Tag: Steven Archer

More wisdom from Steven Archer, who just dropped a new album I will be reviewing soon 🙂

https://stoneburnerofficial.bandcamp.com/album/red-in-tooth-and-claw

A while back a friend of mine said to me “you got all the lucky breaks.”

And I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Because my immediate thought was ,”no I haven’t.”

But I wanted to do my due diligence and really think it through.

So I went way back in time…
In high school my Junior and Senior years I was good enough at art to enter a program where they shipped me across town three days a week for three or four periods a day to take art at a vocational school. The year between my Junior and Senior year I took a “portfolio development,” class at Corcoran in DC. Where I would eventually return and get my Bachelors if Fine art (painting).

During that time I started showing and selling my work a Sci-Fy conventions, and later bars, clubs, bookstores, galleries and anywhere else that would let me toss my shit on their walls.

Eventually I got married, we started the bands, and I came under people’s radar that way.

We got our first record deal because we played out enough that the record label came to us.

Donna, my wife, and I both got our publishing deals because the publisher happened to once have been in a band that opened for us early on, and we knew them casually. And it all come together because of that.

Both D and myself have a STACK of rejection letters (back when you got physical letters for such things.)

I started working with Weird tales magazine, because I had made plans to do a 365 days of Blasphemous horror, as a way of hopefully driving traffic to my various pages. We were at a convention pimping our books and they were right across the aisle from us. So I literally just walked over there, told them my idea, showed them my work as a way of making sure they knew I had my chops, and we started the next week.

All of this happened because I stuck myself out there and I practiced making the things I need to make, and put them out into the world in any way I could. I wrote people I made them aware of what I do, and I followed through with all of it.

The only break I can really think of, is my amazing mother who never said ,”this art thing is a bad idea,” and put me through school. At no point had a hand reached down from heaven and said ,”because you are you, I’m going to elevate you to the exclusion of others.”

Every other “break,” has been the result of my ridiculous work ethic and not being scared to put myself out there and say “hey! Let’s do this thing!”

Eventually enough people thought I was good enough that now sometimes people come to me and say “hey! Let’s do this thing!” And we do the thing.

Of everyone I know in the industry…
I cannot think of one person who got “the big break.”

Occasionally you may end up under the right persons eye at the right time. But if you don’t have the chops that eye will pass right over you and move along never to return.

So even if you end up in that situation. You have to have done the work or it just won’t matter. Full stop.

There are no big breaks, there is just work. And if you are putting all your eggs in this basket your work ethic, is the Only thing you can count on.

And while I’m at it…

Being good doesn’t mean people will care about what you make.
You can do all this work, and nothing may come of it. So if you’re doing it because you want recognition then you are in for a long slow painful rude awakening.

The only reason to do this, is because it is what you do. It is more important than anything. Including your own comfort and happiness.

So, there you go.
No breaks, no comfort, no Easter bunny, and no uncle Mikey…

A call to arms for artists…and everyone else

We are at war…

Hopefully not with each other yet but with a virus. Our medical professionals, remaining retail outlets, national guard, truckers are all on the front lines.

The rest of us.

We are their support structure.

What does that mean for us the artists?

We do our jobs.

We work in the entertainment industry. Show biz.
We are all in the USO now (or wherever you are, insert country as appropriate.)

After Katrina one of the first and most important things rebuilt was the Superdome. For which the city got a ton of flack. But during times like this, identity and moral matter.

Because we, artists, this thing we do?

While generally from a societal standpoint it’s important, but from a “surviving the apocalypse” (this isn’t but it’s a good dry rub) what we make are luxury items. In the wasteland, the main use for my art will be making walls for your shack.

We are at the bottom of the pyramid of need as far as real world horror goes from a practical stand point.

We are krill. We are ubiquitous.

But krill drive the entire food chain.

Not as individuals but as a group.

*Before someone gets needlessly pedantic this metaphors only works so far, unlike krill we hopefully won’t end up being eaten.

Many of us are setting up methods for streaming which is awesome.

But a GLUT of this will be coming down the pipe. You think there’s competition now with bands in the same genre? Just wait until everyone with a guitar or a laptop starts consuming bandwidth to try to make a buck.

