The Elevator is Broken, Take the Stairs

When I was younger I wanted to be a rock star. I was there when Video Killed the Radio Star. I grew up with music television creating an unrealistic idea of how to become a rock star and what that meant. Rock stars on MTV looked like rock stars, they talked like rock stars and most importantly they lived like rock stars. I used to hear all of these stories about living the life on the sunset strip. Being in a band was a constant party that you got paid to attend. So I asked myself, “How do I become a rock star?” I quickly found out that I did not know the answer. So I did what any young teenager would do at the time- I picked up Circus Magazine, Hit Parader and Metal Edge, anything I could get my hands on. I read about how my heroes did it and you know what? It was the same story every time. It seemed that every band that came out was a group of friends who lived in a one bedroom apartment, partied all the time and played shows.

What a great model for success! I had enough friends to start a band. I still lived with my mom but as soon as I graduated high school (or dropped-out as most of the stories read) I could move the band into a crappy apartment so we could party and play shows. I was on my way to rock stardom and yet something was missing. Oh yeah, I had to get discovered! As I read in all of my rock heroes’ stories, if you play enough shows eventually you will get "discovered" and a big record label will give you a boatload of money. How hard could that be?

Play shows, get discovered-This is what the information told us to do. This is what our heroes did. This is what I did and it did not work. This is what my friends did and it did not work. This is what millions of people did and it did not work. Why does this idea (playing shows will get you discovered) still stick in musicians heads? It seems like I meet musicians everyday who seem to think that playing shows is enough to get "discovered".

First things first, That whole overnight success thing rarely happened and when it did it usually took 5+ years of a band being together working hard to make it happen.

Second, the days of the big advance and record labels throwing tons of money at a band are long gone. Follow any industry blog and you will soon learn that the big record companies are firing people left and right, shutting down entire departments and offices. Do you still think they are going to throw a million dollars at you because you had 100 people at your last show? I don't.

There is no longer a fast track to the top, the elevator is broken. These days you have to work and you have to work hard. You have to take stairs to get to the top, one step at a time, one floor at a time. I am not going to sugar coat this- it's hard work and you will sweat but in the end you will be stronger and you will live longer.