Take what you can get within the Golden Age of Live Music.
I played a show on Saturday night, a split set between solo acoustic and full band back at a cafe I have mentioned here before. The owner was very nice, but again, no pay was given nor discussed. I knew that going in but did the gig to prep for recording a new solo acoustic record and to keep the band in touch with the Music. There will be a decent amount of shows coming up in the upcoming months and, while we all love each other dearly as friends, we all need to both rehearse the tunes and do them live, which is where the accidents can raise you shine brighter or dig a deeper pit of embarrassment. Like anything else, you either use it or lose it.
Most every book ever written about a life in the creative arts is about someone who is successful. This makes sense on a very practical level as who would you rather read about: The Life and Times of Picasso or The Life and Times of Bob Slogum? Yeah, there you have it. All narratives have the underlying thread that, no matter how lousy the point in the narrative, the narrative wins in the end by the simple fact that you are reading their book. So, if some former rock god tells you that they wound up playing in a cafe for six people, this is most likely after their exile from the spectacular kingdom of stardom, money, sex, and drugs and, by the mere architecture of the narrative, a stop on the way back into the kingdom via a different route. This return is executed by having made all the connections in their glory days and accessing them again in hopes of finding one thread back into the maze.
This is where that beloved chestnut of "doing it because you love to do it" kinda hits a snag. Performance is, by definition is when an artist or artists performs for another person or group of people. If this situation lacks an audience, it is called a "rehearsal" and is not the same thing. Music is unique as it can be done in both performance and in private and still excel. The act of writing words is a private matter and, judging by the content of the internet, everybody and their hamster is now a writer of some blog or book or screenplay. You never have to leave your room to get published.
Strangely, the same thing is now true for Music, although the noose got tied with the computer as one need not perform Music live to put on a live show. The dubstep phenom Skrillex (Sonny John Moore) goes onstage with no more than a thumb drive to plug into the laptop provided. People love it and the man has made many many millions at live shows for hundreds of thousands of people without a callous on his fingers nor a node on his vocal chords. Live Music does not even need performance anymore, hence the thousands of lights and other visual tech innovations that make every EDM live show a visual orgasm. And, well, yeah, the drugs help too.....
So, if the Music making the most money live (EDM) is based off of a Music that does not need to be performed while on stage YET is considered "Live", where does that leave us? Sure, the computer could fail and things would still ride that "playing it dangerous" live feel, but does that count? It is a known fact that most live singers who do a full out uber-erotic Zumba class while performing simply lip sync and have done for many many years. Does their aerobics class count as a Music performance? Broadway now has many people lip-syncing to prerecorded tracks because it is physically impossible to hit all those high notes perfectly clear night after night. And, since Broadway is an investment, one must take the safe way and not lose ANY money and keep the people in the over-priced seats happy with a mechanically perfect performance.
I did not grow up in the days of the Golden Age of Live Rock Music. Recently I was at an orientation for a new job and the older men their were talking about all the glory days of the 1960's and 70's and how they used to play. The guy next to me had steady gigs, but he was in a Dave Matthews Tribute Band. Original Music was on nobody's plate.
It seems that the general rule of this place of change rides along the fault line of technology and goes something like this...in reverse order.
Today, Music performed live instruments has been replaced computer based music with very little human performance needed. If there is a human performance, it is normally digitally modified to the mathematical standard of a passable representation of a performance. Computer adjusted performances that could pass as human performances have existed pretty much since the use of the Synclavier Music Synth and Computer in the 1980's. Computer pitch correction for live vocals was possible but very expensive. (1980's and 90's)
Live performance of Music was replaced by the multi-track recorder where separate parts could be layered onto each other with each performance able to be done again and again till the desired quality was attained. The flip side of this was that performers of this Music now had a new standard to go by. You had to sound as good as the recording, the reference point of that the audience would have. This changed the landscape as Musicians had to deliver live performances on a whole new level as the expectations were different. (1960's onward)
Recorded Music in general changed the game. Once the record player got within the price range of the general public, records sold like crazy. People wanted to hear Enrico Caruso sing again and again that they made his 1904 recording the first million selling sound recording ever. The people wanted it and they got it. A few years later, the invention of the radio upped the stakes because now you did not need to own the recording to hear them. On could now be introduced to Music that they would never have been exposed to outside their travels in life.
Go back a few hundred years an you get vocal Music being replaced by the presence of stringed instruments. Technology made the 88 key tuned piano possible in Bach's time.
Keep going back several hundred years and you get the flip from written Music to Oral Tradition and improvised Music. Standardized Music notation was the first recording device, the means by which a piece of Music could be performed again and again with certain regularity. Before that, it was passed down from person to person.
As far as live performance goes, the beginning screw happened with the jukebox. If you have ever heard of the term "Juke Joint" it refers to Jukebox Joint, or a bar where there was a Jukebox instead of live Musicians. This was the big first swipe at live Music as every bar had a live musician in it. Granted these were not all high class establishments, but it was a place for live Music. Eric Satie wrote his most famous pieces, "Trois Gymnopedies" at a bar called "Le Chat Noir" in the Montmartre section of Paris.
When big bands were popular, musicians had plenty of gigs playing everywhere. But this changed with the advent of rock and roll and a small band taking its place. But there was money to be made where the jukebox did not reign. Bands could get gigs and people played around a great deal. You could even make a living at such a thing. Learn those damn tunes as good as the record and get out there!
It was the raising of the drinking age that did in live Music. Without going into the minutia, this was the beginning of Pay-to-Play. Bar owners saw a huge decrease in their revenue and in order to make sure they got their money, they made bands pay money to play their famous places on horrible nights to be sure they got SOME money in even if nobody showed up. In the end, it will always be about the money. Always.
There is still live Music at parties, but there seem to be less parties than there were years ago and if there is live Music, it is normally a DJ. The people throwing the party get to call the shots and if the people love EDM, then so be it.
The age I lived and worked through was in no way, shape, or form "Golden". It was, however, different. Even at my first real show as a solo acoustic artist in New Brunswick at Cafe News, I was given some money for the performance. Something. I think it was $25.. But I was learning my way and paying my dues and did not expect much. The road ahead was expected to be without much pay, but I knew that and it was my time for learning how to do this craft of performing and to learn more about Music in one show in San Francisco or Malta than I would via months of rehearsal alone in a room. Gigs were auditions for the next level, hoping Fate would arrive and transport one past the velvet ropes and onto the next evolutionary stage.
