Magnetic Pull

There’s a mysterious magnetic pull to bands who have been around…The Rolling Stones, U2, Coldplay…the vibe and energy of those particular humans together at the same time does something special to the world around them wherever they go.

I think the reason for the magnetic pull is akin to this…

I’ve played some wedding gigs over the years. They’re fun gigs…hit songs, snappy attire and everyone shows up hoping to have a good time…so they usually do.

I especially like the anniversary dance. The lead singer invites all the married couples onto the dance floor. After a verse and chorus of How Sweet It Is, everyone who has been married less than ten years is told to leave the dance floor…then another verse, maybe a sax solo, and now everyone who has been married twenty years or less has to leave the dance floor…

This keeps going for a while until there’s one couple remaining. They’re old. This isn’t their first dance. They’re happy. They love each other and everyone can see it and feel it. They embrace the joy of the moment but they’re not the ones with tears in their eyes…everyone else is.

Because see, there’s something about a sixty-five year marriage. A magnetic pull. A mystery. Like they know a secret. We feel reverence even though we’ve never met them. We know that sixty-five years means a lot of highs and lows. Lots of life, lots of difficulty. And yet somehow here they are…after all the pain they’ve undoubtedly caused each through over the years, they’re on a dance floor together. Smiling. Looking at one another. Giving all of us a thrill.

It’s redemption.

Redemption has a powerful pull. It’s hard to see it with our eyes but we are drawn to it when it’s there. Our hearts can’t help but respond.

Whether its U2 walking on stage or the old married couple walking onto the dance floor…they walk up there WITH each other despite all the (many) shortfalls. It doesn’t make any sense and yet it clicks with all of us as a deep, worthwhile and rich way to live in relationships.

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The One That Offers The Deal...

Contracts in the music business are notoriously weighted against the artist.

And artists hate it but go along with it.

A big reason for the uneven-ness of the contract is that the business entity is always the one offering the contract…not the artist.

The starting point is everything. Everything is negotiated in proximity to the starting point. So if you don’t like the deal you’re getting, change the starting point.

I’ve never heard of an unsigned artist going around to record labels with a job description and a list of requirements in order for the artist to hire the label.

The one that offers the deal usually wins. That could be you.

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Artist Jobs

Your job as an artist is to make.

Your job as a professional artist is to make connection.

Your job as a career artist is to become a reliable source of connection.

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Intensity

Don’t confuse intensity with number of hours worked.

Committing to working twenty hours per day has little to do with intensity. Intensity has to do with extreme strength. And working twenty hours per day probably just means you’re behind.

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Subtlety

It takes courage to build subtlety into your song, project, approach, career, offering to the marketplace.

Subtlety takes patience to make.

Subtlety is often tedious.

Subtlety is expensive.

Subtlety is risky because it won’t be noticed by most people.

It’s hard to measure the effectiveness of your subtlety.

You’ll never feel like you get enough credit for the effort and creativity it took to add subtlety.

Subtlety gives something to be discovered by those who want to dig deeper.

Subtlety often comes in the form of layers.

Taking the time to build in subtle layers ensures your thing is more than meets the eye. And something like that is worth offering to the world.

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Committing To The Clean Up

That’s the hard part of play dough.

It’s also the hard part of throwing a party or putting on a show or reorganizing the kitchen cabinets.

So when we say yes to those things we know the full spectrum of what we’re committing to do. The hard part isn’t a surprise. The hard part is what makes us make a conscious choice rather than a frivolous one. To do it on purpose.

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