Everyone wants to ‘make it’ in music. What does that mean, and how has the definition changed with recent changes in the entertainment industry?
“How do I make it in the business?” That is the number one question any aspiring professional in any field asks their peers. If you want to tour the country full time you look to someone who is currently performing 200 shows a year for advice. If you’re going to write the next great novel, you talk to an author or two who knows what it takes to finish a book. If you want to run a record, label you look at how your favorite labels operate and build off what they have found to be a proven method for success.
Some might call this an act of imitation, but most would call it research.
Some might call this an act of imitation, but most would call it research. You have to ask questions to learn what you do not already know, and if you’re someone looking to work in entertainment, then your first question to any peer is probably some variation of what I wrote above. How do you make it? How do you do this full time? Who pays you? Where did you find a job? Who do I talk to about a job? How do you keep a roof over your head? And so on.
The most frustrating, yet entirely accurate response to any version of the question of how one ‘makes it’ is one that has been around long before the internet:
Find something you love to do, pour everything you can into doing it, and — eventually — it will be what you do.
Maddening, right? But it is absolutely true.
I wrote about music for more than half a decade before I met anyone willing to pay me for my words. The years before that had been spent writing in between class and shifts at whatever miserable job I could find. I woke up early and stayed up late, often splitting my nights between covering concerts and writing about what I had seen so that I could go out and cover something else the following evening. Everything in my life took a backseat to my passion for writing, and even though I wasn’t making much, if anything, through doing it my continued efforts to improve gave me an immense sense of personal satisfaction. I wrote with hopes of becoming a writer just as much as I wrote to make myself happy.
By the time anyone other than PPC (pay per click) vendors were willing to pay me for my work I had already established a presence and personal brand in the world of music. I knew the people I once wanted to be, and they knew me. I posted about securing a paid gig, and several of those same people congratulated me, but within hours they — and I — had moved on. The news that money was coming in soon was nice, but I had to focus on the present to reach that point where someone paid me. I had established a routine for writing that remained largely unchanged by the presence of paid work because in my mind I was going to be writing either way. My passion for writing was never tied to money, so the fact it was starting to come in was — to me— no excuse to act in any manner than the way I was behaving when it felt like no one cared at all.
Years later and I am now a full-time professional doing what I love in the field I love. The journey to this place was filled with ups and downs, but in hindsight, I am able to understand every step of the way was necessary in order to handle the demands, challenges, opportunities that working full time in entertainment can present. I have a thick skin, and I know that in order to be my best self creatively I have to care for my mental and physical well being. I understand how to network and I know how to write.
There is still plenty left for me to learn, but every morning when I wake up, I know I am able to handle whatever life throws at me because of the time I have invested in my craft. Others recognize this as well, which is why I am able to have a job and continue building my connections. People know I can handle the work, and they know it is ultimately not money that motivates me, but rather my passion for the business. The music industry runs on passion.
Once you harness your passion and set to become the best you can be at whatever it is you want to do the rest will begin to fall into place. It won’t happen today, tomorrow, or even next week, but if you stick with something and constantly work at improving yourself the day will come when you finally lift your head and realize you’re where you always wanted to be. It sounds foolish and maybe even a little delusional, but I am telling you it is the truth because it happened to me in spite of the fact I believed such ideas to be nonsense.
No one wants to tell young minds how few of them will actually grow up and do the work needed to reach their goals, but it is the absolute truth. Most people are not willing to do the work, and of those that are many will only work for so long before they demand the world give them something in return. The world owes you nothing. If you want to be something you have to make something out of yourself. Do the work, and you will succeed. It’s that easy and that hard.
This is the number one question any aspiring professional in any field asks their peers. If you want to tour the country full time you look to someone who is currently performing 200 shows a year for advice. If you want to write the next great novel you talk to an author or two who knows what it takes to finish a book. If you want to be run a record label you look at how your favorite labels operate and build off what they have found to be a proven method for success.
