JUMPING DARKNESS PARADE: EYAL ON THE FINANCIAL REALITIES OF A LIFE IN METAL
Those of you out there who are in bands that haven’t made it yet. I have a question for ya. Do you know why you want to do this? Have you really thought it out? There’s a reason I’m asking. I’m pretty easy to reach. I make myself very available online. I’m always into talking to fans, non-fans, whatever, I’m into conversation. Something that always comes up when people are asking me questions is how much money I make from DAATH. First of all, I’m not going to tell you how much money I make from anything. But I’ll say this: DAATH isn’t my only source of income, but all my income comes from music.
What people are trying to find out is if I make a lot of money at this, if I still have to have a day job, etc., etc., etc. No, I don’t make a lot of money at it. There isn’t much money to be made in metal. Most people in bands you listen to have jobs on the side. Whether they’re in music or not is a different story. Most people in metal bands cannot make all their ends meet from metal alone.
The way I get asked these questions cracks me up. Some dude who has a band that plays once a month having a stress attack about the idea of signing to a major label because he might have to leave his 60k a year job to tour. Usually the people’s questions are about completely unrealistic scenarios. I get asked if we get health benefits from the labels. I get asked if it’s true that we can bang a new girl in every city. I get asked all the above. Very rarely do I get asked about how to generate multiple streams of income from various musical and music-related sources in order to put together an actual living from music.
Dudes and dudettes – it’s almost IMPOSSIBLE to make a living playing heavy music. Let alone get rich from it. That’s like winning the lottery. To be in a band the size of Slipknot is the equivalent of winning the big game lotto. Don’t count on it. If you do, you’re an idiot. You need to be in this for the long haul because you LOVE making music and there’s nothing else you can bring yourself to do with your time on Earth. If that’s you, then you need to figure out how to make cash from it without sacrificing your soul. It’s tough to do, but any other motivation for being in this will lead you down some pretty shitty financial and mental paths. Either burnout, has-been, dead, or pathetically depressed. Not good endings to this path.
Your love for music needs to be the guiding light, because you will be shat on and have to jump through over hurdles for it than you can ever imagine. If that love isn’t quite strong enough, you won’t last. Money can’t be your driving force, because if it is, then years of going broke will drive you to a real job. Pussy can’t be it… I mean, you can get laid at metal shows being in a metal band, but its not like you don’t have to work for it. Unless your band is big, the pussy is not throwing itself at you, and if you have no game you have no game. You’re not going to get that much more pussy that you normally would.
So get your head out of the clouds and realize that this is a profession for those who are unlucky enough to be in love with it. And those who have that bug need to figure out the difficult task of how to make it work for them financially.
-EL
Your chances of getting pussy and cash will increase exponentially if you visit Daath on MySpace.
