But, I’ll tell you what’s got me clicking away at these keys right now (and I’ll admit, it’s 11PM. I can write these things the night before, right??), and that is – I wanna know what motivates you. I know, I’m all [...]]]> Woa. Two blog posts in two days. That’s unheard of! (For me…)

But, I’ll tell you what’s got me clicking away at these keys right now (and I’ll admit, it’s 11PM. I can write these things the night before, right??), and that is – I wanna know what motivates you. I know, I’m all up in your business, but I’m serious! I want to know if you’re motivated by the same things as me. Or maybe we’re on two completely different planets. I just don’t know – but I want to know.

Here’s what’s been motivating me lately (an arbitrary term you’ll see me use a bunch – nevermind what it really means). What’s been motivating me lately is this: Fun. Yep, that three letter word FUN! Simple, right? Yet “FUN” has been a serious (no pun intended, maybe) motivating factor for me as of late, and I think I have a couple of reasons why.

First, I’ve undoubtedly been through a fair amount of “heavy” stuff in the past 4.5 years. I may scrape off a few more details about this in a different post, but for now, let’s just accept the word “heavy” to describe things that, in no way, shape or form (because they’re, well, heavy), are FUN. Being motivated by fun now, may simply be a reactionary thing.

Also, I’m learning (and, I mean just learning) how to just be me. This means putting myself out there in a way that I would have shied away from before. Who cares if my idea sucks? Who cares if I missed some notes going for it in that guitar solo? Who cares if I act like a monkey with my kids… at the zoo?! I don’t – anymore. Why? Because that’s who I am. That’s who I want to be. And I want to be that guy, because it’s fun. Putting myself out there to the fullest extent of my capabilities for all the world to see, and not caring if I “mess up” – is FUN. I like that.

One of the cool things I’ve found out about being motivated by fun, is that you don’t have to apologize for it. Sure, not everybody gets it, but there’s freedom in doing things to the best of your ability. (Something I’m going to harp on – you watch). Truthfully, the “freedom” I’m talking about is found in the Lord, but He desires that we do everything to the best that we can, as if unto Him. He asks that we love our neighbor, and not cause them to stumble; so “fun” in this context, doesn’t mean, “selfish pleasure-seeking”. It means, don’t worry, God’s in control. It’s more FUN to live your life to the fullest, and leave your doubts in His hands. Trust me on that one.

So, with that laid out there, what’s pushing you forward these days? I’m certainly still motivated by a great many other things, but “fun” is just one of those big things that’s really got me fired up right now. What motivates you?

I’ve recently moved over to this hosted [...]]]> Hey everyone, just thought I’d let you all know that this site is currently undergoing some “remodeling”, and is in a nice little transition phase as I get myself better organized, get my thoughts together, and get ready for a new blogging experience the rest of this year.

I’ve recently moved over to this hosted wordpress site (from my old non-hosted wordpress site), so again, I’ll be doing some remodeling, face-lifting, and overall just tinkering around under the hood over the next couple of weeks to get this thing feeling how I want it. But don’t mind my dust, feel free to look around, and let me know what you think at any time. I’ll be back quite soon with new ideas and new topics I’m really fired up about already.

See you soon.

Ross

I’ll be continuing here with part 2, so let’s move on…

After the family band?
- By the time I was about 16 or 17 at the latest, the [...]]]> So in case you missed it, here’s part one of this 2-part blog about my musical journey thusfar: Music to Me – Part 1

I’ll be continuing here with part 2, so let’s move on…

After the family band?
- By the time I was about 16 or 17 at the latest, the family band had also run its course. Truthfully, Rocky had become a little to cool to play that old music anymore, and I was growing tired of it as well (though I think I had slightly more patience that he did at the time), so our dads decided to call it quits, and Rocky and I began our quest to form our own band – this one primarily rooted in Metal. During that time in our family band, Rocky had also started playing guitar. He wasn’t very good, but about the time that band had run it’s course, he was really picking up some chops. We decided to go with the two of us on guitars, and look for a drummer and a bass player to give us that old Metallica-style setup (hey, what can I say, we dug ‘em, ok? ). Finally, I met drummer Andy Emerich in my English class one day senior year, and, after talking with him a little bit, invited him to jam with us. That first jam was friggin’ magic, and we all agreed we’d start up a band. Andy brought a bass player he knew, and the 4 of us formed the primarily cover-based, 4 Alarm. In other words, not only did we create a band, we created the best band name the world had ever seen. Period.

