What I know now I wish I knew when I was getting started in the music business by Chuck Prophet

Tuesday, 27 October 2009

(new album Let Freedom Ring! on October 27, 2009 via Yep Roc Records. )

I wished I'd have guzzled lots less alcohol and fucked lots more. I sort of wish I hadnt bitch-slapped a promoter who cheated me. But what good would the crystal ball have done? The journey is the destination as they say.

Try not to take yourself too seriously. Try not to be terribly precious -- but it doesn't hurt to be obsessive and dogged. To have some inner drive to get it right.

"Take the time to get things right." Ike Turner taught me that.


I was always a big Ike Turner fan. Especially his obscure solo records from the 70's. In 1990, I saw an Ike Turner Soul Revue gig in San Francisco at the Last Day Saloon. There couldn't have been more than 20 people there. It was gloriously unorganized. Ike and his band played Proud Mary like five times and then left the stage. Ike came out for the encore by himself and sang Alice Cooper's Only Women Bleed at the Fender Rhodes. It was perverse, but oddly moving.


Odd. Moving. Cool.


We chatted him up, told him we were fans, musicians ourselves. Ike autographed a record for my friend Stephen Yerkey; he wrote: "Dear Steve, Always take the time to get the right people. Comeback next time, it will be much better. Sincerely, Ike."


Seriously, it's hard to say what I wished Id known then... One thing that occurs to me is that I feel sorry for kids today with crappy MP3's. When I was a kid I really had to seek things out. I had to seek out the music and find a culture weird enough for me to identify with. And most of that came from listening to records. It really opened up my world. And the literature and films and all that came with it


It was the records that pointed me in those directions. From the Clash through The Sugarhill Gang, to Joe Ely to Townes. From Ry Cooder to Wim Winders through the German Expressionist filmmakers... and Dylan to Woody Guthrie, to the Stones and Robert Johnson Petty to JJ Cale, and on and on through world history.


I come from a fairly conservative, non-musical family. I begged for guitar lessons, got golf lessons instead. I just don't think there's much of anything dangerous about dropping out and joining a band these days. But if it's fun, then I suppose it's as relevant as ever.


What to look for / watch out for in managers, attorneys, band members


You mean like, ask for five references and call the last one first? Heck, I don't know anything. You can hire lawyers and managers and all manner of sleazy ten per-centers/experts to help you navigate these decisions, but ultimately nobody else knows anything either. And even the ones that do are full of BS one third of the time.


It's true. Better yet, maybe just find someone you trust. If you have someone who's a true believer in your corner, that's worth more than an army of so-called experts. You have to have blind belief in what you're doing. Making a decent record is a lot like coaching high school football. You've got to be smart enough to do it and dumb enough to think it matters. It does matter. And it's the music that fuels the business, if there's any business at all to be had.


As daft as that sounds, I really believe it's true. Try not to be an asshole. But it doesnt hurt to have an asshole friend or two whos willing to shake things up for you. When people around me begin a statement or request or whatever with "In the future," my guts churn. I guess the best advice I can give is to listen to from within. Shit, thats what the Quakers do and they won the Nobel Peace Prize. If it doesn't feel right, it's probably not.


No man is an eyelid, and as much as everyone would like to cut out the middle man, there's nothing like the power of a gang; in guys that have your back. So surround yourself with cool people. There's the writing, and the recording and the live show to think about. Fact is, you'll end up getting in bed with some good people and you'll ending up getting in bed with some people youll come to find you dont want to wake up next to. And really, it's hard to tell until you're in the heat of battle who's got your back and who doesn't. So, in order to get your music out there, just fucking do it.


I've done both, woken up in both of those beds. But ultimately it's about the music. Every great musician has some bad decisions in his past. Don't get too tangled up in the business side of things. Who wants to be in a band to listen to a cash register? Wait: dont answer that one.


You need much more than a good lawyer. You'll need luck. You'll need lightning. Then you can pay a lawyer to give you his opinion if it makes you feel better. If you can stay awake.


Just pay attention to the lightning.


And listen for the thunder.


The advantages or negative impact of technology on the business

MP3's are crappy sounding. That's a fact. Vinyl has always sounded better. But I try not to get too hung up on how the music is delivered into my psyche. It's easy to forget that it's all about the song, the mystery, the magic in the grooves. That X factor that makes you return to a record and not just put it up on the shelf after one listen.


