RSSPlay nice
Mar 05
Social friendships, karma No Comments
First off, when I say “play nice” I don’t necessarily mean onstage. Although I do feel there is some consideration that should be taken for the audience, the venue staff, sound tech, etc… while you’re on stage, I’ll leave that for another post.
With this rant I’m talking more in terms of the kind of thing your mother would have taught you. The kind of nice that should be practiced by anyone, but in terms of being an artist, it is the kind of nice that could one day mean the difference between getting that great gig or having an extra $10-20 for gas because a poor student spent her last bit of cash to buy your album at the show last night.
I don’t think being nice is an art form, but I do think it is yet another thing that requires time. I can think of plenty of artists I have met, and most of whom I consider friends, that went above and beyond what they needed to do. Artists who make a point to respond to every email they receive or every MySpace comment or friend request. Artists who tend to remember the names of the people they meet in different towns or who choose to sell a CD for $8.73 because that is all the person had at the time and they really enjoyed the show.
Aside from the idea of karma, which some of you may or may not subscribe to, in a purely selfish sense these are the people who choose to come to your shows or choose to contact you in some way about your music and what they think of it. Regardless of how many hours you just spent in the van or the fact that you just spent $87 on gas to play to two people, including the bartender and the door person, your attitude towards them could make a big difference to how many people are there the next time or whether or not you even get your foot back in that door.
Sure, there are artists who have certainly made a living and built a reputation of being a recluse, a complete asshole, or simply shy, but most of those folks are counting the years of their career in the double digits before people choose to ignore their personality and just listen to the music. Since it seems likely that you are not in the aged veteran camp, try to think twice before you simply pack up and jump back in the van to head to Rimouski at 3am.
Tell that one person in the corner who stuck around for the whole show that you appreciate him/her being there.
Hell, at the very least it might lead to somewhere to sleep for the night instead of switching drivers during every pit stop in rural Quebec.
keep smiling,
Ryan
