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| Venice Beach Icon Harry Perry |
You are Always On
When you think of self-promotion, are you considering your
day to day routine as part of the equation? If not, you really should be. Part of
marketing yourself has not only to do with performance and after show banter,
but it is also who you are in your daily routine. You never know when you will
come upon an opportunity to showcase your talent so in essence, you are always
on.
For performers, it’s not simply work an hour or two, then you’re
done. It’s more involved than that, as many of you probably know. Think of
Lemmy Killmeister form Motorhead. DO you ever see him not being Lemmy? His
public persona follows him everywhere and if you are serious, so will yours.
You
are always in the public eye and you must be conscious of that at all times; the
ever present eye of YouTube is always lurking about in the corner, where you
least expect it! If that bothers you, well, you are not cut out to be a public
figure. Let’s face the facts; being a professional musician is also about being
visible at all times. There is no escaping it.
This means that who you choose to be onstage may be a
crucial factor in your offstage antics. Now I think of my dear friend Khhryst
Dementia, he is a Gothic Industrial Metal performer. That is who he is and
although his offstage persona is toned down a bit, it’s there. Whatever he does
is a reflection of hos art.
This may seem a bit overwhelming, and I think it is why a
few musicians have onstage personas that cover up why they are offstage so they
can be free from that burden. KISS comes to mind, for a long time, they were
never seen in public as KISS without their costumes and makeup. They could be whomever they wanted to be
offstage when they were out of uniform, but when they were KISS, they were always
on.
Cultivate A Positive Image
Some bands in the 80’s took it to extremes as far as
bringing their stage antics into daily life. Broken TV’s ala Motley Crue, trashed
hotel rooms, and drunken cars crashes often made headlines as did stints in
rehab and that image affected how people saw the band.
Lady Gaga, for instance has cultivated a powerful public persona that is almost indistinguishable form her stage performance, that are one in the same and whether or not you admire that, we are talking about it, and so is the media so you cannot deny that kind of power, lover her or hate her.
Think of Axl Rose,
his offstage antics, and even his onstage persona, was often crude and well,
dickish. That has followed him around and is how everyone sees him now. Heck, I
find it hard to listen to GNR because I am not a big fan of who he is as a
person.
Although, it did pay off when my buddy Nick Mason (Scum of the Earth, if you like White Zombie check his band out- they are damned good) and I
went to see them open for Metallica in 92. Apparently Axle had a hissy fit over
some bullshit reason and he refused to tour. The upshot was that we were
treated with 4 hours of a blistering set by our favorite metal band at the time.
Although the show was awesome and remains with me as a highlight
of my youth, as a result of Axl's crap, the band eventually broke up. Nobody
wanted to hire them. They lost out, big time, and all because Axl put on a bad
show both on and offstage. So fuck that guy, really.
Back to the point, people will associate who you are
offstage with who you are onstage so it behooves you to always be yourself and
treat people with respect because it could very well make or break you.
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