In the opposite of “Bad Local Band Behaviors” list, I thought it would be fun to take this list to a positive direction and focus on the good stuff. What are the good stuff that bands do to focus on a positive music scene?

Here are the ten best answers that I can come up with:

• Just playing the music and enjoying yourselves – This is probably the most important. If you’re playing music and not having fun, then why bother? To me playing music is more fun than anything else in the world. You may do other stuff for fun like going to amusement parks, going to the movies, doing some partying and hanging with friends but playing music should be above that stuff. Music should be looked at as a passion in life. Think of music as a marriage. That’s what music is to me. It’s the world to me. Whether listening to it or playing it, music is all I’m about.
  
• Act like a true professional – Being friendly and courteous to others. Treating others how you like to be treated is an important thing. Talk to everyone in the music scene. Be kind and respectful to the venues. Be on time at the gigs and even show up early. You get the deal.
• Socialize with other musicians and network – One trick to getting somewhere with your music is networking in your music scene. Talk to as many musicians as possible and even try to make friends with them. I’m buddies with some musicians around the area. Not naming names. I wouldn’t call them close friends but I do keep in touch with them, all the time. Some people make the mistake that some musicians hate me around here but not really. I have a lot of local musicians in my personal facebook page that I hear from on almost a daily basis. So a lot of musicians around here definitely know who I am. Other musicians around here are actually pretty supportive of me and I’m grateful for that!
• Keep gigging as much as possible – Gigging is good and pretty important. You’re not gonna get somewhere in your music if you’re just gonna sit around. Recognition and hard work will not fall in your lap. Gotta reach out for this stuff yourself. You’re on your own. I’m planning to get myself back out there, soon.
• Socialize with fans and supporters who come to your gigs – Be approachable and be talkative to fans when they come see you play. Either before or after the gig. After the gig, a lot of fans will want to come up to talk with you to tell you good job and all that stuff so be prepared for all that. When you finish the gig for the night, stick around a while longer and chat with the fans. It’s even better when you treat ’em as real people, not just music fans, know what I mean? Make friends with ’em, let ’em feel part of the family. I’m always approachable when it comes to my gigs. When I gigged out in the past, I would stick around after my performance and hang out with the few fans who come out. They don’t just say, “Good job, Kev”… we just have real conversations of just about anything. Laugh and joke around. All that stuff. I miss doing all that and wanna be doing that all over again!
• Don’t worry about those critics and haters – Once again, just ignore ’em. It’s part of how you go forward to a bigger career in music is ignoring all the negative and hateful people!
• Jam with other musicians – I wanna start doing this at some point. Start playing music with other musicians and jam out. This is why I’m trying to become a better guitar player so I can jam with other people. Trying to get good at timing and staying in the pocket. Trying to get good with improvisation and all that stuff. I wanna play in a band myself someday and slowly trying to get there. One of the secrets on becoming a better musician is jamming with other people. That’ll help you improve greatly. I would like to start.
• Go to as many open mics as possible – When a lot of bands and solo artists get more successful, they happen to ignore the open mics because they mistakenly believe that playing gigs is bigger than open mics. It’s not. Open mics and playing gigs is pretty much the same thing, in my opinion. Don’t ignore the open mic nights. I love performing open mic nights. It does help get you more exposure and you can network with other musicians that way too.
• Promote yourself but do it smart & responsibly – Promoting yourself and marketing is the most important thing. If you haven’t gotten much success with your music, chances are, you probably didn’t do enough promoting. If you want a lot of fans, then you need to promote yourself. HARD! I mean hard! Not just the internet ’cause not everyone uses computers. You need to hang up flyers everywhere. Make stickers or business cards or whatever. Start up mailing lists for snail mail and all that stuff.
• Support other bands & artists other than your own music – Supporting other people’s music other than my own is a pretty good thing to do. Leave your ego at the door and support local music. I use this blog to show my support for other local music and bands. I also go to other local band shows at times too, as you can see. There are too many musicians around here who refuse to support other bands other than their own. If you want to have a good and positive music scene supporting other music is a good way to go. Local bands can put on way better shows than the national bands these days. I’ve been going to mostly EBJ shows these days but I try to go see other bands too.

Well, that’s all I can think of. Enjoy!

Kev

I know there are some talented musicians out there who don’t get a lot of recognition, struggling in their careers, and not getting a lot of respect from the public. Look, I hear you, as I am in the same boat. I see musicians in facebook and other local music forums complaining about not getting a lot of respect for your playing or your songwriting. That’s not gonna get you the respect by complaining about it which I see musicians do, all the time. Even I complain about it at times and I gotta stop that. Complaining about it is just gonna turn people off and they’ll stop supporting you. I’ve made those mistakes myself. Complaining and ranting about lack of respect is not a good way to handle things.

