Wednesday 24th May, 2023
A few months lie in front of you, empty…
If by ‘empty’ you mean full of so many people & projects that you forego your own empty existence while these summer days pass through you.
I’m finally done with my 2nd year of BIMM. & while a few cracks we're beginning to show towards the end of the year… at least the final year project is one that I am genuinely excited for. I’ll be combining the world of myth, storytelling, psychology, popular culture, & the occult, to develop as an artist… both creatively & brand-y. (there should be a better word for that second one… brandishly? brandidly?!) This mad blending of cultural memory & association, you will hear plenty about next year while I’m asking you to take surveys, polls, & join in on focus groups… for today though, really quickly, let’s chat about what kind of conclusion I’ve come to through my Music Business education. To begin…
1. I need to care less about Music Business.
How can you learn to ignore the value of business knowledge, at a business course? Well it’s simple… everyone tells you that you don’t need to focus too much on it. That a basic understanding of things is important so you can make some educated decisions, but overall you should leave the business, to the business people. So, I do need to care less about the business… but only because I’m an artist. The business side of things is a distraction to my end of the deal. I’m a creative, I need to create. Business people need to do something with the things I create. That’s why they exist. Over the past few years I’ve found myself setting up an enterprise that’s made outside help redundant. How can someone help me when I’m already managing everything? Looking around at some of the amazing talent I see doing well in the industry, I do notice a trend… they’re all amazingly creative, & unconcerned with the ‘right’ way to do things. People are diving on grenades to facilitate these creatives. The big learning I took from these past 2 years, is that I need to focus on what I’m good at.
2. If you don’t ask, you don’t get & if you ask, you also don’t get…
Reaching out for advice & help is something you should do. Heck, sometimes people actually will help you out a bit, or they’ll try. This point kind of returns the first one in a way actually. It’s not just about asking, you have to be someone that people deem worth helping. Again, a large portion of help comes from people who believe in you. I know amazingly talented people who can’t find a single person to believe in them, & I know extremely underdeveloped artists who have the world wrapped around their pinky fingers. As for which one will do better, it’s hard to say… but what does seem to be clear is that a team of people can almost always outpace an independent loner. Maybe, to go beyond my first point, while it’s better to focus on creativity over business… it’s probably even better to focus on charisma than creativity. (unless your creative nature is what endears people to you that is.)
3. The industry is not built to change at the rate of the internet.
Trends are always rising & falling. Big institutions, by their massive nature, can’t really change their operations fast enough to reflect the demand of fans & the needs of artists… which sucks, cause these big institutions own pretty much all of the infrastructure & intellectual property out there. A huge amount of the business world is made up of people who’ve survived some kind of life shift to get to where they are now. The industry, comparatively, is old. They have a very different idea of what the world is, what is SHOULD* be, & what it’s about to become. When you realise that the ‘geniuses’ of the music industry have next to no idea about what’s going on right now, you can feel a little better about knowing so little… but also, you can let go of the idea that one day you will know what the music industry is like… that’s not the best use of your time. This is why people advise artists to stay true to themselves. Cause chasing a trend will always leave you behind. The same is true for the business world. Find something you love & believe in, then try to look around you & come up with your own way to do things. Shape what you’ve learned to what you see. (& apparently get a tik tok……..)
4. I don’t have a 4.
To be specific, I have so much unfiltered & unformed ideas roaming around my head that it’s hard to distil them into coherent opinions that I can stand behind. This is a huge struggle for a lot of us. Our brains are so full of potential ideas & directions… but they can’t sacrifice all of that potential for action. I forget who spoke about it, but they reduced the human journey of adulthood as a sacrifice of potential for the ability of action. Basically: if you can’t decide on what you wanna be or do, then you’ll never be able to be or do anything. Which, as reductive as it sounds, makes a lot of sense to me.
For my own creative journey, I feel this struggle constantly. I want ‘Nathan Mac’ to be so many things, to so many people… but I’m failing to sacrifice what else it could be at the expense of what it should be. This was my struggle, post-injury. I had chose to be one thing: a circus artist. I had sacrificed. Then my choice was removed from me & I, once again, had to sacrifice my potential. I tried to make music, & bits of non-physical circus. I tried writing books, plays… I tried acting. I wanted to be too many things. It was only when I chose music, at the expense of all these other passions & potentials, that I started to progress in any meaningful way.
So then what am I doing with ‘Learning Curve’? Why did I write, act, & perform circus in a film?!
Well, I still love all of these things. I still want to do all of these things. But I’m not pursuing any of them professionally. They are all in service of my music career. I don’t have an ‘actors’ CV. I’m not developing circus performances to other people’s songs. I’m not writing another film anytime soon. (even the thought of another film burns a hole in my pocket) I’m getting distracted here…
5. I’m still lost.
Even after 2 years of music business, chatting to a whole bunch of talented lecturers & music industry professionals, & creating scientifically supported analyses of my own artist career & music… I’m still feeling lost & confused. I still don’t know what I SHOULD* be doing beyond listening to myself & making what I think is great. A lot of people, if not everyone, has an opinion on your ‘best next step’. If you try to listen to them all… you will not only die from exhaustion, but you will contradict yourself at every turn. It’s on you to act on the advice that makes sense, & feels right. It’s up to your intuition to figure out what the next step for you is… nobody else could possibly have the answer. Even the best of the best managers spend the first few years getting to know their artists so they know how best to represent them, their interests, their limits, & what’s best for them. So, unfortunately, there’s nothing I can tell you beyond: “you need to listen to yourself.”
That being said, testing your ideas & opinions out on friends & other music folk is essential. Your work in a vacuum has no breath to it. (get it?)
Yeah, I dunno what else to leave you with… this is both a curse, a blessing, & why it’s a lot harder to be an artist than most people think it is. You really have to be a pillar of your own ideas. You really need to be an independent with an army at your back.
Until next week…. love youuuu!
Nathan
*also, I wanna highlight that ‘should’ is mostly a very problematic word. It implies that what is, is wrong, & that you know better… I’ve seen a lot of people in the music world get really angry, upset, & insecure because of what they think ‘should’ be.
