Randy Brown – Performing Philosopher

This month’s lyric is once again from one of my songs. This song took me 7 years to write from start to finish. Sometimes in art it takes a long time for a concept to gel into a cohesive whole. You have to hold the line and be patient and trust your artistic process. This song was originally inspired by a passage from a Neil Donald Walsh book and I simply took it to it’s natural end. It will appear on my upcoming CD “But Wait, There’s More”, which should be available next spring.

Wikipedia says: “Snowflakes are conglomerations of frozen ice crystals which fall through the Earth’s atmosphere. They begin as snow crystals which develop when microscopic supercooled cloud droplets freeze. Snowflakes come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Complex shapes emerge as the flake moves through differing temperature and humidity regimes. Individual snowflakes are nearly unique in structure.” That may be the facts, but what I know is that snowflakes are amazing. It is so hard for me to believe that these tiny crystals made of pure water, each symmetrical and similar yet different from all others can even exist. This idea of unique/sameness heads straight into the heart of what art is and how as artists you can stand out from the crowd, even when it is a big crowd.

We all want to stand out from the crowd with our art. We want to make our statement and have it accepted by our peers and by our audience. Plus we want success, both critical and financial. That is a lot to want and while difficult is not impossible.

We are each totally unique, just like a snowflake. The where, when, specific circumstances of our birth, where we have lived and every other single experience makes each of us a totally unique individual. You are even different from your twin if you have one. Unfortunately, so many who take the artistic journey think that in order to be good, be cool, be accepted, be successful or whatever, is a matter of doing like others. Well, my goal in this article is to convince you that it ain’t necessarily so. The only thing you have to do with your art is to be yourself and create from a place of truth (see past B-Side – The Truth). Sounds easy but in the judgmental world of art, the sound of that “still small voice” that guides you in your art is often drowned out by all the hype and noise of what’s cool or happening now.

Whatever you do in art don’t be a follower. Now, I am not naive, I know that every artist stands on the shoulders of those who have gone before. That is not what I mean by “don’t be a follower”. What I meant was, because you are unique, use that uniqueness to create art that could have only come from your brain, your situation, your soul. I will use my own work as an example. First realize, I am not a wildly popular or highly successful songwriter. I am simply a person who has the need and the burning desire to produce the best art I possibly can. In my own case, I have no financial or chart goals except to tell my “truth” in the most compelling way possible. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want my songs to be accepted and liked. In fact, more than anything I want to be accepted and respected for my art. But, it must be for MY art and not some over-sanitized for your protection copy of what someone else already did. That was a difficult hurdle for me to get over. I, like most other artists, took years to recognize my own voice. Before that I tended to use the voice of others or at least one that closely resembled others. I simply did not believe that I had anything unique to say. After a long while it finally occurred to me that instead of restating what others were saying, I should try to capture all these weird thoughts that were circling around inside my head. All the things that I had avoided letting others know about. You might say I learned to turn off or rather turned down the editor.

Now don’t get me wrong, the editor which for me is that part of my artistic process that asks if what I am saying “is at least minimally acceptable and in the art ball park as I define it”. The editor is different for every artist and is based on experience, risk tolerance (how weird are you willing to be) and what I will call the X-factor. Now for me the X-factor is that part I can’t explain logically or otherwise but I simply KNOW. I sometimes use a biblical term; “still, small voice”, to define it. That is the part of me that somehow knows at a instinctual level what I have no logical or rational reason to know. In my opinion, that voice is the very core of the mystery of art. Learning to hear that voice is a lifetime of work but worth every hour spent in it’s pursuit.

The interesting thing about finding your own voice is that I have discovered the more I let out my most secret thoughts and my most private musings then the more folks tend to identify and connect with my work. I can’t tell you how many songs I have not sung immediately in public because I thought; “nobody will ever identify with this”. However, when I finally got the nerve to sing them in public they became the things that folks most commonly told me they liked or identified with. You and I are so similar and unique at the same time and I believe that is the ultimate purpose of art; to expose ourselves to others as distinct and unique individuals yet still very much the same as all the rest of mankind. Just like snowflakes.