How do you earn respect with your music? How do you get people to like you and support what you do? Simply put, just shut up and play the music. Keep writing the songs. Keep playing the gigs. Let the music speak on it’s own and the people will respond that way. Even if you keep doing both writing the songs and playing the gigs, you still get lack of respect… just keep going. You never know when people will respect you. Hell, you already maybe respected by everybody anyway and you’re not even realizing it?

People are not gonna support bad music, that’s all there is to it. If you make the good songs that people want to hear… people will support you. That’s how EBJ got there. EBJ got where they are today ’cause they are a well-respected band and they’re good songwriters which is how they get all these good opportunities and accolades. The same can happen to you if you keep going and work hard.

Respect is also earned… not only because of your musical talent and your hard work ethic — it is also earned through your professional behavior. People are sure not gonna support musicians who are assholes or douchebags. You must have a good professional acting behavior. Be good to people. Be down to earth and humble. It’s okay to be honest and real about stuff because people will respect you for that too but don’t be a jerk about things. A lot of musicians make the mistake that you can act how you want to and be yourself but most of the time you can’t if you want to be a respected musician. Think of being a musician like a day job. You know how on a day job, you must be on your best professional behavior? The same goes for your music if you want to get somewhere. People take the way musicians act seriously. I know from my own experience. Being friendly and positive will help get you somewhere.

I know… I used to be a badguy and an egomaniac in the past myself… so I’ll admit that I messed up a lot but learning from my past mistakes so I won’t do them again in the future. If you want people to respond to you positvely, then you must be positive at all times. I’m trying my best these days as you can clearly see, and I believe I’m doing better.

Yes, people will still talk negatively about you and you will still get haters no matter how positive you are but you just have to learn to ignore the critics… that will earn you respect too.

If you’re a musician or a songwriter who is being disrespected everywhere — there are ways to turn all that negative feedback into positive. That’s your job. Yelling at people saying, “Respect me”, is not gonna help. If you see a lot of people disrespecting you… maybe you need to work on your musical talent more. Focus on your instrument or singing more and try to improve. Work on your professional behavior skills. Work harder on your music and respect will come to you on it’s own that way.

People are real when it comes to local musicians for sure. Some folks mistakenly believe that music fans support musicians just to be polite and friendly. Part of that is true but there is more to it than that. The reason a lot of people support certain musicians and bands ’cause they believe their hard-work, good musicianship, and professional behavior is why the respect is well-earned. People don’t support musicians for no reason. They know the reasons why the respect is well-deserved.

I’m not saying that I am a well-respected musician but if I am, great, if I’m not, that’s great too. I’m just gonna keep playing my music and keep doing what I do. You don’t want to call yourself a “well-respected” musician either like so many musicians do out there. You need to let the people tell you that. Keep doing the music that makes you happy and who knows what may happen. Anything is possible.

Kev

I have been observing the way bands & musicians act in facebook when they have a new show coming up. Like a week before the show, they get all excited about it. They publicly express how they are so psyched to be playing the show and all that stuff. Then they go on and on about how they’re gonna go drinking and get themselves drunk after. A lot of bands and solo artists seem to be acting like this. You see it all over facebook. Whenever they have a show coming up, it all seems to be about themselves rather than respecting the fans excitement for the gig. A lot of them are all over their facebook music pages saying stuff like, “Ooooohhh, I can’t wait to play this gig, we’re gonna rock it and get drunk after.”… you get the idea, right? Yeah, the fans will eat it all up, give their facebook status’s about the show a bunch of thumbs-up.

It’s all crazy, I tell you. I never understood why bands go all crazy for their upcoming gigs. To me playing gigs is nothing really. You just go up and do it. Play it and get it over with. I don’t see how you can compare gigs to Disney World and other theme parks. Hey don’t me wrong! I love getting gigs. I just don’t go nuts over it like so many musicians do. I don’t really care.

The point I’m trying to make here is, I like making my shows about the people who come to see it. That’s how you want to promote yourself. You don’t want to come across looking like a selfish person. Getting all excited for your own gigs, makes it look like you’re jerking yourself off, ya know? What’s even worse that bands saying they’re gonna party after the gig is kind of a turn-off as well. Is that all this band is about is drinking or is it about the music?

When I promote my shows, I don’t act like a kid going to Disney World. I just put my stuff out there and see what happens. When bands act like this when they have shows coming up kind of shows their arrogance. These bands should be a little careful of how they promote themselves but they won’t. They like to act like selfish jackasses ’cause they know the fans eat it up and they love that attention with them.

