Solomon Ganz

I’m the fifth of seven kids in an ultra orthodox jewish family. My parents wanted me to be a Rabbi and like all jewish parents, they were bound to be dissapointed.
When I started school it took me a few years to figure out the reading thing, and since most of religious judaism is reading I was screwed from the word go. In high school I toured America by getting thrown out of religious boarding schools and along that ride I learned a bit about the world. I discovered concerts, parties, literature, weed, psychedelics, and I started playing music.
When I finally dropped out of High School I came back to New York without a whole lot of direction. I spent most of my time not doing much, working odd end jobs, and crashing friends couches. After about four years of that I decided my general life direction was a little bleak so I pulled myself together, got my High School Degree, and went to Law School.
After Law School I felt I needed to get away for a bit so I hitchhiked down into Mexico and back up to Colorado where I worked as a white water raft guide for a while. After that I flew to Paris and hitchhiked across Europe to the Middle East. On that travel I had two great revelations, I performed music for the first time and fell in love with it, and I realised that I’d never truly been religious, I’d just followed the lead of everyone around me.
Once I ran out of money I came to New York, moved onto a friends couch, and took the Bar Exam. Even though I knew I didn’t want to be a Lawyer I’d just finished Law School and taking the Bar seemed like a prudent decision.
I passed the Bar and got an incredibly boring job. I sat at a desk for a few years where I did paperwork, interacted with some pleasant coworkers, and occasionally contemplated suicide to break the monotony.
After that I thought a career change was a in order so I got a job as a foreman for a construction company. While construction was a hell of a lot better then drafting legal documents I still felt like I was living someone else’s life. So I quit my job, packed a backpack, and headed to South East Asia for a few months to hit the reset button on my life.
I traveled around Asia for a while and when I started to run low on cash I decided to fly to Australia to see if I could pick up some work. A few days after landing I was on a train and I met this guy named Finn who invited me over to his place to smoke a joint.
After a smoke I picked up a guitar he had lying around and played a few songs he said, “Wow, you have a really nice voice, you should try busking (street performance)”. Before that I’d never considered playing music on the street, however, I didn’t have a whole lot going on as far as a plan so the next day I spent $80 on a guitar and played for about 4 hours on a street corner in Melbourne. I made $15.
The next few months I lived like that, I played music all day and barely made enough to pay for a bed in a hostel, when I didn’t have money for food I ate at a local soup kitchen, but I’d never been happier. I was filled with life and energy, I’d never thought that earning money as a musician was possible and suddenly it was.
After a few months I started to get better, as a musician and as a performer. I saved enough money to buy a ticket to Ireland where I continued play my music and refine what I have of value to share.
For the past three years that’s been my life, traveling, performing my songs on the streets of the world, and meeting amazing people along the way, it’s been a dream and I look forward to what tomorrow has to offer.