There were more places to play than there were now, though it was always a thorn in the eye to get a gig and everyone expected to have me bring people. Club owners sucked and all of us hoped that it would all be part of "paying our dues" till we got to the Promised land of some sort of deal. But one by one the clubs closed up and live original Music here in Jersey became a mockery of what it once was to the point right now where I cannot even find an affordable place to rent out to put on a show with friends.
And, yet, this is a Golden Age in may ways. There are 7 year-olds playing guitar solos that boggle the mind. Hundreds of thousands of people making Music and posting it. Instruments are more affordable and PA systems, when not run by a brain damaged troglodyte, sound better. People have access to more learning tools than before. The stakes have been raised because you have to be better than what can be seen on Youtube or whatever. And PLEASE let me now forget about recording gear! Digital has changed the paradigm. What would have cost a mortgage back in the day is now either an app or can be bootlegged for free onto a laptop costing less than the cost of a new sofa. Microphone technology has also made home recording painfully easy and of decent quality.
But will someone's home recording done on an iPad or laptop sound as good as the Who's "Who's Next?" or Queen's "A Night at the Opera"? No. This Golden Age has its limits, as does every Golden Age. So, within this Golden Age, take what you can get.
And may you have better luck than me....
Monday, April 14, 2014
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Your Hopes and Dreams: The Industry Standard Part 2 (Finally someone else said it...)
According to Wikipedia:
A hobby is a regular activity or interest that is undertaken for pleasure, typically done during one's leisure time.
Okey dokey pokey. But what about if you have a regular activity that is done for pleasure but it is also your passion? And your uncompromising soul screams to be able to make a living at it, as others have done? And you have seen these people in real life! Most of the people that have become well known for their artistic craft have had day jobs at some point and they found pleasure in what they were doing off the clock. So what is the tipping point?
Today in the New York Times, Tim Kreider FINALLY said what I have been talking about for the past forever. Here is a link to his article that hits it on the head:
Slaves of the Internet, Unite!
In his great article, he focused more on the publication of words than on Music, though he touched on it for a bit, and what he did he got right. But let's go more into that realm of Music, shall we?
Last night I attended a concert of four cover bands at a bar in Jersey City, NJ. A beloved friend was playing bass in a Pixies cover band and they, along with all the other bands, really did a great job. AND, the place was PACKED! I mean wall to wall flesh, and this sea of costumed bar revelers adored the bands and really got into the Music. It was wonderful to watch.
BUT, was anybody in any band paid? No. My friend on bass who was driving home gave me one of her "free drink tickets" that was her "payment." When I went to the bar to use it, I was only allowed to get the worst beers or a very restricted selection of the bottom shelf garbage booze. WHAT? Not only were the musicians given token compensation for their hours and hours of prep work and performance, but it was a restricted compensation, only allowing swill to be given. The worst part was that none of the Musicians cared they were being treated like this. None.
I understand the fact that it can be economically difficult to pay a band decent compensation when it is a bad night at the establishment, but that is not the band's fault. They are providing a service. Do you think the chef at a restaurant does not get paid when things are slow for a night? Nope. It is not the band's responsibility to bring people to the place they perform. Period. If they suck as musicians, then they should not be asked back. But, as independent contractors, they are paid to play music. Period. End of argument.
But last night was the soul crusher. This bar was making tons and tons of money. If they had even paid the bands SOMETHING, they still would have come away with a good amount of profit. But no. They gave the bands free tickets for garbage booze when they were rolling in the cash.
And please allow me to state that, for all of their idealism, actual and theoretical, musicians respond to money. Very well, actually. James Brown had one of the best bands in the world. Why? Well, one reason was because he used to fine each musician for every time they made a mistake onstage. The Pavlovian Godfather of Soul knew what he was doing.
It is here that you may be saying that every musician gets hooked into the life they lead by swallowing the four pronged hook of Rock and Roll Mythology: "A life in Music will grant me what my heroes have: Money, Fame, Drugs, and Sex in unlimited quantities." If this fails, then they get what they deserve. But what do they deserve?
As stated in Mr. Kreider's article, no other occupation runs on these expectations of production of a product having no value. And please allow me to state that any musician you see up on a stage that is doing what they do well has spent hundreds if not thousands of hours at their craft, and perhaps over a hundred thousand dollars and their youth getting good at their instrument. With the news media buzzing like a cloud of angry cicadas on Red Bull about health care, please take one second to remember that no doctor will do surgery for free, no pharmacist will allow you to get a prescription of cash value for free and no emergency room will treat you for free. If you do not pay,the bill will just get passed along the chain to others that do pay while all the workers in the chain do not miss a paycheck. Someone is paying, even if you are not.
As stated in Part One of this section, recorded Music has little to no value to the consumer. The only place where money is to be made is in movies, commercials, and television. All the streaming websites that people devour pay literally pennies per play. Calculate how many plays it would take of one song to pay one month's rent. Now look in the mirror and realize you are not Justin Timberlake. And now realize that you are screwed.
Placement in movies and commercials and television can be beneficial, but the bulk of what is bought is not Music made by the artist for the joy of it. It is Music made to fit a specific concept the producers have, which 90% of the time is a rip off of a popular song they cannot afford to pay for; so they hire some schlub to write a knock off of something similar, pay them next to nothing, make the writer hand over all rights to the Music, and send them on their way to make more sausage made of sounds.
There was a golden age of guitar based rock Music and that has passed, with the first ring from the death bell coming at the raising of the drinking age from 18 to 21. The next chime came with quality DJ's coming in and charging less, as well as insurance companies charging more for policies that catered to live Music. Next came digital file sharing and finally the access to free recording devices that could, regardless of the lack of ability or talent from the performer, digitally manipulate performances into listenable pieces of organized sound. With a commodity having no scarcity and no cost of production combined with a never ending desire of consumption we are now here. But where is here?
I am not going to say that all new Music sucks. That is insane as I personally know people with inspiring talent. I am not going to say that nobody goes to live shows because I just played a show opening for and playing with the poet Buddy Wakefield and the room, while small, was packed. But I will say this: the value placed upon Music has, by all quantitative measures, reached a low point that nobody had seen coming. The Music companies which are now MULTI MEDIA companies, shall always find a way to turn a buck on sound and visuals. And never ever for a damned second ever believe that they are hurting for money. They are simply not as wealthy as they used to be, but the executives are still, and always shall be, wealthy.
