You’re not going to get a five thousand dollar bonus for being brave at work.
There’s no job description that has extra incentives built in for putting yourself on the line when it’s not in the job description.
Because it’s hard to measure for courage, care, intuition, taking responsibility, etc.
But that’s what we hope you’ll show up and do anyway. That’s what the great ones do.
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The new Hum Love playlist is up on Spotify and Apple Music.
It’s a great time to release music but a bad time to promote music.
Since it’s a bad time to promote music, less music is being released right now.
That said, I had to click around a lot more than usual to put this one together.
Enjoy.
Feel free to send along your recommendations for next month.
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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com
Country to pop.
Rock to country.
Rap to gospel.
Alternative to mainstream.
Every artist wants to crossover. To dominate a genre and roll it into dominating another.
But if crossing over is part of the plan from the beginning, then you’re always going to be wondering when the right time is to crossover. And the time and energy wondering, thinking, meeting, getting advice about when and how to crossover distracts from the very thing you need to do in order to crossover.
If you ever want to crossover you’re going to need to stop thinking about crossing over.
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You can’t watch everything. But there’s some required watching in the music business if you’re going to speak the language, get the jokes and understand the references.
That Thing You Do
Almost Famous
Spinal Tap
There’s more, but these are absolutely required. It’s all there, everything you need to know about the music business is played out within these three movies.
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I was a little kid living in a small town in Minnesota when That Thing You Do came out. I didn’t see it in the theater but I was at a friends house and we rented it on Directv. Back then when you rented the movie, if you popped in a VHS tape to the VCR you could record the movie.
And that’s exactly what I did.
I watched that movie a hundred times. Every scene is pure gold…but the foundation and the glue was the song.
The drum opening. The quirky verse/refrain structure. Smart chord changes. Innocent lyrics while not crossing into cheesy. And ending the song with the major seventh chord. There is not a wasted moment in the song, not an ounce of mediocrity. Start to finish, still to this day, THAT is how you put a song together.
That Thing You Do was (and is) an important movie to me. Eye opening and inspiring.
So I was sad when I heard the writer, Adam Schlesinger, passed away today.
I met him once. I was working the front desk at a hotel when I got out of college and he happened to be in the lobby. At the end of my shift I went and said hello. He was a nice dude, answered my all too excited questions about the song and the movie and the bands he played in.
I’ve always been glad to have met him, and now more than ever. That thing he did (that song he wrote) made a difference to that little kid in Minnesota.
So for all of us, keep showing up and making great music, playing great music, releasing great music. Now more than ever you never know who is watching and listening and being inspired by it.
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If you don’t make a better plan beforehand, there’s a draining conscious and subconscious social media dialogue sequence…
Should I post something
What should I post
What words should I use
Is it too much
Is it too little
But what will they think
But what will they think if I don’t
Have I already posted too much
Ok I’m going to post but when is best
All of these questions are a time and energy sucking distraction from doing the work you should be doing.
What is YOUR social media for?
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