An EVIA gig, amazing photos, and money

Some of you have been there, at our gig at DAS FEST this year. We played the opening for southern Germany's biggest festival (counting tickets sold) in Karlsruhe, at the beautiful Feldbühne. In the end, we could introduce over 300 visitors to our world of art and music, and we're thrilled that we've had the opportunity.

Lukas, whose surname I've forgotten or never heard (whoops), took some amazing photos of us during our performance. You can find them here, alongside with the related Instagram profiles :)

After the show, I frequented the backstage area to talk to different other musicians and artists. And one of the key things I learned there was ... money is important. As stupid as it sounds, but now that I've returned to Germany from a 3-month Australia trip, I have realised that I've gotta change some major things in my everyday life if I want to keep doing what I am doing right now. During my studies, I kept Polylight alive using the money I got from my parents, who thankfully supported me all the time to my Physics Bachelor. Not having to work for your money does give you quite the biased opinions on the world.

Now, I am in the situation where I actually need to earn some. I have come back from Australia with loads of experience, but I'm pretty broke now. This makes you think differently about which priorities you want to place in your life. To me, making music, playing my instruments (especially the guitar and the violin), is what brings me joy and helps me in all kinds of situations by simply giving me something to hold on to and express what I cannot express with words. Losing myself in perfectionistic arrangements in Ableton Live on the other hand is neither good for my mental health, nor for my wallet, as releases like A Moon Colony Covered in Space Dust cost me well over 500 hours to produce (this is a wild guess, might be more close to a thousand), including all the revisions I went through.

Polylight has always been a project of many facets. It includes, but does not limit itself to, my own musical works. Apart from these, Polylight is the idea of total freedom I get when I get hold of an instrument and some comping or rhythmic accompaniment. Polylight is about freedom of thought and creativity, about finding my path through my life.

And now, Polylight also includes paid productions. Following through with what I've written before, I've decided to offer my skills to other musicians, in order to record and produce their works with me. I have loads of microphones and years of experience using Ableton Live for exactly what I am doing. And while I cannot call myself a professional yet (my high standards...), I feel confident asking for money for what I do.

This website will very likely, in the next weeks, gain another header up above, reading "producing" or "services" or something similar. Stuff you can buy. I don't quite know how to gain traction with it yet, but it's a start.

More on that soon :)

Cheers,
Phil