A Little More Cam...Kind Of

You know why Cam Newton has caused such a reaction?

Because Cam is the type of person who gets a reaction.  He is just is that way…ever since I’ve known about him, that’s what he does.

There are other people who, totally despite themselves…slip under the radar, or always come off authentic, or worried, or get away with things, or can’t get attention, or come off self righteous.

It’s vibe, energy, the thing you emit.

And some people are just lightning rods for chatter.

I know quite a few other people like Cam.  They walk into a room and people notice.  People love talking about them, be it good or bad.  Once their name comes up, everyone has an opinion.

Don’t you know people like this too?

My friend Nick calls them sitcom friends. There could be a television show about any of these type people and for some reason everyone else would care…and talk about them.

Being someone who is constantly prompting opinions and reactions from others is a true gift, and also a burden.

I don’t feel bad for Cam.  I don’t feel good for him either.  I don’t know him.

He’s someone who gets a reaction, causes a stir, a magnet of attention.  That’s his gift and his struggle.

Despite what you do, or what you say, or the clothes you wear, or the car you drive…what do you put out there?

It’s probably a source of your greatest strength and greatest weakness.

p.s.  Athletes view themselves as athletes.  The general population, including myself, consumes athletics as entertainment.  The games are usually entertaining.  The post game interviews almost never are…not the case on Sunday.

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

Nightcap 4

The quieter the conversation, the more information you’ll learn.

You know how you’re always losing sunglasses…I’m always finding sunglasses.

I guess Gotye is just somebody that we used to know.

Does talking about what might happen have any effect on what will happen? If so, keep talking. If not, shut it.

Life is too short to save money buying bad toilet paper.  

Of course it’s in the last place you looked…you wouldn’t keep looking more places after you found it.

Waiting around never looks cool.

Your job is living in the not-knowing.

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

Starving Artist

We have starving artists everywhere.  It’s a struggle.  They can’t keep up.  They don’t stand a chance.

Both big artists and small artists are struggling because they insist on eating the cupcakes instead of the four course meal.

It doesn’t matter the level of success you’ve achieved, if you keep only paying attention to, and seeking out cupcakes you will never sustain.

Cupcakes are sugar pops, adrenaline pops.  The phone call you’re opening a big tour.  Your song is finally on the radio.  Taylor Swift tweeted at you.  The standing ovation.

Cupcakes are tasty, but the buzz always fades.  It wasn’t designed to sustain. It’s a cupcake.  It’s delicious, and you should absolutely enjoy it…but it’s a cupcake.

When artists start centering their diets around cupcakes, the end result is an empty belly, an empty core.

You don’t have to be a starving artist.  No matter what level you’re on.

Start incorporating and even enjoying the full meal now.  Even the vegetables.

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

Saturday At 9pm

I’m going to move you at 9pm on Saturday.

Bold.

But isn’t that the underlying goal of having a performance on Saturday? And what’s the point of having them show up at 9pm?  If they wanted to hear your songs at 9pm they would open up Spotify.

Your responsibility at 9pm is to move people.  If you got up there, played zero songs, but moved the people in the room, no one would complain.

The great artists and performers understand the boldness, confidence, honor and responsibility of believing the first sentence of this post, and insert it into their conscious and subconscious.

I’m going to move you at 9pm on Saturday. Man that sounds arrogant.  Waaaaay too over the top.  Borderline narcissistic.

Think about your next show.  Think about the people coming to the show.  All 10 of them or all 10,000 of them.  Now deliver the message to them in your mind…(and even more powerfully) say it out loud…

I am going to move you at Xpm on Xday.

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

Screws Up

When I got out of college I did a lot of interior painting.  I was able to get pretty good in the course of about six months because I knew a guy who owned a big apartment complex, so as people would move out I would go in and repaint the units.

It was cool because, since they were pretty dingy apartments, it didn’t matter if I made mistakes.  At first I made lots of mistakes (including spilling 5 gallons of paint on a kitchen floor), then I made less, and by the end of the summer my mistakes were few and far between. And I was fast.

So it was time to venture out of the apartment world and begin bidding and painting jobs on my own.

I painted homes for people in Nashville, Brentwood, Franklin, Belle Meade…anyone who would hire a painter who wore skinny jeans.

I would go in, do a GREAT job painting, but you know what I got the most fanfare for?

When I put the light switch plates and outlet covers back on, I always lined the screws up vertically.  Perfectly vertically.

THEY WOULD COMMENT ON THE FREAKING SCREWS!

I just got done doing a magnificent job, a job that took months to learn, painting their walls and trim and doors…and it was the screws.

I was paid to paint, but remembered for the screws.

Paid for 99% of the job, remembered for 1%.

You’ve spent months or years making your great record, you’ve rehearsed a gajillion hours for the tour.  There’s your 99%.

What’s your 1%?  Cause it’s all great.  The whole thing is great, now we just need something to remember it by.

What’s your vertical screws?

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

Magic Doesn’t Need A Reason

Most of the time sentiments like these are thrown around in the studio to give validation to an individuals desire to change or not-change something.

The desires are completely relevant, the reasons (well, the ones that are usually verbalized) are not.  The reasoning falls apart.

Own your desires.  Your opinions are valuable in the studio, in and of themselves, because they are YOUR opinions, and you have the magic touch.  

Trust your gut.  State what you want.  Communicate what you hear in your head.  

Magic doesn’t need a reason.

Here are some all too common studio sentiments…

1. The kick drum (or insert any other instrument) needs to be turned up for radio.

If you’re in the studio talking about what will or will not work on radio, but you don’t have a radio team, who cares.  If you do have a radio team and you ACTUALLY want their input on your track, I’m sure they’ll give it to you.

2. The vocal needs to sit on top for tv/film.

Most of the time the sync company will require an instrumental version of the song and then a separate stem of the vocal so the TV show can mix the vocals as loud or soft as they’d like.

3.  We need to get to the chorus faster for the passers-by who happen to click this song.

This is a scary road to go down.  Stop worrying about the people who might hear it and consider the people who WILL hear it.

4. We need to add mandolin and a cheap keyboard to attract some of the indie crowd.

Again, this is a scary road to go down.  Stop worrying about the people who might hear it and consider the people who WILL hear it.

5.  Let’s keep it under 3 minutes for a million reasons.

According to StatCrunch who did a study of the iTunes Top 100 Chart, the current average length of song is 3:43. The last time the average song was actually under three minutes was in the 1950’s and 60’s.

6.  If it’s good enough for the Beatles it should be good enough for us.

For every example of something working, there’s an example of it not working.  The feedback at the beginning of the Beatles “I Feel Fine” defines the track! But how many thousands and thousands of songs since then have started with feedback (because The Beatles did it!!!!!) and it’s just stupid.

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