Software Developer to Rapper to Children’s Book Author
A Quick
Guide to Aaron Prohaska
Where did I start?
Life is a crazy path that can take you down many roads if
you allow it. Today I turn 39 and when I look back I would have never expected
most of the events of my life.
In high school, I was so nerdy and shy. By the end of my
senior year I had only been on one date and never been kissed. I figured I
would become The 40-Year-Old Virgin (thought that movie hadn’t even been
thought of). The only thing I got right was that I would go into the computer
trade.
The Software
Developer
I became a software developer and worked for all kinds of
industries: defense contractors, local government, insurance, printing, and a
couple huge financial organizations. Even the most interesting of these, a satellite
communication project, left me feeling like I’m just a cog in a wheel with
little impact on the direction of the applications I create. More importantly,
I had no control as to the type of impact I had on the world. I had to build
what I was told to build.
Somewhere along the way I grew an appreciation for ghetto
rap music. Though I didn’t fit the typical target demographic, I would sing
along with my 12-inch sub woofers pounding away in my car. I liked the music
because of a few reasons, the beats were strong, the vocal gymnastics were
impressive, and it told a story about a side of life that I never experienced…
a side of life that I didn’t know existed.
I have described my life as “Leave it to Beaver” on many occasions but even The
Beav had challenges though his life would be considered easy by ghetto
standards. Still, I wanted to take the genre of rap and apply it to my life. I
had a plan, a two-album story with album one describing the challenges of my life
with a follow up album to share my ideas on how to correct them. That is where
I always felt rap fell apart. They did a great job of describing the issues but
never shared a solution, at least not in the mainstream music on the radio.
Middle Class Monotony was born.
The Rapper
I had a simple definition of success. Most importantly, I
wanted my music to be available to the public from mainstream online music
stores. Beyond that, all I wanted was to be interviewed.
It took from 2006 to 2010 to make Middle Class Monotony. Between 3 moves, 2 kids, and learning every
inch of music production from scratch, it was a long and trying project. In the
end, I was proud of what I created. The project concluded with 14 tracks,
professional looking CD case, available on iTunes and Amazon, and 2 web sites.
I had achieved the critical marker for success. It was time to sell the album. Though
the marketing strategy didn’t work, it was at least an interesting story.
I had 1000 CDs printed. I would take 50 CDs at a time into
stores like Walmart, Best Buy, and Target. I carried them in a reusable grocery
bag. You may be wondering what the heck I was thinking, sneaking CDs into a
store. I would put them in laptop bags, storage containers, and suitcases. Any
place that a person would end up at home with a copy of the CD. I would move popular
artists’ music CDs off main displays and put Middle Class Monotony in their
place. I would even put them in the bread slots of toasters on display. Any
place that would result in someone having the CD or creating a laughable
scenario was fair game.
I never thought giving away CDs was the receipt of success but I thought
creating a buzz was. I hoped that the stores would start finding the CDs and
comparing how many they found between locations. I was hoping the story of finding
the CDs would spread and news outlets would want to interview me, thus
completing my second goal. Unfortunately, I didn’t think my actions through. I
didn’t see the possible negative outcomes. I got a call from Walmart stating
that a child found the CD and their parents were upset because the CD had a parental
advisory sticker on it. I cannot confirm that the story was true but it was not
my intention to upset people. Having said that, even bad publicity is still
publicity. I embraced the mistake and created a “public service announcement” of
sorts. I blasted all the local news outlets apologizing on behalf of Double A Records
(my record label) to any families affected by the negligence of the record
label. Channel 6 left me a message wanting to talk … I had my interview, I just
had to make contact. The story goes south from there. We played phone tag and I
never got that interview. I was so close.
I know the album wasn’t the best musical compilation. I never expected it to
win awards and be embraced by the masses but I had hoped some people walking in
shoes like mine would appreciate it. I don’t know if it is more important to
sound good than be deep or if it is just impossible to create a viral movement;
either way I didn’t have the following to warrant creating a second album. You
never know, maybe I’ll come back to it.
The Writer
After Middle Class Monotony, I wasn’t sure how I wanted to
share my inner thoughts in a marketable way. I still felt I had ideas to share.
