artist


10 keys to success

When it comes to the connection between art and cash, there are two very different opinions. On one hand there is the believe that as an artist, you just have to get to the top and then you will become rich, filthy rich, just like all the famous musicians and athletes. On the other hand though, when it comes to career planning, most people will tell you to get a ‘decent’ job, because with art you can’t make a living, […]


Art is trial-and-error

Last week I got a bit philosophical, with the flu clouding my head. Somehow I could accept from myself to be less than 100% perfect. And while looking around me, I noticed that everyone is actually messing around a bit, trying to adjust to expectations, trying to find a bit of happiness, trying to make ends meet. Even if someone has a great plan, in the end it’s about trial and error. I see the trial-and-error approach with our IT […]


Wake up, rise and shine!

Yesterday I was getting tired on Trump getting the headlines again with one of his discriminating laws. Tired also of all the posts on my FB timeline from people sharing their outrage. You only reach like-minded people with it, so what’s the use of it? Actually, that’s exactly what all these laws are about. They want us to get tired of being outraged, they want us to get used to it! It’s time to wake up. Since January 20, Trump […]


Floating and at drift when starting something new

When starting something new, I often feel floating and at drift. It’s like sitting in a boat in the middle of the ocean. When looking around me, the waves don’t tell me where I am, where I come from or where I’m heading. It all looks the same. I don’t see any progress and I’m tempted to resign. Don’t panic! Thinking about it, I realized that it’s totally natural to feel like this. When you start something new, you walk […]


Success by developing your strengths

At school I’ve learned that I have to put extra attention to the subjects I’m not that good at. In my case it was French, Latin and sports. All the good grades in history, religion and music were taken for granted. The focus was on getting better in the stuff that I wasn’t that good at. It took me quite some time to find out that there are alternatives to that approach. Waldorf schools, Montessori schools and other alternative schools […]


7 criteria to choose a manager 2

Sometimes you only realize what you know, if someone asks the right question. It happened to me last week, when one of the participants of my workshop D.I.Y. mentality asked me how to select the right manager. He’s made serious progress with his band after the workshop and is recently approached  by various managers. Within a split second I mentioned 6 criteria, and thought of the last one (number 2 in the list) after consulting with my partner. I like […]


D.I.Y. attitude

Local initiative Last Friday I was at the opening of COEN, a local initiative with workshops for artists to become more commercial. At the reception a theater maker told me how difficult it is for her to combine commercial thinking with creative action. We had an interesting conversation. Problems as artist ‘They want us artists to become commercial entrepreneurs. But as artist, I want to create without having to think about the commercial value. ‘ ‘I agree, it’s your creativity […]


Miley Cyrus – comparing apples and oranges?

The open letter of Sinead O’Connor to Miley Cyrus seems to be an issue in the music business right now. Sinead writes about Mileys new video clip Wrecking Ball.  Below I have the link, in case you haven’t seen it yet.  Sinead has great respect for Miley as an artist, and is telling her that she is exploited by all the men in the music business, who are prostituting her in order to make money for themselves. A great addition […]


Quote

An artist can not fail, it is a success to be one. – Charles Horton Cooley


Unblocking 11: Autonomy

What’s your association with autonomy? My thoughts always go back to my first morning after moving to Frankfurt a.M. I was 19, moved there from a small village on the country side and had just registered at the city council. Walking in the morning at Eiserner Steg towards the city center, I felt like the whole world was mine! It was an enormously outburst of freedom, independence and love. Does this sound extravagant and braking-loose-from-social-obligations? Oh yes, that was exactly […]


Unblocking 1: Safety 2

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 […]


4 stages of fame – dealing with success 5

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 […]


Waiting … 2

Waiting – don’t you hate it too? Waiting means that you are depending on others, that you have to wait for them to do something, or for the situation to change. Artists have to wait all the time, especially musicians on tour. It seems like most part of your day is waiting. You wait for your band mates to be ready to leave to the show, get in a traffic jam, wait for the sound engineers to be ready for […]


Artists are leaders

Since I started this blog, I’m convinced that artists can learn a lot from theories about (personal) leadership. Though I’ve might been a bit vague on why. And now I read the answer in an article of Bob Lefsetz: “Artists lead, they don’t follow. They’re not beholden to their audience, IT’S THE OTHER WAY AROUND!” And this is what my blog is about. I want to inspire and help artists to lead instead of to follow. Link for the article […]


And if I’m not famous? 1

Last week I spoke to a manager about this blog. He sounded very interested. Though his problem was not that his artists are famous and don’t know how to deal with their success, but that they are NOT famous, and don’t know what to do. He thought that this blog would not be interesting for him. Let start from the scratch. What is fame? When I was a little girl I thought, that if everyone in the small village I […]