Learning from the Austin Music Foundation

Last night, I went to meeting for the Austin Music Foundation. The AMF is an organization promoting Austin music and educating Austin musicians about the music biz. (It's free to join!)

The topic was "Management from the Pros". Normally, this whole meeting might've been kinda wasteful to me. Ye see, I like hardcore examples and facts when it comes to success in the music biz, not should'ves and could'ves and intangibles. But last night, it was mostly intangible discussions. But I needed that.

One of the cooler people to see and hear was Chopper from the Austin rock band Kissinger. I remember when they got started. I was running the Texas Musicians Network with my brother and they were one of the first to submit info to our site. And I got to hear about them as they climbed the ranks of successful Austin indie rock groups.

Then last night, I got to hear from their side. Chopper was invited to the panel, because he has successfully managed his band alone. This year they've had four mid-West tours and their popularity is growing one city at a time. It's kinda inspiring even if hearing the amount of money they make was not. Sure we might make much more, but they're out living their dream while building a great solid fan base in the process. We still haven't achieved the "living the dream" thing. Sure we're doing extremely well, but I still do desktop publishing during the day at UT, and Andrew still does computer repair.

That's kinda frustrating. Sure, the idea of doing a two week tour and making only $900 isn't very inspiring when we've got big bills to pay. But it's all a fine balance.

So then last night, I was feeling a bit compulsive. And ye know about six or seven years ago, I first emailed my mailing list and told them I was gonna working on my next solo album after Geography. The album is still not done. So last night I decided that is my next big project...to finally finish a solo album...filled with ANYTHING I want. Songs that I know and love. Yeah, their might be some crossover with the Bards, but I can pretty much do it my way. The first recording I made of "Whiskey in the Jar" was slow, smooth and with a groove, but it was nixed by Andrew. And that's cool. I love the one we have, but I might go back to this version too.

I also want to catch up on all those originals. "When She Held Me In Her Arms" was recorded initially wayyy too fast which is why it wasn't on Gullible's Travels. It turned into a bonus that became very popular with the Celtic Ren Wedding CD, but it's still not how I wanted it. I want to fix that.

And there are many others. It'll take some time filtering through them all.

I was also inspired to go back and remix and master many of the songs I've already recorded. I'm still not pleased with several of them. That's why Celtic Love & War is no longer available. It'll take some time, but I'll get there

Setting Goals

The other thing I got out of the meeting was goal-setting. Ye really don't hear musicians talk about it. Andrew and I set some when we started, but haven't done anything about them since. So it was cool to hear Chopper say he and his band actually set goals and carry them through.

I've thrown out that I wanted three albums done this year. But there's no plan on how to get there. So more than likely, we'll be lucky to get one. Well, that's gonna change too. I'm gonna get a meeting with Andrew and try to fix that.

In the meantime, I'm setting some personal goals. My album. I'm gonna aim to complete it by Dragon*Con at the very end of August. I still need to break that up into baby steps, but I will get to it. I started last night by remixing a couple songs. Still not quite what I wanted, but at least I started. I'll try and keep ye posted on the success. And if you're a member of Marc's Musings, I'll be sure to post a bunch of MP3s as I come to completion of each.

Any case, I just wanted to state this as a first step for me. It wasn't until last month that I found Yahoo Calendar, which is an easy way for me to keep track of my life. All of a sudden I can focus a little better and plan even better. So now that I know what the future holds, I can start planning how I'll meet those goals.

Thanks a lot for all your support. Oh, and if you'd like to read a great article I found on taking charge of your life as a musician, About.com has one entitled, "Looking Out For Yourself.