First Hit Is The Hardest

I hung out with a good friend tonight. It wasn’t the greatest hang we’ve ever had, but not bad.  I know him really well, so we don’t really need to have the greatest time ever in order to have a great time.

It sure beats the alternative: me going to try and find a brand new friend to hang out with.  

Maybe I’m not really in the market for new best friends.

It’s a lot of work. It’s too risky. At a minimum I know I’m going to have a pretty good time with my old friend, and I know it’s possible for our time together to even be GREAT.  So I go with that.

But if I go looking for new friends, I’m either going to find my new best buddy of a lifetime, or have a lousy night.  

I’m going with what I know.

I’m hanging with my tried and true.  


This is exactly why it’s hard to have a hit song.

You could have the best song, but most people would rather spend time with a decent Bruno Mars tune.  Because we know Bruno, he’s our good friend. There’s a pretty high baseline of quality and entertainment there.  At a minimum he’s a familiar face, voice and presence…so we don’t have to work so hard to make the connection.

Bruno is a LOT less risky.

This is why an acts first smash is so often what they’re known for.

Because it has to be!

And then after you’re in,you don’t have to be quite as good because the relationship starts taking over.


It’s hard to have a hit because even though people may have crappy friends, having crappy friends is still a lot easier than going out and finding new friends.

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

Storytelling Without Numbers

What if you had to tell your story without using numbers? No Spotify plays, hard ticket sales, soft ticket sales, Instagram followers, conversion rate, chart position, video plays, likes, comments, comments vs. likes…etc, etc, etc.

What if all that was off the table…That’s pretty scary.

What would you tell instead?  And would the powers that be even care about a story that wasn’t filled with numbers as reassurance?

Maybe not.

Then perhaps a question to go along with this idea is…are YOU willing to listen to someone else’s story without numbers?  Are you willing to make a judgement call based on what YOU think and know, instead of what the numbers may or may not indicate?

What are you doing? What conversation are you having with the audience? How do you want to matter? What do the diehards understand that the fence-riders don’t? Who are your people and why do the like you and listen to you?

None of those answers require numbers.


***I’ve offered this idea up to a few people lately and the knee-jerk reaction is to say “the people I’m talking to WANT the numbers”.  

Of course they do!

But I’ll argue they aren’t actually wanting the numbers…what they’re actually wanting is to feel safe and less risky about working with you.  And numbers can be a shortcut (albeit watered down, cheap, temporary, less unique) story to help them feel safe and less risky about you.

But you have to understand that very few people are actually interested in the numbers themselves.  So whether you ‘have the numbers’ or not, this is an invitation to tell a story that actually speaks to the heart of the humans involved in the meeting.  With or without numbers.

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

Arousing Enthusiasm

The artists who succeed are the ones who know what arouses enthusiasm in people.

And also: in today’s fragmented niches and markets, it also helps a lot if you can clearly define who ‘people’ is for you. 

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

Second Best Album

It never fails…when an artist puts out a record, project, EP, whatever and does the media and PR rounds to go along with it, it’s always some version of ‘this is my best record, and I’m more proud of this record than anything I’ve ever done’.

Blah blah blah.

It’s white noise.

Even if it’s true, it doesn’t matter.  Because remember, the point of the interview is to entertain.  This is the entertainment business.

So I’d like to offer up a different idea.

You put out your next record and instead say…”This is our second best record”.

Who says that?! No one. It’s entertaining in and of itself.

But there’s more…

We already know the very next question that interviewer is going to ask…Ok, so if this record is second best, which one is the best?

Perfect. Now they’re comparing two things that you’ve done. Deciding which one THEY think is best.  They’re further developing and engraining an opinion about your work into their brain (don’t pass over this…YOU are taking up more space in THEIR brain, which is a huge victory).

And by you putting the current record in second place, there’s also an undertone that your criteria for your best material goes beyond just what is newest. Which casts you as a wiser, more mature artist.

Isn’t it a fantastic paradox that perhaps a better way of talking about your next album is to say that it isn’t your best album?


***Anytime you bring up second place, people are instantly going to carry on the conversation (at least mentally) about what’s in first place. (Example: Michael Jordan is the second best basketball player of all time…..see :)

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

No One Thought We Could Do It

If you’ve been following along over the years you know I love March Madness (search that term on my website and you’ll see I’ve posted about it a couple times before :).

And this year I even got to go to some of the regional games that were held here in Nashville…childhood dream come true.

But yeah, I watch nearly all the games and one of the most common lines in the post-game interviews is some version of…

“No one thought we could do it”

If you’re the sport watching type, you’ll know that this line isn’t confined to just college basketball. It gets said at the end of nearly every sports game.

So here’s the over arching theme I’d like to pick out of this and ascribe to all of us:  No matter how good any of us are at anything, no one is above encouragement.

We are all underdogs in our own minds every time.

Every day is a comeback.

Obviously these are superior athletes and clearly A LOT of people believed the could do it.  But the “no one thought we could do it” line comes from a voice in their own head saying they might not be able to pull it off this time.  We ourselves are the “no one” in that sentence.

And that voice is never completely going away.

So this is not a message about quieting that voice or ‘overcoming adversity’…but a message to say…go encourage those who need your encouragement. They might be doing really well, they might be struggling big time. Doesn’t matter.

No one is above a kind word in this business.  No one is above hearing from a trusted source ‘I’m one of the ones who thinks you can’.

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

1-9 Lead Singers

There may be more than 9 types…But if you’re a lead singer you probably identify with one of these more than the others.


1. Some lead singers get on stage thinking “My purpose is far more important than cool factor”.

2. Some lead singers get on stage thinking “What can I do for this audience…to get them to think I’m cool”.

3. Some lead singers get on stage thinking “Look how cool I am”.

4. Some lead singers get on stage thinking “I don’t care at all about being cool. I am real”.

5. Some lead singers get on stage thinking “I have figured this lead singer thing out”.

6. Some lead singers get on stage thinking “Man I hope they think I’m cool”.

7. Some lead singers get on stage thinking “Yeah maybe I’m cool, but let’s all just have FUN”.

8. Some lead singers get on stage thinking “This audience will know that I am here”.

9. Some lead singers get on stage thinking “It’s gonna be fine. We’re all gonna be fine”.


The numbers 1-9 correspond very loosely to what you might learn about yourself, whether you’re a lead singer or not, by reading more about the Enneagram (personality types)…which you can do here.

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