A few days ago I was forwarded an article about the "Montreal scene" that name dropped AIDS Wolf . One of the musicians interviewed (who I incidentally don't know , nor have I ever heard of his band) is quoted saying something along the lines of "I never met anyone in a band who didn't dream of making a living playing music."
Really? REALLY?
I find it sad that it seems the gold standard people measure the worth of doing something to be earning a living from it.
I don't see making music as a means to an end but an end in itself. And the enjoyment to be had making music without having a though about commercial returns is liberating.
Most of my musical heroes have day jobs, so cheers to the fulltime hobby and cheers to being a hobbyist.
Me and Mclean and a pile of awesome and wonderfully talented friends (who are in other bands you probably love , wether you know it yet or not) are doing this Thee Outernet, it's a music blog about stuff we love. Some old stuff , some bands that don't even have records out yet. I'd be stoked if you checked it out.
love,
Chloe
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4 comments:
ehh, i kind of get the statement. i don't think he's saying getting cash for your art is the ULTIMATE goal
i mean, i am happy drawing my cartoons of dogs in funny hats, and don't really care that nobody buys the,
BUT if i had the choice between washing dishes during the day and drawing dogs in funny hats at night (my current situation) or drawing dogs in funny hats ALL DAY and having wealthy monacled businessmen throw money at me for it and never having to mop up pee that missed the urinal in my restaurant's washrooms ever again, i would probably pick the latter
i get what you're saying mike , and am glad i can eeek out a living drawing and designing.
i like what i do for a living but the "work" side (all the dreary boring tasks like accounting , sticking stuff into templates and begging to be paid) is a bigger part my day than the fun part (dogs in funny hats).
the thing is , in music there's A LOT more compromises to be made in order to live from it. do you think a band can do challenging and difficult music and actually make money?
I don't think it's even possible , at least not a on long term .
if there is a goal of paying one's rent from it , then there must be a cultivation towards the commercial from the get go. And of course pre-emptive self censorship.
i spend tons of time hanging with other musicians , either clients , bands i'm playing with or bands sleeping at my house and pretty much everyone I know in the underground is glad to have music hobby.
a hobby means no pressure to sell and freedom to be weird.
that's not to say that any of these people would say "no" if a wealthy patron were to pay them to immerse themselves in their art full time , it's more knowing what the realities of living from music entail.
and those realities are often sleazy and hostile to visionary works.
just my 2 cents.
yeah, the logistics of playing in a band seem totally intimidating to me, and definitely something separate from what i do.
and i agree with you about the benefits of working in relative obscurity. it gives you a lot more freedom, which is what attracted me to comics in general and the sort of poster artists i like in the first place
cheers.
http://autistictheater.blogspot.com
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