THE HARD R: ALL ABOUT PLUS
Congrats to Ziltoid and Grover XIII for entering the blogger world. Check out their new blog, The Number of the Blog! It takes balls to work on something and put it out there for people (the world) to ingest. I’m sure they will get a good following. The Internet is such a specific place so a different perspective goes a long way. If there is humor involved, even better!
Your success is dependent on you and no one else. There are people out there who believe you need to fail for them to succeed. That’s bullshit. There’s room for everyone to step up. Get out there and do what Ziltoid and Grover XIII did. Start something. Congratulations again guys. I’ll check it out as much as I can.
Let’s get your band closer to the success you want, need and deserve. There are so many tools at your disposal to get your band noticed. Networking, playing shows, making merchandise, recording albums, making webisodes, etc. But one of the most important aspects of moving forward in music is one of the most overlooked.
Positive thinking. Yeah, I said it. On the big, bad metal blog. Sue me.
I know what your thinking but I’m not going to go all Tony Robbins or The Secret on your ass. Believe it or not, positive thinking is very powerful for a band. The human brain is by far the most complex mechanism in the world besides the universe itself. We know why trees grow, how rain turns to snow. The genius of man created the computer, the iPod, GPS, Pro Tools. But the genius of man still can’t figure out the full capacity of the human brain. The potential of the human brain, in my opinion, is limitless. Yes, I believe reading minds and moving things telepathically is possible. Imagine four or five brains working together for a similar goal. It can move the things we can’t see or hear. Emotions. Thoughts. The intangibles.
Two situations. One band finishes a demo. They network. They play shows. They hit the grind every day. But they go out there with “I smell shit” scowls on their faces all day, every day. They think every one owes them something. The promoter owes them a show with Testament. The label owes them a record contract. The groupie owes them a blow job. They carry a chip on their shoulder the size of my ego. The second band goes out there and grinds it out. They help other bands load equipment. They load their own equipment. They smile when they get the short end of the stick. They congratulate the other local band on their success. Generally this band enjoys, hell, lives for the experience of working from the ground up.
Which band do you think is going to have a better chance of moving forward consistently? My bet is on the positive band who enjoy their time. The band who thinks they deserve everything for the least amount of work is in it for the wrong reasons. I’m not saying you should continually eat shit if it’s sitting there in a bowl every day. I’m saying things can always get better as long as you believe they will get better. Believing in your music and your goals can and will carry you very far.
To be clear though: Positive thinking doesn’t have to be the “happy go lucky, everything is great” attitude. It can be a wealth of things. Positive thinking can be the belief in your art or bands current direction. It can be a silent pact with yourself to practice every day outside of band practice. It can be the channeling of a special moment to someone or something else. For me, positive thinking is productivity.
I know it gets rough so keeping the “positive” hat on all the time is unrealistic. A general sense of ‘it will work out’ is important for your mental well being. I’ve learned more from my failures than my successes. In my eyes, each failure is an opportunity to get it right.
Every band has it’s bumps in the road. Some huge, some small. Perspective is important and positive thinking helps you come to grips with reality. Things can be a hell of a lot worse than it is now. If you play drums, think about the guy who wants to rock out but doesn’t have the talent or the time? Every body is good at something but it’s up to you to find out what you do well. Positive thinking breaks the barriers you believe are in front of you.
What does negative thinking do? It creates copy cats.
How many of you can attribute a positive or negative outlook affecting the course of your life? Have you ever changed your outlook to see a significant change in your career/band/etc?
-DC
