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After 12 Years of Saying No, I’ve Finally Said Yes (to managing a band)

August 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

For years I’ve been asked to manage artists, but my answer has always been “no”, for the simple reason that I was never interested in focusing my energies on 1 individual artist. It wasn’t personal, I just preferred to work with as many artists as possible on big-picture projects, whether it was my film “What is INDIE?”, programming two venues for St-Ambroise, or now with my work at CIRAA and Bandzoogle.

But I threw my “no managing bands” policy out the window recently when not only did I say “yes” to managing a band, I actually pursued them offering to manage them. That band is Irreverend James and the Critical Mass Choir; a secular, rabble-rousing, barn-burning, queer-positive, feminist, anti-racist, subversive Gospel Music Band.

A few months ago I wrote a blog post called “The Story of the Only Band I Ever Booked Based on 1 MySpace Song” describing how I first booked Irreverend James at the Centre St-Ambroise. I wrote the post out of pure passion for the music, and to help them in any way I could with their EP launch in June. I think I must have watched the teaser video for that show about 100 times: http://www.vimeo.com/23268340

It soon became clear to me that I was interested in more than just being a fan on the sidelines with these guys, that I wanted to be involved with the project in some way. And after a few meetings with the band, it became clear that we were a very good match, so I’ve been quietly helping them out behind the scenes since then.

But that support is now official, as we have agreed that I will manage the band going forward, and I can’t tell you how excited I am about this. For those of you who follow my writing, you know that I’m a fan of lists. So here’s the Top 5 Reasons that I’ve decided to manage Irreverend James and the Critical Mass Choir:

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Filed Under: Dave Tagged With: , , ,

Is Social Media Hurting Your Band’s Creativity?

August 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Computer and guitar

This post was written for Bandzoogle, a website platform for musicians. Bandzoogle is a Montreal-based company, founded and run by musicians, and has every tool a musician needs for their website. Visit Bandzoogle.com to take the tour or get started right away and build your website free.

 

For the past few years I’ve been advising every band I speak to that they “must” be on social media sites to promote their music. But do emerging bands really need to be using social media? Is it possible that too much time spent on social media can actually hurt your creative output?

 

Is Social Media Hurting Your Band’s Creativity?

I recently went on vacation for a week. It was the first time in 2 years that I had been away from a computer for more than 24 hours, and with it, away from Facebook and Twitter. It allowed me to completely disconnect, relax and truly reflect on life.

Then a funny thing happened: I noticed that by the end of the week I had come up with more quality ideas than I had in a long time. It’s as if my brain just needed a break from the constant bombardment of Twitter updates and Facebook notifications to be creative again.

So I asked myself a simple question: was constant activity on social media hurting my creative output?

Digital Downtime and Creativity

I did some research and discovered the concept of “Digital Downtime”. When one of the world’s best-known marketing/communications firms JWT released their “100 Things to Watch in 2011”, #25 on the list was “Digital Downtime”:

“These mindful breaks from digital input will be intended to relieve stress and foster creativity.”

The New York Times also published an article related to the subject of digital downtime, and in the article it mentions that scientists had discovered that:

“…when people keep their brains busy with digital input, they are forfeiting downtime that could allow them to better learn and remember information, or come up with new ideas.”

When you’re spending a lot of time on social media sites, where you’re constantly reacting to questions and comments, focusing on updating your profiles, is it possible that it can hurt your creativity in other areas?

Social Media Not for Everyone?

The topic of social media and creativity actually came up in my interview with online fandom expert Nancy Baym right here on the Bandzoogle blog:

“I encourage artists to use social media, but they don’t have to use every site and if, for them, social media are uncomfortable or deterrents to creative production, it’s totally okay not to use them.”

I think it was the first time I heard someone say that it’s okay for a band not to be using social media. Then Berklee Blogs published an incredibly revealing interview with John Mayer, who at one point had over 4 million Twitter followers, but then gave it up completely. Here’s why:

“You’re coming up with 140-character zingers, and the song is still 4 minutes long…I realized about a year ago that I couldn’t have a complete thought anymore. And I was a tweetaholic. And I stopped using twitter as an outlet and I started using twitter as the instrument to riff on, and it started to make my mind smaller and smaller and smaller. And I couldn’t write a song.”

But John Mayer is not the only artist to question Twitter and social media. Many artists are leaving Twitter, and in some cases donating their accounts. As Nancy Baym also pointed out, other artists like Sufjan Stevens simply never used social media to begin with.

So the question becomes: do all bands really need to be using social media?

Music Should Always Come First

“Focus on the music and the show, the rest is secondary.” – Bob Lefsetz

At the end of the day, your music is what’s most important. In an age where there are so many other bands out there, what truly stands out is great music. So if your band is just starting out, should you be spending a lot of time on social media trying to gain new fans? Could that time be better spent writing, rehearsing, and recording? Especially when you consider that most emerging musicians work day jobs and their time is limited to begin with, where should that limited amount of time be spent? Social media might not be the answer.

