Читать книгу Artist - Алексей Комов - Страница 3

Before I begin to tell you the basic rules of work, I want to warn you what kind of work it is and how difficult it is. I don’t want to scare anyone, but I don’t want you to waste your time anymore. After this chapter, some of you may suddenly understand that a musical career is not yours and you do not want to do it. This is normal since not everything is as simple and festive as it seems from the outside.

I'm going to take off your rose-tinted glasses. Right here and right now.

Sometimes people look at successful musicians and think that it is easy business and easy money, quick fame, recognition, fans, beautiful life and all that they dream about. Any long-term success is hard work, tough discipline, team spirit, faith in yourself and the team, the ability to anticipate trends, as well as internal balance, and understanding why you need it.

Professionals never stop learning. Also, you must be able to communicate a lot and correctly with the right people, constantly engage in promotion, and protect your reputation. It is advisable to be active and travels frequently to increase your chances of finding yourself in the right place and at the right time. And always keep in mind that you are responsible for everything you do and your future depends only on your actions in the present.

There will always be those who want to lead you astray, but self-confidence, love of music, daily practice, and self-improvement in the discipline will not let this happen.

For example, when I started working in '96, the club industry in Russia was just emerging and my friends and I paved this difficult path to the future – we were confused and unwilling to accept electronic music as part of new youth culture. It happened that they wanted to kick me out of school for an informal appearance and an incomprehensible musical taste. Subsequently, these people will be proud of my achievements.

I was 13 years old when I met Sergey, my future teacher and music partner. Every day after school, we trained for 3–4 hours a day. Having no money for professional equipment, Sergey and I bought two old Radio Engineering turntables, changed their rotation system because it was no big deal, making it more advanced, and on this equipment, despite the dissatisfaction of the neighbors, training in DJing came.

In the 90s, being a DJ was very expensive. 5 minutes of your music – is one track on vinyl, the price of which reached $ 13 per vinyl. Within an hour I played over 30 tracks. And every month I had to update my collection of music in order to always be with the newest material. For me, it was a lot of money. I did not grow up in a rich family and I earned all the money on the vinyl records by myself. I worked as a laborer on a construction site, put up posters in St. Petersburg, handed out flyers, helped make parties for a minimal fee, just so that I had the money for the vinyl records. My beginning was not easy, there were many different cases. Once even there was a showdown with bandits when I went into debt to buy a large batch of vinyl records for the summer season.

But all of this did not scare me because I loved music, I had a goal, I wanted to perform, become a musician, and mean something in this culture.

At the beginning of my musical history, sometimes there was a misunderstanding on the part of the girls who started dating me and, seeing me as a popular musician, counted on an easy and comfortable life with me. But it was not as simple as it seemed from the outside. The girls wanted more comfort, advised to tie with a musical hobby, recommended to look for a high- paying job, and not show off. I always stayed true to myself and the music. There were times when I even refused large fees if this could damage the concept and understanding of me as an artist. I had creative friends who for the sake of money changed their image and adapted to the audience, which immediately ceased to appreciate them, as they intuitively understood that everything was for the sake of earning.

In music, there is the concept of «True Artist». He works for himself, for pleasure, because he sincerely loves his job. Creativity ends when your favorite craft becomes an unpleasant routine of creating a product that you don’t like yourself, but it brings money. I had a lot of friends from the musical environment, who turned on the path of empty earning and as a result quickly ended their careers, as they burned out personally. At the beginning of my career, I was lucky, and I managed to meet people in time who advised me to get out of such situations correctly.

When you love music and devote your whole life to it, it becomes a matter of your life and eventually brings returns.

In the music business, you should never stop. No matter how much you want to linger on the completed project and taste all the fruits of its success, you must immediately go forward. At times, it may seem difficult to complete one successful business and move on to a new unknown. I never gave up on what I was doing. And I was never afraid to move on. With experience, you understand that a new beginning will give more strength, ideas, creativity, and as a result of success. Flexibility and anticipation of the result are important qualities for successful creativity. Imagine a beginner surfer who sees the first wave and begins to rake it. At that time, when an experienced knows that you need to see the most powerful wave, wait for it and begin to rake until you feel it. Because it is so strong and powerful that you simply will not have time to get on it if you do not prepare in advance.

In the musical sphere, two types of people can be observed: those who create something new and those who repeat after others. First of all, you must choose yourself which artist you will be. You must understand that by copying someone else’s product you will never become a legendary musician, but you can probably make a lot of money. To create something new, you first need to study all the classical bases, electronic, non-format moves in music. With this foundation, you begin to expand your professional consciousness: to replenish your knowledge and supplement it with information from different fields, read books, be interested in what is happening in art and the world in general, get inspired, join in working with the best, travel and keep open perception, that is always looking for what can impress in the surroundings. And then at some point, a unique idea will come to you.

You should also draw your attention to a relevant topic in a creative environment: a quality product can only be created with a pure mind and a clear mind. There is a myth that alcohol, drugs, synthetic stimulants, or other psychoactive substances supposedly help to become more creative. Many of my friends made this mistake, and some of them now rest in peace, someone forgot about music and completely left the creative sphere. Besides the obvious fact that stimulants can permanently cripple your life and health, there is a scientific fact that they negatively affect your aural abilities. That is, under the influence of doping, you cannot hear certain frequencies.

I'm not interested in reading notations to you. I just want you to understand what consequences you may face and whether you need it.

If even now you want to make music and devote your whole life to it, despite all the difficulties of this sphere, then we continue and move on to the next chapter.