The modern musician’s life

What does it take?

What does it take to be successful for the modern musician? There are more people trying to become artists, performers, or professional instrumentalists than ever before. There are more qualified graduates entering the “job” market, more content creators filling the socials, or shredders showing their skills online. Many are making a career out of it, but most aren’t. Most musicians who play professionally supplement their income in other ways. Some have regular jobs, part-time usually, and some live off royalties from earlier efforts. Some teach, ( I teach bass privately and at London’s Trinity Laban Conservatoire, I play at parties and restaurants and write my blog etc. Some run other music-related businesses to pay bills as they fund their own careers toward whatever path they’ve chosen. It’s not at all easy even with the myriad of options that now exist that help to increase the chances of success.

When you’re young and just starting out, you have to be wealthy or lucky enough to find a willing partner (manager) or have a business-minded parent or family member who wants to take on the work involved. Without a steady and reliable financial hand involved, you have to be “talented” in other ways besides making music. And be prepared to work very very hard.

You cannot rely on chance. Nor upon your high level of talent, or your unique sound that “just needs to find the right audience”. An audience has to be not only found but then cultivated, nurtured, and engaged with to keep their attention. There may be some luck involved in elevating you to where you wanna be, but mostly those “coincidences” only really happen because you set the groundwork for them to happen.

You may notice friends and associates, posting content with their band on tour or getting airplay. Many include pics of their streaming stats to show their “numbers” as a sign of success.

Unless one is following their careers closely it may appear as if it all happened almost overnight after just a short period, but on average for most bands/artists’ observable success actually only occurs after a minimum of 3 - 5 years. That means a band has had to stay together without earning much of an income from their efforts for about 2-3 years, whilst making a record and setting up the relationships that allow for gig bookings/airplay and other essential steps to occur.

Sure that good old ”luck” potential can happen and every artist thinks it may be them that it happens to… (“It could be you” - sound familiar?) …the 1st single is released and it goes viral - voila! But as stated earlier you cannot rely on luck. It does happen for someone somewhere all the time, but there are so many of us creating music and uploading into the stream-verse, chances are slim - nevertheless, I hope that happens for artists and musicians working hard out there. However, when you’re starting your career an important element is choosing what you want to focus on in a concentrated way and then actually doing it.

I self-released an album back in 2003, but I was also working as a session musician and touring all throughout the making of the album and after its release too. That split focus meant that I couldn’t really do the “Artist” role efficiently. I was earning a solid income as a professional musician, all oriented around touring and being secure in a role I wasn’t prepared to let go of, even as I’d had ambitions to write original music from a young age. I had become side-lined by invitations to work with other musicians because of a lack of self-belief and because I was without solid conviction.

When I became sufficiently inspired and my kids were no longer tiny, I again self-released an album of original material. It was now 2011 and again I did almost all of the work myself, writing and rewriting until I was satisfied. I penned all the lyrics and demoed the tracks, learning many new skills that enabled me to produce and arrange the music independently, (with the help of a highly experienced and incredibly skillful engineer. I didn’t consider myself to be a singer but rather than trying to find the right person with all of the complications involved, I took some lessons and stepped into the role of lead vocalist to showcase myself as a songwriter. I then learned how to record myself properly in my home studio and edit on logic. It was a tough job. I had a lot of self-doubts and was still painfully lacking in confidence, but this time I ignored the negative self-messaging and completed the record releasing it in 2012. You can listen to the results here.

I had started a record label in order to release the music, I set up a website and created all of the content, biographies of band members, shop pages, designed the layout etc. with a web designer doing the coding, (oh how I love WordPress for a nice level of independence in this era - build your own website it’s so easy!) I was the person bagging and posting the CDs every time an order came through. (After the initial excitement each time an order arrived, I experienced that getting old pretty quickly!)

I hired a publicist who took my retainer (£1000 over 4 months) and did F-all with the money. FIRED!! I received a few reviews and tried my best at the time to elevate my band The Deep MO, which was going ok enough with a few nice moments here and there occurring.

I sorted out the distribution online (CDs at the time) taking orders through my website and as a seller on Amazon Marketplace. I also managed to get distribution through Proper Music (named as such at the time) and enjoyed the experience of finding albums released on my label in HMV stores.

One of our albums was even nominated for a MOBO in the jazz category in 2011 which was another high.

In 2010 I managed to get the gig opening for Level 42 and sold 2,500 copies of my EP on the tour, including other merchandising which of course was organised by little old me. I was able to pay my band from the merch and CDs sold as the tour wasn’t paying any profits after costs - a typical occurrence.

Social media just wasn’t around back then to the level it is now, streaming for profits by rights holders wasn’t a thing all that much either at that point. Although I was distributed by CD Baby & Reverbnation for some releases later on.

