I remember in 2006, that’s the year when I first started performing my music publicly. I recorded a 9 song demo which I released publicly right away. I recorded a 9 song acoustic demo — which you can hear my music here by the way, the first 9 songs is my demo — hoping to get gigs so I can play out at local bars, cafes/diners and music festivals… things like that,  ya know? Back in the day, I used to gig a lot. Played almost every venue in the Capital District and even a few small festivals. I didn’t have any interviews for the press or anything but I did get an interview for FM radio once (sorry, the interview wasn’t recorded, wishing it was).

After I started performing my music publicly, I sparked a lot of controversy for whatever reason. I started getting a lot of internet haters like mad. People were attacking me in message boards, youtube and facebook. It was crazy, ya know? People were attacking me everywhere. Even other local bands and local musicians were getting onto it.

I used to have a problem responding to internet haters and defending myself each time but over the years, I’ve learned to stay above ’em by ignoring them most of the time. I’m sure I still get “haters” and people in this area still do write me hateful things for no reason but I just ignore that stuff now. “Ignoring” is a powerful tool and it’s not hard to do.

I love what this guy said in this video at the end is that when you get a ton of haters and people trolling you for no reason, see it as a sign of success which is so true. It seems that each time I release a new batch of songs every now and then, I get trolled by a bunch of losers. Happens every time.

Why is that musicians get so many haters? Is it because they’re jealous of your success? Jealous that you’re a good musician and they aren’t? Maybe a combination of both? I almost gave up playing music live and releasing songs ’cause of all the negativity that I got through the Capital District music scene but I’m realizing that I should never have. That’s what they want you to do. You can’t cave in the haters. If you want to play music, you’ve got to say to them, “Fuck all of you… I love what I do and I’m not stopping for you.” That’s the right attitude to have. People scorned me pretty badly in this area. Creating anonymous accounts to attack me and all kinds of crazy shit.

I’ve learned to cope with it all, though and now I feel stronger than ever. I’m totally above the haters now. They don’t bother me anymore like they used to.

I’ve always believed that I’ve been overlooked and neglected in the music scene but that’s okay. I don’t do this for fame or popularity. I play music ’cause I enjoy doing it and that’s all you should care about. Fuck what people think of you, ya know? Fuck people and just play your music. That’s all you need to do!

I’m still planning to write new songs again and drive the haters crazy even more. Stay tuned.

Kev