Some might call this an act of imitation, but most would call it research. You have to ask questions in order to learn what you do not already know, and if you’re someone looking to work in entertainment then your first question to any peer is probably some variation of what I wrote above. How do you make it? How do you do this full time? Who pays you? Where did you find a job? Who do I talk to about a job? How do you keep a roof over your head? And so on.
The most frustrating, yet entirely accurate response to any version of the question of how one ‘makes it’ is one that has been around long before the internet:
Find something you love to do, pour everything you can into doing it, and — eventually — it will be what you do.
Maddening, right? But it is absolutely true.
I wrote about music for more than half a decade before I met anyone willing to pay me for my words. The years before that had been spent writing in between class and shifts at whatever miserable job I could find. I woke up early and stayed up late, often splitting my nights between covering concerts and writing about what I had seen so that I could go out and cover something else the following evening. Everything in my life took a backseat to my passion for writing, and even though I wasn’t making much, if anything, through doing it my continued efforts to improve gave me an immense sense of personal satisfaction. I wrote with hopes of becoming a writer just as much as I wrote to make myself happy.
By the time anyone other than PPC (pay per click) vendors were willing to pay me for my work I had already established a presence and personal brand in the world of music. I knew the people I once wanted to be and they knew me. I posted about securing a paid gig and several of those same people congratulated me, but within hours they — and I — had moved on. The news money was coming in soon was nice, but I had to focus on the present in order to reach that point where someone paid me. I had established a routine for writing that remained largely unchanged by the presence of paid work because in my mind I was going to be writing either way. My passion for writing was never tied to money so the fact it was starting to come in was — to me— no excuse to act in any manner than the way I was behaving when it felt like no one cared at all.
Years later and I am now a full-time professional doing what I love in the field I love. The journey to this place was filled with ups and downs, but in hindsight I am able to understand every step of the way was necessary in order to handle the demands, challenges, opportunities that working full time in entertainment can present. I have a thick skin, and I know that in order to be my best self creatively I have to care for mental and physical well being. I understand how to network and I know how to write.
There is still plenty left for me to learn, but every morning when I wake up I know I am able to handle whatever life throws at me because of the time I have invested in my craft. Others recognizes this as well, which is why I am able to have a job and continue building my connection. People know I can handle the work, and they know it is ultimately not money that motivates me, but passion. This industry runs on passion.
Once you harness your passion and set to being the best you can be at whatever it is you want to do the rest will begin to fall into place. It won’t happen today, tomorrow, or even next week, but if you stick with something and constantly work at improving yourself the day will come when you finally lift your head and realize you’re where you always wanted to be. It sounds foolish and maybe even a little delusional, but I am telling you it is the truth because it happened to me in spite of the fact I believed such ideas to be nonsense.
No one wants to tell young minds how few of them will actually grow up and do the work needed to reach their goals, but it is the absolute truth. Most people are not willing to do the work, and of those that are many will only work for so long before they demand the world give them something in return. The world owes you nothing. If you want to be something you have to make something out of yourself. Do the work and you will succeed. It’s that easy and that hard.
James Shotwell is the Digital Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. He is also the Film Editor for Substream Magazine and the host of the Inside Music podcast. You should follow him on Twitter.
If every idea or plan I ever heard in every conversation I ever had with an aspiring industry professional or musician the music business would be a vastly different place than it is today. I’m not sure that is for the better or worse – depends on the project – but what I do know of from my time working in the industry and my admittedly puddle-deep exploration through its many ranks has become the stuff of legends to myself and anyone who may have been there in that moment those words were shared. Big bands, small bands, PR professionals and startup masterminds. Name a thing in music you could aspire to become and there are at least 5000 people who tell people they also want to do that thing every day, and that’s likely just in North America alone.
