Monday, October 24, 2016

FINDING A MANAGER: (LOOKING FOR BIG DADDY TO SAVE US!)



Taking responsibility for our career is scary for artists. Most of us don't have the skill set, we only have the desire.  This business asks us to be the best singer we can be, the best writers the best live performers etc. And thats a LOT of stuff we have to get GREAT at before we are ready for the world stage. Most of us don't want to include business skills in that package. It just seems to hard, too daunting and too difficult.  So we get stuck looking for BIG DADDY (OR MOMMY) to save us..  a manager who will be the answer to all our dreams and make it all magically happen. THAT is mistake number ONE!!

MOST MANAGERS HAVE NO REAL POWER
You think that this new person on your team believes in you and will now take care of everything that you hate to do. Booking shows, making sure an audience is going to be there, finding musicians, arranging band rehearsals, finding the right producer for your project and basically making all the important decisions about what is coming next etc. The manager who signed on to do all of this "grunt" work is generally NOT the same person who has worked for many years successfully in this industry and is connected to the labels, agents, PR, publishers etc who can really help your career.  That doesn't mean that having someone who believes in your rolling up their sleeves and helping out is a bad thing. BUT before making any lasting ongoing agreements it is wise to consider whether their strengths will best serve you in the short term or the long term and make sure there is room for a new powerful manager to come on board once you've created more leverage for yourself!

MANAGERS ARE JUST PEOPLE
Beware believing that any one manager can be responsible for everything "clicking" in your career. Almost all managers have strengths and weaknesses. It's good to know what they are before building up big expectations which will lead to terrible disappointment.
 Some managers are really good at getting you gigs..some never touch that part of your career and will leave that to you or an agent. Some managers have a special knack at putting together recording deals for artists. Some are excellent at designing a marketing approach. The truth is that most will not be good at everything and it's YOUR job as the defacto manager to see the holes and get proactive to fill them yourself or with other members of your team.


YOU ARE ALWAYS THE ACTUAL MANAGER
Successful artists always retain control of their forward motion. If you remain in a position of responsibility you will always be protected from the worst outcomes of someone else's bad decisions. YOU are the one watching the company store.  Your career and your future are no one else's responsibility but your own. A manager acts as a guide and as an advisor. Regardless of how powerful or well connected your manager may be your hand never leaves the steering wheel! Why?  You are the person who must ultimately live with the decisions you make as a partnership. 


IT STARTS WITH A QUESTION
I almost always suggest artists play the field for a while before signing anything with a manager.  Better to start with dating before any real "commitment" happens on either side. A lot of times the relationship starts when an artist is stuck and looking for a specific solution and reaches out to a manager that they may know and trust and have access to ask that all important question. "Can you give me some input about this decision I have to make"?  If things go well the artist may be invited to "call anytime with anything you need help with". If things progress and a certain amount of trust is built up then a relationship may start to get deeper. 
   

 BUILDING THE TEAM: MANAGEMENT (DON'T CALL US WE'LL CALL YOU!)
Seeking management is one of the main things artists feel they should be "doing". But thats not a useful goal to the working artist. How come? Interestingly enough most successful artists I know have had their managers seek them out. Why? Because as artists they were already doing the music and making the audience and creating the energy and buzz around their work and their career, enough so that a manager seeking a new act to work with would end up hearing about them through their network.
People in the music industry talk to each other. There are listening and watching for the truly "special" and "unique" artists that stand out.
Sometimes it's the combination of talent and looks and drive that clicks, sometimes it's because the artist has something really "fresh" in their approach. Sometimes it's simply dollar signs that get the manager interested... 
but it's always the manager who takes an interest first almost NEVER the other way around in my experience.


START A RELATIONSHIP!
SO..if you are seeking a manager there's nothing wrong with starting a relationship with a couple of well placed folks where could bounce your challenges and ask questions.   Usually the manager is watching carefully to see what kind of a person the artist is. Will you make the managers life difficult? Do you follow through on suggestions? Are you taking responsibility for your own forward motion?

There are a million new acts trying to break into the publics consciousness each year. How do you get heard about the din? 
By doing what you do the best you can do it. Pretty simple really. 
Do what YOU do so well that you attract the team you need to bring it to the world.


Sunday, October 16, 2016

Developing Our Own Material: (Being Willing To Suck!)



We're not all composers. But we all know a good song when we hear one. Maybe thats what stops us from taking those first awkward steps towards developing ourselves as songwriters? The first couple of songs we write can feel tentative, unformed and generally leave us feeling like we'll never become songwriters, with our first attempts unfinished and unheard.  Thats normal and a natural part of learning a new skill set, it's really challenging to compare our first attempts with our favourite songs. We're bound to come up short. However there are some ways that we can deepen our craft and get better at it, if we are willing to suck for a while.

                    No One Gets There Overnight!
The key is to know your emotional life well enough to be able to boil our feeling in a given situation down to a few simple lines.  Many a great song has been born when a singer trusts their collaborators enough to bring a few snatches of lyric to a musical composer, a producer, a band mate etc and allowed them to help finish it into an actual song. 
Sometimes we can stay in the process and help steer and shape the outcome, sometimes it's best if we get out of the way and let the more experienced "professional" finish the job. That doesn't matter, what matters is that the final product will have some of our emotional life in it's DNA. That will make the song feel closer to our emotional centre and much easier to perform!

               We Deepen Our Skill Set Over Time!
However if we are going to become composers there will be a drive to do better, to learn the craft, to co-write with more experienced composers, to learn the tricks etc.  


Practical Coaching Advice: Breaking the Negatives
Because we haven't "finished" songs that we feel proud of it stops us from investing in the journey. 
BUT in truth the only way we ever get there is to BEGIN! Those few tentative steps we take are the most important ones!  Here are a few suggestions to get you moving!!

*Keep a "lyric" journal by your bed. Fill it with your dreams and unfigured out feelings..grab a hold of any pieces of lyric that float in for you first thing in the morning. Write and DO NOT worry about how it might become useful as a song.

*Read poetry to discover the power of language separated out from music. Dive into the world of the word and discover your affinity to expressing through language.

*Learn to play some simple songs on the piano or guitar and get used to singing to an instrument that you are playing. That will go a long way towards allowing your first tentative composing efforts!

*If you can't seem to finish songs bring them to a more experienced collaborator and pay attention to the way that they help build the final song from simple building blocks!

Songwriting looks hard.. but is in fact very simple. Its ALL about trusting your instincts and following you heart. Of course the more experience you have at "problem solving" during the process the easier it gets! But you will never get to your destination unless you START YOUR JOURNEY!