AM I TOO OLD TO HAVE A CAREER IN MUSIC?

what's up guys Damian Bruce at Walter Bayer College of Music today we are asking are you too old to have a career in music and I thought I'd ask a man so old that he is as old as forever and older than the Sun thank you for that it seriously that it's a question that I get asked all the time I'm 51 and the short answer the question the answer to that is now I will talk about why why now but I get asked this question by people who are 22 years old Wow who are frightened that they've missed the boat this feeling that I've missed the boat is so common and actually it's a psychological problem it's not a real problem something that exists in people's minds it doesn't exist in reality now I think there's a historical thing here that it used to and the reason it used to be an issue is that when the the we gatekeepers to the music industry ie major labels and A&R people they tended to feel that obviously the people that buy used to buy you the most records and the most CDs back and talked about early 90s a and that would be teenagers between the age of 13 and about 17 so there was a thing where people were looking for their own identity the separating for the parents they look for role models and it would be their favorite bands and they would buy those records in huge quantities which is why it's condensed there and however you know so that's why the focus was I remember feeling out literally at 23 24 and we had big records I remember thinking how long can we keep this old for can we make that transition and jump it to being an Aerosmith owner you know a Rolling Stones or will be like most bands that kind of you know it was career comes to an abrupt end and back then that's exactly what happened to us fashion changed and we were locked out of the music industry but we could still sell a gold album yeah just about and these days of course what you do you'd celebrate losing your record deal because it's you know you'd be like I'm great now we'll be DIY and well actually you've millions of pounds worth investing to you and now it's given to you as like exactly business exactly but I suppose the point today is as we know there are those gatekeepers don't exist really I mean even Simon Cowell for showbiz reasons he kind of rather laughably kind of puts himself up as the gatekeeper to the music industry and it's complete nonsense because we're already in it costly as you do every day you can communicate with your audience yeah so we don't need them you know and and of course the old music industry that tried to hold on to it all they live over there now largely selling back catalogue and the odd record that squeaks row and most of us exist in a different place as DIY artists doing record deals when we feel like it or when the time's right and taking control of our own destiny and I think what you've got is you've got fear of am I too old which is perpetuated but I think there are certain issues there are of being older than 25 which come with responsibilities because you might have a mortgage or you know when you're at college you live off baked beans and you know you get to a certain age you go I don't want to live in a student house and then I'm gonna get married and I have got a child it's tougher to sleep in the bun itself is need a Nevada solutely and so you do have you do have different challenges you do as time goes by and there's another thing which perpetuates this this age of you need to do it as quick as possible is also because there is a window now into the world of musicians and and everything else and we are constantly I mean the amount of times that I'll flick on my Instagram and there's some 13 year old who's 10 times better than me as a bass player oh yeah and so at that point we're looking at you know oh I'm too old I can't I can't if he I can't I can't do what he's doing at 13 and so all of this then conjures up this idea of like of negativity of Omega this is too old but I think one thing that we've got to do is realize that we are now in an age where we are in control but it now comes down to being smart being really clever and understanding the audience I think if you are going to try and appeal to 15 year olds as thirty-year-old you're going to struggle you've got a problem you got struggle let's break this down to let's talk about audience first and foremost cuz there are absolutely not pretend that this is easy if it was easy everyone would be doing it but audience you know your audience and our friend eggs from Skunk Anansie old as this expression he says age entertains age yeah and that's you know your audience is probably likely to be within 10-15 years of your age really so now in that allows you to kind of go you know write songs for those people write songs that represent your life is gonna represent you represent their life you know and the great thing as you get older these some things get easier yeah one is your audience spend more when they go out especially if there's a tinge of nostalgia so ticket prices of merchandise sales tend to be pretty good well on that note just hold that thought because that to me is a key thing older people do spend more money if you look at the stats of last year the highest grossing touring artist was Ed Sheeran who made four hundred and thirty million dollars and played to five million people his average ticket price was seventy to eighty dollars in America yeah her ticket because it's still aa world touring if you look at the Eagles and the Rolling Stones they played a hell of a lot less gigs but their average ticket price was a hundred and seventy five dollars almost a hundred dollars more than that curve tends to keep going as you see with the stone yeah you know if they're still going in five years then the ticket price will be more ya know and we'll gladly die exactly because we're buying a piece of our past or by nostalgia you know all that kind of stuff you know and so you know that works you know favor the other thing that works in our favor because it is hard there's gonna