When You Walk On Stage

When you walk on stage at the start of the show people are paying a lot of attention to the visual, the reality that YOU are on stage.  They’re taking in your vibe, the way you look, what the gear looks like, maybe even the sound of the lead singers voice.

They’re not thinking “How do I like this first song?”…they’re thinking “This band just walked on stage, what do I think about them”.

The audience is subconsciously distracted from the actual music and melody by the intense visual and energy (hopefully) that you are unveiling to them.

I’m not saying you can burn a song at the top of the set.

I’m not saying you can play a dud song first and it won’t matter.  But it IS the exact reason why U2 comes out and plays a brand new song FIRST that most of the audience has never heard, but then follows it up, second, with the slammin hit that everyone knows.

During the first song, it doesn’t matter what they play, everyone is just thinking “holy crap, its U2!!!”.

I know, you’re not U2…yet.

Still, you walking out on stage is a powerful thing.

Remember that. Use that.

In that moment, YOU are everyone’s focus, not necessarily the music.

p.s. Make no mistake, every song must be great at serving its place in the set.


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

Buzzzzz

If you have buzz it means a group of people believe there’s something about you to be understood.  

If there’s something to be understood, people have expectations. 

The expectations sounds like this…”I’m a smart, well adjusted person who knows a good band when I see and hear one.  If there’s a buzz about this band, if there’s something to understand, surely I will be able to understand.  If I don’t see and understand, everyone else is crazy.  This band better do something that positively affirms what I believe about myself when it comes to surveying new music.”

All bands want buzz.  Buzz is simply an opportunity to come through…an opportunity to tell all these potential fans, “you were right”. 

In what ways will people be right about you?

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

30 Shows

It can be tough to know what shows to say yes to and what shows to say no to.

You believe it’s a good idea to play shows since that’s what artists do, but you probably don’t want to play four hundred shows a year…you don’t want to play zero either.

What if you could play 30 shows per year? 

That’s it. You can’t go past 30.  You can’t just say yes to say yes.

You might get a million offers during the year…you might get five.

How would your criteria change for saying yes and no to show opportunities?  Is the show worth filling one of your precious 30 slots?  If you can only say YES 30 times, what’s the definition of a YES?

My guess is it makes you tighten the reigns a bit. It makes you unable to give a flippant yes without thinking. It makes you really consider the factors of what makes a show ‘worth it’ for you and your gang and your fans.  

So your next show coming up…is it the type that is worthy to be included at your table for 30?

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

For Those Complaining...

If your main goal is to make your problems go away, you need a better goal.

You need a goal where you are willing to step into each problem as it comes, work at it, solve it, move past it, only to get up for the next one.

We don’t get to choose whether or not we have problems…we get to choose which KIND of problems we spend our days and weeks and years tinkering with, exploring and maybe even solving.

Complaining is for people who believe they eventually deserve easy.

Exhausted at the end of the day is for people who believe it’s an honor to wake up each morning and push further, regardless of the difficulty.

If you’re complaining about the music business, get out of it.  It doesn’t need you…and you don’t need it.  Go find something else…something you’re excited to work on despite it being difficult, unfair, time sucking, exhausting, thankless and risky (because everything worth doing is ALL of those things).

If you’re gonna decide to hang around, then expand your vision longer, wider, deeper.  Let the problems and the growing size of the problems be a indicator your’e heading in exactly the right direction.  

Don’t wish them away.  Smirk and runs towards them.

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

Nightcap 6

Is it ever too early for a nightcap?

We know nice plates don’t make the ingredients better, but they do. 

When someone’s trying to squeeze past you and they say “excuse me” and you reply with a mash-up of ”you’re fine" and “no problem” and it comes out “your problem”…isn’t that actually what you actually mean anyway? 

You feel dumb when you run out of gas because it’s not like you didn’t see it coming.

A sideways baseball cap will never be looked back on as the right move.

Someone who does odd jobs does jobs most people need done, making them not odd.

When guitar players are noodling (during everything), cut them some slack…believe it or not, they just don’t realize they’re annoying everyone within ear shot.

Seacrest out.

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

A Touch Of Sea Salt

“With a touch of sea salt”

That was the last line in a chocolate bar commercial I heard on the radio.

It was a woman with a French accent who said it. She did the whole commercial.  It made me want that chocolate bar…because I love dark chocolate with salt, and she reminded me that I’m a sophisticated person who has a specific taste, not shared by everyone.  

That’s the story she let me tell myself.

You know who didn’t narrate the commercial…Seth Rogan

It wasn’t Seth Rogan saying “oh and we toss some salt in there too”.  That would have been a completely different story.  Same product, different story.

It wouldn’t have changed the actual product (just sitting in a warehouse somewhere) at all, but the French woman with the “touch of salt” spoke to the audience who would want the chocolate.

I know, its basic marketing.

But all your videos, show posters, interviews, tweets, Facebook posts…it’s worth remembering that words matter, tone matters.

What’s your French accent? What’s your “touch of salt”?  Who is the person sitting in their car buying into your commercial?

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