Whenever one musician disagrees with any of my topics on local music, this certain person will shall be nameless at this time will mistakenly believe that the rest of the music scene will disagree with me too. It’s not always true. The responses toward my local music topics has always been a mixed bag. I’ve been told by a few that they agree with pretty much everything I say on here. The problem with the more established and successful musicians is that they all want to act like, “know it all’s”. They always want to act like the struggling and lesser known musicians know nothing about local music. Some of these guys will treat me like that I have done nothing in the local music scene which is why some of these guys feel that my local music discussions aren’t worth it. They would laugh at all the stuff that I say.

Sorry to say guys but I’ve had plenty of experience around the local music scene. Have been a part of the Capital Region’s music scene for a lot of years. I go way back to about ’95 or ’96. I’ve seen plenty of local band gigs, networked through a lot of musicians over the years, played a bunch of gigs of my own, a lot of different open mics, etc. So I know my stuff. I’ve seen what goes on at the shows and I’ve seen what goes on online through the musicians community. So I think I deserve to talk about local music in anyway I please.

The fact is that Albany is not appreciative for music at all. That’s the way I look at it. Musicians are some of the strangest and weirdest people I know. They’re crazy. It’s pretty much why I don’t associate with them much anymore.

I’ve learned over the years that you can’t impress all of them. If they don’t like how you act or if they don’t like your music, they won’t make you feel welcome. Sad but it is what it is. Don’t impress them all. Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Don’t be afraid to impress yourself. You don’t have to change who you are just because people around the scene don’t like you. I’ve had too many musicians who I thought were supportive of me and thought was my friend but they just come and go. Again, you can’t impress everybody. Only focus on you and your music. I’ve had this attitude for years now and works for me just great!

Kev

To clarify my posts and discussions about whether you want to play music for the passion of it or to make money off of it, I think what I’m trying to discuss is the usual, “hobby vs. career” debates. You see, I look at music as a hobby. I never saw it as a professional career. There are some people out there that want to see me move forward in my music: play all kinds of gigs, get good opportunities playing the bigger stages, make lots of money, go to the next level, etc. However, I never really cared to get there at all. I just want to do what I love. Plain and simple. I don’t care to win a Battle of the Bands, opening for national acts or perform on huge festivals. All that stuff may seem nice but I’m not worried about getting there. It’s part of the reason why I don’t gig too much. I’m just the type of guy who doesn’t mind staying home, just writing songs… getting them out there for people to enjoy. If people don’t listen to my music at all, that’s fine.

I make music ’cause it’s what I love to do and what I was made for. Music is part of my life.

It’s just that musicians stopped seeing music as a hobby or just something passionate to do in life. There are too many out there who are pretty desperate in getting paid,  getting popularity or even trying to get fame. It used to be just a group of musicians to get together to show each others songs. Jam together just for the pure fun of it but nowadays everyone wants to get paid for playing music or to try and get famous.

Here is something to think about, just an observation between a hobbyist and a professional musician:

Hobbyist: “Here are some mp3’s for you all to download and enjoy. Let me know what you think of them.”

Professional musician: “Here’s our new album (on bandcamp/Itunes). Give our single a listen and if you like it, buy the album.”

Or

Hobbyist: “I think I’m gonna go to an open mic to play a few tunes.”

Professional musician: “I’d rather play a gig and get paid.”

You get the idea?

Another thing, when a musician wants to play music as a hobby and not as a career… it doesn’t mean that they suck. There ARE plenty of talented musicians out there who play their instruments amazingly well… they just don’t care to get big. They just play at home for fun. For example, if you look at youtube there are tons of excellent guitar players showing their stuff. There are talented young virtuosos and shredders in youtube… and they don’t even care about a big career. They just want to play for fun, ya know?

When musicians want to make a living for what they do, am I really putting down their way of life? No. I don’t see how I am. When the so called professional “career” musicians respond and become all defensive, you are actually putting down the people who just want to play music as a hobby. So watch what you say there. You’re not better than them.

