Wednesday 27 June 2012

Day Off/ Hunting

There is never a day off for the hungry. I don't just mean the impoverished and homeless, but I mean for those who are always trying to get more done and explore. I have been working on a proposal for a second open mic night for two reasons. I'm hungry, and frankly, I've learned a valuable lesson about business.

Knowing your audience is a staple in almost every career. Writers, scientists, zookeepers, janitors, lawyers, the list goes on. Knowing who you report to (not your boss, but the consumer of your product or service) is the only way to get anything back from an occupation. This is why musicians who only play and write for themselves are accidentally famous, and their careers always either die out because they haven't enough staying power to seek out their audience and cater to it, or they bend too much to their perceived listeners and lose themselves. Its a tightrope in every job. And I have found that the three bosses I have to report to are my musicians, their audience, and my venue.

The issue here is that if my venue has not attracted a new crowd for my musicians, it could be either my fault because I haven't brought enough people in, the a fact of circumstance that the venue is not built to attract (or might even repel) the audience my show needs to sustain itself. So my options were to continue canvassing, and hope the crowd comes out in spite of surroundings which aren't generally their scene, or to move house.

The former proved to in fact alienate folks who were happy to support the show but uncomfortable in the venue which did not provide the same kind of atmosphere they wanted from an acoustic open stage night. One of my regular acts even took to the mic in between an original and a cover to say thank you to the 3 of us clapping and to warn the rest of the crowd that the upcoming tune was one he had written and that probably nobody would like. The other acts all loved it, and I realized I need to be set up in a space of people who come for the show, not stay in spite of it.

This is a tricky situation because it means that I need to seek out a space which wants a show like this which can bring in their existing guests and create a collaborative space for music to happen, but within a space that somehow hasn't caught onto this idea yet...

So today, with what I think is a rock-star-turned-music-manager outfit on, I am wandering the streets like a teenager fresh from grade 11 passing his resume around. Only I have done my research and know exactly why they should take me in.

So here goes phase 2 of this adventure. I feel I may have outgrown some contacts I've made so far in this business, and its nice to know that not everyone you meet ends up being someone who cares as much as you thought they would. Just because all artists are starving ones doesn't mean some of them aren't already full but passively accepting a second helping because they are still at the table. I never intend to be one of those, and will always offer something off my plate to the guy next to me who hasn't had a bite yet. Right now, I'm taking the old matriarch approach to this and deciding to eat last. But today I'm hunting and gathering for my flock of musicians who have somehow lined up behind me and deserve a crowd. Its now my job to go out and get them one.

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