Pick a subject, any subject… OK, now write a sentence about the first thing that pops into your brain about that subject. I guarantee you that whatever you write will be different from everything anyone else writes. Why? Because YOU my friend are a snowflake. You are a totally unique mixture of genetics, spirit, experience and thought. That uniqueness is the source of your art. Whatever you do don’t push it down and try to ignore it simply because it isn’t cool or isn’t what you think sells. You ARE a snowflake. Enjoy it, revel in it and use it as the seed of your creations. You won’t regret it.

By the way, if you have comments, suggestions or criticisms about this or any my columns feel free to send them to me: randy@brownrandy.com . If you ever simply get curious about what the heck this rambling old man does then go to www.brownrandy.com. Please, leave me comments and let me know what you think.

See you next issue.

Randy Brown is a small business owner and singer/songwriter in living in East Texas and has been involved with many sides of the music business over the years, from being a sideman, a sound man, touring songwriter, operating a venue, and a recording studio owner/engineer. He sometimes wishes he were a little less unique, at least in thought.

This month’s lyric is from a song that has been sung by literally everyone in the western world and even by quite a few folks in the rest of the world. It was written in 1934 by John Coots and Haven Gillespie and was first publicly performed on Eddie Cantor’s radio show in November 1934. It became an instant hit with orders for 100,000 copies of sheet music the next day and more than 400,000 copies sold by Christmas. It has been recorded literally thousands of times by artists as diverse as Alice Cooper and Gene Autry. Since I am writing this in early December with Christmas on my mind it seems very appropriate because it includes within it’s lyrics something every artist who ventures out into the world to share their art should remember; to make a list and check it twice. So let me share a little experience from 2 days ago to tell you why it is so important.

I want to start this month’s column with a bit of a confession; “I AM AN IDIOT”. OK, so I feel better now that I have gotten that off my chest. Here I sit every month pretending to share “wisdom” about how to get by gracefully in the music business and just this week I broke one of my most often repeated rules; “check the list, make to sure you have everything you need for your gig”. Well, the truth is that I went to play a show and wasn’t prepared. I knew the songs, I had my guitar, mandolin, strings, thumb-picks, capos, tuner, cords of every description, mixer, microphone & stand, set list, tip jar and speaker stands. Oh, did you notice, I forgot one small thing; speakers!! Can’t make much noise without those and in a room full of people you can’t scream to be heard for more than about 1 minute before you have shredded your vocal chords and broken every string on you guitar. I had even gotten to the gig an hour early, which is my norm for shows. However, my one miscalculation was not welcome at all. My speakers lay 25 miles away tucking neatly under an ice chest in my barn. Dang it!! How could I be so stupid? So, what started as a leisurely setup before a show turned into a high speed adrenalin fueled chase of 50 miles in an hour, cursing at semi trucks loaded with bales of hay who were only doing 70 in a 70mph speed zone, only to show up at the gig five minutes late with setup still to do. How mortifying is that? Especially for a “professional” as I profess to be.

