 3 years, but I finally found the right group of people. Then came Step 3, the part that I had been waiting so long for. Getting into an awesome creative process with three talented like-minded players! We were going to write the next Ænima, or even the next 2112! (Hopefully some Tool and Rush fans are reading this)
It went nothing like that
I figured out pretty quickly that running a band IS a job. A band is an organization. It’s made up of probably 1–2 charismatic people who have a decent work ethic, and the other maybe 2–3 that, let’s just say, need a lot of motivation from said charismatic people. It’s difficult not only to keep your band on the right track in the face of bad venues, equipment failures and totally indifferent audiences, but to help keep their eye on the prize while getting paid very little for all of the hard work. The charismatic 1–2 are the ones putting in extra time promoting the band, booking shows, reaching out to fans, practicing, ETC.
Not to say that playing in a band isn’t fun or fulfilling. I have great memories of being in bands, and — though I’ve been in many bands now — I still keep in touch with a lot of them. But I got burned out. It got to the point where I couldn’t sustain my passion for the idea of playing music for money. It was too unrealistic, and frankly, I just didn’t have what it took. I eventually went back to school for design and got into a career that I really like. I still get to play music on the side whenever I want and I still love it.
It paid off in unexpected ways
When I was pushing 30, I thought that I had wasted a lot of time chasing a dream while entering the corporate world a bit too late. In reality though, being in a band actually sharpened my creative process in a way that I would have never expected once I applied it to design. It made me a great team player, and It also made me better able to deal with the ups-and-downs one can experience on a team of creative people. Putting together a great creative team for a web project is a lot like finding great and reliable musicians for a band. Every person on the team brings a unique perspective and skillset to a project, and you have to rely on their strengths to bring out the best end result.
As the leader, you also take on the De Facto role of Project Management, which means that, not only do you help keep the team’s eyes on the objectives of the project, but sometimes you have to be charismatic for them — even in the face of bad things happening. I’ve had the pleasure of working with some amazing teams of both designers and developers who would gladly put in the extra time and effort to deliver something amazing, this includes the agency I currently work for. All-in-all, I think the team building experience I had as a rock musician was, and still is, highly valuable as a designer.