be some challenges which we'll talk about in a minute and your competition drops away yeah so for me as a guitarist when I was eighteen the world seemed like it was full of people shredding away you know and caught it was like Olympic guiteau's Post don't even hailing him or not to be really technical it was like training for the Olympics in every street corner yes some some color you know like we say on YouTube we can get with the with you know young shredders gymnastic musicians you know but as you get older you realize you just sell in person and what you stand for so that feeling of competition just goes which is a great relief and you're free to be yourself and you are look round now and guitarists there my age are normal yeah you know they're big feet freezing used to be the almighty and they dilute morally and you know and we all know each other and and therefore if somebody wants a guitar player that does that thing then they'll go and get one of those guys you know and there's more of these artists talk still touring because they can yeah so not only can you still do it from your own music point of view but there's a lot more gigs and opportunities out there because if you are a Rob Stewart or a John you're not gonna one that's 19 year old guitarist no no no that's right that's right I think that the most the critical stage is going into your 30s actually I think if he's still doing this by your 30 you're probably going to be there forever right and it's that 2728 you know the pressure of paying your bills is it it's how you might be starting a family of your own you've got an awful lot of challenge you so let's have a look at that because what kills it what kills careers is not making you're not finding an audience it's it's long as your musics good you'll find the audience but he's paying the bills yeah and I think the old-fashioned way of doing things where you put all the eggs in one basket and you go all right everybody in my band he saws in the split of amber sees the world we are going to make it for any band at any level that's a recipe for total disaster because the will come that month when there's a cashflow dip and you can't pay your bills and what happens is you've got baby oh you've got responsibilities you go well this is it I'm gonna get a proper job so modern musicians don't put themselves in that position erectus mark yeah you're right because so you've got this kind of dig baskets of money yeah the whole baskets of opportunities baskets and money one thing I was going to ask you about about this is where do you think self-awareness comes into this so for example one thing when you're 18 19 is you can go with some time flying high over - exactly yeah when you're thirty thirty - you know knowing your strengths weakness weaknesses because you can't be that 35 year old brilliant morally yeah yeah yeah I think you're thinking when you're 18 that blind faith in what you do it's a really positive thing you take the Arctic long because you can feel that on that first album you know it's full of it you know but when you get to 30 and it's a real problem because if you're I mean I know a lot of old rock rock dudes they're still thinking that somehow they can make it in that kind of anvil type way but you've got to be objectively enough to look at a scene and an assessor you've gotta say well if I'm doing that type of music the audience is this big in this country so that into that equates a few pub gigs and there's that kind of if it's just a research and common sense you've got to work out how the scene work and who does what otherwise you've just got a bit of a crazy pipe dream and so if you what I mean I've got a few people I talked to who are kind of in their 30s do you have a lot of wobbles this question does am I too old maybe I'm not good enough yet and I'm too old to be get to get good at yeah so with the self-awareness going into getting improvement and continued improvement what are the areas you think if you are thirty-five not saying you've had a career and you're still going yeah but you are in this singer-songwriter musician and sort of semi-pro yeah I'd say that what's the bits I'm good out what's the bits I should be working at I think your first job is to take the heat out the situation right because the thing another thing that will kill a band or kill a project or kill your your will to live actually is making this pressure cooker this has got to make it in this next year otherwise I'm gonna you know and and it can make people really really miserable and so you've got just take the heat out of it and organize some income stream so you've got some money coming in in a relatively easy way hopefully with music but if you have to get a day job for a couple of days away from flexible work do it you know so you've got to be kind of able to be patient yeah and then you've got to look at you music and start to be objective about it with objectivity becomes raising standards if your band or your music or your solo career feels like you're wading through treacle it's probably because isn't quite as good as you think is and I've done it myself so much we all have when I've made every record have ever made whilst I've made it I thought it was the best thing that's ever been recorded three weeks after I recorded it I thought it's absolutely terrible and objectivity comes about two years later do you know what was fairly good stuff in there and some stuff I wish that never you know so the more objective you are and again it comes down to you have to surround yourself with good people who know know their stuff so a real big influence on me with Luke patashnik right who produced the last single we released with color of noise and he showed me a new way of looking at music and it was commercially it was good he was a really good radio record and without that extra objective the right producer in that case the right manager the right producer which we talked about a lot bringing in men to it the right Mentors yeah yeah yeah absolutely yeah I think the