If you want more people to come out. Want a bigger crowd and successful show, leave your ego at the door. Yes, people do take how you promote yourselves seriously. No doubt about it. Don’t get me wrong. There are bands who don’t act like selfish arrogant pricks; there are some who know how to promote themselves well but there’s not too many. The whole point is that these guys are always about “me, me, me” when it should be about the fans interest in coming out.

Instead of facebook status’s like, “Hey guys, we got a show coming up. We can’t wait for this, we’re psyched to play it and we got a great set planned for the night. We’re gonna rock this place.”… which I see bands posts often — how about more humble posts like, “Hey guys, we got a show coming up. If you have nothing going on, hope to see you at (this venue here). It’ll be great to see you there!”. See how that second facebook status is more kind and respectful to the fans? I’ve always tried my best to make my postings courteous and humble as possible when promoting my own shows. I never made the posts about me when it should be about them.

The fans don’t realize that bands are acting like arrogant pricks when promoting themselves ’cause you know how fans are! They’ll be supportive of their favorite bands no matter how they are or what they do. These fans will like everything they put up in facebook. I am not being jealous, just telling things like it is.

Also, you should let the music speak on it’s own when promoting your shows. A lot of bands also like to say how they’re gonna play a great show before that night which is a bad idea, in my opinion. Nothing wrong with saying that you have a great set planned and I understand it’s your way of trying to talk people into coming out but that’s the wrong way to go about doing it.

Bands promote however they want to and most of them promote themselves in the craziest ways. I understand you’re trying to get the word out and get people to come out to your shows the best you can but you must do it right and respectfully if you want to bring more people to your shows. It’s your job to get people interested in coming out. People are not going to come out if they are turned off by the way you promote yourselves online. I made those mistakes before myself.

Kev

Ever wonder why there’s so much drama in local music over the years? I have been a part of local music for over 10 years or more. Drama in the Capital Region of local music still happens to this day. Basically, it’s mostly musicians getting into heated debates and feuds online. They mostly argue about things that happen at their gigs. Somebody online rants about what happens at the gig, then other musicians join in. Then all of a sudden, a heated flame war explodes. I’ve seen it happen all the time. Still happens in facebook, craigslist musicians section, etc. Musicians like to debate about stuff at the gigs like if they feel if they’re getting ripped off by payment, musicians acting unprofessional, their sets getting cut short, bands simply not getting along, etc. All kinds of bullshit. Musicians will even go as far as swearing at each other, threaten violence and all kinds of name calling.

You see, here’s what I think it is…

A lot of musicians want to believe that they are good and talented players. Whatever they do: sing, play guitar, play bass, drums or other instruments. A lot of local musicians don’t like to be criticized by anybody. A lot of these musicians have this arrogant attitude about them. They want to think they are better and feel smarter than any other musician since this musician happens to be technically talented. If they feel that this other musician is below their level, they’re gonna get criticized by the pros. It’s not just that, even the talented pros gets criticized by other pros, not just the amateurs. One professional musician feels the need to be outspoken to others. They want to tell their side of the truth while others tell their side. That’s part of why heated flame wars online happen.

When one musician says something bad about another musician, then other people are gonna go, “Wah, wah wah, you can’t be talking bad about other musicians, this needs to be a positive music scene”, and all that stuff. Other people who are offended at heated flame wars will try to play babysitter and get them to stop but the other musicians won’t stop, they’ll keep the heated debate going. Both sides want to think they’re right on everything, ya know?

That’s the name of the game in local music, ya know? You’re going to meet a lot of musicians with arrogant, ego-driven attitudes — musicians who jerk themselves off with their self importance. They don’t like being ridiculed.

It’ll be nice if these musicians will shut up and play the music but they never will. I believe the main reason why there’s so much drama in local music is because musicians enjoy it. It is all about ego if you think about it. I’m not playing innocent victim in band drama. I had my share of starting band drama and hating on bands admittedly so all of this includes me as well. It is unfair how we are not allowed to be talking trash about other musicians & bands when we should be allowed to. It’s music. That’s what it’s here for! To criticize and give honest opinions! People can’t understand that but whatever! That’s the internet. It’s an open forum. There will be all kinds of crazy people, and back & forth hypocrisy everywhere. When one musician or people in the music scene calls you a badguy for talking trash about other musicians that makes them bad too ’cause they do the same thing when they talk trash about you and they think they have every right to. Isn’t it funny how this one musician can’t say what they want and others can? That’s the hypocrisy I’m talking about.

