What is the difference between a rock star wannabe and a true local musician? A rock star wannabe is a band or a musician who pretends to be a rock star when in reality they are a local musician like all of us. A true local musician is someone who acts like one.

I can think of 10 ways how you can tell bands & solo artists can be a true local musician, read on:

• We’re not worried about making money – A true local musician would play gigs for free or even open mics. We don’t care about making cash, we’re in it for the music.
• We’re not worried about how many people shows up at gigs – A true local musician would play for either huge crowds or just to the venue owner only. All those rock star wannabe bands out there would want large crowds at all of their shows. We want big crowds at our shows too but if we don’t get ’em, we’re okay with it.
• We know there is no such thing as a “headliner” or “opening act” – I never acted like a headliner or a open act. I didn’t care what the order of line up was on the gig. I didn’t care if I played last, first or somewhere in the middle. Most bands would want to play last because they live under this delusion that they are a “headliner” act.
• On social networking sites we like to treat our pages more personal – The bands who pretend to be rock stars would make their networking sites professional, they act like they are bigger than the people posting on them. They market themselves to make them look like rock stars. The true local musicians would actually interact with people like they are human beings, by replying to everyone, not treating them like “fans”, treating them like real people.
• We respect most talent – There are no egos with us true local musicians, we respect all talent and supportive of all musicians. We also don’t act like we’re better than other talent.
• We act like professionals – Being nice and friendly to everyone, leaving our egos out the doors. We don’t feud with other bands or venue owners, we’re respectful to everything. Even if it’s something we don’t like, we keep to ourselves and act like a grown up.
• We release music whenever we want to –A lot of rock star wannabe talent would have a strict release day when they’re about to release new songs. We don’t really have to be like that as long as we’re not signed to an actual label or anything. We can release music whenever we want to. Just make the music, record ’em, and get ’em out there asap. You don’t have to force people to wait for new music.
• We’re not worried about getting big opportunities or winning awards or contests – Like I said in another blog post, we shouldn’t have to worry about these silly awards. If you do win these things, it’s not like you’re going to be even bigger after that. You’re still the same local musician. All we should care about is making music for the people who support it.
• We’re not worried about getting signed or becoming famous rock stars – There’s too many bands around here that want to make the big time and take over the world with their music, but not us. This is not what us true local musicians are in it for. We’re in it strictly for the love of playing music, period.
• We’re willing to make music at home, not in expensive studios – A lot of bands would try to find the most expensive studio to record an album. We don’t have to be like that. A lot of us local musicians would be willing to make music at home using shit recording equipment. Using cheap computer software or even a 4 track machine.

This is a post that a lot of bands & musicians out there, don’t want to read. They’ll think I’m crazy, but all the above is the truth. Enjoy!

Kev