One of my online heroes is Tim Pierce. I first heard about Tim when I went through the Alan Parsons DVD course on audio recording. Tim was the session guitarist who played on Alan’s song “All Our Yesterdays.” He was smart, funny, and an awesome player. I later learned about his YouTube channel. Go check it out.
The most recent video he posted was an interview with the awesome Ray Parker Junior, who sold millions of records and wrote tons of hits, but who is best known for the song “Ghostbusters.” At the end of the video, Ray trotted out the old “don’t have a plan b” trope. I hate it when people say that crap. I saw an interview with Adam Levine of Maroon 5 and he said the same thing. They mean well, but they’re missing the point. Not having a backup plan isn’t what made these guys successful – busting their ass is.
The funny thing is that Ray went on to say “you can always go find a job if things don’t work out.” Which is, in itself, a backup plan. It’s also not necessarily true. Yes, you can find a job. But if you have no skillset, don’t expect to make a middle class salary. If you want to be successful at anything, you need a really good plan, and that plan needs to be able to handle the concept of failure. You can’t waltz into a bank for a business loan with your business plan being “I don’t have a plan b.”
In my 35 year study of the music business it’s become pretty obvious to me that the best thing you can do is to plan out everything. You need talent, hard work, dedication, and a really good plan. Perhaps most importantly, you need to be extremely honest with yourself. I sometimes work with younger musicians. Most of them are a whole lot smarter than I was at 18. I’m going to do a series of posts with advice for young musicians, based on the success and lack of success of myself and people I know. I can’t wait to start writing those posts.
But in the meantime, here’s the thing; A lot of artists who don’t have a backup plan work a day job in a music store or a restaurant to pay the bills, and do gigs and recording at night and on weekends. Hell, I do that now, only I’m making a hell of a lot more money and I’ll a hell of a lot happier.
The more work you put into music, the better you get. Period. You also need to eat. For every Adam Levine there are ten thousand guys who “went all in” and ended up miserable because they lacked something – talent, dedication, a good plan, whatever. And they feel like failures because they didn’t end up in Maroon 5. That’s stupid. Music is supposed to be fun. If not, you’re doing it wrong. Because here’s the secret truth – I’ve never, ever had a plan b for writing and recording music. I will always do it. Nothing can stop me. And that has nothing to do with eating and paying my bills.
I can’t wait to start my new series.
