sunlore wrote:Ryland, you are such a creative person...

Wow.

SUPER TREES HOLIDAY SUGGESTION!

WOW DAY! Say wow to everything you think is lame! If you have nothing interesting to add after saying WOW once - continue to repeat the word until you feel special. Count the amout of times you feel clever and send the results to supertrees at gmail dot com

shagboy wrote::shock:

GOODNIGHT!

AND THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING IN THE ANNUAL SUPER TREES HOLIDAYS.

LOVE,

THE SUPER TREES TEAM

Ryland (whatever...),

You are drunk. Drink a glass of water and sleep it off.
You can come to my party tomorrow. We're making our own newspaper. You can be on the front page.

Bring scissors and glue.

Sweet dreams.

Oooh, Burn!

I wasn't going to say shit anymore, since Scott Ryland has obviously lost his mind on the road.
I hope you feel better soon.
travel safe, and don't let what some anonymous hombres say on some internet message board eat you up inside.

I will, however say that I'm disappointed that you've changed all your previous posts.
If you're going to bother to come here and e-shout (ha!) at everyone (5 people) that doesn't like your music,
show some conviction behind your words, and stick by them, regardless of what you've said.




best,


Faiz

kerble wrote:I wasn't going to say shit anymore, since Scott Ryland has obviously lost his mind on the road.
I hope you feel better soon.
travel safe, and don't let what some anonymous hombres say on some internet message board eat you up inside.

I will, however say that I'm disappointed that you've changed all your previous posts.
If you're going to bother to come here and e-shout (ha!) at everyone (5 people) that doesn't like your music,
show some conviction behind your words, and stick by them, regardless of what you've said.




best,


Faiz

Faiz,

I'm completely together, don't worry about me one bit. I've only slept a few hours and been driving (while adding a quart of oil every 75 miles but other than that things are great).

I do feel it's important to respond to your comments about luck and hard work with regards to success (or a lack of it). Here are some examples of why I believe that there is no "luck" for the 99% of working musicians out there. We'll start with me, since I'm the pretentious annoying one of the bunch.

I started recording music in 2000 after I finished college @ 20. I worked enough to purchase recording equipment. I was in a "band" at this time and we spent a year on this album called "Sea Change". I started a record label and released the record in december of 2001 with my own money. In 2002 I sold 8 copies. Duplication/mastering/etc for 1000 CD's is roughly $2000. I send out a few hundred cd's to college radio.

In 2002 I start this "solo project" called The Robot Ate Me, for fun. I spend 4-6 months on "They Ate Themselves" and release it in December 2002. I spend money on advertising. Send out hundreds of emails to press. Do some advertising. Send 300 cds to college radio. Send a few more hundred emails and a few hundred calls to college radio. I think the album breaks into the CMJ top 200 chart for one week. In 2003 I sell about 100 cds. Press is mostly very positive. Costs, all paid for from my full time job, amount to around 3-4 thousand.

In 2003 I start recording a new album "On Vacation". It turns into a double album concept record. In order to make the packaging special I handmake every booklet. This involves cutting, sewing, printing, drawing on each package and including a burned cd of b-sides. Each package probably ends up taking 15 - 30 minutes to make, each. The album is released in Feb 2004. I spend 600 on advertising. I pay to have someone do the radio mail out and I do all the press mailing/emailing. Send a few hundred emails. Call almost every radio station that added the record. When I stopped making the booklets I had sold around 700. Word of mouth! Positive reviews. Coverage in magazines reserved for people selling thousands of records. My last record had only sold 100 copies. At this point I had not toured any significant amount. I spent about $5000 of my own money duplicating the cd's, mastering, booklet materials, etc. I probably made a few hundred dollars profit in the end (this does not include the hundreds of hours spent actually making these booklets).

Fortunately, Slim (Kill Rock Stars) finds out about the music through Fanatic promotion who did the radio mailing. I meet Slim, and a few months later I show him the songs for the new album. He decides to reissue On Vacation and release the new album when it's done. This is based on the conversation we had, where I stated I would tour, and do everything humanly possible to get my music out there. Record label owners aren't dumb - they sign people that they know will tour constantly, work incredibly hard to support their music, and then lastly the music has to be good. Had I not been willing to live below the poverty level and tour for a few years, while sleeping in my van every night to save money - I really doubt these records would have been released - and/or reissued. Had I not met Slim - I would have continued to release my own records - or one of the other labels I contacted would have picked up the new album.

Currently, I've pretty much been on tour for the last 5 months, with a one month break in between the west coast tour and my full US tour. I was fortunate enough to have Krist, of the recently created Crow Agency help my book most the tour I'm on now. Once I'm done with this tour I have another month break and will leave for a two month Canada, and a Northern US tour. I am touring alone. Driving 4-10 hours everyday by myself. I sleep in my van. I spend $5 on food every day. I will hopefully make enough to cover rent and pay the label back for the cd's I've been selling. Also, while I'm on tour, I am still running my small label and trying to fill orders on the road, and contact press for the new releases I have coming out.

CASE #2:

Krist, who runs the Crow Agency has pretty much been touring straight the last 2 years for his band Southerly. All the time. Now he is running a booking agency while he is on tour. His music is really good. CD sales, I think, are modest. He has no large label support. Although now, after Slim seeing how hard he works (touring all the time) and the fact that he likes his music - will probably release his next record on KRS. It is not luck that has landed Krist on Kill Rock Stars - it is the fact that he's played over 600 shows - promotes the hell out of himself, and sacrifices everything to tour and promote his music.

I have other examples, but I need to get to a show. MY POINT, is that music, like anything else involves you working harder than everyone else while simultaneously doing something unique enough that makes your music interesting or relevant. However, this second part is not a requirement. I have several other friends that tour most of the year, working incredibly hard, and actually supporting themselves with music (that they would admit themselves) is either a bit generic or in the process of becoming really good. None of these people are lucky in anyway - they spend all day booking shows, calling radio stations, and treating music like a job.

The only luck anywhere in this discussion, is whether you were lucky enough to be born able to play music well enough to entertain people...and that doesn't even mean your music has to be good - you just have to be able to entertain people. If you weren't, then shit, sorry - it doesn't matter how hard you work. If you were - even if it takes 10 years self-releasing records and burning cd's for ever person you see - eventually it will pay off and you will be able to make a VERY modest living from music. And if you believe in luck, then maybe you'll be the 2% of working musicians that gets embraced by corporate radio, sold to car commercials and generally whored out to anyone that needs background music.

For all the rest of us, who realistically do what we love - there isn't luck involved AT ALL. IF you have good music and you can't figure out why you can't live off of it - work harder, and sacrifice more. Don't waste your time telling me to go burn and die - I'm just being honest. And if you still think luck is involved - maybe you should just sit on your ass and wait for fame and fortune to come to you. Now that is pretentious and annoying - not someone spending every fucking day with no A/C in an overheating, oil-leaking, and generally falling apart VW Vanagon that might not make it to the next city in the vast wasteland of Texas.

Have a good night, and fuck, I hope this topic dies forever.

Ryland

mymusicisrubbish wrote:
I started recording music in 2000 after I finished college @ 20.

Hopefully SUPERTREES will have my "I FINISHED COLLEGE @ 20" button ready in time for the 4th.

mymusicisrubbish wrote:Fortunately, Slim (Kill Rock Stars) finds out about the music through Fanatic promotion who did the radio mailing...

...and this is where luck came into play.