30 Seconds To Mars Documentary: Artifact

I’m killing a bunch of time at a hotel in Valdosta, GA and just finished watching the 30 Seconds To Mars documentary called Artifact.  I’m a couple years behind.  Should you watch it? Yes, it’s worth your time.

A few of the most interesting things about it:

1. Jared Leto- I’ve never really liked him.  I think he’s a good actor but every time I’ve seen him interviews, awards shows, or in person, he’s always comes off as a self indulgent narcissist who is trying so incredibly hard to be thought of as creative and artsy.  I can just feel it.  And your vibe is important.

But I’ll say this. After watching the documentary, while he still comes off as arrogant and self important, I totally get his deal.  I get why so many people all around the world love him and his band.  He’s willing to be a thing, speak a certain way, do things in a consistent manor that draws people in enough to have an opinion one way or the other.  Gotta give him credit.

The very essence of Jared Leto that drives me away from him is the same thing that makes him magnetic to so many others.  If every artist could have such vision.

2.  Artists want a record deal/label because they think the label is going to provide leadership and a plan.  And 99% of artists can’t come up with this on their own or within their team.  

It’s funny watching this documentary even 2 years after the fact, hearing people like Irving Azoff, Jason Flom and Bob Lefsetz talk about the state of the music business and where it’s headed.  Most of their commentary is already incredibly outdated.  

So, why does 30 Seconds To Mars and their management team end up resigning with EMI?  Because they believed that EMI would provide channels of success via a plan, money and leadership to make the band more successful

If the artist is the owner of their own company, why aren’t the artists doing the leading?  Taking ownership of their team?  Keeping their rough edges that make them an artist but hiring enough good and talented people to have a team that is rounded out?

3. The borrower is always slave to the lender.  The older I get the more I realize nearly every cliche I’ve heard is true.  Do you want to be in the drivers seat? Don’t borrow money from a record label.  

Do you want to be a band that breaks the mold?  Keeps creative control?  Revolutionizes the music industry all over again?  Maintains freedom?  Are you willing to truly be a leader of your team? Are you willing to point the finger at yourself for both the success and the failure of your career? Don’t borrow money from anyone.

I didn’t say don’t work with a record label. I didn’t say don’t work with others.  I didn’t say you could do it all on your own.  You can’t.

But this idea that an artist can borrow $10,000 or $100,000 or $5,000,000 and think they still hold the reigns of their band. Ha!

Your band borrowing money changes the entire landscape of your business structure. For the worse.  A structure that YOU are the leader of, because they’re YOUR songs and if you/your band “step down”, the entire entity ceases to exist.  

Find a better way.

The most inspiring thought in Artifact comes right near the end…

“Some kid is going to write a song, and he’s gonng figure it out, and he’s gonna sell a hundred million copies of his single, by himself.  He’s going to make a billion dollars…and that’s going to be the new beginning”

I’ll refine it a little and say this:

Some kid is going to write a really great song and a relatively small team, with revolutionary leadership, is going to make that song heard and known by the majority of the people on the planet and they’re gonna make a billion dollars.  And that’s going to be the new beginning.

If You're Not Listening To Serial

You need to be.

The season one finale is next Thursday and you need to be on board when it either comes together or falls apart.

People say that the public doesn’t have an attention span anymore, that we need explosions, special effects, sex or at least a visual medium to stay engaged.  I can’t tell you how many musicians boo-hoo about that fact that they can’t get anyone to listen to their 40 min album.  

They would if it was as good as Serial.

The success of Serial literally harkens back the days (which I wasn’t around for) of sitting around the radio set listening to a Sunday night murder mystery.

Only this story is real. And there’s 12 episodes of 30-50 mins each.  It has millions and millions of downloads/listens!  Don’t tell me people don’t have time for your album. They do! It just has to be really really great.

And I’ll tell you this too, Serial is even better when you listen to it a second time through.  I picked up on more details.  I kept the details of everyone’s timelines better.  There were alternate moments from the first listen that I thought different characters were more guilty and less guilty. (Jen knows much more than she’s telling, obviously)  

This thing is worth getting in to.

Is your album or show worth getting in to? Is it as good as Serial? Is it as riveting as Interstellar?  Is there as much visible passion as the Alabama/Auburn game?

Your competing for people’s time and you’re competing with all the platforms for that time.  That’s the new system.  The internet.

If Sarah Koenig can pull off a climactic season finale next week, she will be knighted and ushered in as The Beatles of 2014.  She will be the queen of the castle.  Everyone’s hero.  Everyone’s champion.  Everyone’s personal storyteller that everyone else found out about.

Go and listen: http://serialpodcast.org

Your Band Has Problems

Every step you climb on the ladder of success, you will be handing off one set of problems for another.

The second you leave your bedroom with your guitar and decide to play for more than your pillows, there will be problems that take you to the edge.  And have the power to push you over it.

When you start out, you lose sleep over the fact that no one will email you back to book a show.  It’s enraging.  I’ve been there. Don’t they know how good your band is? You worked so hard on your Facebook page and everything.

You think “man if we could just get these shows booked, THEN things would really be happening”.

If you’re not careful, you will repeat the previous sentence everyday of your career with a different stress/problem/anxiety ridden thought replacing the first part.

