The Musicians Rant

Oh boy do I have ALOT to say today.... This one is REAL long and I'll be glad to elaborate more on anything that I say.

This is something Ive been meaning to rant about for awhile now and I think
its about time somebody said something. Ask yourself the following questions...

"Do I enjoy ANY type of music?" The answer is yes

"Could I go a week without listening to music?" The answer is most probably no

"Do I understand the work it takes to make music or turn it into a career?"

Unless you are a musician of some sort or have close friends that do the
answer is also probably no.

Generally people really do not have respect for musicians unless they've hit the billboard boom or super status levels but first Ill explain the different levels and the hate that comes with them.

*NOTE* These are just nicknames I came up with for different points in a musicians career and are not official terms in case any smart ass wants to say something

"Just for fun" level

You play some kind of instrument or own a pair of turntables or go to karaoke nights at your local bar. You're pretty decent at what you do but its still just for fun.

People don't really hate on these types of musicians because this is just a past time and they still function like everyone else in what non-musicians call "Normal work fields"

"First few gigs" level

The next level after the just for fun musician. You turn a few heads and start getting offered gigs. You're really excited to actually be able to play your little thing that you do for yourself at home for fun
in front of a few people, be it 10 or 50 ppl, so you don't really worry about money and get taken advantage of by promoters who thrive on the excitement level of young musicians. Sometimes for a nights work you can leave with $20-$50 depending on how jonsy you are.

People now start to ask questions when you tell them how much you make in a night and kind of laugh at you but not too much as you're still probably working in the normal field of work at
this point and it isn't your sole income.

"Quite Often gigger" level

If you haven't gotten fed up from the low money, discouraged by a tiny bit of haters or decided that gigging is over for you then this is where you're at. You might have a residency or multiple gigs over the
course of a month. You start learning more on how to deal with promoters and start getting paid more. Probably at this point per hour for your gig it might be a little more than the average person but you still have some sort of "normal" job, with the difference that you might take off a day or two during the week or come in late a few hours because your gig lasted til 3am the night before.

People kind of stop the laughter and get jealous that you have something that makes you extra cash and hint that its 'not fair' but in an envious way. You either stay at this level and just gig for the extra cash or after alot of thinking you take it the the next level....

"The struggling musician" level

This is the point that alot of people reach and maintain for a long period of time. You make a decision that this is what you want to do. You've gotten a few fans (some people say groupies I personally say
fans) who give you just enough support to make you believe that you can make it doing this. You believe that whatever it is you're doing whether its playing a tabla, blowing into a saxophone, or strumming a guitar, or making and mixing your own little things, there's a bigger audience out there that wants to hear you express yourself because after all, Music is an art form whose medium
is sound right?.

You realize that if you want to do this thing you have to dedicate as much time as possible to this. For some that may mean not hanging with co-workers after work or for the real hardcore people, not having a day job at all. You have sufficient gigs to sort of live but not really. You rarely have
money and most of your time not gigging is spent trying to get more gigs, working on music, or out in bars & nightclubs trying to network yourself with other musicians at the same level to "do stuff".

Now your gig salary per hour is much higher than regular people which starts causing problems. You
start hearing alot of "I work 9-5 six days a week and make x amount and you only work for 3 hours and get the same thing.. Your job is so easy". What people fail to realize is that to get that gig for x amount there is hours and hours of work put into it. Whether it be practicing with a band, spending time on the
internet emailing, social networking, looking for promoters and venues, making demos or out in a club networking with others, coming up with plans to "do stuff", these things all take time and there is no instant gratification from it. It is not as "walk in walk out forget about it" as your regular 9-5 job.

If a musician were to just walk in, walk out and forget about it then he/she will soon realize that there is
no next gig. You constantly have to push yourself and move it forward to try to take it to the next level, otherwise you will get washed ashore and be the struggling musician for eternity.

"Breaking point" level

For most this may take quite some time in the struggling musician level. You've networked with the right people, you begin to understand music from more of a business point of view. You kind of have an angle, a direction in which you are going to take it to the next level. Gigs are still not crazy paying but you now have a bit of extra money to invest in your self-motivated project. You start gaining alot of attention locally, people that don't know you personally are in a bit of an awe but the people that
do know you.. Hate starts REALLY coming out.

They don't like the fact that you only work for "3 or 5 hours" while they are busting their ass at work 9-5 all week AND on top of that people are praising you for your efforts. Other struggling musicians that may know you or know of you may also start to hate on you, claiming you don't deserve to have more limelight, you're not better than them.

You'll ride the waves of praise and hatred while still trying to focus on achieving the next level. Just one more song, just one more gig, one more random encounter with the right person, just a few more weeks, a few more months.. Everything seems to be falling into place its just a matter of time.

