 |
|
So, You Want Be a Successful Struggling Musician . . . Part 2
In this 2nd part of the series we’ll touch on some of the more esoteric aspects of what it takes to be a successful struggling musician. These are insights I have learned over a 20 year career playing music of all kinds. Right now I spend most of my time and energy on my gypsy music band, Fishtank Ensemble, although I also have a comedy project, The Doug & Josh Explosion, and a Flamenco Hip Hop CD coming out in 2011. Stay in the game for the long haul Unless you’re an overnight sensation, (you won’t be) you need to think about a strategy for being able to meet your financial obligations over the long term, while still playing as much music as you can. I’ve known a lot of fantastic musicians who gave it their all in the 20s only to succumb to various societal pressures in their 30s and trade their dreams of being a professional musician for the promise of financial security. So I suggest developing a complimentary career to your musical one. For 4 years I worked as an apple computer repair technician. This gave me a great wealth of knowledge for all things computer related. Being that I’m a music producer as well, this knowledge has been and continues to be very useful. If I could go back in time though, I would probably learn the skills it takes to be a graphic designer. This is something that you will always need as a musician, great artwork and design. You will need this for your website, album artwork, t-shirts, stickers, posters, promotional material, basically everything you do should be imbued with an artful and unique sense of design. My friend Scott McCormick of the great band Boulder Acoustic Society is on the road most of the year touring, but he also has a busy design service that he can do on the road from his computer in the car. He can make a living while driving then play shows at night for a double income. How cool is that? For another great idea at a complimentary career, look no further than the ukulele and banjo player from Boulder Acoustic Society Aaron Keim. In addition to playing music with his band, he is a thriving luthier who makes and repairs uke’s and banjo’s from his shop in Denver. This is a smart band. Another great example of a complimentary career comes right from the band I’m in, Fishtank Ensemble. Ursula Knudson is not only our singer and multi-instrumentalist, she is also our booking agent. She works for the Charisma Artist Agency as a booking agent but she mostly only books for our band. But because she is a booking agent with the power of the agency behind her, she has people soliciting her constantly to be their agent. If she wanted to, she could easily do this full time, but because her efforts are directed toward making our band succeed, she limits the amount of work she does for other people. So not only does she make an extra income, she is taking responsibility for her own success. Personally, I have started a publishing company, Foxy World Music, to exploit our own catalog and that of the great artists I know, to gain licensing deals for movies, tv, commercials, etc. It’s a little tricky to break into this world, but once you do make some deals, get some exposure and a reputation, things get easier. A few other ideas for a complimentary career are web designer, soundman, music producer, engineer, music teacher and publicist. If you put your mind to it I’m sure you can come up with many more as well. Learn to do it Yourself This advice compliments the last section, and that’s learn to do it yourself. There are so many facets to being an independent artist. Things like song writing, recording, marketing and publicity, graphic design, web design, etc. You can’t do it all by yourself but you can select a few areas and do those well. Personally, I focus on songwriting, music production, music publishing and web design myself. Which brings us the to next tip . . . Division of labor Ideally, everyone in the band should be sharing the load of work relatively equally. To be honest I’ve never seen a situation where everything is shared completely equally, but it’s something to be strived for. What is a band if not a group of like-minded people with similar goals and talents. So sit down with your band and assess everybody’s talents and interests. Figure out a way to divide the many responsibilities of running a band relatively equally among the members. You don’t have to be an expert in a particular aspect of the music business, you just have to be interested in it, or at least in your bands future as a successful business. Because like it or not, assuming the music is good of course, your band is a business. And no professional able to take you to the next level will have an interest in you until you can show you’re taking this business seriously yourself. Being in a band = Being married to everyone in the band Understanding the personal dynamics of being in a band is absolutely essential to it’s survival and it’s not something that anyone will tell you about (besides me of course). Being in a band is roughly equivalent to being married to everybody in the band. Artists are sensitive folk and peoples delicate egos come into play in unforeseen ways. It usually takes some time for this dynamic to eventually become a problem. For the first few years of a band, everybody is generally very excited about everything and has lots of energy to put into it. But as days go on, you spend a lot of time together and get to know each another very well. This can either be a good thing or a bad thing. I can’t coach you in a few sentences on how to relate to your band-mates. This would probably take a whole book. But if you are aware of this dynamic, you can be better prepared to handling the trying situations that inevitably arise. Living the Dream
Some musicians focus on arriving but forget it’s also about the journey along the way. It’s easy to forget when you’re in the trenches of trying to make a living out of your art that this is something you’ve worked for and dreamed about for a long time, maybe your whole life. In some ways, it’s the job of the artists in the world to live the life that others only dream about. It takes a lot of courage and sacrifice to be an artist, maybe not at first, when you’re young. But as you get older, and societal and financial pressures mount, being a successful struggling artist takes on ever deeper meaning and challenges. So don’t lose sight of the reasons that you started down this road in the first place. That’s provided that they were the good reasons in the first place . . . not just money, fame and chicks. So there you have it. Some of the more esoteric aspects of what it takes to be a successful struggling musician. I hope this helps you in your journey. I wish someone would have sat me down and told me these things long ago. But I guess that’s where wisdom comes in. Wisdom is knowledge mixed with experience and it’s something that doesn’t come easy. I share my knowledge and experience with you freely so that you might profit from it and make this world a little better place. In part 3 of this series, I will be exploring some of the many useful tools available to us musicians today to help produce, distribute and promote this music that we work so hard on. Douglas Smolens
