philosopherprince

I started out in rock journalism writing about and interviewing different people. I realized that there were people that were making it that weren’t particularly musical. It was a matter of attitude, planning, and diplomacy.

Theatricality:
This is key to becoming a rockstar. It’s a blend of crowd interaction, image, and having attitude. This is half the battle of becoming a rockstar.

Musicianship:
This is important and it requires discipline. Many musicians spend as many as 6-12 hours a day on their craft. Most people see the artist on stage, but they miss what’s behind the scenes.

Business:
Most people will say it’s 50% music and 50% business. You need to be able to negotiate contracts and talk to industry leaders. Without this, you need someone you can trust otherwise you can get really screwed over by people that want to get the most money they can out of you.

You need:
-A Good Mentor (a rockstar, tour manager, producer, etc.)
-Good Image (something that’s your personality times ten)
-Musicianship (you need to have skills)
-Personality (This is important on stage and in business)

The success rate is about 1 for every 100,000 musicians and the ones that become exceptionally famous are about 30 per genre. It takes an average of 10 years from the time you start. There are no shortcuts. Do you have what it takes?

It’s a goal to learn Mandarin Chinese. I’ll be there for 3 months and my goal is to learn 500 words in that time period. I have Rosetta Stone and the Pimsleur Mandarin course.

I was able to learn an equal amount of Spanish and Japanese (not simultaneously) in two months. I was in Argentina and Guatemala for the Spanish so that helped. Spending 3 months in China makes that goal completely reachable. Total immersion is the best strategy. Wish me luck.

I was the frontman of a multi-stylistic group. I was the bassist/singer. We did songs by Lamb of God, Dethklok, and Fall of Troy. In our original recordings, I would have different variations of vocals. I got compared to the singer from Godsmack and Dethklok on our recordings.

Imitation is pale. I want to find my own unique voice. The recordings now are feedback for what I need to work on to get better. I need to work on lung capacity and my falsetto particularly. My stage antics are pretty entertaining, but that’s only a cherry on top.