"The Break" level

Finally you have caught the eyes of some kind of management agency or label that is going to mold you into something that can sell on the global market. They have plans for you and they have big plans. They have all the contacts for gigs and for a small fee start doing all the work for you. This gives you
much more time to really focus on your music. Your music starts getting a bit less personal though,as these marketing people have their input on it as well.. After all they know what sells. You stop associating yourself with the struggling musician types except for those who are "friends from the beginning".

Some that have doubted you at this point now want to work with you. People who know you are now more than ever upset at the fact that you're getting paid even more for your gigs and now you're not getting them yourself. You ignore this as the train is almost at the station and you prepare yourself for the next level.

"Billboard boom" level

You hit radio, the videos out, you have something on the top 40 billboard charts. You music is now being heard nationally and internationally. You start going on tour and experiencing some spotlight in magazines and interviews. Your music is really becoming less "You" and more "Product". You're really popular in the eyes of strangers and now have lots of fans. If you're female you probably have alot of female fans but if you're male... The girls are all over you when they see you. You can't go out anywhere public without being harassed a bit but its not to the point where you need security yet. Depending on where you are located you may have moved away form you're hometown to become more in the center of the action.

People back home are content, proud that you've made it. But the haters have an alterior motive. Now they will start to bring up things about you, or point things out from your struggling years
into the community. *PERFECT EXAMPLE* I was at tokyo bar one night talking with a
chick. A Shawn Desmound song came on and she said "Oh I went to school with him (referring to the singer) he's SUCH a loser". Now depending on how well you're doing on a global scale you might be offered to do another album or call it quits. At this point though you've learned enough about the business and have networked yourself well enough to make this officially a living and be comfortable, unless of course you get too caught up in the partying and girls that come with this level.

"Superstar status" level

It may only be your first or second album but you are the shit. You're music is getting hammered 15 times a day on the radio or should I say your product because it really isn't like when you first started. You now don't only have fans you have copycats. People that want to walk, talk, dress and act like you. You start having to be really careful where you go in public and as well what you do as you have a million screaming fans and paparazzi following you. You probably have alot of "fake friends" around you, people who care just about the fame and the money. The still struggling musicians with whom you might have shared a pint with one random tuesday night 5 years ago are disgusted by you and say you have
"sold out".

Interesting enough though, most of the haters from back home are now actually abusing the fact that they know you in their own social situations for their own benefit or how I like to call it "To look extra cool"

ex: "Hey I know him .Yea man we used to have the same math teacher in grade 2."

or

"I always believed in him. You know I used to help him write these ideas for songs?"

But still of course you'll have haters that will really get upset when they hear mention of you and do whatever they can to destroy you. They're like roaches these types of haters they never die. Probably at this point you can go into other fields like acting, clothing, etc.. You can keep making music or retire at this point. You've achieved the highest level next to legend. Congratulations. But there still is one more level which is not higher but lower... way lower...


"The destroyed musician" level

This is someone with whom either by a combination of something been blown out of proportion by the media and public ignorance or stubstance abuse has lost all respect in the public eye. They have very few friends now as its only their true friends that have known and witnessed their wild ride. The haters are content and out celebrating.

This once famed person now walks in public only to receive looks of disgust. No more praise, no more people wanting autographs, nobody cares. Nobody wants to hear what you have to express with your music. You try making a comeback album and its criticized to shit. Anything and everything you do is looked at with a negative perspective with the help of the media to constantly remind the world that you're a piece of shit. Game over.


What level am I at you say? I would say somewhere around struggling musician and the breaking point.


But the real purpose of this rant is to express my frustration on how people think its so easy to be a musician. I play piano but that's a "just for fun " level. I use that skill to compose music but the stage musician part is being a DJ.

Although this should be another rant all together, people have a special disrespect towards DJs. First
off on how people say "Oh they are just playing music how hard can it be?". Would you say the same thing about a cover band? A DJ who plays other peoples music is essentially a cover band (some DJs are gonna be pissed I said that lol) but with some minor differences. They do not need to know the keys or notes of the music but they do need to keep the tempo, know where the chorus is, the verse, the break, when,where and what to mix with it EVERY 4 minutes. While this may seem like fun and games it is alot of work on the brain. DJing is a big calculation of many things. How fast or slow is the next song? by how much? how long should I play it for? what comes next? are people dancing? etc...

To the non-DJ, non-musician hater type

I guarantee you that if I take 2 songs of your choice (that are mixable of course) and ask you to match
them for me, you will get frustrated and whine like a baby that it is too hard. Try doing that for hours
and hours on end. Sure its easy if you're not good at what you're doing. Anything is easy if you're not
doing a good job at it. But to get to certain levels of DJing you have to be good. A good DJ knows how to set whats called a "vibe".

A vibe is the ambiance in the place. It could be in a house party, a club, a restaurant, a lounge, an outdoor thing, whatever. All these things are very particular and have their own rules. Once you build
a vibe in a place you have to work hard to keep it. As hard on the brain as building a vibe is, its gets
progressively harder to do so as hours go on and you become mentally exhausted. Once you break the vibe you lose the interest. In some places this can mean hundreds of people leaving resulting in thousands of dollars of lost bars sales or what not. Fuck up too much and your out.