No medium can truly grow when the makers of it are not given some affirmation of its value by the outside world. The makers feel disillusioned and confused, believing with everything they have that they have done great work but having nobody willing to pay for it. Please remember that this equation did not work out very well for Van Gogh. Read his letters and see how the fact that nobody would care at all about what he did led him to the depths of despair.
All creative people need time to learn their craft and this means by doing it. But it should not mean doing it for free! For a lesser rate, perhaps, but not free. If one gets paid for a job well done, one is more likely to do a better job the next time. Money is nice, ya' know? But this new system has made every musician and writer, regardless of experience and sacrifice, equal. And what is that equality?
I just played a show at a coffee house and the owner has been wonderful to me and my band. The place is clean and warm and a joy to play at. However, they pay me and the band nothing. It was never even discussed. I will play there again soon to get ready to record my solo acoustic album, as I find nothing is a better editor of songs than doing them live. But in the end, I will be doing the two hours of set up, two hours of performance, and one hour of tear down simply to be better at documenting my compositions this December when I record them. The owner of the establishment will most likely thank me for my performance, but I simply was a live iPod for an evening. My presence has no real value to him. He may LOVE my band, for which I am very grateful, but there is no exchange of compensation.
A life in creativity is never easy for the majority of the players and I doubt it will ever get any better. The saying goes that you get nothing for nothing.
There you have it, the new artistic equality of the digital age.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ADDENDUM: I have just found out that the concert that night where my friend played bass and got swill for drinks was actually a benefit concert for the local arts association, one I know very well and deeply support. However, I had NO idea that it was a benefit because nobody announced it was a benefit, it was in no way obvious on the flier that it was a benefit, nobody from the association stated at the beginning of the night at the bar that it was for their cause, and there was no place to give additional contributions for the cause which many people would have.
I have put on many benefit concerts in my lifetime and I have always tried to treat the musicians who gave of their time with the utmost respect. And, it is ALWAYS obvious to everyone attending that it is a benefit for some cause. If you wish to make the argument that none of the bands were getting paid anyway then I counter that proposal with the following:
Giving away your time and talent for a cause does not mean being disrespected or used.
And even if we take away all reimbursement for all the musicians on stage that night stating that it went to a greater good, I present this: one of the musicians in one of the bands helped with the complicated logistics of the night (there was another stage across town), stayed there all day to make sure everything worked out AND supplied the entire back line for the evening (the drums, the bass and guitar amps). At the end of the night, for all that, he was given by the sound guy, by a fellow musical worker, the pay for well over 24 hours of work and the use of $1000 of musical gear.......................................................................................................
$50.
I rest my case.
A hobby is a regular activity or interest that is undertaken for pleasure, typically done during one's leisure time.
Okey dokey pokey. But what about if you have a regular activity that is done for pleasure but it is also your passion? And your uncompromising soul screams to be able to make a living at it, as others have done? And you have seen these people in real life! Most of the people that have become well known for their artistic craft have had day jobs at some point and they found pleasure in what they were doing off the clock. So what is the tipping point?
Today in the New York Times, Tim Kreider FINALLY said what I have been talking about for the past forever. Here is a link to his article that hits it on the head:
Slaves of the Internet, Unite!
In his great article, he focused more on the publication of words than on Music, though he touched on it for a bit, and what he did he got right. But let's go more into that realm of Music, shall we?
Last night I attended a concert of four cover bands at a bar in Jersey City, NJ. A beloved friend was playing bass in a Pixies cover band and they, along with all the other bands, really did a great job. AND, the place was PACKED! I mean wall to wall flesh, and this sea of costumed bar revelers adored the bands and really got into the Music. It was wonderful to watch.
BUT, was anybody in any band paid? No. My friend on bass who was driving home gave me one of her "free drink tickets" that was her "payment." When I went to the bar to use it, I was only allowed to get the worst beers or a very restricted selection of the bottom shelf garbage booze. WHAT? Not only were the musicians given token compensation for their hours and hours of prep work and performance, but it was a restricted compensation, only allowing swill to be given. The worst part was that none of the Musicians cared they were being treated like this. None.
I understand the fact that it can be economically difficult to pay a band decent compensation when it is a bad night at the establishment, but that is not the band's fault. They are providing a service. Do you think the chef at a restaurant does not get paid when things are slow for a night? Nope. It is not the band's responsibility to bring people to the place they perform. Period. If they suck as musicians, then they should not be asked back. But, as independent contractors, they are paid to play music. Period. End of argument.
But last night was the soul crusher. This bar was making tons and tons of money. If they had even paid the bands SOMETHING, they still would have come away with a good amount of profit. But no. They gave the bands free tickets for garbage booze when they were rolling in the cash.
And please allow me to state that, for all of their idealism, actual and theoretical, musicians respond to money. Very well, actually. James Brown had one of the best bands in the world. Why? Well, one reason was because he used to fine each musician for every time they made a mistake onstage. The Pavlovian Godfather of Soul knew what he was doing.
It is here that you may be saying that every musician gets hooked into the life they lead by swallowing the four pronged hook of Rock and Roll Mythology: "A life in Music will grant me what my heroes have: Money, Fame, Drugs, and Sex in unlimited quantities." If this fails, then they get what they deserve. But what do they deserve?
As stated in Mr. Kreider's article, no other occupation runs on these expectations of production of a product having no value. And please allow me to state that any musician you see up on a stage that is doing what they do well has spent hundreds if not thousands of hours at their craft, and perhaps over a hundred thousand dollars and their youth getting good at their instrument. With the news media buzzing like a cloud of angry cicadas on Red Bull about health care, please take one second to remember that no doctor will do surgery for free, no pharmacist will allow you to get a prescription of cash value for free and no emergency room will treat you for free. If you do not pay,the bill will just get passed along the chain to others that do pay while all the workers in the chain do not miss a paycheck. Someone is paying, even if you are not.
As stated in Part One of this section, recorded Music has little to no value to the consumer. The only place where money is to be made is in movies, commercials, and television. All the streaming websites that people devour pay literally pennies per play. Calculate how many plays it would take of one song to pay one month's rent. Now look in the mirror and realize you are not Justin Timberlake. And now realize that you are screwed.