I am certain there are a variety of reasons things didn’t work and a number of people who could be, should be, or would be held responsible if things had gone another route, but in many cases it comes down to your willingness to fight, but in many cases it comes down to your willingness to fight and your ability to evolve. Both sound easier than they really are, but they are absolutely essential traits for anyone hoping to make it in this business.
There is one upside: Everyone is fighting this battle in their own way.
Everyone hoping to do anything in this business wakes up with the prospects of going to war. It doesn’t matter whether it should or shouldn’t be like this because the fact of the matter is it is the way things are at this point in time. The boom of access through technology and the internet happened much faster than the music industry was able to adapt. Even if the industry were able to see the changes the internet would present in advance and had ample time to prepare it’s hard to imagine a world where there are anywhere near enough reliable full-time jobs in the creative area you want to work in to allow everyone a place of there own guaranteed. That’s not how life works and it’s not how music works.
The best you can do is to wake up every day and put action to your dreams. Start today. If you want to write the next song that is going to change the world, it’s probably time to take mastering your instrument and songwriting seriously. If you want to manage the next big band, find a band you give a damn about and do whatever it takes to make sure me and everyone else feels the same way this time next year. If you want to pitch Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, XXL, or anyone else, learn how to form a good pitch and start sending emails. If you want to be a publicist, find an artist you believe in and make the rest of us feel the same through any means necessary. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.
You’re going to fail, but there’s another upside: Everyone Fails.
Everyone fails a lot, in fact. More bad songs are written every day than future classics, just like more bad press releases are sent than those that make people who receive hundreds of press releases a week actually read what they wrote. It’s not about a single try and it’s not about a single day, week, or month. Building a career of any kind in any field in the music business is an ongoing series of trial and error where you and everyone you know hopes to succeed in some way more often than not. We take our chances and we take our bruises. We complain about the way corporations have devalued music while making billions of the art that musicians create while hoping streaming payouts really do lead to the bright future we were told would come. We claim we found the next best band in the world when we really just heard a good song on the internet. We put our faith in people that turn out to be nothing like we expected and we in turn sometimes surprise ourselves.
Some failures hurt more than others, but that’s okay. You learn to take the good with the bad because you remember that hope only gets you as far as you’re willing to fight in this business and that everyone else has ups and downs too.
Be honest with yourself and others. You cannot do everything. In fact, some things you probably shouldn’t do, and that’s perfectly okay.
To attempt anything is to accept the fact you may fail. Everyone fails, as we mentioned above, but if you find yourself failing again and again without ever finding a sliver of success you may need to take a hard look at your goal and ask yourself whether or not they can be achieved. The hard truth of the matter is that only a very small amount of those who dream and strive to work in music every actually make a career for themselves in this business. If you are not one of them it does not mean you are a failure. You rose above being a failure the moment you decided to try and chase your dreams. You wouldn’t believe how many people never even take the first step towards getting what they want. If things are not working out after a long enough period of time you need to consider the possibility that there may be other fields and areas of expertise where your particular set of skills could be of value. The world needs motivated souls, and you are one. Find a way to make existence a bit better for others and do that thing. Music will always be here, and you will always have it in your life, even if it isn’t what pays the bills.
You are never alone, though it’s going to feel like that sometimes.
When you’re working with others in any capacity you begin to realize your individual performance really does influence their ability to pay their student loans and cover their share of rent in the apartments they more than likely share with anywhere from one to six, seven, or even eight people depending on the metropolis they were forced to move to in order to take their time in this business ‘seriously.’ (You don’t have to do that, by the way. Be the biggest thing you come out of your spot on the map, and don’t forget to thank the internet – and this author – for your success down the line.) You, like them, were once just a kid who really loved a particular band or sound and that somehow turned into a career where you’re now responsible for doing something (or more than likely, many things) in exchange for money. Compared to the way most people approach finding a career in something, that’s crazy! We’re all a little crazy and we many of us deal with the same stresses and bouts of self doubt that you may experience from time to time. We’re strongest when we work together, and that means being open and honest with one another. Recognize that we are all crazy fans deep down inside and we all know of the power music has to impact lives. We are all working toward the same thing, and that is to lift up the art that gives us the ability to wake up every day and fight.
