r
gg
Dec 2017 - p.8
I listen to a lot of different musicians every week.
Some are just starting out, worrying about their
first ever gig, whilst others are concerned about
maintaining their success and legacy with an
Anniversary Tour. One thing is clear to me,
almost every musician I've heard from behaves
like an underdog or a DIY musician. We could
argue this is because of the current musical
climate and that the general public have been
brainwashed to respond only to anything tacky
or non-thought provoking. So being an excellent
musician nowadays is almost meaningless
unless you disguise it or dress it all up with all
the propaganda and materialistic pap that folks
are used to. The mainstream music industry, for
well over a decade, has behaved like an
alternative universe, where only songs about
pure bollocks appear to warrant any form of
success. This leaves musicians in the real world
with the forced disability of attempting to be
more original than ever just to get some kind of
media attention. As a thank you they are then
rewarded by having some desperate nerd from
a marketing company steal their idea, concept
or theme by observing their trending YouTube
video - only so they can manipulate and
incorporate it into their national advertising
campaign for some bland product created by
their employer. Congratulations, you've just
inspired the latest corporate fad. You weren't
credited and you didn't even know about it.
Yes, there is money in music and there always
will be. Now if I said the opposite what does that
mean to you? Is money all that motivates you?
Doesn't sound like the words of an aspiring rock
star to me... well maybe Sting would've said
that. If money is your only concern in music then
you'll never be truly happy. Yes it can be a
struggle. It gets hard for everyone whatever the
career choice is but at least you have skills yes?
Whilst you grow you inspire. I found out years
later that during some of the harder times of my
career there were people looking up to me and
BEING
ORIGINAL
Nick J Townsend is the frontman and
guitarist for British band Weak13
An experienced Underground musician and
music promoter, film producer and
all round good guy
Supporter of original music
When I was an infant I remember trying to insert a triangle shaped block
into a square hole of a toy that I was playing with at primary school. My
teacher came up to me and told me that what I was doing was impossible.
About twenty minutes later, after a lot of hammering, I returned to the
teacher and showed her the toy. She said "It's ruined now" and although
it could be argued that I was incredibly stubborn at an early age, I'd learnt
an important lesson not present on the curriculum - not everyone will be
happy for you when you've exceeded expectations. I think many of us at
some point feel like the wrong shaped toy.
MONEY
IN
MUSIC
Nick
J
Townsend
r
gg
21
YEARS
1995-2016