Remember, the only reason you’re dealing with the problems you have today is because you’ve achieved the level of success you have.  Appreciate it.  

Katy Perry doesn’t worry about booking shows.  You don’t worry about putting your reputation on the line at the SuperBowl. 

There’s a long line of monsters waiting for you. One at a time. Bring your slingshot.

RollingStone Fiasco

What? You mean to tell me that RollingStone failed to do accurate, thorough reporting, putting out a story too quickly just to get a reaction and sell magazines and advertising? Doesn’t sound like them at all.

It’s too bad they reported such a relevant story with such amateur reporting.

But wasn’t it just earlier this week that the entire entertainment community was blasting RollingStone for their inability to crown a somewhat deserving Album of the Year?

My how we giveth and we taketh away credibility when it fits our own narrative for what we want to hear and feel.

We blasted them for not doing a good job covering what the magazine is founded upon (music), yet initially took as gospel a report that is way outside their strength and foundation.  So are we surprised?

It used to be that artists covered the social/legal side and then the magazine covered the artists.  Today’s artists are too scared to publicly have an opinion, but then again no one is asking them or really looking to them for that anymore.  But at least Questlove made a call to action HERE

I’m just old enough to remember when RollingStone was at least primarily music reporting. But in the midst of their declining credibility in that area, they expanded outward to cover politics, social issues, justice, and world topics.  Great idea.  Move away from your strength which your company was founded upon and start doing lots of things not very well.

RollingStone should go back to doing a great job reporting on music, the music business needs that.  And lots of people would benefit from it.

Make a list of all the things you are able to do and realize that just because you’re able, doesn’t mean you should.

In fact, aside from the top 2 or 3 things, you should probably run far far away from everything else on the list.  They’re distractions, not options.

All The U2 Stuff

U2 gets the ever more worthless pat on the back from RollingStone with their Album of the Year title the same week U2 announces it’s tour/tickets on sale.

Obviously not an accident.

I think the first half of Songs Of Innocence is decent, but I’m a fan of U2 so I’m gonna give them the benefit anyway.  There’s just no smash on the album. Miracle was kinda close, but it needs to be faster and Larry should have just bashed the drums through the chorus instead of making it complicated.

But I’m glad they had the guts to do the Apple thing.  Do you think they didn’t know they would get tons of backlash?

That’s the thing about U2.  They’re willing to be bold enough to kick people off the fence, one way or the other.  People have an opinion about U2, and after the Apple thing it was actually impressive how many people got upset about it.  They really reacted.

If you’ve read about Bono at all, he’s having a laugh cause getting a reaction is on the top of his priority list.  For all the people hating U2 or the new album or that they’re too old or that they try too hard, there are enough people that buy tickets and sell out a worldwide tour for the band.  There are that many people who LOVE U2.

U2 found a way, after all these years, to stir the pot.  When is the last time your band did something so bold as to make people fall in love with you or completely hate you?

But I am surprised their PR rep went after the RollingStone thing.  I would have thought the band was a bit more savvy than that.  Cause they don’t have the album of the year.

I’ve heard Bono say that if the band releases “2 crap albums in a row” that they’d pack it up and be done.  No Line On The Horizon didn’t exactly sparkle, but the corresponding 360 tour did.  So is Songs of Innocence a the second crap album?  I wouldn’t go that far.

The band still sounds good enough to be inspiring. Bono’s voice is still in good enough shape to make an impact, he can still nail those notes that make you levitate.  And with enough perceived failure, they might even get hungry enough to eek out one more great song.

I hope so.

Can Someone Do Your Impression?

Back in the beginning of November,  Jay Leno was on Jimmy Fallon.  Did you see this?  Leno was a total jerk to Jimmy.  Although I’m sure Leno thought he was being discreet, he wasn’t.  Totally obvious.  HERE’s a clip. 

What Jay Leno hates more than anything, so I’ve heard, is when people do impressions of him.  And Jimmy slipped a few Jay impressions in during the episode.  So maybe that’s what made him act like a middle schooler on the playground who just got beat in tetherball by the new kid.

It’s true, the only impression that I can do is the same one everyone can do: Arnold Schwarzenegger.  The phrase I usually use is “Get out of here”.

But I bet you or I could at least make a stab at some other ones, with words, actions or both: Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon, Bill Clinton, Bono, Jay-Z, Christopher Walken, Bob Dylan, John Madden, Ron Burgundy.

Why is that?

Repetition.

They are known for being one certain way, sounding one certain way and they do it over and over and over again.  They are not afraid of being known as something.  Except for Jay Leno. He hates it.

Can someone do an impression of you?

Or are you too afraid of being pigeon holed that you’re not known for anything at all.  I know you wanna make your equivalent of Sgt. Pepper’s, but have you made Meet The Beatles yet?

For some reason artists get the idea that they can cast their nets as wide as the gap between Republicans and Democrats, and conquer all. But they fail to realize that when thinking of the big acts that they’re trying to achieve the same level of success of, they have the amazing ability to boil that artist down to “oh yeah, they’re the band that…”

Stop trying to be known for so many things.  Start with one, and make it count.  

I want to be able to do an impression of you.

Paul Harvey…..good day.