Image by Imagaday

When I announced on August 1 that my next project would be The Lives of Dexter Peterson, all I was thinking about was the story. I suppose that’s a good thing- thinking about the world of the creation rather than the logistics behind it. We didn’t get to the moon by planning on orbit, rendezvous, docking, and long-term health effects, we got there by pointing up into space and saying “let’s go there.”

But now I’m into that part of the project. There’s a reason they say the devil’s in the details. If creativity is heaven, project planning is the fifth level of hell. This is becoming the biggest project I’ve ever undertaken, way more complicated than Goodbye Planet Earth. When all the dust has settled, I need to end up with:

• A full-length story about The Lives of Dexter Peterson
• A music album based on that story
• A graphic novel based on that story
• Either an audiobook or a radio drama rendition of the story

Suddenly I’m not working on one project, I’m working on four. Gen Whitmore is handling the graphic side of things and my friend Calindy is trying to book convention shows so I’m not doing everything myself, but I’m doing pretty much everything else. Those four projects alone are ambitious enough for the one year deadline I’ve set, but there are always more details. Albums don’t sell themselves, even if you’re U2. On top of creating four finished works by next August, I have to manage all the support projects involved:

• Re-design www.matthewebel.com to better represent what I’m trying to do now
• Figure out where I can get a graphic novel printed in short runs
• Promote the project online. Somehow.
• Spread the word about the nature of the project itself
• Book some concerts so I don’t starve to death

If ever there was a time I needed a management team, it’s now. I pulled off the last major album by myself, but I don’t know how I’m going to create all this stuff, promote it properly, and still perform on stage without more help. The DIY mentality has sex appeal, sure, but there are just some projects that take a real team.

Right now we’re a team of 3. Hopefully that will grow soon!

Okay, we get it. It’s not an entire Macbook crammed into a single slate. It doesn’t have a 1080p color e-ink touch screen with backlighting, portal technology, and holographic projection. You hate it, fine. It’s not like I’m camping out to buy it once it finally ships. But before you divert your bored hours at work from Farmville to flaming the fanboys on every Apple message board you can find, read this and try to think about long-term strategy.

I’m a musician, so I have to think long-term. The entry-level position for most business is either mail room, receptionist, or dishwasher. For musicians it’s playing hours of classic rock tunes in bars where people are annoyed that you’re interrupting the football game. It’s spending thousands on an album that might just sell 50 copies, if you’re lucky. It’s setting up message boards on your website and talking to the same 3 friends who are bored at their day jobs playing Farmville.

If musicians only thought short-term, nobody would go into this business.

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