Goals

[tonefight]

Since the discussion has been a little slow or political based I figured I'd throw one out to ya.


What are your goals in the music buisness ? What goals did you have when you were starting to play ? Have you reached them yet? have they changed? what are you doing to reach them ?

My goals are pretty simple and that is just have fun and play. I never really had starry eyes for the big time , I did however used to go throught the PA Musician and read Jims articles about 15 years ago and that is what I wanted to do, Local Level Good Time Kinda Musician. I think if I were to have a brush with fame all would want to be is a one hit wonder. Give me the money and let me go back to the clubs.

[songsmith]

It's funny... i always wanted a career in performing and recording music, and for whatever reason, it wasn't in the cards. Now, I just do it for shites and giggles, and it's sort of better. Hindsight shows me that you all should really have fun, because if you're realistic, you get that "fame and fortune" are extremely rare, and not based on how good you are at your craft, or even how driven. There are no guarantees at this job or any other. If you stop to smell the flowers, as it were, you'll have a lot of great memories.
I had this conversation before on this board, with a guy called The Reason, and he took that to mean I think you all suck, and you'll never get anywhere. WRONG! What I meant was, you never know, it could be you on the magazine covers, I've known guys who were "big," and not necessarily happy. I also know guys who never played outside the county who have great stories to tell.
Therefore, my goal is to be good... make good friends, write good songs, have good times, make good memories, and hopefully have people see me as a good guy.----->JMS

[daveb]

When I was a kid I wanted to be Ace Frehley. But after giving the starry eyed bar band crawl up the ladder three rungs.....fall down two grind for ten plus years, I bailed. I realized how much I loved music when I was away. That's when I started recording at home just for my own amusement. My goal now would be to score films and TV. It's amazing how much affect music has on people when it's part of a sound track. It's just as starry eyed as the bar band dream but at 39 years old seems a little more sane.

[Sanctify]

dream goal - international rockstar

realistic goal - play around town for the rest of my life...

[facingwest]

I'm actually living my dream and it's simple. I want to make a living at what I love to do the most.....music. Up until recently (Thanks Kenny), I always had in the back of my mind to actually try and do something with a band on a higher level and realized that to actually make it in this day and age, it's almost next to impossible. I know that playing out will slow down a lot more the older I get, so Joel Stiles and I are just going to write and sell songs. I'd rather sell a song and have a band bust their arse trying to make it. That's just my two cents.

[jreider]

I've never really had giant musical aspirations. I knew the stuff we wrote would never be able to be sold by a record label to large number of listeners. All I really like to do is play. Touring is too hard while trying to have a day job as well, and let's face it - we'd probably never leave the van stage anyhow. I like to write and record and play live as much as possible, so I guess I've achieved as much as I wanted. If it all stopped today, I could absolutely say that I've gotten everything I expected out of music. As I look back on the 14 years I've been in the band, I thank my lucky stars we never got huge, we'd just be another band that no one cares about. At least , on an underground level, folks still seem interested in what we're going to do next and I'll be perfectly happy with that alone.

[bassist_25]

I'm actually living my dream and it's simple. I want to make a living at what I love to do the most.....music. Up until recently (Thanks Kenny), I always had in the back of my mind to actually try and do something with a band on a higher level and realized that to actually make it in this day and age, it's almost next to impossible. I know that playing out will slow down a lot more the older I get, so Joel Stiles and I are just going to write and sell songs. I'd rather sell a song and have a band bust their arse trying to make it. That's just my two cents.

John, I've stated numerous times that I think it's great that you decided to play music for a living and have found sucess with it. Well, guess what - I'm going to say it again.

All throughout my teenage years, I was told (by non-musicians, of course) that playing music was not a good career decision. After I began gigging and seeing what kind of money could be made, I learned how full of shit those people were. Sure, being a professional musician isn't a bed of roses. But guess what: No matter what you do, whether it be carpentry or owning a consulting company, if you are self-employed, it's not always going to be a bed of roses.

Right now, I'm putting myself through college by playing music. I really don't know how I could work a normal day job with my crazy class schedule. My goal is to play music for fiancial gain until I get to grad school. (and then I'm sure I'll still be jamming)