There is power in numbers. Work together.
As much as my individual drive and talent has helped me make a way in this industry, all my greatest accomplishments were the direct result of projects I worked on with people I believed in. Surround yourself with like-minded people who fight for the things they want and understand that real work that lies ahead. This may be the friends you know now or it may be a group of strangers you meet only after you take it upon yourself to start chasing whatever it is you want to do. The bonds you form with these people will last a lifetime, and they will come to mean more than any paycheck possibly could.
Commit.
There is no denying that finding a career in music is often driven by networking, but even the best connections still require commitment. Music is considered one of the easiest industries to get your foot in, but no one ever stops to tell you everyone and their brother currently has a foot in the door of this business. It takes nothing to do the bare necessities required to claim to have a presence in music and that is a beautiful thing. It’s also a litmus test of sorts to separate the truly driven from those who will eventually turn to a more reliable and suitable (and arguably sane) career. If you want to do anything you have to make yourself known, and it’s both as easy and as hard as committing to working towards your goals every single day. To borrow from Nike, “just do it,” and soon things will begin to fall into place.
James Shotwell is the Digital Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. He is also the Film Editor for Substream Magazine and a 10-year veteran of the entertainment business. James has spoken about careers in entertainment and how to achieve them at festivals, conferences, and college campuses across the United States, and he is currently working on his first book on that very topic at this moment. If you like what you have read here, please make it a point to follow him on Twitter. If you have questions about this or anything else related to working in the entertainment business, please email him: james@haulix.com.
In a recent episode of the 100 Words or Less podcast, guest Tom Mullen (of Washed Up Emo) bring up a great point about “making it.”
11:54 “If you don’t know where the basement show is, you’re disconnected, because that’s what’s next or what’s really happening. So if you’re out there and you’re in a band, find a basement show… don’t aspire to get on the Ernie Ball Stage.”
Yes, your name at the bottom of the list of 100 other bands in next year’s Warped Tour announcement will look cool, but if that’s what you’re shooting for you’re toast.
Here are a few better places to focus your efforts.
1. Be the band that people want to help and hook up all around your local community. Show up for their shows, even when you’re not playing. Not everyone in every local band will be your best friend, but be a good member of the local music community. Buy other band’s records, travel to their shows, talk them up. Don’t do this so when of those bands “break” they’ll hook you up, but do it to be a good human being.
2.Get out there and book some shows in other states. Playing in front of new crowds won’t win you 100s of fans per show, but it might land you one or two, and you never know – they might become your new best friends.
3. Just as you shouldn’t yell “we got shirts for sale in the back” in between every song when you’re playing out, you shouldn’t make every message on social media about you. Before you post anything, reply to 10 fans. Don’t RT them: reply to them. After you’re done with that, talk about a new album you love, or a good band you saw at your last show. Do this for months, and on occasion, sure – announce a show, or a pre-order. At that point you won’t have numbed your online audience to a never ending barrage of “LOOK AT ME” messaging (like every other band out there).
4. Help other bands. Again, it’s better when we do it together. Element 101 took an unknown band out for their first out-of-state show many years ago. Who was the band? My Chemical Romance. When one band succeeds, we all benefit.
5. Make your own thing. Spotify sucks. No one buys albums. So and so band is dumb. That one promoter won’t book your band. Save your breath, time, and energy.
I got talking to Joe from Flintface recently, who is around my age and filled with much wisdom, and his words echoed in my soul: make your own thing. Make your own luck, your own tour, your own show. If you have a social media audience of 10,000 and an email list of 500 people from all the shows you’ve played in the past two years, you won’t need to rely on “getting signed" or being picked for a shitty side stage to “make it.”
