A lot of bands & solo artists struggle to get successful in music. They try to promote themselves the best they can, and they try to play everywhere they can but… they still seem to get lack of support. Only very few fans come out to their gigs or only few support their music. Why is this you may ask? Since I have been a part of local music for years, I have came up with another observation about things. It seems that the only way for bands & artists to get successful these days is that you must make music that alcoholics can dance to. That’s pretty much it, really. That’s how all those successful and established bands get so successful & huge. They make pop music that the drunks can dance to. The reason why bars & clubs have a lot of local bands play is because they know that drinking alcohol is so popular. Pretty much everybody out there seems to be into the drinking. That’s all people want to do these days, and that’s what pulls people in the bars & clubs to see bands is ’cause of the alcohol. This is also a huge part of why cover bands & original country bands get so big than the rock bands ’cause this kind of music is what pulls the drunks in to get their dance on.

The bands that mostly struggle are the original rock n’ roll bands and the songwriters who just want to make art. The ones who don’t care to make “pop” music; those are the acts that people ignore. When bands & artists struggle to get recognition that doesn’t basically mean, they suck. Unpopular bands & artists can be pretty amazingly talented, I just wish people would pay more attention to them but they won’t. All people seem to care about is wanting to get hammered so they can get their dance on. So they look for bands who plays good originals or cover music that gets people dancing.

When I make music, I don’t care to make pop songs that people can dance to. I’m one of the ones who just want to make music; I’m about the art. The songs is what should be all about. Once again, there are venues around here that don’t involve alcohol like cafes, bookstores, etc. You just gotta find ’em. It’ll be nice if people can appreciate music for the music, not for the alcohol and dancing but whatever… people are whacked when it comes to music. Bars are all over the Capital Region and they have bands play in almost all of them ’cause they know that these “dance” bands helps make them the big money.

It’s real sad that’s all people want to do is get hammered while watching local music but what are ya gonna do? There are alcoholics all over the area. It is what it is. There are not too many non-drinkers out there and I’m one of them. I think getting drunk is fuckin’ stupid, in my opinion. Nothing cool about it. It’s overrated. It doesn’t make you a cool person. You can still have fun and not drinking anything. Don’t get me wrong, I still like to have a few beers once in a blue moon but I don’t get drunk.

Going to bars are lame. I don’t really enjoy the bar scene. I can have a great time and have a fuckin’ blast by not drinking anything at all, ya know? I don’t agree with everybody drinking all the time but it’s a free country, can’t do anything about it. That’s what the media and advertisements do. They draw everybody into drinking heavily. When I don’t drink, people give me a “WTF” look and say I’m crazy for not drinking anything but mostly drink water. People do look disappointed when I refuse a drink offer from them but whatever, ya know? The world doesn’t have to revolve around drinking. I like staying sober and proud of it.

I used to get drunk quite often when I was younger but a lot of bad experiences with it so that’s why I gave it up. Plus, it’s not healthy for the bodybuilding. Building muscle and alcohol don’t mix. Bodybuilders think they can drink alcohol all they want to while lifting weights but it don’t work that way. You can still build muscle mass while drinking but you’re still gonna look fat and flabby as hell.

Drinking is overrated, it really is. That’s why you see bars, liquor stores, beverage centers, etc. all over your town.

Kev

In the opposite of “Bad Local Band Behaviors” list, I thought it would be fun to take this list to a positive direction and focus on the good stuff. What are the good stuff that bands do to focus on a positive music scene?

Here are the ten best answers that I can come up with:

• Just playing the music and enjoying yourselves – This is probably the most important. If you’re playing music and not having fun, then why bother? To me playing music is more fun than anything else in the world. You may do other stuff for fun like going to amusement parks, going to the movies, doing some partying and hanging with friends but playing music should be above that stuff. Music should be looked at as a passion in life. Think of music as a marriage. That’s what music is to me. It’s the world to me. Whether listening to it or playing it, music is all I’m about.
  
• Act like a true professional – Being friendly and courteous to others. Treating others how you like to be treated is an important thing. Talk to everyone in the music scene. Be kind and respectful to the venues. Be on time at the gigs and even show up early. You get the deal.
• Socialize with other musicians and network – One trick to getting somewhere with your music is networking in your music scene. Talk to as many musicians as possible and even try to make friends with them. I’m buddies with some musicians around the area. Not naming names. I wouldn’t call them close friends but I do keep in touch with them, all the time. Some people make the mistake that some musicians hate me around here but not really. I have a lot of local musicians in my personal facebook page that I hear from on almost a daily basis. So a lot of musicians around here definitely know who I am. Other musicians around here are actually pretty supportive of me and I’m grateful for that!
• Keep gigging as much as possible – Gigging is good and pretty important. You’re not gonna get somewhere in your music if you’re just gonna sit around. Recognition and hard work will not fall in your lap. Gotta reach out for this stuff yourself. You’re on your own. I’m planning to get myself back out there, soon.
• Socialize with fans and supporters who come to your gigs – Be approachable and be talkative to fans when they come see you play. Either before or after the gig. After the gig, a lot of fans will want to come up to talk with you to tell you good job and all that stuff so be prepared for all that. When you finish the gig for the night, stick around a while longer and chat with the fans. It’s even better when you treat ’em as real people, not just music fans, know what I mean? Make friends with ’em, let ’em feel part of the family. I’m always approachable when it comes to my gigs. When I gigged out in the past, I would stick around after my performance and hang out with the few fans who come out. They don’t just say, “Good job, Kev”… we just have real conversations of just about anything. Laugh and joke around. All that stuff. I miss doing all that and wanna be doing that all over again!
• Don’t worry about those critics and haters – Once again, just ignore ’em. It’s part of how you go forward to a bigger career in music is ignoring all the negative and hateful people!
• Jam with other musicians – I wanna start doing this at some point. Start playing music with other musicians and jam out. This is why I’m trying to become a better guitar player so I can jam with other people. Trying to get good at timing and staying in the pocket. Trying to get good with improvisation and all that stuff. I wanna play in a band myself someday and slowly trying to get there. One of the secrets on becoming a better musician is jamming with other people. That’ll help you improve greatly. I would like to start.
• Go to as many open mics as possible – When a lot of bands and solo artists get more successful, they happen to ignore the open mics because they mistakenly believe that playing gigs is bigger than open mics. It’s not. Open mics and playing gigs is pretty much the same thing, in my opinion. Don’t ignore the open mic nights. I love performing open mic nights. It does help get you more exposure and you can network with other musicians that way too.
• Promote yourself but do it smart & responsibly – Promoting yourself and marketing is the most important thing. If you haven’t gotten much success with your music, chances are, you probably didn’t do enough promoting. If you want a lot of fans, then you need to promote yourself. HARD! I mean hard! Not just the internet ’cause not everyone uses computers. You need to hang up flyers everywhere. Make stickers or business cards or whatever. Start up mailing lists for snail mail and all that stuff.
• Support other bands & artists other than your own music – Supporting other people’s music other than my own is a pretty good thing to do. Leave your ego at the door and support local music. I use this blog to show my support for other local music and bands. I also go to other local band shows at times too, as you can see. There are too many musicians around here who refuse to support other bands other than their own. If you want to have a good and positive music scene supporting other music is a good way to go. Local bands can put on way better shows than the national bands these days. I’ve been going to mostly EBJ shows these days but I try to go see other bands too.

Well, that’s all I can think of. Enjoy!

Kev