I feel comfortable saying I have been "in the scene" for a safe and established 10 years. Although I am young, I am not new to the scene. In the past few years I have been fortunate enough to meet other people in the music industry who like what I'm about and believe in me. Doors open other doors, and before you know it you're inside the building. In all of the up and down emotions I've felt in life, no feeling has been better. When someone admirers your work, and you for you. Let me tell you, that's not easy to find no matter who you are.
A big factor in my music fandom has always been my gut feelings. For example, my gut will tell me when someone's a poser, a phony, not a fan. A fan knows. I've met people pretending to be fans at shows, just to get back stage and meet a famous person. I've met people wearing concert t-shirt who don't even know who they are. And I've met phony people in the music industry.
The biggest clue I can offer you is this; if they appear out of nowhere...red flag those mofos. Fans and people who are actually in the industry, have been around. In retrospect the biggest clue to anyone full of it or with ulterior motives almost appears out of nowhere. When you start to enter the music industry, and by this personally I mean through working with bands, promoting their music and creating their album covers, I have quickly gotten schooled on the good, bad and ugly.
The thing I love about working with other artists is a mutual respect that is hard to find in other groups. With shady music people, they are two faced. On one hand they are very personable and nice, but they are also a major butt kisser. I completely understand being starstruck (I'm no Mr. Cool) but when someone is being a serious brown-noser...I get very suspicious. When someone kisses butt that hard, they want something. Shady music people want something. That something is to make money/make more money. They have no problems stepping on others, back stabbing, or lying and cheating people out of money.
The worst threat these kind of people pose isn't even their ability to scam you or the people you care about, but it's the fact that they use the music angle. The biggest threat they poses is the ability to ruin music for you. And anyone who loves music knows this can be catastrophic. Not that this is the same, but I was once scammed in a music way that rattled me to the bones. Music is my "sweet spot" as I say. When I first moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, I was approached by a man named Danny Green who noticed my back pack covered in music patches. He told me a convincing story that was accurate of my music knowledge about a concert that was playing in SF that night.
He convinced me and my equally young and music obsessed boyfriend to follow him back to a hotel where he said if we gave him $20 bucks each he could get us backstage to the show that night. Neat and magical things like that have awesomely happened for me legitimately in my life already at that point...so I believed it. We only lost $40 bucks in the end, and upon a Google search when we got home I found out this guy was a well known scammer. I was hurt, not because I lost money, and not even so much because I was tricked. But because my music hope had gone up so high to find out it was a lie. This guy fooled me where it really counted. That was what really hurt.
There are folks not far from that in the music industry that you will stumble across as you enter the world. What am I driving at? There will be people you will meet who will be fakes, liars, and users...even in your beloved arena of music. It's sad to say, but it's the truth. Trust your gut, there's a lot of merit to the saying "If it's too good to be true it probably is." Legitimate people will never be asking you for money, they should also not be asking you to promote them constantly. Especially if they are not at least comping you some free swag or music. That is a common practice in my experience and just a common courtesy.
Whoever you work with, or know regardless in your life, you deserve to be respected. A major red flag with these people is lack of respect for others, namely people who actually appreciate what they do. I've met quite a few people who I thought were so damn cool at first, to find out they just wanted something from me or someone I know. I once even heard "Facebook likes are more important than music." I was done. That was all I needed to hear. If that's how you feel, you are NOT about the music. In essence, there are plenty of people out there like that...who care about things like Facebook likes over the music itself. I've even met adult people who have sucked up to me thinking I could help them meet so and so. This is another thing to watch out for. Once you start making your own connections, these shady people will try to use that for their own gain. They will try to use you for who you know, or who they think you know. These are not the kind of people I want to know, affiliate myself with or especially work with.
I want to affiliate myself with good folks who put music as number one, not money. Folks who quite frankly, have souls and give a shit. People I work with and cretins who like my page seem to trust me, and I plan to cherish that and never abuse it. You can make it in the music biz without losing your integrity and without using others.
Also, heed the words of Bill Hicks...
For additonal reading: The Music Biz...Are Industry People Shady by Dave'Davey D' Cook
Comments