5/29/2024–David Crosby said, “I’m making music, because music makes things better and it makes people happier. That’s good enough for me.”
That may be good enough for one of the early Byrds, but it’s not good enough for the rest of us trying to make a living singing, playing, dancing, drawing, writing, or acting.
Because a consistent challenge for all artistic types is balancing doing art versus managing life. It is heaps more fun playing Sweet Home Alabama on stage to a roomful of partiers than filing taxes or rotating tires. For the true artist, the only activity that brings peace and fulfillment is the art. When you are creating art from your soul for adoring sycophants, it is magical. After a show, exiting the stage doors and driving home to balance your checkbook and replace oil filters in the van somehow is just not as fulfilling to your artistic vision.
The old split-brain theory holds up. When in the right brain, life flows like a river. In your left brain, the river be dammed.
I have worked both sides of the microphone, performing, and writing about performers. Musicians, painters, actors, turkey baster players… I have appreciated every one of them for their dedication to their craft, and for letting me help tell their stories.
To them we say: Yes, we love your ethereal vision, your gossamer sensitivity, your blistering technique. Yes, we want your art. We also want it Tuesday.
When you encounter any artist able to play on both sides of the brain, it is worth noting. I recently called a musician to do a phone interview about an upcoming concert. This person has a bit of a national reputation, is highly successful, and very busy. So I would not have been surprised if he would be hard to reach and schedule.
When I called and left a message at the appointed interview time, imagine my surprise when he texted: “Call me back in 7 minutes.”
Not in “a few” minutes, not “tomorrow,” not “later this week.” But “in 7 minutes.”
I did, and we did the interview. That is why this musician has a national reputation, is highly successful, and very busy.
Kids, if you aspire to become successful as an artist in any field, please emulate this person. Yes, you are making great art for the ages. But, no matter what David Crosby says, that’s not “good enough.”
You have to do the other work. Even when it is more fun to write your probing article on the role of the chuckwagon in the old west, to come up with that last verse for your song about bovine testicles, or to finish your unfinished symphony.
Because for the world to hear you, you must make it easy for the world to hear about you.