If you really want to make it, be insane.

I was fortunate enough to see a covers band on Saturday that had been together for over 20 years. It was a reunion gig so they have had breaks throughout that time. It made me think about what current bands will be doing in 20 years time.

It's safe to assume that most members of covers bands started out playing original music. They then make the transition to make some extra money, or carry on playing music without the hassle of writing new material/chasing gigs.

The music industry, certainly regionally is a difficult nut to crack. It seems that you have three options

1. Get a record deal and get paid to play original music.
2. Play in a covers/function band and get up to a couple hundred a weekend.
3. Perform your own original music, often for no more than petrol money.

Arguably, if you're doing it for the music then the money and fame doesn't matter. In reality it does, it costs money to be a musician, there's equipment, travel, rehearsal, recording and the hundreds of hours it takes to run a bands online presence. Unless you are already financially well off you need to be generating money to even be able to continue to do it.

The deciding factor is usually time. If you don't have the passion/love/stubbornness to carry on long after people have told you to quit you probably aren't going to make it (unless you got signed of your first single).

Any successful person will tell you that it's trial and error. It's true for other ventures too, be that technology (Steve Jobs) SEE VIDEO BELOW, Media (Gary Veynerchuk) or music (Anvil). If you keep going you well get there, or at least your significantly more likely to 'make it' if you don't quit.

I'm still in the trial and error phase but here's to hoping we're all going to get there.

Speak to you Friday,

Josh

(image found here.)

Doing nothing will get you nothing.

I was having a chat with a good friend of mine that has started a business overseas and he's doing well. We started discussing what happens if a venture doesn't reach the goals we have for them and how would we know if it's time to close the doors.

We came to the conclusion that it could be any time, wether that's not making enough money, having to work too many hours, or just not enjoying it. This also applies to being in a band.

I've had some experience of band break-ups and it's not very nice, it has so many similarities to a couples relationship and also business.

We invest time, money and sweat into projects that are heading in one direction, but that changes over time, even more so when you're working with other people. The chances that you'll all want the same thing for the life of the project is slim. Sometimes you grow apart, but sometimes it's not mutual.

Every band has a crisis of confidence from time to time. There is no formula to guarantee a record deal. You have to try what you can and hope for the best, some people are not comfortable with this uncertainty and that's understandable.

Providing you are enjoying the process the outcome doesn't matter. I think that's the point of most things. It's nice to get what you want but often the real achievement and happiness is in the process of working for it.

Nothing will come of nothing. - William Shakespeare

Speak to you Friday,

Josh.

p.s. Save this email address josh@audio-works.co.uk as I've had several people mention that they're missing the e-mails as they're getting filtered out.

p.p.s The image on this post is of my rad dad in his first band.