1. “You need to create for yourself––know what you want or who you are––and that takes a lot of time to figure out in life.”
– Vanessa Silberman
June
2. “People feel like the way to success is to do more than everybody else. That’s just not what it is. It’s about having yourself in order. It’s about doing what you love. You have to have something in place that lets you know when you love your music and not ‘I banged out seven songs today and I’m proud of myself.’ If you knocked out seven bangers then yes be proud. But if they won’t see the light of day...”
T-Pain
August
3. “When you’ve spent that many years preparing, you don’t let your nerves get in the way. You just go and do it.”
– Victory Boyd, Infinity Song
June
4. “If you’re just looking for a job, there’s always the money gig. But if you follow your passion and trust your intuition, in any field, that’s what ultimately gets you where you want to go,—Go with your gut and make content you’d like to see.”
– Kerry Brown
July
5. “Never close yourself off to something new—it’s vital. In music, it’s important to pick the thing you know the least about and dive deep into it. It’s those shades and the differences that actually in the end come together to make you more of an artist and a better musician.”
– Brian Tyler, film composer
July
6. “If you do this at a certain level every day of your life for this long, something’s bound to stick.”
– Hans DeKline
July
7. “When it comes down to it, the biggest risk in life is not taking a risk on yourself and following your heart.”
– Vanessa Silberman
February
8. “The thing I wish I had told my younger self would be to lean into the things that made me different. The best art is about unique perspective––and you need to figure out why your perspective is unique. That is not only what art needs, but that’s what the world needs. That’s how we create change; that’s how we make breakthroughs.”
–Trishes
September
9. “An idea can come from anywhere—and oftentimes doesn’t feel like I’m setting out to make some epic song.”
– Amy Lee, Evanescence
November
10. “Whether or not to pursue a label deal for a band depends on what your goals are and what your metrics of success are. If you feel like you’re in a good spot, are reaching the people that you want to, and you’re comfortable, you don’t really need to take any further steps.”
Merci
February
11. “Don’t even think about the label side. It all comes, eventually,
if you work hard for it.”
– The Happy Fits
January
12. “Even when we started, we weren’t trying to reinvent the wheel. We just wanted to be a rock ‘n’ roll band. My older brother George always said, ‘You’re just a guitar band.’ He always saw that as a big plus factor, that the guitars were so strong. So we’ve just stayed with that. It’s just a groove.
Angus Young, ACDC
January
13. “The idea of just being like, ‘We just did this. Let’s put it out’ is kind of the vibe. And I think in doing that we really kind of touched on something cool, and something that we hadn’t really sounded like before.”
– Danielle Haim, Haim
February
14. “With this deal, I have an incredible sense of ownership. I own my masters. It’s a 50/50 profit split. It’s just incredible.”
– David Sabastian
February
15. “We were pursuing our career as an indie band, but we had reached a point where it was going to be difficult to get big enough in the way that we were hoping to achieve without that network of distribution and backing that a label offers. We were hitting the ceiling as an indie band.”
Merci
February
16. “As much as there is a method to making music—chord structure and song patterns—there’s this other thing that is really just a little spark of magic, and it has to be about loving what you’re doing.”
Amy Lee, Evanescence
November
17. “Get good projects, work them and don’t leave them if they falter. You pick them up and push them a bit. You can name any classic rock act and the reason they were successful is because the label backed them up and was creative in helping them establish themselves.”
– Michael Carden, Quarto Valley Records
February
18. “DIY is really just doing it yourself. I think the ethics behind it is not waiting around for someone to make stuff happen, but making it happen yourself.”
– Vanessa Silberman
February
19. “Retain a music attorney before entering into a personal management agreement.”
– Glenn Litwak, lawyer
February
20. “If you are prepared before you get in, all you have to do is get the sound you want and hit the [record] button.”
– Angus Young, ACDC
January
21. “As a producer, it’s important to create a safe, supportive environment. Studios can be intimidating, especially for first-time artists.”
– Bruce Sugar, producer
February
22. “The number one thing as a producer or engineer is not taking what people say at face value. You have to learn how to interpret what they’re saying. Ninety percent of what people say and what they mean are two different things.”
– Justin Niebank, producer
July
23. “I’m not big on the ‘less is more’ philosophy with production; I like a lot of stuff going on, but I’m very careful to not walk on the vocal. My biggest advice to anyone in the studio: stay off the vocal. That’s paramount.
– Jimmy Hunter
September
24. “Subscribe to the hot lead sheets to see what is needed by artists and producers.”
– Kenny Lee Lewis, producer
October
25. “There’s a spontaneity involved that’s key to the magic in the studio. You don’t want to be over-prepared. You still want to leave leeway so that magic can occur.”
