The Real Michael Lee

So far 2020 has seen an upheavel in the music industry the likes of which haven’t been experienced since the early 00s with Napster/the shift to digital music. The inability to perform live has forced many artists to take on more of an “indie” approach to get their music out there. Because of this, the idea of what an “indie” artist is has been redefined.

I want to start by saying this post is NOT meant to bash any high profile artists that are potentially mislabeled as “indie.” I’m not going to wag my finger at the folks listed on Spotify’s Ultimate Indie playlist and say they’re not “indie” because I saw them on a late night talk show. What I AM going to do is muse on what I think an “indie” artist has become in 2020.

Fifteen years ago the term “indie” would have meant a band or performer who was on an independent record label. It was a term, created by the mainstream music industry, that was applied to musicians to denote a less-than status. These artists weren’t cool enough to dance with the in-crowd, so they were relegated to shuffle in the corner of the gym with all the other nerds and weirdos. Some might even go as far as to say there was a certain sound that went along with the term (New Pornographers and Yo LA Tengo come to mind). Depending on your perspective it was either a black spot or a badge of honor. Back then, however, the DIY (do it yourself) movement was still in its infancy, so a record label was still a “must.” Sure, you had breakout stars who found their niche and made it work on their own, but by and large the big labels (Capital, Warner, etc.) still had a say in what was hot and what was not, and how music was heard.

Fast forward to today. A global pandemic has effectively shut down the music industry and musicians must now largely fend for themselves. Record labels don’t want to spend money on acts that aren’t going to produce epic amounts of streams, so the majority are left to their own devices. Good thing all those nerds and weirdos figured out a way to do their own thing without the cool kids’ approval! They’re the ones who figured they’d just do it themselves and created a variety of self-distribution platforms.

What we’re seeing is a large number of artists are shifting to a do it yourself mentality due to the pandemic. Social media has allowed an avenue to perform and release new music for free. Established artists who once relied on tours and labels to get their music out to the masses are now performing small shows on Instagram Live and releasing new digital music via their own websites or Bandcamp. As such, I’d argue that the old label of “DIY” is dead and I believe the “indie” label has taken its place.

If everyone is doing something, it’s the norm. That’s why I argue that the label “DIY” is no longer necessary because almost EVERYONE is forced to be “DIY” nowadays. But, since labels are still releasing music by the heavy hitters, I say the old “DIY” is the new “indie.” Artists, even those WITH record labels, are INDEPENDENTLY recording and releasing their works to keep their name out there and their fans engaged. Sure, the quality of these releases varies as not all musicians have in-home studios, but the SPIRIT is consistent. The creative spirit is strong, and artists will find ways to create even during a crisis when they’re likely being told “not now” by the people who sell their works.

That poses the question: will this new “indie” movement stick around post-COVID? I have no clue. I certainly HOPE it stays. I feel this new freedom has put a spotlight on avenues of music distribution that previously flew under the radar. This in turn will allow many previously unheard of acts the opportunity to be seen as more folks flock to these alternative outlets. I do fear that many artists, especially the bigger ones, will revert back to the “old way” because it’s easy and comfortable. I guess that is inevitable. BUT, I hope that many will see the benefit of the freedom they’re allowed and continue on with this new “indie” movement. With this crisis unfortunately continuing for the foreseeable future, more and more “indie” distribution avenues are gaining traction. My hope is that those that do are enough to keep folks motivated to utilize them.

Despite all COVID-19 has taken away, it has, in a sense, created something new in the form of a creative renaissance. Those that were hampered by needing to “make a hit” can now self-distribute their music, and those who are just starting out can gain traction by the same self-distribution channels the big dogs are highlighting. The freedom to create is strong right now. When this whole COVID mess is over, I hope to see this new “indie” movement continue.

Every artist gets into art because of someone else. We see what others have done and say to ourselves “That looks like fun! I want to do that!” But simply copying those we look up to doesn’t work in the long term. We, as artists, need to strive to better ourselves, so that one day hopefully WE are the influencers. How do we do that? How do we create a mixture of those we admire and our own personality? It begins by understanding the “why.”

On the outset, the vast majority of creatives start by simply emulating. To learn an instrument you learn to play existing songs; to learn to paint you learn existing styles, so on and so forth. Our budding minds are taking this information and subconsciously filtering it through our perspectives and experiences. It might not come out in our work at this time, but it’s beginning. This emulation stage is incredibly important for one’s creative growth, because not only are you learning your craft, you’re (hopefully) learning why your favorite songs/paintings/etc. are your favorites. Why is McCartney’s “Eleanor Rigby” so catchy? Why is Picasso’s “Starry Night” so beautiful? Learning the “why” behind your favorite pieces opens up the creative universe for you to travel.

