I Want It To Sound Like This

This gets said many times in the studio and is followed up with a reference to another sound or song.

But there’s confusion…

By ‘like this’ do you mean you want it to sound similar?

Or do you mean this is exactly how you want it to sound?

Often it’s the second one cloaked in the first.

An artist isn’t going to come out and say they want to copy a snare sound or guitar sound…But then they’ll want to keep tweaking it until it sounds exactly like their reference.

‘I want it to sound like this’ is really helpful when everyone knows what you mean by it.

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New vs. Rehash

Recounting the steps and stories of your journey on a podcast or interview doesn’t add a new chapter to the journey.

Telling your story isn’t necessarily the same thing as adding to it. And adding to it is far more important to your career than recounting it.

The goal is to redirect the interview into a building block rather than just another rehash of where you’ve been.

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We Want It All

It’s not enough to get the desired outcome. We want to script the journey too.

If the journey isn’t going our way, we highly doubt the outcome is going to happen.

And the journey is almost never following our hopeful script. So we live in constant doubt of the desired outcome.

The times the desired outcome has come to pass, we quickly forget how greatly the journey differed from what we wanted it to be.

We know we can’t set the script for the journey or the outcome and yet the main thing we get discouraged by is when they don’t live up to this ideal.

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Alternate Originals

Last week I went to listen to a song I love from a band I love off of an album I love.

But when I clicked play it was a different song. Well no, it was the same song, same chorus and all…but a different intro, much different mix and slightly different arrangement.

And then coincidentally it happened again just a couple days ago with a different band, different song, different album.

In both cases, all the other songs on the album are the same as they ever were. But the song I was looking for? The original version? The version that hooked me? No where to be found. Scrubbed from the record (pun intended). Nowhere to quickly be found.

Now it’s one thing if you come out with an alternate version, a remix, an acoustic version, a punk ruck version, that’s great. But replacing a song? That is not for the benefit of the fans. Neither of those bands have ever got fan mail complaining about the arrangement or that the post chorus hook needs some layering.

It might be that the artist wants the new version instituted for personal reasons. It might be a master rights ownership issue. It might be a publishing or licensing matter. But it isn’t because the fans want a redo.

Releasing an alternate version is great. But if you’re going to take away the original and replace it with something that is noticeably not the original…Be very clear about who it’s for and whether or not it’s worth it.

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Approachable

Everyone you see is only a smile away from seeming more approachable.

In the same way, you are only a smile away from seeming more approachable.

»» Some family friends from my home town of 550 people are in the news this week for something really great. If you have kids, check it out.

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LA

I played a gig down in Florida years ago and after the show there was a super cool, suave, cocky, loud, brash guy trying to impress everyone at the club, telling everyone he was from LA. Going on and on about LA and how great it is.

It turns out the guy was from Louisiana.

So it’s not that he was wrong, he just wasn’t trying to tell the truth. He was using a sliver of the truth to create a false narrative that he thought would better serve his purpose of looking cool…while not being helpful to anyone else.

As we talk about ourselves and what we do we can’t possibly share the entire landscape of of who we are and what we do. So we highlight things. We turn up certain knows and turn down others. And when done properly it’s of great benefit to everyone involved.

A good Instagram page, a good interview, a good Instagram page, a good restaurant menu.

But when we find out you’re from Louisiana and not LA, it just feels like a wasted conversation. We like good surprises, not weird ones.

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