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