In Episode 7 of Make/Work, host Scott Pinkmountain talks with musician Nate Query. Query plays bass for both The Decemberists and Black Prairie, and has made playing music with nationally touring bands his main job for around twenty years.
Query speaks about the strategizing and work that’s gone into sustaining such a long and active creative career.
Playing music you hate can suck your soul, or getting treated badly can suck your soul. But playing music you love can feed your soul and making money can feed your soul by making your life easier. If on balance I’m being fed more than I’m being sucked or drained, then okay.
Listen to Episode 7 (and subscribe to Make/Work!) now in iTunes. Or get the direct download.
You can check out Query playing live with Black Prairie on KEXP below, or by following this link. Their new album, “Fortune,” comes out April 22 on Sugar Hill Records.
Every creative laborer has a different story to tell about how they negotiate their relationship between their creative work and their paycheck and how they balance their lives to sustain their creative practice. In Make/Work, Scott will speak with emerging and established artists working in a wide range of creative mediums about how they survive, how they make a living, and how they maintain their work over the long term. New episodes will be released every other Thursday.