If you want to make money, playing music… fine… go for it. If all you wanna do is get paid… it makes you look kind of desperate and greedy. You don’t really care about the fans or the music you play. All you care about is getting money in your pockets. You may have bills to pay and responsibilities but that’s what day jobs are for.

When I gig, I don’t really care to get paid gigging at all. I don’t have strict hourly rates. I don’t care to get paid $5, $10,  $15, or none at all. I just wanna be on that stage, performing. I don’t care about money when playing music. Period. End of story.

Kev

If I can think of more reasons why bands shouldn’t make people pay to listen to your music… here are several more reasons…

• It helps give you a lot more recognition and even more respect – A lot more people will respect you and support you if you give your music away for free. As long as people see that you’re not into this for the money at all, they’ll be willing to give you a listen and check you out.
• It’s nice to get honest feedback and critique of your music – This is one reason I do it. To get feedback from people. I can’t tell if my songs are good or not and I’m open for honest criticism. You’re not gonna get much of that if you have people pay first. It’s just a better way to get heard.
• You’re not gonna get rich & wealthy anyway – Lets be honest here. Do a lot of people really buy your music? I’m willing to bet no. I’m sure one or two people would buy your CD’s at the shows or buy your music online, but I’m pretty sure you don’t make a fortune off of it. That’s why it’s best to give it out for free since no one will buy your music anyway. I’m sure it’s possible that bands can make pretty good money off of their music but they are very likely pretty well-known and established bands who have been doing this for years.
• It’s a good idea to give back to the fans & your supporters – Fans reward you by going to your shows and supporting your music. Staying loyal to you. You should reward them in return by giving back to them. It helps keep your fanbase and make them happy. This is another reason why I do this.
• It’s a slap in the face of the music industry  –  If you’re not happy with the way the music industry run things — be it, either major or indie label — and you are disgusted by how they control things. Disgusted with their CD pricing and all that stuff… you can fight back against them by giving out your music for free. It might help change the way they look at the business side of things.
• You are competing against illegal downloads and possible early leaks – If you want to stop this stuff from happening giving away your music is just your way of fighting against piracy. If you don’t want people illegally downloading your album or leaking it early, it’s a good way to stop ’em.

I’m sure there’s a lot more but those are a few I can think of at the top of my head.

I remember in the old days when bands used to give out music all the time but unsigned music has changed over the years. These days, everybody is obsessed in getting paid for what they do. In my opinion, that’s not being passionate for music. Music should be something that you love doing and what you live for. It shouldn’t really be looked at as a “job” or a “career”. I always looked at music as a way of life. Money is all musicians think about.

Don’t get me wrong. I like making money but I’m not gonna make it by making music. There are still some musicians today that aren’t in it for the money and popularity but not as much as before. Everybody wants to make cash and gets lots of fans these days. If I ever get myself a band someday, I’m gonna make sure the musicians aren’t in it for the money and they just want to play for the love of it. That’s what music should be about. Not worrying about fame, money or popularity. Musicians wanting to play ’cause they want to rock out. People don’t see local music in that way anymore. They all see it as a “professional career” which is pretty sad, in my opinion.

Kev

This seems to be a new trend with unsigned bands these days. Whenever they release their new album the first site they will release the album on is at bandcamp. First of all, I think the site is pretty terrible to begin with. I hate the way it looks and the sound quality is very bad. I also hate the way bands price the albums on there too. It’s good that you can stream them and listen to them on there in it’s entirety but it’s the pricing options on there I don’t like. Secondly, another reason the site bothers me is that when you are about to release an album, don’t you want your music to be yours? Why would you release it on there first when you can just upload the album on your website?

When I get a new demo CD made… I will never release it at bandcamp or Itunes or any of that garbage. I’ll figure out a way to release my demo right here on this blog, and I’ll make the demo downloadable for free too.

Bandcamp is just a bad idea that musicians do and a huge mistake to release your albums on there first. Gone are the days when bands would exclusively release their albums on their official website. Bandcamp certainly has taken over the spotlight of CDBaby and I never liked that site either!

The only places I’ll upload my music are at sites such as Reverbnation, soundclick or soundcloud. I would upload them to youtube in audio video as well!

