Not going out on the road lets you believe your fans are exactly the kind you always hoped for.
You get to dream that all those Spotify plays are coming from the cool people or the outcasts or the soccer moms, or people who own beach property.
But going out on the road tells a much more detailed story.
On the road you come face to face with the truth of the kind of person who is crazy enough to come see you. And that might be really different from what you dreamed up while you were safe in your apartment keeping tabs on your Monthly Listener count.
You hoped, dreamed and therefore expected the front row to be packed with college hipsters (the rich kind) but instead its middle aged dads. And they’re loving it.
So once you get out there and see who your actual fans are, are you willing to want those kind of people to be your fans?
We know this but it’s easy to forget. It’s easy to go back to spending an awful lot of time building up your contact list as opposed to deepening relationships.
Sure you might need some more contacts.
But you for sure need to deepen your relationships.
Is it better to max out today, or to show up again tomorrow?
For many, consistency is more difficult than effort.
Maxing out is fun because you get the badge of honor of maxing out. And because you went SO hard and maxed out, you give yourself a break for a day or two or a month.
But if instead you work diligently day after day, always working hard and pushing but never maxing out…you’re much more likely to have the energy to do it again tomorrow.
And it’s the ‘again’ part that builds our careers and our lives.
It’s the songs. It’s always been the songs. When just the right song plays at just the right time…
The songs are special. In its purest form, we created the business because we want to share the experience of those songs with others. We want to be connected. To be with. To be less lonely. To say ‘I feel this when I hear a song, maybe you will too’. And ‘this’ is magical, ‘maybe you will too’ is a connective tissue akin only to a miracle.
So that’s why I keep hanging around. To be a part of this is an absolute honor. All the not so fun music business stuff is just the price of entry to the magic show. So it’s a bargain.
It’s a thrill to be involved with artists and bands and songwriters because this is the kind of potential impact of the work. All the fans who say something after the show or on the street or drop you an email, their magical list might not be the same as mine but it’s not drastically different either. Artists are in the business of unlocking this type of stuff.
When just the right song plays at just the right time…
I’m reminded of the depth of love I have for my wife. And pushes it deeper and wider.
I breathe cleaner
I feel my heart
I stop thinking right vs wrong
It opens the beauty of reality
Makes me warmer
Makes me believe it’s possible
Spurs hope
Causes an awareness of the sweetness and sadness of how short life is
I get closer to wanting what I have
I begin wondering how something can be so powerful because the good songs are so much like to the ones that aren’t, but couldn’t be more different
I want it to wrap me up and be inside of it, all around me and stay there forever.
I wonder why it can’t last forever.
So I show up. You show up. We keep going when it’s hard. When the muse hides we don’t stop. It’s too beautiful to stop seeking.
And when I get to stare at it full in the face, the light pours in and I see.
***I’m working on a little something, a little project that we can all do to wave the flag for the songs that are so special to us.