As embarrassing as it is to admit, it took me a long time to learn this fact. When I was a teenager, I wanted to learn how to play guitar and my parents booked me a guitar teacher. However, this teacher, while a good guitarist, was not so good at keeping an easily distracted teen on track. As such, I ended up spending over a year effectively memorizing tabs to my then-favorite songs because he could figure them out by ear. It was easy and after a while I (very foolishly) thought this was how it was done. I wasn’t yet filtering my influences as much as I was simply regurgitating what they’d done. I did try to write a few songs, but I got nowhere because I was simply copying riffs from other people. Near the end my teacher lightly tried to get me going on some rudimentary music theory, but I soon stopped taking lessons altogether because I was bored. I was absorbing, but I didn’t understand the “why” in order to apply what I had absorbed. Do I blame my old guitar teacher for not keeping me focused from the start and effectively delaying my progress by years? No. He was getting paid for what was probably easy work. Do I wish I would have known certain things regarding art appreciation sooner? Yes, but that’s all in the past and also why I’m telling you this now!

It wasn’t until college that I started to learn how to appreciate art, why a piece is considered good, and how to filter influences. Gaining this foundation was vital to my growth and it’s vital to every artist’s growth. You start by emulating, yes, but then, once you begin to learn the “why” of art, and after a some time, practice, and study, you must begin to add your own flavor to the recipe. You keep going, keep creating and eventually you notice you’re crafting something you haven’t seen before, but you like VERY much. Every artist needs to strive to eventually find their own identity and apply your own “stamp” to your work. I am still working on this, as I think many many artists, even the well established ones, are as well.

A trick I learned to help move myself along on this path is to look at what you’re doing and say to yourself “what is one thing I can change in this piece?” Then try to alter that bit by doing something you haven’t done before. This might involve moving outside your comfort zone, but don’t be afraid. In fact, strive to try things outside your comfort zone. It doesn’t have to be drastic, either. A little can go a long way. By doing this you’ll force yourself to grow towards being a better artist. It might not always be successful, but at least then you’ll know what DOESN’T work and you’ll have gained some knowledge because of it.

I’m specifically applying this practice to my song sketches. While degrees of success may vary, I’ve been actively working to inject new ideas (for me) into the songs. Could I rely on sitting down with an acoustic and bang out a song? Yes. Do I want to? NO. There’s no fun in that (for me) and frankly I think if that’s all I did it’d be boring for you, too.

Plus, that’s not what my influences would do/have done. I’m not going to name any specific artists (although a few you might easily guess just by listening to my songs), but my main influences cover a lot of ground and are/were constantly trying new things. I feel that is a far more important take away than just their style, which is easy enough to emulate.

So take a look at what you’re doing now and who has done it before. Look at how they added themselves into their work and why it works so well. Then, look at what you’re doing and find ways to add yourself into the mix while still honoring those who got you to where you are. Then, one day, hopefully someone will do the same to you.

The act of creating “art” can be considered difficult. But is it for everyone? Yes! I believe it’s just a matter of getting into that mindset and overcoming the barriers many, including myself, struggle with.

Here’s a little background: It took me many, many, many years to become comfortable enough to write my first full song. This is because I had a few barriers to overcome. For me those barriers were A) not enough technical experience, B) I didn’t feel I had enough “worldly experience” to write a song, and C) shyness. Let’s break these down.

A) Not enough technical experience: For me, I consider this the easiest barrier I had to overcome. This is simply due to the fact I needed to put forth the effort to PRACTICE and STUDY. Some folks are naturally gifted. Me, I need to hunker down and learn how to do it. Once I actually put forth the effort to learn (in my case) guitar and music theory, a veritable mansion of doors were opened to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no virtuoso and I still have a LOT to learn and improve upon. But by gaining the technical experience (and not just learning existing songs by tablature) I was able to overcome this first barrier. However, that’s the easy one. Now they start to get trickier…

B) I didn’t feel I had enough “worldly experience” to write a song: This was the second biggest barrier for me to break down. For the longest time I thought I had to EXPERIENCE everything I wrote about. As silly as it sounds, I thought all those songs out there were written from a deeply personal place. WRONG! While many are indeed deeply personal, most are STORIES with CHARACTERS. Stephen King (likely) was not chased around by a murderous car before he wrote Christine, so why do I need to be a hermit crab to write a song about one? Once I smashed this (admittedly silly, but true) barrier, even more doors were opened and I was well on my way. Buuuuut, the big one was still looming…

C) Shyness: I believe this is THE major hurdle for most folks. “What will people THINK?” “What will my FRIENDS think?” “Am I GOOD ENOUGH?” For the first two the answer is simple: SO WHAT?! It doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks. You will always have trolls and people who feel empowered by belittling others. IGNORE THEM! They’re not your audience. I personally don’t believe in tearing down a budding artist because you don’t like their work. One day, that artist could make your favorite song/movie/whatever, and your discouragement could prevent that because they are still chipping away at this barrier. Just remember that you might not be their audience YET. And your friends? Well, if they’re not supportive than they aren’t really your friends now, are they?

