Catching Up and "Your Reputation and You"

Hola.  

I've finally made the switch from doing e-zines, which were incredibly labor and time intensive, to blogging (as if I wasn't already enough of a dork).  It's mostly just a formality.  I will continue to interview cool people from time to time and you can find all of the old e-zine articles and interviews under the E-zine Archive link (off to the left). Thanks for still tuning in.

It's hard to believe it's been 9 months since my last post and I haven't even been pregnant. Allow me to pull a Grandpa DeKline and say, time really does fly.   There's really too much to catch up on so I'll just do a couple of quick shout outs and move on... 

If you haven't already, please check out the digital release of Songs For Haiti spearheaded by the lovely and talented Shannon Hurley.  It's a record that I mastered pro bono benefitting the Haitian relief effort (via Oxfam America).  Yes, there's still a need.  And extra bonus, the album features tons of great artists like Peter Murphy, Steve Kilbey, Josh Mease, Sierra Swan, Kate Earl, etc.

I never thought my work would wind up on both NPR (Jesca Hoop's "Hunting My Dress") and Kanye West's blog ("Gold" by Teachers) in the same week. The world must truly be ending.  If you're looking for something to do while you wait for the four horsemen to ride down your street, check 'em out...

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On to business.

I'll make this short and sweet.  After having a couple of interesting conversations with managers and label reps in the last few months, I've been ruminating on the subject of "your reputation and you."

Back when I was a recording artist, I accepted doing business with sketchy people as a necessary evil.  I assumed that the people who promote artists have to do a certain amount of tall-tale telling in order to do their job.  And while some of this might be true, a little harmless exaggeration here, a whole bunch of hype there, it doesn't take long to realize that this technique can also be employed against you.  At best, they're white lies -just meant to ease the pain or grease the axial.  At worst, your rep is spewing all kinds of insanity around town in your good name. 

I'm not going to get into the specifics that prompted this semi-rant.  But I will say this, there's nothing worse than working with an artist whom I love and support and feeling like their representative is just plain "dirty." The cliche "guilt by association" is a cliche because it's true.  The people you choose to work with, regardless of whether they're spending money on you or the other way around, should continuously earn your respect and appreciation.  If not, find somebody else to work with.  

Yes, I know.  I'm a bit of a boy scout, but at least you know what to expect. 

I'll leave you with this: 

Comments

[Aaron]

Hear, hear! I think, too, that the more one stays in this "business," the more it becomes apparent that the only way to truly survive (intact) is to look a little more closely at these kinds of relationships and, yes, put a little extra time into choosing with whom you work.

[Hans DeKline]

Right on Aaron. Yeah, it's weird, early on we were always encouraged to "play ball" with some of these cats for fear of what they might do... I drew a line in the sand a very long time ago and have been nothing but happy (and busy) since. Now it's just weird when I come across somebody who actually expects me to humor their delusion.

[v]

Kudos on the pro bono work and congrats on the NPR exposure, too.

It can be ... erm ... challenging, not to fall into the mode of feeling like a beggar (and thus taking anything that comes your way, rep-wise -- "Omigawsh, someone wants me!"), but yeah, it winds up being painful when you get stuck with the wrong one. Arrrrgh -- just not worth it.