Hanging Your Life On Desire

Don’t let desire mislead you or fool you.

I kid you not, still, every time I see any of the Mighty Ducks movies there is a tiny sliver of my heart that honest to goodness has a strong desire put the ice skates back on and become a hockey player.

But I shouldn’t listen to that desire.

When I hear of a friend opening a new hip restaurant in Nashville I think that’d be AMAZING, I want that.  I have desire for that.

Just because I want it, or a desire grows inside of me for it, doesn’t mean I should do it.

I don’t know a single songwriter in Nashville that doesn’t have some level of desire to be an artist too.

But they mute that desire at least for a season.

When I see Taylor Hawkins play drums.  Come on…everybody wishes they were a drummer.

When I’m riding in a van or sitting in my office or laying awake in bed at night there are all kinds of ideas, desires and dreams that come across my mind.  Some new, and some I’ve had around for quite a while.

But desire should not in and of itself equal commitment and action.

Desire is a crucial ingredient but not the only one you’ll need.

Don’t hang your life on desire alone.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Be Very

Very hot

Very cold

Very fast

Very slow

Very electro

Very theatrical

Very elegant

Very bombastic

Very sedated

Very enthusiastic

Your band should be very SOMETHING.

If you’re KIND OF a lot of things, but not VERY SOMETHING, back to square one.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Answers For Everyone...Except...

What would you do to jump start growth for a brand new band?

If some young kid came up to you and asked you this question, what would you say?

It’s funny, we have answers and a plan for everyone but ourselves.

What, you need me to tell you what to do??!! You want my opinion on how not to be an idiot??!!

Yes, I can help you with that.  And you can help someone else with that. Easy.

But can I help me with that?  That’s a lot harder.  But chances are most of the things I would tell a young band, business, person, friend, are a lot of the same things I should be listening to and doing.

So, if you weren’t in your band (or business), what would you tell your band to do, or not do, in order to experience growth?

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Permission

It’s ok to want something.

It’s ok to stick to what you want.

It’s ok if someone you like doesn’t get it.

It’s ok to have a vision that alienates some people.

Even people you respect.

It’s ok to ask those people you respect to simply trust you on this one.

It’s ok to not make everyone happy.

Everyone’s happiness is not your responsibility.

It’s ok if things get awkward.

It’s ok if there’s silence.

It’s ok to have a plan.

It’s ok to be unwavering in that plan.

It’s ok to change that plan.

It’s ok to have energy & motion when others are are content as Debby Downers or the Devils Advocates.

It’s ok to not have the entire plan right now.

It’s ok to not back down even though backing down would put the moment at ease.

You have permission to have lasting motivation, passion and belief in something that is not easily understood by others.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Likers & Lovers Intro

Here is the intro to my eBook called Likers & Lovers, which you can read and download for free here.

Introduction

I had just started a band (several years ago) in Nashville, and soon through hard work and some lucky breaks we began drawing a decent number of people to our shows in the city of Atlanta, GA.

We were playing at Smith’s Olde Bar or Vinyl every four or five months, pulling about 250 people.  Really exciting for a new, young band.

But there was an interesting thing happening.  The group of 250 wasn’t always the same group of 250 people.  Each time the band played Atlanta, I’d know and/or recognize 75 or-so people.

But on top of the 75 regulars, the other 175 were a revolving door.  A seemingly different group of 175 each time on top of the 75 regulars.  Obviously the 175 weren’t die hard fans of my band, or else they would have been showing up at least often enough to be part of the group of people I recognized.

So who were these 175 people and why were they there? (And a few other questions…where did they come from? How many different groups of 175 existed in Atlanta? What motivated this giant group? How did this group want to be communicated with?)

As it turns out, the people people in the groups of 175 LIKED my band (enough to come out once, or once in a while), as opposed to loved my band.

And after catching my breath with the realization that there were people on the planet who didn’t LOVE my band, I began to understand that the Likers were vital in achieving the goals we were chasing for our live shows in Atlanta at that time.  The Lovers were essential too.  But they’re two very different groups of people.

Read the rest here.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Believe And Bother

Have a simple, easy to follow “Contact” part of your website.

Along with your management, booking and PR contacts, have a band/artist contact email.  People want to believe they can reach you.  And if you’re not as big as Aerosmith, they SHOULD be able to reach you.

And don’t use one of those pre-fab forms.  Those are the worst.

Ya know, the forms where you fill in your name and the reason your emailing from a drop down menu.  No one believes they’re going to get read…so they don’t even bother.

And you want them to believe and bother.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com