Most artist think that the show is whatever happens when they get on stage. The better artists know it’s something that gets built long before stepping on stage. You get to decide which camp you’re in.
You can show your appreciation for the audience by saying ’Thank You Cleveland!’…but the much better way to show your thanks is to prepare as though you really care about giving the people a great night.
We don’t stop the movie halfway through...and yet that type of tension is what real life is all about.
It’s why we like the movie, the book, the podcast, and the show so much. It gives us what we so often can’t have ourselves…resolve. The full picture. The release. The reasons.
»» And when we do the hard work of adding tension and release to what we do, we’re tapping into a deep desire of our audience. A little slice of heaven.
It’s hard to show up for the first time.
But that isn’t the hard part.
The hard part is showing up again. In the wind and the rain and the boredom and the not enough money and the not cool enough.
If you’re doing good work there will be thankless days and nights…where a pat on the back would sure be nice, but you’ve moved on past the need for it because you’ve decided that the byproducts of the work are more important than feeling a certain way while doing the work.
This is what we need more of. Determined, caring, creative people building things that take a while.
How do you compare yourself in terms of what we’ve heard?
Talking about what you’re similar to helps to lessen our risk for trying out your bandwagon.
But a couple notes…
-When the artist is asked ‘what does the new album sound like’ and then proceeds to reference a bunch of bands no one has ever heard of, there’s a mismatch of message and audience. The audience needs references it’s heard of…or the artist needs a different audience.
-The artist might rattle off bands and albums they’re big fans of rather than considering whether or not those are actually good references. If I had a dime for every time an artist said their new stuff sounds like the Beatles, and then I go and listen and the only similarity is that there’s acoustic guitar on the track…
References we’ve heard of make it easier to take a chance on you…but if you’re not honest about the references you’ll lose us all together.
First Monday of the shiny new month…new Hum Love playlist on Spotify and Apple
Determination over confidence…
We’re not sure we can control the outcome but we’re going to find out what it is.
This is why releasing music deserves a celebration. Determination is hard to maintain when confidence isn’t riding along with it. And that gap is a big part of what it means to be a working artist.
Show business is not going to come knocking on your door and tell you it’s your lucky day…regardless of how much you hope for it.
And
If today wasn’t great, it’s silly to say, ‘show business was mean to me today’…regardless of how much you feel like it was.
Show business isn’t for or against you. It’s simply there to participate in.