The music industry is tough.  There’s so much competition.  It seems like everyone who can strum a few chords is trying to make it as a singer-songwriter these days.  A select few get their 15 minutes of fame and then appear to fall off the face of the Earth.  I think music fans get a sensory overload with so many bands and artists trying to grab their attention.  That’s why only the most dedicated artists get a good piece of the pie.  It’s survival of the fittest yet again.  Music only ever gets noticed when it is repeated.  Sure… my friends and family will remember the name Jeff Hawker (obviously), but what about that random guy that heard me at a coffee shop and thought I was pretty good, but didn’t have any money to buy my CD.  He’ll forget about me by the next day.  That is unless he hears or sees me again.

That’s why I’ve decided to pretty much take everything I can get.  Anything goes.  I prefer playing at coffee shops, pubs, and other music venues.  But I’ll do weddings, parties, barmitzvas… anything!  I’m also going to contact more radio stations, and local tv stations to see if I can perform or do an interview live.  I also want to make more videos and I’m considering contacting film schools to see if they’ll do some probono work for me.  In fact, maybe I’ll go do that right now.  There’s no sense writing about doing something when I could just be doing it.  I’ll write more later…  Adios.

I went to another open mic last night.  It was a good experience, but nothing glamorous.  Open mics involve staying up all night in a crowded room listening to a lot of bad performances (and being blown away when someone half-decent takes the stage) only to play just a couple songs when your name is called.  It is unlikely anyone will buy your CD or even remember you the next day because most of the people just came to play their own stuff - they aren’t really interested in listening to the other acts.

Open mics are to a new singer-songwriter as moring sunrise shoots are to a new photographer, or as blogging is to a new writer.  They are good practice and they do help to get your name out there, but, in a way, you have to force yourself to go to them.

For as realistically dull as I made open mics sound, I actually did have a great time last night.   There was one girl who had a fantastic voice, and there was another group that was fun to listen to.  And there were a handful of other decent acts as well.  And of course, I got to play, which is always enjoyable.  There is something indescribable about shaking off my nervous twitches, stepping on stage and just givin-er.  Some people actually started dancing to “Shame on Me“, which was so awesome to see.

Tony actually came with me to the open mic and we shot some video footage for a Jeffisode (…that’s right… I’ve combined the word episode with my name, Jeff,  for my new web reality series).  I believe this one will be for Jeffisode #2.  Stay tuned.  I believe we’ll post Jeffisode #1 (behind the scenes of the music video) pretty soon.

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I got a call from Adam late one night,

“Jeff, me and Tony are coming over tomorrow morning at 9:30. Don’t shower or eat breakfast. We’re going to make a stop-motion music video for ‘Shame on Me’. It will be a day in the life of Fawker [his “clever” nickname for me… I don’t really mind it]. We’ve worked out the storyboard and everything.”

“Well… okay,” I said, knowing that I didn’t really have a say in the matter. I was actually pretty excited even though I had no idea what the plan was.

Adam and Tony came barreling in a half hour late and likely running on pure caffeine. My roommate and his fiancé sacrificed their quiet Saturday morning for our crazy antics (I guess I probably still owe them for that). We started shooting right away. Adam told me to climb into bed and slowly reach for the alarm clock. He shot at rapid-fire speed to get the stop-motion effect. We proceeded to shoot scenes all day. Most of the music video actually involved what I needed to do that day: eat breakfast, brush my teeth, practice music, etc.

There was one scene that is allusive and artsy where I am just standing completely still at the bus stop. We actually completely lucked out with this beam of light shining where I was standing. If we shot that even half an hour later, that light would have been gone.

The annoying part of making the music video was the editing process. For the longest time we struggled with the math of how long each of the 669 pictures should last for the 3 minute song. Then once we figured out the equation, the computer program wouldn’t work properly. So we gave up for the night and just poured drinks and shared stories.

A few days later we tried editing on a different computer with different software but the computer kept crashing. So we tried a third computer with yet another program. It ended up being Windows Movie Maker (a bottom of the barrel, free program) that worked in the end. It took three different computers and three different programs to get this short video to work. Editing engineers in the film industry have my sympathy.

Check out the video here or on my Media page.

At the age of twelve I wrote my first song. Finally now – 10 years later – I’ve started to release my music to the public. I think there were four main things stopping me before:

1) I was convinced that I was unprepared

2) I was afraid of rejection (if I was unprepared, no one would listen to my music)

3) I lacked the finances to record

4) I was too lazy to put in the hard work

All of these obstacles continued to haunt me even through the recording of “Dark Before Dawn”, but I found ways around them. I think the ultimate reason I got off my lazy ass and decided to give my music a shot was because my friends and family challenged me and encouraged me. In fact, one of my friends confronted me with some tough love, saying, “If you don’t get started with your music now, you’re never going to do it.” Almost immediately after hearing this, I set some goals, made a plan, and started working – just to prove my friend wrong. I guess his reverse psychology worked on me.

Everything seemed to fall into place once I decided to just go for it. Somehow I had the finances. Somehow I became more motivated and more confident.

A saying comes to mind: “If you want something in life, you have to reach out and grab it.” This is cliché and lame, but I think it applies to my situation. I needed to stop dreaming about being a singer/songwriter and start doing what it takes to be one. It was a simple but profound lesson for me.