Artifact

What an informative documentary. After watching this film by Jared Leto, I saw the bigger picture with being signed by a major label as opposed to being independent. There are many plusses to being signed to the big label. You get worldwide support to tour, get your album done easily and efficiently as they provide the funding to accomplish this, they handle mass distribution for you so you can focus on the music and the craft of your art, you get screwed on the back end of it, never actually getting paid a dime… oh wait, that was supposed to be about perks. I digress. I'll be good this post, I promise. Mostly likely, lying about being good, but eh, I'm of the schooling that says to act first and apologize later.

Anyway, this has given me time to think about the last label's interest in my work. This was a small, new label working underneath a parent giant network. First they told us they were under Sony and then switching underneath to Def Jam. This, they claim, was the reason for the many upsets in our camp. Let's go to the beginning… so, we were approached by this label and they loved my sound, my voice, my work ethic. They put me on a roster to perform across the country, and with a lot of time to rehearse, rehearsing every day, multiple times a day, preparing for my show. I reluctantly admit, and my vocal coach will kill me if she reads this, that I would also pop into some karaoke spots and do some crash singing too. I know. I don't want to hear it. Worst thing to do to your vocal chords is scream over that karaoke sound system. We get about a week away from the gig and my manager still hadn't gotten our flight information on lock so that I could prepare for my trip. I'm pretty obsessive-compulsive when it comes to getting things done. Believe me, I'm a hell of a procrastinator too, but when it's something important, I'm on top of it like a bird on shit. At this point, I tell her that I'm not thinking they are going to follow through; But, I keep the faith because sometimes people lag.

I may be too patient of a person. The event gets pushed a month, and then another month, as well as our signing with this label. Which was to be done the day after the initial show I was scheduled to perform. I got my lawyer ready to rumble via Skype for the said meeting dates, I had stopped any publicity related to modeling and/or whatever they deemed "inappropriate" and was possibly overshadowing my talents, and I also was still working on my album. Regardless of what was to happen, this album is in full swing and it WILL be finished. With or without a label's contract. And it will be amazing.

We were disgruntled. This small label was giving us excuse after excuse for why things weren't getting done. They'd say one thing, like, we're working on financials now and the next thing was they were waiting on the parent label to send them the advances. After about four months of this -possibly more, i don't remember- we found ourselves back in the big ocean over here. Begging the question, is it better to be independent? If you just desire the fame, then a major label is for you most definitely. And they can better get your music to mass marketing media faster. But, the independent artist isn't always doing it for the fame. Are you kidding? We don't get paid shit. It all comes out of our pocket. But, that's part of the musician's life. I may be sleeping on a couch but I can get my music done and will finally get it out to the people dammit!

A confidant of mine who's been in the industry for a long, long time had told me what to do and what I should have done. And, I'm doing it. My career waits on nobody and I gotta keep doing what I do. I'm in the studio, writing and recording. It's been a rough rode the past few months but it's happening. You just gotta take the leap, with or without that support.

If you get a chance, watch Artifact. It was an amazing film and very eye opening. And the way I see it, as told by friends in the business, if you had label interest once, you will have it again. But, do you want to?