The secret of my success

I often find myself thinking that one of the key difficulties with achieving ‘success’......especially in the world of music......is being able to recognise it in the first place.

A while back I came across a quote from a gentleman by the name of Joshua Heath Scott, the founder and owner of JHS Pedals (a very successful guitar effects pedal company). 

"There’s a version of musical success almost nobody on the internet talks about anymore, and it’s the most common one in human history. You make music with your friends. You record your songs. You play the local bar on Friday night and the church on Sunday and the festival in the park in July. You teach a kid down the street how to hold a guitar. You write something that gets sung at a wedding. You die having made beauty for the people who shared your life." 

That is success. That has always been success. Most musicians who have ever lived have lived exactly that life, and most of them were not unhappy about it.”

I like Mr Scott’s words.  They resonate with me.  

A few months back I heard another New Zealand songwriter, Mel Parsons, saying that she knew she’d ‘made it’......when she got own fridge magnets.

I liked that too……especially since I also have my own fridge magnets. 

Thanks Twisted Thread - you guys are awesome.

I’ve spent nearly 40 years listening to guitar-driven music, and reading and watching documentaries about the people who make guitar-driven music……and I spent 30 years - off and on - making and playing my own guitar-driven music.  

And the more I think about it and the more time I spend doing it……the more I find myself thinking that Mr Scott’s description of success is pretty much on the money.

Some close friends of mine have a poster - professionally framed - on their kitchen wall.  It’s the official concert poster from the last time Pearl Jam played in Auckland. 

They really love Pearl Jam.

I also really love Pearl Jam.  I’ve loved their music since I was 16 years old.  Their music - particularly their first album, Ten - is probably one of the main reasons why I think and feel about music the way I do.

And why songwriting is so important to me.

The poster has been there for a while now. A few months ago my wife and I came round to visit.  We saw that the Pearl Jam poster had been moved to accommodate another poster…  

If this isn’t success……then I don’t know what is.

But I’ll take it.