For many years, I’ve always had a problem of people being critical of myself. I get negatively criticized by musicians, promoters, club owners and even non-musicinas. When you want to play your music, get yourself out there by promoting yourself on the internet… releasing your music and playing your gigs — you’re gonna get all kinds of opinionated people coming after you. When you want to get yourself into the world of local musicians you gotta be ready for musicians with huge egos and horrible attitudes ’cause they’re gonna be all over the place. Gotta be ready for all kinds of jealousy going around.

You see, musicians who think they’re “successful” and established in this area, that’s when a lot of them are gonna think they’re better than you. If they think they’re talented, they’re gonna think they’re better than you. The last thing you wanna do is let them think they’re better than you. Before their success and popularity, they were all cool and nothing wrong with them but once musicians become “successful” their egos would go sky-high. I’m not afraid to say it. I’ve dealt with too many musicians who think they’re the “shit” over the years, trust me on that. Not naming names, ya know?

That’s the last thing you wanna do. I don’t care how successful and big you are. Congrats on your success in music but it’s how you treat your success. I am my own worst critic. I don’t think I’m popular/successful at all and I don’t think I’m all that talented even though people try to tell me these things sometimes.

My point being is that you must be down to earth and humble if you want to earn more respect in the music community. Leave your ego at the door. You can do that by never acknowledging your success and popularity. Still act like you’re nothing. I’ve grown tired of musicians who think they’re the shit. That’s kind of why I stopped writing music reviews on local bands ’cause when they write me asking me to write a review on something, they expect me to write a “positive review” praising the hell out of them so they can have something to jerk themselves off with. I’ve had it. So I stopped doing the reviews for that reason. I still review local bands once in a while but only if I like their music.

Musicians can be crazy whack jobs, man. They really can be. I’m not afraid to say it. I speak from experience over the years.

If you want to play music and be a part of the music community successfully and positively here’s a few tips of advice: 1) Never trust anybody 2) Never take sides and always stay neutral 3) Only worry about yourself and your own music 4) Don’t give a fuck about anybody 5) Stop trying to please everyone.

Be flattered with all the criticism you get. In my opinion, when you get so many people criticizing you that’s gotta say something about your music and talent, right? I think it’s because they know that you’re talented musically and they’ll never admit it. Just my opinion, though.

Kev

A lot of bands and artists struggle to write a hit song. I know it’s tough. If you want to write a hit song… if you want to get a lot of plays on your mp3’s somewhere around 10,000 to 1,000,000 or over then you should give this piece a read:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/make-it-in-music/how-to-write-a-great-pop-song/627419673990952?fref=nf

I like all ten of those tips the guy gave especially the first one.

Writing a lot of songs is probably the best advice on there. Keep writing songs. I don’t care if you write a few songs or 50 songs a day… just keep writing and you’ll never know how many of your songs become big hits. A lot of bands and artists expect every one of their songs to be big hits when they know it’s not always going to be.

Honestly, I never cared to write “hit songs” or “pop songs” (they both pretty much mean the same thing). I just want to write music. If some of my songs happened to get a lot of plays, I’ll be flattered sure but I’m okay with 2 or 3 plays. It be nice to write a song that gets so many plays but I’m not too worried about it. I’m not that desperate like a lot of bands and artists are. I like to let the music speak on it’s own.

I never called my songs “hit songs” or “singles” like a lot of bands & artists seem to do out there. I just make music. That’s the end of it. I never thought of any of my songs to be “radio friendly”.

It is tough to get your music to go viral and get noticed. My advice is to keep doing what you do and don’t take yourself serious. You’ll never know where your music takes you. You can never tell when your song is gonna be big. When your song gets a lot of plays and a lot of people giving positive feedback on it, that’s when you’ll know it’s a hit. Let the people tell you that it’s a hit song. You don’t wanna call it a “hit song” yourself.

