Jean-Paul Bourelly

I have been hearing a lot of musicians at Frankfurt this year talk about the new business atmosphere that we find ourselves in. What I am hearing is that the promise of being independent against the backdrop of the enabling force of the internet is coming to a fork in the road. A lot of notions about sitting at home or in the studio and watching your downloads click with the speed of Lewis Hamilton’s, tachometer, seems to be developing into a dream to no where.

Going out and playing live is the ultimate exposer for your music and the most durable bonding force for you and your fans. It seems almost everyone agrees, at least that has become clear. The net is not a cure for an ailing career, its just an enhancement tool.

But you gotta have something to enhance.

It is also becoming clear that those artists who are not able to see themselves as owners, but as only speaking to ownership, are putting themselves on a flailing track of dependency stumbling into this digital era. Like an timid bird in a cage who prefers the security of confinement to the freedom of the unknown. Albeit in some rare cases a luxurious bird cage, still and all, a condition of confinement in cage. So don’t cry for your freedom if you are getting paid to tone your message and your soul down.

There are as many channels of disillusionment interwoven within the digital landscape as there are advantages. I hear a musician telling me that the incredible band I heard last year has now broke up because the singer was too this or the drummer did not like that, or guitar player wanted to start his own thing. Yes we all hear these situations more and more. Its what I call the tragedy of the hero complex. Its that singular personality that we have been programmed to believe must reign when in fact its a group effort.  The idea of “the group” does not have to be mutually exclusive. In fact the necessity of the digital age is proving that in many cases multiple groups are the norm. A composer moves around with his music and performs with different sets of musicians in different location on the planet. You can have your own group and have stock in a group that you and other members have invested collective time in. These ways of engaging the new world of music can be empowering if we accept them. How about instead of indulging in the alpha dog, ego overload, one could try and be emotionally smart. Sometimes the deepest thing you can do is, just get up on the stage and play. It is after all a great forum for group therapy and often times the best of what we offer the world.

A lot of problems have been worked out through and incredible performance.

Here in Frankfurt with two wonderful colleagues, guitarists Regi Wooten and Earl Slick doing the meet and greet thing.

Just some things I’ve been thinking about.

All the best.

Jean-Paul Bourelly

Photo credit: Warwick

Photo credit: Sigi Baramsky