Chad Lewine: Worlds Combine

I have fragmented my world into two halves for my whole life, keeping my business/web design world separate from my art/music world, but that ends today.

When I started putting my real name on my art and music again earlier this year, I also created a new LinkedIn account to match, and switched my web design LinkedIn to “Chad D.L.” I didn’t want my music fans finding my business persona, because it may have turned them off, and vice versa for web design clients, but that split has been doing more damage than good these last few months.

I kept the sides of myself walled off because that is what the machine tells you you must do. “You cannot mix occupations, you must work here and play there, you can't be an expert in more than one field, you can't be an artist and a business person, you can't be A and B at the same time.”

F*** that.

Those are all lies. Lies we are told and lies we make invisible law. Lies we perpetuate without knowing. Today, I stop lying.

I am not industry.
I am not institution.
I am not just a web designer.
I am not just a musician.

I am both, and I am more.

I am not going to continue splitting up my power into silos to please the machine that demands we be "one thing" on account of "that's how you make money" - an occupation, a vocation.

I reject that. I am ALL of me. I apply ALL of my skills, every day, in myriad ways, all for the same purpose: to improve (humans’) life on Earth. That is what I exist to do. Didn’t know that? Now you do.

I can no longer keep this a secret from either "side" of my life.

I can't hide my web design business practices from my music fans and I can't hide my music endeavors from my website clients. I am Chad Lewine. I am all of it, and I do every single thing for the same reason: to help obliterate the chains that modernity has on humanity; to help liberate the hearts and minds from the oppressive, soul-slavery that most of us are born into.

I build websites to pay rent and keep food in the fridge, which I have barely been able to do my entire life. And while it has been traumatic, and I am building towards ending that instability soon, it has been okay, because with that time and energy left over, I make the music that carries the message. Music that shares alternative perspective, hard truths, ancient wisdom and scathing indictments of modern living in an easy to consume and understand format.

I use my web design skills to build the platform that conveys the music. And I've just discovered that I can use my catalog of songs to find projects and organizations that I already align with that need my web design and related services.

This has always been a self-perpetuating system, but the institutional standards I've adhered to, albeit few, were keeping that system from running without breaking down. There was always a leak somewhere, and now I know why—the leak stops today.

Today, I heal the last fragment, and I tear down the wall between chadworks, the “capitalist/economic” side of my life and “Chad Lewine,” the philosophical, artistic, music side of my life. They are both means to an end, the same end. They are both initiatives that sprawl out from Chad Lewine. And that is where I heard the click. It feels right. It feels complete. No hiding, contortion or suppression on either side.

This is who I am.
This is what I do.
This is why I do it.

Chad Lewine the artist.
chadworks the digital architect.
Same purpose.
Same Chad.

So if you search for Chad Lewine, pretty soon, you’ll see my web design properties come up alongside my music and art. This is the way it has to be. I am not a calculated brand that serves a demographic. I am not a humble freelancer people-pleasing my way to big client contracts.

I am a complete person with a clear mission and purpose, with an engine to pursue both. That same engine—my music and my web design—helps others pursue theirs. Ignition, go.