07/21/2020
CHASE THE PASSION
When Seven Springs Sound was in full operation, and we were working with young talent, it was commonly uttered by many of them, "When I get famous, I'm gonna tell the world about this studio, where I got my start." I was often amused at their echoing of my younger voice. I would often tell them, "Chase your passion, not fame. In fact," I would go on to jokingly remind them, "If you want fame, do something outlandishly stupid, like walk stark naked into a bank and rob it, and be sure to get caught! Your photo will be everywhere. Your name will become a euphemism for whatever point someone is trying to make. You'll become a meme on Facebook. Yes, you will be quite famous. But if you want to be an artist, do it for the pure love of your art." Only 1% of all singer/songwriters become a household name. Money? You can make some decent extra change doing gigs, but as far as the average artist making a living at it, you pretty much already have to be retired with a preexisting income. Nevertheless, those that LOVE what they are doing are definitely more prone to succeed, because they put their heart and soul into it. There is plenty of talent barely heard that far exceeds in excellence to a lot of the garbage that many "famous" entertainers churn out. The shame of the big music business is that they aren't interested if you're the next Mozart, but can you make them more money than Bill Gates? However, there ARE great, and very successful, and famous bands ,singers, songwriters that are exceptionally great talents today, that force the big music machine to take notice without having to compromise their art. If you are an aspiring singer/songwriter, put fame on the back shelf and chase the passion. For passion is the real catalyst to success.