When you get to the day you’ve been looking forward to hopefully you’ve been practicing enjoying the moments leading up to the day you’ve been looking forward to.
If all you’ve been practicing is ‘looking forward’ then chances are when you get there you’ll be a bit out of practice when it comes to enjoying.
Today is a great day to start a practice of enjoying.
The deals are bad at the beginning because you are a big risk and on top of that you’re not willing to push back on the bad deals or say no. You’ll probably just complain, say yes and keep going.
But if you feel compelled to sign the bad deal, give yourself an out. A safety valve.
We will sign this bad deal for less money, less ownership and less attention but here is the clear path for which we get out of the deal all together.
It sucks to be in a bad deal. Even worse to be in a bad deal forever.
»» Bands are a special. High tension high release. Magical. Making and playing music in the face of deep insecurity and deep joy. The clip for The Beatles: Get Back encapsulates this and so much more. It was an instant smile on my face.
The lyrics and melody.
The lyrics and melody are often ahead of where you are. They lead you.
They’re ushering you along the path to join them in the mental and emotional place you want to be, even while you’re singing them.
When you commit to the function of singing those nots and those words, it has an effect on your spirit.
You don’t need to be in the perfect emotional state in order to sing the words. But rather, when you sing you will be helped into the emotional state.
Your spirit will catch up to what your lips are singing of.
I saw The Killers a few years ago. They ended the night with When You Were Young, but before they played it Brandon talked for a bit.
He said when they come off a huge first album and were writing for the follow up, they were more than a bit lost. Immense pressure. What kind of album, what type of songs come after an album like Hot Fuss.
Then, a few months into the process, at the tail end of an unremarkable writing session the bass player started tinkering with some chords. It changed the room, everyone came to life. It was When You Were Young.
Brandon said, “That’s when we knew everything was going to be ok”.
If you’re an artist you’ve been to the depths, not knowing where to go next or what to write next. Thinking that all the good songs have already been taken. There is nothing left. Having unremarkable writing session after unremarkable writing session.
And then you uncover an ace, you’ve reached the clearing beyond the fog, the joy and the magic have not left the building or your career…and finally everything is going to be ok.
Give your fans a little slack, a little grace. Forgive them. They’re not going to get everything that you do. They’re not going to pick up on every heartfelt nuanced detail that you pack into your thing.
And when they don’t get it, don’t dumb it down.
Keep doing it. They’re with you. Be consistent. They’ll get more of it.