Something I struggle with as someone who is always pushing to hustle harder and do more is the last week of the year. Traditionally it is a time when everything slows down. Emails are rarely answered and people are spending time with their families. For many, this is a welcome reprieve and I get it. It’s winter, it’s dark, you worked hard all year, why bother trying to fight through when all is quiet? If you want to take some of this time off there is no shame in that. However, if you are in a band and this is some of your only concentrated time to work on music it can be hard to decide what to spend your free time on that will genuinely help your band in this period. If you focus on rehearsal, recording, planning and setting up incremental goals though you will quickly find that there can be meaningful growth for your band during the holidays.
4. Rehearsal
This is a big one. This is probably the only time in the year that your band will have a few days off in a row. What better time then to polish off that song or refine your set? Furthermore, because people have time off it’s easier to pull some of your friends in to give you feedback or check out what you are doing. This is the week where everyone has a little more free time and is feeling a little extra charitable, so try and share what you are doing with your friends and get their critiques. This is a great time to get your band to wear it needs to be and to really master what you are working on. After all – when else in the year do you have this much free time?
3. Recording
This is the other key focus that I think can only really come because so many people have time off. If you have any sort of DIY home setup then this is probably a good time of the year to record a demo. If you’re in touch with a studio who try to hustle then they might be open too. I know that my friend Marc Urselli, the hardest working man in show business has a session on Christmas day – it’s what you gotta do if you are trying to win. If your band can all get off easily then this might be the perfect opportunity for you to sit down and do some recording. Then you have a cool new product that you can start to prep for the new year. You gotta love it!
2. Planning
Now we are shifting into some of the stuff that we talk about a little more in this blog series. Planning is of course crucial for anyone in the biz. The thing is – now you have a ton of time to do it and the full calendar year incoming that you can map out. So make a point of reaching out to your bandmates, and the people you want to work with and see if you can start to get an idea of what you want to do when. It’s a good time as any to start to figure out what makes sense for you to be doing and where you can be starting to target as you grow in your career throughout the next year. It’s surprising how far you can get in a good hour-long goal setting session, so sit down, brainstorm and start to figure it out.
1. Goal Setting
This ties nicely into the planning point I made earlier – this is a great time of year to start figuring out your goals with your career and music. These don’t necessarily need to be tied to a specific timeline, but they do need to be there and clearly defined. If you can attach clear numbers to them then you will be even better off. Sit down and look back at what you did in the last year of your music career. Figure out what went well and what went poorly. Then figure out which of those things you want to replicate and build on. Shape these into clear targets for your growth going forward. If you do this then you are putting yourself into a position to succeed. Go forth – take these last few days of the years by the balls!
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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