Bob Baker’s saying it better than I can, but I’ll elaborate.
If you’re sitting around, pissing and moaning about your scene or the business or the A&R guys that don’t get it, you’re never going to succeed as a working musician.
Musicians that thrive in this business focus on four things:
- writing music
- performing music
- building audience
- staying healthy
If there’s anything on that list you’re not good at — get help. Attend a writers’ retreat and get good at songwriting. Rehearse or jam with another musician five or six days a week. Look at your zone map and work on your mailing list with your street team captain at least every other day. Work out with a trainer or with a gym buddy.
It takes the same amount of energy to complain about something as it does to make a change.
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Right on – and the magic catalyst is that you’re definitely not the only one with the same complaint – so if you can enact a solution you’ll suddenly have half the musicians in town backing you.
I started the New Haven Jazzcast (www.newhavenjazzcast.com) because as a jazz player who moved to town a while ago, I found lots of incredible musicians but no centralized directory.
So I launched the jazzcast to solve the problem, and the response has been great – area musicians get promotion, area fans can learn about upcoming gigs and get turned on to new artists, and I get to network AND help out the scene. Everybody wins.
Great way of crystalizing exactly what we need to be focusing on as independent musicians. Everything else we need to do can all be categorized under the 4 primary areas you listed.
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