Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Pat Strawser. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Pat, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I started taking classical piano lessons at the age of 10, and though I got to where I could play okay, I wasn’t terribly good at most of the classical repertoire. I had a love/hate relationship with playing the instrument for a long time, since some material was just a little too hard for me to play, and I didn’t like to practice. A pivotal moment for me was when I was about 16 and I discovered Led Zeppelin, and there was a meeting point between my playing ability and the music I liked to listen to. Suddenly I had a compelling reason to learn music, and it was achievable! It was also around this time that I decided to start writing my own music…..mainly just instrumental piano pieces, which has stuck with me ever since.

With that as a foundation, most of my learning of the instrument revolved around playing in rock and jazz bands in high school, college, and onward. I would always spend time at home coming up with original musical ideas and learning cover songs, but the real learning came from a boots-on-the-ground working and playing with other people in a group. That’s where I learned to listen to other peoples’ ideas and figure out where my place was in a given setting. Sometimes I was the leader with my own material, teaching folks my own tunes; sometimes I was just playing a simple accompaniment part; and sometimes it was more of a true 50/50 collaborative type effort.

As I got involved in more proper professional music settings, I found myself playing a very distinct part as a “sideman” or hired gun, where I would learn and play the keyboard parts, and then go home. Learning how to be in this position has been the culmination of decades of experience, playing in hundreds of different contexts. The skills required for this position go beyond just being able to play the instrument; that’s sort of a given. It’s just as much about coming into the rehearsal or the show fully prepared (including hand-written charts or notes), coming in early to set up so nobody has to wait on me, and not making too much noise. My goal is to be the easiest person in the room to deal with! Know who the boss is, and figure out what they need; or as I like to say: “you say jump, and I ask how high.”

The biggest obstacle to this is thinking that YOU are the boss when you’re really not. You’re agenda should be all about whatever the leadership’s agenda is. To that end, not aligning yourself with that agenda will keep you from learning more about how to be successful in that position. The sooner you can understand what the boss wants from you, and the sooner you can get behind that, the easier it will be. Maybe that means just “doing your thing” and being super-creative, but most of the time it means doing something very specific and “staying in your lane.”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a for-hire freelance keyboard player, musical artist, and studio musician with over 30 years of professional experience. I started taking piano lessons as a child, and I started playing in rock bands when I was a teenager, which eventually led to working with professional music groups.

Currently I have two distinct sides to my music work. One is as a professional contract keyboard player, where I’m hired to play in original groups, corporate and wedding bands, tribute bands, churches, and studio work. The other is as a writer, composer, and recording artist, where I produce my own original music.

As a contract musician, I pride myself on being flexible and adaptable to whatever setting I may find myself in. My main objective is to make whoever hired me glad they called me! I want to make them look good, sound good, and feel good. To do that, I really try to understand exactly what they need from me, and do everything I can to meet that expectation.

Beyond that, I’d say I’m most proud of the fact that the phone continues to ring! As long as people are calling, I feel like I’m doing something right, and that I’m providing something of value to people’s projects.

Also, I’m also very fortunate that I can write and produce my own material on the side, and that I have a very modest but appreciative following that seems to genuinely appreciate my music. That’s a real treasure in a day and age when music has been so devalued by the current streaming model.

On top of all of that, I also co-host and produce a podcast called Underdubs: 70’s Progressive Rock and More where we talk about some really interesting and groundbreaking music from the past. It’s very rewarding and folks should really check it out!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The whole process of starting a songwriting project, and seeing it through all of the numerous twists and turns it takes to finish it, where it’s published and made public, is very rewarding for me. It’s such an unpredictable process sometimes, too, because there are so many possibilities involved: from picking song forms and topics to orchestration and musical style, to sound design and production and distribution. I always have dozens of original projects on hand to work on as well, so there’s never a shortage of work to be done on something. At times this can be overwhelming, but more often than not it becomes a case of procrastination: if I feel any kind of pressure or insecurity about one project, I can always put it off to work on something else!

As strange as it may sound, I think it keeps me sane. It’s a nice escape from the pressures of the real world.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think most creatives believe this already, but for those that don’t, I think it’s important to realize that – as misunderstood the creative act can be to many people – it’s something that MUST BE DONE for creative people. They simply MUST CREATE SOMETHING.

They may not know what to create, or how, or even why. But there seems to be this deep impulse, this fire that exists inside the chests of artists that compels them, even commands them somehow to make things, to create, to produce. This impulse drives a lot of artists to become so lost in their pursuit of creating their art that they lose touch with the real world, which is where I think we get the stereotype of the flaky musician or the eccentric painter. It can be a real problem if that impulse disconnects someone from reality….you still need to eat and pay rent, and that usually means having a steady job and steady income, which can be extremely difficult for many artists. Regular steady jobs tend to get in the way of most creative pursuits, so it’s a challenging balancing act that artists have to strike….it certainly is one I’ve grappled with my entire professional life, and can create real tension.

Understanding that tension can be a valuable thing for other non-creative people to be aware of.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.strawsermusicstudio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patstrawser/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/strawsermusicstudio/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pat-strawser-9b430228/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PatStrawser
• Other: Podcast links:Underdubs: 70’s Progressive Rock and More:

  Apple Podcasts:
  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/underdubs-70s-progressive-rock-and-more/id1739172713

  YouTube:
  https://www.youtube.com/@Underdubs.Podcast