We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kenneth Schalk. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kenneth below.

Kenneth, appreciate you joining 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?

To me, the most important part of turning my creative/artistic skills into full time work is engaging the client’s needs without any personal bias. It’s fun to make art for our own challenge or pleasure but in the service industry, our talents and skills are a tool for someone else’s needs. Our perspective can be taken into consideration but
ultimately, if it’s a paycheck we desire from our art, then we must be ready willing and able to create art for those paying us. Sometimes, the client is very much in support of our certain style. Other times, we truly are just a hand
to execute a task.

Creative and artistic work is so broad and so specific at the same time. Skillsets and talents are all different to each artist. Seeking out clients can be easier if we focus on finding work that highlights our best skills. The landscape of clientele can vary from a pencil sketch to a technical drawing of a robotic arm; a country song to a heavy metal crusher. Generally, if you hone a high level of skill in the areas of art and creativity you love, that reputation of skill can lead to a monetary future if you so desire it.

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 discovered my love for music and playing a musical instrument early. My father could play some basic songs on ukulele and piano, which was very inspiring to me and prompted me to try. There were 2 pianos and an organ at different relatives’s homes and I would always sit behind them to play. Both my Father and mother had a deep love for music and had the radio or albums playing in the home every day, morning into night. In that sense, I consider myself very fortunate to not only have the bug to play, but a family unit around me that naturally inspired and encouraged it. My mother, who had a natural talent to draw and create things visually, also had an impact on me and I discovered my love for drawing, painting etc.

Fast forward to my young adulthood, and you find me with a college degree and full time work in Advertising and Design. I then go independent so I can internationally travel with a heavy metal band touring and making records. I’ve recorded for countless artists as a session musician by my late 20’s and decide that at some point I have to move to Los Angeles.

Skip a little forward again to 2006, when I move to LA from my hometown of Brooklyn, NY. It was a bit cloudy at the start but now living here for 18 years, I’ve been able to plant my feet well and forge a wonderful independent career in music and marketing.

Some people are ok to run with the pack, some want more and stand out from the pack, and others, in their bigger outlook on things, want to start their own pack. I’ve always been the start my own pack type of person and why I knew choosing an independent pathway was the move. Through that journey, I’ve met a few other people with that same mindset in their respective field of skill who became partners and friends. At this point it’s like a super pack of independent creatives, constantly forging our unique perspectives with the art of audience engagement.

As a musician, I work independently or with bands and teams in the capacity of session drummer, song writer, producer and engineer. I’m partnered with another professional drummer here in LA and we run a drum recording studio and full drum tech workshop with a great library of drums and cymbals for use in our sessions. I also create content on Instagram and Youtube that highlights my drumming and drum tech’ing skill sets.

In advertising and Marketing, the way to pursue financial success is a little different. As a service, I need to find an industry that not only needs my service but also has consistent and fair budgets for my service. So back in 2017 I made the decision, with the legalization of Cannabis, to pursue clients in that industry, knowing full well, an entire market of product packaging and advertising was about to explode. Sure enough I was right, and taking the leap with an amazing friend and business partner, we now successfully lead a cannabis event company and help with Brand development on countless entities entering into the cannabis retail market.

It’s an exciting time for being in the creative world, because we are an international society from a business perspective. We don’t have to seek clients out within our local landscape. Of course local success is vital to a business but with the access to an international market, I think we are limiting ourselves if we don’t at least entertain the possibility of selling our services around the world.

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

I think the biggest misunderstanding about creativity is that everyone can be creative. Many people who might be labeled as “non-creative” are maybe fooling themselves by possibly thinking creativity is something reserved for musicians and painters. I see creativity as a perspective; a mindset. Then a talent or skill gets attached to the creative mind. From their the creativity and the skill/talent turn into artistry. Anyone has the potential to live life with a mindset of creativity and flair for artistry. People who are seeking a different way, method or approach to something are being creative. It’s a desire in one’s spirit to ask an extra question or to find more information. It’s the desire to ponder additional possibilities all with the understanding that it may lead to something new or fail. The failure part can be reduced by having knowledge and experience but it can never be fully erased from our life. A big part of having creative success is being humble to that reality, that we will, in the realms of risk taking, fall short. But we will also, with our creative mindset observe and absorb all the new lessons learned from the mistake, thus turning it into wisdom.

Everyone, no matter who you are and what your lifestyle.occupation is, can absolutely 100% take a creative approach to it.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I’m on a selfless mission. Art is a source of entertainment. We all look for some kind of entertainment in our lives. Which means, we have to seek out other people utilizing their skills to provide the entertainment. So once it became clear that my talents had a positive impact on other people, I couldn’t stop. the value of interaction with the human experience an artist is afforded is so spiritually enriching, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ergodrummer/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ken.schalk.1/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKiye3Fpco0h6iGQ2K2cVtw

Image Credits
I took the photo