I just think unsigned bands & artists forcing people to buy their music online is just bad. I would never do it. I’ll talk a lot more about this tomorrow.

Kev

If you’re a musician and you start criticizing other bands successes; chances are, they’re gonna respond and become all defensive. They’ll start saying the usual bullshit like “you’re only jealous”, “you just sit at your computer while other bands are out there making music and packing up crowds”, and blah blah blah. You get the deal. Then they’ll start making a list of accomplishments they achieved, and make a bunch of claims on how they got there with hard work and commitment. Some would even go out of their way to criticize my music and the way I do things. If that is the best response some of you out there can come up with, then that just even more proof that you aren’t the professional musician that you are making yourself out to be. I’m pretty used to dealing with musicians who respond to me in that way. It’s nothing new with me.

A true professional musician wouldn’t respond to people in that attitude. A true professional would just ignore it, laugh it off and move on with their music. A true professional wouldn’t care about what’s written about them online. A true professional wouldn’t have time to deal with honest reviews. If you were a true professional musician, you wouldn’t write me the way you do. You would be spending most of your time making records or playing shows.

The last thing a musician wants to do is to jerk themselves off with their accomplishments. It’s a big turn off. It’s pretty arrogant and all you’re doing is proving how much of an ego you really have. A real musician wouldn’t talk about their own success. They can’t even tell if they’re successful and that’s a good attitude to have. You don’t want to call yourself a “successful” or “established” band. You want to let the people tell you that.

I’m happy that other bands get success in their music. I’m not knocking the success of other bands & solo artists. I’m only knocking the way they get it. A lot of them use managers/promoters to get there and they get there by entering stupid contests like Battle of the Bands/radio contests/etc. They would even go as far as going through Pay to Play scams such as Afton and things like that. All that stuff is not a DIY approach to getting success in music. It’s called being lazy and cheating, in my opinion. That is not hard work and commitment the way I’m seeing it.

I have seen bands & artists out there who have gotten lots of success and opportunities on their own without anybody’s help. Bands/artists didn’t even use managers/promoters to get bigger. They got bigger by making the good music and promoting themselves to death. They didn’t get there by using other people. They got there by doing the work themselves.

Even if you got success in music, that still doesn’t make you god’s gift to music and doesn’t make you better than everyone. You’re still a local musician like the rest of us. Bands also claim they make money for what they do around here when I know that’s a flat out lie. The reality is, bands don’t make a lot of money around here these days. I’m sure they make some but they certainly don’t make a lot.

A lot of bands & musicians are pretty pretentious people around here.

This area of local music is not such a friendly scene as some people mistakenly think it is. Everybody wants to criticize one another. People would want to mistakenly believe that musicians have a problem with me and they accuse me of starting negativity/drama with my online rants but that’s okay, let ’em think that way. If my writing style and online presence bothers you so much, then why are you still reading & replying? If you think you’re so great at what you do, and think you’re so successful & big, then don’t pay attention to me… continue to work on your music. Nope. A lot of them continue to read my blogs for whatever reason. I just think they’re addicted and they can’t wait to see what I’m about to write next.

Musicians have horrible attitudes around here, that’s a fact that can’t be denied. I just try to be nice, supportive, helpful and even try to give ’em advice but they just want to be douchebags. Can you blame me for my honest rants? Quite frankly, I think they deserve it. The reason they usually get defensive and try to put me down is ’cause they feel that I’m not in their league musically, not at their level so they feel the need to think they’re better than me. Make no mistake about it, I don’t get hurt at the way musicians respond to me as I’m a pretty strong and tough dude. I don’t let ’em get me.

They also make claims they get success with a professional attitude but the way they write me sometimes… that’s not a professional attitude at all the way I look at it. They have hypocrite written all over their faces.

We could have a better scene if this area was a little more friendly and “professional” acting ’cause we don’t have either of that around here, for sure.

