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Looper's Delight
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On Sunday, October 16, 2005, at 09:22 AM, Per Boysen wrote: > Hi, > > I completely agree with Travis' definition of "pro". A funny > definition of amateur is one who calls himself "pro" even though he > isn't able to make a living of his music. > > Well, other than the 8 hours a week I work in a record store, I am currently making my living playing music, mostly from gigging, my band plays around 100 gigs a year, but a little extra from doing occasional production work, and a share in CD sales from our independently-released CDs, we've sold about 2000 discs in the last 3 years. I guess I turned "pro" a little over 2 years ago when almost simultaneously, I lost my job writing software for a publishing company and my band went on the road for our first extended tour. And, the funny thing about being "pro" is, I can't afford any "pro" gear. All the cool "pro" gear I own was stuff I was able to buy while being an "amateur" with a relatively lucrative day gig. My 10 year-old Trace Elliott amplifier, definitely a "pro" piece of gear is currently in it's death throes, and I can't afford to repair or replace it. The pitch-bend stick on my Nord Lead hasn't worked for about 8 months and I can't afford to repair it. Hell, I broke a string on my bass at one of our gigs a few weeks ago, and i can't even afford a replacement set of strings. It doesn't help that I absolutely love Thomastik/Infeld strings, they are an integral part of my sound, but being "pro", they aren't cheap. The last piece of gear I bought was made by Behringer, a totally "pro" company (I say this with dripping sarcasm), and it took several months to be able to afford that. I'm now saving for new road cases because we've been offered some shows that we'll be flying to in the next few months. If we're lucky, these gigs will pay for the road cases after expenses. In our travels, we've run into a number of bands on our circuit, which I lovingly call the "Colorado to West Coast hippy jamband ski bum extreme sports college town" circuit, who live entirely on their tour buses, and scrounge for places to crash while they're not on the road. A lot of these are bands you probably have heard of, maybe even seen live. At least I can still afford to have a place to live. For now... If we're really lucky, we might get signed to a Major Label Record Deal, and that would be the answer to all of our financial woes, right? Oh, wait, read http://www.negativland.com/albini.html for a good reality jolt. I don't mean to sound too whiny about all of this, I'm honored and amazed that we get to play the music we do, which is not exactly commercial, as much as we do, for as many people as we do. We've had some amazing experiences. I just wanted to offer one perspective on the realities of being a "pro" musician.