reasons why you do it

[Statick]

my latest gig is at a 300-capacity hall with a new stage and rig installed. the guys booking the shows there book stuff that they like, not that they think people want to see. they also have a pretty fucking good taste in music. most of the acts range between psychedelic and heavy, we've had all sorts from jap-noise-rockers ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE to medieval-folk-psych CIRCULUS. in 2 weeks time we have french female fronted doom MONARCH, and US noise-rockers BARDO POND will be dropping by shortly as well.

some of these bands are among favourite bands from around the world. the last time i saw acid mothers i paid 15 quid for the privilege... i've seen bardo pond several times as well, and each time has been one of the most fantastic shows i've ever witnessed. i'm also discovering a lot of new stuff, things that i'd not heard before but loved. certainly, every gig i've done there i have absolutely fucking loved every minute of, and i've left every show with a stack of new records under my arm (i tend to guage how good a job i did by how much the records cost me - usually not a penny)

among all the other kiddie punk gigs at the local stinkhall, the badly paid shows, the egomaniacs and prima donnas, this once-a-week show makes it all totally worth it, and is a weekly reminder as to why i got into the business in the first place.

[dwoz]

Why do I do it?




simple....





I'm too chickenshit to kill myself...





...besides, guns are expensive...





...and alcohol is too expensive...






...see, its all about "next proximate alternatives".


dwoz

[blackieC]

"reasons why I do it?"





Love.







I sure as shit ain't gettin' rich.

[burnsy]

Im not sure I'm ment to be doing it as I have an interest in video and in april ment to be doing a film degree but I get way to excited about sound and I am passionate about most aspects except the musician side.

I do it because I like to push myself and I enjoy the perks of the job.

Even if it means working in a a club not designed for it or with bands that have huge egos.

[bunnerabb]

I've been writing and singing and playing and lighting and mixing and recording music since 1970.

I had my first paying gig as a bass player in my Jr. H.S>band in 1970. I had my first tech gig for a band in '74.

I think it just never hit me that I was supposed to be piss miserable doing something I hated to eat and live indoors.

And I've had patches where I was doing neither to keep doing this.

It's what I do.

I mean... I aint a plumber, you know?

Music is what I do.

[st robert]

why i do it...

there's nowhere else where i feel so in tune with my sense of purpose as a human. all those synapses firing to good effect (hopefully) and then seeing and feeling and, of course hearing the result in the moment with other people.

it is either a massive orgy or a lynching. how the fuck else am i gonna get that kind of rush without signing an insurance release?

rob

[G. Hoffman]

`cause I can't make enough money building guitars, and I can't think of anything else (other than building guitars) that I would enjoy doing half so much.


Mostly, though, because the idea of working in a cubicle gives me the hebbie-jebbies.


Gabriel

[jerryskid]

"Cause I got the music in me


I got the music in me



I got the music in meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"

[bunnerabb]

"Cause I got the music in me


I got the music in me



I got the music in meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"

Shit yes.

Now I have to hear that!

Damn.. Miss Dee only had one hit but it was a motherfucker.

[subvocal]

making music is one of the few very worthy things one can do in this dream called living...

I can't think of anything else I'd rather spend my time on...

...well, fucking, but that actually seems to cost even more than making music - wtf?!

...okay, growing food is pretty high up on the "worthy" scale too. I get hungry here a lot!

[ggunn]

I was talking with an old friend who has been in music nearly as long as I have, and she was talking about a recent gig of hers where she was presented with some... challenges. She looked at me and said, "I don't know why I keep doing this. I never know how it's going to turn out." We looked at each other for a moment and then we both started laughing.

That we never know exactly what is going to happen is one of music's greatest attractions.

[Spock]

Because I love to see people get into the music.

If I look out, even if they are not directly watching the band, as long as they are moving their heads or tapping a foot to the music, I'm doing the right job.



I ran my first FOH at 14 for a bunch of guys that were 15. I found out the girls not only liked the band, they liked anyone that had anything to do with the band.

[blackieC]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

When I was eighteen I was in a band that got paid a modest fifty bucks to play a birthday party for a friend of the bass players little sister. Most of the "audience" was around fifteen and they thought we were rock stars.

Still in memory as one of the most fun gigs I have played.

The highlights were when I started feeling like a rock star and whipped my guitar up to play a behind the head solo (must be carefully done with a Les Paul, knocked myself silly for a moment), and when the neighbors called up to request "Louie Louie".