– Bruce Sugar, producer
February
26. “While Brian’s [recording] he’ll get the rest of us in the other studio and be like, ‘Okay, let’s get another new track down,’ and then we’ll come back in to start putting down the track. Everyone keeps busy, which is a good approach, because it gives everyone something to do and there’s no sitting around bored.”
– Angus Young, ACDC
January
27. “The human element is the ‘lightning in a bottle.’ The idea of what makes things beautiful is the imperfections—you would never auto-tune Etta James.”
– Brian Tyler, film composer
July
28. “If you know how something works, it takes all the study and information gathering out. You don’t even think about it.”
– Michael Carden, Quarto Valley Records
February
29. “Keep the tape rolling at all times. I learned that from Ringo. Early in their career, The Beatles were jamming and George [Martin] didn’t catch it.”
– Bruce Sugar, producer
February
30. “When you’re not trying to be the biggest in the room, you can be the most beautiful. That authenticity breaks through the popularity contest.”
– T-Pain
August
31. “We take time in between [touring] for our families and for ourselves—to live life and refuel in the hole where the music is missing, so that we want it again.”
– Amy Lee, Evanescence
November
32. “From the projects to getting a Doctoral degree from Lincoln. Don’t be afraid to change, grow and educate yourself. I did it! You can do it.”
– Master P
July
33. “Network your butt off!”
– John Bryon
July
34. “Keep a notebook and write things down while you are still emotionally charged about something in your life––uncensored––filing it thematically so that you can reference it later (Steve Miller wrote lyrics to ‘Abracadabra’ on a napkin in a ski lodge in 20 minutes)”
– Kenny Lee Lewis, producer
October
35. “I began to feel the beauty and the freedom in its imperfection. Music became a lot more about emancipation in some way.”
– Amy Lee, Evanescence
November
36. “Learn to negotiate and learn from whoever you can. The first offer is only the first offer.”
– Rexx Life Raj
July
37. “Realizing that the way you look at things and your mindset plays a huge part in your own happiness.”
– Maeve Steele
November
38. “It is really important not to be afraid to reinvent the wheel. If the world you have built around yourself isn’t working, or isn’t getting you where you want to go, don’t be afraid to tear it all down and start over.”
– Telenovella
January
39. “Experience is key. Get it however you can, even if you’re not paid.”
– Doug Diamond, producer
January
40. “The best part about music, for me at least, I always look at music as the thing that makes you feel less alone.”
– Este Haim, Haim
February
41. “People you may never meet in your lifetime are affected by your music. That’s why I think it’s important to be very aware of what you’re putting out there.”
– Stephen Flaherty
February
42. “The point of getting a written contract is to memorialize the terms of an agreement. In addition, a written contract can prevent honest misunderstandings and forces the parties to come to terms on all deal points.”
– Glenn Litwak, lawyer
February
43. “At the end of the day we wanna work with a team that believes in us as much as we believe in ourselves.”
– Felicity
September
44. “You can’t generate what happens live. You can’t sit in your house and think, because you’re playing every day you’re gonna be ready to get on stage and blow. It doesn’t work that way. You’ve gotta be in rehearsals, you’ve gotta be with people and really shove it out there so you can be at your peak on stage. You can’t just rudimentarily be working on it thinking you’ve got this nailed.”
– Waddy Wachtel, The Immediate Family
September
45. “If you want to get into management, pick out a mentor or someone you can learn from. Although I’ve taken on being more of a mentor than a mentee, I’m always looking for opportunities to learn from people.”
– Rosabelle Eales, Overall Management
September
46.“Co-write as much as possible to bounce creative ideas and build your network.” Very few people can sit alone and write music and Lewis’ greatest successes have come from co-writing––including Abracadabra and the Pump Up The Volume soundtrack.
– Kenny Lee Lewis, producer
October
47.“We’ve always done everything ourselves, but learned along the way that if we let people into our world who share our ambitions, we can do so much more.”
– Sports
January
48. “Navigating the business in general is a constant battle, full of forks in the road, and self-doubt. All the things that go along with being an artist. I think a lot of the songs were definitely cathartic to write. We all decided that therapy was integral to our well-being, so we started unpacking everything that was happening in our lives.”
– Este Haim, Haim
February
49. “Keep doing what you’re doing. The right people will come along once you’ve created a brand and songs that feel like you.”
– Hannah Hausman
February
50. “Going through failure really lets you know if this is the person you should continue to write with. The joy of working together in a room really just kept pulling us forward through the failures and disappointments, until we finally had some success.”
– Lynn Ahrens
February