Kev

There are too many bands and musicians wanting to get big as possible and a lot of them want fame in this day and age of local music. Back in the day, I could have sworn that local musicians “used” to never care about fame. They just play for the love of it; however, ever since those reality TV shows such as “American Idol”, “America’s Got Talent”, “The Voice”, “X-Factor”, etc. etc. blah blah blah got so huge in the mainstream… I’ve noticed that local musicians have changed their view about how they look at music. A lot of bands deny that they want fame and fortune in their career but you know that’s a flat-out lie. You can tell a lot of bands & artists are desperate for fame ’cause of the way they market themselves in social networking. A lot of local bands promote themselves like they’re on a major label when they’re not really. Honestly, I always found this quite sad.

The music industry isn’t the same anymore. It’s not like it used to be. Most bands & artists in the major label industry today are mostly manufactured. Most of today’s recordings is usually done by auto-tune in the studio. There’s a lot of lip-syncing and fake-playing by artists on stage in this day and age of the industry.

I wouldn’t want fame the way it is going now. That is something I would never be able to handle.

In fame, it’s not always going to be positive and happy. You’ll through a lot of ups and downs. The major label industry is a pretty corrupt industry. You’re gonna get controlled by these guys. The major labels can change your music and they’ll tell you how to write songs that would be considered for “mainstream” singles. Doing a lot of research, I heard the major label execs would send artists in a meeting room and tell you how to write songs the way they want it. It’s usually the labels that picks songs for the album too.

The indie label industry is no different. I hear they are even more controlling and demanding. Success and fame is pointless.

Bands shouldn’t worry about becoming big and hoping to become superstars. They should just focus on playing the music and that’s the end of it.

I wouldn’t want to live that rich and famous lifestyle. That couldn’t be me. I can’t see myself living in a huge mansion and being married to a woman with plastic surgery and all that stuff. Do you want to live in a world full gossip, tabloids, rumors? Fame has sent rock stars in a negative light. I mean look at all the musicians who have died of drugs at such a young age. Fame could send ya in a depression ’cause money will do that. Fame could destroy your life if you aren’t careful.

I really hate the way national fame is today.

As far as being big and successful locally goes… that’s all fine and good. Nothing wrong with that but bands shouldn’t care about that either. If a lot of people enjoy my music, great. If a lot of people don’t. That’s great too! I just want to play music and enjoy it. Being unsigned is great. More freedom. You can be your own boss and create art how you want to.

When local bands obsess with wanting fame, I call them “fame chasers” ’cause that’s exactly what they are. When a local band that I love does get signed a major deal, I’m probably no longer gonna be interested with them. Why? Because I’m not a big fan of commercial music. I’ll believe that once a band have signed a record deal, they sold out. I guess that’s exactly what happened toward my feelings against Phantogram. I used to like them but once they got big, they’re no longer interesting. Look at what the indie label have done to them. Their recent music videos are crazy and that’s probably what turned me off about them.

I like where I am. Being unsigned is great. I just wanna write songs and share it.

You never worry about getting big. Just do your thing and don’t take yourself serious. Let the people tell you if you’re big and successful. If you go around telling everybody that you’re big and successful… chances are you probably aren’t. Usually a musician can never tell how big and successful they are. A lot of them believe they are nothing even if they are big and popular – that’s a good attitude to have. Don’t acknowledge your success. If you do, you’ll come off as egotistical. Bands have a problem of acknowledging their successes which is a pretty big turn off for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like more people enjoying my music and listening to it… I don’t care to get big with it.

Kev

Some of you have seen me complain about the local music scene over the years. The Albany of the Capital Region. It’s not that we have a pretty lacking scene (which we do, no doubt about that) but what’s bothering about this scene are the attitudes and different personalities of musicians. I tried my best to be supportive, helpful, and friendly to ALL of them as much as I can. Seriously, I really did. There’s no doubt that the world of local musicians can be crazy and weird. All musicians are different. We live in a world where musicians have short-tempers, musicians who are critical/opinionated of others, they can be pretty selfish, pretty obsessive of their self-importance, they can be pretty narcissistic, musicians can be sometimes unprofessional, they can have HUGE egos, thinking that they’re superstars/legends in their own minds, delusions of grandeur, etc. I can keep going. We have plenty of musicians living in their own fantasy worlds.

