Day 200 - September 28th 2009
200 Days since I turned my life upside down so to speak. I’ll spare you the retracing of my steps from AV Tech to bang Camaro Vocalist to Full Time Musician.
On the way to Philly Rising I confirmed with Bryn that I’d be performing with Bang Camaro on October 15th at Santos Party House, the first place in NYC I Played with them. This’ll be a hoot especially considering I have to get back the next day to play a show at Lickety Split and the Boy Wonder Road Trip is the following week.
I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my 200th Day than at Philly Rising. My anxieties were heightened a tad since the line was low. One could blame the rain, but the line didn’t used to be effected by that. When I was an open micer there I made sure I went when it rained to increase my chances of winning. Problem was a crap load of people were thinking the same thing. This was and still is the biggest open mic in town with people crawling to get in. I don’t want that to change on my watch. We were the thinnest we’ve been since I got back from tour. But as we started the open mic the list filled up.
As the night wore on I was sitting with someone that comes quite frequently. As they were leaving I made a crack about them leaving and they responded with this tirade about the rappers and about how they need to be more “original.” Original is a word that really gets under my skin.
The 90’s and 00’s have given way to a thought that things like “originality” and being unique are the most important thing when it comes to music. Giving something that they’ve never seen or heard before is the battle cry from the music snobs that I run into on a constant basis. Even industry people that I’ve run into put a premium on being “different” I hear it all the time. “I like this, it’s different” I’m quick to defend anyone on the stage with the guts to get up there and perform against someone who only seems to have the guts to talk smack while they’re performing. But as I listened I came to a realization and asked myself a question. Whatever happened to just being good/great? What happened to that being enough?
Nothing great I’ve ever seen is truly unique or original. Sure it might look a little different, it might sound a little different but you can track anything anybody’s playing back to something else if you look far enough. Pop music allows you to take some tried and true forms, put a little you in them and make them work. There are only so many notes in a scale, so many chords that fit, and so many words that sound good together, so to ask someone to be truly musically original is pretty much impossible. I think the focus should be on being good, someone honing their craft and being the best them they can be. You can basically come out singing and dancing Like Michael Jackson (Usher, Justin Timberlake) or playing like The Beatles (Oasis and Everyone else) or SRV (John Mayer) and if you’re good at it no one really cares because at the end of the day people really just want good music.
The originality is going to come from the artist themselves, their perspective, their personality coming through in the music. When I play No Such Thing it’s going to be different from when John Mayer plays it, I bring different tools to the table, my experiences will inform the lyrics in a different way. If I’m truly being myself my music will be my own. That’s all that needs to be done…period. We should worry about people being good and foster growth so people can be as good as they can be.
I will step off my soapbox for just one second and get back to Philly Rising. A slow night turned into a pretty good one in terms of talent. Our winners were The Dropout Plan from Jersey. A Great acoustic act that may do well at the monthly competition which is quite the mixed bag this time around. Apparently they’re friends with Rae, a girls who’s friends with Liat a young singer/songwriter I book.
I’m gonna be putting my head down and promoting Phiilly Rising even harder than normal. I want to get attendance back up to ridiculous levels.
I came home to some band news that I’m not really ready or sure I’m gonna blog about. It will keep me up tonight.
200 days gone. Living the dream? Not even close. I’m just getting started.
i totally agree about the whole "original" thing. what is that about anyway?? it's like we are all just waiting for the most exciting thing we've ever heard to grace our ears suddenly and change our lives. trust me, if it were that unique and amazingly mind-blowing, people would be lining up for that shit like they used to for the orchestra and opera 110 years ago, and 700 years ago for plays just-written by aspiring playwrights with no prior knowledge of how an audience is won by the stage except for, perhaps, some experience with storytellers with tales passed down through only words and books.
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