I prefer the DIY approach when it comes to music. It’s better that way. That way you can have total control of your music, your own ideas, and you can be your own boss. There are quite a bit bands & artists out there in local music who mistakenly believe they need to rely on mangers & promoters to get somewhere. The truth is, you don’t need to. There are plenty of successful bands and solo artists out there who have made it to the next level in their career without relying on mangers & promoters. It can be done! You can get a bigger fanbase, get bigger opportunities and go on tours without the use of managers & promoters. You can simply be your own manager & promoter for your band.

When I was gigging in the past, I never relied on any of this stuff. I played on gigs by doing it all myself. I can do it all over again when I get new music written here. When I’m ready to perform live again — I’ll still do it the DIY way. Once you get a manager/promoter doing the stuff for you —  your band is no longer DIY. You’re having this person doing all the work for you.

In my opinion — don’t take this the wrong way, just my humble opinion – I think getting to the next level in your career with a manager/promoter is cheating. It’s almost like winning the lottery and they go, “Hey, here you go… here is free success & fame for ya”.

You’ll get more respect as a musician and as a person if you get yourself there with no help at all. If you rely on managers/promoters… then you don’t know what you’re doing with the marketing/promoting side of things and the booking process. They don’t want to admit it and that’s why some bands/artists get managers/promoters to make themselves look good.

This post is not aimed at any band in particular… I’m just being real here.

You can get success with your music on your own just by working hard, promoting yourself to death and you can manage your own money if you’re good at mathematics. I just think relying on managers/promoters is just the wrong way to do it. I understand you want to move forward and get heard but you can do that on your own. You just got to learn how to do it and do it right. I know plenty of bands & solo artists who have gotten success on their own and they didn’t rely on someone else.

To manage your own band or solo career… it also requires a professional attitude and learning how to talk to the clubs, labels, etc. This post might ruffle some feathers some but it just needed to be said. You can get into a label signing and get yourself into the industry without use of a manager. You just gotta learn how to do this stuff on your own. There are tons of material where you can learn the DIY approach from by reading books, the internet, etc. DIY is the best way. If you have someone else do the work for you — it’ll make you look kind of lazy and you don’t know what you’re doing.

I like giving the most respect to the bands/artists who do the DIY approach. It shows they work extremely hard and shows that they love what they do.

Kev

If you’re a music artist and want to get yourself out there — you have to learn to be honest with yourself and just be yourself. That’s the trick of getting yourself out there. Yes, when you get yourself out there — you’re gonna come across all kinds of negativity and bullcrap in the music scene. Tempers will flare across other musicians, you will get bullied, be made fun of and harassed — best thing to do if you want to move forward in your music is to not care about any of it – the drama. Don’t get into anybody’s drama and just stay out of things. Just screw everybody, and just do what you love to do. Don’t worry about if people don’t like what you say or who you are. The world is not about pleasing everyone.  I’ve always had this attitude for years and still do. If other musicians and people in your music scene don’t like who you are — fuck ’em. You will meet plenty of people who pretend to like you when they don’t really.

Playing music should be for you and you shouldn’t let people bring you down. It’s no secret that too many musicians out there have short tempers. That’s a big part of why I don’t socialize and network with other musicians too much ’cause they can be a bit too crazy.

I’m never giving up my music — doesn’t matter how much negative criticism I get out of it. I love what I do, and I’ll never stop playing.  Just ignore all the negative stuff and focus on the positive. It’s real funny how musicians concentrate on you and worry about how you are when they should be worrying about themselves and their own music. I have been done with music drama for years now. Don’t really enjoy being dragged into it.

Kev

There has been a lot of confusion over my, “How to Write Songs” post previously. There has been quite a bit of response to it. Allow me to clarify some things so you may understand better.

Yes, pretty much all musicians have different ways of writing songs. Even the professional musicians who do this for a living have different ways. However, when I say things like “Songwriting is better when you think of songs in your head” — what I said is true. It’s true that musicians start writing a little bit of a song and then take their time with it. Start writing and finish it until it’s perfect. The point that I was trying to make that most songs have come from people’s heads. Most guitar riffs in rock songs and some of the most famous solos have come from their heads. Yes, they write little bits and put them together while editing them in the studio — I did the same thing with a lot of my own songs. Write little bits here and there and finish the song later. When musicians write — they already have a vision in their head of what they want their song to sound like when they get it on recording.