Kev

There are too many unsigned bands & artists that are desperate for money. When they make an album… they usually sell their albums at their gigs at ridiculously high prices. Somewhere around $10 – $15 when an album should really be $5 or no cost at all. Fans already pay $10 or a little more to get into your show and then they have to pay another $10 or more if they want to buy your album. I have always found that a bit ridiculous. If you want to listen to a band’s music on the internet, they usually do let you stream some stuff for free but a lot of them refuse to let you download it for free. They force you to pay to download the album whether at bandcamp or Itunes or whatever. They would only let you download a few certain songs off the album for free.

Whenever I talk about this stuff online… bands & musicians would usually get defensive. They would usually say stuff that it’s good to get the money back after all the studio time and money you put toward the album — things like that — or they just want to play rock star and try to make some good cash making music. They live in this delusion of being paid as a “professional musician“. They like to see music as a job and not as a hobby or a passion in life.

In the past, it used to be that musicians would just release their music online so they can get feedback and critique from the people. Bands don’t see music in that way anymore. They’re all obsessed with getting paid these days.

I refuse to make money for playing music for a lot of reasons.

First of all, I never saw music as a job. I don’t care to make money for what I do. I’m not worried about money ’cause it’s my way of showing my passion for music. It’s not about the money for me at all. Sure, I’ll accept payment if I play a paying gig but I won’t care how much I get paid. I don’t believe in selling my music to people either. If I make a demo with new original songs… I’ll just burn ’em on a blank CD-R and pass ’em around to everybody. I would also throw my songs on the internet w/ sites like ReverbNation, soundcloud, soundclick, etc.

Secondly, we’re just local musicians. No need to take yourself seriously. No need to spend a lot of money on studio time and CD manufacturing when you can make a halfway decent home recording and just throw your recordings online.

Don’t get me wrong. I would love to make a professional studio album with real CD cover and all but if I did that someday… I’m not gonna sell it to people. I’ll just hand ’em out to people for no cost just like I do with the demos. There’s a musician named Joe Nacco who is doing exactly that with his latest studio album called, “Chaos”. Go to http://www.joenacco.com/ if you don’t believe me. We need more bands doing stuff like this. Giving away their albums for nothing.

I think it’s disrespectful for bands forcing people to pay to listen to their music. What if they buy your album and it turns out they don’t like it? If you want feedback on all of your songs… then not making your listeners pay for it is the way to go.

I think Joe Nacco is doing a good thing and he’s going to help change the way local bands release albums. Maybe other bands will follow what he’s doing? If you want his new album, “Chaos”, get a hold him and he’ll send it right out to you.

Remember, this is unsigned music. You can have the freedom to release music however you damn well please. You’re not signed in a label or anything so get over yourselves, please!

Kev

How are certain musicians and bands becoming established acts and well-respected in the Albany area? I have a few pretty good ideas on how this is. There are quite a bit of bands & solo artists these days becoming more well-known around this area. Yet, the musicians and bands who continue to struggle get totally ignored by the scene. Now if you think that “good music” is how they become big in the area… that’s not always the case. I think there are popular and well-known bands & artists that totally suck around here (not naming names) — sometimes, I don’t even understand how they get all this popularity.

I give the most respect to bands & artists who struggle and don’t get a lot of recognition. Mostly the local acts that I point out on this blog are artists that you’ve probably never even heard of. I don’t support popular bands that much — only a very few of them. I like to support the lesser known acts the most ’cause they deserve to get heard and I try to help them to get more exposure.

For the struggling musicians who try to get recognition… trying to book gigs but they get rejected a lot… getting ignored by the local press (not getting any reviews, interviews, etc.)… also you’re not getting a lot of respect from other musicians around the area and not getting a lot of love from promoters. Most importantly, they’re not getting a lot of people enjoying their music.

