datamusicata

My friend, Rand Bishop has had a long, successful and varied career and has offered up his insights for us all.   Hope they help you as much as they've helped me.

Advice for Savvy Singer/songwriters...

I wasn’t inspired to become a songwriter. It was actually a matter of necessity. In 1965, if your band didn’t have a Ray Davies or a John Sebastian to come up with original tunes, your band simply wasn’t cool. And, as a 15-year-old high school sophomore assembling my first rock ‘n’ roll ensemble, being uncool was simply unacceptable. So, possessing a ridiculously high opinion of myself, I simply assumed the role of principle songwriter in my band.

That high school garage band, for which I composed my first original songs, provided the initial boot camp for what has now stretched into a 40-year enlistment (Yipes!) as a foot soldier in the music-biz — recording artist, songwriter, producer, A&R exec, music publisher and author.

In that time, somewhere in the neighborhood of 230 of my songs have been recorded and released; some by rock icons (Heart, Cheap Trick, Beach Boys, Vanilla Fudge, Peter Noone); others by country superstars (Tim McGraw, Toby Keith, Lorrie Morgan); and many by journeyman artists, indies and up-and-comers.

In my earliest days, however, as I traversed my way through more than a dozen years as a recording artist, I was the artist who recorded my songs. When I signed my first major label recording contract — at 20 with Elektra — I was far more interested in increasing my nightly capacity for cheap California jug wine than I was in honing my musicianship and composing skills. Somewhere along the line, however, I acquired a pretty decent work ethic and began taking responsibility for my God-given talents. While endeavoring to sharpen my craft on a daily basis, I recognized that I had some pretty good instincts as a tunesmith. And I also found that I had a passion for the process.

From what I’ve learned — through trial and error, and by stepping into deep doodoo more times than I could possibly share in this forum — writing for oneself as a performing songwriter presents a unique challenge. Here’s the crux: every recording artist must be aware that he or she is traversing a thin line between two completely separate, but equally important, personas.

First, the artist is a poet, revealing his or her point of view about the world and how he or she experiences life. This requires you, as the artist/writer, to be completely honest in your expressions.

“What we have always tried to do as artists is to reflect what is going on around us and reveal what is going on inside of us.” — wise and succinct words from Graham Nash, an enormously successful vet of the rock wars.

Secondly though, a savvy artist also accepts the fact that he or she is a commodity — a product, if you will. You may think your fans are buying your songs. But, oh no, my friends. They are really investing in you. The songs you create and perform are the calling cards, the audio logos, the commercial spots you use to showcase the personality you hope your fans will want to take home and/or come out to party with — time and time again, for years to come.

So, to that end, you are constantly creating and defining your own brand — both visually and sonically. And, regardless of your individual artistic intent (whether you’re catering to an existing, generic or niche market, or whether you’re bold and insane enough to attempt a fresh, new hybrid template) your songs are crucial to establishing your brand, your identity. They define your point of view. They reveal who you are — by expressing how you feel about the world around you and how you experience life.

Songs are about communication — first and foremost through emotion. If a song doesn’t hit the gut or the heart first, it’s not working. So, it makes sense that every song you perform should be birthed and performed from a genuinely emotional place inside of you. That’s not to say that every original composition has to be momentous, tragic or self-important. Far from it. Light-hearted and/or humorous material is just as valid as your “change the world” stuff. Each reflects a facet of the emotional dynamics of human life. So, instead of trying to figure out what some radio programmer might wanna spin, write about what you care about.

Now, here’s where you have the opportunity to unify the two halves of your schizoid self. Successful artists who sustain careers are the artists who have an awareness of their own appeal, who recognize and acknowledge their own strengths and weaknesses. At the same time, these artists have developed an intimate knowledge of their audience. I don’t mean they know everybody on a first-name basis. But here is the question you need to ask yourself — often.

(Warning: if you can’t answer this one with complete confidence, then your future success may be in serious jeopardy.) Ready? Here goes...

“What is it about me that my fans love?”

In other words, what does your audience care about? And, what do you offer them that connects to their concerns? Knowing how to answer those questions will enable you to be certain as to what material your following will believe unequivocally coming from you. Those answers will inform you which of your songs most strongly supports the most appealing part of your brand.

With that self-awareness and knowledge, you can become the artist your fans will return to over and over — for comfort, or hard-hitting truth, or joy, or escape, or whatever it is they expect you to provide them.

Be the artist. And, be the product. Let your songs tell your audience who you are and how you feel about life. At the same time, figure out what they love about you — and GIVE ‘EM MORE O’ THAT. Using this self-marketing strategy will enable you to build your brand to its highest potential and sustain an abundant career as a singer/songwriter.

Rand Bishop
Songwriter/producer/author – Makin’ Stuff Up, secrets of song-craft and survival in the music-biz
Available on Amazon.com and at:
www.makinstuffup.net