I Need a Gig: Why the Work Comes When You Stop Chasing It (Episode 185)

Work begets work.

There is a great Aloe Blacc song, "I Need a Dollar." Swap one word and you have the anthem of every working musician: I need a gig. In Episode 185 of The Career Musician, Nomad flips the script on the hustle and explains why the gigs started coming to him once he stopped chasing them.

If you are wondering how to get gigs as a musician right now, this short episode is real talk. There is no secret. There is work.

Stop hustling for the gig

Nomad is tired of hustling for the gig, and he says so. The more he let it go, the more work came to him. He calls it a universal principle: when you set your mind to the things you want to do, other things present themselves.

"I stopped hustling for the gig. And the more I let it go, the more it came to me."

Nomad, 0:50

That is the heart of work begets work. When you are working on something, that is often when the phone keeps ringing.

You do have work. Go do it.

"I don't have any work." Nomad's answer: yes, you do. Get in your studio and start building tracks. Finish the album you said you would release five years ago. He admits he is talking to himself here. He sat on finished songs for ten years before he finally released them.

No album to finish? Find something else. Maybe you are solid in Pro Tools and want to learn Logic. Study the tutorials every day. Your studio can be a bedroom or a laptop in a coffee shop. Put your head down and turn your phone off.

Nomad keeps his phone at his workstation, but only answers for time-sensitive jobs, like a producer or director on a deadline, or an emergency with his family. Otherwise he is busy. He can't promise it, he says, but he can almost guarantee that once you start working, other work shows up. Just not always in the shape you pictured.

Be ready when the opportunity knocks

Say you want a big tour. You might not get it right away, and something else might pop up first. Nomad's made-up example: someone tells you a coffee shop is starting live music and needs exactly the acoustic-guitar-over-beats set you have been building. Because you did the work, you have 15 songs ready, a small PA, a power outlet, and you are booked.

Luck = preparation + opportunity. The key for career musicians is to be prepared, so opportunity never catches you with nothing to play.

And keep chasing the tour leads while you play. Invite those people to your show or your livestream. Tell them you would love to be considered for the chair, and show them where to see your work. Everything you do is an audition, so make your own gigs do double duty.

"Stop walking around saying, 'I need a gig.' Start saying, 'The gigs are coming.' And when they do, I will be ready."

Nomad, 6:27

The takeaway

Stop chasing. Start working. Build the rig, finish the project, learn the new tool, and stay ready. When you want a plan for the work in front of you, grab the free Get the Gig guide.

Get the gig. Keep the gig. Build the career.

Watch on YouTube or find every episode on the TCM Podcast page.