I’ve dealt with musicians for many years; pretty much over a decade. I’ve dealt with musicians online and at the gigs. Too many local musicians out there have really douchey attitudes. Many are full of themselves, ego-driven, self-absorbed, naive and delusional. Always pretending to be something that they’re not. It is hard to make friends with other musicians nowadays, ya know?

It seems to me nowadays that in order to win respect with another musician is that you got to kiss his or her’s ass most of the time. Meaning that you have to respect their talent and respect them as a person. If you give them any kind of criticism, disagreements and all that stuff be ready for all kinds of backstabbing, betrayals and all kinds of drama. Like I said before, all musicians are different… they all have different attitudes and different personalities. Some are gonna be really nice and some are gonna be arrogant jerks.

I learned over the years that you can’t trust anybody in the musicians community. There will also be many that will pretend to like you but deep down inside, they can’t stand you. Whenever I talk about musicians with douchey attitudes, most don’t believe me most of the time. Most would point the blame on me is why they all act this way. There’s a lot of musicians out there with negative attitudes. I can easily sit here and name a bunch of names all I want but I’m not going to do that and won’t name any names.

No doubt that musicians are really sensitive and dense people. They get upset and angry over stupid things. It seems to me though that musicians with douchey attitudes has become more accepted nowadays. If you don’t act like a rock star and act like a douchey person then you probably won’t be accepted in the music community. That’s how cliquey it’s become lately.

The thing is there are too many musicians out there that think they are talented and just ’cause they play in a band and had some successes, they want to feel more important than you. That’s why a lot of them feel more superior than you… they obsess with their own self-importance. No doubt there’s a lot of narcissists and primadonnas in the local music community for sure, again not naming names.

I’ve had many musicians over the years supported me in the beginning but stabbed me in the back later and then I never hear from them again. That’s just life and that’s how crazy the musicians community can be. The musicians community is not always fun, there’s always going to be ups and downs. Watch who you trust ’cause not everybody is your friend around here.

In the past, I used to network in the musicians community and used to like meeting them. I still do like to meet local musicians but I’m gonna watch who I trust this time and be more careful. I learned that you should only support the musicians who truly believe in you and yes, I still do have some wonderful musicians who still has my back to this day. I’ve had a lot of musicians come and go in my life, lol… it just happens.

Anyhow, I’ve had many musicians who claimed to be supportive of my music over the years and then they became backstabbers later on. If you’re a backstabber then they weren’t true supporters to begin with and I’m fine with that. A loyal supporter wouldn’t stab you in the back at all and would always support you no matter what.

The musicians community is crazy especially the Capital Region. Yeah, nobody believes me and thinks I’m full of shit most of the time but I just tell things like it is. Tell things as I see it. The problem is many musicians around here think they’re rock stars and that explains why a lot of them have a douchey attitude most of the time. Many just don’t know how to leave their ego at the door which to me is sad.

I learned that when you want to play music, play in a band or solo acoustic or whatever… you leave your ego at the door. Don’t act like you’re better than everybody else ’cause you’re a musician. Yeah, you maybe a talented person musically but that doesn’t mean you have to act like a big shot about it. To me, musicians with a rock star attitude is a turn off and those are the kind of musicians I want to stay away from.

Kev

Admittedly, I haven’t played live music shows in a long while and there’s a pretty good reason for that. I guess the only and simple reason is that I pretty much lost interest in the Capital Region music scene. In the past, between the years 2006 – 2010, I used to gig all over in the Capital Region. Play live acoustic shows all over the Region from Saratoga Springs to Troy to downtown Albany. I have played most of the well-known venues around the area in the past and opened for some other bands and shared shows with acoustic solo acts. Sometimes I’ll play gigs with just me being the only performer on the bill and I had a few gigs like that before.

So you may ask, why did I lose interest in Capital Region music scene? Well for a lot of reasons really. 1) It’s because there’s not much of a music scene to begin with, there’s nothing here. 2) There’s no sense of booking a show when you’re only going to play for a few people 3) I believe the Capital Region music scene is the most conceited music scene I’ve ever seen as I’ve been turned off by it of what I’ve seen over the years. Ya know, a lot of drama, a lot of bullshit and blah blah blah, you get the deal. This area has a lot of problems. I can go on all day about this. We have a pretty cliquey music scene it’s pretty crazy.

Honestly, I’m not so crazy about going out to play live gigs much anymore. There’s no sense of going out just to play to an empty venue which most of my past gigs were just that. I just wanted to go out and play and try to make a name for myself like everyone else.

As of this point, I’m just enjoying life… playing music still and just doing the things I want to do in life. My life is great right now. Yeah, I’m still playing guitar and making music. Learning new covers and I’m going to try to write new originals too. I’ll always make music but playing live at a venue? Screw it. A musician doesn’t have to play live if he/she doesn’t want to. Just make music and release it or just make music for yourself only, that’s all you need to do. Just enjoy. I don’t see myself as a rock star as that has never been my goal. There’s too many musicians in Albany living under the delusion thinking they’re rock stars.

I’ve been through a lot of crazy bullshit throughout the years of the Capital Region music scene. Ya know, a lot of haters and a lot of bad publicity and all that crap. I get all that when I started releasing my music publicly and playing out. When you want to get yourself in the music scene and interact with other musicians, keep in mind that not everyone is going to like you. You also can not trust everyone ’cause there will be a lot of backstabbing and drama going around. You know how you do your best when you try to support other musicians as best as possible and they wanna do nothing but hate you in return? I got that a lot throughout the years.

I was never afraid to say that this music scene here sucks so much that I lost interest and want nothing to do with local music pretty much. I stopped going to other band shows too ’cause I used to support other bands.

Yeah, playing music and doing something you love is tough and I know you have to do your best is to ignore all the bullshit. We have a pretty dead music scene anyways. There’s nothing here. Time to admit that truth.

Will I ever play live at a music venue again around here? I don’t know. Like I said, there’s nothing here. I try to follow the music scene as best as possible and there are pretty much no venues around.

I’m also not interested in playing a music scene when a music scene is very liberal with their politics. Most everyone is pretty liberal around here which includes most musicians and venues. That’s another reason why I lost interest. Bands and venues won’t stay out of politics and I’m so sick of it. So I figure, fuck it. Time to boycott.

While I have no interest in playing live again anytime soon, I still do plan on playing live on the internet ’cause I find that a lot more fun. I still do plan on doing a live home internet show. I just need to learn more covers and write more originals and I’m trying to do both.

I love music and it’s what I do so I’ll never give that up. Songwriting is in my blood and I want to write new songs again. I love making music for the internet and I prefer that way more.

Kev