But are you good enough? To put it simply, you don’t know until you TRY. To put it less simply, try, but keep working to improve. You just have to take that first step. My song Tiny Crab > Big World is about exactly this. You need to take that first step and constantly put one foot in front of the other. As I said earlier I’m no virtuoso, but I’ve come a LONG way from when I wrote my first song, and I’m constantly trying to improve. But I wouldn’t have even got this far if I hadn’t taken the plunge and tried. Then, when I’d hit a road block in my abilities, I’d work to overcome it knowing that if I just kept at it I’d get better. You can do that too. If you take that first step, keep at it, keep showing your work to others, and keep trying to improve, you’ll be fine!

The act of creation is a beautiful thing. But we wouldn’t have nearly as much beauty in this world if people didn’t overcome their personal barriers to create that beauty. So if you’re on the fence about some creative endeavor, don’t hesitate. DO IT!

Lately I’ve admittedly been feeling a bit down on my work. The Song Sketchbook entries have been clocking fewer than 10 views a piece and (as of typing this) the latest entry has a whopping zero views. My EP, Hold Still, has barely had any streams and has sold zero copies. So, you might ask, why am I still putting in all this work if almost literally NO ONE is listening?

Well, the short answer is hope. I HOPE that if I keep putting forth the effort and keep networking eventually more and more people will listen. But more on that later.

The much longer answer is I understand it takes TIME to get listeners, especially when self-promoting. All the big, or even medium, names out there put in YEARS before anyone took notice. Sure, there are a few flukes that hit it big very early on, but many musicians/bands have multiple albums out before even one of their songs starts to make waves. Plus, last I checked, I’m NOT an attractive teen heartthrob.

Even with social media, success doesn’t happen overnight. Granted, social media does help get the word out, but one has to work to get a network going. It’s not easy, but nowadays it’s necessary. If you’re DIY like me, building/managing a cross-platform network can be time consuming. Coming up with new posts, posting at optimum times and getting the message across over multiple platforms takes a good chunk of the day. I know i can pay someone to do that for me, but that’s not happening, cuz, you know, money. Personally, I focus more on Twitter than I do Facebook, but I try to keep a presence going on Facebook because it is so ingrained in our society and many people don’t use Twitter. However I do find Twitter to be more conducive to reaching folks outside your existing friends network. Instagram, too, can be good for reaching folks you don’t already know, as, like Twitter, the use of hashtags will put your content in front of more random people. Instagram also has the handy Live feature, which allows artists to perform without a venue (albeit for free). I know Facebook has this feature too, but I hear it’s more difficult to use. I personally have not tried it, so let me know in the comments if you have and what your thoughts are.

There is also Twitch, which does allow for monetization, but I personally have zero experience with that platform. If you’ve used it sound off in the comments on your experience!

Besides time, another aspect is content. These days an album every few years is not enough. One has to work to keep a constant stream of content to keep folks interested. The established artists might be able to get away with that, but that’s not gonna fly with us newbies. Now, I’m not saying that’s bad. In fact, I believe it forces artists to up their game to keep themselves visible. That is why I chose to release a song a week and write this blog. Gotta stay visible. It’s rough at times, but ultimately it is FUN. That kind of thing isn’t for everyone, and I won’t be releasing a song a week forever, but I’m enjoying doing it. When the time comes to close the season on the Song Sketchbook, I do plan on keeping the content coming besides the blog. Maybe I’ll go back to recording videos or something as I’m reworking the songs for the album. Who knows! My point is it’s hard work, but if you’re enjoying it, it’s not really work, is it? You just need to find what that is for you.

So why put in the time? Why spend the effort building your brand and making music few people will hear when there is so much else one could do? Well, I love making music. It took me years to get to even this point and I believe in what I’m doing. I BELIEVE that I’m progressing in my craft and getting better with each song I write. I BELIEVE that if I keep at it more people will eventually hear my work. Finally, I HOPE that when those people do hear my work, they’ll appreciate it and want more.

So when I’m feeling down on my work, like I am now, I just need to remind myself that the work WILL pay off. I just have to keep at it and not give up.

Now I feel better. See you Friday.