Ahhh...It’ll Be Fine

When you show up and the stage is a weird size or shape…a few hours earlier when the people were done setting it up, they had a back and forth conversation with each other that ultimately ended with “…it’ll be fine”.  

But now you’re the one who has to deal with the consequences of “it’ll be fine”.

When they decide to use other green room as extra beer storage and cleaning supplies…also a conversation that ended with “ahhhh, it’ll be fine”.

And now all 3 bands and crews, roughly a bazillion people, have to mash into a room designed for 8.

When the designated merch area is located far far far away from the entrance/exit of the venue…. “…the people who want merch will still find the merch table…it’ll be fine”.

But you and I both know the location of merchandise at the venue swings merch sales by a million percent.

“It’ll be fine” in so many cases usually means “This decision benefits me right now. I don’t want to work harder to figure out a better solution and I won’t have to personally deal with the consequences.”

Musicians and artists find themselves on the receiving end of “it’ll be fine” conversations and consequences all the time, especially on the road.

So when you find yourself about to utter the same words, remember how much it can put others in a pinch.

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

Acting As If

Doing things “as if” is a means to teach yourself the value and possibilities of NOW.  Acting “as if” is a good way to become, to believe.

Play this show as if it were to a million people. 

Write this song as if you had to be completely honest. 

Do the interview as if you’re an interesting person. 

Hire the team as if you’re the head boss.

Pay your people as if you can’t do it without them.


Acting as-if often times is, and sheds light on, an element of truth that we don’t completely believe yet.

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

This Is Not An Urgent Email

And neither is any other email.

I got my first email addresses in middle school. I had a Hotmail account and I think the other one was a Lycos.  Wow, I sound like a caveman.

I’m older now and those accounts have long since expired, but I’m sitting here racking my brain with the question: From then until today, have I ever received an email so urgent that if I wouldn’t have read it within 24 hours of receiving it I would have been screwed?

And I really can’t think of any. (There miiiiiiiight have been some business stuff along the way. Nothing comes to mind, but I can’t totally rule that out.)

But I still check my email 30 times a day because I believe everything is urgent (well…the truth is, I check that many times because when there’s something new from someone or some company I like I get an emotional pop).

Email is never urgent!  Let’s start checking it less.

You know what is much more often urgent?  Phone calls.  You and I have both received many urgent ones.

But most people these days hate getting phone calls!  They say “if they really need me they’ll leave a voice mail”…and then go back to checking their email, waiting for the next “urgent” message to roll in.

If anything answer the phone calls and stop checking email a bazillion times a day.

p.s. When you send an email, even an important one, and you don’t hear back for 4 hours or 6 or 24, you don’t think the other person is a bad person.  You think they must be kinda busy and its taking them a day to respond, it’s all good.  

So when you don’t read and respond immediately to an email, they’re not thinking bad of you either!

p.p.s. Make no mistake, as I am preaching at you, I am preaching at me.

p.p.p.s. If someone doesn’t respond within 3 days I think they hate me.  It used to be 3 hours, so I’m getting better.

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

Impossibly Short Deadlines

I used to write a bunch for tv and film with some pals of mine.

The sync company would send out a brief explaining what the show or movie was looking for…some abstract, weird, unhelpful description.  But then they would also give a BPM range and some links to other songs for reference, which was very helpful.

And oh yeah, at the end of the email they would state how soon they needed the master recording turned in by.

The norm? 36 hours.  Sometimes a full 48 hours.  Sometimes 24 hours.

And we never missed a deadline.

Musicians, who take weeks, months, years to finish songs, agree on anything, decide something is finished…hitting deadlines. Imagine that.

Why?

Because we took the sync company’s deadlines seriously.  It’s impossible to write a brand new (very awesome) song, track it, mix and master it in 36 hours…until you have to.

If the deadline would have been two weeks, we would have taken two weeks.  But the end product would be exactly the same as the 36 hour end product. 

The problem isn’t that we have too little time, it’s that we have too much time.  

We tend to use every bit of time we believe we have.


The trick is to learn how to create and take your self-imposed impossibly short deadlines seriously enough to actually carry them out.

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

Before We Knew Better 2

Before we knew better we…

thought $100 was legit money to drive to Cincinnati for a gig

accepted payment from the venue in the form of deer steaks and deer jerky

thought getting a manager would solve all the problems

thought it would be ok if the drummer was just so-so

didn’t have gear insurance because $12/month was just too spendy

kept doing the same things we had always done for way too long instead of identifying how an artist career evolves, matures and shifts, and therefore changing how time and energy got spent.


Before we knew better we would brush off good advice from experienced people because we thought we knew better.

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

You Decide This Posts Value

What are you putting off because you’re afraid?

That’s it, that’s the whole post today.

You’ll benefit from it greatly, or not at all.

If you stop what you’re doing, get out a pen and paper and list the things that you’re putting off because you’re afraid, then this post will have been a great value to you.

If you don’t, then this is probably the most boring, un-beneficial blog post ever.

You decide this posts value.

What are you putting off because you’re afraid?

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