Why real music stars work hard
- Feb 09, 2011
Virgin guest blogger Emiliano Canal is the owner of Eternal Sunday records, Argentina, the only Argentinian record label specializing in releasing local music with songs in English. In this post he explores the need to be professional even though you’re a rock star.
There's a huge (and sad) paradox in the music industry: on one hand you have thousands of unsigned bands and artists willing to do anything in order to be successful (well maybe anything except what they really have to do); on the other hand you talk to any label executive or A&R and they claim that they scout dozens and dozens of bands every month in order to find a potential big star and find no one.
Developing a band or artist from obscurity to worldwide stardom requires countless hours of hard team work, long production meetings, advanced marketing skills and an awful lot of money, not to mention intangible things like having that "x" factor or being very lucky. I started with the countless hours of work because those are crucial: no matter how talented you are, no matter how good you play your guitar, how beautiful your voice is or how much your fans scream at your shows, no one will want to work with you if you're not easy to get along with. If I would have to name one reason why most artists I know that are talented and attractive enough to be stars aren't famous or successful I would say it’s because they are unprofessional and difficult to get along with.
Some years ago a friend and I decided to organize a series of live shows in a cool small venue in downtown Buenos Aires. We were young entrepreneurs who believed there were many unknown talented bands and musicians that needed an opportunity. We planned to book four (sometimes five) new bands every Thursday during one month, get press coverage and hopefully help some of those bands to get some fame. We were absolutely convinced that the big music industry players were not paying enough attention to new bands. We were so innocent and naïve.
That month changed my perspective of the music industry forever, and really made me understand what music executives talked about. Though some of the bands were cool, relatively professional and nice to be with, many were a nightmare to deal with. They made every (stupid) mistake you can think of: they arrived late (and I mean three hours late, not ten minutes), they forgot to bring basic things like cables or adaptors for their instruments (and asked us to get them an RCA-miniplug adaptor in the middle of the night), got drunk, brought drunk and aggressive friends (or brought no one with them), acted like jerks...
One band was based around a keyboard player who happily asked (demanded) us to get him a piano stool at 2am (he claimed he couldn't play without one). Since it was a small venue and the shows were short the most practical approach was that every band should share the same equipment (same drums, guitar and bass amps, mics). This is normal practice for small shows and usually there is no problem. There were many problems.
One night the guitar player of the second band started to unplug his amp (that had to be used yet for the third and fourth band) to take it with him. He claimed that his father had gone to pick him up and he had to carry the amp with him (of course he had agreed before to share the amp with all the other bands, but didn't calculate this when he gave his dad the time to pick him up).
Most bands were insecure about the way they sounded, and demanded to check sound for hours (there was no time for that) and to sound as loud as possible (something that was not possible due to volume restrictions and because that's something that I personally hate, since I need my ears to produce music) – as if a high volume could turn a bad performance into a good one.
When we told the guys that we couldn't fulfil their unrealistic demands they got immediately offended, as if they were huge stars that were doing us the favour of showing up. Some even got almost violent, screaming and insulting us (me and my friend happen to be big 6' 2'' tall guys so no one attempted anything physical). And guess what? When these bands went onstage, they played mediocre shows. Bad vocals, awful songs, stupid lyrics, the music was derivative…
They acted like they were big stars, except onstage.
Real professionals are quite the opposite. I'm working with one of Argentina's most experienced singers, a girl named Paula AKA Polette who sung backing vocals for artists like Shakira and Deep Purple (among countless others) and sung dozens of radio and TV jingles. She appears often on TV. She has to be booked with weeks in advance, since everyone keeps calling her.
Do people call her because she's got a beautiful voice? She's got one, but there are so many girls with nice voices. Her secret is professionalism. And by being professional I mean helping the other part, not causing them more problems. Paula is always on time (though she's got a busy schedule). She brings the lyrics with her. She doesn't complain about anything most singers do (though her suggestions, the product of her experience, are very valid), and this includes recording rooms, software used, monitors, headphone mixes, microphones, quality of the effects used, etc. She needs only a one or two rehearsals, but she takes them seriously. She records in a few takes, saving studio time. If the cheque for her is a couple of days late she may politely call you, but she never will cause a scene or send you her lawyers or complain in public as most amateurs do. Of course, when she gets onstage, she fills the whole place.
She's a star where matters, onstage, and a great team player in everyday life.
What the music business need desperately are real stars not pretentious kids who complicate everyone's lives.
Emiliano Canal runs www.eternalsunday.com.ar
This guest blog complies to Virgin.com terms & conditions.
