San Diego Music Thing Day 2: Great Panels, Lol Tolhurst (The Cure) and Mike Herrera (MxPx)
By D
iana Hereld of Pathways in Music and photo by James Gutierrez.
Day two of the 6th annual San Diego Music Day convention began with two panels entitled “Lawyers, Guns
and Money,” the first for the novice, the second directed toward the more
advanced. A rudimentary understanding of legal issues in the music business is
something many aspiring musicians all too often overlook. The panel made up of
legal professionals covered the basics of copyrighting for
musicians/songwriters, trademarks, record deals and publishing.
[ San Diego Music Thing 2013 Day 1 Coverage Here ]
Affordable Healthcare
The second
panel, “Every Artist Insured, Finding Affordable Healthcare under Covered
California,” targeted health insurance for the industry. Presented by The
Actors Fund and Musicares, this talk presented options and information relevant
to freelancers and the self-employed regarding how to get affordable health
insurance with the help of tax credits and government subsidies.
Panels: Producers Roundtable, Website Demolition Derby, Bands & Brands
This was followed by select PR mentoring sessions by Kelly
MacGaunn (Kellemack PR), Fiona Bloom (The Bloom Effect) and Andie Cox (The
Grammy Museum), and continued with “Producers Roundtable,” a “Website
Demolition Derby” by Bandzoogle, and “Bands and Brands”– a panel outlining what
is involved in aligning an artist with a brand. Monica Vergel de Dios (Spin
Media) encouraged aspiring music professional to get involved in
cross-marketing, and “make a compelling case to the value you bring. When it
comes to cross-promoting on another’s website, monitor traffic, and make a case
study.”
Artist Session: The Cure’s Lol Tolhurst.
The first artist session of the day was given by composer / musician / writer
Lol Tolhurst, perhaps best known as a founding member of The Cure – a band many credit
with the formation of Alternative music, and is one of the most influential,
successful and critically acclaimed bands of their generation. After captivating
a packed room with stories of lighthearted band antics, Tolhurst shared
experiences from The Cure (formally known as Malice and later The Easy Cure)
that were applicable to seemingly everyone present, from the veteran to the
postmillennial.
One question brought up in the Q &A was “What caused The
Cure to unravel?” One source of the process, Tolhurst pointed out, was
completely natural. Touring musicians seem to forge a closeness stronger than
marriage, and this can prove incredibly difficult. A band is a very unnatural
situation for young people to be a part of. As he stated, “A band is more than
the sum of its parts. It’s like a gang…a band’s success has absolutely nothing
to do with the quality of music…The thing that makes what you do transcendent
is the chemistry between the people playing, and you need to protect it at all
costs.”
Keynote: Mike Herrera of MxPx.
Following a solid acoustic set this afternoon Mike Herrera
(MxPx, Tumbledown) delivered a compelling talk on failure, success, and all the
“up a creek without a paddle” tour tales in between. His charismatic presentation
encompassed topics from being able to transform the negative to the positive,
to using technology such as podcasts, Twitter or old tools “new to you” to
express personal ideas not well-enough conveyed in the forty-minute live slot, to
how to roll with the punches of anything your career, or life in general, deals
you.
His recently released album from MxPx (Plans Within Plans)
speaks heavily of being able to decisively and deliberately focus on the
smaller picture just as much as the larger. It’s in the journey, not the
destination. In reference to Charles Bukowski, Herrera quotes “What matters
most is how well you walk through the fire.”
I have always hoped there would be a panel titled “Lawyers, Guns and Money.”
The next line of Zevon’s song is also appropriate for the music industry:
“The shit has hit the fan”
=)