Two important questions with two important and different answers…
Why do people listen to your music?
Why do people choose to come to your show? If this answer is the exact same as the first answer, it’s going to be nearly impossible to get people to come out to your show.
Let that stew for a minute. Who comes to mind? Who’s getting WAY too much credit and career advancement?
There’s a lot to learn there. Because the thing is, the only rules they’re violating are the rules you’ve made up for yourself in your own head…and you’re not only applying them to yourself, but everyone else too.
All the reasons you think they shouldn’t be successful (but are anyway) highlight the confines in which you’re playing the game.
But there are no confines.
There are no rules.
The WAY IT IS isn’t the way it is…it’s just the way it is when you think of the way it is.
“Hey, wait a second, that’s not fair” doesn’t apply…because fair implies regulations, defined justice, a universally accepted list of right and wrong.
But in the entertainment business, its the wild west.
There are no rules, only choices.
p.s. “They suck and they’re doing better than me”…they may suck, but they play by a set of rules that allows them to be more successful than you ANYWAY. It would do you good to familiarize yourself with their “rules” that allow them this path.
I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com
A week ago a guy knocked on our door…I was upstairs when he knocked so by the time I came down and opened the door he was half way back down the sidewalk.
He was obviously selling something and quickly turned around to make me the pitch.
This guy was part of a home renovation company, specifically exterior stuff, gutters, windows, etc. There’s A LOT of renovation going on in Nashville.
I’m always curious to hear someone’s sales pitch, so I let him throw it at me. Although I was absolutely skeptical, duh.
“Have you heard of our company before?”
“No”
“That’s because we don’t spend money on advertising so we can pass that savings along to our customers”
“Cool”
We got into a conversation specifically about windows and what it would take to replace mine. He was pushing hard. And then a little too hard…
“With the windows we install, you end up saving so much on your energy bill within two years that its the equivalent of getting free windows”
OK hold it. Like I said before, there’s lots of renovation going on in Nashville and lots right in our neighborhood. If there was a company giving away free windows, I would have heard about it, EVERYONE would have heard about it. EVERYONE would have been talking about this company.
I would have heard of this guys’ company before and already have had his free windows installed in my home.
Free windows would be awesome.
But it was the words “free windows” that made me move the conversation towards completion and sending him back down my sidewalk.
Homeboy was desperate and was ready to say anything to get a sale. Gross.
But the true moral of the story…discernment is knowing when to just stay upstairs and let the opportunity that is knocking just pass on by.
There are many artists who seek to put a team together so that they have other people to blame when things go badly.
When you’re alone and a project fails, you blame the public for “just not getting it”…but at least deep down you know the responsibility was on you.
With a team, a lot of artists forgo even that deep down responsibility.
It’s my managers fault. The label didn’t do enough. The PR was terrible. THEY are the reason for my failure and sadness…I mean, I hired them to make this thing successful and they didn’t do their job.
How do I know that subconsciously artists want a team in order to have someone to blame?
Because most artists don’t know what to do once they have a team…other than complain about it.
They decide it feels better and is less risky to complain about the team, rather than leading it.
It’s safe and everyone will agree with you and give a sympathetic pat on the back as you gripe about so-and-so isn’t doing their job and they’re holding up the rocket ship.
You hired so-and-so. So either lead them or fire them.
But you won’t fire them cause it FEELS SO GOOD to be able to tell your pals you have a warm body filling the manager/agent/label/pr seat.
And you don’t lead them because you don’t want to step on anyones toes. You’re afraid of being bossy, of being too this or too that.
If you haven’t experience literal body slamming from your bandmates, you’ve certainly experienced the mental, emotional, relational version of it.
All of this so wonderfully depicted in this video.
There is nothing like a band. There are two main elements that, in tandem, make it unique to anything else.
Time together, and releasing things during that time.
Time. You spend so much time together. An odd amount of time. And with the time comes the strangest, lowest, highest events imaginable. You go through so much TOGETHER. It’s obvious why John wanted Yoko there…because that connection of BEING there is everything. Multiply this by 2 or 5 or 7 years and thats a lot of shared experience.
Releasing stuff. Not only is there the connection of time, but then you are collectively releasing creativity into the world…your songs. The vulnerable, emotional, intimate, spiritual, mental rollercoaster that each individual goes through when birthing music into the world (while still being a part of the group), is a connection unique to bands. Other groups of people with other types of jobs may release a project or two together, but nothing like a band.
Bands have a soul. There’s nothing more romantic. It’s a mystery. Not to be solved, but participated in.