My first writing experience, from start to finish, was a screenplay called Seeking
Singularity and entered it into the Academy Nicholl Fellowship contest. The
contest didn’t produce much feedback and I didn’t have anyone in my life that
could really help with producing a movie.
For many years my kids would ask me to tell stories while I
was chauffeuring them from place to place. Their favorite stories were about
our dog, Bosley. Well, the stories were about Bosley’s alter ego, Mountain-Time
Country Dog. After some time, we even came up with a theme song. The family found
a routine where the kids would request a new story then I would say, “no, no, I’m
out of stories”. After a few minutes pause I would break out the theme song, “Mountain-Time,
Little Mountain-Time, Mountain-Time Country Dog… In this adventure
Mountain-Time…” and they would cheer and hoot and holler.
One day the kids asked me to write the stories down. What a
great idea, so simple. Leading to this moment where I get to announce the first
book in The Adventures of Mountain-Time Country Dog series, Mountain-Time
Learns to Surf.
Where I had concern with my music, that it wasn’t good
enough and that it was amateur, I don’t feel that way with this book. There was
plenty to learn for sure. I had never illustrated before and I wanted to use my
logical developer mind to create illustrations quickly. I researched different
styles and landed on a combination of Elephant and Piggie, by Mo Willems, and
South Park, by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. I would keep the backgrounds to a
minimum with just a couple of characters in each frame. The main characters
would be built modular so that I can move pieces around to and put them in
different positions quickly and easily. Because of this technique I could
finish the first draft of the book within a couple months, which included
learning the software I developed the book in. I’m excited to see the
production time of the next book.
How do I know it’s a good book? How can I be objective with
my own work? It’s tough, that is for sure so I had to hit the streets. I would
take my Surface Book with me and when there were people sitting around with
kids, not doing much, I would ask them to preview it. I even asked adults
without kids to tell me what they think. The book targets 2nd and 3rd
graders but I have found that kids as young as 4 enjoy looking at the pictures,
pointing out different things they see. Older kids, my daughters age (11), find
it deep enough to talk about the situations and still laugh at the silly
images. Even the adults would laugh out-loud at times because I have thought of
some oddball scenario. They usually follow up with, “how do you think of this
stuff?”
There is a message in the book but as most children’s
content goes, the parents and guardians should put context around it. There are
not 3 easy steps to every solution for every situation, though that is all we
have time to put into our stories of this age group. I have placed a section of
author’s notes at the end of the book that are meant to strike up conversation.
This means the book is meant to be read adult and child together.
Mountain-Time Country Dog exists outside of time. He can be anywhere and
everywhere he is needed. The stories will have extremely silly situations but
with a little context and a little discussion, they will dive into deep
concepts… as deep as you want to dive anyway.
The Marketing Firm
My current role is that of the marketing firm. It isn’t my favorite
role. I must be confident all the time. I must be available whenever someone is
willing to talk. I get to be creative but in a way that can easily lead to a
slimy feeling, like I’m trying to trick you into reading the book. I don’t want
to do that.
There is a joke about a husband and wife where the husband
leaves the hand towel on the counter and the wife wants it hung up. She finally
gets fed up and comments. The husband says, “if you want the towel hung up just
tell me to hang it up.” The wife replies, “I don’t want to force you to hang it
up, I want you to want to hang it up.” I feel the same applies here, I want you
to want to read the book.
The Human
So, I’m going to be honest and tell you everything. The good
and the bad. I’ll share my ups and downs. I will tell you who I am as an adult,
as a husband, as a father, as a man, and any other aspect living inside this
brain of mine. I’m not going to be perfect but I’ll be real and I will share
every bit of knowledge I have. I’m not in competition with other children’s
books, I’m part of a community of writers. I look forward to promoting their
books and their stories. Strength is displayed when we all work together and success
is achieved when we all succeed.
As I achieve my goals with my books and can dedicate more
of my time and money to it, you’ll see many more forums for which we can share
our knowledge with each other. We will be an interactive society helping each
other grow. So, check out Mountain-Time Learns to Surf and tell me what you
like, what you don’t like. Let’s open a dialog. Go on Spotify or Soundcloud and
check out Middle Class Monotony for free. You’ll see where I came from, though
some of my mindset has changed since then. I’m not scared for you to see who I
really am. I refuse to be the typical face of a product where I hide my faults
to gain your trust.
Come along and lets go on this journey together.