Sell out...

["Jesse Ray Lucas" <jlucas@neoprimitive.net>]

    A question I have always wondered about is:  "Are great musicians
professionals because they are great -- or, are great musicians great
because they are professionals?"  Kind of the old chicken and egg question,
where both answers are ultimately true for different cases.

    Being a working mid-level musician has its good points and its bad
points, but it's certainly not for everybody at every stage of life.

PROS
- I can "work" (that consists of giving lessons, and playing gigs) about 20
hours a week, and get by.  That includes buying the occasional piece of
electronic music gear.  Practicing isn't working to me.
- Working that little gives me plenty of time to practice, read Loopers
Delight, and learn about whatever the hell I want to.
- When I'm at "work," I'm practicing my craft.
- Sometimes I'll get gigs where I can really let loose.

CONS
- Can't even begin to think of having a family and buying a house like 
this.
- When I play a shitty gig where no one listens and the other musicians are
hacks, I feel like a whore.

    But, to me, right now, it's worth it.

-Jesse



----- Original Message -----
From: "mark" <sine@zerocrossing.net>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2003 2:49 PM
Subject: Re: Andre Lafosse Freebies and sales...


> I may be half the guitarist, but I gladly trade that for the ability to
> make music with no expectation of compensation at all.  I couldn't do a
> wedding band thing.  Music is too precious to me.  Instead, I now do
> media design.  Total sell out, but they don't touch my music.
>
> Good luck Andre.  I want to believe you'll succeed.  In a way, you
> have.  On the fringe your either 1) a hack or 2) too advanced to be
> understood my most.  Either way, it sucks, but I think we can all agree
> that you're not a hack.
>
> Mark Sottilaro