Why does this happen? Why do the struggling acts get ignored when we all deserve to be treated with equal respect? I believe the struggling artists get ignored because…

• It’s all about the level of talent they’re in – If Albany feels this musician is not professional enough… if they feel that this musicians doesn’t sing well or doesn’t play your instrument well… chances are you’re gonna get ignored and you’ll get criticized by people in a negative way. If they feel your songs aren’t good enough, that’s when Albany can feel the need to say what they want about you. It seems that the only way to get Albany to respect you is that your songs must be absolutely great. Musicians usually bash amateurs or beginner/intermediate musicians. They only give respect to musicians who they think play on a professional level. If your song is perfect, then everyone in Albany will be nice to you. If it’s not good enough, everyone will act like assholes. That’s how it goes, I guess, right?
• It’s all about the looks/image – Have you noticed that all the popular & established bands out there are all good looking and pretty looking people? Well, if you don’t have the looks, chances are, you’re going to get ignored. Possibly be made fun of and criticized by a lot of people. Last time I checked, music is never about the looks… shouldn’t be anyway. If you look like a model and good looking… you will probably get liked by everyone.
• You don’t write radio friendly songs or pop songs people can sing & dance to – I believe the reason bands become established and popular ’cause they write a lot of “hit songs” that you can dance to at the shows. People sing along and clap to them. Now, not a lot of songwriters write songs that way. I never really cared to write songs in that way. I’m about the art and the songwriting. I don’t care what songs is considered to be radio friendly or hits… I just wanna make music. It’s just as simple as that.
• You don’t make professional sounding albums and videos – All these established bands who make a lot of success have pretty much made studio albums and professional music videos for youtube. If you don’t do any of that, chances are, you’re gonna get ignored. Not all bands have to make music in that way. What’s wrong with releasing music exclusively free to the internet? There are tons of sites to do that with like ReverbNation, Soundclick, Soundcloud, etc. It seems that people give the most respect to bands who do make albums and videos. You don’t need to make albums and videos. Just make the music. Get it on the internet and that’s it.
• You haven’t opened for a national act, won some big contest or played on a big festival – A lot of established acts had great opportunities. Opening a concert for someone famous or won some radio contest or a battle of the bands and maybe played on some big festival. People seem to give the most respect to bands who do these things. Yet they ignore the lesser known acts who don’t get any of that good stuff. The lesser known acts are stuck trying to get gigs and good opportunities themselves. How about stop focusing on the bigger bands and help out the lesser known acts? If you claim you support local music, then you should support the acts who don’t get a lot of recognition too. I’m glad the bigger bands are getting the good stuff, don’t get me wrong — it’s not about jealousy — but who cares about them, ya know? I’m sure they’ll forget who you are by now and they’re out there doing their thing.
• You don’t gig a lot – People seem to give the most respect to bands/artists who gigs all the time. Almost on a regular basis. Not all bands and artists gigs a lot. They don’t have to. Gigging is a choice. It’s all up to you whether you want to do it or not. You should give the respect to musicians if their songs are good. It shouldn’t really be about how much they gig or how much opportunities they get in their career. What about the music? There are too many struggling artists who are very talented and you guys don’t know what you’re missing. You don’t have to gig to do something you love. Who needs to gig, anyway, right? Albany is pretty much a crap music scene to begin with. Not a lot of venues to play and it’s pretty much not a music scene at all to be honest, I’ll admit it. If I wanted to start gigging again, I wouldn’t want to do it in Albany. I’d go to Nashville or something. I would move to an area where it has a music scene. (Not sure if I would do this or not, it’s just a thought but it’s a pretty good idea)…

So now you get where I’m coming from. This is not just about me. I’m NOT trying to defend myself. It’s also for other artists who are struggling. It’s idiotic how this area treats musicians but it is what it is. I think it’s like this in every music scene all over the USA to be honest. You’ll get stuff like I explained above everywhere you go. People trying to destroy your dreams and not making you feel welcome.

It’s a free country. If music is what you love to do.Then do it. Don’t listen to the haters & doubters. Music should be for you.

Kev

Somebody said on here that nobody goes out to see local original music anymore. Sorry, but I would have to respectfully disagree on that one. The way I’m seeing things is that original music unsigned/local has finally got the recognition and success it deserves. A lot of people are buying albums from original bands and a lot of people go to their shows. Original bands are getting quite the crowds these days! How do these original bands get people interested in their music?

There’s a few secrets to that.

1) Good songs

2) Good marketing/promotion

Those are a few keys that will get your original band a lot of success and recognition.

