I haven’t addressed this one in a minute – but you should under no circumstances be out there asking permission. This is one of the great maxims I have when approaching any band, business or marketing idea. I think so often people get held up worried about how other people will judge them or what their friends will view them as. Hell, even more often people get worried about the opinions of people they don’t even like. I know this happens to me all the time, which is why I feel the need to push through no matter what because the second I start asking permission of other people is the second I stop creating content. This is the big issue of the music industry as a whole too – is so many people who hold themselves back and don’t go for it because they are too worried about asking permission which is, ultimately, a useless endeavor that is just going to end up making you look like another useless asshole.
We all praise, perhaps too much, the greats of yesteryear who as teenagers were recording sick demos and putting themselves out there on tours or simply via tape trading networks. Yet, how many of you really tried to do that? I’m not asking if you did it well, I’m asking if you did it. I know I tried but I had a hard time with it. Why? Because I kept asking for permission. I’m not sure from who, maybe the scene as a whole? It was a hard fucking time. That’s the problem we all face. That’s why so many people sit on songs for years without releasing them. Remember that busy is a choice, it’s a question of what you are prioritizing. If at the end of the day you have a whole dope record worth of tracks that need to be recorded and you’ve been sitting on them for years. Well, maybe it’s not because you’ve been busy and broke that you haven’t recorded them – if you actually believed in them, I think you would find a way to make it happen.
How many bands end up breaking up because they couldn’t get a label into their record? Not that they couldn’t get shows or traction or whatever, but that they couldn’t get a label? The thing is you aren’t going to get a label, or traction or whatever right away. You need to work at it. The first thing you do with a new group of musicians is probably going to suck. The second thing you do will probably also suck. That’s not a question of you being bad at what you do, it’s a question of you needing to fucking do it if you want to get anywhere. The thing is you need to suck it up and do it anyway and not beat yourself up over it. If you stop before you get a chance to improve and bring it to the next level you are wasting your time.
Any struggle you face is probably because you are asking permission and not working hard enough. Even basic stuff. You can’t get a show? Fine – do it yourself. A venue will let you rent out the club for a fee, and usually, one that isn’t too steep. Can’t get anyone to come to your show? Learn to be a better band. It’s those two basic things, and we all know them. Sunn0))) shows us that it’s not a question of people demanding music it to be written in a certain way for it to merit their attention. It’s a question of the music being good with the branding is a presentation to match. The thing is, you can’t work hard if you’re asking permission, because if you are afraid of looking stupid or being judged then you will literally never get anywhere. No one is going to want to invest in a band who want to get paid before they get good at both music and selling themselves. Yet, somehow this is the attitude thousands if not millions of musicians take.
I don’t know if I would have gotten anywhere if I had been asking permission in high school when I started blogging about metal and then eventually getting put in charge of a record label. I think a lot of that comes from being the weird kid and not having a reason to care about other peoples opinion, I think another part of it came out of, to sound completely clichéd, fucking dedication to this music that we all claim to love. Like seriously – why give a shit? If you want to have an interesting life, then do what you want to do, all of the time. You might say that’s not possible, but that’s how we live. We choose our own priorities and how we are going to spend our time. Yes, things impact that, but it’s on you to figure out if you are going to prioritize them or how you are going to deal with them. Your time is your most valuable asset and you don’t have nearly enough to spend dicking around wondering if people will like what you are doing. Don’t worry. Put out that demo, do that podcast, write that blog. The thing is on the internet stuff is so ephemeral it doesn’t fucking matter. If your content sucks people will just forget, they won’t make fun of you, unless it’s aggressively bad, and in that case, you probably should have the self-awareness to know. Don’t worry about getting mocked, worry about embracing and doing whatever you can do. The average shelf life of any piece of content on the internet is under twenty-four hours anyway.
MATT BACON
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Matt Bacon is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. Having worked with everyone from Glam Rock icon Phil Collen of Def Leppard, to post Black Metal titans Alcest, by way of legendary thrashers Exhorder as well as labels including Prophecy Productions and Ripple Music, he has dedicated his life to helping young bands develop. Having started his own blog at the age of 14 he views his career in artist development as ‘a hobby that got out of hand’. In 2015 he formed Dropout Media in order to better support the artists he loves. We sit here now, years later with countless tours booked, records released and deals signed, and loving every minute of it.
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