And despite the frustration and near-hopelessness of it, I found that I deeply enjoyed the attempt at taking an unknown, generally unimpressive entity (my emo band) and trying to get people to support us with downloads and dollars. I also learned to rely on myself each day on the road was sink or swim. Credit: Jason LengstorfĮven though I was failing to make it big as a musician, I was gaining a lot of valuable information: I liked the business part of the experience I really enjoyed designing posters and building websites I wasn't terrible at promotion and sales. One of my early design projects: a CD cover for a demo recording. Concert posters needed to be designed and printed and mailed to people - and those people needed to be convinced to hang them up around town. Equipment needed repairs and replacement. We needed shows booked, and t-shirts made, and payments negotiated (and collected). I wasn't just a musician I was a promoter, a manager, a designer, an accountant, and a dozen other jobs we couldn't afford to pay someone else to do for us. Trying to make it as a musician threw me into the deep end of several new skill sets. In fact, those "wasted" years were a critically important step in my early journey toward building a successful career. If that failed we'd sleep in Walmart parking lots or on sticky venue floors.Īnd yet, I would never call that time wasted. We couldn't afford hotel rooms, so we begged from the stage for living room floor space to sleep on.
#Off wasted years full
I learned that gas stations won't charge for cups full of hot water while living off about $60/month (earned by working for a week or so in a minimum wage job that I knew wouldn't call my references) and the charity of others.
0 kommentar(er)
