Recording - June 2013 - 55

Continued from page 52
me privately on the Forum and say, “Would you
listen to my stuff?” And I’ll give them a comment
and I’ll tell them, “Your composing skills are fine;
it’s just the instrumentation.” And we’re just talk-

“If there’s a secret, it’s two words:
hard work. That’s the secret. It’s just
hard work, determination,
consistency, and patience.”
—Barry French

advice, to grow or cultivate an attitude of heart and
mind and spirit of helping other people. A lesson I
learned some years ago when I was in Nashville
meeting with a VP of ASCAP—I won’t name the
guy. As you often do, I had my CD, I had my songs,
and I’m going in there to have the meeting so he
can set me up with publishers or A&R people or
whatever. It’s all me-me-me. I get in there and he
comes in to take the meeting with me, but he
informs me that his wife had just been diagnosed
with cancer the day before. So it just came over me
that now is not the best time for me to be pitching
him hard with stuff. So I spent about 30 minutes
just letting him talk, and letting him talk about that
step. And we actually prayed together—as corny as
that might sound. We became good friends that
day. We just kind of bonded that day. I didn’t play

him any music…nothing. We just left it at that. Not
that this was a ploy or a plan or anything, but he
called me later that week and he said, “Hey, ASCAP
is doing a show at Bloopers. Would you like to be
one of the writers that performs that night?” That
wasn’t my goal in doing that, but I think that just
developing a heart of helping people all the time is
A, good, and B, it always comes back. It always
comes back, and you reap the benefits of relationships.
And with that, I want to thank you guys. You guys are
such an inspiration. Congratulations. You guys deserve
every little bit of your success. Matt Hirt, John Mazzei,
Dave Walton, Barry French, Dean Krippaehne. Thank
you all so much. I am incredibly proud of you.
[applause]

ing about maybe going out and spending money
to upgrade that and run the same music through
better stuff. But they’ll say, “I don’t know. It
sounds pretty good to me.” And then that’s it. So
we all have to be open-minded about being nondefensive. You know, drop the defensiveness…
Man, I wish there was a pill for that. I’d give it out
with every membership. [laughter]
Barry, what’s your advice?
Barry: I’ve got two things, and I’ll make them
really quick. And these are both kind of tied in
with my weight loss over the last seven months.
The first thing: There is no magic pill. There are
no shortcuts. There is no secret. If there is a
secret, it is two words: hard work. That is the
secret. It’s just hard work, determination, consistency, and patience. The other thing is, you need
a plan, a vision. You need to know where you
want to be one year from now, or in this context,
where you want to be five years from now.
When I started my weight loss program on April
16 of this year, in my mind and in my heart I
had already lost weight. It was already gone. I
was already 100 pounds lighter. I just had to
wait for the rest of my body to catch up to my
heart and my mind. With my music career, it’s
been the same thing. Three years ago on Sunday
I was sitting in the first class that these guys did
for the Five-Year Plan. By the end of that class, I
had committed to myself that in five years I am
going to be a full-time musician; I am going to be
doing this in five years. So every thought, every
process, every action, every decision I have done
regarding my music since that day has been in
the context of, “I am already doing this as a fulltime job, I am already a full-time musician.” So
that’s the mindset. I am acting like I’m already
doing it, as opposed to one day maybe I can be a
full-time musician. No, I am doing it. It’s not an
if, it’s a when. That’s my philosophy. [applause]
Incredible.
Deano, what’s your secret?
Dean: I would say, in addition to all of this great
55

http://www.vocalbooth.com http://www.vocalbooth.com

Recording - June 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - June 2013