100th Row Fantasy

The further you go into a crowd the more surprised those people will be that you are there.

People in the front row already have half the fantasy realized.  They bought the front row ticket so some type of interaction is almost expected. That’s why you buy that particular ticket.

The further the people are away from the stage the bigger the fantasy they have to create in their minds that they’re going to get to be face to face with the artist.  So when it happens the pay off is even more breath taking.

As an artist, if you’re looking for a sure fire home run pitch…go further away from the stage.  Those people secretly hoped you’d see them, but never expected it.

The people in the front row are the ones that get that kind of attention, but not in the 100th row.

Except when they come to your show.

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

Making A Color Better

You can’t.

You can only change a color. You can’t make the same color better and have it still be the same color but just a little bit better.

No matter how you work the math and rationale on this equation it’s still true…You can not make a color better. You can only make it different.

Obviously the trick here is getting to a place where you know what color you are and then telling people a story of why they need that color.

And then making the STORY better.

***I’ll note here that while you can’t make a color better you can make a better color. ‘Make a better color’ points toward personal preference, market preference, perceived value, likes, dislikes, subjectivity, timing, world events…all of these things might inform how you could make a better color.

But once you’ve made a better color…you still can’t make a color better.

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

Seeing Unicorns

“When a movie director tells you to play a character that acts like they see unicorns, you don’t play a character who acts like they see unicorns, you play a character who sees unicorns”.- Michael McKean (Chuck from Better Call Saul)

Sure, acting like an artist is a great way to start becoming an artist.  But there are so many artists who only ever act like artists. There is no actual becoming. No transformation.

BEING an artist is an entirely different dimension than simply acting like one.

(And we all have an uncanny abilitiy to tell the difference)

We need more artists who see unicorns.

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

Singing Freely

I listened to an episode of Invisiblia the other day called The Other Real World.

The basic gist was that people in Somalia, until recently, weren’t allowed to sing in public. It was punishable by death from the extremist group al-Shabab. It goes on to tell the story of their version of American Idol being started and ushering in a change where singing in public without the looming threat of death was possible.

Just to reiterate. Singing = probable death.

We can’t relate.

We get to sing. But not everyone gets to sing.

At it’s very foundation, music facilities emotion and connection. Even the Somalia bad guys knew that…that’s why they outlawed it: singing (emotion and connection) was anti what the bad guys were all about.

So you get to sing freely.

Make it a good one.

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

Horse Mask

When I was at SXSW a few years ago, I was walking down the madness of 6th street and something caught my eye…I turned my head and there about fifteen feet ahead of me and a little to the right a guy was walking toward me in a horse mask.

The horse mask stuck out and I focused on this guy in a horse mask for about two seconds and then went back to looking at everything else.

And as horse mask guy kept walking down the street, he also seemed to have the same effect on everyone else. Two or three seconds of attention and focus from them and then everyone was moving on.


While it might seem hard to get attention, getting attention isn’t really the point is it? Cause after all, horse masks aren’t that expensive…you could afford several.

What is worth while is learning how to KEEP attention once people are giving it to you.

That’s what the horse mask guy was missing (although maybe he gets the last laugh because here I am years later telling you about him :)

A horse mask is good at getting attention and bad at keeping it.

How do you want to not only get peoples’ attention, but more importantly keep peoples’ attention?

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

The Co-Write Trap

“Somebody has to write those mediocre middle of the road songs that get cut…why not us today…maybe we could write one of those average songs that a signed artist cuts and it’s so average that it goes to radio and makes everyone a bunch of money.”

The reason why it’s a trap is that it might work.

The danger is if you stay in the trap, those days that you wrote those songs aren’t good fulfilling days. Line up a bunch of days like that and you have a bad life.

The trap is not the writing of average songs…because that will happen sometimes.

The trap is in the intent.  The trap is in fooling yourself into thinking it’s a worthwhile intention to write average songs that will appeal to everyone and eek out a few dollars.

And for anyone who’s in the business and been in those writing rooms you know exactly what songs I’m talking about.

Get out of the trap. Write better. Write for the best. If it’s not great, that’s ok, lay it down and make another run…but always write for the best. Everyday. Every session.

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