Thought Sausage

A conversation a few rants ago with Gabe (aka Microwaved) got me to thinkin about all the things I'd do differently if I were to start a band now. Some you may or may not be aware but I spent the better part of 8 years playing pretty much solid with The Outside and Inner-kube (along with various projects here and there). While the latter definitely had as good a run as one could expect playing left-of-center industrial-electronic-rock in Iowa, I definitely left that scene for Chicago thoroughly burnt out on the whole experience. Not to say it was bad, but well, anybody who is at it for that long knows that the constant strain of holding a band together and all the work that goes along with making it go is a HUGE pain in the ass.

In no particular order:

-Focus less on playing live and more on writing - We definitely put the bulk of our energy into getting out and playing. There's two sides of the coin with playing live. First, unless you are a large enough band to warrant a packed room everywhere you play and can afford a decent crew, gigs are usually fair to all out shit. More often then not, I left a club after striking the gear tired and on the verge of losing the will to live (only to know i have three more shows until I don't have to repeat this act). But on the other hand, a good show is a VERY fucking good thing. There's no drug/booze/sex that can compare to the high you get from that. It's the whole reason you put on with the first thing. If I could go out and do 5 shows, if 1 of them slammed, it made the other shitty 4 worth it. But this was also pre itunes, pre myspace and in the days when mp3.com took an amazing concept and fucked it all up by monetizing the soul out of it. So playing live was also your primary method for building an audience. It seems like this is less and less relevant with the whole web 2.0 thing actually starting to congeal.

-Only employ the services of a band when absolutely necessary - In Chicago, I've noticed its much more common for musicians to simply hire a backing band when needed. I know one hired gun drummer that supposedly draws a six figure salary simply jamming with a new band every night. Granted, this guy is the ONE drummer that can sight read music and play anything after hearing it once (meaning you can hire him at noon and he can do a 2 hour set by 8)...nevertheless, the drama, bullshit and overall pain in the ass of aligning 4-5 people with the same vision isn't ALL that necessary. Besides, I trust my programming ability enough to make a computer play whatever I can't physically do myself (aka drums).

-Monetize my output - Maybe I'm totally wrong about this (and I'm sure I am), but it seems like there are way more ways to monetize your music now than there were 5-10 years ago. Video games have come a LONG way, independant films always need music and the efficiency of the internet has gotten to where getting music to these people doesn't seem like it means you need to have a middleman. It probably helps, but like my guitar teacher used to say, you don't need to join the boyscouts to go camping. Ultimately I can't see myself ever making music to please anybody but myself, but having an end goal of "getting it out there" is essential to actually seeing something to fruition for me.

-Concentrate on creating as much output as possible - Assuming shows aren't really necessary, that would theoretically free up a lot more time to write more shit. And the laws of supply and demand would state that the more shit you have to monetize (see previous point), the more likely you are to "get it out there". I happen to have a very wide taste in music and enjoy playing as much. It wouldn't be unrealistic to drop a metal/industrial collection of songs and a country/rockabilly collection within a month.

-No physical output - This was a huge expenditure then and its a huge expenditure now. Only now you don't even need it to get it out there. It used to be that you pretty much had to have a CD in order to be taken at all seriously. And even then it was a crapshoot.

-No merchandise - If you like my music that's awesome. But I'm not here to fill your wardrobe.

I guess I pretty much described what all my friends that do this professionally (as in don't have day jobs and aren't homeless) are doing on a daily basis. Nevertheless, that suits me. If there's one thing I learned from all those years of riding in vans, playing in shit bars, and ruining my hearing...its that if you really want to 'make it' you need to define what 'making it' is to you (not to your parents, your girlfriend or whoever the fuck thinks they know what's best for you). Once you define this, you need to identify what is getting in the way of that goal and streamline your life. I think for me that would have meant realizing that college in Iowa with the idea of "if this doesn't work, I'll fallback to this" isn't going to work. Man..to think i could have come to Chicago in the heyday (well on the tail end) of the wax trax era if I played my cards right. Don't get me wrong i'm not complaining about or regretting the relatively good life I have now (traded my axe for a roadbike)...but that's the way it goes.