Caleb asked if I’d write about what a typical day is like for me. Probably like you, mine changes a bit depending on the week or season, but for the most part, here it is…
7am – wake up, hit the snooze, wake up again, shower.
7:30am – drink coffee, chat with Heidi, and prod Silas (our 7 year-old) to get dressed, brush teeth, comb hair.
7:45am – drive Silas to school (on the way home turn on NPR and listen to the news for song ideas).
8am – get Lorentz (almost 2) and August (4) dressed and ready for the day, while Heidi showers.
8:30am – make my to-do list, turn TV on (news), get updated while listening for song ideas.
9am – walk to studio in backyard and write by myself for at least one hour.
10am – complete etc. stuff on my to-do list and prep for cowriting session.
11am – welcome cowriter to the studio, catch up (if someone I know) or get to know them, and figure out a song direction for the day.
11:30am – write a song.
4pm – cowriter leaves, and I begin production of song demo if I haven’t started already (sometimes I’ll begin production once we have completed a verse and chorus).
5pm – hang with Silas, August, and Lorentz. Usually play baseball in the backyard.
6pm – dinner (if Friday, pizza!).
7pm – dishes, clean up, chip away at laundry, watch the Minnesota Twins.
7:30pm – get the boys ready for bed.
8pm – lights out for the boys, Heidi and I watch the news and talk about life.
9pm – if I have enough energy, go back out to studio and work on the day’s song demo. Otherwise, watch baseball and have some alone time.
10pm – read.
11pm – Zzz…
2:30am – get tapped by Silas (he’s scared to be alone) and go back to sleep with him in his bed.
4:30am – get woken up by August (also afraid of being alone) as he crawls into bed with Silas and me.
7am – wake up, shower…
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What’s your typical day like?
Love,
Aaron
That’s a great question. I like to think about it the way Joni Mitchell talks about it in the book “Both Sides Now.” She refers to needing crop rotation. Like a field, you burn out the soil from too much use of the same thing. My crop rotation for writing is producing. But sometimes I get burned out of both, so then I rotate it with something non-musical. Cutting the grass, tinkering in the garage, going to the movies. The time the rotation takes varies from a few days to a few weeks.
Thanks for the question, Mick!