Hello! My name is David Bellows. I’m a classically trained composer who studied under Jesse Ayers and James Pethel. I am currently living in Bellingham Washington.
I began my studies as a computer engineer major while in Texas. I moved to Tennessee where I eventually changed to music composition. I lived in Tennessee for many years after which I moved to Atlanta Georgia.
While in Atlanta I stopped composing. There are two main reasons for this. One is that I had no time for it as my job that I had in order to pay the bills became a 60+ hours per week job.
The other, more important reason, was that I wanted to compose following in the pioneering spirit of composers like John Cage and felt that they had pushed things as far as they could while still being able to call what they did music. There were still infinitely many pieces to be written in infinitely many styles yet to be created, but music that challenges how we think fundamentally about music? Well, after Cage's 4'33'' where else can one go? I explore all this in greater depth in my essay The Postmodern Condition (pomoco for short).
After very many depressing years in Atlanta I hit the road and ended up in Bellingham Washington where I set up camp, in, well, a tent in the woods. I had an opportunity that few get late in life which was to completely redefine my life and do the one thing that ever felt meaningful to me: compose music.
I had come to terms with the pomoco and was willing to compose again within those constraints. But I was running out of time (age-wise) and felt that if I didn't devote every single minute to it that I would never gain any kind of success. So I lived in my tent and worked on my music 10-12 hours a day.
After about four years of this a patron put me up in their camper on their land for a nominal fee. This is a vast improvement to my living situation but it is temporary so I cannot let up.
We no longer live in an age of patronage. Or it's more decentralized than before. If you feel my music is worth bringing into the world then please consider donating to the cause on my support page.
You can reach me at davebellows@gmail.com.
Copyright 2017 David Bellows