6. Don’t talk shit with people you don’t know. If you’re trying to break into the industry, don’t speak negatively about any band, label, or outlet – you just never know who might work with who! I’ve seen this too many times. Someone says, “X band is the worst,” and then someone in the group says, “oh, really? My partner manages them.” GULP.
So don’t be disconnected. Be a part of something good, and if nothing is there, MAKE IT. Above all, work on being an awesome person that people want to work with and you won’t even need to grovel to play some sponsored side-stage.
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Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.
Hello and welcome to the dawn of a brand new week. We have been planning and working on the content you will see posted in the coming days for the better part of the summer, and to be perfectly honest it is a bit of a relief to know they will all soon be shared with you. This blog exists to promote the future of the music industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your music-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
The internet has changed essentially every aspect of the music business. From the amount of time between an album’s recording and release, to the way news is distributed and the way artists engage with their fans, nothing is the same today as it was even a decade ago. As someone who lived through it all and can clearly remember the days before everything you ever wanted could be found online, I constantly find myself blown away by the amount of change and evolution that has taken place within my own lifetime. It seems anything is possible these days, as long as you’re willing to work for it of course, which is part of motivation behind my decision to feature a relatively unknown band by the name of Knuckle on the blog this afternoon.
About a week ago, I received an email that brought to my attention a new duo from the UK who call themselves Knuckle. The two piece, as the press release explained, met on Halloween night in 2013 and decided to launch a band not long after. Their first single, “Living Hell,” can be enjoyed below:
I don’t know what you felt when you were hearing the song above, but the first time it met my ears I immediately knew Knuckle were onto something great. I reached out for more material, but their publicist informed me the guys only had a few songs completed and were focusing on developing their presence before releasing more music. This is a common response given to people requesting unreleased music, especially when talking about newer artists, but the more I pondered on Knuckle’s need to gain further exposure the more I became fascinated with the way the industry has changed. The members of Knuckle met less than a year ago, but already they have played with internationally recognized groups (Little Barrie), recorded some great songs, and released their first music video. Call me crazy, but there was a time when achieving all that mean you had ‘made it’ in some small way.
Anyone old enough to drive in the United States no doubt has a decent memory of the world before social media. In those days, if your band formed in October you would probably have a minimum of six months, if not more before you began playing shows. As for recording, you either needed to do it yourself with whatever equipment you could find or save enough money to enter an actual studio, but in order to that you first needed to generate income through playing shows. As a result, it was not uncommon to see even the greatest new artists take a year or two or more to find their audience. There was no Twitter to turn to with every thought you have, nor Facebook to post tour dates on. Bands that wanted fans had to hit the pavement and promote. They had to create actual press kits and pay whatever ridiculous postage was charged to get those kits into the hands of every record label, music publication, and management team whose address was available to the public. You may have an EP out six months after forming, but it would not hold a candle to the quality or quantity of content being produced today.
The world has changed since then, however, and whether you think it’s for the better or for the worse there is no denying that we are able to discover new artists and the music they create easier today than ever before. The hard part, at least as far as artists are concerned, is turning that person who discovers their music into an actual, financially supportive fan. That is the place where Knuckle find themselves right now, and it was one of the many things we discussed when I had the opportunity to interview them at the end of last week. You can read highlights from our conversation below.
Knuckle will be working on new music well into the fall, but I expect another single will surface before snow starts to fall. Follow the band on Twitter and Facebook to stay updated on their latest activity. If you have any additional questions, please comment at the end of this post and we’ll do our best to get them answered.
H: Why, hello. It’s a pleasure to have you with us. Before we begin, would you please take a moment to introduce yourselves to our readers:
K: Hello there! We are Knuckle, a two piece from Huddersfield consisting Jonny Firth AKA Jonny the Girth (refers to his waistband and not penis width) on Lead Guitar and Lead Vocals and Ben Wallbanks AKA Ballwanks on Lead Drums.
