Music In an Empty Room

By:Brandon Crane

The following is a true story, meant as a bit of advice for other musicians. A fable, if you will, on how to make your music a more effective means of getting whatever it is you want to say out there. Sometimes, the best way to learn how to do it right is to learn from those that do it wrong. My band was one of those examples.

Back in high school, I was in a punk band. I was a little shit who did their fair share of misdeed. Our band was a 4 chord, off-key rendition of our political and societal angst. The changing hormones didn't help much either. A link to the music is below:

http://www.purevolume.com/notforsale

I look back fondly on these days. It was fun as hell to yell "fuck you" at all the fake, fraudulent and passive sheep who let the big bad government kill innocent people and silence voices at home and abroad. As the media slowly jerked off into our ears and everyone around me seemed to cup their balls, I undoubtedly felt a little anger. At least enough to keep me screaming about it into a microphone.



"Don't beat around the Bush, just beat Bush"

Armed with my homemade shirts and our combined post-pubescent rage we managed to play about 5 shows before we went our separate ways. I fell out of punk rock after awhile; Iwas pretty unsettled by these atrocities, but I just wasn't that angry to keep playing shows. I had a lingering suspicion that screaming at 3 or 4 people about politics wasn't the most effective way to make a change. And the fact that these were complex issues we knew very little about became pretty clear after awhile. Our lack of activism outside of music became more apparent as I ran out of answers to the question, "Well, what ARE you doing about it, Brandon?"

Punk rock days. Those were good times, and I still love punk rock, but none of it really made a difference towards the ends I was going for at the time. Nothing changed because, well, you have to make good music for it to be an effective medium. People from all around have to hear the message and get inspired in the right way. We were pretty effective at getting our 3 or 4 fans to arbitrarily break shit, but none of us volunteered our time towards influencing the causes we sang about. In the end, our songs were about us after all.

So what went wrong? With a different, young-but-slightly-older perspective (I no longer view people as sheep, and I can see the excellence in many federally-run programs) it didn't take much hindsight to answer that question. In retrospect, our ego-stroking, condescending approach had elements of decent arguments in them, but we never spent the time to polish the guttural and misinformed rants. We never listened to different viewpoints; we just tuned out what we didn't like or didn't understand at that time.

So, where am I going with this? Have you ever gone to a show and the band never addressed the audience, just played with the 'we just blew your minds' cocky attitude? That shit is the disease of music, the defense mechanism us musicians use to cope with the insecurities of the stage. Often, we aren't aware of it, or just don't see the point in developing good stage presence. Good stage presence, by the way, involves including the audience. Your fans don't have to make the drive, and probably won't again if they get blown off.

Sure, sure, half of rock and roll is about being an asshole for a couple hours. We made a habit in our band to talk down the venue we played at, like the ungrateful, over-privileged suburbanites we were. This is the sort of shit I want to highlight. There's a strong sense of identity in music, especially music you create. It can manifest as a possessive thing, that visceral growl that comes out of your gut when someone just finds out about your favorite band once they make it big. It seems silly, and it is. But it gets plain ugly when a band gets possessive about its OWN music. It is one thing to play for oneself, it is another entirely to play ONLY for yourself, without your fans in mind. Sure, taking the audience into consideration seems like a limitation to creativity, sounds like 'playing to please', and if taken to an extreme is exactly that. But not all limitation are bad. Sometimes, the limitations of playing music your audience likes is merely keeping you on track, preventing one of those experimental mishaps your favorite band probably took halfway through their career. But clearly, playing a public concert only for yourself is selfish. If a fan takes the effort to drive out, pay the cover, and stick it out at a local show in the hopes that you guys won't be the shitty band that makes them leave the bar, you at least owe them the time of day. If you're wondering, like we were, why there's only your girlfriend and the roadie in the crowd, it could be the music, but it's often the attitude that accompanies the performance.

My intention with this article is NOT to say that playing music for the sake of playing music is pointless, or that activism is of a higher form than music. They're different mediums with the potential for overlap. Music performance as a medium introduces a whole new side to the art than music on a record: the band's aesthetic on stage, up to and including the band's attitude. Rock and roll's spirit has always been "don't do what you're told, and fuck off". For my band, the problems came when we told our audience to fuck off. Something as simple as thanking the audience for coming out can make the show more enjoyable for your audience, which in turn makes the show more rewarding for the band.

So, where do we get off? As musicians, we generally have something to say, and want to say it in our music. For a band with strong political views, a question that will inevitably come up is, "Are we accomplishing anything, and could our energy be more effective elsewhere?" Sometimes, this question will kill a band. For me, it pushed music onto a far away back burner. For many, the politics aren't charged enough to become a greater priority than the band, which is something you'll have to evaluate for yourself. Some bands aren't very political and spare themselves the existential crises. Either way, we need dedicated musicians who've got the spirit and great ideas they want to get out into the world. I just ask that the community extend its creativity beyond the music and into our day to day interactions with fans. After all, what's the use of a good message if we don't present it the best we can? What if Black Sabbath unloads tonal fury in the woods, and nobody is there to gape in awe and delight? Was there a message at all?