it's easy to choose the character you think the world want's to see, and embody that. It's very hard to be yourself, and hope you are accepted.
when I look at successful artists & read stories of their beginnings, they always seem to begin in the same place. They have a "simple" feeling to them...they didn't have huge luxurious dreams, but maybe always felt like the guitar was a part of them, or had melodies running through their minds for no reason...those you hear speak & know they were the same before the hits, as they are after.
these are my favorite artists - the ones that didn't try to be anything they weren't already...who exploited the best parts of themselves, rather than false identities.
i've spent the past 2 weeks listening through every artist in our database (10,000+), in search of the artists we'll be asking to join us in studio for a project we're producing for a very large company this summer...
To put it nicely, I had the WORST time doing this. The part I found most troubling of this 2 week long torture / listening exercise, is that everyone was trying to be the same. THE. SAME. it felt as though identity meant nothing. From social profiles, to vocal tuning, I'm confident I could line up a hundred artists, close my eyes, point, and get the same one every time.
there was however, the 1%.
this was the group of people, that if you were to push RESET on, offering a fresh start each time, would return to the world and continue down a version of the same path each and every time...this was the group that I could tell had no other purpose in this life, other than writing songs & singing them. They didn't always have the most followers, or the most perfect feeds, but there was an air to them that was real, authentic, and genuine.
Why North Carolina adopted Esse quam videri (to be, rather than to seem) as a state motto in 1893 remains a mystery. the source for the motto is the Roman orator Cicero, commenting on how most people would rather be thought virtuous, than be so.
In 43 BC, Marc Antony ordered the murder of Cicero.
so, thousands of years ago, the guy who told you to be yourself was murdered (he also had his head & hands cut off and put on display in the roman capital, which i found to be pretty fucking sweet, i wish i mattered enough to have this done to me TAKE MY HEAD & HANDS BABY)
Benjamin Franklin also wrote this in his “The Way to Wealth” (1758): “And after all, of what use is this pride of appearance, for which so much is risked, so much is suffered? It cannot promote health, or ease pain; it makes no increase of merit in the person, it creates envy, it hastens misfortune.”
Flood translation: since the dawn of time, we've been searching for ourselves, plagued by pride in what people see, rather than pride in who we truly are...facebook, instagram, tik tok, Hinge, spotify all amplify the worst in us as people, the things men were killed for if they spoke out against years ago....
if all these platforms are now the social norm, what are we to become as people?
in any case, today seems like a good day to stop searching, and start being.
long live rock n roll, i'll see you in LA tonight!
-Lucas