I was just thinking ... You in your own way

You’ll only go as far as you want to go. Period. Moving through this business, I find that a lot of people are very focused on staying “true to themselves” and not wanting to bend on a lot of the things that make this industry work. Let me preface this by saying, I am a firm believer in sticking to your beliefs and morals without a shadow of a doubt. But … you also have to realize that this IS a business! There are plenty of people who are very talented musicians and artists who realize that they don’t want to pursue their music professionally. They work a regular job and create music on their own time for fun or therapy or whatever. But at the point where you are trying to make a career out of this thing, you have to know how it works and how to bend on SOME things, NOT ALL but some. For instance, when I first started writing everyone told me that I was too deep and wordy! At first I was defensive because I thought “Most music is crap and has no substance these days.” But what I had to realize was that it took the perfect marriage between a catchy melody and subject matter to make a song more pleasing and enjoyable to a larger audience. I don’t have to start writing explicitly sex kitten songs or write about how much I was balling. All I had to do was find more creative ways of adding substance and work on better melodies to fit my wordiness. I could have hauled off and said “Nah they want me to sell out.” But you have to be smart enough to understand that the people who have been in the game, know what they’re talking about. Find mentors that you trust. I know so many talented writers that didn’t have to compromise their integrity for commercial success, but they did have to learn how to package a product. I believe that the most innovative and legendary musicians in the game did things that people didn’t necessarily agree with or thought would work. But even in their innovation, I think they had to have an understanding of how to manipulate popular opinion. I’m not sure if that makes sense to you all but hey what can I say? I just think you have to give a LITTLE to gain a lot. Don’t be an artist if you don’t want to think about branding and your image and all the other things that come along with making music. Just make music in your basement for your 5 friends that will hear it. But if you are really striving towards something, know that sometimes the advice that people are trying to give you, is for a reason. That’s just my ten cents, but who am I really? Hahaha.