Letters to the Editor
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IQ is totally meaningless
Nothing wrong with starting a band at 45 (although goth/industrial has been over for a long time now), but give up your illusions of your intelligence and creativity. If you have something to say, just say it, without judging yourself or others. Everyone can see through a superiority complex.
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you ask about music and you get seaweed.
Sometimes Cary is beyond me. This doesn't really seem very complicated, but hey, maybe it's because I'm not a 45 year-old man whose gut's not getting any smaller and whose hair isn't getting any thicker. But seriously, isn't most industrial/goth music made by people wearing corpse paint and wigs? Dude, who the hell is even going to know how old you are? Just don't pull a Gene Simmons. The worst mistake you can commit is letting people see you without your "face". It's disturbing.
Ok, no really. I live in P-town as well and if you go to any shows at all you know that Portland is where hipsters of yore come to retire. Sure, sure, the cool kids all run around with their 20-something tatooed bodies making you feel old, old, old. But take heart in the fact that you live in a place with a gazillion other old farts wanting to still do something creative. Place an ad in the Mercury or on craigslist and wait for your phone to start "blowin' up". (P.S. That's what the kid's say when their phone rings.) And if you want to quit your job and say goodbye to your 401K, then do it. Move into a big old co-op (I know a lot of 40-something anarchist types if you're interested) and pay next to nothing in rent. Better yet, though, keep the shitty job, start the label, write off your "expenses" and "losses" (i.e. every cd, computer and car you buy for your "business") on your taxes for the next 20 years. Better yet, buy a house, build a studio, write that off. Just get on with the music recording. God knows we definitely need more podcasts.
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Get Over Yourself
If you wanted to play, you'd play. don't be a dilletante. Practice, get gigs, and let the road lead where it will. Fame? Get real. Deep satisfaction? Very possible. I'm pushing 61 with a short stick and I"m in two bands and play in clubs several times a month. I make very little money, but the energy you get back from a crowd that gets what you're doing is way beyond material trivia. Get off your ass and play, or shut up and stop pretending.
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No, not at all
The only time it's too late to start a band at 45 is if you're 46.
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Kind advice
J,
This thread is full of good advice; some sterner than needed and some quite encouraging.
Here's some more... read "Art and Fear", by Orland and Bayles, a short read on the perils and rewards of making art. It is one of the best books I own, and I have given away scores of copies.
Don't feel too alone. Lots of creative types are stuck in the tender trap of making an income in non-creative ways. The struggle I have always witnessed for the last 30 years as an engineer is for people to figure out that they are in a trap first, then to wiggle free as best they can. For some, it's a tearing away process; for others a death of ambition followed by a real death; for some, the development of sources of parallel fulfillment. Your story is whatever it is, but just adds to the throng of humanity doing the same thing... figuring out how to make something beautiful
Countless artists worked until late in life. A few of reknown actually started late, but it is the exception, not the rule.
I think at least one writer above encapsulated it with the 'We are already dead' motif. It's a fact. You must not put off the process of becoming fulfilled any longer. This is your last chance at life. Do something today to move yourself in that direction.
Good luck, have fun, show off! (Grow an extra thick skin, too! It'll come in handy!)
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Yes, you're too old.
Q: Is it too late to start a band at 45?
A: Yes.
Next question?
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start a band
Another guy who thinks he is "real" and his coworkers are mindless robots. In some quarters that would be considered a mental illness.
You are going to be 45 you'd better start thinking about retirement unless you want to be reciting "fries with that" as a refrain.
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Playing vs. Performing
There's a difference between getting together with friends, making music and having fun and performance aimed at fame.
Sorting out the music from the fame is the key and in my mind they're two different things that many folks writing comments here have assumed go together.
Making music isn't all about performance: if you make music and no one is listening it's still great fun. If your aim is to get girls to swoon over you, that's a different story. Sort that out and you're on your way, either back to the cubicle or to buying a drum kit, guitar, or both.
If you just want to make music and have fun and keep your expectations for recognition beyond your immediate group low, there's little stopping you and my guess is in Portland (and almost anywhere else) there are enough folks just like you who want to make music so that you'll have little trouble putting a band together.
Want to dream? Watch The Commitments.
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Start a band
You should absolutely start a band.
I did wonder about this:
"dull-gray cubicles and nasty, mint-green walls. The people I work with, while nice, are not in any way relatable to me. I view them as mindless robots who do whatever society tells them to do."
Starting a band might give you something to care about more than the job and people you work with. But whatever it is that makes you unable to relate to those people will still be with you after you start a band (and most likely keep your day job.)
The problem lies elsewhere. Maybe you need a different job, with different people. Or are most other people mindless robots? You'll have to figure out where that comes from before you'll be happy, most likely.
The music world is as full of mindless robots as the corporate world. Playing in clubs for the last 20+ years I've found people to be the same everywhere in a lot of important ways.