John Doe answers questions from the KnowTheMusicBiz.com community
members in the WWJDD? blog.


A Question from Donna in Princeton, NJ



Hi John,



I love your blog. I'm a writer and this morning I was thinking about how
I strive to reach this ideal with my words...this fantasy vision inside
my head...I'm wondering if that's what you have inside your head when
you write a song and which of your songs come closest to that vision?
I'm also wondering, what do musicians talk about when they get together?
Different venues? Life on the road? Management? I've found that writers
talk more about business than art, but maybe that is different with the
people you know?



Thanks for your time,

Donna





WWJDD?

Hey Donna,
To answer "what do musicians talk about" totally depends on what genre
yr referring to. From my experience it usually revolves around other
tours, preposterous situations, war stories, diva demands, amazing
venues, bragging about how many states-countries-gigs completed in the
shortest number of days, etc. Only musicians who know each other well
will ask advice on business matters but that does happen. There also is
a fair amount of exchange regarding other bands, records or performances
so that people are informed or turned on to something worthwhile; new or
old. Then I suppose there are others who just talk about drugs, food &
sexual conquests or how much they spent on "bling".
I've found that attempting to realize a "vision" is usually
disappointing. I tend to begin w/ a moment or thought & let it become
what it's going to become as it takes shape & hopefully is complete.
Here it's best to know when something is "done" & when it needs more
attention to be the best song it can. I'll take a certain piece of
writing & elaborate on that or some music that has stayed w/ me for a
while & complete that. That's specific to writing a song or piece of
music. Then there is a whole other layer of creative process that
happens during recording. This involves the beauty or trials of working
w/ other players, singers, engineers, producers & finally mixing; etc.
This is where the "vision" thing can get particularly contentious. It
seems more rewarding to allow room for the unexpected to make the piece
better than what you might've envisioned. Expectations are most often
impossible to realize.
I hope this helps.
and as always, thanks for writing,
yrs, JD

If you have questions for John Doe about music, the music business or
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<http://www.theejohndoe.com/> or YepRoc.com <http://www.yeproc.com/> .




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