10,000 hours to get great

Policies of hope

We’re all chuffed for the merkin people. The merkins have got a great new prez. All of a sudden merkins are brilliant again. No more dodgy neo-cons. No more war on tourism. It’s the end of an error. New don.

I love it. On some level it’s so cool. Like, sincerely.

With more than half a million dollars spent (equivalent to $9 per achieved vote), the election was a great result in the showbusiness billed as the best democracy that money can buy.

What the hell is a policy of hope?

Artists what do it right 

We spent two of the most enjoyable weeks in the studio, first with Smudge, then with Esteban, recording their next EPs. The current ones have seen the bands on the airwaves, in ink, on-line, on tour, on telly and in form. We expected nothing less. Many thanks to Manilla PR and Daniel Theo PR for the part they played.

As a pleasant side story, we got our first mention in the Financial Times the other day, courtesy of a story they ran on Rosalita. Many thanks to Republic Media for that.

Working with Smudge and Esteban on their next EPs was very rewarding artistically. It’s great to see bands make progress. Great to see that they’re hungry to get better and that they’re doing something about it. The writing is better, the playing is better, the attitude and delivery is better. Not that Mat and I have been slacking either. Our jokes are better and we really have mastered the art of reading Music Week. That’s all producers do, right?

Our newest farm animal, Jamie, has been working flat out in the studio with us, engineering the night away. I’m so feeling the new music we’re making. It’s exciting and I hope to be able to share it with you soon.

Liam, the guitarist in Esteban, got a feature in Total Guitar. Getting featured as a guitar player in a guitar magazine was one of my boyhood dreams. Never one to be twitter and bisted… I’m pleased as a pig in shit for Liam. Besides, I can still widdlediddle faster than he can!  

Smudge got onto Taste Of Chaos. They got the video on MTV2. The were featured in the US rock bible Alternative Press.

Progress BABY!

Speaking of which, check out this nice blog http://neatandpolite.blogspot.com/2008/10/metro-flood.html

It ain’t what you do, it’s how you do…

Last summer I had a meeting with an interesting band from Dorchester. Moontown they’re called. While discussing the local scene, it was no surprise to hear that there wasn’t much of one. That’s not to say that I expected Dorchester to be dead. But it’s the usual whinge of most artists… ;-) 

So, I say: “Why don’t you guys start up your own night and build a scene?” I mean, if there isn’t anything going on, that to me signifies an OPENING. Where else is everyone going to go to? All of a sudden people don’t want to go out, get drunk and get laid? Gimme a break…

A few weeks ago Toby from the band called to give me an update on the preparations for the sessions we’d agreed to do. He told me, very matter of fact, that they’re pulling in the crowds at half a dozen club nights in as many cities. And that it’s spreading! Build it and they will come.

The sessions went just as smoothly. Cool band. Can’t wait to post the stuff here on this blog.

Lefsetz newsletter

Recently I subscribed to a very entertaining newsletter called Lefsetz Letter. It’s been going for 25 years. First as hard copy and now in digital. In it Bob Letsetz, speaks about the music business to, we are lead to believe, an audience of music biz big hitters. It’s educated stuff.

The other day he wrote about the American AOR act Journey whose song Don’t Stop Believin’ is one of the biggest catalogue songs, no doubt because they use it in American Idol so much. I know Journey. I have a cassette of their album Frontiers, copied from a mate when we were kids. Spurred on by Leftsetz I found out about Journey. They had their big commercial success 10 years into their recording career. 10 fucking years! Most careers don’t last a fifth of that. Who in the last 20 years found success after 10 years of releasing records on a major?

I dug deeper. Turns out the band formed in 1973 as a jazz/rock band, mainly instrumental music. Before that they’d played in Santana’s band. So, by the time the 80s rolled along and they made Frontiers, they were a bunch of guys with tons, mountains, universes of musical knowledge, mileage and experience to their name. Shit, their live stuff on YouTube is phenomenal. This is before autotune existed, before any shit shining equipment existed. This had to be played, note for note.

They sure put in their 10,000 hours, which according to experts, is the magic number of work you need to put in if you are to excel in any area. You need to have the talent, certainly, but on top of that you really need to work. The ones who excel not only put in a lot more work than the also rans, but they put much much much more work in that the other lot.

From now on, make the way to your rehearsal space your favourite walkway…!

This entry was posted on 22/11/2008 at 10:27 pm and is filed under News At Zen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.