point for me is the bit you brought up as soon as you said take the pressure out of it yeah you can see how that would help you know we know loads of artists probably 40s and 50s that have just been going for 30 years and their idea of of success is I make I get to make it a record once a year my fan base buys the record and that leads me on then to do a torch I really really enjoy and I get to meet all the fan base which then goes round in circles and some years is better than other years and yeah and it's an ongoing kind of process yeah without this if I don't get success because what is the definition of success at any age of that alone that 35 situation you've just described is it's a form of madness because some of the most unhappy people on the planet are some of the most successful in their commerce and actually if I look at the gigs I've done from perhaps a local gig in a pub in Brighton to Wembley Stadium the difference of enjoyment and join in music is no different between the two if you play well you enjoy it yeah you play badly you don't yeah you know it's the idea that it would all be sorted out if I'm working and touring and making records at that level actually what successes it's more human activity contests yeah so it's more problems you always used to say to me as well this what's interesting is always the what next so if you're paying clubs that then you're not gonna be happy until you play clubs if you play clubs you're not gonna be happy until you play sort of sports halls and that carries on going until unless you get to you too and you're playing even that laces even then the challenge of these big artists they've got to maintain their career if the result is unimaginable pressure you know if you're gonna if you're gonna overthink it feel it's a bad place to be you know and I'll give you a couple of examples of instances of that when little angels are the number one album it feels great for a day the next day like well what now so you know you know so you a good thing becomes a pressure what was the thing at that point you just had a number-one album you had your celebration you wake up with a hangover and then you have the meeting of what do we do what do we do now what was that what's the art what was the answer them well the answer was two ways to oh now we've got to try and break America but meanwhile of course you know back in that era Kurt Cobain's releasing nevermind fashions changing the music industry is becoming kind of wiped clean in a kind of way if a punk like thing happens every ten years so we were part of that you could feel it we've been pushed off the table while still having the number one album well let me give you another example when when cool shaker had hush came out single and it we our there were we're watching the band and our our colleague Kevin Nixon was managing the band and they thought it was gonna be number one I think the mid week might have even been humble and they dropped to number two yet so I ramped up to congratulate them and everyone there's disappoint it's like a morgue and it's like you know you can't win if it's number two you want it to be number one if he's number one this like you know so you've got to just grow out of all us off and go my life is gonna be in music and I'm gonna construct a life that works for me that's sustainable and die success yeah defining success taking pressure out of it yeah and you can do it at any age in the point of color of noise my bun that put together when I was 47 was an experiment to see if it could you know see if I could start a new band essentially and it worked great and it pulled me back in with with all the crowd funding sort of things and lots of old friends in the business lots of new friends lots of new bands and the singer from Little Angels Toby same age as me he started a new band more or less when he was fifteen my wayward son dastan amazed it amazingly well yeah so yeah so I think it's taking it sequentially it's take the pressure off patience ya know that you've got all the time in the world the most important thing is for you to deliver that one song early that changes everything yeah one song can change everything overnight and it's not about having a good song it's about with a really great song and they'll just enjoy the process enjoy the process whether it takes five months five minutes five years enjoy the process and make it sustainable and be patient says your answer the answer is a happy you know far as one of the thing I was out as well the we deliver a work-based learning master's at Walter bear and one of the things I'm really believe in with them up with the Masters is that you can take this real-world activity and it's our job to shine a light on those transferable skills because the time and effort you spend managing a creative creative project whether it's a band or a video company he's never wasted because if you could thrive in the creative industry you can thrive anywhere so the Masters is all about we'll take any professional work and write it up so you can get a piece of paper for all those sleepless nights in a transit band going around the country because you are learning really important skills so if you're interested in that stuff contact us at water bear like and subscribe for more videos like this we're doing it week in week out it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it [Music]

Channel: WaterBear - The College of Music

Views: 13,632

Keywords: waterbear, waterbear college, waterbear music college, music college, brighton music college, waterbear brighton, waterbear music, music education, musicians advice, musicians tips, music industry tips, music industry tutorial, rob chapman, too old to have a career, Too old for music career, Am I tool old to do music, How to grow an audience for your music, where to sell music online, grow your music fanbase, how to do music as a career, AM I TOO OLD TO HAVE A CAREER IN MUSIC

Id: RhlkU5Yp-gQ

Length: 17min 45sec (1065 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 11 2019