"It connects me to everything beyond the human experience"
069: Mai Bloomfield
Good morning! This is Play It Like It’s Music. I’m Trevor, thanks for listening. I’m glad to be back with you on a new morning, whatever the day brings!
On Wednesday, January 6th of 2021 music is not content. More than ever, It’s connection.
OK. NEWSFLASH.
I’m going to put up an instrumental album on February 1st.
I’ve started it, and I’m working on it this month. I promise that it will be good, I’m excited about the toolkit I’ve assembled here and it’s time to stop dicking around.
I’m saying it to you in public because otherwise I know I’ll find a million excuses to postpone or just forget about it. I’ll be making many demos and putting them up on my soundcloud page if you’re interested in checking out the process. Keep in mind these are not songs - the song album will take longer than this one will, and is also very much in the works.
Wish me luck!
(Thanks!)
So welcome back to the show here. I took a couple of weeks off at the end of the year and it was so welcome, to just decompress and put that whole 2020 in the rearview. When I put Ann Courtney’s episode up at the top of the year I decided I was serious about doing this. I had been back and forth a bit on the podcast before that but I decided I was not gonna care about the numbers, just focus on making quality connections with quality people. And some cool things happened.
I started booking a bunch of production work right off the bat in January, and then it all went away with Covid. But it was definitely a sign - while the world was still ticking - that putting your voice and your self out into the world is totally worth it, it’s the way to ensure your energy takes form. Who it reaches and how are not up to you.
Now let me tell you something:
The “artist-career/star” model of the music biz is very much a joke at this point. I got started in music because music was boiling in my body, and it still is. Living the dream ain’t bad, but you can make your living any way you want.
Now don’t get me wrong: I work in music, that’s a fact. Still, it’s worth taking a moment to specify for yourself exactly which quote-unquote “dream” you’re signing up to live. Because for your life, it should be your own dream and not someone else’s.
That image of the star musician killing in on stage in front of thousands of people is one way it can manifest for you, but “dreams” like that are similar in scope to somebody else’s “dream” of reaching the top of mount Everest. It is doable? YES! It is worth doing? Probably? Will you learn a lot? Yes. Will people be psyched for you if you do it? Most definitely!
But do you want to live there your whole life? The air can get thin.
We have to be real about what a musical life really is. I’m not here to tell you that it is a certain way either, just to remind you that music will empower and enrich your life in ways nothing else can touch. And that this wealth also brings with it an opportunity to choose exactly how you’re gonna spend it. Choose how to direct your energy. Choose what you’re going to believe while you do this work.
For myself, I believe the following: that Life is beautiful. Family is a choice. Our relationships are the circuitry of society. We must make the most of the time we have. Humanity does not know our destiny. Beauty is progress, not perfection. Strength is a lifetime quest. There is an artist within each of us. And we belong to this place and this time, so let’s get on with the show.
Welcome to next year. We’re in it. And I’ve got a great guest on the show today to send us off.
Mai Bloomfield is a singer-songwriter-cellist-guitarist from California. As a solo artist, she has received songwriting awards from the Kerrville, Telluride and Rocky Mountain Folks Festivals.
She brings the hits: As a collaborator, she’s worked with various artists including Jason Mraz, Adam Cohen, Sara Bareilles and Willy Porter. She had the honor of playing on Leonard Cohen’s album “You Want It Darker.” Along with her bandmates of 15 years in Raining Jane she co-wrote Jason Mraz’s chart-topping album “Yes!” (2014) as well as his 2018 hit single “Have It All.” She’s toured the world with Mraz in venues ranging from coffee shops to the Royal Albert Hall.
Mai also has a drive for civic engagement: In 2010 she helped start the Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls Los Angeles, a non-profit dedicated to empowering girls through music, where she teaches songwriting and serves as Art Director year-round.
Her songs often speak of the pursuit of finding the light inside the dark – a theme that was magnified in her own life when she became a breast cancer survivor. She is currently working on a book about that experience and the insights that came through it, and hopes her story will inspire and encourage others on their creative paths.
I met Mai in a classic road encounter between cellists: I was on tour and had just found my own cello to have been destroyed by baggage handlers. Gigs were ongoing and needed to call in a favor QUICK to complete my obligations for the tour.
Luckily our mutual friend Emily Hope Price (from Episode 1) decided we should know each other. Mai lent me her cello sight unseen for the show in LA and we’ve been connected ever since. I’ve never met such a kind, abundantly talented and generous musician on the road as Mai Bloomfield, and it’s a privilege to present our conversation to you now.
Quick ask: if you believe this show deserves a wider audience, please tell a friend:
Without further ado, here’s Mai. (Here’s a track called Running Out Of Time)
It’s an honor to have her on the show.
Press PLAY above to hear my conversation with Mai Bloomfield.
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Thanks for listening to Play It Like It’s Music. Thanks so much to Mai Bloomfield for spending some very generous time with us. You can find Mai at Mai Bloomfield dot com and follow her on Facebook and IG @maibloomfield.
Here’s a link to her latest release, “Three Little Words”.
I can’t believe we’ve gotten to 69 shows! If you believe this show deserves a wider audience in 2021, please tell a friend:
Follow me on twitter @trevorexter and talk to me on there if you have thoughts about the show.
We're all contending with a mutating professional landscape, jacked revenue streams, a catastrophic global pandemic and plenty of other noise out here.
But you gotta keep playing:
We don't draw any lines here between scenes or styles.
As always, thank you for listening and remember to play it like its music.
You can check out my music on bandcamp and other places. It’s all at my website, trevorexter.com. Sign the mailing list on substack to get this show sent right to you the very moment it comes out.
Music is a beautiful thing and it makes the world go round.
Big love to your ears.
Trevor
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