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why aren’t you signed? :::
By warriorgrrl | November 8, 2008
Last night I played at The Marlborough again, another short and bitter sweet acoustic set performed this time to a less friendly room. It’s hard when you’re faced with an audience populated solely by boys from the other bands - they didn’t come out to listen to music, they came to play music. This was an especially tough crowd; my between-song humorous comments were met with a stony silence and barely anyone sang along to ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ - come on people! However, the promoters were lovely and gave me vegan pizza and free drinks and I videoed the whole thing, so I’ll put some clips up in a few days if they’re any good.
A bemusing conversation after I came off:
Boy from other band - “That was really good - why aren’t you signed?”
Me - “Thanks, um, I don’t know, I’ve never tried to get signed.”
Boy - “Well, why don’t you?”
Me - “I’m not bothered about all that really. What do you think having a deal would add to my life anyway?”
Boy - “Well, with that voice you could write songs for other people, couldn’t you? Wait, how old are you?”
Me - “27, why?”
Boy - “Oh well, it’s all right, you don’t look 27…”
The boy meant well and I offer genuine thanks to him for listening to me play and complimenting me on my performance, plus yes it was just a quick chat so I can only jump to conclusions (which may be way off), but I have had others say similar things to me in the past. I could say so much about this altercation but I think I’ll just stick to the main points.
1. He has no grasp on either the record industry’s current situation (not good) or other potential goals and aims of the independent musician (many) and was making a number of assumptions about my lack of experience based on the fact he thought I was younger than I am.
2. He was unfamiliar with the concept of playing music without the end goal of ‘getting signed’ in mind. That’s a shame. Firstly, that’s always been an unsustainable model because even at the best of times not every band could get signed, obviously, and secondly in these times of change it’s even sillier to put all your energies in to bribing ‘the man’ to come to see your show on the off chance he’ll chuck some money your way. Even if he does those things the struggle is only just beginning - there are so many ways a label can let you down before they eventually drop you for not fulfilling your potential, or some other such crime, plus add in the vagaries of what’s trendy and cool, whether you can get on radio or TV and a zillion other factors and you can see the odds of becoming a famous, successful musician are worse than winning the lottery. Becoming a successful musician is completely within reach, however - it just depends on what you define as success.
After nearly a decade of involvement with the music business, from being a signed artist to working in and around it as a session musician and videographer/photographer/writer I have a reasonably clear idea of what I want to achieve with my music, and if at some point a label, or an agent, or someone with lots of money to invest comes along and offers to add value to my project I’m very willing to have a conversation with them. There are lots of new models for making and releasing records in these times of flux, and it’s for the musicians themselves to lead the way and give themselves credit for their creativity, take ownership of their work and decide who best to liaise with (if anyone) to achieve their goals with it. I can’t deny I still have a hazy dream of touring the world playing my tunes, but I’m not willing to give up the rights to my own creative work to do so, and I don’t believe anyone else should have to.
So, what are my goals for She Makes War? They’re pretty simple, actually:
1. To record my debut album the best I can, when I can, and be happy with what I made.
2. To let people hear it and comment, and hopefully recommend it to their friends.
3. To create an interesting solo live show that goes beyond the simple girl-with-an-acoustic-guitar concept and play to audiences in various towns, cities, and countries at house concerts, on small stages and wherever else I’m invited.
They are not:
1. To make money.
2. To impress people.
3. To get laid.
Now we’ve cleared that up, it’s time for a quick NaNoWriMo update: today I managed 2746 words in an hour and have plans to spend another hour later on in my quest to catch up. I’m now at 6775 words, which means I have another 43,225 to go over 23 days - if I can do another 2000 today I have to write around 1880 per day for the rest of the month to ‘win’.
I’m finding by far the hardest thing is working up to sitting down to write. I’ll do anything to escape the page - cleaning, cooking, re-organising files on my computer, playing Scrabble on Facebook, blogging… I feel better for having done something about my measly word count today, and the pep talks they’re emailing to me are really helpful. Even Philip Pullman says the hardest thing is sitting down to write every day, so there’s hope for me yet…
[I just wrote 1000 words of bloggage, can I add that on to the novel?]
Topics: Music, NaNoWriMo, News, Ramblings, She Makes War |
November 8th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I totally agree with you. There’s no point making music just to get signed. Even bands who do get signed and find some success often get dropped before they’ve reached their creative peak. Far better to do it for the enjoyment and then see what happens.
November 8th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
[...] I’ll do anything to escape the page - cleaning, cooking , re-organising files on my computer, playing Scrabble on Facebook, blogging… I feel better for having done something about my measly word count today, and the pep talks they’re … More [...]
November 8th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I really like your approach to this, those are exactly the reasons why I want to make a short film - just making something I am proud of and not for the money, to impress people or to get laid. Keep going!
November 11th, 2008 at 9:08 am
[...] why aren’t you signed? ::: [...]
November 18th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Very thought-provoking post this: thanks lovely. Of course, I agree with your philosophy. Although for some slightly different reasons.
I think people who are purely creators, artists or performers (in that it’s their ‘job’) risk being flat and limit their experiences to what is (at essence) a rather self-indulgent and potentially inward looking life. I personally value the variety of things I do (many of which are not creative) because of the new experiences, insights and people I meet.
Wouldn’t it be nice, though, to be able to make a ‘bit more’ money from creativity without selling out? I think so. That would make me happier.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Oh, and if you haven’t read this, you should… it speaks to this discussion:
http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fans.php