I have always said that unsigned musicians can be very unfriendly people in any music scene in the United States. I know you’re getting tired of me talking down on musicians and being all “negative” on them but I’m not afraid to get the truth out. I’m no shrink but I have observed the way musicians socialize with people over the years and it’s pretty interesting to say the least. The way musicians communicate with each other especially online is really weird and strange to me. It’s mostly the more professional musicians… the more successful and talented musicians who can be unfriendly at times. When I mean, unfriendly… I mean “unfriendly”.

Short tempers, huge egos, and blah blah blah, you get the deal. They can be extremely rude to people when they are not even realizing it. Some of them can act like bullies to other musicians, yep.

It seems that the only time musicians are nice to you if you support their music and their playing. That’s the thing that I observed over the years. If you look around… a lot of musicians only care for themselves. A lot of them seem to enjoy having an ego problem and they like to feel important with themselves. A lot of them have strange behaviors and that includes me. The second you say something negative about them… if it’s something negative about their playing, their musicianship or themselves as a person… they will hate you forever. I know from my own experience. If you’re critical about the music scene or other bands… they will hate you for that too.

There are some musicians out there who has no reason to hate you. They just hate you for the sake of hating. They just like to join the bandwagon ’cause everyone else is doing it.

A lot of people mistakenly accuse me of being a hateful and negative person but the sad truth is that a lot of musicians out there can be a lot more hateful and negative than me. Believe me, I read what they write in social networking sites and craigslist. A lot of their writings aren’t directed at me but I see how they write about local music sometimes and there can be some pretty aggressive and heated discussions. Sometimes they end up resorting to name calling and swearing. Bashing other talent.

This scene always had a love & hate relationship. It’s nothing new. I’ve seen it for years. This is part of why most of the popular local music forums have been shut down ’cause musicians act so crazy on it.

Everyone wants to see the Albany area as a friendly and lovable scene but technically, it’s not. Let me say that again… the reason musicians are unfriendly is because of ego and their self importance. Once again, not all musicians are unfriendly. I know. There are some very friendly, nice and down to earth musicians out there but there’s not enough. Just one thing to keep in mind that having a negative attitude in music is not going to get you very far. When musicians talk to me, I expect a friendly attitude as well. When they don’t act friendly to me, you can very well believe that I could be ranting about it on this blog. That’s why musicians are stuck here in Albany ’cause of their negative attitudes.

The secret to going forward in music and having a better career more positively… is being friendly to everyone. All the time. No matter if people are negative to you first, you still need to have a positive and professional attitude. This scene thinks they’re professional acting but they aren’t really. If everybody was positive and friendly, we could have a better scene.

Your attitude in music is pretty important. I’m learning myself about this and learning from my past mistakes so I don’t do them again in the future. Just be kind, have good karma and amazing things will happen in your music career, trust me. Nope. Musicians will never take this advice. Their egos will think that will give them the privilege to act how they want to. Also, ignoring the negativity at all costs will also help bring you forward on a positive note. I’m working on that too. I’m trying my best to be more positive myself.

Kev

Bands & artists around this area seem to have this problem of agreeing with everything. In other words, they feel the need to play the “yes man” and try to take every opportunity that is thrown at them ’cause they mistakenly believe that is a way to have a successful and positive career. Wrong. You have to be realistic and negative about some things. You can’t play the nice guy all of the time… you gotta do what’s right for your music and for yourself.

So here is a list of things that I WOULDN’T do in my own music world and maybe you should take the same suggestions. You may have seen me saying these things on these blogs before but I have no problem talking about them again…

Lets get right to it shall we???

