Finding Dory in an artist!

I just assume you have seen the movie “Finding Nemo”? Well in it you have the fish called Dory with a very short memory and can easily be distracted by something shiny. I was in a meeting with some industry people the other day and they compared artists with Dory. Not so nice, but unfortunately very accurate.

We where talking about some artist that was not so active. And the solution was to distract them with something shiny. But it must be something unharmful shiny they added. The thing was that the artist is always looking for the next thing. If they’re on a label and it’s not going in full speed (it seldom do, and when it does they complain that it goes too fast) another label comes around and that label works like shiny things for Dory, gets the artist full attention for a little while. So, the dangerous part is that they would go with the new label, but they need a shiny thing to keep going with the old label.

It’s very true. I see a lot of artists sitting on a label doing nothing, in the end, they depart and they find a new label and suddenly all these things they were supposed to do when they just sat on the sofa just adds on. But also, it’s usually very short-lived. Like Dory has a short memory it’s the same with the activity around these artists.

This is the reason I don’t like to take over a project from someone else. The short-lived injection that just ends out in nothing. So, when I’m looking for new artists, and yes, I do, we have some open spots on the company that we need to fill with good things. I look for an artist that has a focus that is, longer then Dory’s memory. The focus has to be there. I feel so many are not focused. They tell you that their career is everything and they really want to work with music full time. Still, they can’t take time off work for an important show. They hare not willing to work hard to find the money to play abroad at an important event. And they always have a hard time to find time to have a meeting with you.

Clearly something is holding the focus. To be in the position I’m in right now I wake up every morning thinking of all the stuff I’m going to work with over the day. Today it has been planning a huge gala on the other side of the world. Putting a playlist for the radio station. Booking a festival for one of the bands. Answering some emails around a license to a film and tv series that I’m involved with and listen to some new artist that had applied to our festival. Shattered no focus? No everything comes back to my career in the music industry. Scattered would be if I spent time looking for furniture for my new summerhouse or thinking of things of another job or worried about my car not matching my 40-year crisis. So yes, you can be scattered but as an artist, everything you do has to come down to your artist career.