So, let’s do a little postmortem on my little fiasco. What did I do wrong? Let us set the stage. It is Friday morning and I have a show starting at 7pm tonight. I expect to get there at 6, so I will have a leisurely hour to setup, relax, have a beer and visit with the crowd before the show. I know I need to leave about 5:30 to make the 25 mile drive so I plan my day to accommodate those facts. So far, so good. Well, my wife and I head out that morning to run errands and do some Christmas shopping. We get back home about 2pm with plenty of time to spare. I gather up my inside stuff like guitars and put them in the car. Then, I go out to the barn to get the big stuff like mixer, stands, cord bag and speakers. I am putting that stuff in the car and notice that a brush pile I plan to burn after the next rain needs to be finished. So now totally distracted, I stop my hauling and loading of equipment to the car and jump on my tractor and spend the next 45 minutes tidying up around the brush pile. While working outside I remember for an important email so I stop before I am finished with my brush pile put my tractor up and wander back into the house to check my email. I turn on my computer while I am waiting for it to come up, I wander into the kitchen for a glass of water. Standing in the kitchen with a glass in my hand, I realize I am hungry so I put down the still empty glass and open the fridge for a snack. Standing there I hear my phone chime and walk over to pick it up and read a message from Allen, my drummer, to say he would be at the show about 6 too. Then I notice my computer is open and on though I can’t remember why. So, I sit down , trying to remember why I had opened it and get sucked into a little Facebook discussion with friends on some minutia related to the real reason for the recession or something like that. I never did check my email, get a glass of water or get a snank. Then I remembered that the car needed gas so I decided I needed to leave about 15 minutes early at 5:15 to have time to do that. Then I check my watch and noticed it was 5:15, I run out to get in the car to leave and notice part of my stuff is still sitting next to the car. I whack myself in the forehead for being so scatterbrained load up the stuff sitting there jump in the car and head out to the show. You know the rest.

Do you see a pattern emerging here? I didn’t go over my mental list of what to take, I didn’t make sure one task was finished before I started another, in fact I don’t think I finished anything that afternoon. Instead I wandered from unfinished task to unfinished task to end the day unfinished. I will admit I tend to have a problem with getting distracted but I outdid myself on this particular occasion. Who knows with some luck this little confession may even save you some grief and if not I can at least say “do as I say, not as I do”.

To be honest, the management at the show was understanding, they did notice me load-in my stuff a hour or so before and weren’t upset at all. But that doesn’t make it easy to start setup late with a room full of folks waiting for you to start. So take my advice because as you have heard, it is based on real experience and in this case. a very recent, real experience. So please, do yourself a favor. Make a list and check it twice or maybe just for fun, you might even try three times. Though often less fun, it is certainly less stressful to be nice rather than naughty. Happy Holidays!!

By the way, if you have comments, suggestions or criticisms about this or any my columns feel free to send them to me: randy@brownrandy.com

If you ever simply get curious about what the heck this rambling old man does then go to www.brownrandy.com. Listen to a few songs and let me know what you think.

See you next issue.

Randy Brown is a small business owner and singer/songwriter in living in East Texas and has been involved with many sides of the music business over the years, from being a sideman, a sound man, touring songwriter, operating a venue, and a recording studio owner/engineer. He wishes he could learn to take his own advice. The good advice anyway.

 

“So You Want to Be a Rock & Roll Star” by Jim McQuinn & Chris Hillman – Recorded by the Byrds on “Younger Than Yesterday” in 1967

This month’s lyric is from the song “So You Want to Be a Rock & Roll Star”, which was released as a single on January 9, 1967 and reached #29 on the Billboard Hot 100. It is said that the song was inspired by the hype surrounding the creation of faux band, The Monkees, whose television series had recently debuted, launching the prefabricated band to international fame. The manufactured nature of the group caused Hillman and McGuinn to look upon the state of the pop world with more than a little cynicism. Now, I doubt that many of you reading this really want to be a rock and roll star but more that a few have plans or intend someday to record and document your musical creations. That is what this column is about; heading to the studio.

I picked this topic because, I am in the studio right now, recording a new CD called “But Wait, There’s More”. I have a home studio as I suspect many of you do. However, recording myself for a entire CD while keeping the real creative juices flowing is not something I am capable of. Why, you might ask? The honest answer is; that act of performance is a right brain (creative) function and the technical aspects, the recording, are left brain (logical) functions. For me, I can do either one separately pretty well but jumping between the two sides of my brain is a difficult transition. If I can find someone who I can share my musical vision with, that will help me achieve it while taking care of all the left brain stuff so I can relax and do my best at the right brain performance side, then, I am willing to pay them for their time and knowledge to give me the best results I am capable of producing.