That's the dope that you want. It's the dope that's important. It's not the needle. If you got to have it, you just got to have it. On cassette, vinyl, CD or whatever. If you need to hear Dusty Springfield singing The Look of Love ,you'll seek it out.


And itll echo forever.


Advice you would give your favorite independent artist or band


Dont eat the brown acid was the lesson from Woodstock, right?


It helps to be a fan. Learn other songs. Learn them, then unlearn them. Substitute your own life, your own absurd observations, your own point of view or lunacy into the frame.


Everyone needs to work to get by. Try to get a job where you have some isolation to think. The best job I ever had was parking cars. I once had a job parking cars at KMEL radio station in San Francisco, "America's Most Hip Hop" radio station. After I'd climb in behind the wheel, out of boredom more than anything else, I'd routinely root around the cars contents. Don't know what I was looking for. I swear I never took anything more than an Altoid mint (or two). But I loved that job, it afforded me: I had a lot of time to think about songs and scheming and plotting new records. It was actually a very happy time for me. And the structure was healthy. Or so I think.


Step away from the computer. If you're to inspire people, you'll need inspiration. Inspiration is in everything, in everyone. Take the time out to visit the odd Hunting Lodge. The more taxidermied animals on the walls, the better. Also, find a guitar that stays in tune. If you can't, find a guitar you love and play it every day. You'll get to know it. And you'll get it to behave and do things for you after a while. Get intimate with its personality.


I still play the same 1984 Fender Squire Telecaster that Green On Red bought me when I joined them. Yeah, yeah, yeah: I know there's some kind of irrational attachment going on. I own others, but I've never played any other guitar than the Squire on a gig. Not sure why, maybe because it knows all the songs and I don't. Like Excalibur's Sword, it gives me power; or like that lucky pen -- when I play it everything just flows through me. If just everybody had one of these things, I'd probably still be folding underwear at Nordstrom's.


But really, I can't stress this enough: Seek out your own culture and your own music.


Seek things out.


Once, in a studio in Scottsdale, I ran into Lee Hazlewood. He was working in an adjacent room producing demos for a local New Country singer and he'd assembled a group of housewife vocalists out of the union book to sing a background part imitating a train whistle ("Whoo whoo"). One woman turned to me and asked, "Is this some kind of joke?"


"Is this guy for real?"


Yeah, he was. Lee seemed to enjoy holding court for us, he gushed enthusiastically over Bobby McFerrin's Don't Worry, Be Happy (a big hit at the time) and told us, "Gram Parsons would have shot watermelon seeds if he thought it'd get him high."


Years later, Nancy and Lee did a reunion tour and Lee refused to give any interviews. But man, he spilled it that day around the water cooler. I still have the business card he gave me in the top drawer of my desk.


I'm a fan first. For me, every time I make a new record, it's the same process. I assemble of group of talented, intense, difficult people. Many of whom I've work with before and a few I'll probably never work with again. And pray we can capture lightening bugs in the rain.


Hope the gods smile down on us. Cause you need all the help you can get.


Never quit being a fan. I don't really have any advice for my favorite artists. Theyre more like teachers to me. And never quit learning even if you have to unlearn everything first.


The value of music and musicians


Oscar Wilde wrote All art is useless. And Oscar Wilde was a fine artist. Its okay to believe both. Musics art. After all, Andy Warhol said this, Youre getting people to spend money on something they dont need. Think about that. Youll need a little hustler in you.


I mean, if you can entertain yourself then there's value. And if you're having fun doing it, that's

something too. I'm not totally behind the everything-should-be-free theory. I mean, if I really wanted to put that to the test I'd move into Chris Anderson's house. There's really no value. Theres a point between every other point, isnt that what they teach you in school? Infinite. But does that mean you cant walk home from school?


I know that in recent years there's been an increase in well-adjusted musicians out there. Fuck, even I might have become one of them. But I'm not sure that returning every e-mail or MySpace message makes anyone more interesting. And as much as I love the freedom the internet provides, I do miss mono-analog-vinyl culture. I like it when records bring people together. And I do agree with Robert Christgau when he says that people generally do a better job if theyre

getting paid. These days, I see journalism really taking a rabbit punch and that's sad.


I never really thought of music as a vocation. In fact, I don't have a job. I'm not sure I'm actually making a living. So what do I know?


Just listen to what your guitar is telling you. Unlearn your songs. Then learn them again.


And watch for the lightning. Itll come.


Come back next time, itll be much better. Sincerely, Chuck.


Chuck Prophet

Autumn 2009, on the road somewhere in England