Tell Me About Your Band

Artists get this prompt a million times by music biz people as well as general fans.

How will you respond? Why will you respond that way?

You can either tell the facts or you can tell a story. 

If all you do is tell the facts, you will live and die by them.  You can absolutely gain ground and succeed by telling the facts, but it’s slippery and political.  When the facts are favorable, opportunities are open and easy.  When your facts don’t measure up, you have nothing to lean back on, and the fact-crunchers don’t care anymore.

Facts speak to the mind (important), a story speaks to the heart (more important).

So even when your facts aren’t great, the story still entices us to believe.  Both you and us can believe a story DESPITE the facts.

When the facts are that you used to play big theaters and now you’re only playing big clubs…that’s a death blow if all you’ve ever done is pedaled your numbers to people.

But in-spite of these facts you lean into the story of your culture…for instance…of making everyone feel hopeful after coming to your show, more confident after every business meeting, more united after every business phone call, and never stop creating music that makes each fan float off the floor a little bit when they hear it.

“Tell me about your band” is an invitation to move someone through the heart with a story.  Your story.

Tell me about your band.

 p.s. Many times when biz people say “Tell me about your band”, they think they’re asking about your facts and bullet points, because that’s what they’re used to hearing all day.  But we’re all human, we all want to be taken for a ride, we all want to hear a story that makes us come alive, something that makes us feel connected…and we don’t even know why but we FEEL it.

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

Enter In

You’ve played these songs a lot.  You wrote some of them forever ago, and have moved on from that subject matter.  You don’t connect with the tunes.  They’re old. Maybe you don’t even like these songs anymore but you are obligated to the fans to play them.  

You play them anyway, sing the notes, play the chords, act like you care, clock in, clock out.

You need to find an entry point.

A way back into the song.

You need to be able to go somewhere in your mind that allows you to reconnect with the song.  A place, feeling, relationship, a random detail, a random lyric in the song you let trigger you.  It doesn’t have to be the same mental space as when you wrote it, or even the same space you accessed the night before.

Find a way to enter in.

If you won’t believe, we won’t believe. If you will believe, we might believe.  But we need you to go first.

Finding a way-in is tough night after night after night, song after song after song.

But these are your songs, your offerings, your connection points.

Enter in.  Relentlessly find a way in.  

 
p.s. Share this with someone else who’s tired.


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

Cool Factor

Do the things your band does make someone feel cool for telling their friend about you?

If so, keep caring about your fans in that way.

If not, retool.  Probably not start over, just retool.

And it’s not even all about their friend agreeing, but about the fact that they felt cool passing it along.

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

You Want To Become A Truly Unique Band?

If all you’re doing when you’re out on the road is driving, eating, sound checking, playing and then driving again…you’re missing out. Relationally, in life, in growth.

You have some laughs, confer on the setlist, ask what the other person wants to eat…but come on, these are the people you are WITH.  These are the people you’ve chosen to be with, and the people you’re with are the people you will learn about life through.

They can nurture you, you can nurture them.

Will you?

Some might boil this idea down to “you have to be a good hang”.  But that’s not at all what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about taking initiative and responsibility for deep connection with the people you’re spending all this time with.

And we all know, on the road…you’ve got the time.

Musicians are so good at talking about themselves and yet so sparse in vulnerability.

Dig deeper, care more, listen with your heart (not your head).  There is life here.

You want to become a truly unique band?

Love one another. Get to know one another, truly.  Grow together.

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

The Scenario Cinema

My friend George defines procrastination as “refusing to turn off the scenario cinema often expressed as “But, what if…?””

There is a time and place to ask But What If (I don’t care how you define the time and place, it just needs a definite start time and a definite end time), but it’s not a time and place to live inside.

Cloaking procrastination in But What If just gives it an intellectual flair.  You don’t have to admit you’re insisting on being stuck.  You get to tell yourself and others you’re not not doing anything, you’re “getting to the bottom of it” “turning over every stone” “making sure” “seeking reassurance”.

Don’t get caught in this scenario cinema.  It’s been a silent killer of many great artists and bands.

p.s. The time and place you carve out to ask But What If is absolutely important.  The bigger the implication/consequences of the decision, project, plan, the more weight and consideration will be given to the But What If’s.  But then, when the defined time is up and everyone has been heard…You will have to make a decision and MOVE.


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

Complete The Line...

I want to be highly successful and big and famous, but through it all, the whole point is to…

The reason I will become highly successful and big and famous is…

The main way in which I hold myself back is…

The thing I do most consistently is…

When I walk into a room, the room gets more…

These sentences can be finished millions of different ways and in millions of different contexts.  

How fearless will you be in completing these sentences?

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