We recently connected with Aaron Krak and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Aaron thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Over the last couple years I’ve been able to make just barely enough money from my creative work. which has been awesome, obviously, because service industry jobs are hard for introverts (haha). I was doing the coffee shop grind for years, and drumming on the side. I went to school for audio engineering but for about a year post-graduation I hadn’t really done much in the audio world. When the first lockdown hit in 2020, I realized I had an opportunity to give a lot of my time to the craft. Since then, drumming and mixing have become my full-time money-earners. I do the odd-job here and there, but it’s getting rarer and rarer the more time goes on. What I learned from that period was that in this field (arts, creative, etc) it’s so important to have multiple sources of income. And in most cases, it’s possible to have multiple sources of income all within the same field. For me, it’s all music. Drumming and mixing and producing and writing all fall into the same realm, so I always feel like I’m doing something that I love, and that’s what’s most important to me.

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’ve been drumming since I was 10, and then I went to Belmont University for audio engineering. I do a pretty even split of drumming and mixing, drumming is mostly touring, but with a decent amount of session work. My consistent touring comes from Chris Renzema and Gatlin. Chris is in the christian rock world and Gatlin is in the indie pop world. And then I get random shows from country artists and other local artists. I do a lot of remote drum tracking from my own space, with occasional studio visits (which I enjoy much more). I mix on my own, at my own spot, so I’m completely freelance which is really fun because it’s all on my own time, but can also be stressful when I don’t get consistent work. But for now it’s working for me.

My core method with drumming and mixing for people is to make sure I’m elevating their art with my own touch. I never want to overstep or make something mine, I always want to take what they’ve made and simply make it better. This has made it possible for me to have consistent work from people that come back to me, whether it’s for drums or mixing. I love building that relationship with someone so they know what to expect from me and I know what to expect from them. A lot of stress that people get with having someone mix their music comes from trust, so I always want to build as much trust as possible between me and them.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I mentioned it earlier, but when Covid hit and the world wasn’t moving in the same way as before, I had no source of income because I was mostly relying on touring at the time. So when that got taken away from me, I had to pivot and find something else to earn money from, and that’s when I submerged myself in mixing. And now that’s a major part of my income. I think adaptation is so important in this world, especially in the arts.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Getting to create with other people. Art is such an expression, and you can choose to do it in a private manner and still find gratification from it, but there’s something so powerful about sharing your expression and getting to see other people share their expression. It builds relationships and allows you to understand the mind and heart of someone, and that’s really cool to me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaronkrak/

Image Credits
Meg Meyer, Jacqueline Justice