I have learned over the years that people will not support your music if it isn’t good. It’s sad but that’s the way it is and you have to look at reality. Why are a lot more people supporting original music these days? It’s because I would think people have grown tired of cover bands. The digital age also helps attract people to original music. Social media and all that stuff.

If you play original music and you gig out as much as possible… you don’t get much of a crowd at your shows. Why is that? Maybe it’s because your songwriting isn’t good enough. Maybe people aren’t into what you do musically. Maybe you need a lot of work on your music. Also, maybe you didn’t promote yourself well enough??? Not doing enough marketing.

A lot of original bands around here that I’ve seen have gotten very successful and became established acts. These bands play all original music only and they’ve gotten a lot of recognition… not only because their music is probably good… it’s mostly because these bands are good at marketing. They’re good at getting people out to their shows. If you’re not getting much of a crowd at your gigs… you can’t be blaming your area or the original music scene, that’s your job to get people out to your gigs.

You can’t just book a show and expect a huge crowd to show up. You need to think of better marketing/promotion skills: make flyers, get on the phone and call everyone you know, make show invites, start newsletters, use blogs/websites, etc.

A large following will definitely not fall in your lap. You want to be heard, it’s your job to get people interested in your music. You also have to make your music as best as possible if you want a large following. People will not support crap music, that’s all there is to it. If you’re having a tough time trying to get people to your shows no matter how much you promote yourself, then you have a lot work to do in your songwriting.

This is nothing against anybody, I’m only speaking from my own experiences. When I get my stuff out there, I tried to promote myself as much as possible. You may have seen it before but I have had plenty of people who refused to support me. People still do that too. They ignore my music like if it’s nothing to them. At least, I have some people who actually believe in my songwriting.

I’ll have to agree that my last batch of songs seemed a little rushed and needed more work so that’s why I’m taking my time to study and practice my craft of songwriting. I wanna get better next time around, hoping more people would enjoy my songs. I want to take songwriting a little more seriously from this point on. Take the lyrics, vocals, guitar parts, etc. all very seriously. While a lot of people try to tell me, “don’t worry about if other people don’t like your music, playing music should be for you” — I’m flattered people say these things but like all musicians, I want people to enjoy my music too! I’m trying my very best. Writing good music is hard. I do want my songwriting to be at my best and I’m trying!

Kev

If you want to get yourself into your local music scene and become part of the local music community… there’s a few things that I need to warn you about. First of all, the local music community is not always going to be so kind and friendly. You’re going to meet a bunch of crazy and untrustworthy people. You need to watch out for that stuff. Secondly, don’t make the mistake that you need to support every musician you see. You don’t have to like everybody you see and meet. You need to worry about yourself and your own music. Not worrying about whether other musicians like you or not.

After years of being part of the music scene in the Capital Region… I would have to say that musicians are sometimes horrible at supporting local music. As a matter of fact, I would say that they are horrible at it most of the time actually… here are 5 reasons why I think that is… these are just my observations…