Not all of them are like that, though. We definitely have musicians out there who are friendly, down-to-earth, humble and we have positive musicians who will care. There are musicians who don’t take themselves seriously and they do keep negative opinions to themselves — they just focus on the music. Those are the kind of musicians who I support.

My point being to keep it small and simple. I avoid musicians who are negative and a bit crazy. I like supporting musicians who are positive and joyful. I know who they all are too.

Musicians maybe talented but that doesn’t necessarily make them a good person either. I’m not gonna lie that there are a lot of douchebags around here. I’m also gonna say that musicians have treated me horribly over the years, not gonna lie about that either. I tried to support their music the best I can and a lot of them didn’t care to show that support in return. While a musician maybe talented, it’s good to take their personality and their professionalism very seriously. It’s interesting how musicians think they can get away with it. You call out their attitudes, they’ll defend themselves and their supporters/fans will defend them too… that’s how their little clique works.

This is why you gotta stop caring. Stay out of other people’s drama and bullshit, just focus on your own thing musically. That’s what I plan to do from this point on. If I can give you some friendly advice, only show your support to musicians who treats you like a human being and treats with you with respect. Get the assholes out of your life asap. Works for me, all the time by just getting rid of the ones I don’t like. I have dealt with bullshit with musicians for years and still do to this day. I’ve had plenty of musicians who I thought was my friend and got stabbed in the back by many of them. It’s crazy, I know. I think it’s because a lot of them use me ’cause they know my web-presence is big and they try to get recognition off of that.

I do support local bands and musicians. I’m only going to support the ones that I like. There are very few talent that I respect the hell out of in this area, not gonna name names in this post but maybe another post later on.

This is pretty much why I have been avoiding the music scene more and more ’cause of what I’ve explained above. Sorry but that’s how I feel about the music scene currently. It never changed. We always had a garbage music scene.

Kev

I am happy and proud that any band or solo artist want to achieve their dreams and go forward in their careers. I am not jealous of any of them at all. What I can’t stand is how a lot of them respond to people online when they do get bigger. It’ll only hurt you professionally… in other words, bands showing their anger online and losing their tempers at people, especially toward the ones who were nothing but supportive and helpful to them. The successful bands have always had a problem of defending themselves online through social networking, bloggers, and critics.

You see, when you get big in music… you can’t reply to the critics and bloggers. You can’t really respond to anything.

Usually, the more bigger and more successful and established musicians wouldn’t care about the drama and negative bullshit online. They don’t have time for that stuff and they would be focusing on their careers on a full time schedule. I’m sure other successful bands and artists around this area won’t like me or won’t like what I have to say online but they don’t use the internet to vent about my web presence ’cause they have better things to do. Like making their music, playing their gigs and all that stuff.

Why aren’t you doing the same? When the more successful bands respond to my web presence like making fun of me or bullying me publicly, they are not a real musician. I’ll look at them as “rock stars in their own delusional mind”. I’ve had this problem before of successful musicians replying to me in an aggressive way. It’s nothing new to me and it still happens.

The thing is, some musicians like to call themselves “professionals”. Well it’s not professional when you respond to the critics online. Sorry but that’s the truth. I understand that bands get kind of upset over my opinions and thoughts about the local music scene but I have every right to be honest and real about this stuff all I want to.

Let me tell ya something. If you guys wanna move forward to bigger careers like possibly get signed to a small indie label or whatever… you’re going to get a lot more bloggers and critics writing stuff about your band or whatever. Not everyone in the music industry is gonna like you. Just something to keep in mind, right? If that’s all you gonna do is respond to the online critics defending yourselves, then you don’t have what it takes to make it big in the industry.

The bigger you get, you really have to have a professional attitude at all times. You really can’t be yourself as much as you would like to. You have to leave your ego at the door and respect all criticism of any kind.

I wish these so called “musicians” wouldn’t have to worry about what I have to say online. If that’s all their gonna do is obsess with my web presence even if they don’t like me, then they aren’t as successful as they claim they are. If they think they are so “successful” in this area and so big, I want them to prove me wrong. Stay busy with your music and only concentrate on that. Don’t worry about me. Worry about your music.

