ENN February 8, 2010 (Download MP3)

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• Tonight’s show at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA at 10pm will be awesome! I promise! Come check it out, more details at www.matthewebel.com/tour
• February 17 I’ll be performing in Trenton, NJ at Purple Stripe Productions, again the details are at www.matthewebel.com/tour

I mention these shows because of C.C. Chapman’s latest episode of Managing the Gray. He reminded me about my dreams and my goals. Yes, I would be happy just paying my bills and feeding myself, but that’s not what I dream about. Nobody dreams about simply surviving, we all have grander visions of our futures. No one dreams of mediocrity. People in my line of work share the same goal: Playing shows in big arenas to a crowd so massive you can see it from space.

The two shows coming up this month are the first steps towards that kind of dream for me. I want to become a famous rock star like Ben Folds. There’s a reason games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero sell so well: many of us dream of doing that sort of thing. To make it reality, however, requires a combination of luck, connections, and hard work. I need to know if I am good enough.

We all want to know that we can jump over that bar when we come to it. We all want to clear the bar with two feet to spare and then set the next bar even higher. This is why we dream, this is why we set goals. My goal this year is to play more shows for more people who came to hear my music. And none of us can reach our goals without help.

I may not be an über-connected CEO, but I can help you reach your goals. Just contact me and let me know how I can help. If you can help me play new shows for new crowds of people, contact me. Even if you live a long distance away from Boston, you might be able to see a live Matthew Ebel concert anyway. Fans in Atlanta made it happen, fans in Ohio are making it happen, you can make it happen.

What are you doing to reach your goals and realize your dreams? What can guys like me do to help?

Okay, we get it. It’s not an entire Macbook crammed into a single slate. It doesn’t have a 1080p color e-ink touch screen with backlighting, portal technology, and holographic projection. You hate it, fine. It’s not like I’m camping out to buy it once it finally ships. But before you divert your bored hours at work from Farmville to flaming the fanboys on every Apple message board you can find, read this and try to think about long-term strategy.

I’m a musician, so I have to think long-term. The entry-level position for most business is either mail room, receptionist, or dishwasher. For musicians it’s playing hours of classic rock tunes in bars where people are annoyed that you’re interrupting the football game. It’s spending thousands on an album that might just sell 50 copies, if you’re lucky. It’s setting up message boards on your website and talking to the same 3 friends who are bored at their day jobs playing Farmville.

If musicians only thought short-term, nobody would go into this business.

Apple’s new iPad is a lot like a new indie band. Read the rest of this entry »

So I finally got out to see The Blue Clan Group Avatar last night. It was everything I expected it to be: A remake of Pocahontas and Ferngully with enough Aliens fan-service to draw in that extra billion (Sigourney Weaver FTW). Throw in 3D glasses, the gimmick du-jour, and the movie squeezes a few extra dollars out of moviegoers too young to remember Jaws 3. And it’s a phenomenal piece of cinema.

Yes, I know, I’m usually the first to bitch about the fact that Hollywood couldn’t find an original script if you stapled one to the forehead of every director in California. There is nothing new about the story or the characters in Avatar. Most of the plot points are so obviously foreshadowed that at times I wondered if James Cameron forgot his audience had to be teenage or older. In some cases the reveals were as obvious as Chekhov’s gun. For those that don’t know the reference:

If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off.
From S. Shchukin, Memoirs

And yet, it was a perfect film.

The Art of Storytelling is not the Art of Writing. Storytellers, like great opera singers, find greatness in the delivery, not necessarily the creation. After all, when we were kids we wanted mom or dad to read the same story to us again and again. It’s not like we forgot the ending after 24 hours; we fall in love with the way the story is told. It’s also why the jokes you heard last night are never as funny when you tell them to someone else.