Several things I would never do in local music are…

• Pay to play gigs – You really need to watch out for these things. Pay to play venues are on the rise in this area… there are more of them now. If you have a Reverb Nation account or any other social networking site for musicians, chances are you’re going to get scammers trying to book you a gig at Red Square and such by a company called AftonLive, and you’ve probably heard of it before. AftonLive is a huge problem. There are other pay to play scams around here like GorillaMusic which is associated to certain venues around this area. I would NEVER do pay to play. Bands & musicians fall for these things too easily. I am smart and careful enough to know what these things are. You don’t need to do pay to play gigs just to get your foot in the door of some crap venue. You’re only harming yourself if you go through these pay to play things. Don’t do it. This is one thing I avoid like the plague.
• Crowd funding for your albums and tours – This also seem to be a popular thing around local and unsigned musicians. Taking money from people to fund for your albums like through sites like PledgeMusic or Kickstarter. I’m sure those sites are legit and they work successfully but I would never do it. Nothing against other musicians doing it but I wouldn’t take money from fans just so they can enjoy your music. I understand that people have a tight budget financially which is why a lot of musicians do it but there are other ways of getting money to get your projects done besides taking money from your fanbase. Are you that greedy? I would like to make my own album someday sure but I would never do crowd funding stuff, ever.
• Make music videos – It’s understandable why bands/artists make MTV/VH1 styled professional videos but I would never do one. You would probably never see me doing one. The closest you’ll ever see me do music videos are those homemade videos that I have on youtube. That’s good enough. You’ll never see me do a video where I walk down the street moving my mouth to some song, dancing or snapping my fingers or whatever. I don’t see myself as a rock star like most do around here.
• Sign a record label – I’m happy being unsigned. I don’t really care for a big career in music. I just wanna play. Have fun and enjoy myself. I would like to be big and get recognized with my music but I don’t care whether I get there or not. I’m not that desperate.
• Pay a lot of money for studio time – I think it’s a bit ridiculous how bands spend thousands and thousands of dollars on studio time when you don’t need to. Like I always say you can make a decent sounding album right at your own home. Get some decent sounding home recording equipment, learn your DAW software, and off you go! At home you can record anytime and at low cost.
• Battle of the Bands and other ridiculous competitions – I would avoid these like the plague too! I just don’t agree with putting your music out there like this. You don’t have to do these things to go places with your music. I still say they are like a small version of those reality shows on TV like the Voice, Idol, America’s Got Talent, etc. Since those reality shows got popular… bars & clubs in different cities will start creating similar competitions for local talent. i don’t think you’ll ever see me doing these things at all. I saw one Battle of the Bands show once and I hated what I saw (I just went that one year to support this certain band that I was going to vote for, you know who that band is). Not hating that one band that I speak of but the rest of the show I hated.
• Over promote myself – I don’t need to promote myself too much. All I need for self-promotion of my musical projects are this blog, my twitter or facebook. Musicians seem to do it everywhere as much as possible and I don’t need to do that. I like to let people find me on their own. I don’t shove my music in everyone’s faces like so many bands do these days.

That’s about all I can think of for now but if I can think of more… I might do a part 2 of this post. I’ve tried to think of more but these ones above are the only ones I can think of.

Enjoy!

Kev

When you want to criticize a band that a lot of people like or the music scene overall… chances are people aren’t going to like it. When you want to be critical like this — be ready for a negative response back by the band themselves or even their fans/supporters. I’ve been dealing with this for years. I’m no stranger to this. I’ve been criticizing local bands (not naming names) and the music scene for way over a decade so I know how people react to this stuff. What kind of negative response will you get back from the public? Well, bands will try to defend themselves and the fans will help defend them too. Usually, people will criticize you in return: they will either bash your music or bash you as a person. They will act like that you’re lower than them. When you bash the music scene overall… musicians will try to help defend the scene.

The thing that people can never understand is, it’s absolutely okay to criticize music of any kind. That’s what music is here for. Listen to it, say  whether you like it or not — discuss it — debate about music — whatever!!! I’ve been saying for a long time now that it seems to be okay to criticize the national music industry but when you criticize local music… people will be like, “WWAAAAaaaahhhhh, waaaaahhhh, oh no, he’s talking bad about local bands, he needs to shut his mouth….” blah blah blah blah, you get the deal. It seems that the only time people will be open to hating me is when I criticize a band that people like or criticize the music scene overall. Why do people respond back in a negative direction when it should absolutely be okay to discuss music how you want to? They simply do it in retaliation. It’s kind of like their way of giving you payback. It’s like a “you hurt me, I hurt you” kind of thing. When you’re an outspoken person, people will want to be all tough and they will think they have “Complete Control of Your Mind” (go back to my poem about it).

When musicians respond back to your criticism, all that’s doing is proving your point that musicians can be really selfish and ego-driven people. They want to think they’re good at everything they do and they expect everything to be positive about them — all of the time. They don’t like anything negative and they don’t like it when people get real about stuff. It really bothers them.

As far as the fans go, the supporters… they do it ’cause they hate to see their favorite band get put down. They’re pretty loyal to them and the fans would have their back no matter what is said about them. They help defend the band ’cause they know bands thrive over flattery and they do it to make them feel good.

It would be nice if we can all be opinionated and critical about music all we want to without people whining about it but that’s the internet. People are crazy on here. It just shows that people are bad at socializing.

EVERYBODY knows it’s absolutely okay to talk about music how you want to. That’s what music is about — Freedom of expression. If you can’t take the truth, then the music world isn’t for you. You also don’t deserve to be giving opinions about other music yourself if you can’t take other people giving the truth about your music.

When bands come after you and yell at you for your criticism about them, they’re just doing that for their own ego. They’re trying to force you to have a positive opinion and thought about them or they simply want you to shut up about them. It’s also an unprofessional thing to do is to respond to online criticism of any kind. A real musician would ignore all the negativity and criticism aimed at them. If you think you’re so big and and successful with your music… if you respond to the critics, then you’re not big and successful as you think you are.