• Dishonesty – One big problem that musicians seem to have is all the dishonesty that goes around. A lot of them appear to like you and respect you. They seem to like your music… but then you seem to find out that they only like you ’cause you support their music and they don’t support yours ’cause when you ask them feedback to your songs… they don’t give much of an answer. They’re supportive of you just to be “friendly”. A lot of these guys refuse to be honest about your talent and songs ’cause they’re afraid it would hurt their reputation and professionalism in their own career. That’s why a lot of them appear to keep their criticism to themselves. Don’t always believe that musicians really like you ’cause you’ll start to see the signs that they really don’t.
• Too much drama & negativity with other musicians – It used to bother me how musicians get into too much drama and negativity sometimes. It don’t bother me anymore ’cause I vowed to stay out of that stuff. Yes, musicians aren’t gonna get along with other musicians. It happens. It’s part of life. I learned that if you want to have a positive music career, you need to ignore the drama and focus on your own music. Musicians don’t get along sometimes and they have feuds ’cause ego & jealousy gets in the way. That’s pretty much, all it is. The world is not about pleasing everybody. Remember that. You’ll know who your true musicians friends are when they really believe in you and stick with you. I’ve had feuds and drama with other musicians in the past but I’m the kind of guy that moves forward and never looking back. If people give me bullshit in the music scene, I’ll just act like they don’t exist to me and move forward to my life. Works for me just fine! I have no plans in trying to reconcile with musicians that I’ve had feuds with in the past. I try to but it’s not worth it anymore.
• Too many have strange delusions & live in different fantasy worlds – A lot of musicians make the mistake that the more successful they get and the more opportunities they get, they’ll think they’re an established act. They’ll appear to be acting like “legends” or even “rock stars”. Sorry but the more good stuff you get in your career (congratulations, btw) — you’re still a local musician. I’m getting real tired of musicians acting all cool and stuff just because they opened for this national act or played some big festival. All musicians these days want to see themselves as “professional” and they want to see themselves as “talented” musicians. Music shouldn’t be about getting bigger and trying to get lots of fans. Music should be for you but unfortunately, people don’t see it that way anymore. Everyone wants to be “big” these days.
• Sometimes you’ll get outspoken musicians – When you want to go out and play. Get your music out there, chances are… you’re going to get some outspoken musician who is going to talk all kinds of negative stuff about you and your music. While most musicians will be afraid to be honest about your talent… some won’t be afraid. Some musicians will be openly honest about your music and some can get aggressive about it too. Harsh criticism like, “You suck, you should quit playing”… blah blah blah. You get the deal. They’ll talk about how you act online and at the shows. You don’t have to listen to these assholes. You don’t have to change to please these guys. Just being yourself and not listening to the critics is how you move forward in a positive music career. Don’t listen to the outspoken musicians who just want to talk shit. You’ll meet a lot of them. Trust me. You’ll certainly get a lot of bullying and harassment around here, for sure.
• So called “professionals” putting down amateur musicians – There are a lot of talented musicians around here but we all need to be treated with equal respect, be it… amateur or professional. Whether you’re a professional or amateur, who cares. You maybe technically skilled and on a professional level but that doesn’t make you a better player than everybody. A lot of musicians have this problem. it’s all “ego” with them. If you appear to not sing well or know a few chords, those pros will appear to be anti-social with you. They seem to only support other musicians who are at the same level of talent as them. It’s bullshit and ridiculous but that’s how musicians are. I’m not saying I’m an amateur or a professional… I never saw myself as either. I always saw myself as a guy who liked to play music. You may know how to shred and improvise well on your instrument but don’t knock others that don’t. We all deserve to be a part of the local music community.

I know this is another post that musicians don’t want to read but it needed to be said. I’ve witnessed all this explained above and it still goes on to this day. That’s the way musicians are and will always be like that. It’ll be nice if musicians and bands will stop all the bullshit explained above so we can all support each other 100% if we want a good music scene but it’ll never happen. That’s why you gotta concentrate on you only if you want to have a good and positive music life. I’m learning from my own mistakes and past experiences.

Kev

The photo above was taken at Valentine’s Music Hall in Albany on July 28th, 2006. It was during their evening Happy Hour gigs that I was a small part of. Valentine’s Music Hall has been at that same location for years. The venue had so much history. Albany’s longtime favorite music venue where musicians go there to play music, hang out, party, and most importantly where music fans go see bands play. I played there a bunch of times for their Happy Hour evening gigs and I thought it was a great honor. Glad, I got my chance to play at Valentine’s before it closed it’s doors.

Albany Medical Center is planning an expansion and they now own the building. AMC will be turning it into more offices I believe.

In the video below… the owner Howard Glassman, briefly explains the whole thing. He said he didn’t even know it was going on. He heard about it in the news like all of us and AMC wouldn’t even negotiate with him.

I’m glad I got to play there a bunch of times and see other bands there too. It was a pretty cool venue. It’s not just a venue for local bands… national touring bands have played there as well. I’ve had a lot of good memories there.

I never played their night time gigs. Just their happy hour gigs. At least, I still got to play there, though.

Shit happens, ya know? That’s the name of the game with local music. Businesses and venues come & go around here.

Kev

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Y1YPzDEQ9_k