Blog: Summer of Busk
During the summer of 2019, I completed a music pilgrimage. I moved to Ocean City Maryland, a resort town where my family had spent a week every summer while I was growing up. My goal: play music on the boardwalk every night, weather and energy permitting.
To advance my music brand, I knew I needed to amass hours and hours of firsthand experience. What better way than to perform for an ever-changing crowd of vacationers all summer, amidst the gorgeous backdrop of waves and sand? It was the answer to a quarter-life crisis and fulfillment of childhood dreams all at once. I dubbed this venture “Summer of Busk” and wrote blog entries to track my progress.
These are the two strongest posts from my summer archive: the final review and an essay about how my travels in Asia led me there in the first place. You can read the whole blog here.
Personal Social Media
As a musician, I keep an active presence on my own social media, mainly focusing on Facebook and Instagram. I’ve run small-scale paid campaigns to boost my visibility. My goals were to raise reach and awareness.
My strongest campaign was for a parody song, musing on the covid-19 pandemic, set to the tune of Ed Sheeran’s ‘The A Team’. I spent only $15 over 5 days for the boost, yet garnered over 11,000 hits in pure reach, 900 through-plays, and 56 shares. The intersection of creativity and social relevance made this video a hit.
While teaching English in South Korea, I had ample opportunity to create content based around new travel and cultural experiences. I became more ambitious with photography, and I’m immensely thankful to have captured great shots from countries I visited all around Asia. With Instagram, I’ve relied solely on organic reach.
Below: my original photography from Singapore and Hong Kong.
Original Music
Music is the creative channel that runs deepest through me. I’ve always thought of it as my principle form of expression. “Seasons Change” is a song I wrote upon finishing my two year term teaching in Korea, to reflect on all my experiences and growth during that time. I composed and recorded the whole song myself, using Logic Pro X as my DAW.
During my “Summer of Busk,” my main focus was performing songs with live loops – beatboxing and using percussive guitar to build up a full band sound, piece by piece. One of my favorite songs to showcase this technique is OneRepublic’s ‘Counting Stars’: