Article
This sound is public relations
The latest issue of Tracks Magazine features a back-page guest piece by Fiona Apple, who is set to release a new album later this year. She writes:
Since I haven’t put out a record for three or four years and I’ve not been a regular at movie premieres, I haven’t done any kind of press. Now that I’m just about done with an album, though, I’ve got a lot of conversations ahead of me with people I don’t know, who don’t know me and whose job does not require them to be sympathetic.
(Sorry, Tracks doesn’t put their articles online)
Fiona describes her awful experience on a student television talk show at USC. It seems she has forgotten how hard it is to get yourself out there, to make people care, and to not sound stupid when you’re doing it. Putting yourself in the public eye — whether it’s through press, advertising or grass-roots marketing — is not easy. At least Fiona has two solid, well-received albums behind her. At least one of them went platinum. At least she’s been written up in major publications (even if it was a while ago). At least she’s been in once already.
We, the Mosaic, don’t have such luxuries. You’d think selling yourself to college kids would be easy (even Fiona assumed they “are eager [and] they do their homework”) but it turns out most of them don’t care about music very much, only see you play when they’re totally drunk, or have other things to worry about.
Fiona’s bad TV experience had her frustrated:
I know this means that I can’t just be a songwriter — I have to be an actress, too. […] As for the moral of this story, for me it is this: Be you Mitchell [the TV host], be you Jay Leno, be you the public, the record company or my very own mother, I shall never again delegate the job of being eager and doing homework to anyone but myself, I shall never forget that conversation deserves the same reverence and commitment as the singing of a song. [Ed: emphasis mine]
Ours is not the same type of conversation as Fiona’s, but the point remains the same. PR is at least as important as music when it comes to this “band” thing. We spend 4 hours a week practicing, and we (especially Will) match that with phone calls, poster making, writing, emailing, etc. Same goes for any business — half the time is doing your work, the other half is running the business so you can do the work. It’s a sad reality.
So, what am I? Bitter? Confused? Annoyed?
More like shocked. I’ve been in bands before, but never attempted to achieve any sort of popular acclaim. I never really wanted people to sing along to my songs. I never wanted to form a “street team.” To have “merch.” To be anywhere near managers or booking agents.
But here we are. As they say, it’s all about the music — if only it were that easy.
[note: edited April 27, 2004 for grammar]