Living/Dying for Music: A Basic Survival Guide to the Entertainment Business

I like food, and if you're like me, you probably do too. I also like having a roof over my head, friends living nearby, and getting a regular paycheck just as much as I love the fact that I can do so from my career in music. So something I heard a few weeks ago has been on my mind, a specific phrase that has been bothering me:

"I live for my music."

I have heard this phrase way too often from starving artists who seem to use it as an excuse to not "sell out" for the chance to be able to eat or not be homeless, and between this and a post on Twitter a week or so ago about being paid in fucking exposure (and why the idea should be absurd) made me pen this. It is something that has been on my mind regularly for the last month and a half, and started with some "exposure" we had while working with our last US producers.

I am a professional musician. I started just like almost every other music lover out there, listening to music, wishing that was my life, and even romanticizing about the life of the bohemian, living for his or her art, music, drama, etc.... Soon that romanticizing became learning guitar, which later led to playing in the cafe I worked in as a waiter in college. Yes, I was a waiter, and yes, I spent a lot of my time busing tables and listening to the small jazz group playing on the small stage in the cafe, wishing I was up there instead. One day finally, I asked them if I could try, so they let me, and soon I was playing with them. That led to meeting and networking with more musicians, which led to more opportunities to play which eventually led to an audition for a student metal group out of Vienna that later turned into Vaarallinen; I was the first hired by Trish and Gabe, followed by Hannya and then Erik. Note that Hannya and I both auditioned and there was every chance that one or both of us could have lost out to someone else.

Hannya and I at our production-provided home in Geneva, relaxing after work.

My point is that this idea to live and die for one's artistic venues and only live or die for that venue, is absurd at best; or worse, that venue and love. I continued to wait tables long after the release of our first album, and it was only through money from our Grammy from our second album that I was able to purchase my home and I still waited tables when we were not touring. We got lucky, we made it hard and fast to the scene that in many cases people are still stumbling to gain access to after a decade. It also helped that we had a connection through our other guitarist to a producer in Finland, which probably was more of our luck than anything. Even then, I haven't turned down most paid work. When we lived in the middle of nowhere in Idaho, I worked at a farm near where we lived, training and tending to horses that probably heard more of my secrets than anyone else in my life. Gabe during that time worked at a lumber mill nearby even, and in the evenings we would jam, and that turned into his album which he was Grammy nominated and we toured the Euro college scene on that music.

But, in all of that, I always worked, whether it be mucking out the stables, waiting tables, or doing interviews and modeling for various endorsements. While I never only lived for my music, I knew that to be a good musician, I'd have to find that balance between getting enough money to stay healthy enough to work, and actually being able to work and advance in music. Today even, I hold four jobs, which I outline below. I share this with you for anyone who is aspiring to work in the arts, or anything in the entertainment industry to show that it is okay to want things and that you are not a sellout if you move to a more commercial side of your art. You need a balance between commercial and personal at all times so that you can be healthy enough to keep advancing. And note that in all of this, I think maybe the least I was ever paid was with a croissant and a cup of coffee, and that was in the earliest weeks of my career, before I was performing regularly. I made my day job pay for my love of music and not just with fucking exposure.

- Guitarist, singer, and songwriter for Vaarallinen: So this in general is me as a guitarist and singer, and what ended up developing into my time here in Vaarallinen. As I stated above, I started in Paris cafes, most notably the one I waited tables in for a few years, playing jazz, pop, and anything that sounded right. While we had an open mic night, it was through a small group that I started here, and started to meet their friends and fellow musicians across Paris. Then Trish and Gabe were on vacation, came to the cafe and heard me play. We all talked after, I auditioned later that night showing them my covers of various metal songs, and they hired me. Even in the early days, I still played with other groups, still worked in that cafe as a waiter, and still to this day am friends with the owners, so that if I should need it, I can work there again. Even during the times after our accident when I was able to go home, I worked there, if only to have an outlet for socialization and normalcy in my life. Because, while I like to say that I'd do anything just for my musical career, there are times that a cup of coffee and a hot, fresh croissant can do much more for you. Always make sure that between your music and a secondary job you have enough income to have a roof over your head and afford at least one meal a day.

Hannya cooking dinner after work. Yes I am helping too.