You can’t trust everybody in the music scene. You can’t believe in everybody you set your eyes upon. You never know if they don’t really like you when they pretend they do. Not everyone in the music scene is kind, trustworthy, and friendly. All the drama in local music over the years was the big reason why most popular local music forums have been shut down. Of course, I get blamed for drama in the music scene but it’s not true. All musicians had a hand in it.

The trick to keep going in music successfully and positively is ignoring all the bullshit. Ignore everything completely. If you want a good career, don’t let it get destroyed by other musicians. It’s not that other musicians are jealous, they just want to tell you their side of the truth that you’re nothing in music. It’s just an opinion, nothing more. You’re just like all musicians. You just want to play your music and get heard. Yes, when you get yourselves out there in the music world, you’re probably gonna get into feuds with other bands and musicians, all that drama stuff. Just don’t let it get to ya and stay above that stuff. It’s sad that musicians don’t get along well over some silly online stuff but it is what it is.

Musicians get so hung up in drama ’cause it helps boosts their ego even more, period. That’s why they enjoy it.

Kev

You know how when local bands like to put on benefit shows to raise money for a charity of their choice for a good cause? While all this is good and cool, don’t trust every benefit show these bands hosts. A lot of these benefit shows can be fake. Well, these benefit shows really do happen, of course but the question you have to ask yourself is — will the benefit show organizers be sending this money they raised to that charity or will they stick that money into their own pockets for their own financial income? That’s what you gotta watch out for, ya know? Hey, I love Benefit gigs. I played on a few of them myself in the past but before you go attend a benefit show, you do your research and be careful with things beforehand. If you go to the wrong Benefit gig, your money that you gave them could be going in the organizers pockets instead of the charity. You wouldn’t want that would ya?

If you want to go to benefit shows for whatever charity — whether it will be for the troops, cancer victims, natural disasters, etc. — don’t believe in all of them. People jump into these benefit shows ’cause they immediately believe they are legit. If things start to look a little suspicious, don’t trust the organizers. I just came across a benefit show that was done by tribute bands that they took money from people for themselves instead of sending the money to charity.

You gotta watch out for that stuff. In your local music scene, you can’t trust anyone and anything.

I don’t trust anybody in local music as people can be too crazy around here. This area is not a positive and lovable music scene as everyone mistakenly thinks it is.

Kev

I know a lot of local and unsigned bands all across the U.S. and the world love to make professionally made MTV/VH1 styled music videos but you don’t need to. Why? I’m about to explain. I understand that music videos are pretty good marketing tools and they do help get the word out which is why so many bands makes official music videos. They also make them as their way of entertaining their longtime fans. In my humble opinion, music videos aren’t a good form of entertainment.

I always found it pretty silly that musicians have to play dress-up for a music video and then they go film it out in the streets with your instruments in public places. I find it pretty weird that the lead singer of a band have to walk around lip-syncing to a recorded track like if it’s some movie musical. It all bothered me. I never really cared for music videos because it simply takes away the music. I would want to be able to pay attention to the song. I don’t want to feel like watching a movie or a TV show, you know what I mean? Plus, to make a really GOOD music video requires a lot of good acting and tons of professional camera experience. I believe a lot of local and unsigned talented don’t have any of that when making homemade MTV/VH1 like videos.

Some of you may ask. How come the Brock never made a music videos like this? It’s because I never cared to. I don’t think I would ever want an official music video. I would make professional albums on CD, but music videos… no. The closest you’ll ever see me on video are those live performances of mine in youtube at the gigs and me performing at home… that’s as far as a music video you’ll get from me. I mean, you’re not gonna see me in a music video where I walk down the street lip syncing to a recorded track snapping my fingers or swinging my hips back and forth. You’re not gonna see me sitting at a bar with a drink singing a song while a couple dances in the background and people all around me. You’re not gonna see me doing any acting scenes or any of that silly garbage.

You can still get recognized in music by not doing any those kind of videos at all. I don’t see the point, ya know what I mean? On top of that, I wouldn’t feel comfortable seeing myself in those kind of videos. I don’t need that kind of attention ’cause my ego is not that big.

I just want to make the music for you. I don’t think I’ll ever make these kind of videos. Bands mistakenly think you need to have music videos but you don’t need to. It’s all up to you whether you want to make them or not. I don’t mind live concert footage or home performances but music videos, not a chance.  It’s crazy how other bands & artists do them but whatever — they do whatever they want to do, I guess.