Placement in movies and commercials and television can be beneficial, but the bulk of what is bought is not Music made by the artist for the joy of it. It is Music made to fit a specific concept the producers have, which 90% of the time is a rip off of a popular song they cannot afford to pay for; so they hire some schlub to write a knock off of something similar, pay them next to nothing, make the writer hand over all rights to the Music, and send them on their way to make more sausage made of sounds.
There was a golden age of guitar based rock Music and that has passed, with the first ring from the death bell coming at the raising of the drinking age from 18 to 21. The next chime came with quality DJ's coming in and charging less, as well as insurance companies charging more for policies that catered to live Music. Next came digital file sharing and finally the access to free recording devices that could, regardless of the lack of ability or talent from the performer, digitally manipulate performances into listenable pieces of organized sound. With a commodity having no scarcity and no cost of production combined with a never ending desire of consumption we are now here. But where is here?
I am not going to say that all new Music sucks. That is insane as I personally know people with inspiring talent. I am not going to say that nobody goes to live shows because I just played a show opening for and playing with the poet Buddy Wakefield and the room, while small, was packed. But I will say this: the value placed upon Music has, by all quantitative measures, reached a low point that nobody had seen coming. The Music companies which are now MULTI MEDIA companies, shall always find a way to turn a buck on sound and visuals. And never ever for a damned second ever believe that they are hurting for money. They are simply not as wealthy as they used to be, but the executives are still, and always shall be, wealthy.
No medium can truly grow when the makers of it are not given some affirmation of its value by the outside world. The makers feel disillusioned and confused, believing with everything they have that they have done great work but having nobody willing to pay for it. Please remember that this equation did not work out very well for Van Gogh. Read his letters and see how the fact that nobody would care at all about what he did led him to the depths of despair.
All creative people need time to learn their craft and this means by doing it. But it should not mean doing it for free! For a lesser rate, perhaps, but not free. If one gets paid for a job well done, one is more likely to do a better job the next time. Money is nice, ya' know? But this new system has made every musician and writer, regardless of experience and sacrifice, equal. And what is that equality?
I just played a show at a coffee house and the owner has been wonderful to me and my band. The place is clean and warm and a joy to play at. However, they pay me and the band nothing. It was never even discussed. I will play there again soon to get ready to record my solo acoustic album, as I find nothing is a better editor of songs than doing them live. But in the end, I will be doing the two hours of set up, two hours of performance, and one hour of tear down simply to be better at documenting my compositions this December when I record them. The owner of the establishment will most likely thank me for my performance, but I simply was a live iPod for an evening. My presence has no real value to him. He may LOVE my band, for which I am very grateful, but there is no exchange of compensation.
A life in creativity is never easy for the majority of the players and I doubt it will ever get any better. The saying goes that you get nothing for nothing.
There you have it, the new artistic equality of the digital age.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ADDENDUM: I have just found out that the concert that night where my friend played bass and got swill for drinks was actually a benefit concert for the local arts association, one I know very well and deeply support. However, I had NO idea that it was a benefit because nobody announced it was a benefit, it was in no way obvious on the flier that it was a benefit, nobody from the association stated at the beginning of the night at the bar that it was for their cause, and there was no place to give additional contributions for the cause which many people would have.
I have put on many benefit concerts in my lifetime and I have always tried to treat the musicians who gave of their time with the utmost respect. And, it is ALWAYS obvious to everyone attending that it is a benefit for some cause. If you wish to make the argument that none of the bands were getting paid anyway then I counter that proposal with the following:
Giving away your time and talent for a cause does not mean being disrespected or used.
And even if we take away all reimbursement for all the musicians on stage that night stating that it went to a greater good, I present this: one of the musicians in one of the bands helped with the complicated logistics of the night (there was another stage across town), stayed there all day to make sure everything worked out AND supplied the entire back line for the evening (the drums, the bass and guitar amps). At the end of the night, for all that, he was given by the sound guy, by a fellow musical worker, the pay for well over 24 hours of work and the use of $1000 of musical gear.......................................................................................................
$50.
I rest my case.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Your Hopes and Dreams: The Industry Standard (Part 1)
I am (hopefully) about to start recording my new solo acoustic album due to the prodding of some close friends who, for whatever reason, really love that part of my work. But each time I am about to go downstairs and set up the mics and get this thing going, one question keeps coming up, "Why?"
While there are some dark practical reasons to get it completed, there are no real valuable answers in the either which I shall tackle here in due time
Let me begin by stating a few personal observations about the world of being a musician in the 21st century:
TO BEGIN: Basic economic concept: The value of a product depends upon the desirability and scarcity of a product.
As has been stated literally thousands and thousands of times before, the digital age has made just about anyone able to record/have access to sounds and then edit it into some sort of shape at a quality, speed, and cost that only a decade ago was only dreamed of. The problem is that the unholy alliance of bootlegged software and bootlegged music has made matters exponentially worse. It has not made the playing field level, it has made it a vortex.
We seem to be at a point where the value of recorded music is approximating zero while the desire for music seems to be at an all time high, both points of which are a result of technology. Never before in the relatively short history of recorded music have we been able to carry with us so much music for our personal consumption. I say this only speaking of the personal storage devices. Once the Digital Cloud becomes the norm, all bets are off, the game is over as access to almost anything will be available to anyone with the right technology that will only come down in price over time. I find this to be both depressing and a tad scary for every creative thinking person out there.
Years ago, only the few record/CD collectors of deep obsession could have collected enough recorded music as to outweigh the amount of time they would have in their theoretical lifespan to listen to it. Now, that is commonplace. People I know download complete catalogs of artists in no time at all from bit torrent sites. years and years worth of an artist's work collected for free within less time than it takes to heat a Pop Tart. See the problem?
(I am no expert on this, so please feel free to consult the work of John Berger and the like, but here goes...)
The history of Music (using the definition of- rhythm, sonority, and silence) is, at the very least, as old as the human race. The female voice is (approximately) one octave above that of the male and the child's voice an octave above that. Any melody sung by the three at the same time would be within that octave "harmony". 2000 B.C. is where the first music notation starts and it takes about 3900 years before the recording of music starts. With sheet music/notation, the best one can get is an interpretation of what the original composition sounded like. With the recording, one can hear exactly how the performance sounded.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, now thanks to the digital age, the triumph of mathematical perfection, and cost effectiveness over human inconsistency, the reality of what is consumed as music has been bent at a right angle. The performer of the music has become merely the clay of the product, not the finished stone. And to all my recording brethren out there, allow me to state the following: WE ARE ALL GUILTY! I have used pitch correction tools to edit the living hell out of my own and others performances. Why? Speaking only for myself, two words: TIME and MONEY. It was cheaper for me to have the under rehearsed singer do a mediocre job and edit it later than to spend weeks getting it right when there was a cheap option available that has become the industry standard.
