The Early Morning Musician

Geraldene
  • 5.0 (7)
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Musicians and artists with day jobs - welcome. This podcast is dedicated to you, and we'll be giving you all the cheat codes we've learned from making art in the margins for the last ten years. We're Ryan and Carisa Downs, independent musicians making everything from home, plus marriage and kids, plus day jobs and side hustles, releasing a new song to our grassroots and growing listeners every month. We'll tell you what to do and what not to do to release your own music consistently, even (especially) if you have a life.

  1. 02/04/2025

    Creatively Stuck? Our 10 Best Practical Tricks To Turning Your Art Back On Immediately

    Stuck in a creative rut? We've all been there, but not all of us know how to get out. Here at EMM we're all about making your creativity work for you instead of waiting for inspiration to strike. But when you're blocked, you don't want fluffy platitudes - you want practical steps to sparking your art again. These are our 10 best tried-and-true steps you can take to turn your creativity back on today. To purchase "The War Of Art" mentioned in this podcast, click here. To purchase "Bird By Bird," click here.

    38 min

  2. 01/28/2025

    Practical Ways You Can Say "No" To Protect Your Art

    In this episode of The Early Morning Musician, we dive into one of the hardest but most essential skills for independent artists: learning how to say "no." As creators balancing day jobs, personal responsibilities, and artistic pursuits, it's easy to let distractions and requests from others chip away at the precious time you've carved out for your craft. We'll explore why saying no is not selfish - it's necessary. You'll learn how to recognize the subtle ways time is stolen, strategies for setting boundaries with friends, family, and colleagues, and tips for overcoming guilt when prioritizing your creative work. This episode will empower you to reclaim your time so you can stay consistent, inspired, and focused on what you love: your art. Tune in to discover how the simple act of saying no can unlock more time, energy, and mental space for your creative journey.

    30 min

  3. 01/21/2025

    Doubling Your Art This Year With The AM Creative Sprint

    Here at the Early Morning Musician, we believe in the AM hours so much that we named our podcast for them. But you may not be convinced that making 5AM your prime creative time is when the juices will be flowing. Maybe you like to work best when the inspiration strikes, or maybe you find yourself inspired during night owl hours. In this episode, we're telling you why working in the morning will double your effectiveness, output, and creativity in 2025.

    27 min
  4. The Top 5 Things We Learned This Year In Music

    10/29/2024

    The Top 5 Things We Learned This Year In Music

    This year was our first full year as indie artists releasing a song every month. From January until now we released 10 songs and learned a TONNN along the way. Here are the top 5 things we wished we had known sooner but learned this year. Hopefully they'll save you some time!

    28 min
  5. We Surpassed 8 Million Other Artists On Spotify! Why Other Independent Musicians Quit Too Soon

    10/22/2024

    We Surpassed 8 Million Other Artists On Spotify! Why Other Independent Musicians Quit Too Soon

    We reached our goal this year, guys. On this episode we're talking about why millions of other artists quit too soon; before they've found their sound, their look, their audience, and how to create income from their hard work.

    28 min
  6. Playing "Hear Me Out," The Music Version

    10/15/2024

    Playing "Hear Me Out," The Music Version

    If you aren't familiar with the internet trend of "Hear Me Out," where people show photos of UNLIKELY characters from movies and tv that they'd consider romantically seeing (or lately, hear-me-out-cakes, where friends are putting photos of their characters on a stick and sticking them into a cake together), then let us be your introduction to the musical version of hear-me-out-artists we hate to love. We didn't talk about which artists we were going to surprise each other with, so Carisa went a slightly different direction than Ryan, but each one stayed historically accurate. Here are the most unlikely tunes they like and never talk about.

    28 min
  7. We Failed At Our Goal This Year! Processing It Out Loud With You

    10/01/2024

    We Failed At Our Goal This Year! Processing It Out Loud With You

    This year we set a goal to release one song - Every. Single. Month. For a year. We got to September (so close to the end of 2024!) and failed for the first time this month. Tomorrow's October 1st, and this podcast is us processing this failure out loud together for the first time. Trust us when we say we haven't talked about this before now - so this podcast is a really a stream of consciousness. Join us for a casual chat about what we think this miss means for Geraldene. And stay tuned for September's song to come out THIS month, in October 2024. Lollllll

    27 min
  8. When Ryan Got Offered To Run His Own Studio While Working At A Restaurant: Story Time

    09/24/2024

    When Ryan Got Offered To Run His Own Studio While Working At A Restaurant: Story Time

    You never know when you're going to have a random opportunity come your way - and this story is our most random. It's also a testament to the reality that no matter how an opportunity pans out, sometimes the opportunity alone was all you needed to become someone completely different.

    28 min
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5
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About

Musicians and artists with day jobs - welcome. This podcast is dedicated to you, and we'll be giving you all the cheat codes we've learned from making art in the margins for the last ten years. We're Ryan and Carisa Downs, independent musicians making everything from home, plus marriage and kids, plus day jobs and side hustles, releasing a new song to our grassroots and growing listeners every month. We'll tell you what to do and what not to do to release your own music consistently, even (especially) if you have a life.

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