But I digress.

The point I’m trying to make is this. We, krill, down here at the bottom keep doing what we have to do, because it’s what we are built to do. We have to send that energy (not in a woo woo spiritual sense, but it’s a convenient word) up.

To quote a magnificent bastard “you’ve got to reach down and pick the crowd up.”

Well… the crowd is now the entire world.

We need to do what we can to keep people stuck at home At home. So that they don’t go out, pick up the disease and bring it home to others. So that EMTS, nurses, doctors, truckers etc all have music to get lost in. Stories to read when they are home.

All of us will need escapism more than ever before.

And that’s our job.

All of us.

And as the Internet clogs with “competition,” try to remember that those people need money just as much as you do. And more to the point, we are all working towards the goal of keeping the wheels moving.

You need to say humble, artists.

You aren’t owed an audience.

You can’t sit back and put music out, expect someone else to promote it, and then go out on tour expecting an audience to be waiting for you.

Those days are on hold.

You’re going to have to work your ass off if you want to make money doing the thing. You’re going to have to sing for your supper.

I’m not saying sell out. Because there’s an audience for whatever brand of single note drone death metal folk trap you write. But you’re going to have to bust ass to find em, and once you do, you’re going to have to bust ass to keep em around.

Use this time. Because if you can create things that matter to others in the darkest times, they will remember what got them through. And when shit gets rolling again that audience will still be there.

It’s not a zero sum game. Look around, help your fellow artists out. Give what you can to the world in whatever way makes sense. Teach. Get online and bullshit and talk to people. Do whatever you can do.

Or don’t.

That’s cool too.

Because that makes just a bit more room for those of us who bleed for the things we create. For those of us who have spent our lives learning to do what we do.

And for you non artists, the “we’re all in this together,” thing applies to you also. Do what you can to help feed us krill.

And if you see someone giving an artist shit because the are “begging for money,” shut them down. Because without the krill the entire food chain withers.

Stay strong.

You guys got this.

Troubleshooting

Once upon a time we had a guitar player. They brought their new guitar to practice which of course they were all kinds of excited about. Part of the way through practice her guitar stops making noise. She hit the strings, nothing. This particular guitar was fancy and had all kinds of dials for the pickups…so she starts fucking with it… I look over at my keyboard player, catch his eye, and direct it down to her volume pedal now in the off position. I mouth “let’s see how long…” Five minutes go by… Nothing. Eventually she figured it out. I was talking to my keyboard player later and he said something very succinct about it “you can’t troubleshoot a system unless you know how the system works.” A friend of mine has recently been starting up her own thing. In the past I have had others come to me hold all the parts up and say “make it work.” I guess forgetting that I have a thousand pans on a thousand fires all the time. And I look at the mess and say ,”No. not my circus not my monkeys.” Anyway my friend, on the other hand involved me in exactly the right way. She would text me and say “Hey, X thing Is a problem, how do I solve it.” And I would say more or less “here is how you find the answer to that problem.” I wasn’t withholding information, everyone’s setup is different, but often the methods used to troubleshoot are the same…. teach a man to fish and all that. As another example of the kind of problems that comes with not understanding your shit, one time we were on stage and the same guitarist had some sort of problem, and she walks over to me in the middle of the show and asks me to help her fix it. Obviously that kind of behavior in a pro setting is just unacceptable. That was a long time ago and wouldn’t happen now. I won’t have anyone in the bands or work with someone who doesn’t know their kit inside and out. Because THATS YOUR GODDAMN JOB. The shows, the crowd, anyone giving a shit about what you do? It’s all contingent on you actually being able to do the thing. TL;DR no one will take you seriously if you don’t take what you do seriously enough to put the time into learning every aspect of it. Go and do likewise.

Steven Archer is

in a dark-electronic-rock band called Ego Likeness.
www.egolikeness.com
I also paint, a lot
From time to time I write books…
Please buy our stuff so we can eat.
Music http://egolikeness.bigcartel.com/
Art http://www.etsy.com/shop/egolikeness

He makes things.
Ego Likeness being one of them.
www.egolikeness.com