Monday, June 21, 2010

Do What You Do

I played in a bunch of bands before Gravity Kills. Strangely I played in bands ranging from metal to techno pop. If you throw the influences together I guess you get what I ended up doing with Gravity. That was the band that I found my creative home with. What is it that you do? The reason I ask is that I come across so many bands that seem to chase influential rainbows. They think they see a trend and attempt to jump on the bandwagon and cash in. When Gravity Kills was getting courted by record labels, ALL OF THEM told us that we would never get played on the radio and MTV would never touch a band doing industrial music unless you had a guy named Trent Reznor in the band. You know as well as I do that MTV doesn't really play videos anymore but the point is that with Gravity, we did what we did and let the chips fall. I was in a discussion panel at a music conference a few years ago and an A&R person from a record label actually told the bands to watch music and fashion trends and then move in that direction. I went fucking berserk! In today's music climate, there are litterally hundreds of popular music genres. Any of you out there working on the next Lady Gaga soundalike? I told the bands that you had to do what you do regardless of the current hoi polloi. Trends today happen in months and not years. If you don't believe in what you are doing, how in the world do you expect anyone else to believe. People can smell dishonest art, music or anything else now a mile away. What would you consider to be relevant musical genres to you? Every person reading this will give me a different answer I am betting. Be honest in what you write and how you perform it. If it is actually REALLY good, you might have a chance to penetrate the hearts and minds of others. Chase rainbows and well...get your track shoes on. You could be chasing it forever.

6 comments:

  1. Good stuff here, Jeff! Just a quick comment on Lady Gaga - I don't think she's anything special at all when it comes to the actual MUSIC, but noone pays attention to that aspect. It's all about image with her; the music seems to be secondary.

    With the lights off and Itunes minimized you may be hard-pressed to pick out one of her non-single tracks from anything else out there today.
    -JE

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  2. Thanks Joe. If there is ever a topic that you want to start talking about here, then by all means let me know. I am not saying I have the answers (or any for that matter,) but we can have open dialogue that might just help us all.

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  3. Just thought I'd add that I couldn't agree more! When I started my current project about a year and a half ago we set out with the intent of only making ourselves happy. It certainly makes other's reactions more interesting, especially when it's a sincere emotional response. Which in turn actually means something since we're not creating for the masses.

    While I certainly have my favorites, I wouldn't say any particular genre is more important than the next. It's pretty easy to see right away whether someone is being honest with their creations. If you're not, I'm not interested.

    As far as topics of discussion go, I myself could use some help in the marketing and promotion world. In my case for example, the scene I am about to enter and compete with is mostly dominated by indie rock, err, hipsters complaining with acoustic guitars. Unfortunately this town seems to thrive on that. I don't think it's because the local music is particularly good but because the local media outlets who cover the scene are very biased in what they promote and obviously don't share my outlook. How would one go about creating a dialogue to convince said media to understand different can be good?

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  4. Let's start on that tomorrow. This is your forum as much as mine. We all need help.

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  5. ...or maybe when you get back from your show... :) Thanks Jeff!

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