H: Thank you, Ben and Jonny. We have been looking forward to this interview ever since we first heard “Living Hell.” Tell me, how has the response been to that single so far?
K: Pretty good. We’re really happy with the reviews and radio play we’ve had from it. People have started singing it back to us when we play it live which is a bit weird, but awesome.
H: After hearing the single I had to look up your story, and I must say I am a little blown away to learn that you have been together for less than a year. Would you please share your origin story with our readers? Bonus points for descriptions of the costumes I’m told you were wearing at the time:
K: We met on Halloween last year (2013) at a gig Ben was playing. Jonny was the support act. Ben was wearing a potato sack on his head, a rice sack on his torso and gold sparkly tights on his legs. Jonny was dressed as himself (like an American trucker). Picture of Ben enclosed. After that we got smashed, went to a reggae night and decided we should be called Knuckle
H: Had you ever crossed paths before that night, or was this a random first-time meeting? You must have shared mutual friends.
K: We’d probably crossed paths around Leeds or Huddersfield before but never seen each other, either that or we’ve met a few times and been too fucked to remember. At the Halloween gig we met through a mutual friend that plays in the same band as Ben and fixes Jonny’s amps (The Amp Shack, plug plug plug).
H: So, who was the first to say ‘Let’s start a band’?
K: Ben was the first one to mention it, as soon as Jonny got off stage at the Halloween gig. I think the exact words were “You play guitar like I play drums, we should be in a band”.
H: Before we talk about this project any further, we should probably learn a little bit about your history. What other groups, if any, have you been a part of?
K: Jonny has a one man band thing called Jonnythefirth and is in a band with two girls that he can never win arguments with called Crybabycry.
Ben has played in all sorts of shit, from an experimental 18 piece ensemble to Space funk band Kava Kava and many other rock bands along the way.
H: I have read a number of articles about your music, and it seems everyone has their own way of describing your sound. How do you explain the sound of Knuckle to people who have never encountered your music?
K: We throw all of sorts of genres at them hoping to get one right from garage blues to surf punk. We just baffle them with bollocks.
H: Along with releasing the single “Living Hell,” you also released a music video. What can you tell us about the creation of that clip? Just so you know, we’ll probably embed the video into this story, so feel free to be as descriptive as you like
K: We were very lucky to be able to work with Marco Zafffino who is an award winning film maker. We wanted a dark and dingy performance video, so we went to the pub… Just so happens they have a dark and dingy basement. Jonny wanted there to be freaky masks involved because he’s a bit strange like that, so we got a load of mates to wear some… then we got fucked (can you see a recurring theme here?).
H: You’ve already played with a number of internationally recognized acts, including Little Barrie. How did you go about setting up your first shows, and what has the reaction from crowds been like thus far?
K: Like we mentioned earlier, we’ve played in a few bands before this one and people seemed to be excited that we were starting a band together, so they booked us! Luckily most of the people loved it. Some people have walked out because we played too loud, but fuck ’em.
H: How would you describe your live show?
K: Raucous and unpredictable, mainly because we never practice! Some nights we decide to jam, sometimes Jonny jumps into the crowd or climbs on tables, sometimes there are shameless drum solos.
H: You’ve been a band for less than a year, and even though you kick a lot of ass the vast majority of music fans have yet to discover your music. What steps have you taken to get your name out there?
K: We’ve gigged and gigged and gigged this year, playing around 45 gigs in 6 months, sometimes we have 2 or 3 gigs in one day. We also try to keep our social media stuff interesting, funny and/or dirty. Getting as many features in blogs and on websites is always a priority too, Wall of Sound pr have helped us with this massively.
H: What is the hardest part about gaining recognition for your music in 2014? There seem to be many channels for sharing your work, but getting people to pay attention seems like another battle altogether.
K: I think he hardest part of getting recognition is cutting through the bullshit. It’s so easy and cheap for anyone to put their music online so there’s a lot of competition… Even us two idiots did it!