In my line of work there are few original chord progressions. Most songs in the Blues category have had the same 12-bar progression since before the 1940’s. Cover songs are often more popular than their original recordings (FYI, Jimi Hendrix did not write All Along the Watchtower). Don’t even get me started on Christmas albums; new lyrics and melodies usually detract from their appeal rather than adding to them. A lot of you, like me, have played the same video game (Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando) dozens of times even though you’ve already bested every aspect of the game. Why do we tolerate such repetition in our lives?

The delivery of a familiar story- be it a fairy tale, a movie, or a song -can often mean more than the content of the story itself. Parents had been reading the story of Snow White to their children for years, but Walt Disney told an old story in such a fantastic way that it founded their entire empire. I know a lot of my music touches on all-too-familiar themes: Love, insecurity, politics, Ninjas… but if I can tell my stories with half the skill and passion as Cameron’s Avatar, I might just make it in this business yet.

Now go hug a tree and start working on your storytelling.

ENN February 1, 2010 (Download MP3)

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• Make your own State of the Union videos! My latest release from Matthew Ebel dot net is available as a narration-free download so that you can post your own letters to our Commander In Chief. Find out more at http://matthewebel.net/2010/01/31/state-of-the-union
• This month: Boston and Trenton, NJ. I’ll be performing in both cities in the next couple of weeks, so come out to see me. I want to see you! See the full schedule on the tour page.
• Still looking for house concert hosts. I’ve found a few people to host house shows this year, but not enough. If you’ve got a living room or backyard fit for a house party, please contact me!

Nothing changes your opinion of a friend so surely as success — yours or his.
Franklin P. Jones, Saturday Evening Post, 29 November 1953

I’ve had the opportunity in my life to make some amazing friends inside and out of the Music Business™. It’s been said that we become the average of our five closest friends- financially, mentally, even physically -so much of my own successes and shortcomings can be traced to those with whom I interact. My drive and ambition are owed in no small part to those around me who set the bar fairly high. Conversely, I’ve known plenty of well-intentioned people who simply suffer from the wrong outlook on life, hindering both their future and my own.

One would think that people working in the expressive, soul-freeing art of Music would have nothing but positive enthusiasm for those trying to make a living this way. Any sign of success should be a reason to raise a glass and toast, but the human animal loves to bitch. Case in point, here are some excerpts from blog comments and bulletin boards about my line of work:

Most musicians trying to do it full time after a while either have to go the [garage band]/cover thing or teach lessons…The best bet is to hook up with a rich girl or even better to be gay and hook up with a rich guy.

I’ve just recently discovered how much wedding bands make. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but that seems like it would provide for a pretty decent standard of living and technically it is still music.

But what happens when music becomes ubiquitous and everyone is making it and the price for music drops to zero? That’s the future. For all the arts. Sad but true.

And yet here I am in the middle of a recession making music full-time. I’m not rich (or even middle-class) yet, but I’m selling more tracks and subscriptions than ever, working my way up without playing weddings and Bon Jovi covers. Would you rather associate with the experienced-yet-jaded souls whose only view of the future is warming up with “You Give Love A Bad Name” or those who are making progress, inch by inch, towards a greater goal? Personally, I choose the latter.

The reason I moved from Nashville to Boston was simple: vision. The Music industry, well-entrenched though it may be, is dying in the Music City because the grand vision has moved elsewhere. That vision has become scattered among the collective efforts of independent artists worldwide. Innovation follows vision, so even a deep-pocketed, established industry will fail if they lose their vision. Here in Boston, I have found people with vision, innovation, and a dedication to making something work outside the traditional mindset.

When my friends and colleagues find success, at first I’m a little jealous. Then I try to do what they’ve done, if it fits with my fans and my style. I don’t try to find a reason why they will fail, I try to find a way to make their success mine. In this business you can either jump over that bar or shut the fuck up and go home.

Update: This isn’t to say that people who play cover gigs aren’t successful, but that isn’t success for a songwriter. I know many artists for whom success is playing someone else’s song perfectly- whether it’s Led Zepplin or Rachmaninov -and creating something new from music they didn’t write. I couldn’t be happy doing that for the rest of my life, but God bless the people that can.