8/14/23
The more technologically connected the world becomes, the more isolated we feel. The way we communicate, to what extent and how deeply we try to reach each other seems evermore demanding and ever changing.
In the context of my musical output, that simple fact was knocking on the door to my pea-brain for about 12 years until finally it ingrained such a lingering irritation that I had to bow to it’s mind numbing reality.
It niggled away something like this: “Oh God, nothing is working with my music… no revenue growth, no fan growth, no breaks, no concert opps…no nothing. What the heck is everyone else doing? What am I not doing? “Oh God, nothing is working with my music…no growth, no…” and round and round it went.
The truth is, we all know that there is no one single panacea for the musician’s career, no “let’s make a living through music pill” and no guaranteed road-map (I’ve tried many). In short, it is a crap shoot that you have to just keep chipping away at, (as intelligently as you can) in the hope that you don’t make a colossal wrong move that gives away the tiny royalty deposit that you hold your breath for each month.
As an artist, if you want to ‘give more to more people’, you have to provide a whole lot MORE than just your product. That’s a fact across the board, in the music industry and honestly any other industry, too. You can’t just dish up a deliciously warm, crusty-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside-baguette, it has to be served with roasted garlic dipping oil, and a ramekin of lemon water on the side to wash the fingers afterwards.
I’m guessing that people want to see behind the scenes, a little voyeurism to satiate the boredom or curiosity, or just their need for a belly laugh. It is the way of the modern world. It is escapism, which must be delivered in equal or greater measure to one’s central offering.
Taylor Swift, par example, (for whom I have a ton of respect) has such a fleshed out, optimized product offering that all she has to do these days is tell her audience she’s just swallowed a fly and WOW they love it…BOOM, another half a million streams. And the truth is, people want that relatablility…to be able to say ”Oh that happened to me last week, too. I swallowed a fly when I was walking into Starbucks…Wow, Taylor’s great, she swallows flies…”
So I guess you might say this is my attempt at swallowing flies. I’ll be starting a blog-podcast-vlog…whatever it might become, each month. Something more than my musical offering (which I LOVE to create for me and for you), a little extra, something that I hope might help you get to know me and might help me get to know you! I might even enjoy doing it, too, lol… but I can guarantee it will be real and grounded…if for no other reason than because ‘I’m flying solo’ these days and I need it to be real and grounded for my own mental well-being!
For the next 8 months I’ll be communicating from Maine, Germany in October and again from Maine. I’ll be watching how life unravels and once again takes shape and hopefully providing some unique and humorous commentary along the way.
Please join me as I embark on this whole new chapter!
Love H xo