We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Darren Paltrowitz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Darren, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?
For better and for worse, the answer to these two questions change for me on a regular basis. A large part of that has to do with liking to do different things, as opposed to having just one regular responsibility or task. I am organized, when it comes to files and calendars, yet I enjoy brainstorming and coming up with ideas.
Using food as a comparative example, if given the choice between a huge steak, and a small cut of meat alongside two or three small sides, I’m going to choose the latter. On the musical end, I grew up loving albums, but at this point of my life, most of the time I’d rather hear a dozen songs I love from different artists than 12 from the same artist. So I enjoy variety whenever possible, even in the working sense. I’m not fully business-minded, nor fully artistically-oriented, and sometimes artists I have worked with have liked having someone who is mindful of deadlines yet willing to get their hands dirty with the creativity.
If my work-related finances are somewhat steady, I can be creative, and I have things to look forward to, I am happy. But there are days when deadlines come up, and/or projects unexpectedly end, and/or you wonder if you are ever going to work again, and/or if the invoice is ever going to be paid to you, and those are the days when you wonder what it would be like to have a regular job.
So for me personally, I aim to be a pragmatic and structure-oriented creative. Tell me what has to get done, by when and what else may be coming up, and it is going to get done. But otherwise, I’d rather earn a living from a “regular job” and spend some of those savings on the things I am passionate about.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I started interning around the music business when I was a teenager, also contributing to some local and Internet-based publications. And believe it or not, I still talk with and/or work with some people from that era of my life, 25-ish years later.
I have been in and out of entertainment for the past 20-ish years, due to jobs coming and going, and am back in now as a consultant to artists and management companies these days. But for the past seven years or so, most of my income has been coming from work related to investigations and research. Believe it or not, all of that also ties into the work that I have been doing over the past bunch of years as a freelance writer, podcaster, host and author.
My third book, “DLR Book: How David Lee Roth Changed The World,” was probably the toughest project I ever had to work on. Besides writing a book — over 90,000 words — I had to track down a lot of people related to Roth and Van Halen, which I did on and off for a few years. Once that was done, then came securing press and doing interviews, writing promotional materials, and everything that comes with working in conjunction with a literary agent and publisher. All of that tied in with a podcast I continue to co-host with Steve Roth called “DLR Cast,” which is nearing its 100th episode as I write this.
While working on the book, I continued to pump out episodes of my podcast-turned-TV-series, “Paltrocast WIth Darren Paltrowitz,” which I make one to three episodes a week of, as aired regularly via 150+ television channels and OTT carriers. To make that happen, I tape interviews five or six days a week on average.
So these days, there is no “average day” for me. And I like it that way.
Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?
Best answer I can give you: “I’m not sure.”
Financially speaking, some people see NFTs and virtual currency as worthless and all hype. Other people see NFTs as being in their infancy as far as worth and mainstream acceptance. Smart people are on both sides. I bought into a few cryptocurrencies a few years back and all turned out to be duds. So if other people are thriving, glad to hear it.
From an artistic standpoint, however, I “get it” that there will always be a level of super-level and/or ambitious investor who wants to have what others cannot. So collectors will keep on collecting and seeking gains that way. If you can figure out a way to keep that portion of the audience interested, then you will likely do very well in the financial sense.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Being yourself. When you can dress the way you want, go to bed when you want and attend the events you want to attend, all while being yourself, that feels excellent. The praise and monetary rewards may come and go, but not dreading Mondays is wonderful if/when that gets to be part of your lifestyle.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.paltrocast.com
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/paltrowitz
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/darrenpaltrowitz
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-paltrowitz-44a6a11/
- Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/paltrowitz
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@paltrowitz/videos
- Yelp: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14955106/episodes/?season=26&ref_=ttep_ep_sn_nx
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/7xWVx1NZKd38tpwNISs0Ux
Image Credits
Photos by Darren Paltrowitz and/or provided by Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz