Can we work effectively from a campervan? Can we provide our usual music search and sync licensing services for advertising campaigns from the Australian Outback? Is it a realistic way to have a working holiday in the Age of COVID? Two weeks on the road with Bruce, Clare, and Spike the Rottweiler/Husky cross puppy.
You’ll find the full transcript below:
Bruce:
A road trip in the Australian Outback. Actually, an experiment. Can we do our music licensing work on the road? Well, stick around and find out. And the soundtrack for this particular day was The Rolling Stones, ‘Let It Bleed’, 1969.
So, an experimental road trip for two weeks. Me, Clare and Spike on the road again, and we were really trying to do a working holiday. So the question is, how hard is it to work on music supervision out of a campervan?
Well, the office set up was pretty reasonable. There was room for two people in the back or under a tree or on the porch, or even in the yard. The map, day one from home in Manly down to Gundagai. Day two, across the bottom of New South Wales to Euston. Day three, up into the Outback. We spent a few days around the Broken Hill area, then across through the hot Outback to Cobar. Then the next day, a long drive to Tamworth, over the mountains to the beaches where we spent most of the second week. Then finally, a run down the coast to home. 3,228 long kilometres.
Lesson number one. Don’t go to the Outback in late spring, because it’s really frigging hot. The temperature gauge here says 38 and a half, but it was 39 to 41 on most days. It was okay at night because we were connected to the air conditioning in the caravan parks, and it was okay when we were driving. That wasn’t too bad. But in the daytime you couldn’t work in the back of the van, it was too hot. And if you got out, it was baking hot. Here’s a little video of me trying to work, pulled over by the side of the road at a rest stop with flies.
Clare:
Working away, working away on a music short list. Yeah, chasing flies. Ah, life in the Outback.
Bruce:
Lesson number two. Travelling with a six-month-old puppy is like travelling with a baby. He was pretty good in the van itself. He either lay on the floor or lay between the seats and slept all day. But man, when we got to stop somewhere, he had to be on the lead all the time. He’s not old enough to be trusted not to run away, so he had to be constantly supervised. He got bored, he got tangled up, and he needed a lot of attention.
Clare:
Where’s your toy? Show me your toy. Go on. That’s it. Oh, yes.
Bruce:
So, we did find ourselves like this quite often. One eye on the phone, one eye on Spike.
Lesson number three. When you’re travelling, shit happens. One example in particular, I was backing into this tight parking spot in the camping ground, trying to avoid this stump, and this clothesline leapt out and stabbed its arm through the back window, resulting in glass everywhere. So I spent about two hours in the blazing afternoon heat, 40 degrees, vacuuming glass out of the grass. And then we spent most of next morning trying to figure out how to tape it up and repair it. We did a pretty good job, really. I have to say, we had to push ourselves pretty hard at times to maintain our professional standards. I guess that’s the cost of travelling. You got to work a bit harder sometimes.
Lesson number four, the biggest one of all, really. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your surroundings are, if you want to work, you’ve got to have wifi. Beautiful caravan park, dog’s happy, Clare’s happy, and this is our campground resident, a big goanna. But in order to get reliable internet, we had to walk up the hill to a picnic table outside the office. So that’s where we had to work sometimes. On the other hand, there were many truly wonderful moments. The Murray River at dawn, the Mad Max Museum at Silverton. Silverton itself. It’s really a jewel in the desert, somewhere special. Spike meeting Little Miss Piggy in the Outback.
Clare:
Go piggy, go.
Bruce:
Go piggy.
Barbeque steak, Spike’s very first visit to the beach, Spike’s very first swim, and a rainbow.
So here we are back from our holiday, including Spike. Hey, Spike.
Clare:
Spikey.
Bruce:
Spikey. Look.
So overall, what’d you think of the trip?
Clare:
Well, first week was survival, and second week was a bit of a holiday.
Bruce:
Yes, it was difficult at times, but I thought it was worth it overall.
Clare:
Yes, it was worth it. It is a holiday or a trip to remember.
Bruce:
And if we did it again, what would you do differently?
Clare:
I wouldn’t go in a camper van.
Bruce:
Yeah, I think if we were going to do it for a long period of time, a caravan’s the way to go because you don’t have to pack everything up to go to the shop.
Clare:
And you’ve got more room.
Bruce:
But the absolutely critical thing that we learned is you’ve got to have wifi wherever you go, maybe a satellite phone or something. Otherwise, it’s really hard.
Clare:
Because we’re workaholics. We’ve got to work everywhere, so we’ve got to have wifi everywhere.
Bruce:
That’s it. And in case you don’t know us already and you’re wondering what all the work is that we do, we find songs and we license songs for use in advertising campaigns. So if you need any music licensing, let us know. See you later.
Clare:
If you like it, share it.
Please contact us if you need help with music searches or licensing songs for advertising campaigns, or just want to chat about music and advertising. We would love to hear from you! About anything really.
bruce at musicmill.com.au
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-tweedie-musicmill
Website: www.musicmill.com.au
Credit: the opening and closing sequences feature “Strong Hands” from Ben Catley:
The song: https://soundcloud.com/bencatley/stro…
About Ben: open.spotify.com/artist/66OGdUyXn2WSipn6ZYq7id
Disclaimer re copyright and fair use: https://www.musicmill.com.au/fair-use/
