When you play them in a live set there is a redemptive quality to them. It brings it all back.
You can visibly see the crowd go “ahhhhhh”, almost as a sigh of relief, or vindication of their attendance.
An artist can be trucking along in the set, playing a lot of good songs, having a great show, and then they play THAT song and it raises the level of the overall experience.
Hits just sound different. And that sound changes things.
that old manager who you just kinda stopped talking to.
the family member who “gave” you $5,000 to make your first demo.
the ex-ex-ex guitar player who was there during the writing session a million years ago, but you’re using the riff on a new song.
the person you told you wouldn’t forget about when you make it big.
the family friend who got you some meetings…and always reminds you about it.
the guy who introduced you to the lady who introduced you to the head of the company.
As things go well for you (which is the goal), your loose ends will wave their tails. And it’s going to be ugly.
The second any of your loose ends see and smell $$, they’re coming out…reminding you, or their lawyer reminding you of their entitlement. And then you will have to deal with it. It will be stressful and awful.
So deal with it now, today, immediately.
Take a few minutes and think hard about where your loose ends are, or might be. The few minutes could save you thousands…or much more.
p.s. And it’s not just about the money…
-when your loose ends awaken, it will be at the worst moment. It will not only cost you money, but the mental and emotional energy that it takes to deal with the volcano instead of focusing on your actual career is life sucking.
-one other thing…when you do the hard work of tying up all the loose ends before they bite you, you can proceed with confidence and peacefulness knowing no one’s coming to get you.
As for what you’re doing wrong, or where you’re deficient…
This blog, other blogs, podcasts, interviews…the answers aren’t there.
I wish they would be…for you, and for me.
Maybe pieces of the answers, maybe the starting line, maybe a turn in a better direction or a gradual shift in perspective is somewhere in there. But not the answer.
Answers come via waaaaaaay more messiness than a blog post. And way more time than it takes to read one.
But thank you for reading this one. If this can be a jumping off point, or begin the slightest shift in vision, or stimulate an idea that you choose to run with…I’m happy with that answer.
**pass this along to three people who who are looking for the answers on the internet
You can trust this simple progression. It happens automatically.
So if noticing leads to knowing, then how and where you spend you’re time is going to be key as to which tendencies and truths you come to know and understand.
If you spend a lot of time sitting on your front porch, you will start to notice things about your street…and probably end up knowing some things you wish you didn’t.
If you spend a lot of time on tour, there’s plenty to notice, plenty to know. But the road is so taxing its easy to forget to notice things. (The progression starts with noticing, which leads to knowing, automatically…however the noticing doesn’t happen automatically)
If you stay plugged into the music business for long enough, and keep noticing, and keep noticing, and keep your eyes open, and keep noticing…you’ll know.
Venturing into my interior painting experience, I bring you this…
The point is to get the entire house painted. That’s the purpose of setting out on the journey.
But you stand back and look at the first wall you’ve painted and appreciate the success and completion of painting one wall. That looks good.
Then the whole room is finished…you stand at the door way looking in at the room you’ve completed, feel accomplished, and then close the door and on to the next. It feels great to be done with one room and now there’s more to do.
Then all the bedrooms are done, great, the the whole floor, sweet relief, then the time-sucking bathrooms are completed, then the second floor is knocked out, then the third (wow, you have a big house).
In painting its easy to see and mentally celebrate lots of moments along the way to completing the entire house. There’s visual and metal beauty to each step.
In music it is the exact opposite. Most of the time it feels like there are zero moments to celebrate in the music business.
It’s all “onto the next room” and no “look at the room I just transformed”.
I’m not saying throw a party every time you update your website or get more than ten re-tweets…but along the way while you’re in process of completing your project, stand back and look what you’ve done.
It looks great.
p.s. Celebrating takes practice.
p.p.s. On a related note…Taking a break takes even more practice. Both worth practicing and getting good at.
