This is so right on! What ever happened to the love of the actual music? I’m sure many musicians and bands still care for the “music” but many in this day and age seem to be pretty desperate in popularity.

We have too many bands & solo artists worrying about how big they wanna get. Many of them want to establish themselves and become known. Is “popularity” really all that important? No.

There are very few musicians and bands left that care for the music than popularity these days. I pretty much blame that on today’s music industry. Today’s industry makes “popularity” seem cool and many of today’s bands & artists wanna achieve it.

What happened to the love of music? Not many wanna feel that anymore ’cause they’re all desperate for fame, popularity, money and all that stuff, ya know?

I’m not, though. I just wanna play my guitar and rock out. That’s all I care about. I play guitar ’cause it’s my love and what I do. Sure, I’d like to get “popular” and it be cool if it happens but honestly, I don’t care whether or not I get it. I’ll be happy enough even if a few people listens to my music. I’m okay with that.

It’s probably why you don’t see me gigging too much or playing live much ’cause I don’t care. Just wanna make music, that’s all.

If I get myself a band someday and if we don’t hit the big arenas, I’ll be fine with that too. I don’t care about fame, it’s nothing.

Kev

There are many bands & artists around here who are trying to get big & popular. Get lots of fans, a lot of interviews and press. Get all kinds of big opportunities like open for national acts and play the bigger stages. All of ’em want it nowadays but does all that stuff matter? Ya know. Move up to the next level and try to get bigger? I think you get my point.

Ya know, I used to worry about getting there and used to want it but I don’t really care anymore. Don’t get me wrong… I would like to get recognized more as a singer/songwriter and musician, get heard more… but the last thing you wanna do is be desperate for it. I’ve noticed a lot of local musicians in the area are always debating about how to get there and I think they are getting a reality check that it’s tough to get there.

Just play music and enjoy. That’s all you gotta pretty much do. Like I always say if it happens to me, great. If it doesn’t happen to me, that’s great too. I just play music for myself pretty much but I also play music for some of the fans that I actually do have and yes, I do have some believe it or not.

The thing is, don’t worry about getting big & popular. Just stay true to yourself. Be humble and respectful. Don’t take yourself serious.

Just keep making the music and see what happens. Let the music speak on it’s own. Yeah, your music maybe great but that doesn’t mean everybody is gonna like it. It’s really hard to get everyone to like your music. I know ’cause I’ve tried really hard to get people to like my music and it’s even harder to try to get people to actually listen to it. If you don’t get a lot of people listening to your music it doesn’t mean you suck, however. It’s just that people don’t really support “local music” as they claim they do. It’s all a big lie, in my opinion. The reality is people only support what they like and what they know. I tried real hard to get people to care for my music. Some do but “some” is better than nothing.

It seems that these days in order to make it to the next level in the Capital Region and establish yourself is that you win some band competition like Battle of the Bands or some contest on the radio. That’s part of why I’m not really into these band competition things.

I’m all about the love of music. It’s part of why I don’t play live too much ’cause I never saw music as a career. I just do it as a hobby and something fun to do. I don’t have “delusions of grandeur” as some think ’cause I don’t care to be some big rock star. Too many seems to have this dream these days and I’ll probably make a video rant about this soon, probably this weekend.

Kev

I’m a fan of Sawyer Fredericks even though I don’t watch “The Voice”. I just watched him in youtube since everybody is talking about him. This Greg Bell guy is right on the money. Why is the WNYT news station and the Times Union paper giving him so much attention than us local musicians?

Since Greg Bell brought that up, this inspired me to make a video about this and I’ll work on that today.

Kev

I’ve been a fan of Albany singer/songwriter, Bryan Thomas for a pretty long time. This was a pretty cool live performance that he did. He can do some pretty interesting things with the looper pedal which makes me like the guy even more.

I gotta get his albums and see him live at some point. I thought this was an excellent performance. I find it impressive that he could do all that footwork all by himself.

He’s a talented guy for sure. Check him out in the video below. I like his songs and his style. He’s got a good singing voice too.

Kev

In today’s major label industry… the way it’s going — they want to make it seem like that it’s a big dream for everyone. Getting paid lots of money. Making albums to get sold in all record stores and online. Go on world tours. Bands & artists dream to get their names everywhere as much as possible. A lot of bands these days are obsessed with wanting to “make it”. Unsigned local bands and artists would try to do whatever it takes to “make it”. Really, they don’t care what it takes and they would do everything as much as possible such as playing battle of the band competitions to get to the next level, try out for all these singing competitions such as “American Idol”, “The Voice”, “America’s Got Talent”, etc. Bands & artists would try to market themselves as major label artists when they’re not really.

Seems like all local bands & artists wanna get signed and “make it” these days. Nothing wrong with that. All that is fine and good. I think that the more you obsess with wanting fame & fortune, the lesser chances you’re going to make that happen. So do yourself a favor. Stop dreaming and look at reality.

In today’s music industry, it’s actually very hard to “make it”. In the old days, major labels “used” to sign bands & artists if they think their music is good but they don’t work like that anymore. In today’s industry, you have to have a large enough following in order to get the major labels attention to prove your worth which is gonna be hard. If you have no star power, then you’re not gonna make it.