Oh yes, the "Industry Standard".
99.9% of all music heard these days is computer corrected. The artificial has replaced the human as the standard. No, really. Pop musicians (which means "popular" which means "consumed and accepted by the masses") either are singing along to pre-recorded back-up tracks live or are being auto-tuned when they perform live. The standard is no longer analogue, but digital. Human performance is no longer acceptable.
In the documentary "Sound City" all of what I am talking about is played out and discussed by those who made their career within the time of analogue gear. It is an amazing documentary about how digital technology transformed the art of recording music. I cannot recommend it enough to everyone who cares.
One thing I found stunning was about how, in the old days, the goal was to find "The magic take", the performance where you get "lightening in a bottle". You see a young Tom Petty go bonkers in some home footage after doing a song over two dozen times (or something like that). Even better is Dave Grohl talking about the recording of Nevermind, which was done at that studio and how he loathed using a click track to record the song "Lithium". While there were overdubs, the music was recorded by human beings who could do the performance. This is the former generation.
I asked a high school age guitarist this past week about recording his music, as well as that of other bands. He says he has never used any whole takes and did not record more than one instrument at a time. Even then, he just edited the takes to make the finished piece. This is the new generation.
If something is constructed by a machine to the point of mathematical perfection, can it exist as a piece of art made by a human? Is there a balance? Well, sure. I am not anti-synth or anti-Protools. My favorite example is Trent Reznor who has been using computers to make his music since the beginning of his career as NIN. The man uses a computer to make music and it is stunning.
Maybe it is all in the vocals?
The human being reacts most strongly to another human being. The voice, even without language (or with pseudo-language as in the case with Sigur Ross), the ear perks up and finds the human connection.. (I think the sales of music with voice/vocals as compared to instrumentals will back me up on this.) And how many instrumentalists can you say you can pick out by ear after one listening? Eddie Van Halen, Michael Hedges, and Jeff Beck come to mind about having a truly unique tone and there are others. But vocalists have a way of just putting a tractor beam on the soul.
Adele comes to mind here. When she opens her mouth, God enters the room. Look at the video to her Bob Dylan cover of "Make You Feel My Love". She does not lip-sync the video, she actually SINGS in the video. I have been blessed to know people who could and can do the same. One of those people, Steve Hajdu-Nemeth was in my bad The Post-Modern Tribe until he passed away from cancer. Susan Shaughnessy is another who has shared the stage with me who can do the same thing. Mary Ann Wilson too. And there are others. Like I said, I am one blessed man.
Which leads me to this beautiful topic: So if I were to record the acoustic album, spend hours and hours of my life alone in my studio then spend about a thousand dollars mixing and mastering it to a professional level,..... then what?
Don't everyone yell at once....
While there are some dark practical reasons to get it completed, there are no real valuable answers in the either which I shall tackle here in due time
Let me begin by stating a few personal observations about the world of being a musician in the 21st century:
TO BEGIN: Basic economic concept: The value of a product depends upon the desirability and scarcity of a product.
As has been stated literally thousands and thousands of times before, the digital age has made just about anyone able to record/have access to sounds and then edit it into some sort of shape at a quality, speed, and cost that only a decade ago was only dreamed of. The problem is that the unholy alliance of bootlegged software and bootlegged music has made matters exponentially worse. It has not made the playing field level, it has made it a vortex.
We seem to be at a point where the value of recorded music is approximating zero while the desire for music seems to be at an all time high, both points of which are a result of technology. Never before in the relatively short history of recorded music have we been able to carry with us so much music for our personal consumption. I say this only speaking of the personal storage devices. Once the Digital Cloud becomes the norm, all bets are off, the game is over as access to almost anything will be available to anyone with the right technology that will only come down in price over time. I find this to be both depressing and a tad scary for every creative thinking person out there.
Years ago, only the few record/CD collectors of deep obsession could have collected enough recorded music as to outweigh the amount of time they would have in their theoretical lifespan to listen to it. Now, that is commonplace. People I know download complete catalogs of artists in no time at all from bit torrent sites. years and years worth of an artist's work collected for free within less time than it takes to heat a Pop Tart. See the problem?
(I am no expert on this, so please feel free to consult the work of John Berger and the like, but here goes...)
The history of Music (using the definition of- rhythm, sonority, and silence) is, at the very least, as old as the human race. The female voice is (approximately) one octave above that of the male and the child's voice an octave above that. Any melody sung by the three at the same time would be within that octave "harmony". 2000 B.C. is where the first music notation starts and it takes about 3900 years before the recording of music starts. With sheet music/notation, the best one can get is an interpretation of what the original composition sounded like. With the recording, one can hear exactly how the performance sounded.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, now thanks to the digital age, the triumph of mathematical perfection, and cost effectiveness over human inconsistency, the reality of what is consumed as music has been bent at a right angle. The performer of the music has become merely the clay of the product, not the finished stone. And to all my recording brethren out there, allow me to state the following: WE ARE ALL GUILTY! I have used pitch correction tools to edit the living hell out of my own and others performances. Why? Speaking only for myself, two words: TIME and MONEY. It was cheaper for me to have the under rehearsed singer do a mediocre job and edit it later than to spend weeks getting it right when there was a cheap option available that has become the industry standard.
Oh yes, the "Industry Standard".
99.9% of all music heard these days is computer corrected. The artificial has replaced the human as the standard. No, really. Pop musicians (which means "popular" which means "consumed and accepted by the masses") either are singing along to pre-recorded back-up tracks live or are being auto-tuned when they perform live. The standard is no longer analogue, but digital. Human performance is no longer acceptable.
In the documentary "Sound City" all of what I am talking about is played out and discussed by those who made their career within the time of analogue gear. It is an amazing documentary about how digital technology transformed the art of recording music. I cannot recommend it enough to everyone who cares.
One thing I found stunning was about how, in the old days, the goal was to find "The magic take", the performance where you get "lightening in a bottle". You see a young Tom Petty go bonkers in some home footage after doing a song over two dozen times (or something like that). Even better is Dave Grohl talking about the recording of Nevermind, which was done at that studio and how he loathed using a click track to record the song "Lithium". While there were overdubs, the music was recorded by human beings who could do the performance. This is the former generation.