Kev

Yes, I am aware that people refuse to support my music ’cause of my singing, playing or even my online web presence. There are even some folks who even said good things about my music but they still refuse to support my stuff ’cause of my online web presence. I am aware that people refuse to support me ’cause of my image, who I am as a person or the way I discuss things online. It’s all idiotic and very hypocritical, I know. There are so many people in the local music scene who claim they support “local music” but a lot of them seem to forget that I’m a musician and singer/songwriter myself. There are some kind people who are willing to support but we need more people supporting everything, even my own music. That’s okay if people don’t care and if they don’t want to do that. I can’t please everyone. I’ll just continue to play for the small fanbase who continue to support my music and that’s all I need really, that makes me happy enough.

That previous post about “Weird” responses and criticism wasn’t just about me. It was about other musicians & bands who go through the same things I do. Trying to give advice to them that  they shouldn’t feel offended by the mixed responses, and see it as something inspirational. It helps make you an even more stronger and powerful person as a musician.

If you want to go somewhere in music, another trick is not listening to what anybody have to say about you. Just keep doing what you do. Simply put, to keep it small and simple — fuck everybody. If people don’t like what you do, you don’t have to give up. The more you keep going in music whether people like it or not, the more respect you will get from the people. It lets people know that you can be a confident and tough SOB ’cause they’ll know that’s what you love to do is playing music for the love and passion of it. Don’t listen to the nay sayers, haters, and doubters. Just be yourself, do whatcha wanna do, ya know?

If people refuse to support your music, just keep going. There will be some that will like what you do and they will be loyal followers. Proving people wrong that you can be something special in music is what it’s all about. Yes, there are going to be a lot of those who will be openly outspoken about you; people who are not afraid to publicly talk trash about you. I get that stuff all the time from other bands and people from the music scene. If there are negative people who can’t say anything positive about you at all, chances are, they are jealous. They know that you are doing something with yourself, while they sit there and do nothing.

A lot of bands & solo artists like to assume they are so big and talented; I never had that attitude. I’ve always liked to let the music speak on it’s own, and that’s the way it should be, ya know? I can never tell if I’m liked or how popular I am and it’s good to be that way. If other bands & musicians think they are liked by everybody and if they think they’re so good, chances are, they have a huge ego problem, and that’ll make me not want to support your music right there. Just be real and humble with yourself.

Happy Mothers Day and hope you’re all having a good one.

Kev

You try your best to get the word out for your music. You’re proud of what you do musically and try your best to get everyone to like it and support it. Sometimes a small amount of people will be kind enough to support you but sure enough, there will be a handful of others who won’t support you. You will get a lot of people pretending to be nice about your music when in reality, they don’t really like what you do and they are afraid to admit it publicly as a way of being polite. You try to get people to join your facebook fan pages, twitter or other social networking sites; even your own family members and friends refuses to support your music. Some don’t mind you promoting yourself; some will find it annoying. Yes, you’re gonna come across a lot of people with whacky and strange attitudes. The people who don’t support your music prefer to support other bands who think that are more talented than you. You’ll get mixed reactions. I go through it all the time.

When you see all this, the last thing you want to do is see all of this as a bad thing. It actually lets you know that you do have something special with your music. Your fellow musicians and other people in the area who refuse to support your music even if they are nice to you are probably just a little bit “jealous” of you in a way.

When I support other bands & musicians, I’ve never had that kind of attitude. If you’ve noticed the way I supported local music over the years, I supported other bands ’cause I really mean it that I like their music. I was never the one to pretend to like their music just to be polite type, know what I mean? I know what talent is all about in a musician. I know a talented musician when I see one. If I don’t like a bands/artists music, I will try to find ways to say things without trying to hurt them. A lot of people around here like to be openly opinionated and outspoken of other bands, that has never been me. I like to treat music in a positive direction whether locally or nationally. I’m not negative about music that much. Once in a while, I’ll have something  negative to say about bands/artists but I try not to do that too much anymore.

I like to support other bands & artists as a music fan myself; not just to promote my own music, ya know? I like to be real with music. I’ll support bands/artists if I like their music so much and if I don’t like their stuff, I’ll just be nice about it and try to keep that opinion to myself. If other bands & musicians chooses to treat me in a negative direction, I’ll just act like they’re dead to me and it’s been working quite fine.

The trick is, just keep doing your thing with your music and don’t let the weird and mixed responses get to ya. Don’t be offended by it. Look at it as an inspiration and something to learn from. I certainly learned a lot from it! There’s going to be plenty of folks who are afraid to admit that you are talented yet they refuse to support you out of jealousy. It’s a good thing actually. Let ’em get jealous and pissed off at your talent. It’s letting you know, that you are good. Not trying to sound like an ego-maniac here. Just being real.

Kev