Just stay humble with yourself and don’t take yourself serious. Leave your dreams and delusions out of your music. Just play for the love of it and that’s it. I don’t really care about “fame” and wanting to “make it” at all ’cause that’s not what I really do this for. I’m into making music for me ’cause I enjoy it and have fun with it. I never really cared for fame and popularity like most bands & artists do. To me, music isn’t a competition. I never looked at music that way. I just wanna write songs. Make the music, express myself and try to get heard. I’m not worried about getting lots of fans. If I get lots of fans, that’s cool… if I don’t, I’m alright with that too.

Most of the time, fame and “making it” happens to bands & artists when they weren’t expecting it. They just make the music and “fame” happens on it’s own. That’s what happened to a lot of my favorite bands that I love such as Led Zep, Metallica, Sabbath, Neil Young, Springsteen, etc. They didn’t seek out the “fame”, they just played the music and it just happened for them.

With all this being said, you shouldn’t care about fame. Why obsess with fame now when the record industry today is mostly shit? If you do “make it” in this day and age of the industry, you’re gonna get controlled. The labels will write the songs for you and why would you want that? They also pick the songs to release for your records. Do your research. The industry isn’t cool as it seems. It’s a pretty shady and evil music industry these days so it is best to stay unsigned.

In this day and age, you don’t need a label at all. You don’t even need to be under an indie label. With all these professional recording technology you can buy on your own, you can make your albums homemade and release it online. Sell your albums on Itunes, bandcamp, etc. or give away your music for free if you want to.

You don’t need a record label or “fame” to get recognized for your music. Just play your music, write the songs and that’s all you gotta do. Too many local bands & artists are playing “rock star” dreams lately. It’s been happening more and more, I’ve noticed lately.

Kev

There are a lot of recording studios that pay a lot to record in by the hour. You don’t need to spend 1,000 of dollars to record professionally anymore. All that professional equipment you see in the professional studios you can buy all on your own now. Those huge control boards that you see and other equipment. When home recording you don’t even need to buy all that expensive equipment anyways.

You can still get a perfect studio clean sound with even a small basic setup like the photo above for example.

Bands & artists still rely on paying a lot of money to get their albums recorded when they don’t need to.

Sure, I understand that bands & artists wants the best possible sound for their music which is why they go for these studios that pay by the hour. If you work with another engineer or producer, you’re not gonna get the sound that you want. You’re gonna get the sound that they want. If you want to get your sound and your own vision, you get your own home recording equipment and you can get all that stuff on a small budget like the photo above. The photo above is all you need to get a good professional sound.

Yeah, I recorded in a professional studio that payed by the hour before and I didn’t like the experience to be honest. Bands & artists don’t need to do all that anymore with all this home recording equipment you can buy online and in music stores.

I feel more comfortable with home recording. You don’t have to worry about people telling you how to do things and plus, you save a lot of money.

I wanted a good studio-like sound and I think I got what I wanted. I haven’t started recording new songs on my new system yet. Just playing around with some ideas and trying to come up with stuff. I usually write first before recording. So I’m gonna stop doing cover songs for a long while and keep my focus on originals only. I love doing cover songs but I don’t wanna do too much of them. I would like to get my first album made and get it out there. I’ll just release my albums on that bandcamp site probably. I’m gonna look into trying to get my music on Itunes as well.

Back to the topic, though, I think bands continue to rely on professional studios out of pure laziness, in my opinion. They’re just not good at recording the music themselves so they have someone else do it. Either that or they’re just too lazy to buy all the home recording equipment themselves.

There are even a lot of famous bands out there that avoid professional studios and they just build their own studios right at their own home. Just something to think about there. Paying a lot of money for studios really is the thing of the past but I see bands are still doing it anyway.

You wanna learn how to mix and master your music? You don’t need to pay thousands of dollars for some courses. You don’t need to pay thousands of dollars to have someone else mix and master for you. Just teach yourself and figure it all out.

Kev

10 rules or commandments that you must follow in order to become a respected musician on a professional level. These are all good except I disagree with “No. 5” avoiding feedback at all costs. When you’re a rock or metal band, there’s an exception that feedback can sometimes be good. Sometimes feedback can be a good way to end a song like what a lot of hard rock bands do. If you look at bands like Nirvana and the Who, they would end songs with a lot of feedback noise on stage. That’s how a lot of bands end their live performance. You shouldn’t avoid feedback at all costs ’cause sometimes it can be good as a way to put on an exciting show, you know what I mean? Led Zeppelin and Hendrix did it a lot too. End their songs with a lot of feedback noise. Feedback can be useful sometimes.

Other than that, this article is a pretty good read. Sadly, I’ve seen bands that has broken all of these rules. I’ve seen tons of bands and solo artists that show up late for their scheduled time slot. I’ve also seen bands that didn’t stick to their allotted time slot like playing songs that are way too long and going over time. I’ve seen bands that don’t keep the show going like too much talking and joking around in between songs. I’ve seen tons of bands who were drunk as fuck onstage (I’ll have another post on that soon). I have also seen bands who didn’t have a care to tune quietly. I’ve also seen bands who complained and whined about the show or the venue itself. I’ve also seen plenty of huge egos at shows, not naming names.

This is how the Smallbany music scene has always been. There are some bands around here who follow these rules like real professionals but there’s not enough ’em. It’s part of why I don’t get myself involved in the music scene too much anymore ’cause it’s crazy as fuck here.

Enjoy the list here:

http://thehub.musiciansfriend.com/tech-tips/10-commandments-for-the-performing-musician?source=3GOA5AEA

Kev