Should artists be releasing a song every month?

Social Media Scientists have said yes, but...

Sometimes a band only gets one great record.

Sometimes that record is their very first.

It seems a bit backwards, to spend decades perfecting a craft, yet your most regarded work may end up being what you created first.

Kevin Martin, lead singer of 90s Seattle rock band Candlebox, knows this anomaly all too well.

Candlebox’s first record, a self titled debut released in 1993, went quadruple platinum.

After 30 years of successfully touring the world and releasing music, the band hasn’t achieved a similar feat since.

In this interview, Kevin jokingly says “that fuckin record is still getting us gigs today.”

His lack of delusion was refreshing.

“We’re not prolific man, and we really probably don’t deserve this.”

While I think he very much deserves the career he’s earned, I found irony in his situation.

He told the story of how that first record was made…a small group of guys, calling up friends of friends that played guitar, or bass, or drums, and meeting up in a room to jam.

One would bring a riff, one would bring a melody, or a bass line to start a song…hell, Kevin was still playing drums at the time.

When they needed a singer, he said fuck it, why not.

After hearing Kevin describe how effortlessly that first record was made, the one that’s been his band’s greatest success…I can now hear everything that make’s it so special.

The dry scratch vocals that somehow found their way onto album, the deep pocket that can only be found by musicians playing live together in a studio…no harmonies, no bells and whistles, just Rock n Roll.

and that was the 90s.

Candlebox released their debut record in July of ‘93, and by that Fall, they had sold out 3 nights at the Paramount theater in 15 minutes…a record previously held by Madonna.

Maybe you don’t always need to know where you’re going, to find your way there.

Quality > Quantity

Quality does not exist in quantity.

It’s scarcity is the very thing that makes it special.

So far, I’ve shot 10 interviews with folks in the music industry, over the course of a few months. Some more notable than others.

Last week, I sat down at EastWest Studios on Sunset Blvd, with an engineer named Les Camacho.

Les took me back to when he was 23. He was flown to London by a close friend, to audition for a chance to work front of house for a band on their upcoming tour.

He wasn’t sure who the gig was for when he got there.

When the production manager came to him at the console, right as the audition was starting, he put down a setlist and said “here ya go…”

At the top, it said “Pink Floyd.”

First song: The Wall.

Les spent 3 years on the road with Pink Floyd after that, on their 1993 Division Bell tour.

When he got back, he flew to LA from Miami for the first time.

Within a few months, he was in the studio with Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac.

If you Google “Les Camacho” you won’t find anything.

Maybe he made it all up…or maybe the internet doesn’t matter.

The last few months of my life have been pretty parallel to the last few months of your life, if you’re an artist trying to figure out how exactly to release music, and get someone, anyone, to listen to it.

Each one of these episodes has cost me around $1,000. A small amount to those in the corporate world, but quite a chunk of cash for those chasing a dream.

If you’d asked me a few months ago if I had $1,000 to spend on an interview let alone fucking 10 (all of which will generate approximately minus $10,000) I would’ve laughed.

Now I’m crying.

But, the Social Media Scientists say “consistency is key,” if you want to even come close to making a dent in the content world. Right?

To me, that meant releasing 1 interview a week, which is 4 great guests a month.

As I’ve now come to find, when you’re just getting started, that’s a pretty fucking ridiculous goal, mostly because chasing such quality AND quantity at the same time, will leave you with a whole lot of nothing.

What I’ve immediately realized:

1 - Quality will get you farther, faster, than quantity.

Kevin Martin’s interview has gained me 400+ subscribers and hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube (that’s a lot when you’re starting at literally 0).

That is more than all of the other interviews combined, and if you listen to our conversation, I think you’ll understand why.

(also, if you’re not pumping YouTube Shorts right now, you’re fuckin up)

2 - You won’t have a chance at success if you don’t deeply enjoy the process

For the 99% of us, those that are attempting to shoot the shot and do something awesome with our lives, the process is slow.

It’s filled with obstacles, and mistakes, and heartache, and if you’re lucky, a few brief moments of Euphoria…and then yeah, some more heartache.

If you don’t love every single second of the path you’ve chosen, it’s time to find something else.

After shooting these interviews, and going through the release & promotion process of it all, I’m trying to figure out not only if I love doing this, but what the end goal is…

How do I connect my weekly show at Hotel Cafe to these interviews with people who have done awesome things in the industry…

More so, does anyone even give a fuck?

Do I give a fuck?

Have I waited too long to start this?

Does everyone just wanna watch Jack Harlow eat fried chicken and Joe Rogan interview aliens?

Do I have it in me to do this for the next 5 years, with no reward at all…?

What will satisfy me at this point?

What am I supposed to be doing?

Will this take me there?

These are the questions that keep me up at night, and have ultimately led me to god..but that’s a conversation for another time.

3 - Fuck everyone

The people closest to you, the one’s you’d refer to in a conversation as “the people who believe in me most” think you’re insane and don’t understand what you’re doing.

They never will. I refer to them as muggles.

Honestly, they probably don’t believe you’re ever going to figure any of this out.

They’re begging you to throw in the towel, mostly because they don’t enjoy seeing you suffer.

Fuck them.

If you love the process, you’re never suffering.

You’re living.

L-I-V-I-N!

4 - There are those that live in fear, and there are those that shamelessly exist as themselves

You wouldn’t believe some of the conversations I’ve had with artists lately.

Some are very obviously living in fear.

In some cases, I’ve found that the bigger the following, the greater the fear (unless you’re Chappell Roan)

…afraid of saying the wrong thing, looking the wrong way, being the wrong person, releasing the wrong song, living completely on their knees, at the mercy of their “followings.”

JUMP MUTHAFUCKA, JUMP!!!

How can you call yourself an artist if you let anyone other than you dictate your actions (let alone your art)?

My favorite Rick Rubin quote…

“It’s all an offering to god. If you’re making an offering to god, you’re not thinking about oh what’s the budget or I hope this segment of the audience is going to like it.

We don’t think like that. It’s a higher vibration.

We’re making the best we can make, to the best of our ability, out of love and devotion.”

Art is shameless.

Art is unapologetic.

Art is pure, to the core.

Untainted.

Devote yourself to something more.

and in the words of Kevin Martin,

Fuck you if you don’t wanna come see us, and fuck you if you do.

I don’t care.

I’m playin the music either way.

Long live rock n roll,

Lucas