Well as musicians we would love them to just drop from the sky, but sadly that’s not the case. Sure sometimes the odd one or two do literally drop out of who knows where, but usually we have to work for them and if you want to gig regularly.. you gotta work pretty damn hard to get them.
If you’re the next big thing, gigs are going to be vast and many and you’ll be knocking ‘em back.. sadly I’ve never experienced that and most of us haven’t. However that being said, virtually ALL of our MADLLIPS gigs come via word of mouth or a punter who experienced one of our gigs personally. So we’ve gotta be doing something right for a bunch of geriatric muso’s.
Any hooo, there are lots of avenues to get your name and product out to people these days. Websites, Facebook, You Tube, My Space, MP3 distributors and so on.. even the old business cards are all helpful in getting your name out there. Regardless of your type of music, there is an enormous audience that has a very diverse musical appetite. Whether you make some dollars, lots of dollars or no dollars will depend on how marketable your music is.
That being said, we all play for different reasons. Some for fun, some for fame and fortune,some for the chicks.. oops, how sexist is that!.. some for the social intercourse whether it be with female, male or other is entirely up to all consenting and legal parties.. whew.. some for the artistic and creative outlet, some for the rider, some ‘cos there’s nothing on TV and some simply because they can.
The fact is, gigging live and in front of real people is nerve wracking, exhilarating and really what it’s all about. Personally for me, I just love it and will do it until the alzheimer’s completely takes over and I can’t remember what the hell a guitar is anyway, but I digress…
Get your arse out there any way you can. Open mic sessions, parties for friends, hound the venues until they give you a gig, get your bio’s and demo’s out to agencies and be prepared to travel to start with. Don’t be scared of the apprenticeship. Some of our fondest and funniest memories are from when we played in distant country towns and staying at the Aussie equivalent of the Bates Motel in the middle of BF Nowhere. Get out there and enjoy the journey. Learn to enjoy cold pizza for breakfast and take it easy on the rider (the free grog some venues provide), but more on that another time.
Rock on
Ken
http://www.madllips.com/
If you’re the next big thing, gigs are going to be vast and many and you’ll be knocking ‘em back.. sadly I’ve never experienced that and most of us haven’t. However that being said, virtually ALL of our MADLLIPS gigs come via word of mouth or a punter who experienced one of our gigs personally. So we’ve gotta be doing something right for a bunch of geriatric muso’s.
Any hooo, there are lots of avenues to get your name and product out to people these days. Websites, Facebook, You Tube, My Space, MP3 distributors and so on.. even the old business cards are all helpful in getting your name out there. Regardless of your type of music, there is an enormous audience that has a very diverse musical appetite. Whether you make some dollars, lots of dollars or no dollars will depend on how marketable your music is.
That being said, we all play for different reasons. Some for fun, some for fame and fortune,
The fact is, gigging live and in front of real people is nerve wracking, exhilarating and really what it’s all about. Personally for me, I just love it and will do it until the alzheimer’s completely takes over and I can’t remember what the hell a guitar is anyway, but I digress…
Get your arse out there any way you can. Open mic sessions, parties for friends, hound the venues until they give you a gig, get your bio’s and demo’s out to agencies and be prepared to travel to start with. Don’t be scared of the apprenticeship. Some of our fondest and funniest memories are from when we played in distant country towns and staying at the Aussie equivalent of the Bates Motel in the middle of BF Nowhere. Get out there and enjoy the journey. Learn to enjoy cold pizza for breakfast and take it easy on the rider (the free grog some venues provide), but more on that another time.
Rock on
Ken
http://www.madllips.com/
