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How the fuck did i get here?!?!

19:17 / 02.05.03

I'm in a very big hole, and i need some serious advice. For the last few months, i've had glandular fever, so i've been off work, not doing a hell of a lot. I left school last summer, and i'm currently part of the way through my gap-year, before i go off to university in the autumn to get myself an MEng in Civil Engineering. A few days ago, i went to see a homeopath. She told me that the thing that was making me sick was my life. The problem is, i don't want to be a civil engineer. I want to do something with music. I can't do a music degree becuase i didn't study music in high-school. Right now, i'm in a band, which is doing pretty well. We're getting loads of gigs, and we're recording a demo right now, to send off to various record companies. My parents want me to go to university, but if i do go, the band will fall apart, and i'll end up, ten years from now, with no music, and a job i hate. That's a possibility i can't stand. The other possibility is that i don't go to university, then the band collapses anyway, and i'm left with no music, and no job. What the fuck do i do??

19:21 / 02.05.03

well, my first question would be why will the band fall apart?

20:00 / 02.05.03

Electrical engineers make music, some of them pretty directly.

Hell, the lead singer of the Blasters (if you're into rockabilly) is a freakin' math professor. Published and everything.

Why Civil Engineering? would be one question.

Why not? I suppose would be another.

I have a friend who's in a band, and the lead singer lives 500 miles away. Their fourth album is coming out this month, I think. And they plan to be touring from California to the UK.

When not being a rock star, the lead singer's a journalist.

So, another question: is it the music, or is it the band?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

21:51 / 02.05.03

If you've got enough academic clout to score a degree place, then I doubt your options are as limited as you think *coff ACOUSTICS coff* Could you find a degree which allowed you to play to your engineering strengths whilst allowing you to explore your musical side *coff ACOUSTICS coff*? Is a foundation year in music a possibility?

Remember, music is sound. Sound is a waveform. Waveforms are physics *coff ACOUSTICS coff*. You own physics. Don't belive the Science v Art hype. Find the overlap between the sets, find the middle ground between the two disciplines. Locate it and claim it in the name of Jupiter's Child.

(Did I mention ACOUSTICS?)

Less searchable M0rd4nt

21:56 / 02.05.03

Oh, and bands fall to fucking pieces all the time, for chrissakes. I just love the assumption that if you can't keep a band together it's becase you weren't dedicated enough, that you didn't really want it. Fuck's sake.

23:33 / 02.05.03

As humans, I think we're pretty good at trying to tell each other what we can't do, because we'd never have the balls to give our own dreams a go. "I can't do a music degree becuase i didn't study music in high-school." People said something similar to me because I never took art in high school and I wanted to be an architect. Now I'm a year away from having my BArch. You have to do what will make you happy, and skip the crap about what your parents want. Mine wanted me to finish the degree in chemistry I was working on, and it took them a while to forgive me for disregarding their wishes, but they got over it. Yours will too. There's no sense in getting an MEng that you don't want, will hate doing, and will lead to a career that will make you miserable. It sounds cliché, but you have to go with your gut. If you want to be in music, then you have to find a way to do that, because you won't be happy with things the way they're headed. Well, listen to me go on. Sorry for sounding so authoritarian. You come across people every day of your life who went the safe route, like you with the Civil Engineering. They're not happy. They hate what they do, and I'm sure you can see that. Since you're actually voicing a desire not to go that way, I think you know you don't want to be like them. So I guess you have to ask yourself what you really want, and stick to your answer.

10:11 / 03.05.03

Thanks for all the replies, guys.

Firstly, I don't know for sure that the band would collapse, toksik, but our drummer is also planning on going off to university this year. If i go too, the band will fall apart. If i stay, it might not, but at the same time, we would have just lost a quarter of our band.

Grant: I understand that it could be possible to keep a band together, even if i did move away, but that would still leave me doing a degree that i don't want to do. I could handle being a musician part of the time, and something else the rest of the time, but only if i enjoyed the something else, whatever it may be.

Mordant: Again, i see where you're coming from, but even a degree that crosses over isn't what i'm looking for. I can do engineering, and physics and all that, but i don't actually want to.

I'm supposed to start my degree in september, but i think i'm going to take another year out. I can probably go to college part time that way, and get a Higher in music. That might give me a better chance of getting in to a music degree. Either way, it'll give me time to properly assess my options. Whatever happens, i know now that i'm never going to be a civil engineer. Thanks for all your opinions, i'll keep you posted.......

10:17 / 03.05.03

I was gonna say, can't you defer your University placement for a year to give the band a try?