Meet Jeremy Fink

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jeremy Fink a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jeremy, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

I have a note on my phone that says “But is it Art?” This line is usually used as a commentary on the seriousness of an artistic work, but for me it’s a reminder that everything is creativity if you view it that way. And if you can consider your life a creative act filled with curiosity and meaning, then everything becomes art. (Easier said than done, BTW! It’s a practice with ups and downs.)

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I have performed music for most of my life, but street bands have been my primary creative outlet for several years now. I get my thrills playing music for people in parks, sidewalks and markets.

In some ways, performing this way is a privilege. I make a good living as an engineer – a career with its own creative joys – so I don’t need the money. But seeing a smile on someone’s face, or a little wiggle in their step as they walk past is enough reward to keep me coming back for more.

Right now, I lead two street bands. The Ideal Maine Social Aid and Sanctuary Band is a community brass band with an activist mission. We play at events and rallies in support of social justice causes. The band is open enrollment for players of all levels, with a current roster of 85 members ranging from 18-80 years old.

The Ragtime Destroyers was created to support a thriving local swing dance scene. This band plays a weekly pop-up show in a brick paved urban plaza suitable for working on your lindy-hop moves. In the summer, every Wednesday brings a mixed scene of locals and tourists watching the band play and the dancers spin. It’s pure joy.

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?

Unpopular opinion #1 – Your day job will set you free! You don’t need to support yourself solely with your creative projects to prove your legitimacy as a creative person. Just the opposite, having a steady source of income allows you to follow your creative instincts without any consideration about what is going to be popular with the crowd (or worse: successful with the algorithm). This is why I call what I do “street music” and not busking. It’s not about the money. It’s all about contributing to the urban experience and connecting with people passing by. (Read: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert)

Unpopular opinion#2 – Set goals that are about internal motivation, not external achievement. It’s a big world and no matter what level of success you reach, there will always be those “better” than you and there will always be those “worse” than you. So, make goals about WHO you want to be, not WHAT you want to accomplish. When I started playing music in the street, my goal was to become someone who could perform in front of anybody without fear. An inner-game goal like this has no external measure. There are no gatekeepers and there are no bounds. (Read: The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey)

Unpopular opinion #3 – Give it away. This is a corollary to #1. When you turn your creativity into a job, you create an external boss where there wasn’t one before. Selling your creativity sets up a contract that prioritizes someone else’s expectations of what your creativity is worth. If they are moved by your creative expression and want to give you a donation as a token of their appreciation, that’s wonderful. But monetizing is commodifying. And soon enough, all commodities seem the same. (Read Show Your Work by Austin Kleon)

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

My age. I just turned fifty years old, so I’m solidly middle-aged. The problem is, I’m not sure that creative striving looks good on middle-aged men! To be young and earnest is undeniably cool. And to be old and foolish has its own charms. But to be publicly creative at fifty risks looking more like a mid-life crisis than a meaningful and inspired personal expression.

What to do? I don’t really know, but I suspect that it has to do with valuing my process over my product. I’m sure that next summer I’ll be out on the street once again making music with my community of co-conspirators. But my hope is that this year it will be less about impressing the crowd or trying to otherwise prove that I belong there in the public space. I want to focus more on deepening my personal experience of performance.

Sometimes after a gig I’ll compare notes with my bandmates: We were all at the same gig and getting paid the same amount, but maybe I had an awful time, and they had a great time. Why? Usually, it’s because I was all caught up in my thoughts and they were just in the flow, enjoying the creative experience. So that’s the goal for this fifty-year-old, to be “in the flow” more and more often. And there’s no doubt that I will be able to chase that goal for the rest of my life. (Read: Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.idealmaineband.org
• Instagram: @idealmaineband, @ragtimedestroyers
• Facebook: @idealmaineband, @ragtimedestroyers
• Youtube: @idealmaineband, @ragtimedestroyers

Image Credits

Derek Davis
Robyn Nicole Film and Photo
Brianna Soukup
Tom Bell