Posted in Writing So, You Want Be a Successful Struggling Musician . . . Part 1
Over the 20 years that I’ve been a working musician, I have gleemed many an insight into what it takes to be able to do this for the long haul. With my current band, Fishtank Ensemble, we just released our 3rd album, ‘Woman in Sin’ and are currently touring about half of the year. We are an almost completely do-it-yourself band. So what does it mean to be a successful struggling musician? It means that you are pursuing your passion, music, while still able to pay to your bills and live a reasonably good life (and hopefully save a little). There are so many trade-offs in choosing to pursue your dreams. Non-artistic people think it’s an easy decision to ‘not get a real job’. And that might be true when you’re young. But the older you get the harder it gets. These following tips are knowledge that I’ve learned from my experience that will help you down your path becoming a successful struggling musician, and eventually, just a successful musician. In part 1 of this 3 part series, I will be outlining the more practical aspects of what this entails. These are very tangible ideas and suggestions that may even be obvious, but they are things that every musician should know and can be implemented everyday. In part 2, I will focus on the more philosophical and less tangible aspects of being a successful struggling musician but arguably the more important skills and wisdom that you need to know (after mastering your art that is). These will be suggestions and ideas that will keep you in the game for the long haul, because that is what it will take to be a successful struggling musician. Part 3 will be all about utilizing the various tools available to us. So, here we go . . . Practice – This one is obvious and already thoroughly covered in other articles here and here so I’ll just make a brief point: The progress you make is measured over years. So be consistent and diligent and over time you’ll be amazed at how far you come. Learn to play drums and piano – No matter what instrument you play, every musician should really learn to play both drums and piano in addition to their chosen instrument/s. Why is this? For any instrument you play, you’re going to have to play rhythm. It’s an inherent part of music you can’t escape. I started my career as a drummer but later switched to guitar. But my time spent learning to play the drums has served me immensely well. And why should you learn to play piano? Because it’s the most logically laid out instrument. Unlike guitar for example, every octave is in the same place and it’s easy to visualize everything because it’s perfectly laid out in front of you. I’m convinced that the 3rd between the G and B strings is what keeps the millions of people out there who dabble on guitar from really learning the instrument and becoming great. Another reason you should learn piano is that it’s the easiest instrument to write and orchestrate with on the computer. If you write songs, you probably want to demo and/or record them on the computer, and if you can play piano, you can produce any sound that’s ever existed right there from the synthesizer on you DAW. I can get by OK on piano though I’m not good at all. But I can figure out a part, practice it, then record it right into my DAW with any sound I want, simply by being able to play the piano. Learn to play as many songs as you can – Learning cover songs is a great way to understand what it takes to make a great song. It’s also a great way to start playing gigs. There’s a million of bars out there that need music all the time. It’s not the end-all-be-all, but it’s a great way to start gigging, gain valuable experience and hopefully even earn a little money. If you haven’t already, start writing songs now – There are tens of thousands of great cover bands out there, but what sets apart a band that people take seriously versus a great bar or wedding band is original songs. Do you think we would have ever heard of the Beatles if they remained a Rock n’ Roll cover band in Germany? I don’t think so. You should realize that unless you’re extremely gifted, you’ll probably write really bad songs for years. If I could play you the songs I wrote for my first 5-10 years, we would both have a good laugh. But the important thing is that I was writing songs, and over time they got better and better. It’s also important to write about what moves you and what you know. The best songs are ones where you can feel that the person who wrote it actually experienced what they are singing about. Play as much as possible – It’s pretty daunting and difficult to set out on a national or regional tour, especially if you haven’t done it before. So start out locally. Find the bars, clubs, events, farmers markets, art centers, etc. in your local area and start playing there. Once you’re comfortable in your small, local pond, start spreading out in your region more. If you live in a big city, there wont be any shortage of places you can play. And don’t limit yourself to just the traditional places like bars and clubs. There is a whole huge world out there and guess what, it needs music, especially live music. City centers, Farmers Markets and street fairs are great places to busk, provided they allow that. One band I know, ‘The Blasting Company’ starts playing on the street in front of the hottest clubs in Hollywood starting at about 1am, just as people are drunk and starting to leave. This has been a very successful strategy for them, because they impress the intoxicated patrons, make tips, but more importantly make connections and get hired to play parties and other events. Continue to think outside the box and you will discover there are still more creative places to bring you music. Places like museums, wineries, parades, art opening, schools, camps, etc. Doing this, you will gain invaluable experience both on stage and off. Which brings us to the last tip of part 1 of being a successful struggling musician. Embrace the business aspects of your music career – Unless you’re born into a famous musical family or get very lucky, there’s only one person who will nurture your musical career through it’s developing years, you. The irony is, it’s not until you are making enough money to be successful until managers, booking agents, publishing and record companies will be interested in you. But where were they through the hard years of figuring everything out and eating cup of noodles everyday? The time to really start thinking about and acting on this is when you are ready to start playing live in front of an audience. From that point on, it is imperative that you take this aspect of career as seriously as you take the music. Hopefully, one day you will be successful enough that you won’t have to produce, manage, book and promote yourself. But having a good grasp on this will continue to help you even then. I will touch much more on this in part 2, but for now understand that no one will take your music career seriously until you do.
Posted in Writing |