Recording - December 2013 - 72

Is "Quitting Your Day Job" Really The Point?

Guest editorial by John McVey

to have more reason to sell than some
of the things that actually do!
Frustrating but true: It's easy to have
expectations about your music and
your career, but if your expectations
are so high that you are unsatisfied
with every stage you go through, you're
going to be unhappy all the time. (I
know... I've done it this way. It sucks.)

successful, and which of your skills
will be most valuable to the world.
I've seen this change constantly in my
own life, as well as that of countless
others, as we all move through this
process of "getting into the biz."
I am now doing something that
makes me more happy than anything I
could have dreamed for myself. But it

During the December holidays, our
thoughts often ride the line between
spirituality and consumerism. For
musicians, this can be particularly
acute, as we wish on one hand for
more time and money to be creative,
express our deeper selves and record
the results to share with others, and
wish on the other hand for the
finances to buy our loved ones gifts,
and ourselves that new piece of gear
we've always wanted!
Unless you're Garth Brooks, money
and art can be difficult to balance, and
most of us have struggled with this at
one time or another. Here's a little bit
of perspective about the issue of the
dreaded "day job!" My hope is that it
will give you some peace between
(sorry for this...) rock and droll.
I can't tell you how many times an
artist has walked into my studio and
said... "I can't wait 'til we get signed, so
I can quit my day job." I said it myself
years ago, when I walked into the first
recording studio I'd ever seen. It's natural for artists who work hard at their
craft and have high aspirations to
think this way. But I've come to think
that there's an unhealthy component
to this line of thought.
A band came into my studio recently and asked, "What's the secret to
success in the music industry?" My
answer was a surprise even to myself,
and it was a response to hearing the
"day job" complaint over and over
and thinking for years about it. It was
this: The secret to success in the music
business is to be happy where you are at
every moment in it.
This may sound to some of you like
New Age malarkey-like altering the
goal of the question to make an
answer easier. But I mean it. It takes a
lot of work and a lot of luck to make
it in any industry in which you're selling something you've made. Some
things sell, and some things don't.
Some things that sell do so for no
good reason at all (that I can see).
And some things that don't sell seem

After having done it both ways-
having a day job to make a living
while doing music, and making a living with music-and after years of
seeing my career shift in different
ways, I think that the stress is the
same in either position. If you have to
make a living making music, and
there doesn't happen to be a raging
demand right now for your particular
brand of songwriting, then you have
to do whatever is necessary.
This may mean doing music that
others want you to do instead of your
own, being an apprentice for a while
instead of an actual engineer, playing
in a wedding band, doing local commercials, etc. This can be every bit as
stressful as delivering pizza to make
ends meet so that you can do your
music your way and afford the equipment you need. And it may be way
less savory!
If you are not happy because you
aren't where you want to be, the likelihood is that you're not very pleasant
to be around. And if that's the case,
who will want to promote you? And if
no one will promote you, how will you
get ahead in the way you'd like to?
Also, it can be difficult to tell where
your career will go, how you will be

wasn't where I was aiming my considerable efforts for many years. Yes, I
was a little bitter at times, while trying
for rock stardom, that I hadn't yet
become the next big thing. I think I'd
have been a lot happier as I went
along, had I been a bit more forgiving
of myself and the industry and managed my expectations better. And the
really odd thing is... all that I was
doing then gave me the experience I
need to do what I'm doing now! Who
knew?
So back to my advice... I now believe
the following: I believe that your
music should give you great joy; I
believe having that joy is more likely
to get you where you want to go than
bitching about not being there yet will
ever get you; I believe there are ways
to feel good about every stage you go
through on your path to greatness;
and I believe that you end up where
you're supposed to-even if it isn't
where you thought it would or should
be. And I think keeping this in mind
makes for a much smoother ride!

72

RECORDING December 2013

John McVey (mcvey@recordingmag.com)
is an engineer/producer working at
Coupe Studios in Boulder, CO.
Recording - December 2013

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