If you’re putting time effort and energy into something where ‘you have to be there’ to partake (i.e. your live show)…you need to understand that you’re working on something very different than ‘check it out whenever you want’ (i.e. your recordings).
The hard part about building something where ‘you have to be there’ is that there can only be so many people in the room. A few hundred in a club or a few thousand in a theater or max twenty or thirty thousand in an arena or at a festival.
That’s it. That’s the total number of people who will get to experience the blood sweat and tears it takes to make and perform a great show.
(Most people on the planet will be left out)
Where as working on and pouring over your recordings for months and years to get them just right makes perfect sense because millions upon millions of people can and juuuuuust might check them out tonight.
More energy goes into making the recordings than the live show because one has very limited seating and the other has unlimited.
And that ‘unlimited’ carrot hanging out there is very seductive…it’s hard to take your eyes off of it.
Why would you put weeks and months of your creative energy and time into something that can only reach a tiny number of people when you can put weeks and months of your creative energy into something that can hypothetically reach everyone?
Because doing something where ‘you had to be there’ is still valuable, rare and desirable.
Spending the night taking care of (i.e. entertaining) four hundred people instead of working on something for four million people is rich. It’s special. It’s fleeting.
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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com