Corey Balsamo

Singer-songwriter from New York. Just trying to figure it all out.

Define The Finish Line.

How many people in this room are songwriters? Okay. So I’m gonna address us on a “songwriting” level for a moment. But before I do, I want to tell you the most important piece of information that applies, not only to your musical career, but your entire life. And I’ve seen it work and I’ve seen it not work. And it’s 100% true. The #1 thing you have to do before you set out on any other goal or any other course is to define your expectations. Number one thing. On the outset of any other project, record, tour - define your expectations.

Everyone in this room wants to “make it”. But I question how you would recognize “making it”. What is “making it”? Well, what do you want to be? Who in here wants a record deal? It would be nice to have a record deal, right? We want a record deal. Okay, well, what does a record deal look like? What does “making it” look like? Do you want to sell a million copies? Two million copies? Well, okay, let’s say - selling two million copies is like selling ten million copies 10 years ago. So let’s say you say to yourself, “My expectation is that I want to be an artist and I want to put records out and I want to sell millions of copies.” If that’s your expectation - GREAT. Then, you sort of skip straight to another questionnaire. If you answered “Yes” to “Do I want to be a Pop Star?” / “Do I want to make music for as many people as possible?” - now you have to, sort of, change your game to fit the expectation. You now have to wonder about “Is your song shorter than four minutes?”, “Do you get to your chorus fast enough?”. These are things you have to absolutely do. And you also have to compromise. And you also have to “play the game”, y'know?

Who in here thinks that the public is mostly dumb? Let me tell you something. The public is about 300 million times smarter than you. The pubic is not dumb. For those of you who said “Yes, I want to be a Pop Star” and “Yes, I would like to have a record deal” and “Yes, I’d like to make this happen”, the first thing you should know is that the public is always smarter than you. If you put a song out and you go *kisses fingers* “That’s it. That’s it! Watch it go! Light the fuse, stand back! Everybody stand back! It’s gonna be a hit! It’s gonna be a hit!” And it goes like this “FFFHHHHHHHMPP (fizzles out)” - Who is smarter than who? Your big, smart pop song went nowhere. The public just told you, “Ehhh..” They’re smarter than you on that one. ‘Cause you said you had it and they said “I don’t think so”. And you didn’t have it. So they’re smarter than you. That’s what you have to deal with. They’re smarter. And by defining your expectations, if you decide that you want to be a “Pop Star” - that’s not a dirty word. “Pop” just means “popular”. Frank Sinatra was a pop star. Jimi Hendrix was a pop star. Lot’s of people were pop stars. What kind of pop star? Lot’s of people are jazz musicians. What kind of jazz musician? You could define the genre anyway you want. So, if you said you wanted to be a pop star, you have to look at your songs.

There’s also people here who are a little dishonest about what they want to be. And, I think, if you want to be famous, if you want to make music for as many people as possible - just come out and say it. Don’t say, “Ahh, I wanna be indie. I’m just gonna be an independent artist,” and really secretly wish that you wanted to be a pop star. Because from the very beginning it’s disingenuous. There’s nothing wrong with saying “I want to play music for as many people as possible - without compromising the things that I have to be as an artist.” And that’s what I’ve done. Sony Music doesn’t come into the studio when I’m making a record, but I also know what’s gonna be a hit or what stands the chance of being a hit and what just doesn’t. And it’s a level of honesty with yourself that you have to have before you hand your music out to anybody else. So that’s sort of what I want to say about expectations.

If you only recognize success as a record deal and a big, fat “Publisher’s Clearing House”, over-sized Tiger Wood’s check, and a dinner and then going to the top of the roof and screaming, “I MADE IT!” - most of you will be stunning failures. I’ll tell you right now. I didn’t do it that way. But if you define success by putting out your first record and selling 5,000 copies and going to have sushi when you say, “Yeah, I got 5,000 copies” / “When I sell 5,000 copies, I’m gonna consider this a success.” That’s the difference between people who walk this earth happy and people who walk this earth constantly unfulfilled because they never defined the finish line. 

–  John Mayer, 2008 Berklee Songwriting Clinic

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