Everyone Is Interesting Enough To Be Famous

Everyone is interesting enough to be famous.

If modern television has taught us anything it’s that.

But interesting is different than captivating.

And fame is different than longevity.

We are captivated by the artists (people) who understand what their unique gifts are AND ALSO use that understanding to crank up those knobs…especially on stage.

Captivation breeds longevity…and maybe fame too.

We have phrases like “perked my interest for a second” or “yeah, it was pretty interesting”.  Like William Hung’s music video or Carly Rae Jepsen.

So it turns out we can be interested in things we are also passive and dismissive about.

We are not passive about things that captivate us.

Keep digging. Uncover what it is you offer and lean into it…hard. Don’t run away from it or under value it.

Everyone is interesting enough to be famous.

But are you captivating enough to have a career in the music business.

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

Acoustic Opener

If you haven’t already, you’re going to have to.

It’s not a matter of if, but when.

And in the preparation for it, the common cry of an artist sound like this “How do we get the energy of our full band show into the acoustic show?”

You don’t.

The acoustic show is different.  

Bono was really good when U2 did the 360 tour and he was also really good when him and Edge sat at David Letterman’s desk and played.  He gets it.

The acoustic thing is different from the full band thing.  Both can be amazing, but they’ll be different…a different mode of your strengths and talents.

So allow me to relieve you of the pressure to make your acoustic performance the same as your full band show.

Work on it, craft it, try, fail, rework.

It’s something worth having up your sleeve.

p.s.  One fantastic thing about being an acoustic opener is that the audience subconsciously sets the bar incredibly low.  With a little planning and care, this is an easy home run for you.  Candy from a baby, my friends.

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

If You Have A Laundry List Of Mix Notes

If you have a laundry list of mix notes… 

…then one of three things is true:


1) You’re a new artist working on the first record.

When you’re a new artist you believe that a little more compression on the kick drum will tip the scales your way.  The tambourine panned 10% more to the left is really what the bridge needs, and so on.

And believe me…tis’ true: God is in the details…but before you use that to nit pick all the day long…God is also in the wisdom of the person mixing, who is a professional at mixing, who loves mixing, who mixes all the time, who is a lot better at mixing than you.

But I get it. The laundry list of mix notes at least shows you care deeply.  Keep going, you’ll learn a lot on this journey.


2) You hired the wrong mix engineer. 

No no no, you didn’t hire a bad mix engineer you just didn’t do your homework and hire the right one. 

That’s what your laundry list of notes is really saying. 

When you have the right engineer for mixing your particular record, the first round of mixes are at least 80% there, probably 90%. 

So if you have a laundry list, it’s your problem not theirs…it’s more of an “uh-oh we screwed up” than a “hey, why aren’t you doing a good job”

But you hired who you hired and you don’t want to switch mixing dudes. I understand.  If you understand too, you’ll be fine.


3) And this one happens whether you’re a new artist, seasoned artist, big budget, no budget, A-list mix engineer, not-on-the-list mix engineer.

It’s this:

You and everyone else is channeling their stress, anxiety and insecurity about the song, record, marketing plan, photoshoot and touring schedule into the mix notes.

The laundry list of mix notes is an escape, a cop out.

The truth is you got a pretty legit mix back on the first round.  But then everyone gets fidgety.  Everyone has their doubts.  Everyone wonders if they’re gonna lose their job if they sign off on this record.

So someone at the label thinks the reverb needs to come up on the vocal.  And someone from management thinks the reverb needs to come down.  Now a meeting has to be called to discuss the reverb…and because a meeting is called, now there are several other opinions about the reverb that didn’t even exist before the meeting!

And then there’s also a list of mix notes from the band, management, label, agent and extended friends and family (you might laugh at that the friends and family bit…but it’s real).

The mix notes are the last great frontier in the process to channel your fear about the songs when in actuality either the material just isn’t that great, or it is in fact great but you and/or the team is just too afraid to let it rip. 


Go into the studio with great material.  Do your homework and hire a mix engineer who gets you.  The mix engineer is an artist too, let them contribute their artwork.

p.s. What about Coldplay? What about Lady Gaga? What about Scott Stapp?…they talk about getting every last detail just right and not letting anything slip through the cracks.

A) They have a lot more money. Mix engineers will tweak till kingdom come if you can shell out and are nice to hang with.  B) They have a razor sharp creative vision and know how to clearly articulate it to everyone.  C) They have a lot more money. D) They only hire people they trust understand their razor sharp vision.



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

Who Wants $60?

We’ve had our house for about three years.  Every time I mow the grass, especially the back yard, I think about finally putting in the work to actually make it look good.

Not that it’s awful.  More than anything it’s around the fence line…tons of giant weeds and vines and overall ugliness.

I didn’t really expect to tackle this momentous project this year, but one afternoon last week my wife asked me to rake out one of the flower beds in the front of the house…

…and you know what that turned in to.  

I expected wrong.  We are doing the momentous project this year.

So I began clearing the brush and weeds and nasty. I did this for days…ok, fine…I did this for afternoons.

We piled everything next to the street because Nashville has free (“free”) brush pick up a few times each year.

But here was the problem…the pile was getting giant, at least the size of a Cadillac Escalade, and I found out brush pick up isn’t for another two months.

And so the pile continued to grow.

I’ll spare you a few details and say…ain’t no way that brush pile was going to stay in our yard for two months.

Time to look for someone to haul away our dead mountain of nature.

I get on the internet and find some companies. I call. It’s expensive.  I’d go so far as to say very expensive.

There must be a better way.  We can’t burn it, we can’t bag it up, we can’t wait for brush pick up.

And then after a couple more hours in the yard I discovered the flip.

Instead starting by looking for someone who could do what I needed, I would start by OFFERING the thing I would GIVE…which was $60.

It looked like this on Craigslist…I will give $60 to whoever will come and take away this huge brush pile.

I put up the offer and in ten minutes I had six people wanting the job. No lie.

I hired Brian and he was at my house first thing the next morning and did a wonderful job.


See…in this context I went first, I made an offer for someone to respond to…as opposed to me responding to brush haul-away companies’ offers I found on the internet.

It’s the slight twist that makes a difference.  Going first makes a difference.  Starting with what you will give makes a difference.  Starting with “Who wants $60” is a different perspective than starting with “I need you to do this for me”.

Feel free to use this Craigslist trick to your benefit…but the real value is in understanding why the idea works stretching it so much further.

p.s. The goal isn’t always about the cheapest price, but in this case I didn’t care about how nice the truck and trailer were and how professional the decal was on the side of it.  I needed sticks and leaves to be picked up, and I had $60 to give.  

Would I have been able to find someone to do it for $40? Probably.  But I guess I’ll never know. That’s not how going first works.  When you go first you lay it out there and work with what happens.

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

Tooth Fairy Stories

Simply “having things coming up” (and then going on to list them) is a boring story when the interviewer asks “so what’s going on?”.

A more riveting response would be to tell how you found out the tooth fairy wasn’t real.

This is the entertainment business, not the information business. 

Don’t forget.

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

Outdated

There’s probably part of your approach that is. 

When you first implemented it, it wasn’t…now it is but you still do it the same way anyway.

With so many variables, so much difficulty, so much unknown in the wild west music business…when you found something that worked, something that everyone got excited about, a “way” of doing business, you want to hold onto it.

Finally some aspect that you don’t have to think so hard about.

But then time went on…and the thing that was truly the best idea and way of doing things is no longer the best way.

It’s a slow, often un-noticeable progression.  But now that staple idea is outdated and it’s time to reassess and implement the new way.

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