Hey guys, bit more of a personal post, but wanted to get a temperature check.
I started making beats on FL Studio when I was 17 (~6 years ago now) and soon, it was all I could think about. My friends would bump trap music all the time in high school, and being able to replicate that sound was so satisfying. I was constantly trying to improve, and spending my paychecks on plugins. One of my friends has been trying to make it as a rapper, and I started recording my own vocals too. We became something of a 'dynamic duo,' and at my peak, I could make a beat in 15 minutes and turn it into a finished song in just a few hours. I even learned mixing/mastering at a pretty high level (though I'm by no means a professional) and I look at the songs that we made together when we were 19-20 and I'm still surprised by how decent they sound.
But since then, I went to university. I actually began taking my studies pretty seriously, so there was less and less time for music. My musical horizons have expanded, and with more responsibilities, I've also been finding it hard to connect with the lyrics of rappers. Money, clothes, drugs, women... I sometimes get a little bit annoyed if I listen to it for too long.
I've just graduated, though, and I've been trying to get back into this hobby, but it's been really tricky. I can't even come up with basic melodies, and every 'song' is a 4-bar loop. Making music in other genres has been hard, too, because my workflow and plugin library are still pretty geared towards "experimental trap."
Has anybody else (especially people 25+) experienced a mindset shift like this, and if so, what did you do? I'm 23 now, so still quite young, but my dreams of becoming even a locally-known artist are... basically non-existent. My boy still wants to make it, and I can tell he's disappointed that my ambitions have changed. Wondering if I was ever even doing this "for myself," or if a lot of my passion was caused by fantasies of fame.
Much love, guys. <3