Another part is keeping up to date with music. You have to be on the look out digging for music everyday because when that drunk boy or girl comes to the booth who's been spending money like crazy at the bar wants to hear a song and you don't know what it is, your boss is gonna be pissed and unless you're at a higher level of DJing you're easily replaced.

That x amount of money we get is not just for playing music for 5 hours. Its for making sure that we do our job properly, if that means staying up till 4am getting new music, or making a little stupid remix of a popular song that only gonna be playable for the next few weeks so people will spend a bit more in the bar, whatever it is, in the owners eyes its "Here's the money, go get the tools you need for your job". Our work leaves the workplace. The workplace technically is everywhere.

Lets say you work at an office and the company buys you a computer and it breaks who pays for it?

They do....

Lets say I'm DJing somewhere some drunk girl spills her drink on my cd's that I BOUGHT and then trips and smashes my $300 headphones that I PAID FOR with MY MONEY who pays for it?

I do...

But I cant work without my headphones? It doesn't matter!! "Here's x amount, go get the tools you
need for your job". I have so much more to say about how people mistreat DJs but its more the musician part that I want to go off about as the stories Ive told about DJing or gigging , a jazz band can also relate to. If you want to become more than a "Quite often gigger" as a DJ or with any type of musician you gotta write your own music.

People love turning on the radio, or putting in a cd and listening to their favorite song but yet fail to realize the work that was put into it and criticize musicians as bums. First off someone has to write the song, the lyrics and get it right. For it to reach mainstream radio it really needs to be perfected which takes hours and hours of rewriting and fixing up parts so you can all tap your hands to it while in traffic on the way to work or while you shake your bums and sing along to it drunk in a club. Someone has to compose the music. If real instruments are being used someone has to play the drums or the keyboard or the guitar or whatever AND a sound engineer has to be present to make sure its recorded properly. If its electronic instruments someone has to arrange it. Now that the songs done someone has to mix and master it. Now someone has to market it. Someone has to make a video for it. Someone has to promote it...

I'm not gonna break it down as it gets really complicated but I think you get the point (and musicians feel free to add to the rant as always).

Why aren't more people making songs if its so easy?

Why are people going to these jobs that they hate when being a musician is such a piece of cake, takes no effort and uses up so little time with the same financial gain?

At least 3 times a month I hear some kind of stupid comment about how "DJing is easy" or "Those guys in that band are so lazy" and how those people would be really good. So why aren't you doing it? I'm so puzzled....

To the people that don't appreciate musicians

Try going a week without listening to any music. Then go and buy an instrument and learn how to play it. Get good at it, then try to go on stage and get people to listen to you. Now go and try to write your own song and show it to people without them laughing at you. Then shut the fuck up.

To my fellow musicians

No matter what level you're at keep doing your thing and remember why you
started it and why you're still doing it. You understand the struggle and probably live it. Throw the
haters in your fire and use it at fuel. After all haters are anybody's biggest fans right?

This concludes my rant about music stay tuned for my rant about drunk crying girls (just kidding
although it could be funny)

Why do calories taste so amazing?

I remember watching a chef boyardee commercial like 10 years ago
and the little boy in it saying "Why does everything thats good for me taste bad"
and he got kicked out of school or whatever.

Seriously....

Why does mcdonalds, burger king, wendys, dominoes or any fast food restaurant have such
grrrrreaaat tasting things but are complete garbage health wise?

Why do all the "fat free" or "50% less saturated whatever" things taste so much worse than
the regular versions?

My hypothesis is that it must be the calories. Calories must be what is making all these things taste
so delicious. And the more calories a triple whopper with cheese and bacon has the better.

So I propose a solution to the FDA. Would it be possible to make "calories" into some sort of spice, like salt or pepper or paprika or thyme or some shit?

Then just make everything no calories and people can add their own.

So if you want to be a skinny mini dont put any calories or just dash some on for taste...

And if you feel like being fat about things then go buck with the calories shaker.

The possibilities are endless there can be different flavours of these 'calories' spices...

On that note Im gonna get ready for my gig tonight and plan out having a big big poutine afterwards...

Mmmmm calories taste so amazing..

Introduction to my blog

Hey welcome to my blog raswow (RAw Spoken Words Of Wisdom) or (RAndom Spoken Words Of Wisdom)

Im a dj/producer/vocalist from montreal canada with alot to say about nothing.

Im a very random person and I look at most things through a funny perspective.

I will try to update the blog as much as possible but I must admit Im a huge procrastinator
so there may be times where the blog seems dead and then all of a sudden there will be like 5 new posts.

I use alot of metaphors and figures of speech when I talk/write. I hope I dont offend anyone as Im not
trying to but at the same time if you do get offended you're a big baby.

So I guess thats all enjoy what I have to say about the little things I notice that are wrong with society!