I was a novice but other musicians/bands were making decent money as independents. I was doing it less as a business, but more as a shop front to advertise that I was more than a bassist and could write songs, run bands and be a “Boss”. And sure enough, I became booked to MD for other artists’ projects, I also started writing with other musicians for their own catalog and my business partner and I split (an “ex-husband” situation) all of which paused my efforts hugely and distracted me with my personal life stuff taking over for quite some time.

Nothing happens when you take your eye off the ball, it all stops. Everything is down to you. The creative content, the impetus of the effort needed, the energy, ideas, holding a team/band together - everything is led by you and only you. It is after all your vision and your music. You can work with others - always recommended, but you are the architect of your own career.

Understanding this is crucial to creating any kind of life as an independent artist. It’s a strength of character test - not regarding whether you fail or succeed, but just how dedicated are you. How much are you prepared to learn, work, recover from setbacks, start again when things go wrong, accept help, and full responsibility for decisions made? All of this is needed - it really isn’t for everyone. The days when a manager just appears and makes offers are still here, but where their attentions lie is hard to pinpoint outside of the world of apps like TikTok where you are competing with content creators that have large numbers of followers. For the rest of us, we just cannot compete with those who have decided to make a real go of it using popularity as a goal. But that doesn’t mean to say you need to compete at that level. Finding out how to structure your marketing is key as well as learning how to stay focused on whatever area is the most important to you. Divide your time between everything that needs your attention including practice, writing, and being creative - and cultivate your art with a massive amount of patience. It takes time. Whatever you do it will take time. Especially if you want longevity and a high standard of output representing your talents.

This level of focus is why succeeding is no longer only an actual musician’s game. It’s an organised person’s territory. A "no talent” hustler who works hard at hustling will do better than a highly trained musician with all the plaudits to show for their talent. Musicians need to step up and become more ‘business’ about music. This is a solid way to achieve a level of success that can grow to much higher levels than anticipated once the momentum gets going. If you want to make a living by using what the system has to offer then this is the modern musician’s life. For those that want to write, record and release original material you have to learn marketing skills, networking skills, and develop a very strong sense of tenacity, perseverance and self-belief.

I’m on that road myself and every small victory feels huge, every setback devastating. Learning how to self-counsel and stay on track is the hardest thing - but I’ve never felt like quitting. It’s too exciting to play live and hear the songs that we’re writing coming together and sounding so good. People come up to us after every show and share how moved, excited or happy our performances made them feel. Sometimes my lyrics resonate with some on a deep level and we share a moment. This is priceless and the true reward for what we do.

The journey is about the day-to-day after all. I am hoping for certain outcomes to do with the album and the band, but I am also just enjoying this life that I’ve chosen. It’s inspiring and never ever dull.

Success feels achieved by maintaining this daily life and so far that part is going well.

So if you want to start a band or be a professional musician you must do it only if you love it and are prepared to do all that you need to do to weather the storms along the way. I have other stories to tell regarding my previous career solely as a session musician. Again not the easiest thing to do with whatever talent you have. The strength of musicians and our love for music is sorely underappreciated.

I began recording my music in 2003. It’s now 20 years later and I nurtured the energy and inspiration to start again during lockdown when I had time to think and decide what I wanted to do with whatever time I have left. I’m focused on my band and writing skills as well as teaching which I really do enjoy and can see myself continuing on into later years after I stop performing live in 20 years or so lol - so with the setbacks, losses, disappointments, and heartbreak along the way these past 20 years, I’m still working as a pro musician - less as a sessioner and more artist-focused. My stories are many and my life has been an incredible journey so far. As my eldest daughter tells me I have had a rebirthing of my spirit and rediscovered my deep love of making music. I am renewed and am here doing what I do solely because of that love. Walking away from session work and doing big tours is the least of my regrets in life. I don’t intend to have any regrets moving forward.

A mini Project pH BAND (& INSTRA-MENTALS) update:

We have a new drummer - Nico Py was just invited to join both line-ups this May. We’ve been re-recording guitars and some drum tracks after parts had to be replaced. Changes in line-ups are the thing that can cause bands to split up. But I am the driving force of my own career - the music starts and ends with me. I’m excited to complete the recording of the debut album. After having to change my original plan of recording a live studio album, to now making a heavily produced studio album, I’ve re-written some songs, thrown some out, and added new ones. The simple process as it began in Dec 2021 has become a completely different beast. But on we go with 15 live dates ahead of us, the 2nd single is being mixed in July and scheduled for release 4-6 weeks after.

We soldier on because this is the life of a modern musician, it’s not for the faint-hearted, but for the dedicated, brave, and strong.