I wish noting but the best for all of them. Stop replying to my blog and just do your thing. The more you respond with your anger, the more it’s gonna turn me off and I’ll stop supporting your music altogether. I stopped supporting a lot of bands and solo musicians music ’cause of their unprofessional attitude. They think they’re “professional” but they don’t even know what it is. Just amatuers living in dreamland.

This post isn’t aimed at anyone in particular, I’m only giving kind advice to all bands and artists. Of course, if you disagree with it, I would only get called a hateful jealous little troll.

Best of luck with your music ’cause you’re gonna need it.

Kev

I had to delete that previous post on local music ’cause I admit it, that post was kind of harsh and out of line a little bit but if you want to have a positive and successful local music life… here is a short list of things that you must do:

• Don’t trust anyone – This one is the truth. Some people in the music world may appear to like & support you but you’ll never know if they really don’t. Knowing from experience, I’ve seen plenty of people like that, been stabbed in the back too many times. Don’t take sides with anybody, stay neutral. Just play your music and enjoy.
• Ignore the critics/doubters – You will get ’em everywhere. Like I said before, no matter how good of a person you are, you can’t avoid negative people. So just ignore them the best you can… that includes negative critiques from other bands and music promoters. Simply put, don’t care about how anyone feels about you.
• Just do your own thing and that’s it – That means caring about your music only and just that. Forget everyone and everything else and focus on your own art.
• Stay out of drama of any kind – Don’t get yourself involved in heated feuds with other musicians and bands. Stay out of everyone else’s bullshit completely. That includes in social networking sites like facebook/twitter/forums/blogs/etc. In other words, if there are heated arguments between musicians on line, stay out of it.

If you can do those few things, life in local music can be great!

I do support bands and music artists. I’m only going to support the ones who I like and the ones who have a professional attitude ’cause some musicians and bands don’t know what “professional” is all about. Not naming names.

Kev

I just discovered this new local band in the Capital Region. Their name is, Engloria. Look like they’re trying to bring back the 90’s alternative-era of rock music. Check out their song, “Gonna Be Late” in the video below. They released their album, “Evolver”, for free exclusively for the internet.

I really dig the band’s sound and I’m gonna give their album a listen soon.

We need more bands/artists giving out free music like this. This is kind of the similar idea of what I’m planning with my “internet album” is give it out for free, just like Engloria did here.

I really dig the song below. Dig the video too. Check it out.

Kev

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ujODS02nc0

I know I have been pretty silent on local music for a long while and there is a pretty good reason for that. The reason for that is, I don’t care anymore. Yep, that’s right… I said it. Don’t really care about local music as much anymore as much as I used to. Venues just come and go. There are no places to play anymore which could explain why I haven’t been gigging. Sure, there are plenty of bars to play at but I’m not a big fan of playing the same shithole places, ya know? Also, the way this area promotes local music bothers me as well. This area claims to be supportive of all “local music” when that’s a lie. This area have always been pretty selective on who they support. On top of that, I don’t go out to see other local talent too much other than going to see EBJ once in a while, that’s about it. We don’t have much of a music scene at all, to be honest with ya. All the politics, negativity, and drama in the scene haven’t changed too much either.

I’m never giving up performing live. I’m never giving up my music. However, from this point on, I figure I’m going to do my own thing musically as I have been most focused on my own thing. I’m not gonna care about anything else but my own music. I’ve had that attitude for a long while now and it works.

I try my best to get recognized and get noticed like most musicians and will always try to but if this area wants to ignore my music, I’m fine with that. I don’t strive for success, fame, and popularity like so many bands/musicians are obsessed with these days. I strive for the love of music, that’s what I strive for. It’s part of why you don’t see me moving on to bigger things with my music ’cause I never cared to get big with my music. I see music as a hobby and a way of life for me. I don’t have delusions of grandeur like so many do. So I will do music for myself from now on. I’ll just make music for the internet exclusively.