The 4 Alarm Experience, and Post High School:
- Rocky, Andy, AJ, and I rocked 4 Alarm the rest of our senior year, that summer, and until we all went to college. Surprisingly (looking back on it), we didn’t break up! We only had the 7 or 8 months together, but really at that point, we were all quite dedicated to the band, and felt it was something special worth continuing. So, we decided to keep on rockin when we could, and that first winter (2006), we recorded a short demo of our only 3 original songs, and I used that demo during the spring to get us booked for the summer of 2007 – and that I did. The summer of 2007 was great; and it was awful. It was great because we played what seemed like a lot of shows (probably about a dozen, really). But it sucked because personally, Rocky and I were having some issues, and he was just dealing with some really tough personal battles at the time that made it tough to continue on. As a band we ended the summer in high spirits though, and again, felt determined to stay together, and make more music. Andy and I had continually grown closer musically, and, though I’m nowhere near on his level of playing (look for future posts to document that), I really felt like there was some great chemistry forming there, and neither of us wanted to let that go. I should take the opportunity to note, however, that still was it nowhere near my mind that I was going to be a professional musician. I mean, really, music was fun, but I think my dad had done a “good job” of instilling in me the fact that music was fun, it was a hobby, but it was not a career choice. I was going to school, and I was (believe it or not) intent on going to med school and becoming a doctor! So, while “4 Alarm” was fun, I worked hard at it, and definitely wouldn’t have minded if we caught a “break”, I certainly wasn’t ever counting on it, or music. I had a passion for music, but just didn’t realize it yet - that is, until some things changed…

Music, at the Present:
- In a nutshell, 4 Alarm had an uneventful first part of 2008, thanks to Rocky coming off a hard 2007, Andy touring most of the summer with the Boston Crusaders Drum Corp, and me and my wife, having just had our son Remington that March. What we did manage, however, was to write a few songs. Late in 2008, the four of us (yes, unbelievably, the same 4) changed our name to Life Stage, and went into the studio with 5 fresh songs to record what would be our first EP – Stage 1. This was the first really serious step the band had taken towards getting something out there, and consequentally, this big step did two things: 1) Provided the final straw for both Rocky, and AJ (who was always fairly distant musically to what we were doing), and they left the band early in 2009, & 2) After having invested so much time, effort, and money into the production of our first EP, I started to realize the passion I had for what we were doing, and for the first time, I started seeing the potential in using the web as a viable tool to turn my music passion, into a music career. So what did I do? Well, I did what any rational person who had already completed 2.5 years of their degree plan would do – I dropped out, and started pursuing my passion! I had to make a choice – Med School would be demanding, and with a family, the first thing to go would be my music. I decided my passion for music (which I was realizing I had all my life, but it had been suppressed), was far greater than my desire to be a doctor.

Now to wrap up: basically I’ve spent the last year and a half since this decision, totally immersed in music, the industry, social media, and the power of the web. I’ve certainly come a long way in my understanding of everything, and I feel like Life Stage, though we haven’t broken through yet, has come so far towards setting ourselves up to reach our future goals. The band (now a trio with Chris Miller filling in on bass) and I still have a long way to go, but I’m excited about our future, and feel like things are just getting started. I have have an extreme amount of patience towards my career as a musician, as I know it’s not going to happen overnight, and really, if you feel passionate about something, you should be willing to wait for it. The end result, in my mind, is not me making millions of dollars living the rock-star life – but rather, to make a living and support my family doing what I love, and that’s making music. I’ll continue to learn, grow, and perservere in this passion of mine, and hopefully one day in the future, some small amount of my diligence will be rewarded – that’s all I can ask for, and all I would want. But stay tuned on my progress, I’ll be updating you every step of the way, right here!

So that’s it! Thanks for hanging in there through my musical journey thusfar -  I hope you’ve found some form of entertainment, or possibly encouragement from this post. Let me know what comments, insight, stories, or encouragement you might have of your own, I look forward to hearing from you.

Until Then,

Ross

First off, where did I start?
- I started out playing the guitar when I was just 10. Before that though, I had been exposed to music, [...]]]> I’d like to start of the “music” section of my blog with just a little bit of my background, and why music is so important to me.

First off, where did I start?
- I started out playing the guitar when I was just 10. Before that though, I had been exposed to music, and really was born into a pretty musical family. I mean, everyone either played or sung something (except my mom, but she enjoyed it), and all of my dad’s side going back as far as anyone could remember, at least did a little “pickin’ and grinnin’”. Me though? I guess with that sort of musical influence around me from birth, you could say I got kind of a late start, but better late than never, right? The truth is, that’s the way my dad wanted it. He never discouraged me from picking up an instrument, but he also never really made the option available, until I verbally expressed interest around age 10 – and by that time, I was thinking, “why am I not playing something yet?!” Needless to say though, it was a great day when, following in my dad’s footsteps, I picked up my first guitar, and started learning to play. All I wanted to do then was learn, and thus, I began my musical journey.