So, you have decided, as I have to go into the studio and record your masterpiece. How hard can it be to walk in do your songs and wait for the delivery of your completed masterpiece? Sorry to burst your bubble but that ain’t the way it happens. Almost every recording project is a project abandoned. What I mean by that is you will either run out of willpower, patience or money before you are REALLY satisfied with your results. I can almost guarantee you will experience this. Suddenly these songs you have labored over to write and learn will seem to be so full of flaws. Your instrumental and vocal skills which have always seemed sufficient will mysteriously seem incapable of producing the results you want. Your word choices, melody choices, tempo choices and key choices will all seem wrong. Welcome the the hyper-aware world of recording. The sudden awareness, that you are creating something that could survive past your own existence becomes quite daunting. That is why I have made the following list of what you should know and do before and during your studio visits. I guarantee that if you do these things it will make your studio experience more productive, less stressful and less hyper-aware. I am going to break it down into two sections; things to do before your studio session and then during. I will begin with the before.

BEFORE YOU GO TO RECORD

• Visit the studio when you aren’t going to be recording, get a tour, talk to the folks there. Ask all the questions you have and listen, listen, listen to what they tell you.
• Know your songs, their tempo, time signature and key. Practice them daily until you know them backwards and forwards.
• Care for your instruments, change the strings, drum heads, etc. Make sure to have them in great working order. In the studio is not a good place to do this.
• Think about the things you might need in the studio. Bring things like guitar chords, strings, batteries, drumsticks and tuners. Though most studios have some of these things, they won’t be the ones you favor or are used to.
• Know how to play and tune your instruments, practice, practice, practice
• Create chord charts and word charts for every song. Bring a copy for each performer and the producer/engineer. If you don’t know how ask during your visit and they will help you do this.
• Be able to play each song without singing and to sing each song without playing
• Practice each song a metronome at your chosen tempo, practice, practice and practice some more.
• Work out firm arrangements or get someone to help you.
• Practice until you can do the songs in their arrangements backwards/forwards and in your sleep.
• Did I say practice?

WHEN YOU ARE IN THE STUDIO

•  Be humble, the guys in the studio know more and have seen more than you. If you are smarter and know more than the studio guys, you are in the wrong studio.
• Know what you want. Have a mission statement. Be able to tell others your goals for the sessions
• Listen to your producer/engineer and never be afraid to ask, this ain’t their first rodeo. That doesn’t necessarily mean do everything they say it only means listen and consider.
• Drink water, not coffee, not soft drinks and NOT alcohol in the studio. Your vocal chords will thank you and your performance will be much better. Save the drink for celebrating a great session.
• Have fun!!! It isn’t rocket science, it is art so be an artist!

One final note before I sign off. I have spoken about a studio like it was already chosen. If yours isn’t you need to find someone who can help you realize your vision. While there are quite a few in the area I would like to mention two in particular that I have personal experience with and can highly recommend. In the Longview/Gilmer, TX area, Rhandy Simmons’s Siesta Ranch Studio – (903)-725-3883 -has a great funky vibe, top end gear and years of experience in recording all kinds of music. In the Tyler, TX area, Bob Gentry’s studio, The Living Room – (903) 593-7596 – is filled to the brim with great gear, vibe and Bob’s encyclopedic musical knowledge and experience. As I said there are many other studios in the area, large and small. Visit a few, ask questions and decide which one you are most comfortable with. The most important thing to remember is that the studio should be your partner in creating your vision. You are hiring them to help you reach that goal. I guarantee the most important thing about choosing a studio is the owner and/or staff not the latest cool equipment. If you don’t feel a chemistry move on. Trust your gut. After all isn’t that what art is all about. So you still want to be a rock and roll star? Well you better get to it because time is a wasting!

