Being the “behind the scenes” guy at this blog comes with certain interesting things. The one I am hinting at with this post has to do with fan base.
Seeing which artists get more hits here on the blog is a real interesting process to watch pan out. The “fresh face, family supports your dream, still young enough that friends are excited for your gigs” act gets far more hits than the “been singing and strumming my guitar for years around this town and A LOT of folks “know” me” act. I find it to be an interesting kickback from the music industry, and perhaps a reason why it chews a lot of folks up and spits them out.
We start our musical careers at a high point where we can drag our 50 closest friends out to the dive we are playing the 11:45 PM slot at, we play for a packed house because they told their other friends, and all is well with the world. Do that for a few months, maybe a year or two, and then the excitement dies down. Less and less folks are replying “yes” to your event invites, and some of those that do don’t show up to the gig. Soon you are playing to a couple local drunks’ backs at the local pub. I suppose my question, is how does a band really get from that “all my friends will come” mentality to “all these people WANT to come see me and I can pack this venue on a Tuesday”. Its a hard pill to swallow that a lot of us never will get to that point.
I guess the question is how do we get over that “hump”?
What do you guys think?