What then?
- My dad has always had bands in and out through phases of his life. He played professionally until he was about 30 (just before I was born), but he quit after he became a Christian, and began playing off and on in the church through various capacities. (his life before he quit is the main reason he’s never wanted me to pursue music, and go down that same path… more on that later) When I began playing at age 10, he was in the church, and was actually doing a prison ministry with a bunch of other reformed musicians, but that faded after a few years, and soon a new band started to emerge: the family band.  By the time I was 14, I was good enough (not good, but good enough) to start filling in with the last formation of that former ministry band, who was now playing mostly coffee shop gigs, and some outdoor church events. That was fun, but not long later we started a Phillips family band, consisting of myself, my dad, my dad’s brother (my uncle, who was also a very good musician and played professionally most of his life), and his son (my cousin, Rocky) who is 2 months younger than me, and was learning to play drums at the time. Rocky and I obviously had quite a bit of chops and material to learn, before we were good enough as a band to go out and do anything, but we worked very hard, and made the most of our opportunity to learn and grow as players. Pretty soon, we did have a pretty tight little band going, and we’d play parties, local events, and anything we could get that wasn’t a bar, and I’d say Rocky and I got some invaluable experience playing live on stage at an early age – an opportunity most young players don’t get to have! It was a lot of fun, and we kept that up for a couple of years.

And that’ll do it for the first half of this blog post! I’d love to continue here, but I’ve decided instead of posting my whole life’s musical journey in one, tediously long post, I’ll just split it up, and post the rest of my story later. Don’t worry, I’ll have it up soon, but keep an eye out – you wouldn’t wanna miss it, right?   That’s what I thought. Look for the next part of my musical journey here in the next day or two – Stay tuned…

1) My Family:
- First and foremost about this summer, let’s [...]]]> Alright, so with my excuses for not blogging all summer out of the way, here’s what’s been up in my world, in a nutshell so they say. Hey and who knows, you may even find some of it interesting! So here we go:

1) My Family:
- First and foremost about this summer, let’s talk about my family! I have to admit, this summer was really stressful for me, and no doubt my wife as well. In fact, in order to get the full picture, I’ll end up posting a more in depth version of what’s taken place in our lives this summer, as it’s just that rich. BUT, for now, to keep a long story short, basically we have been wanting to move for a while from where we were (The Woodlands, TX) back to where we started our family in 2007 (College Station, TX). We had been in The Woodlands for about a year, and in May, the opportunity came open for us to move come August or thereafter. Needless to say, we jumped on it, and began our hunt for a place we could live once our lease was up  (sometime in August). This, along with a host of other factors, really led to us being very, very stressed out, and it even came all the way down to the wire for us to find the right place here in Bryan/College Station (BCS). At any rate, we’ve moved now, and in the end, it’s all working out fantastically! Again though, I’ll update you on some other specifics and events when I get the chance. That’ll do for now!

2) My Business:
- Basically, the whole opportunity to move back to BCS in the first place, revolves around me getting the opportunity to start my own business, and essentially, work from anywhere! (That business of course being the social media/online marketing business I’ve alluded to and referenced in previous posts.) I found out in late May that this was actually going to happen, and, as excited as I was, I knew I had to begin my preparations right then if I expected to hit the ground running on the client mandated, August 1st launch date. To add to it, I admittadly have no idea what the heck I’m doing when it comes to running a full blown business, managing clients, finances, strategy, and the like; I just had to fly by the seat of my pants and go with what I do have: instinct. (Primarily from watching a whole lot of other people do it before!) So, that’s what I did, and on top of getting my family’s living and moving situation sorted out, and all of the other junk going on this summer (read on), I did my best to prepare for starting my social media management endeavor in August. And, suffice to say, on August 1st, I did just that.

3) My Band:
- As you know, Life Stage is my band, and coming into this summer, we had high hopes for playing a bunch of shows, and writing a bunch of music. Well, that was before I found out that our extraordinary friend and drummer, Andy Emerich, got a phone call to do the Brevard Music Festival out in North Carolina, scheduled to last for… 7 weeks. Yeah. BUT, being that this is one of those awesome opportunities you just don’t pass up, we shifted our plans a bit, and focused on the things we could do while he was gone. So that’s what we did, and I focused on getting our website built with my artist/musician friend Josh Taylor, and together we managed to finally get an official homepage launched for Life Stage! Exciting stuff, and, the music writing continues, and we have some big plans from now through 2011. You can read about some of those plans, here: lifestagemusic.com/blog, and leave your feedback as well.

4) Youth Camps:
- For the past two summers I’ve been priviledged to play music in front of some awesome groups of young people, playing at various church youth camps across the country for several different churches. I came to find out pretty quickly that these things are nothing but fun, and you just have a blast working them, and getting to know some of the kids, counselors, and “grown-ups” that make these events happen. This summer was a little lighter load than last, as I only had three, week-long camps to do, but that actually turned out to be a blessing with everything else I had going on this summer! I had a great time though, and I’ll never forget the experiences made there.

So there you have it! In a super-condensed nutshell, this was my life this summer, and what contributed to me not having (or devoting) much time at all to blogging, and/or tweeting. Though it may not seem like much, keep in mind I’ve left out many, many details for your sake (and mine too!).

Now, as I said in my last post, I’ll be able to start fresh again with my blog, and I think I’ll be able to move forward in a much more consistent and concise manner, now that I kinda know what I’m doing.

Thanks for stopping by, and look for more, very very soon.

Ross