See you next issue.

Randy Brown is a small business owner and award winning singer/songwriter living in East Texas and has been involved with many sides of the music business over the years, from being a sideman, a sound man, touring performing songwriter, operating a venue, and a recording studio owner/engineer. He is almost 60 years old and still wants to be a rock and roll star.

This month’s lyric is from one of my favorite songs of all time. The song Love Minus Zero/No Limit was released on Bob Dylan’s 5^th album, Bringing It All Back Home in 1965. It was a time of experimentation for Dylan. The album was half acoustic and half electric which alienated his folkie purist fans and was considered a failure by them. However, it was also the first Dylan album to chart in the US top 10 at number 6, which could be counted as a huge success. This paradox of failures as successes and successes as failures will be the theme of this month’s column.

None of us like to fail. I think that is almost as universal a human trait as exists. But, in many areas of human endeavor there is really not much distance between success and failure. I would say that art is one of those areas where the lines are certainly blurred.

Art is a bit like science in that the real successes are often framed by the biggest risks. There is really no place in either for fear of failure. If you seek sure success, you best find another line of work, where success is measured with more lenience. Another area where science and art are similar is that the most groundbreaking work was originally considered a failure. Such successes are often had by total outsiders to the establishment of science and art. Albert Einstein was an unknown patent clerk in Vienna when he devised his General Theory of Relativity. He was a nobody and he had to fight to have his ideas heard by the powers of the scientific establishment. He was considered an outsider and buffoon by many of his contemporaries. Yet, his ideas changed the world. The same can be said for Bob Dylan, while he was originally lauded by the folk purist world, his electric experiments got him booed and derided. Yet like Einstein he continued with his vision and consequently won the success he deserved.

In order to break new ground in the art world you have to push the envelope. Look at Jackson Pollock, his experimentation with pouring and dripping paint onto canvas was groundbreaking in the abstract art world. He tried mediums and techniques that had not been used in painting before. He was not afraid of failure, rather than follow a more standard model of artistic success he chose to head out into the uncharted wilderness and see what happened and he was successful. However, it also appears that his success lead to failure in his later life. Many believe that his original success caused him to fear any further advances in his art. Leading him into self-medication though alcohol and finally a life ending car crash after many years of failing to finish any new work.

I think that the example of Jackson Pollock serves to underline the twisted relationship of success and failure in art. In the end I believe we each have to find our own path and follow it where ever it leads. Then we each must determine if we are successful or a failure using whatever yardstick suits us. In the world of music as in all other art forms, success can be measured in many ways. If success to you is how much money you make but your work only garners critical acclaim then you could consider yourself a failure, I suppose. So, part of the process of being an artist is determining what your measure of success is; money, fans, accolades, critical reviews, self-satisfaction, self-discovery or something else entirely. It is only for you to decide, no one else can do it for you. You may find out though that your ideas regarding success and failure become rather blurred over time. You want to create, challenging and fulfilling art while being accepted and appreciated for your talent. These two sides of the coin are rarely found at the same time or place. In the end, I believe we each have to find our own way and make our choices.

So, become the mad scientist with your art;. be foolish, be brave, be fearless, be silly. Take chances, push the envelope and most of all don’t be afraid to fail in your art. Because in that spirit of being willing to fail lies the keys to success and growth as an artist and as a person. Because what Dylan said was absolutely true; “There is no success like failure and failure is no success at all”.

By the way, if you have comments, suggestions or criticisms about this or any my columns then please visit me at my website: www/brownrandy.com and leave your comments about this column or others, they are all there.

Randy Brown is a small business owner and singer/songwriter in living in East Texas and has been involved with many sides of the music business over the years, from being a sideman, a sound man, touring performing songwriter, operating a venue, and a recording studio owner/engineer. Sometimes he thinks has been a success with his art but that is often followed by a look at my bank balance and the truth reveals itself.