Should Bands Give Up Social Media Completely?

But should bands give up social media completely? I think it comes down to personal choice and what’s right for your own career. If you find that being on social media is hurting your creative output or taking time away from rehearsals, then you might want to scale back. Moderation is key. Or, you can simply choose to hold-off using social media until you feel that your music is truly ready to promote to the public. As John Mayer told the audience at Berklee:

“This is not a time to promote yourself. It doesn’t matter. This is the time to get your stuff together. Promotion can be like that. You can have promotion in 30 seconds if your stuff is good.”

So the next time a band tells me that they’re not going to use social media, I’m not going to react as if they just told me they killed a unicorn. If they feel that social media is not right for them at this point in their career, then I think that’s totally valid.

Do you find that too much time spent on social media hurts your creativity? Please leave your comments below.

Filed Under: Bandzoogle, Cool's Corner Tagged With: , , , ,

5 Common Characteristics of Full-Time Musicians

August 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Paul Cargnello & The Frontline (photo: Alex Steau)

This post was written for Bandzoogle, a website platform for musicians. Bandzoogle is a Montreal-based company, founded and run by musicians, and has every tool a musician needs for their website. Visit Bandzoogle.com to take the tour or get started right away and build your website free.

 

I’ve now been involved in the Montreal music scene in some way for 17 years, and have seen many artists and bands come and go during that time. Now that I’m in my 30’s, I’m starting to truly understand what it takes to “make it” as a musician/band. What do I mean by “make it”? I’m not talking about becoming a “star”, but simply playing music for a living, which is a place where most of my artist friends want to get to. While reflecting on this, I realized that the artists that were finally able to make a living playing music had some common traits:

5 Common Characteristics of Full-Time Musicians

1. They work (very) hard

The artists and bands that I know that are making a full-time living are some of the hardest working people I know. They hustle every day and work long hours, evenings, weekends, whatever it takes to get the job done and bring in the income they need to survive. Most bands dream of quitting their day job to do music full-time, but some don’t realize that it is a job to be a full-time musician, and you might end up working harder and longer than any day job out there, but the reward will be to do what you love for a living.

2. They love what they’re doing

To make it as a full-time musician, you have to eat, breath and sleep music each and every day. In order to do this, you have to truly love what you are doing and be extremely passionate about it. It’s not always going to be glamorous, and most often it’s going to be a lot of hard work. When you’re on tour for weeks at a time, driving long hours cramped in a van, sleeping on floors and barely making enough money to eat, you really need to love what you’re doing to get through those tough experiences and breakthrough to the other side when the money does start to come in.

3. It’s not about the money

Speaking of money, I don’t know a single full-time artist that is playing music simply for the money. They have a passion for writing/performing/recording music, and they take their art and their craft seriously. It’s all they know and it’s all they want to do. Money is secondary, and when it comes, it’s simply a by-product of the work they are putting in.

Don’t get me wrong, although it’s not about the money for these artists, they do have a business sense, which is extremely important. They know how to manage their finances and put a value to the work they are doing.

4. They have support

Being a DIY artist doesn’t mean you have to or should do it all on your own. Derek Sivers, the Founder of CD Baby, wrote a great blog post talking about this subject: http://sivers.org/diy

Essentially, Derek says that DIY shouldn’t mean Do-It-ALL-Yourself, but instead should mean Decide-It-Yourself. This is so true, and all the artists I know who are making a full-time living have some kind of support team in place, either a manager, agent, small label or assistant to help them with their career.

They didn’t necessarily start out with these people in place, but over time they developed a team to help them manage their careers. In some cases they are life partners, sometimes close friends, but more often it’s a professional manager and/or agent who got on board once they reached a certain level in their career development.

5. They don’t give up

And last but not least, they simply don’t give up. I can’t tell you how many artists and bands I’ve known that after 1 or 2 albums they simply pack it in because they didn’t “make it”. This especially seems to happen after a few tours. Being on the road can be a difficult experience for most people, which goes back to having to really love what you’re doing to get through those moments.

The artists I know that are now making a living full-time from their music just stuck to it, through thick and thin. A gig falls through? They find another one. A band member quits? They replace them. They just keep going no matter what obstacles they have in front of them. This is all they know, and they don’t make any back-up plans.

One final thing I’ll say on this subject is that it often took these artists years to get to the point of making a full-time living from music, usually 7-10 years. Most “overnight successes” are years in the making, and nowhere is this truer than in the music industry.

Remember, The Beatles spent years performing 8-hour sets, 7 days a week in Germany before breaking into the American market.

Author Malcolm Gladwell talks about this story and the “10,000 Hour Rule” in his book The Outliers. Here’s a video describing the 10,000 Hour Rule:

Another example of the 10,000 Hour Rule in the music industry, this time about Fleetwood Mac:

Filed Under: Bandzoogle, Cool's Corner