We know The Drama Club personally and they’re great guys/musicians.

But it’s not hard, especially if you make good music. The thing about the music industry is that when you have something to offer everyone introduces you to everyone because it makes them look good. And if you’re really passionate about it, it tends to come pretty naturally. I eat, sleep, & drink music, so of course 90% of the people I hang out with are musicians, in the music industry, or are passionate music fans.

I think the “you have to know someone” excuse is one that bands who don’t have what it takes use. The fact of the matter is that if you have what it takes, people will want to know you. That’s just how it works.

Sure, mediocre bands have gotten deals based on who they know, but what normally happens? The record gets shelved or bombs. And then the band breaks up. Whoopty doo.

Sadly that’s not always true.

In the old days you were spotted by a record company A&R which was route one and the only route.

Now there are so many things that you can do to promote your music that people think by running 100 miles an hour and doing everything they will always get somewhere.

It doesn’t always work out like that.

Music isn’t like carpentry. You can’t just follow blueprints. You either have it or you don’t. And even when a band isn’t yet technically proficient, you know whether there’s a spark or not.

Just because you can get a thousand plays per day on myspace doesn’t mean you don’t suck. ESPECIALLY when all of those plays are 13 year old girls.

This is the most important line in the entire article. There are bands who can bust ass for years and never get anywhere, and its simply because they are not destined to be great artists. Sure, every kid dreams about it at some point, but ‘legendary’ is a very short list of elites. Knowing how to play guitar and being a truly talented guitarist are very different things.

We have made this point on KOAR a few times, and it’s one that certainly shouldn’t be forgotten. Not every band will make it and not everyone working in the industry will be on Behind The Music or have a book written about them. It doesn’t have anything to do with how good you are or how bad you want it. Yes, those things matter, but it really comes down to whether or not that’s truly what you’re meant to do. Is it luck or is it magic? Did you force it to happen, or did the planets align for you?

The problem with labels losing all of their power is that ANYONE can be in a band and develop some sort of fanbase. I think this is giving false hope to crappy bands who 15 years ago would have had door after door slammed in their face. I get demos from ‘new’ bands that are in their mid 30s, sound like Nickelback’s retarded cousin, and are all about 150 lbs overweight. The songs aren’t good and the band can’t land anything other than a few local bar gigs. Or the teenagers who just learned how to play the guitar and copied a couple song styles from the radio. Those are the ones who always have more endorsements and merchandise than fans. You shouldn’t have more t-shirt designs than you do songs. Why do these guys even call themselves a band? And more importantly, why are they sending out demos? They clearly have nothing to offer. They need to get jobs. Getting demos THAT bad from bands who are THAT pointless is almost offensive.

Same goes for people working in the industry, because these bands ALWAYS have someone working for them. How long do you think you can go without a hit artist before people stop taking you seriously? No big projects, no big bands, maybe a short stint at a label where you got to work on someone else’s find, but what have YOU brought to the table? What have you unearthed and how have you impacted music? These days, no matter how bad the manager, producer, publicist, booking agent, etc, you will ALWAYS be able to find a band dumb enough to pay you. But again, it’s false hope. You may be paying your bills, but that ‘not good enough’ microcosm of bad local/myspace bands and wannabe industry is utterly irrelevant to the bigger picture.

If you’re working on that level, your time would be better spent scrapbooking your glory days so you can prove to your grandkids that you’re not making it all up.

Where’s the news on 32 Leaves signing with Universal? “Welcome to the Fall” was a pretty good album they’re very compareable to Dean’s 10 Years.