Musings of the Uncool

Forgot to post this gem from the House of Blues red carpet during Sunset Strip Music Festival of Marilyn Manson. (Taken with Instagram)

Got an epic shot of Taylor & Zac from tonight’s Hanson show at Lake Mission Viejo. (Taken with Instagram)

Getting things ready for the High Voltage party tonight. See you at TRiP in Santa Monica, free! (Taken with Instagram)

wethebreathers:

What you see above is an average musicians wallet that tours full time(by average I mean not headlining or co headlining). I am here writing this because I feel like a lot of people have a misconception of how the music industry works. To be quite honest, I am home from tour right now and broke, I have bills to pay and am struggling to find a job. Its just the sad reality of what the industry has come to.

Shouldn’t a musician live in comfort? No I’m not saying I want to be rich… I just want to be able to get by with out stressing about how I will eat or pay for bills… The truth is I make less then the average homeless guy on the street asking for money. Ive been living like this for 2 years now…

The main issue I come across daily is dealing with the fact that I am basically an artist who makes little to no money for my art. My art is my passion, Its my pride… Its honestly all I have… I dropped out of high school because I thought I would make it big one day and be set. Well hey, It happened! BUT I was in for a rude awakening… 

Many are probably wondering.. “Why doesn’t your label pay you?”. Well in reality they do! We must first pay everything back from tour support or for recording and distribution. I am thankful to be a part of a label who is willing to help a smaller band such as mine if we have issues, Not many bands have that but whats left after that cut could virtually be about $200 per member every 3 months and thats if you even split it, You might have to cover repairs or money that needs to be paid back.

The day I signed a contract the only thing that changed in my life was that I had to write an album in a month, Fly to Cali to meet with my label and record my vocals. No money, Just a broke drop out still… I was 21 at this point, I could have finished high school but I made a huge mistake and was now forced to get my GED. I wasted my childhood opportunity on a concept I thought to be something it wasn’t, Unlike you guys… I had no one giving me direction or telling me I was doing wrong except my parents but in my eyes what did they know right?

My parents supported me along the way, I highly doubt I would even be here still if it wasn’t for them. I am not saying I don’t want to be where I am because I love it with all my heart… Don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t change sleeping in my van in wal-mart parking lots daily and meeting the most awesome kids everyday for anything!

Do you illegally download or goto a show and not support the band you like? These are things that are destroying this industry right now… My band is thankful enough that we have descent support… Others can’t even afford to make it show to show… They have to use saved money. But why and when did it come to this!? When did something the world runs off of because virtually priceless? 

Most opening bands make $100 and from them on up either $150 or $200 a night plus an average of 5$ to eat ALL day or catering (usually 2 pizzas per band). The average band also does about $300-$500 in merch a night ON A GOOD TOUR, which seems like a lot right when you plan every day being like that, But for instance one day you could do $500 and the next $150 and in between those two days you could have driven about 700-800 miles. 

Not to mention after gas costs, You’ve got a van payment, A merch payment, A manager payment and you probably have repairs and an oil change to pay for as well. This virtually leaves you with no money when split between multiple members. Remember that I also said that this is on a good tour.

Its become so fickle and people have become so set on one particular sound that you could be playing in front of 400 kids and that city just isn’t into your sound. You walk away doing $100 in merch, Doesn’t make sense does it?

Its really sad when you think of this as a whole… The musicians suffering daily due to people just not caring about them like they used to.  I only write this in an effort to wake some people up… I know I can’t reach you all but the ones I do I hope I open your eyes… Buy the band you likes album and support them at their shows, a show will cost you about $30 dollars if you go and buy a band shirt. Most of the time you have a month or two to save up for the date coming to your town.

I honestly just don’t want to see the music industry crumble one day because most musicians can’t afford to tour anymore. Im honestly scared that the underground will be nothing in the future… So please, Don’t lash at this with hate and open your eyes.. Its a sad sad thing to think of no music because I promise you, If things continue like this it will happen. Lets rise up guys! We can make a difference! Our generation is known for being pirates, Lets make a change now! We have the chance for our kids to look at our generation as the ones that saved music. Id be honored to be apart of it as I’m sure most of you are.

P.S I am in not anyway a story writer so please excuse my literature. Hope you all have a great day!

-Shawn Spann

It’s the sad truth.

Was so excited to see Imagine Dragons on Jay Leno last night I thought I’d scan and share our feature on them from High Voltage’s Winter 2012 issue. If you’d like to purchase a copy of this issue, you may do so here: http://iamhighvoltage.com/backorder.html

When I posted a photo of the cover of the new issue of High Voltage a lot of Ed Sheeran fans reblogged it. It got me thinking maybe I should post the article for you all to enjoy as well. So, here it is!

If you’d like to buy a copy of just this issue you may do so here (we’d be honored to have your support). This is from the Spring 2012 issue featuring Dead Sara on the cover: http://bit.ly/GRVJCz