Taking a few minutes away from transcribing an interview to talk about something that's been on my heart for a while.
In talking to the different artists, I've come to realize how few of them are aware of their own vitality. They see their music days as being on a shelf in the memory closet. Frankly, some of them come perilously close to seeing themselves as playing not another song but rather playing out the string, going through the motions of living with the best public smile they can muster while inside believing they dwell in growing shadows, invisible and irrelevant.
Bull.
Perhaps I'm too naive for my own good; perhaps I'm not willing to comprehend how years of bad business deals and broken promises while living on a rattletrap bus and sleeping on the floor of whoever offered some room in their house after the show drains the life right out of people just as surely as the lust, the flesh, the eyes, and the pride of life. Perhaps. But when I see these people, talk to these people, and most important listen to these people, what most impresses me is how they're far more alive than many of them give themselves credit for.
I believe these artists have nearly incalculable wealth to share, not only in telling the stories of their lives but also in how they harbor new great music ready to stand alongside the great old music. Some will scoff, including not a few of the artists themselves. You can't recreate the past, they say. We've changed; we've moved on. Our lives are completely different now. They've broken up that old gang of mine. You're crazy to think we can make the magic happen once more.
BULL.
Name the reasons why it won't work. I'll list why these are in fact positives:
- No record contract? Perfect. No know-nothing A&R people demanding replicants of whatever's currently en vogue. No one scamming you; no one making their living off the sweat from your brow while you're lucky to catch a few crumbs. Do it for yourself. Do it for the people who will be enriched and blessed. Do it for the One who saved you. When you stick with The Man, inevitably you'll come to a place where you're sticking it to the man, and that's a beautiful thing.
- No budget for a fancy recording studio? Sweet. Who needs one these days? Modern technology is a terrific tool. You can have equipment in your home right now that any engineer or producer would have cheerfully killed for only a few years ago, and at a reasonable price to boot. Besides, telecommuting is the thing these days. That's what you're doing. You're working at home. Only difference is you're working with wood and strings and synths and voices instead of a VPN to the office. A much better deal.
- People aren't living in the same area anymore, making it much harder to get together? Awesome. You'll now appreciate the time you spend together more, giving you cause to work that much harder when you are together, thus producing better art. There's inspiration in perspiration.
- No way you'll get anything you make on the radio or in the stores? Exactly what you want. Try listening to the radio lately? Not much there. Been to a store selling music recently? Not much there either. So why even bother thinking about them? We're now blessed to live in a world where artists can take their music directly to the people, announcing it to the people most likely to pick up on it — those who actively seek new music — via the channels they frequent: iTunes, right here on MySpace, and other such sites. You no longer have to spend a fortune to be heard. Take advantage of it. Show the kiddies running around out there how the pros do it.
There is new, fresh, vital, living art and ministry inside each of these people. Some of them don't know it or try to deny it, but it's there nonetheless. No one is done here. No one is leaving the room, and don't even bother looking for the light switch to click off on your way out. This isn't a fan's dewy-eyed pipe dream of what can never be, or some nostalgia-fueled longing for a vain attempt to recreate what one was. This is today, here and now; new music and ministry more than deserving to be let out and shared with all.
It's. Not. Over.
Not even close.
