Artists get this prompt a million times by music biz people as well as general fans.
How will you respond? Why will you respond that way?
You can either tell the facts or you can tell a story.
If all you do is tell the facts, you will live and die by them. You can absolutely gain ground and succeed by telling the facts, but it’s slippery and political. When the facts are favorable, opportunities are open and easy. When your facts don’t measure up, you have nothing to lean back on, and the fact-crunchers don’t care anymore.
Facts speak to the mind (important), a story speaks to the heart (more important).
So even when your facts aren’t great, the story still entices us to believe. Both you and us can believe a story DESPITE the facts.
When the facts are that you used to play big theaters and now you’re only playing big clubs…that’s a death blow if all you’ve ever done is pedaled your numbers to people.
But in-spite of these facts you lean into the story of your culture…for instance…of making everyone feel hopeful after coming to your show, more confident after every business meeting, more united after every business phone call, and never stop creating music that makes each fan float off the floor a little bit when they hear it.
“Tell me about your band” is an invitation to move someone through the heart with a story. Your story.
Tell me about your band.
p.s. Many times when biz people say “Tell me about your band”, they think they’re asking about your facts and bullet points, because that’s what they’re used to hearing all day. But we’re all human, we all want to be taken for a ride, we all want to hear a story that makes us come alive, something that makes us feel connected…and we don’t even know why but we FEEL it.
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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com