There are no cover bands in the rock and roll hall of fame.
This is a fact of life, but also my philosophy. One that has fueled my work as a professional artist for more than twenty years.
Because in my humble opinion, whatever it is we create in the world, it doesn’t have to be good, it doesn’t have to be accurate, it doesn’t have to make sense, it doesn’t have to make sales, it doesn’t even have to be seen by an audience.
It only has to be ours. That’s all that matters. Our greatest currency in this world is the one thing nobody can take away from us. Our originality.
As the famous futurist manifesto stated more than one hundred years ago:
Let us elevate all attempts at originality, however daring, however violent. Bear bravely and proudly the smear of madness with which they try to gag all innovators. The threshold of the future will be swept free of mummies.
It’s simply a matter of volume. Creating piles and piles of work until you flush all the mimicry out of your system and eventually forge new frontiers of originality.
Hell, my true voice as a songwriter didn’t start emerging until my third album, and didn’t solidify until my fifth. That’s how long it took me to write all of those pseudo covers out of my system and reach clean air. That’s how much work had to be done to get rid of all these old ghosts and make the music really feel like mine.
That’s the only hall of fame that matters. The one that exists in the theater of your mind.
Go see what you can make of yourself on our own.
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Is your work a copy of a copy of a copy of the same archetype you’ve been chasing since day one?
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Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.
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