I asked a high school age guitarist this past week about recording his music, as well as that of other bands. He says he has never used any whole takes and did not record more than one instrument at a time. Even then, he just edited the takes to make the finished piece. This is the new generation.
If something is constructed by a machine to the point of mathematical perfection, can it exist as a piece of art made by a human? Is there a balance? Well, sure. I am not anti-synth or anti-Protools. My favorite example is Trent Reznor who has been using computers to make his music since the beginning of his career as NIN. The man uses a computer to make music and it is stunning.
Maybe it is all in the vocals?
The human being reacts most strongly to another human being. The voice, even without language (or with pseudo-language as in the case with Sigur Ross), the ear perks up and finds the human connection.. (I think the sales of music with voice/vocals as compared to instrumentals will back me up on this.) And how many instrumentalists can you say you can pick out by ear after one listening? Eddie Van Halen, Michael Hedges, and Jeff Beck come to mind about having a truly unique tone and there are others. But vocalists have a way of just putting a tractor beam on the soul.
Adele comes to mind here. When she opens her mouth, God enters the room. Look at the video to her Bob Dylan cover of "Make You Feel My Love". She does not lip-sync the video, she actually SINGS in the video. I have been blessed to know people who could and can do the same. One of those people, Steve Hajdu-Nemeth was in my bad The Post-Modern Tribe until he passed away from cancer. Susan Shaughnessy is another who has shared the stage with me who can do the same thing. Mary Ann Wilson too. And there are others. Like I said, I am one blessed man.
Which leads me to this beautiful topic: So if I were to record the acoustic album, spend hours and hours of my life alone in my studio then spend about a thousand dollars mixing and mastering it to a professional level,..... then what?
Don't everyone yell at once....
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
"Why Don't You Teach Music in Schools?" (or How I Haven't Been able to Live with Others)
Two (or more) Masters and the Pesky Problem of Physics
"Why don't you get a job teaching music in schools? You're a great teacher and you could do your Music there and have a steady paycheck."
If I hear this statement, or a variation on it, one more time, I may snap and go Fed Ex on someone. (I say Fed Ex because I am not sure, when you read this, if the Postal Service will still be in business.) More times than a freshman girl gets offered a Long Island Iced Tea at a frat party, I have been told by people that I, a guitarist and composer by training and vocation, should get a job as a teacher in the bureaucratic machine of the public school system. All of these people, so open to guiding my soul have one thing in common: NONE OF THEM ARE MUSIC TEACHERS WITHIN THE BUREAUCRATIC GRINDER OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM! NONE! ZERO! THE VOID!
I have met many a high school and college music teacher, and many of them are wonderful people, more patient and kind than I could ever be even if I were given a daily regime of Xanax and absinthe. They work hard and have to put up with the living hell of attempting to have a beautiful garden grow within the Psychological Super Fund site of the contemporary childhood/adolescent life.
Every one of them seems to have a look of longing and weariness. When I tell them I teach independently and have put out six albums and am continually writing, their eyes grow cloudy. They are all people who want to compose their own magnum opus but cannot find the time due to the insane demands that their career takes upon them. If I could translate that look in their eyes into eyes it would say one thing, "One day. Yes, one day I WILL write that piece, that concerto, that album. Maybe he has...... but I have health benefits! AND PAID VACATION! THAT IS JUST AS GOOD AS WHAT HE HAS!"
Here's the catch,:I STILL haven't written my magnum opus and I do not have any paid days off!
The dream goal of the independent artist who is able to do whatever they want whenever they want does exist, but has the rarity of say, something between the number of quality Christian Slater films and the number of left handed unicorns. Almost all the arts have the strange default scheme where the artist, unable to get enough money from simply creating, must teach. The less commercially successful but more respected the writer, the better the odds that they will be stuck with making lesson plans. J K Rowling and Erika Leonard will never set foot in a teachers lounge, for professional reasons at least. Trust me.
There is nothing wrong with teaching. It is, at best, one of the noblest professions out there. The presence of some teachers has changed the course of my life and help me realize what my potential I had. Some were horrible. Some were forgettable, but the ones that resonated with me could never be replaced or replicated. The point here is that only one teacher I had, the late great Noel DaCosta, did not seen to complain about his lack of time to write. I could see that he wished he had more time, but he was such a generous soul and dedicated teacher that he just wrote when he could. The other teacher, James Oestereich, is finally starting his first album of original music after decades of composing and performing his own scores for theater over the past three decades. The fact that he himself is finally working on his first "solo" recording also shows that there is never enough time for anyone.
Annnnnnnnd then there is the story of minimalist composer Philip Glass who worked blue collar day jobs such as taxi driver and furniture mover for many years. How long did he have to do this work? The true legend of him driving a cab after the debut in November 1996 of his influential opera "Einstein on the Beach" hits the mark. He made time to write when he could until he could live of commissions and royalties.
At the end of the equation, composition becomes a job like any other. You have deadlines to meet and egos to stroke and immature people with your paycheck that can make you feel like a circus bear being led around by a string and conductors who feel they know the piece better than you and the wonderful wonderful musicians who feel your music is beneath them and are only doing it for the paycheck and so on and so on. It can become a disgusting process of which I have only given you the barest of details. (If you care to see how getting grant money is, please watch the movie "Fight Club" while drinking Mescal or "Million Dollar Baby" while drinking Tab till you pass out.)
In the same way that a baker cannot wait until the perfect birthday cake is made, the working composer cannot wait until something is "perfect". Normally there is a due date where, by the time it arrives, you have cursed God's Holy name and redden your garments, your soul so broken by self doubt and sleep deprivation that you are ready to work changing oil rather than have to do this all over again and IT IS ALMOST READY! ALMOST! JUST ONE MORE DAY! HOUR! MINUTE! SO CLOSE!
SO!
DAMN!
CLOSE!
Duke Ellington said, "Without a deadline, baby, I wouldn't do nothing." So there you go.
