We recently connected with Eric Sherman and have shared our conversation below.
Eric, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
There’s something about falling in love with what you do that feels essential to this question. If you love to do it, there’s a good chance you’ll do it a lot, and consequently you’ll have a chance to do it at a high level. Still, we’re always going to feel allergic to certain elements of anything we call “work”, and I feel like our subconscious can really put us in a somersault if we don’t have some sort of framework or vision with which to hold our work inside of. I.e. “loving what you do” can only take us so far without a healthy portion of “elbow grease”, “fire under your butt”, etc. etc. – and it’s how we come to foster this faculty that allows us to be in proximity to really wonderful things. For me, I love the analogy of the inhale and exhale in thinking about building our capacity here: the inhale is how we fill up our own well. Taking walks, taking in beautiful works of art, deep conversation, expressing love, reading, increasing your base of knowledge; the varieties are endless. Then, when it comes to the exhale – getting to work, generating artistic works of our own, working past our comfort zone, having to collaborate with others – we can do that with a wellspring of energy and material to draw from. Lastly, I think there’s some truth to thinking about work ethic as a use of willpower, which is a finite resource, but a resource we can increase with practice.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I make music! Trumpet is my main instrument of choice, and I also play guitar, bass and drums. I’m a big fan of writing songs, improvising whole setlists of dance music with my musical compatriots, and making the next great american albums in my basement I’m a part of a band called Snacktime. Philly-based high-energy horn-centered dance music. We’ve got one album out now that’s called Sounds From the Street: Live! that’s out on all platforms. Our second album is about eight months in the gestative process. I also put out music under my own name (Eric J Sherman on all streaming platforms), as well as with a band called Omar’s Hat, which is an amalgamation of great Philly-based artists that come together to pay homage to the classic sound of Philadelphia recordings with our own spin on it.
I’ll be releasing some music under my own name in September which features at least a dozen members of my trusted musical family. It’s got a big sound but it was all recorded in my basement. Incredible.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1) Develop your own process & artistic approach. To me, this is equal parts about working on your craft and living life in order to make an artistic statement of any kind that feels both sincere and unique. We definitely can’t skimp on spending frequent time with our craft, whatever it might be. Kind of like a good friend that you spend time with often (maybe more often than most people that you know). But along with that is an honest experience of living life- journeys and sojourns, relationships and how they make us feel, our own internal world, our own ethical and philosophical stance on reality. This is the raw material we use, and our craft is the lens we put it through. The more we work on our craft, the more dynamic the lens can be.
2) Find your team. If we’re trying to move the world, not one of us can do it on our own. I like to think of teams like classic superhero movies where the superheroes have to team up in order to save the world. I think good teams happen when everyone is secure in who they are and what they can do, and everyone understands that they can go millions of miles farther together than on their own. This is bound to be a hairy process, as it’s about learning when to exercise your will (not take no for an answer) and when to subordinate your will to the greater vision (when to compromise). If the shared vision is strong enough, it can survive the inevitable peaks and valleys of any relationship where stakes are involved.
3) Keep love & joy at the center. Don’t forget what you’re doing it for! Any undertaking worth anything will come with serious trials. How do you navigate those as they arise?
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
I’ve been playing music since I was a kid, but I’ve only been a full time professional for less than a year. For me, the biggest challenge has been figuring out what this new way of life requires of me, and trying to do that. It’s a much different lifestyle than I’m used to. In the past, music was the thing that I loved and what I found time for whenever I could. Now, it’s right at the center of my life, which is a different commitment and way of thinking about it. I’m learning what habits I need to build, what a given day looks like, and what sorts of goals I can hold in order to continue to move forward and continue to develop. I’m learning how to put a good day together. For example, this is how a given weekday may go: Wake up, play guitar in bed, get into sunshine, stretch, exercise, take care of any outstanding admin tasks (make appointments, file taxes, etc), eat breakfast. Then, by noon, I’m ready to get into a solid work block, which could be: practice an instrument, write a song, go to a rehearsal, learn some music, work on some digital media, etc. This will take me until the late afternoon or evening, which might be reserved for seeing my loved ones, going to see friends, seeing a show, or just staying in my house.
Contact Info:
- Website: farmerfunk.com
- Instagram: erkshrm
- Youtube: Shermons
- SoundCloud: Shermons