H: Do you have any advice to offer others who may be considering starting a band in an age where marketing an recognition mean more than ever before?
K: Start a band because you love it!
H: What are the biggest challenges facing Knuckle right now?
K: The biggest challenge right now is getting over this bastard of a hangover! After that, I think it’s still getting our music recognised and listened to. We’re a long way off being able to sell loads of records.
H: Do you have any goals for this project? Go on, be lofty!
K: We want to give up our shitty jobs!
H: What is the hardest part about being a musician in 2014? Best?
K: The best part is the same as it’s always been, playing live and getting that buzz that can’t be replicated. The hardest is like we mentioned earlier, being noticed in a sea of bands all trying to get the same thing.
H: Okay, I think I’ve taken up enough of your time. Before I let you go, do you have any final thoughts or observations that you would like to share with our readers?
Hello and welcome to the final ‘Advice’ column of the week. We have been extremely fortunate to have received several article contributions from bands over the last month, and today we are continuing to share the advice sent our way with all of you thanks to a guest blog from Daniel Lancaster of rising pop rock outfit Stages & Stereos. If you have any questions regarding the content of this blog, or if you would like to learn more information about the services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
Up to this point, the majority of talent we have asked about contributing ‘Advice’ pieces have given us lists and focused editorials about specific aspects of quote/unquote ‘making it.’ These pieces have been great, and a lot of the content included in them has offered insight we could never have written ourselves, but that does not mean that the only way to be informative is through educational writing. Sometimes, all you need to do in order help someone else is share something about yourself.
When we asked Daniel Lancaster of Stages & Stereos for his advice for other artists on the rise, he decided to switch things up a bit and share with readers a story much more personal than anything we have posted through this column in the past. He’s chosen to look at his own career for this article, and in doing has shed light on what it really takes to build a brand in the current music industry. You can read about how he and his fellow bandmates learned to persevere the highs and lows of life in this music industry below.
If you would like to learn more about Daniel Lancaster and everything going on in the Stages & Stereos camp, we highly recommend taking a few moments to follow the group on Twitter. Additional questions and comments can be left at the end of this post.
I’m writing you today to share the struggles I’ve faced as a career musician. The high’s and extreme low’s. Victory and defeat. 500 words couldn’t possibly be enough, but I will do my best to summarize.
I remember the first time I ever picked up a microphone with the true intention to sing. Honestly I didn’t want to be a singer in the first place. I would have rather been on a skateboard. I was 15 years old making music with a group of guys who didn’t care about the future or even who played what instrument. No thoughts of finding management, a label, or booking agent. It truly was a beautiful thing even if the music was awful. We were completely ignorant to the idea of “the industry.” What I’ve learned in the past 10 years of making music is that the more success you find as an artist the more complicated things become. It never gets easier. Everything is trial and error. Every decision that you make is important if you want to make a career out of being a musician. I can’t say that I have always made the best decisions, but what I can say is that I wouldn’t change anything. Every bad decision is a learning experience. I am lucky enough to share the same goals and passion with every member of Stages and Stereos. The biggest struggle many bands face is getting along when you’re in a van for months at a time surviving on PB&J’s and the dollar menu. Things can get pretty intense in those situations haha. On top of that you have the political side which can get very intense as well. I find comfort in knowing that when times are tough and all of the doors seem to be closed our team will do whatever we can and have to do to open one.
The industry is a beast of a mountain that sometimes seems impossible to climb. I’ve come to grips with the fact that every star has to align in order to beat the odds. I do believe if you create a brand that you believe in. Make music you love (that translates well to people that buy records and come to shows). Find a way to make that music marketable, and have tons of luck. You can make a dream reality. I’m not even close to the top, but it’s not a struggle if you truly are in love with what you are doing. Overnight success its 10 years of hard work. In my case I’m looking at 15……possibly more.
Daniel Lancaster is a member of Stages & Stereos. When not working on new material in the studio he can be found touring the country.
