So it’s everybody’s dream to grow up and become a rich and famous rock-star and over the past few months I have been working my buns of steel off to make that happen for myself. Turns out, while it has been a blast getting to know the guys in my band and hanging out, recording new music, grabbing beer at the bar and ultimately playing shows, that there’s a ton of actual WORK that goes into the local music scene.
Most of it isn’t actually physical work but my God, writing music is mentally taxing beyond all comprehension. I mean seriously, how can people honestly think it is easy to pull good, original music out of thin air. It isn’t. It’s no wonder artists get so mad when people illegally download their music. I just got finished playing my guitar for eight straight hours and can barely stand up, let alone think. That’s almost as long as people work in real (albeit boring) jobs on a day to day basis and I worked my kiester off the whole time. I am here to tell you, it’s hard.
Then you come to promotion. Getting people to your shows or to buy your cd is one thing but it’s extremely difficult to get your music out there and noticed when there are fifty other bands in the same area that play on a regular basis in the same bars you do. It’s also pretty tough to get people to take you seriously when you even mention you’re in a band in the first place, because let’s face it, most bands stink. Period. Sometimes, when you do have a show, you lug around 1000 lbs of gear, spend weeks promoting and practicing and nobody even shows up.
That’s why we need people to support local music. There are plenty of places to hear good original tunes on the cheap and you get to support some up and coming legends. Sometimes it sucks to be a rock-star but it’s all worth it in the end.
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