TAKE THE STAGE: BEST ADVICE EVER GIVEN, STORIES FROM OURSTAGE ARTISTS
posted in: Music News
We asked the OurStage artists to share their stories on the “Best Advice Ever Given”. This is what they had to say…
I don’t know if this is considered advice but it was the most important catalyst for righting the ship in the early years of my music career. I had played guitar since I was 12, played in bands throughout high school, and started as a Freshman at Northeastern University as a student of music, ready to spend the rest of my life playing music for people. Music had always been my life.
By my junior year, however, I was frustrated. I worked harder than most of my peers and didn’t get the results of some people who did 10% of what I tried to do. I had accomplished enough to be proud of but it wasn’t enough for me.
I went back and forth about quitting (I was only 20, so it wouldn’t have been that tough). I could break free and try something a little more defined with a more clear-cut path and not lose much time. My girlfriend asked me if I loved playing music.
‘Of course,’ I said.
‘But you are miserable doing it,’ she answered. ‘You have no fun.’
When I thought about it, I realized she was right. Music had long ago become my job and I had always identified myself as a musician rather than someone who played and loved music. I had to learn to get what I enjoyed about music in the first place. I also had to learn to take my hands off the wheel and let things happen. The greatest gains in my career and in my life occur when I allow things to be as they are and not force them. Recording my new album was the least stressful recording experience I’ve ever had because I trusted the people I worked with and knew that it would be good.
My name is Tim Barbour and I’m in the band Blameshift from Long Island, NY. My best advice is, ‘leave your hometown’. We’ve been a fully DIY band since we started 5 years ago. We’ve also been living on the road full time for three of those years, playing big shows, dates on Warped Tour and most importantly, building a real fan on a daily basis. Any band can do it. You just have to be determined enough and really want it bad enough. Because of our hard work we got sponsors we thought were unreachable, national press in magazines and very soon a record deal. Stay focused and away from negative people.
Many years ago I was 15-years-old, guitar in hand, hitchhiking with 11 cents in my pocket. I stopped at a truck-stop in Texas to get a cup of coffee and happened to meet Ernest Tubb. We chatted a few minutes and I told him how I was on the way to Nashville to find my fortune and fame and he ask me had I written any songs and I said not really but I had written a poem. He said the best advice he could offer was to go home and, ‘write and write and write some more and the re-write and re-write some more’. Believe me it wasn’t what a ‘Rising Star’ like me (smiles) wanted to hear at that time but it was the best advice ever given. Always remember the best music comes from your heart and sometimes you just need to ‘tell the story’ just the way it is! God bless and the best of luck to you.
When I started DJ-ing and singing live over my sets, I left my band behind due to passport issues. As I became more confident my closest friend in the world ask me what I wanted or expected as a performer. He reminded me that there are two kind of performers: the one who thinks the crowd is there for them, and the one who is the there for the crowd. He explained one was selfish and the other was a community servant. I understood from that moment on, I’m there for them. My job is to help them forget their bad day, rough job, or any of lifes’ everyday troubles. I hope to touch them with my music and vocals so that they find some joy before tomorrow. Now I play a full set for 8 people or 80,000.
Best advice is a tough one to choose. I’ve been given great advice by a lot of musicians I respect. If I had to choose I would have to thank Paul Cowey, been playing blues since 1964, about 2 years earlier than me! After jamming with me for the first time he had the nerve to ask me about the solo I thought I just nailed. He asked, ‘where was 1, where was 4, huh, did you ever go to a 5 in there?’. I thought I had just ripped a Buddy Guy solo note for note! But coming from me, although the notes and phrasing might have been close, it still didn’t has Buddy’s soul. His (Cowley) best advice was to learn from guys like Kings, Otis Rush and Buddy Guy but do it your way. Learn from the originators like Stevie Ray did but do it your own way- not play someone else’s ideas. Use them to form your own. I listened and never looked back!
When I moved from the south to the West Coast I had no idea what I was in for. I grew up in a world where generosity and courtesy was second-nature. People prided themselves in being nice. I believe many people in southern states respond this way because there are not as many people, and this makes it easier to trust people due to smaller circles. On the West Coast it is not as easy because it is filled with people from many different cultures, lifestyles, and backgrounds all working to operate in a fast paced environment and grab a piece of the American pie that seems to be dwindling never to be replenished again. People can often be brutal, conniving, and very blunt because self-preservation is vital to survival.
As I began speaking to a close friend about this one day while comparing the similarities and differences between the two places he mentioned something so profound that would ensure one’s survival anywhere in the world. As he encouraged me to continue being courteous he said,’People may not remember what you did to them, but they will always remember how you made them feel.’
Every day as I encounter different people from all walks of life I remember that. No matter where I go, my southern nature will always be remembered. I believe being nice to people is the one thing that every artist must learn. As an artist, it’s not unlikely to run into the same person you mistreated again and need them. Be nice because it goes a long way.
My parents knew I liked the Beatles and other bands of that era. I wanted to learn music, but they said there were too many people aspiring to fame/success. One of my best friends suggested I should give up trying to make music. Most advice I ever got was to quit. Yet when I first saw a $49.00 Silvertone at Sears, I knew I could do a dance on that fingerboard. It might not be what Led Zepellin or the Stones or anyone else is doing, but I knew it was within me to create music, and that music flowed through me. As technology changed, and became affordable, I was able to manifest the music within and bring it into the world. Having a day job that paid well enough to purchase instruments/equipement, I have been able to record my own compositions. So my best advice, is to ignore negative advice, and do what you are impelled to do.
If you become the next best artist stay down to earth. Don’t let the game change you- only your living arrangements
I was once told ‘never keep the fans waiting too long, or else they’ll forget the importance of your act!’. Last weekend my rap/rmb group, Fourte was opening for Lupe Fiasco at Colgate University’s annual Spring Party Weekend. We were set to come on at 3, Lupe at 4. There were 1000+ there by 3 o’clock, and we made sure to get on by around 3:15. We absolutely blasted the show, people were going nuts. Afterwards we told the crowd to hold tight and Lupe would come soon. But he didn’t. He came on an hour and a half later, by which most fans had already left feeling appeased with our performance. The next day our MySpace had hundreds of more hits, some fans even saying we were better than Lupe. Coincidence because we came on time and Lupe didn’t? I think not. I learned a lesson that day: Never, even if you are as famous as Lupe, make the fans wait too long!
Like all young artists to be, I dabbled with voices, trying on a Joan Jett, a Barbara Streisand, trying to find my niche. In each imitation, I found fans who loved what I sang, but only because it was the closest they would get to the original. I felt like a concubine of music, changing my sound with every new band causing my vocal chords untold damages as I growled and screamed my way though crowd after drunken crowd. I soon discovered for myself, that singers are the subject of Aesop’s fable of the donkey, the boy and the man. No matter which way you rearrange it, someone will be unhappy. Happily, I have at least found the road to Oz, and discovered that I am much more than one sound or style, writing my own music. And there, sitting patiently, was my muse quietly smiling, ‘Welcome Home!’ Sometimes, the best advice is sleeping inside you.