WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, Kylee Swenson Remix editor
It's been two years: Two years of writing music, recording demos, picking songs, throwing out the ones other bandmates laughed at, rehearsing, fighting about parts, adding bridges, figuring out endings, learning how to work with outside producers for the first time, recording drums, rehearsing more, reworking parts, fighting about them, recording, hearing the first batch of rough tracks, making a “no tambourine” rule, playing new songs live for the first time, reworking them, disagreeing about a sample, recording, fighting over who knows what?, recording, mixing, power struggles about mixing, rerecording, mixing, fighting, mixing…. And then, almost without warning, it's done.
And then? Yes, there's mastering, the business plan, the release date, touring. It's not too hard to put one foot in front of the other. But as with the last time and the time before that, I start to find reasons to keep working on the album. If only that keyboard part went down a tenth of a dB, it'd be better. Why can't my favorite guitar part sound more distinctive in the mix? Nothing can ever be as perfect as you conceived it in your mind's eye — well, unless maybe you have an unlimited supply of money to make it so. Even then, the more cooks in the kitchen, the more negotiations and compromises. But after all the final changes are made, if I stand back, I'm pretty damn happy. It's just that when it's all said and done, and as painful as it was at times, I already miss the process. Maybe I don't really want to be done because I'm afraid of the unknown and of what I can't control.
There are always struggles in making music. For some, success comes faster and easier. For others, we hustle, and some are better at it. Even with my connections, I have often been too scared or embarrassed to use them. It feels like I'm shilling even saying my group's name, but I love being in Loquat. It's truly a band of brothers (and one husband): We fight, but we really like each other; we believe in what we're doing; and we get better at it with each passing year.
At the Remix Hotel Atlanta event in September, I saw all kinds of hustling, more than I'm ballsy enough to engage in. People brought tracks for big-time producers on the “Please Listen to My Demo” panel to critique, and they stood in the audience while the panel delivered sometimes-stinging news in front of a couple hundred people. And on a panel I moderated called “The Songwriter & Musicians Panel,” a female producer from New York, Pri da Honeydark, talked about her hustle. When she was 8 years old, she battled older MCs on the street for money to buy Now and Later candies. Maybe it's the adversity she's experienced over the years, but I get the feeling she hustles like her life — and her son's — depend on it. Rewards don't come if you don't go out and get them.
I was impressed with everyone who handed out demos and made connections with people at the event; I was impressed with people like Remix writer Stoni for working on a remix in her hotel room instead of going out partying; and I was impressed with people who traveled from out of state to come to the event (thanks to DJ Chevy and his manager Margie Rehm for going on the Remix Hotel tour). I'm learning from you guys: Don't be afraid of the hustle, and don't be scared to forge ahead.
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