MUSIC MY FOOD

Music holds a magic over my mind, body and spirit unlike anything else in this world. Hearing it, writing it, performing it, recording it, "packaging" it and promoting the same in others brings an incomparable sense of success and fulfillment.

"See deep enough and you see musically; the heart of nature being everywhere music, if only you can reach it." -Coleridge

Some "hinge" music moments for me were...

• ... hearing the sound of the bongo drum at a spontaneous street poetry slam in Queens, NY in 1959 (I was 3) and being changed forever;
• ... sitting on my cousin's lap with drumsticks in hand behind his silver sparkle drum set, hitting the snare drum for the first time and being changed forever;
• ... my first live performance before a large audience in fifth grade (I sang "Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter" by Herman's Hermits in a duet) and being changed forever;
• ...witnessing the double bill of Leo Kottke and John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra (Birds of Fire tour) at Lincoln Center, NYC in 1972 and being changed forever;
• ... hearing Stewart Copeland play drums with the Police in 1979 and being changed forever.

So I continue to play in music and music continues to play in me.

Currently I play percussions with the electro-acoustic group Friend Planet, described by someone somewhere as "whirled beat." I like to think of FP as unbridled creation. We play around the Boston area in coffeehouses and art spaces. We've also scored video games and educational films. It's the most exciting and fulfilling musical project I've ever been involved in. I've also recorded and performed with dance-reggae outfit, The Mighty Charge and I am currently developing a music production house targeting creatives in the culture industries.

I dabble in guitar (my first instrument) and love to try and imitate John Renbourn and Leo Kottke tunes (thank you Tom Livingston wherever you are for teaching me to fingerpick!).

Caution!-- the next two paragraphs are completely idiosyncratic...

My "desert island discs" would have to include James Brown's Greatest Hits, The Penguin Cafe Orchestra's whole repertoire, renaissance dance music, Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition lps, Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, everything by Bob Marley, Nat King Cole's Greatest Hits, Beethoven's 5th, some Freddie Hubbard, Joni Mitchell's Hissing of Summer Lawns, The Roots' latest disc, anything Malian, Rampal's Bach Flute Sonatas, Talking Heads' Speaking in Tongues, some Trancemission CDs, and (of course) everything by Friend Planet.

My desert island books would have to include Herbert Marcuse's Eros and Civilization, the Bible, E. Norman Brown's Love's Body, the collective works of Hermann Hesse, all Tolkien's books, David McCauley's series on How Things Work, some Carl Jung, Thomas Howard's Christ the Tiger and Splendor in the Ordinary, all the 17th-century English metaphysical poets, the Collected Works of William Blake, The Aquarian Conspiracy by Marilyn Ferguson, Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood, and Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

MUSIC, MY WORK

I see myself primarily as a creative educator and, as such, wear several related professional "hats".

The first is as "Dream Architect" with Music Business Solutions.

In late 1991, when my wife and I were expecting our first child, I decided to stop touring and take some time off from performing so I could spend more time with my growing family.

One evening while pondering my twenty years' worth of files of music business information, contracts, resources, lists, etc., I thought, "If only I had all of this when I was just starting out," and !click!, a light went on:

"Music Business Solutions, providing business and promotional solutions to independent musicians."

This is the company I've been developing ever since.

Though it began as an information brokerage, Music Business Solutions (MBS) quickly evolved into an educational consultancy that now includes a variety of publications as well as one-on-one career and business counseling.

In its essence, MBS offers "supplemental" management for independent artists, bands and music businesses. Whether it's getting more gigs or radio airplay, assembling a publicity strategy, starting a record label, planning a record-release party, or increasing sales of an already released CD, MBS provides the input and oversight musicians need to achieve these goals.

It's essentially a music management and marketing department for hire.

Most days you'll find me at Berklee College of Music in Boston as Director of the college's Career Development Center. It's a job I feel fortunate to have found. I'm given a generous budget, a staff and general college support to develop resources and programs for helping musicians create successful careers for themselves in the 21st century. It involves teaching, research, writing, counseling, consulting, team-building and management.

I was originally preparing to teach history at the college level (MA in Cultural History, Boston University) so working in higher education is familiar territory, though Berklee is certainly in a class all its own as a contemporary music college.

An even more familiar higher ed experience than Berklee is at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell where I'm currently teaching in the music business program. This program is in the university's Music Department and I teach several courses over the year, including "Music Business Entrepreneurship", "Music Promotion and Merchandising", "Copyright, Publishing and Contracts", and "Music Business Seminar".

My teaching philosophy derives from the root of the word "education", Lat. educare = to draw out. I feel most humans brim with potential that goes untapped owing to societies that value stock portfolios over human development. So, in sense, I see the educative process as a subversive activity: to help students think outside the boxes of their own "education" and experiences, and to tap into that latent potential.

"If we did all the things we were capable of doing, we would literally astonish ourselves." -Thomas Edison, Inventor

Writing is another big part of my life and has been since high school. My sixth book, Indie Power: A Business-Building Guide For Record Labels, Music Production Houses, and Merchant Musicians was published in 2004, and my newest book, Indie Marketing Power: The Resource Guide for Maximizing Your Music Marketing is now available. next up is a complete revision of Indie Power, for a Fall 2006 release.

Over the years I've also written for several dozen different magazines and journals, dabbling in far-flung subjects: 17th-century metaphysicalpoetry, critical marxism, cultural criticism and interspecies communication.

I also publish two e-letters: Music Biz Insight and Music Career Juice. These provide a forum to share what I'm learning about the music business and hopefully help other music entrepreneurs to reach their potential.

If I had to summarize what I'm about it would be "artist development" in all its dimensions.

In general, creative artists are woefully unprepared for success in the commercial world. My approach to artist development is to help people reach deep inside their own potential to create sufficient forms to hold and grow successful businesses and careers.

"Talents are best nurtured in solitude; character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world." -Johann Wolfgang Goethe