We’ve had such a lovely autumn here in Dublin, but it had to end somewhere. During the week we were battered by the storm “Barney” with winds strong enough to slam a grown man to the ground. And followed by that the temperatures dropped to near freezing.

Here’s the the thing, Ireland does cold like no other place I’ve been to before and that’s coming from a Finish man! (that picture is me trying to stay warm) Something about the Atlantic winds and the constant humidity that just gets to your bones.

What else can I say? It’s been a week of onwards and upwards. Our world seems to be in turmoil. So much fear and hate, but compassion and love as well, so I believe there is hope. Right now as we watch the news stories, which do a damn good job of spreading that fear, the only real thing we can do is to keep living our lives. And that’s what I am doing.

I had a very productive week on songwriting, recording and on the vlogging front. Sometimes it feels like there is just not enough hours in a day, but it is amazing what you can achieve when you put your mind into it.

So what did I learn this week?

1. In times when the world faces a disaster, it is easy for us artists feel insignificant. But it is in these times that our work becomes extremely important.

2.  Following your heart will never please everybody, but if we are not true to ourselves, what’s the point of it all.

3. Sometimes I do my best work under pressure. It might not be fun, but it is the truth.

I suppose though times teach us all tough lessons. So let’s get in to this week’s blog posts.

This weeks song “Outlaw” is another story song. As usual you can grab a download from my Bandcamp page, and read all about the song here:

Outlaw

The Vlogs definitely were the theme of the week. It’s been a dry run of sorts for things to come 😉 Check out the weeks first vlog here:

Vlog 16 Dublin or Munich?

The point of being an indie artist is that no one tells you what to do, or even more so to the point what not to do. So go out and create:

Quick tip 221 Go out and create

Ryan Kairalla’s words in the last weeks Break the Business podcast about what artist should do in times like these, really hit home when I needed to hear them:

Words I needed to hear from Ryan Kairalla

And here is the second Vlog of the week, check it out:

Vlog 17 Show time

Gone are the days when record labels took care everything else, and the artist just created and performed music. Now if you want to make it, you need to get good at the business:

Quick tip 222 Get good at the business, or give up

This was the vlog where I had heard about the Paris attacks, it was filmed on the morning of 14th of November:

Vlog 18 The morning after the Paris attacks

98% of artists signed to major label fail. So why do we still think “getting signed” is the ultimate goal? Why do we spend so much effort working towards that goal?

Quick tip 223 98% major label failure rate

In the middle of everything that was going on, I felt the need to write a positive blog post. Read all about it here:

Happiness leads to success leads to happiness

In this episode of my vlog I let you have a look at my songwriting process:

Vlog 19 Songwriting

Some hard facts about why so many indie artists fail with their record releases:

Quick tip 224 You need to spend money promoting your album

In the past month there has been talk about how Twitter share prices are down. So here is my experience:

Quick tip 225 Don’t underestimate Twitter

And in the last Vlog of the week I got talking about coffee once again 🙂

Vlog 20 Coffee talk

And that concludes this weeks blog posts. Last week I left all of the “house keeping” out of the blog update, as it just did not feel right under the circumstances. But as I said, we all need to keep going. I talked about briefly in the Vlog 20 about the need to have a little bit better camera for my Vlogging and any investment definitely requires more funds. So if you like what I do and would like to support me and be part of my journey, the best way to do this is through Patreon HERE. I promise to make a better video soon to explain in detail what the Patreon is all about, but basically you can decide to support me with as little as $1 a month, which when it all adds up really does make a difference in the running of this blog, recording songs and vlogs and the rest. But most of all, thank you for being here, and sharing my journey.

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get EIGHT of his songs for free go HERE