Ladies and Gentlemen, here it is… the second blog post. As I said before, I will be doing entries here every day… don’t worry, though, it won’t be a journal. Some will be long like last night, some will be short like tonight, and some may even be a sentence or two. The main point is that I’m updating it every day with my thoughts and ideas as my year of independence rolls on.
First off, I read through last night’s post this morning and was a bit disappointed after realizing how somber the post may have sounded… I did not mean for it to come off that way! I was simply acknowledging a few of the challenges that lay ahead.
That being said, I took down a few of those challenges today! I have been hired at Kat’s Cafe, a beautiful lounge and bar just blocks away from our perfect apartment. You can check out the place at www.katscafeatlanta.com anytime you like. It’s a sheik but down-to-earth place that houses some of the best musicians in Atlanta. The owners are both very in tune with the music scene, so it’s a perfect place to start working. The owner has already started broaching the subject of me singing there at some point, so that is very positive. Also, it pays the rent.
That’s all I’ve got time for at the moment.More thoughts to come tomorrow… I’ve been doing some research on some famous musicians and their rise to notoriety that I’d like to share with everyone tomorrow.
Best wishes.
No Rhyme or Reason
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my own future in the music business, as you might have discovered by now. I have had a wonderful time producing and performing shows, and I’ve had a few disheartening experiences as well. The wide range of experiences has led me to a bit of a crossroads… will I radically change my ’sound’, or will I continue to work at my current craft?
Naturally, whenever I start to project myself into the future, I look on other musicians’ examples and stories to try and guess at what might happen. The only consistent theme in the music industry, though, is that there is no rhyme or reason to the way things work out. Some people get famous in a day and never look back, some people spend years trying to ‘make it’ to no avail, and some people find their own niche in this industry and coast the years away while focusing on their music. The conclusion that I’ve come to is that one had better decide to do music for the sake of the art, because it is the only salvation in this industry, no matter where you end up. Here are a few stories that I’ve heard that are the best real-life examples of the unpredictable nature of the music industry. Let me say beforehand that I have no ‘factual’ knowledge as to whether these stories are true… they have simply been told to me this way.
Ben Folds
You may be surprised to see me bring up Mr. Folds’ name, but I love his story. Ben Folds was a percussion major at Miami (FL) University once upon a time. He was nearing the end of his degree program when he decided to party hard the night before one of his last juries. Low and behold, Mr. Folds broke his hand while out that night and failed his jury the next morning. He took it pretty hard, throwing all of his equipment into the lake on campus before packing up and heading out to New York to become an actor. At some point he decided to get a band together with him on piano, which eventually turned into the Ben Folds Five… the rest is history. What if he had passed his jury?
Harry Connick Jr.
Connick was a kid prodigy that grew up in New Orleans in a pretty well-off family that made sure he had every chance to succeed. He worked as hard as anyone in the practice room and was able to establish close relationships with musical geniuses like the Marsalis clan. Before Harry was 20 years old, he was out on tour and dubbed as the next Sinatra. I’m not going to say it had to be easy, but this is as clean-cut a rise to fame that you will find.
Michael Buble
Buble was an entertainer struggling to make ends meet while traveling throughout Canada with his band singing at any event that would have him. In fact, he frequently recalls singing in strip clubs when he couldn’t land gigs anywhere else. His grandfather would offer traveling entertainers free plumbing services in exchange for little Michael to be able to sing with them. Buble was about ready to give up his career as a singer and go into business when he found himself singing at a wedding that legendary producer David Foster happened to attend…. cha-ching! Instant millionaire. You’ve got to hand it to Buble, though… he stuck with it through some hard times.
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella will forever be my first inspiration in music… she was the first jazz vocalist I ever listened to. This story always really puts things in perspective for me. Ella was a runaway homeless woman in New York when her friends convinced her to audition for a Talent Competition at the Apollo Theater. People almost booed her off-stage when they saw her ‘hobo’ getup, but they were left speechless after she sang her first few notes. She won the competition and signed on with Chick Webb later that same year.
Sorry for the long post. I just think it’s very interesting to look at the different stories that are out there for people that have chosen to pursue music. In between these extremes, of course, are people like Gary Walters, Damani Phillips, Steve Charlson, and Dave Rezek, among others, who have inspired many throughout their careers despite the lack of ‘household name’ status.
My goal is simply to be able to do what I love for as long as I live. I hope I don’t have to sing in a strip club or go homeless, but we’ll see what happens! HA!