If you aren’t able to write songs that you hear in your head and you’re just playing random stuff on the instrument until it sounds good — that’s the wrong way to do it. In other words, not being able to get a song off your mind and get it on recording. Some musicians seem to be banging out random stuff and say, “How does this sound, what do you think of this?”. Not good.

Songs do come from the heart and the mind. That’s where most of the great songs in the industry have come from. Especially, the classic rock era. The real way to play music is play whatever comes out. Play with feeling. If you don’t play with feeling then you don’t have what it takes to be a real songwriter.

When I wrote that post, I’ve gotten slammed by some musicians and it turned out to be a controversial post. Some accused me of being selfish and told me, “You shouldn’t tell how others how to write songs just because they don’t write the way you do…” blah blah blah. The thing is, I wasn’t being selfish and wasn’t trying to tell people how to write.

I’m just speaking the reality of songwriting when it comes to the industry.

Think of it this way… have you ever hear a guitar riff idea in your head and or even hear a vocal melody and you want to get it out of you? That’s the way songwriting is done. That’s the point I was trying to make from the beginning. Believe me, I used to write random stuff without thinking them in my head but that’s rushing things and songs will sound like crap if they’re written that way (that’s how amateurs write).

Over the years, I learned to write songs out of my head and songwriting is so much better that way. It’s not me being selfish, I’m only trying to help you become a better songwriter. If I’m getting musicians slamming me about this — then that means, they can’t write like that and they have a lot of learning to do as a musician. Seriously, the world of music is no joke. If you want to enter the world of professional musicians… they’re gonna expect good musicianship. So you gotta know your shit and be ready. If they find that you don’t have the professional songwriting skills… you’re not gonna get anywhere.

Learn to play things from your head. It requires improvisation skills. You don’t necessarily have to learn music theory ’cause there’s a lot of professionals out there that don’t even know it. You just have to have a good ear. There’s no other way around it. Hope, I made myself a little clear.

Kev

There are a lot of bands & solo songwriters out there who would release full length albums on a yearly basis. Out of every album, they would pick like two or 3 songs that they would consider to be “hit singles” for radio airplay or to make professional videos of. There are also some bands out there who don’t care to make “radio friendly singles”, they’re more worried about making good music. So which is more important? Making hit songs that people can never get out of their heads and sing along to or just making art?

I would say the art and the good music is way more important. All the songs I’ve written in the past, I never called any of them hit songs. There is no such thing as hit songs in the world of local music. I’m more worried about writing the best songs possible. If other people happen to call certain songs a “hit song” and would consider radio friendly, that’s all fine and good. That’s how you want to do it. You don’t want to call any of your songs “hit songs”. You want to let the people do that. You can tell if your song is a hit by the popularity of the people and the  big reception the song gets. You never go, “Oh, this song would make a good radio single, lets put it on”. You want to let your fanbase pick the songs that deserve popularity. You know your song will be a hit if it gets a lot of plays online (I mean a lot of them at least somewhere around 10,000 – 1,000,000 plays or over — same with videos — or if the song gets a large audience reaction from your shows).

Other than that, I’m not too worried about writing radio friendly music like a lot of bands seem to be obsessed with. I just want to make music, ya know? Put it out there, and see what happens. Let the music speak on it’s own. I understand that bands want to make radio friendly music just to get somewhere with it and they know that hit songs help make the money but if you focus more on the art part of songwriting — the people will still support your music as long as they’re good.

Don’t worry about writing hits. You want to make all of your songs great. I don’t care to get radio airplay or make official videos. I just want to make good music that people can enjoy.

Speaking of new music, I should start writing again soon. I’ve read enough poetry so I should start writing poems/lyrics as soon as possible. I want to make new music this summer. They will probably end up being mostly topical and political songs.

Kev