Fourteen days to go until we’ll be living full time in a  trailer!!! So I wanted to take this time to write down our mission statement of sorts, to explain why we’re taking this drastic action (besides the obvious “because its awesome” reason) and what we hope to get out of it.

Short version:  Life is far too short to spend it doing anything other than what you love to do.

Long version:

We’ve been living in and around New York City for four and a half years now, and I’ve been here the majority of my life.  Maybe it’s just that we’ve been stationary for so long, but those four and a half years have all kind of blended into a big mushy ball…they really just flew by in a blur of relative same-ness, and I’d like the rest of my years on earth to be punctuated by more diversity and memorable experiences.

Now New York City might appear to be a really happening place in which to be an artist, and maybe it is for some…but not for me.  It’s taken me awhile to admit that I’m more of a tree/grass/river/mountain person than a concrete/traffic/rat person.  Living in the city, I would literally go outside my apartment building for a walk, get to the end of the block and turn back around (I swear concrete leeches energy from me), so I ended up spending  most of my free time holed up inside my apartment.   I find that the city tends to make me ultra self conscious… maybe its all the people.  People, people everywhere.  I do enjoy dipping my toes into the human pond, but on the whole I prefer a little more species diversity.  The city makes me feel like I’m living in a large insect colony of some kind (I’m not talking about the cockroaches) – like there’s a whole forest out there and I’m hanging out in the termite mound.

Then there’s the whole having to work a day job to pay your rent thing, it seems like it would make more sense to pursue an artistic career in a less expensive city.  The one and only underpriced thing in NYC is talent; no where else in the western world can you find such talented people willing to work for so little, if anything at all.  If I were a public policy maker I would come up with some kind of program to make life a little easier for artists here, and I would do it quickly before they all leave for greener pastures…because without artists New York City would just be a concrete wasteland full of hipsters, tourist attractions and Broadway adaptations of Disney movies.

Also, New Yorkers are a jaded bunch on the whole…its not our fault, it’s just that there is SO much happening everywhere, all the time, that you really start to tune it all out…that goes for everything; art, music, people you pass in the street.

When we went on tour, we would feel so free, happy and inspired.  The thought of returning to the city would leave us both with this heavy, uncomfortable feeling.  It was tangible; as soon as we’d enter New Jersey our moods would take a turn for the worse (insert New Jersey joke).  I think most people would agree that when the thought of returning home makes you bitchy, depressed and anxious, its a pretty clear indication that you’re not in the right place!

We’d talked about the idea of living some sort of mobile existence, but never very seriously .  Then during one of our annual camping trips in Montauk, these two gorgeous airstreams pulled up to the spot next to ours, and we spent the night gazing longingly at them.  I think that’s when the seed was planted.  We love travelling, we feel most alive when we’re exploring new places, and we hate feeling weighed down with belongings, jobs, rent, etc.  so I’m really surprised that it took us this long to go the nomadic route.

We started to realize that we didn’t want to “pursue” a career anymore…we didn’t want to spend our day-to- day lives working jobs that didn’t satisfy us,  in the hopes that one day we’d “make it” and be able to make a living off of our music.  So, what?  So, we cut our expenses as much as possible, make touring as economic as possible, and play as much as we can…basically, like the best slogan in the world says, we JUST DO IT!  I have no idea whether this will be a viable solution (not that there’s really anything to solve), or where it will take us…but I do know that at the very least it will be an adventure – and it feels like a life style which is far more in alignment with who we are and what we want our lives to look like!