OK, now you are feeling safe enough to play and try things with your art, you can start to develop an identity as a creative person, as an artist. And don’t worry if it goes up and down. When you get a stronger identity, the doubts will go stronger too! Getting an identity as artists starts within yourself. How do you think about artists and creativity? How do your friends, family, colleagues think about it? Many think that you have […]
One year ago I was working with this great book of Julia Cameron: The Artist’s Way. She wrote it about 20 years ago already, and it’s still used by many authors. In all my 18 years in the live music business I’ve never heard of it. Are there musicians working with this method? Do you know? Anyway, I’ll start to write about all the 12 aspects of unblocking your creativity. It starts with gaining a sense of safety. Safety has […]
Research has shown, that 20% of the population can be categorized as highly sensitive persons (HSP). This percentage is valid for animals too! So there has to be a evolutionary gain in having a sensitive minority. I’m convinced that artists are even more sensitive than the average population. You have to be sensitive to colors and shape in order to make great paintings, or to sounds and rhythm in order to write great songs. Others are sensitive to odor, touch, […]
Admiration It starts with others to admire you. The other side of that admiration is influence. They look up to you and it’s easy for you to influence them. People will not only admire you for your art, talents or knowledge. The media will start to ask you questions about all and everything, even if it’s something you have no idea about. Your influence is becoming bigger. Omnipotence Often the result is a feeling of omnipotence. It starts as soon […]
Oh yes, I feel can feel it too: being blocked to write a new post. And that’s while I have plenty idea. I even write a reminder to myself about it. Still, nothing comes out when I sit behind the computer, no new post for my blog. And there are many factors that can contribute to a block like this. If you write music, you will probably know a lot of them too. Being very busy is of course one […]
“Only Americans can combine those two”, said a visitor last weekend after the show of the American singer-songwriter Elliott Murphy. It was a great show. He knows how to combine great music and humor. And somehow the music gets better too by adding humor. But is it true, that only Americans can do it? What’s the secret? Humor obviously helps you as artist to connect to the audience, to involve them. And yes, there are huge cultural differences regarding humor. […]
“Don’t worry, life will turn our different anyway.” That’s how my father in law quoted his sister recently. How true. I had lots of plans when he told me, and a week later I got flu. The flu lasted for 3 (!) weeks. That never happened to me, ever! Every control we think we have about the future proved to be an illusion, you don’t know what’s behind the next corner of life. This is also true to all the […]
Somehow the ‘universe’ doesn’t know the right timing. There are periods that I get really bored and nothing happens. And than again, like last month, everything happens at once. This must sound quite familiar to artists too. Right now all business stuff is good news! One of my artists, AlascA, just signed a record deal in the UK. Another Dutch artist, Lilian Hak, released her new album last week. And we just passed the deadline for applications for Conincx Pop […]
Showing off, bragging, telling about your talents – in the Netherlands it’s all seen as quite negative. In the USA on the other side it’s appreciated, you don’t get anywhere without it. I’m a bit stuck with the Dutch way. A month ago I developed this new model, 4-stages-of-fame, and I didn’t tell people about it yet. I want everyone to know, but I feel a bit shy. What if they don’t like it? Or worse: what if they do? […]
In the reports of Lance Armstrong’s confessions to Oprah Winfrey it stroke me when he said, that he was convinced to be able to do whatever he wants whenever he wants to do it. It’s this kind of power that you get when you are famous. Others will bring you not only your slippers, but will try to read every wish from your eyes even before you formulated it in your brain. Yes, you feel very powerful! You rule the […]
Music business and fame What do Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse have in common? Yes, they all died at 27. They also probably committed suicide, and they all struggled with dealing with their success and fame. They all had a team of dedicated people around them: at their management, agency, record label and more. But the music business doesn’t really know how to help artists in dealing with their success and fame. And as artist it is not […]
Last week I saw a documentary about Joe Strummer of The Clash. It really moved me! End 70’s he was in The Clash and they became really famous. The documentary was on German TV, so it was synchronized, unfortunately. But I love to share with you his experience with fame: “Seven years ago we wanted to grow bigger than all others but without betraying our message. We’ve fallen into all traps a band could fall into if they start at […]
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: 600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 2,700 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 5 years to get that many views. Click here to see the complete report.
New Years Day always feels like a new start. It’s a new start of my life and career, a new start where I finally can become who I want to be, start to do exercises, start to live healthy, start to behave nicely, start to be more assertive. That’s the rush I feel when on a New Years Party and the new year has started. I hug and kiss everyone, everything is possible, it’s the start of something gorgeous, something […]
It’s the time of presents and gifts. In the last couple of weeks I haven’t seen any advertisement block on TV without an ad for perfume and toys and electronic gadgets. I feel pressured to buy gifts, as if the only way to show my friends and relatives that I care is, to give them expensive gifts with x-mas. And if I don’t, than it’s a sign that I don’t care. I prefer voluntary gifts. Oh, I still sent some […]