If you want to bash the critic in return (that’s me), that’s okay. It just shows that you’re hypocrites when you do that. I mean, isn’t it funny how people can say all kinds of negative stuff about me all they want to but I can’t say negative stuff about others? I’ve always tried to figure that one out, it always confuses me. I mean, people always say stuff how it’s wrong to bash bands, bashing the music scene but what about myself? Doesn’t that make you hypocritical? People just don’t realize how bad they treat me online… they don’t even read before they post. They don’t realize I’m a human being myself and would like to be treated how you like to be treated. Really, I can be a really nice guy if you give me a chance but whatever. HA!

Seriously, people say all kinds of nasty stuff about me online. I never understood why… I just learned to ignore all the haters over the years.

I don’t have to please every single person on this planet. That’s not how life works. Leaving the comments closed in this post ’cause it’s just a read and do not reply thing ’cause all I know that you’re going to do is bash me like the hypocrites you are.

Kev

Music is music. Whether it’s local or national, you have every right to be real about everything as much as you want to. I love “constructive criticism”, it’s what I do. That’s what this blog is all about. This blog have always been about “constructive criticism” on all topics. Being real about things. The reason I’m like this is because I’m one of those who feel that if you don’t like something and if you don’t agree with something… you feel the need to say it. Get it out of you and don’t hold it in. A lot of people seem to be keeping their thoughts and honesty to themselves. I don’t want to be one of those who pretends to be positive and lovable about everything. In other words, I don’t want to be a “fake” like most people. I like to be real. Being real helps makes my life much easier. Trust me… I am not afraid of the truth and not afraid to say stuff that everyone else is afraid to say.

If I want to believe that playing music shouldn’t be about the money, I have that right. It’s just what I believe in. That opinion wasn’t meant to offend or upset other musicians… I was just speaking of what I believe in. I never did music for the money… I am in it for the love of it… and there is nothing wrong with believing in that. I don’t care to get a big career in music. That’s not my goal. My goal is trying to become the best songwriter I can be and try to get better.

If I want to think this band and that band there is shit, I have that right. If I want to believe that musicians around here are complete assholes and unprofessional, I have that right to believe in that. If I want to disagree with the things they do like Battle of The Bands (and other competitions), going for pay to play gigs, playing shit venues, etc. I have that right to say it. If I want to criticize the way bands write songs and make their music, I have that right too.

For example, I am not into this band called Phantogram. A lot of people enjoy them but not me. I started to like that band at first but got bored of ’em quick. Their music is not my cup of tea. I can’t get into that techno electronica stuff they do. They are too pop for me. I think Phantogram is a bit over hyped as well. People seem to enjoy them ’cause they’re from Greenwich/Saratoga area and a lot of people around here support them for that reason plus a lot of Greenwich people who are friends with them like them too. I don’t have to enjoy them ’cause they are from around here. No hating… just giving you an example of “constructive criticism”. I don’t get all the hype of this band. I was sitting at the table at the Healthy Living store at the mall having a cold drink and heard Phantogram twice on the radio… they’re also all over commercials on TV.

With all this being said, there is really no music scene around here if you think about it. Nobody really goes to original shows anymore. There are hardly any venues around. Most went out of business. It’s almost impossible to get gigs these days. Especially with all the pay to play venues and scams all over the place. Crazy!!!!!!!!

There are so much talent around the Albany area but we pretty much have a dead music scene. We always have had a dead music scene and always will. It will never change.

I think it’s best to be real about music. I’m the one paying bands & artists for what they do and I wanna makes my money’s worth. I also want to do what’s best for myself since I’m a musician and songwriter as well.

The reason a lot of musicians get angry at my criticism is ’cause a lot of them feel that I haven’t had much experience in the music scene to prove my points so they wanna think they’re bigger and better than me all the time. Sorry to say but that’s all pretty assumptive. I’ve had years of experience in the music scene. You may not see it but I do. My years of local music go way back. I think I started supporting the scene somewhere in early 2000, maybe earlier than that. If I’m the one going to the gigs, I have every right to review of what I see there. I’ve been supporting local bands for years and played some gigs of my own as well. I played many open mics over the years.

I’ll never change who I am just because a bunch of musicians don’t like my honesty. That’s what a critic is supposed to do. Piss people off and get ’em going. If you can’t handle my criticism on here… then you won’t be able to handle criticism of other bloggers and music critics. Sorry to say but the bigger you get in the music industry… the more critics and bloggers will be writing bad stuff about you. That’s the name of the game in the music business. Not all music critics out there are gonna be positive about everything you do musically. You will get a few negative reviews of your music and your band. You have to learn to have balls and stay above the critics. If you can’t… then you won’t get very far at all and you’ll let the critics win.

My criticism and honesty maybe cynical and harsh — yes — but at least people are reading, paying attention, and I’m getting the job done. I’m happy what I do. No regrets at all!

Kev