I’ve been a part of the local musicians community for a little over a decade now. When I talk about this stuff, I know some are gonna call me crazy and not gonna believe me but fuck ’em. Let them believe what they want to believe. I’m just gonna tell my truth like I always do and tell everything the way I see it.
I love live music and I love other musicians but, I’m not afraid to be real when it comes to music and that’s what I’m all about. So get ready for some hard truth, y’all.
Yeah, this music scene around the Albany and Saratoga Springs of the Capital Region is a pretty cliquey scene. When you see promoters out there trying to make it seem like that they support all local music, don’t be quick into believing in that ’cause it’s all a bunch of bullshit. It really is. All the promoters, local music blogs and local music websites try to make it seem like they support all local music but they don’t really. The truth is, they are only supportive and more friendlier to bands & musicians that are already successful. Those are the bands & music artists that they mostly support.
Now hear me out… if you’re in a band or a solo acoustic artist who has already had some success like have a large following, played some big theaters and open for national acts then chances are you’re going get write ups by the local music press. They ignore the lesser known musicians and ignore the so-called amateurs who try their best to make it somewhere.
It’s the same thing with other musicians and bands around the area. Many of the bands especially the more prominent and established bands won’t support you unless you have success yourself. If you’re less successful and if you just play music for the love of it aka a hobby kind of thing, these musicians will treat you like you’re nothing.
That’s one thing that always pisses me off about this fucking music scene, you see. The pros and more successful musicians treating the amateurs/hobbyist musicians like they’re fuckin’ nobodies. They’ll think they’re more superior and more important than you. They’ll treat you like you’re below their level. Supporting definitely seems like a one-way street around here. No doubt, a lot of pros and established musicians around here aka the more prominent musicians can be such huge egos and I’ve always said that.
The problem with this scene is that many musicians want to think they’re rock stars, but many of them will never admit that, though. With me, I was never into music to become a star ’cause that’s never been my thing. I never cared for that. If I don’t get to play the bigger stages and don’t get to open for national acts, that’s fine by me. I just want to make music and that’s it.
It’s interesting how this music scene treats musicians. Some of it’s good and some of it’s not. They’re not supportive of everybody. They’re very selective. Not sure why they make lies about supporting everybody. In my eyes, though, there is no such thing as being a rock star. We’re all musicians… and one thing to point out, though, that the less successful musicians doesn’t mean they aren’t successful. We’ve all had some success in some ways. I mean, it disgusts me how this scene puts down the musicians that are struggling. When a musician goes to an open mic night and plays a few songs or books an actual gig at a bar that’s success in my eyes. Success doesn’t always have to mean performing in a huge theater with a crowd over 1,000. As long as you’re out there performing live whether a small crowd or big crowd, that is success too.
I used to go out to support the local music scene all the time when I was younger. I used to play my own gigs and support other band gigs but I don’t do that shit anymore. After what I’ve seen and what I’ve experienced throughout the years of local music, I don’t think I’m interested in it much anymore. It’s a big turn off of what I’ve seen out there ’cause the Capital District music scene is pretty crazy, trust me on that.
With that being said, I’ll always play music myself, though. I’ll never give it up ’cause I love music and it’s what I do. Will I ever play live again? I would like to at some point but we’ll see how it goes.
This is the most negative music scene I’ve ever seen and continues to be to this day. Too much negativity and too much musicians being critical of others. I can go on. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been disrespected around here, lol. This area has a lot of problems and it should be easy to see that. A lot of egos and jealousy is a huge problem for sure.
What’s even worse about this music scene is how mostly liberal it is with political views. A lot of musicians and music promoters out there are pretty liberal. I’ll never forget the day when Donald Trump won the election, a lot of local musicians complained and bitched about it publicly. That was entertaining and I’ll never forget it. There are many musicians that refuse to support me ’cause of my conservative views and I’m not lying about that either. Musicians refused to add me in Facebook ’cause of it and refused to follow me back on twitter ’cause of it too. Crazy. Ya know, I’ll support a band and music artist no matter what their political views are. If you’re a liberal so be it, I’ll still support you, but if they don’t want to support me in return… that’s fine so be it.
This scene never changes and it’s still pretty much the same. Not all musicians are good people, there are some real douchebags out there and I’m not gonna name names.
Don’t get me wrong, though, I still do support local bands some but I only support the ones if I really dig their music a lot. There are a few local bands that I like a lot still.
What I’m trying to say is that local music scenes are not always good. There are gonna be some positives and negatives. Stop living under the delusion that it’s gonna be positive all the time. You will go through some ups and downs as I know I have of what I went through over the years.
Kev
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