I still have the internet album and the live stream show planned. Will continue to get my youtube channel going too. I have plans on just being an internet musician for now. I still would like to play a live show at a venue sometime if the opportunity will ever come up.

We always had a crap music scene. It never changed.

Kev

It is getting tougher and tougher for local musicians and bands to get noticed these days. Yes, people are going to have negative opinions about you. People are going to be dishonest and all that stuff but who cares, ya know? It’s just wrong to call out the local music scene for ignoring your music and I gotta knock that shit off myself. I need to learn to be more positive with music myself and that’s also getting worked on. You’re not gonna get noticed in your music if you demand people to like you ’cause it doesn’t work that way. If you want people to like your music, it’s your job to do the work yourself and not begging for respect. Respect is earned.

You know how all those bands and artists become so big and established? It’s because they earned the respect by writing good music and working hard. They never go around begging people for respect. They made the music, put it out there, and let the music speak on it’s own.

I must do the same.

If I keep writing the music, and keep putting my music out there, who knows what may happen. I just gotta keep trying. If you want everybody to like your music then your music has gotta be that good. As you can see, I’m trying all I can. Trying to improve my talent and get better at what I do. I’m trying to improve my songwriting the best I can and try to write good songs for everybody. As I repeatedly say, I’m just like every musician out there. I want my music heard and be enjoyed by as much people as possible too! People don’t see it but I try my very best.

I think my upcoming internet-only album could potentially be big. I’m serious on the internet-only album. It’s gonna be a 20 song album. Half of the songs will be new stuff and the other half old songs, I think. Yes, I think I will bring back all of my classic songs that most of my supporters like…. songs like “Evil Fred”, “Mr. Tough Guy”, “Time Bomb”, “The Dark War”, etc. I will write a bunch of new ones too.

As far as gigs go though, I’m committed to that internet live-stream show that I was talking about. That’ll happen too.

If you want your music to go viral and be respected by the local music community, then you must stay positive and continue making the music. People are not gonna support bad music, I just discovered that truth long ago. I know this ’cause in the past, people use to bash my talent — that’s when I decided that I needed to improve myself musically. You want to become a well-known artist, writing the best music possible is the only way.

It’s hard to tell whether you are liked or respected or not. Who knows maybe everybody likes you even if it seems that no one does. You never know who’s listening.

I would like to get recognition and head down the same road as EBJ someday but I’m not too worried about it honestly. I’ll just continue to do what I do. If I become big in music, great, if not, that’s great too. The fact of the matter is, I still have people who enjoy my music and support it. If it weren’t for them, the supporters, I wouldn’t continue what I do.

You maybe a struggling musician but no matter what people think of you… you will always get some people who will believe in you. Just play the music to the people who still believe in you and who cares about the negative people who refuses to support you. Yes, music scenes around the U.S. are gonna be hateful and spiteful to you and your music but like I said, who cares.

If you think about it, you already are established and big if you’re getting haters. You gotta be doing something right.

If you’re proud and love what you do musically, you just gotta keep going with it. Never let others negativity bring you down.

Kev

Yes, EBJ is playing the Palace Theater in Albany tonight which is a big time live music venue. It’s a very large theater with a lot of history. Although, I’m not going to the show tonight wishing I was… I wish the band good luck tonight as I’m sure they will kill it. This is a good enough sign that EBJ will no longer be playing the smaller clubs. They are bound for bigger venues like large theaters and arenas. These guys are definitely getting bigger and they are heading down the same road as Phantogram.

EBJ will one day get a record deal and become big and famous. That’s what all of us are hoping and expecting for them. It’ll probably happen for them… small baby steps to make the big time. When they make it in the industry, it’ll be sad and disappointing that we will no longer get to see them live as much as we would but us EBJ fans wanna see them move forward and get to the next level.

I can see EBJ touring around the world and making national TV appearances if they keep doing what they’re doing. These guys will one day become mainstream superstars. I’m serious on this too. You can already see they have that potential.

EBJ is opening for Moe tonight which is a national jam band.

Kev