[Fulcrum]

William Least Heat-Moon reports meeting a man on his travels who sums up his life philosophy on a small business card.

I've been bawled out, balled up, held up, held down, hung up, bulldozed, blackjacked, walked on, cheated, squeezed and smooched; stuck for war tax, excess profits tax, sales tax, dog tax and syntax, Liberty Bonds, baby bonds, and the bonds of matrimony, Red Cross, Blue Cross, and the double-cross; I've worked like hell, worked others like hell, have got drunk and others drunk, lost all I had, and now because I won't spend or lend what little I earn, beg, borrow or steal, I've been cussed, discussed, boycotted, talked to, talked about, lied to, lied about, worked over, pushed under, robbed, and damned near ruined. The only reason I'm sticking around now is to see ...
WHAT THE HELL IS NEXT.

While all those things, literally and figuratively, have happened to me in the course of being a musician, I keep doing it in part because like Bunner it's just what I do; like St Robert it puts me in touch with my higher self; and like ggunn there always seems to be something new to learn around the corner.

[Azraphael]

Why do I do it?

Simple. The only alternative is to not do it.

It's really that simple for me. At the risk of sounding incredibly cheesy, music isn't a choice for me.

It's a compulsion.

It's the soft seduction, and the sweet release.

It's the beginning and the end, and everything in between.

I have no more choice in playing music than I do in breathing or blinking my eyes.

But if you really have to ask why, you'll never truly understand the answer.

Cheers,

Dave

[J.G.]

Me just likeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy... :grin:

A LOT.

[Moonrider]

Why?

My Muse is a raging beast within me.
She commands me to hear the music of the universe.
She so bemuses me with the melody of a voice,
I fail to hear the words, and my friends decide
That I'm deaf or daft.

My Muse is an insatiable temptress within me.
She beguiles me with the rythyms of ambient sound.
She so enthralls me with the beats of the noise of machinery,
I twitch and dance in glorious delight, and my love realizes
I'm away once again.

My Muse demands my utmost devotion
And gives me the Music of the Spheres in return.

[Palewailer]

What else I'm gonna do with all this stuff?

Seriously, If I didn't play, I don't know who I'd be.

[LouMan]

For me, it's just fun- it's almost an escape.

Most of the guys in my band have been good friends for a long time so for us, getting together to practice on a Friday night is like our night out with the guys.

It's like our poker night.

If we get to play out once in a while, and actually get paid to have our fun, it's all the better.


I also love the experience of performing.

There's no better feeling on earth than just losing yourself in a song and making people "feel" something.

Whether it's a woman in a bar, shaking her hips and singing along, or some guy shaking his fist and yelling "yeah!", making people feel something is some powerfull and highly addictive stuff.

Lou

[J.G.]

Whether it's a woman in a bar, shaking her hips and singing along, or some guy shaking his fist and yelling "yeah!", making people feel something is some powerfull and highly addictive stuff.

HIGH-five to THAT. :Thumbsup:

[dikledoux]

I play for the chubby. Everything else is secondary. It's the one thing I can do in public that (every once in a while) approaches the divine.

As far as recording and live sound, I just got tired of relying on people who so obviously didn't have a clue. Then it became a way to ensure that I'd be involved SOMEHOW in a musical endeavor even if I wasn't playing at the time.

dik

[st robert]

I play for the chubby. Everything else is secondary. It's the one thing I can do in public that (every once in a while) approaches the divine.

As far as recording and live sound, I just got tired of relying on people who so obviously didn't have a clue. Then it became a way to ensure that I'd be involved SOMEHOW in a musical endeavor even if I wasn't playing at the time.

dik

fuck yes.

[floodstage]

What else I'm gonna do with all this stuff?

Seriously, If I didn't play, I don't know who I'd be.



what he said!

[ggunn]

I remember an interview of Someone Big (maybe it was Clapton, I dunno) back in the early eighties, where the interviewer asked "Why do you play music". SB replied "I had no choice".

[Comte de St Germain]

Yep.


I have no answer.


Just like in the film "Vernon Florida" when the man posits what god is: "Just happened."

[J.G.]

I play for the chubby.

dik

Hey naaaaaaaaaaa, the slim folk got ears too!

; J

[imagineaudio]

"Don't tell me it's not worth trying for
You can't tell me it's not worth dying for
You know it's true, everything I do, I do it for you

You know it's true
Everything I do
ooooh
I do it for you"


:Thumbsup: