Are you Happy in your heart?

I had a conversation with a friend yesterday who contacted me to tell me about an issue he had with his manager. It was quite obvious that he was depressed and unhappy about the situation. It was a bit strange because normally he just puts his head up and moves forward. Hell he went to Iraq and survived the hell over there. I know it’s rough for him being that he’s only a lyricist in a world where most music now is created by the artists/musicians themselves. Generally I’ve been impressed with his ability to meet people and insert himself into co-writing situations with some pretty promising projects.

Unfortunately despite some of his successes things aren’t going well at the moment. When he confronted his manager about getting more writing work apparently she responded by saying if you had more things going on, I’d have something to manage. To me, that a person’s polite way of saying, I don’t believe in you and I don’t really care to do any leg work to help you out, despite the fact I’m your manager. It’s common in music and entertainment in general. No one will give you the time of day no matter how good you are, until you become a viable product. Then everyone and their dog wants to have a piece of you.

I told him it was a common problem. He was taken aback by it. I suppose a lot of people figure once you get a manager the work will just roll in. Lots of musicians also think the same when it comes to a record deal – well now I’m signed, the label will just make it happen. Uh, NO. That’s when the real work begins. It isn’t until you’re a full blown shooting star that you can cruise on autopilot for a while. Even then, you still have to work at remaining a viable interest to the consuming public.

Eventually he told me he’d prefer to be an Actor. I said, if it’s in your heart and it will make you happy, then by all means, follow it. I’m not an Actor, I don’t play one on TV. Though I’ve had people think I should, and even procured an Agent who has sent me out on auditions and I’ve gotten call backs. But it’s not me. I’m a performer, I’m a musicial performer, an artist. I belong on stage singing and playing music. I’m not against Acting, I’d certainly take a job if I felt right and they wanted me – that would be a win win situation that makes everyone happy. I gave him my advice and he felt better. I think he has potential to write some good lyrics for people, hell I did a co-write with him on my CD Practical Insanity and people really like that song (All The Things).

What I’m getting at is that you need to follow your heart and do the thing that makes you happy. The tough part is turning it into a business that can sustain your life and garner the things you want out of it. In comes ZKing of Hearts. I met him, like a lot of the artists in the past couple of weeks, at the CD Baby meet & greet at Hotel Cafe. CD Baby is pretty wonderful eh? ZKing was very upbeat and had a smile on his face. That is one thing that makes it generally very easy to meet someone. Mind you, I’m told that I can be intimidating to approach. I guess because I’m tall, outside of that, I wouldn’t know why, I feel like I’m usually easy going. Anyone who knows me care to explain it?

ZKing asked me if I was looking for any type of music specifically for the blog. Smart man. Most people didn’t do that. My reply was, I was looking for anything as long as it was good. He asked if I liked Reggae, I said, I do like some, but as long as it’s good it won’t matter what it is. So he pointed me to his CD Happiness (is in your heart) and voilá here it is. When I mentioned that I had really liked it in an e-mail a little while ago, he was all excited. The subject line in the e-mail he sent back was Yippee! Now if that doesn’t tell you he is definitely happy in his heart, I don’t know what would.

I have the feeling that he’s over the moon right now (catch that all you British folk?). Knowing that the actual day of being the Single of the Day is now here. I’m sure he’s proudly telling everyone he knows that he’s being featured today. Like yesterday, the whole CD is damn good. It took me a while to really figure out which song I’d like to go with. Then I realized that this song was just screaming at me to say, pick me, pick me. So it turns out that it’s the title track of the CD. I love the flow. I love the message. It doesn’t get better than that. Even if you don’t like reggae, I can’t imagine how you can’t like this. It gives you a good feeling, and makes you want to move around the room. Music is so powerful like that.

I realize the idea is to get you to buy the song. However, I think you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t go and buy the whole darn CD.