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

Michael , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I was between jobs and my mother suggested I start play music in nursing homes. I remember thinking if I played enough of the nursing homes amd assisted livings I wouldn’t have to go back to work doing something that I didn’t enjoy. After a few paychecks, I was offered a job hosting an open mic. A few months later I got offered a second open mic night hosting job. From there i started slowly getting enough gigs that I could pay all my bills.

Michael , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I began singing in church when I was 4 and never stopped singing. My mother is an amazing singer and she inspired me to pursue it more and more. I began writing songs in college, but never picked up an instrument until years later: one day I wrote a song about coming up through the ashes after a fire swept through Waldo Canyon. The song was pretty powerful and it helped me decide I would ask Facebook for a guitar. I briefly mentioned on a post that I wrote another song, but did not have an instrument to put music to my lyrics. I also mentioned that I could probably afford be myself, but I felt if someone gave me one, I would be more likely to work hard learning it. I was given two different guitars and immediately began learning and putting chords to a lot of my lyrics.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Pay artist better. A lot of bars get by with barely paying musicians because there are so many of us. Especially in Colorado there are musician Los everywhere and it’s saturated. There was one venue who went over a year without paying any musicians. This is unacceptable. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked to play for free. There is a time and place for that such as benefit shows, and I’m all on board for that. But often bars take advantage of musicians and bands. I was told the average band would make around 100$ per member back in the 1970’s. In Northern Colorado, and most other places, I assume, bands are getting paid less than 100$/member. This makes it difficult for any bands to stay together and get tight. When 3-4 band members have to work a full time job, it’s quite hard to have time to practice and stay together.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

The book The Artist Way by Julia Cameron really impacted my writing. She suggest that you write three pages in a journal everyday. When I began doing this and going through the rest of the book, it made me a much more prolific writer. The book also has activities that helped me decide what direction I wanted to move in the future. I highly suggest this book for anyone who wants to pursue art as a career.

Contact Info:

• Website: Spacemonkeysfromthefuture.coming
• Instagram: @peaceofcap
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peaceofcap
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCaqqFR79nQ9YiPZwnpT2hIw