The 20th century composer Charles Ives should stand out as an anomaly within all this, but, alas, does not. For the uninitiated, Ives was, to make a very long story short, the owner of a successful insurance firm as well as a composer and church organist. He seemed to be able to juggle all the pieces of a "Normal Life": wife, successful career, children, etc, as well as be a be the composer without compromise. Throughout his life, however, had a series of nervous breakdowns, which his family called "heart attacks". While he had one of his most prolific periods after this, it is interesting to note that he created arguable his most well known piece, "The Unanswered Question", just two years prior. He would wind up having breakdowns many times over the course of his life until finally in 1927 he just stopped composing at the age of 53. "Nothing sounds right." he said to his wife with tears in his eyes. Alas, not even he could keep the balls of a normal life and the Muses in the air.
One of the last patron saints of the art world, the late abstract expressionist Agnes Martin, said that the best job for an artist is a dishwasher because it takes none of your creative soul away in the process. She was not taking in theory, she WAS a dishwasher for some time as well as a teacher and the keeper other jobs. When she had enough money to do nothing but paint, that was what she did.
I had come to this conclusion years ago but nobody believed me. I spent twelve years working as a landscaper at a cemetery and it was the best job I could have imagined. (Well, almost. My homophobic, racist, anti-Semitic, and all around evil boss for seven years of it tended to make it a tad rough.) The work itself was physically taxing, but mentally and emotionally it was an open slate. I even wrote a rock opera in my head over the course of a season that wound up becoming the completed work, "After the Valentines" with my band The Post-Modern Tribe. My body was being molded by the Spring, Summer, and Winters of New Jersey, but my mind was in an entirely different world.
I have been a private guitar teacher for many years now and have seen the decline of the popularity of the guitar as well as the corporate world turn rock music into nostalgia and music education into a hellscape of underpaid off-tour musicians create "bands" with strangers of kids and make them grind through some songs that will please their parents' hopes of some sort of return on their investment. But the corporate model does not care about the individual's unique pros and cons, nor does it care about any individual style. Contemporary non-classical music education will be what dance schools are for little children, only there will be teenagers on stage going through the motions instead of seven year-olds.
You should never go into teaching for the money. Ever. You should go into it to be the best teacher you can be and to emulate those teachers who inspired you. If you go into it for the money, at least two things will almost invariably happen. One, you will think in any way possible to kill the lesson time so you can get paid and care less and less about finding a proper pedagogy and two, you will realize that there is no amount of money you could be paid for having to deal with a student who is a human piece of apathy and you will resent them for the fact that they hold your paycheck and the relationship will turn into Nevada's dependence on gambling.
I have seen immense talent almost ruined by teachers that were so ill qualified and apathetic that they should be taken out and have their fingers broken.
If you have a day job you can tolerate and does not suck your soul out, please just get on with your creativity in your downtime. There is no great moment of clarity other than when you first see that you have your own voice and begin selling your work. If you have a great passion to be creative, remember that the word "Passion" means "to suffer". You cannot get one without the other. And suffering will always be there, regardless of whether or not one aspires to great heights of artistic expression.
If you are a parent, be an amazing and loving parent above all else. Don't make me go off on the DESPERATE COSMIC NEED for better parents rather than better artists!!!! One of the few pictures of Rothko smiling is when he is holding his young child. Same for Bartok and his children.
And to all you caring and teachers out there, I tip my hat to you. Be good and caring teachers because you never know what impact you may have.
Now stop reading this and go make something Beautiful.....
.
I have met many a high school and college music teacher, and many of them are wonderful people, more patient and kind than I could ever be even if I were given a daily regime of Xanax and absinthe. They work hard and have to put up with the living hell of attempting to have a beautiful garden grow within the Psychological Super Fund site of the contemporary childhood/adolescent life.
Every one of them seems to have a look of longing and weariness. When I tell them I teach independently and have put out six albums and am continually writing, their eyes grow cloudy. They are all people who want to compose their own magnum opus but cannot find the time due to the insane demands that their career takes upon them. If I could translate that look in their eyes into eyes it would say one thing, "One day. Yes, one day I WILL write that piece, that concerto, that album. Maybe he has...... but I have health benefits! AND PAID VACATION! THAT IS JUST AS GOOD AS WHAT HE HAS!"
Here's the catch,:I STILL haven't written my magnum opus and I do not have any paid days off!
The dream goal of the independent artist who is able to do whatever they want whenever they want does exist, but has the rarity of say, something between the number of quality Christian Slater films and the number of left handed unicorns. Almost all the arts have the strange default scheme where the artist, unable to get enough money from simply creating, must teach. The less commercially successful but more respected the writer, the better the odds that they will be stuck with making lesson plans. J K Rowling and Erika Leonard will never set foot in a teachers lounge, for professional reasons at least. Trust me.
There is nothing wrong with teaching. It is, at best, one of the noblest professions out there. The presence of some teachers has changed the course of my life and help me realize what my potential I had. Some were horrible. Some were forgettable, but the ones that resonated with me could never be replaced or replicated. The point here is that only one teacher I had, the late great Noel DaCosta, did not seen to complain about his lack of time to write. I could see that he wished he had more time, but he was such a generous soul and dedicated teacher that he just wrote when he could. The other teacher, James Oestereich, is finally starting his first album of original music after decades of composing and performing his own scores for theater over the past three decades. The fact that he himself is finally working on his first "solo" recording also shows that there is never enough time for anyone.
Annnnnnnnd then there is the story of minimalist composer Philip Glass who worked blue collar day jobs such as taxi driver and furniture mover for many years. How long did he have to do this work? The true legend of him driving a cab after the debut in November 1996 of his influential opera "Einstein on the Beach" hits the mark. He made time to write when he could until he could live of commissions and royalties.
At the end of the equation, composition becomes a job like any other. You have deadlines to meet and egos to stroke and immature people with your paycheck that can make you feel like a circus bear being led around by a string and conductors who feel they know the piece better than you and the wonderful wonderful musicians who feel your music is beneath them and are only doing it for the paycheck and so on and so on. It can become a disgusting process of which I have only given you the barest of details. (If you care to see how getting grant money is, please watch the movie "Fight Club" while drinking Mescal or "Million Dollar Baby" while drinking Tab till you pass out.)
In the same way that a baker cannot wait until the perfect birthday cake is made, the working composer cannot wait until something is "perfect". Normally there is a due date where, by the time it arrives, you have cursed God's Holy name and redden your garments, your soul so broken by self doubt and sleep deprivation that you are ready to work changing oil rather than have to do this all over again and IT IS ALMOST READY! ALMOST! JUST ONE MORE DAY! HOUR! MINUTE! SO CLOSE!
SO!
DAMN!
