Music for me has always been a kind of therapy. It's often been a way that I could work through shit and fix myself without having to pay a shit load of money to repair the broken toy that I am.
I am fortunate enough to be able to live my music dream. I've done pretty much every job, made every mistake and broke every rule. I've been lucky enough to know some semblance of fame, and unfortunate enough to have lived it. What it has taught me however is that your dream should be your dream and not \someone else's. Me. I'm fortunate, I've been able to really pursue all of my dreams, musical and otherwise,. The truth however is that most people only ever try to pursue survival, and in that they miss their dreams entirely.
I would start with myself. If i am ever audacious enough to think I could start with someone other than myself, slap me. . . Please.
Brandy, by Looking Glass. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVx8L7a3MuE That, and Rock The Boat by Hues Corporation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfBwsG8ubFw
I have many favorite bands and artists. My first favorite was David Bowie, I was about 7 or 8 the first time I heard him and I remember sitting in my parents car after we had just come back from marketing and Space Oddity was on the radio. I think it was that day that changed my life and how I felt about music.
I wake up in the morning singing. I get in the shower and I'm singing. I get dressed and sing. I make up songs about my dogs. I make up songs about the things we all go through everyday that mold and shape us and make us whole or broken. I find that pretty much anything that changes a person is inspiration for music. You just have to remembe that you need to write music that matters, people need to feel it represents where they've been in life
If there was one overarching message i was going to try and put forth in my music, I would say it is think before you do or say. That, and remember that the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few. Except when they don't and that time is not for your selfish need, it's for someone else's benefit!
Well, perfoming live is pretty much the reason I do this. I get to see you, react with you, feel with you; and you get to do that with me. The album format is great, I grew up with it and still work to that when I write and record, but Live. . . that's what it's all about.
Music these days is quite different from when I started back in the late 70's. While we have way more places to put music in front of the listener, we have an overabundance of places to find that music. Add to that even more people who have a passion and a desire, but lack the talent at times, (but more often it's they lack practice, woodshedding and experience that many of us analog, to tape kind of musicians cut our teeth on).
Drooble has an interesting and unique concept. The idea that one builds Karma fosters a sense of good will that other sites don't foster. Add to that a greater more diverse community of musical styles that are PLAYED in your steam; and Drooble really is something I kinda like. It's where my REAL playlist is. those other sites are . . . ehhh.
The most frustrating thing about be a musician has to be being a musician and needing to create 26 hrs a day and only having 24.
There is an underground scene here in Los Angeles that is kind of cool and different, but outside of that small weird world, there is not a lot of Unique to support.
If getting your music in front of an audience is important to you, you will need to persist. Find the markets, be patient and learn about the places you're trying to send your music before you send it there. Believe it of not, they may not want it.
Wow, artists you've never heard of. That would be presumptive of me for sure. Now I could say there were a good number of artists who have influenced me that are not as well known as others, but I would prefer to assume that you were as strangely eclectic as I tend to be. Now, there is Shriekback, made up of members of Gang Of Four and XTC, there is Gil Scott Heron and Crass, both of which influenced my political side, not to mention Billy Bragg. There is The Paul Winter Consort for their blend of jazz and classical with pop melodies. There is the Louisiana Hellbenders, fronted by my favorite bass player gone guitar player, and Alice Donut from NYC. there are just too many to name. and then there is Miracle Legion.