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Looper's Delight
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Chris Sewell wrote:
" Never play for free."
Per Boysen wrote:
"I'm with Chris. Playing for free only hurts good music in the long
run. Why shouldn't a good musician's work be valued just as highly as
a good carpenter's work?"
*******************
I've been a professional musician for thirty years now. I haven't had a
single 'day' job
in all that time (I've lived off of quesadillas and top ramen and I've
made
a lot of money
doing studio work, touring, gigging, teaching, producing, publishing,
etc.,
etc.)
There are genres of music that still make it possible for one to make a
living as a professional musician.
In Northern California, where I live, even tried and true avenues of
musical commerce (weddings, private parties,
rich hotels, conventions) have dwindled at an astonishing and depressing
rate in the past five years
and radically in the last three years.
In the town where I live, Santa Cruz, there are NO gigs that one can
take
to make a living.
typical rock clubs and blues bars which paid $300 to a four piece outfit
in
1967 now
pay nothing or a handful of dollars from the 'door' at gigs. Jazz gigs
that used to pay a measly
$50 a person have dropped to $20 a person and , just recently, that has
proved unviable for the
club owners so non-weekend gigs pay a meal and tips.
Time's are really dire financially here. People won't even make any kind
of substantial donations
at gigs where there isn't an official cover charge.
When the amazing Norwegian avante garde guitarist Tellef Ogrim came here I
had to tell him
that I couldn't get him a paying gig at all. We played for free at a
small music store here
to a dozen people. I felt ashamed but this is the world we live in now
and from everything I can
tell it's going to get worse before it gets better.
*********************
A lot of these changes coincided with my realization around the turn of
the
millineum in my own life that
having been a professional musician all of my adult life (and militantly
not
even leaving my door
for less than a $200 gig even if it was next door as a point of
professional
pride) that I had
eschewed many, many really creative avenues for making music.
I realized that I had become a musician because of the way it made me
feel;
because it was like magic to me; because it was
an exciting world of mysterious creativity and that , over time, I had
been
involved, less and less with the source of creativity.
I also began to truly hate the business of music (at least as it is
practised in California). None of the people I knew who were on
major or major independent music labels ever made any money. Producers,
Record Store clerks, Bouncers, Lawyers, A&R people,
Engineers...............everyone got paid before the musician
did..............and yet all of their jobs resulted from the creativity of
musicians.
I resolved that for the rest of my life that I would attempt to be a pure
artist..............truly (but NOT naively) creating new music
for the sake of it.................not necessarily for money.
I got a computer and a printer and started to produce my own music,
manufacture it and even do the artwork and website myself.
Initially, I was astonished that I made as much money as when I was
playing
the kinds of weddings and corporate gigs that seemed
so soul-killing (only to me...........I have no problem with anyone making
their living in this manner...........it's just not good for me too
much anymore).
In the last 3 years however, people have started to not buy CDs at gigs
anymore. My CD income dwindled from $7,000
in 2001 to a depressing couple of hundred dollars a year last year.
All studio work completely ceased about four or five years ago. Most of
the successful artists I backed in the 80's and 90's
on tour are now doing solo tours (or at the most duet tours with musicians
in the countries they travel to) and many of them
have left the road and/or the music business entirely. Some of these
were
really successful financially in the 90's
However, I pulled back and relied more on teaching which , though it has
noticeable declined in this economy (which seems to be
sinking rather rapidly where we live--California, the world's 10th
largest
economy if it were a country, is now officially considered to
be in a deep recession) .
And an amazing thing happened. My music progressed more rapidly than
ever...........my output as an artist rose
heavily. Opportunity's to do lots of things including travelling and
being
in magazines' radically expanded and
I have to say that I"m the happiest I"ve ever been in my life.
******
I"m not saying this should be everyone's path, but when there are no
paying gigs, Per and Chris, do we stop being artists?
Do we stop playing to the people?
I say, get paid and get paid handsomely!!!!
My father , an accomplished and respected physician once told me that I
knew
more about my subject (music) than he did about his, (medicine)
(one of the great compliments of my life because I had tremendous respect
for him) so I do believe we live
in a screwy world where we seem to be valued less than a Doctor or a
Carpenter for our work.
But what is, IS!!!!!
Thankfully, Scandinavia seems way better (especially Sweden from what I
can
tell) in supporting their artistry than the US (whose combined arts budget
was less than
the combined arts budget of the city of Berlin ten years ago). And I"m
thankful and grateful, that I'm going to actually get support to play
there.
Here in California, however, I've had to go to private companies and
individuals' to get funding to bring people to the Y2K Festivals
because the festival just make enough money to pay anyone really.
So, I say, take this thread on a case by case basis.
Jazz musicians playing for free aren't taking away paid gigs because there
AREN'T any paid gigs anymore.
If they don't play for free, there will be no Jazz in our area except for
people who travel from other places who are famous to play KUUMBWA.
I support everyone to get paid, but I'll be playing half of my tour in
Europe and the British Isles this summer for free...............just
because
I want to spread the creative word and celebrate life and community in
that
way.
Respectfully, Rick Walker