CLOSE!
Duke Ellington said, "Without a deadline, baby, I wouldn't do nothing." So there you go.
The 20th century composer Charles Ives should stand out as an anomaly within all this, but, alas, does not. For the uninitiated, Ives was, to make a very long story short, the owner of a successful insurance firm as well as a composer and church organist. He seemed to be able to juggle all the pieces of a "Normal Life": wife, successful career, children, etc, as well as be a be the composer without compromise. Throughout his life, however, had a series of nervous breakdowns, which his family called "heart attacks". While he had one of his most prolific periods after this, it is interesting to note that he created arguable his most well known piece, "The Unanswered Question", just two years prior. He would wind up having breakdowns many times over the course of his life until finally in 1927 he just stopped composing at the age of 53. "Nothing sounds right." he said to his wife with tears in his eyes. Alas, not even he could keep the balls of a normal life and the Muses in the air.
One of the last patron saints of the art world, the late abstract expressionist Agnes Martin, said that the best job for an artist is a dishwasher because it takes none of your creative soul away in the process. She was not taking in theory, she WAS a dishwasher for some time as well as a teacher and the keeper other jobs. When she had enough money to do nothing but paint, that was what she did.
I had come to this conclusion years ago but nobody believed me. I spent twelve years working as a landscaper at a cemetery and it was the best job I could have imagined. (Well, almost. My homophobic, racist, anti-Semitic, and all around evil boss for seven years of it tended to make it a tad rough.) The work itself was physically taxing, but mentally and emotionally it was an open slate. I even wrote a rock opera in my head over the course of a season that wound up becoming the completed work, "After the Valentines" with my band The Post-Modern Tribe. My body was being molded by the Spring, Summer, and Winters of New Jersey, but my mind was in an entirely different world.
I have been a private guitar teacher for many years now and have seen the decline of the popularity of the guitar as well as the corporate world turn rock music into nostalgia and music education into a hellscape of underpaid off-tour musicians create "bands" with strangers of kids and make them grind through some songs that will please their parents' hopes of some sort of return on their investment. But the corporate model does not care about the individual's unique pros and cons, nor does it care about any individual style. Contemporary non-classical music education will be what dance schools are for little children, only there will be teenagers on stage going through the motions instead of seven year-olds.
You should never go into teaching for the money. Ever. You should go into it to be the best teacher you can be and to emulate those teachers who inspired you. If you go into it for the money, at least two things will almost invariably happen. One, you will think in any way possible to kill the lesson time so you can get paid and care less and less about finding a proper pedagogy and two, you will realize that there is no amount of money you could be paid for having to deal with a student who is a human piece of apathy and you will resent them for the fact that they hold your paycheck and the relationship will turn into Nevada's dependence on gambling.
I have seen immense talent almost ruined by teachers that were so ill qualified and apathetic that they should be taken out and have their fingers broken.
If you have a day job you can tolerate and does not suck your soul out, please just get on with your creativity in your downtime. There is no great moment of clarity other than when you first see that you have your own voice and begin selling your work. If you have a great passion to be creative, remember that the word "Passion" means "to suffer". You cannot get one without the other. And suffering will always be there, regardless of whether or not one aspires to great heights of artistic expression.
If you are a parent, be an amazing and loving parent above all else. Don't make me go off on the DESPERATE COSMIC NEED for better parents rather than better artists!!!! One of the few pictures of Rothko smiling is when he is holding his young child. Same for Bartok and his children.
And to all you caring and teachers out there, I tip my hat to you. Be good and caring teachers because you never know what impact you may have.
Now stop reading this and go make something Beautiful.....
.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
They Shoot Illusions, Don't They?
At some point in this life or the next, if I ever meet the bastard who started the concept that the life of someone trying to live a life based around being originally creative was full of opium, wine, getting laid every day by different and attractive women, and eventual mind bending success, I will do them as much harm as I can. I am not sure if one can cut the legs of of a spirit in the afterlife, but I will certainly try to re-enact as many scenes from "Pulp Fiction" as I can upon them.
On the verge of trying to get a book published, releasing an ambient CD, AND trying to complete a rock-based band album, I have officially had it with the myth that this life is anything but one long uphill stone rolling contest. At the top, just before your stone rolls back down the hill, Sisyphus is there and asks you, "So, um, I got punished for trying to escape the Underworld so I could feel joy and love again. And, what are you doing here?"
Before you can answer, your Visa bill arrives and you realize you have not paid off the the gear you bought to record the album you still have yet to turn a profit on and, THUNK!, the rock goes tumbling down the hill with you wondering how you are going to afford the new computer you need to get your website THAT much better because you are SURE that you will get more paid downloads that way. YOU.ARE.SURE.OF.IT.
This blog is dedicated to the story of those of us who have slugged it out in the swamps and crappy clubs and crappy galleries and twelve seat theaters though we have done everything to move up the existential ladder. But we get out there, step up to the plate, every morning in front of the canvass, the computer, the instrument, the dance studio... WHEREVER and we give it our best shot.
This is my call for the assignation of the stereotype that our life is easy, or perhaps my nailing of my Ninety-Five Theses for the Light of Truth to be seen. Whatever. Here is the life of an artist from the inside.
Here goes.....
On the verge of trying to get a book published, releasing an ambient CD, AND trying to complete a rock-based band album, I have officially had it with the myth that this life is anything but one long uphill stone rolling contest. At the top, just before your stone rolls back down the hill, Sisyphus is there and asks you, "So, um, I got punished for trying to escape the Underworld so I could feel joy and love again. And, what are you doing here?"
Before you can answer, your Visa bill arrives and you realize you have not paid off the the gear you bought to record the album you still have yet to turn a profit on and, THUNK!, the rock goes tumbling down the hill with you wondering how you are going to afford the new computer you need to get your website THAT much better because you are SURE that you will get more paid downloads that way. YOU.ARE.SURE.OF.IT.
This blog is dedicated to the story of those of us who have slugged it out in the swamps and crappy clubs and crappy galleries and twelve seat theaters though we have done everything to move up the existential ladder. But we get out there, step up to the plate, every morning in front of the canvass, the computer, the instrument, the dance studio... WHEREVER and we give it our best shot.
This is my call for the assignation of the stereotype that our life is easy, or perhaps my nailing of my Ninety-Five Theses for the Light of Truth to be seen. Whatever. Here is the life of an artist from the inside.
Here goes.....
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