Music + Technology = Pete Lacis

My new life in Colorado has been quite the change. Aside from the joys of home ownership (i.e. yard maintenance, cleaning, and all the time it takes), I was not prepared for the discipline that it takes to manage one’s own life. While that last statement may sound odd, take into consideration the fact that for as long as I can remember, I’ve had some sort of external structure in my life. Whether it was my parents, school or work, some external force was dictating where I have to be when, and what I had to do. Now I have to make all these decisions myself and do all the work myself (whereas in the past I could at least delegate some work to other people). In a sense, I had found myself completely overwhelmed with the number of choices to make on a daily basis. Something had to change.

I realized that in the past I had always worked well against deadlines. Now instead of working against external ones, I am now setting them for myself on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. I schedule when I work on music, business, the house, exercise, and when to relax and spend time with my family. All of these things are very important and time must be made for all of them.

So for now I’m happy to report that things have been going very well. I’m finally getting into the groove of things (literally and figuratively) for I’m making enough time for things, and I’m about to embark on a small tour with the Funk, Groove, R&B Sensation Suspicious Brown back east (actually posting from a friends house in Hoboken!). Stay tuned for more!

BTW – another reason why I ceased posting was that the WordPress template I was using was totally giving me grief and it was last on my list to fix (and blogs suck without pictures)!. That will not stop things again!

Uncategorized Colorado, starting over as a musician, Uncategorized

Well this is it. I graduated college on a Thursday and starting working on the following Monday almost eleven years ago. I never stopped to think about what I wanted to do with my life…..things just found me and I went with them. I’m very grateful for all of the opportunity and good fortune I enjoyed at my 10+ years at MWW Group. Rising from and entry-level nobody to the head of the IT department in just a few years feels like quite an accomplishment. Yet, now I’m hungry for my next challenge. I have no idea where life is going to take me, but I do know that the next chapter will begin with my wonderful wife Erin and me in Colorado. Let the games begin!

pete lacis IT musician, moving to colorado, quitting day job, relocating, starting over as a musician

As a 32 year old guy, I’ve come to a major crossroads in my life. With my mother’s breast cancer diagnosis last August (she’s in her 60′s), I thought to myself, would I be happy with the life that I’ve lived if I were told I only had six months to live? The answer to that was a resounding “NO!” I don’t want to work my entire life into retirement, finally able to do what I want and realize I’ve got months to live. What I’ve always wanted was the time and flexibility to study and pursue a career in music. But how could I make this work?

For over 10 years I’ve been doing the corporate thing, and hating every minute of it. All I would ever think about all day long would be music. Whether it was the music itself, creation/writing, rehearsals, upcoming gigs, promotion, or gear, I am completely obsessed with music and all its trimmings. But I could never make a living doing what I love……or could I?

So with these life realizations made, my wife and I decided we needed to make a change. I supported her as she started and grew her business into what it is today. Now she wants to return the favor!

The first step here was to completely simplify our lives. We sold our 750 sq ft Hoboken, NJ condo and got rid of as many expenses as possible. Being that we lived in one of the more expensive places in the country, we decided to get out (I grew up in NJ but no longer have any family left here). As a result we bought a house outside of Denver, CO and are moving there in the beginning of April. We had always been smitten with Colorado and with my brother moving to Denver last June, it became impossible to resist.

My plan is to take the next 4-6 months off and clear my head. I want to intensely study music (dive heavily into Ableton, Reason, Logic, etc.) and learn how to become an all-in-one unit. I plan to use these tools for composition AND performance in conjunction with my guitar/keyboard/voice skills. This way I don’t have to rely on anyone else to create and perform this stuff and reduce my overhead as much as possible. As I’m also an IT/PR/Marketing guy, I also plan to start a business or two that would mirror my musical interests. Whether that becomes consulting, production and any other combination of the abovementioned skills, I’m going to give this more focus and attention than I’ve ever done in my life. This is my shot and I’m not going to mess it up.

The purpose of this post is two-fold. It’s an unabashed announcement that I’m about to hit the Denver/Boulder music scene and am looking to connect with as many musicians out there as possible. But may this also serve as a case study for any of you who had ever contemplated ditching out on “Corporate America” and giving your dreams a go.

pete lacis IT musician, moving to colorado, quitting day job, relocating, starting over as a musician, suhr artist