- Songwriter, freelance and later for Ace Productions: Back in high school already I was in orchestra at my high school playing violin. I wrote a few pieces here and there, one of which we even played at graduation. A couple years later in college when I started learning guitar, I was already writing music. If someone is interested in that song, exposure is one thing, but money is another. Another musician may want to play it, and they did already in the early days, but always make sure that you at least have set in writing that you get royalties of some sort. This means if they're playing your song you wrote at a high school dance just once, you get even a small portion of what they get paid. I know a lot of people say that fucking exposure is payment. It's not. Exposure is generosity of selling out something that is rightfully yours for the hope that someone will come along and later pay money for it or other parts of your art. In that case, never sell out for only exposure, otherwise one day you will hear your song on the radio and you won't be credited for it. In addition, always file for copyright on your music and have proof with it of when you wrote the song, and never share that song until you have receipt from your government of filing that copyright. Make demos, and yes you can use Youtube, but as of late there have been schemes on there too filing against smaller artists for false copyright claims. There are other avenues at least, such as SoundCloud. But still, write the song, file the copyright, and then share it with the world. If someone is interested enough to use it, then you can negotiate royalties, and with luck if it's a decent sized production company, they can always buy the copyright from you.

- A&R (Artists & Repertoire) for Ace Productions: Remember Simon Cowell? I'm sure you do, The X Factor, American Idol, etc..., right? Well, what exactly did he do for music that makes him so well known and well-versed in it to be the creator of those shows? He was an A&R guy, which is short for Artists & Repertoire. They are the men and women hired by production companies to match a songwriter with a musical act. Sure, there are plenty of musicians and bands that play their own compositions, but plenty of others do not, or they may write something that they like and know will be popular but doesn't match the genre they play (yes, I have written country even). But these unsung heroes of the music industry are the gateways to getting to a point in your career where you don't have to worry about getting enough money to pay your bills. These are the ones that will take you from waiting tables to even managing just your own solo career as a songwriter and/or performer. Plus, if you are a performer and using other people's music, often they are the ones along with your manager who will negotiate royalties for you to be able to play that music. And being in A&R is great, you spend a lot of time watching performers on Youtube, going to local concerts, talking to people. It's the joy of discovering new music and meeting people who are beyond excited about their art, just as much as it's the ability to teach emerging artists about what it takes to survive. At the end of the day, music is a business, your act is a company, and you still have to have increasing income from your career to keep it going. And even if your music is a solo act, you are never alone in that career.

- Executive producer for Phoenix Productions: And this is probably the scariest part of my career, because it is the part that, without looking outside the box, I can actually lose everything on and that I am the newest at. To be a producer more or less means that you are banking your own personal money on a musical act to create an album, sell it, and then to hopefully make more money back at it. And while Phoenix Productions was made as a place for members of Vaarallinen to work on their own music at while in the US, we also had to have a way to make sure the site also paid for itself, which is where looking outside the box comes in. I always need to know the minimum amount this company needs to take in to make a profit each month, and so far we are doing that. I do have a US site manager hired, and even days where we do not have people in, we are able to make our overhead (that amount needed to maintain the site and pay for security, equipment rental, etc...) because of renting out our excess land for solar and wind energy production. So no matter what, it is a balance there. But, should an act wish to come in, I have the space and equipment ready for them to record and produce an album and even videos, with a good reciprocal working relationship with Ace Productions, which also rents out of our studios in Colorado.

The prize: That moment at night where you and a loved one have what you need in life and can survive off your art.

But as you can see from everything, my career in music isn't just playing guitar in Vaarallinen, nor is it only living for my art. I always find myself asking what I am gaining from doing something in my career, which really has been a series of multiple jobs and contracts along a similar theme that have grown with it. And if an activity isn't gaining me a profit, or is too much of an effort for too little reward, then it is an activity that I replace with something that will have less effort, or at least a greater reward. I am constantly assessing my career, my jobs, my locations, and what I can gain or stand to lose.

So, what are some of my other basic bits of advice?

- Lose the attitude that you are a starving artist or that you are above needing to take income for your art.

- Take a few business and/or arts management classes, and if you cannot, find a job in a family-owned business with someone willing to teach you what they know.

- Take work on the side and keep a good relationship with those employers, especially if they are willing to teach and mentor you.

- Be grateful that you even have the chance to be in the arts in any way, shape, or form.

- Remember that your art is a business.

- Remember that you can lose it all in a heartbeat, so save up for tomorrow while you still can today.

- Meet people and network.

- Go to every audition that you can, and do not lose hope if you do not win the spot; by playing the audition you are still networking and more often than not will be remembered as long as you play well.

- Share the wealth, whether literal or figurative: teach and share what you can to others that are still progressing up in their careers. One day you will be that mentor to someone else.

- Stay clean; I learned the hard way what drugs do against you, so if you have a problem, owe up to it now and get help.

- Never forget your roots. I have been homeless and hungry, I have been in jail, and in it all, they are experiences I do not wish to repeat and more so, they are experiences that I do not wish to forget as they drive me daily to succeed.

- Look up to others, because everyone has something you can learn from in their lives.

- Never work for only fucking exposure.

- Learn how to talk about money and recognize that if someone doesn't want to talk about it, more than likely they won't want to pay you either.

With that, I am more than willing to talk to anyone in DM who may have questions or those who wish to know more about how they can use their art to gain a career.