Post by "The Freq" on Dec 7, 2011 8:51:06 GMT -5
Yes kids, it's that time. After a decade of music research, music promotion, music gossip and a simple labour of love, this will be the final thread or topic if you like, of the Freq's Music Planet. The 10 year plus experiment to help promote and support local music in my area has come to an end. No, I'm not closing up shop because the site is is not popular. It's actually more popular than ever with daily reads at nearly 100 a day. It's just time to deal with other things in my life. When I started Musicians Central over 11 years ago on Soonet, it was done at a time when local musicians really had no outlet for communication besides hanging out at the music store. It actually worked great, but after 3 years, it became clear to me that a lot of musicians and the public in general didn't really care about each other like you might think. Let's just say you learn a lot by running a forum like this. Over the years, I've learned that there are very few local musicians that are truly decaded to the craft. There are some yes, but those dedicated, I mean those who eat and breathe music are few and far between. Honestly, I thought there would be more. For a lot of them, it's the party thing or a fad and for some, a simple statement of saying they did something musically. It's a strange melting pot of people. Over this past decade I've seen the good and bad in a lot of these musicians and that goes from their playing to their personal habits. With that said, people have also seen a change in this forum along with the old Musicians Central forum. The vibe is different and some may say it's gone negative. The fact is, these forums that I created were an experiment. Yes, I wanted to promote music along with what I was doing at the time but it was also to see if local musicians could actually be civil to one another. As years passed, the true ugliness of some came forth in true colours with so much controversy that it boggled the minds of most readers. You know what I mean.. Musicians battling for the "we're the best in the Sault" title.
With that in their minds, they went on to belittle others as their trek of insults continued to pick up momentum. Then, things got even uglier and then innocent people became victims. It was like a giant vacuum. People were getting sucked into the gossip. What I discovered over the years is that the local music scene just enjoys gossip. It's that simple. Very few non musicians actually support bands or musicians and very few musicians support other musicians. It is true and this little experiment has shown me that. You can say that I wasn't innocent in starting gossip but if you were in fact a true follower of my forums you'd see that everything I post was a "reaction" to something started or stated elsewhere. I just voiced my opinon to respond to the topics.
With over 10 years into this forum experiment I learned that educational facts just aren't what people want to read, at least not in the Sault. They want gossip. When I gave it to them, readership went up. When I would post educational things or something to do with a famous artist, readership went down. It's like what's on TV these days. Reality TV with people shitting on each other, yelling, screaming, making others look stupid is what sells. That's about it. Maybe I was naive and thought the local music scene would be different but after 10 years, I've seen the worst of it. After 30 years in the music biz I even wonder why some got into music at all. Some have no goals what so ever with music and most just waste people's time. That is so common locally. Sad but true.
So why pull the plug on the forum now? Easy, I have other things to deal with in my life. I am also dealing with an illness and a host of other things that I'd like to accomplish so time posting and moderating forums is getting less and less. I had thought of passing the torch onto someone else but then I thought, why would a subject them to the crap I've had to deal with from local musicians. HA! The fact is, it's true. There are some sick morons out there in our city let me tell ya, and yes, they're part of our music society. For me, doing these forums was a labour of love. I love graphics, I love creative writing and most of all, I love music. Those who truly know me, understand my madness. ;-) Those who think of me as an egotisical opinionated asshole just never got to know me and at this point in time, your mind could never be changed anyways, so keep believing it. I can live with it. haha.
I got into music 30 years ago to make it in the business. My dream was to make it big with a local band with the best local players the city had to offer. Just imagine, a Sault band making it on the Billboard 100!!! I toured with these musicians and have written and recorded numerous CD's with these musicians. At the end of the day, you end up like 1000's of other bands and musicians fighting for one small piece of the pie. At that time I dedicated 10 years of my music time and goals to trying to "make it", practicing hours a day without fail. One group was close to making it that I was part of but it just never happened. We needed some luck and never found it What does that mean? Simple, it's failure. I believe you only get one shot at success and it passed us by. So, what next? Easy, you regroup and replan your next move. My next move was to write music with whomever wanted to write music, publish it and see what happens. At the time, I got laughed at for creating my own music. Local musicians mocked it and wanted no part in it. Oh yes, I remember who you are. Musicians seemed to be stuck on playing cover songs and calling it a day. That's fine, but I had done that and wanted to move to the next step. I still think some of my recordings are still being laughed at but with the growing popularity of the internet, I found out that some people are in fact interested in the music I create on my own and the music I create with others. What I discovered through my forums is how much the Sault's tastes are in a backwards time warp. What is popular in the Sault is not the way of the world. Time to wake up folks. ;-) Musicians here are locked into the music of their generation and can't seem to expand on it. Very few expand on their music tastes and very few experiment with other styles or are afraid to. I discovered that I wanted to learn and play as many styles possible when it came to music. This led me into my next goal in my music life and that was to become a studio musician. Being a studio musician allows me to play any style but it also gives me creative freedom to make music that I like. It also gives me a chance to record with other artists without the headache of wasting years on a band to play live and tour, only to have it fail. Too much time wasted and not enough to show for it. How can anyone not enjoy recording? :-) So this is where my time is being spent. I get to record drums, bass, guitar, keys, vocals on my own stuff and send it out on the internet but I also get to play on other people's recordings and actually have something to show for it. This answers all my creative needs as a musician. It's not about money with me. It never was. It's about music. Playing live is still a part of it but by no means is it the most important thing to me anymore. To be quite honest, the last few times I did play live locally, most just wanted to see you fail. Yup, that's the Sault musician mentality for ya. They stand there at the stage and want you to mess up. Now that's pathetic don't you think?
For some time now, a few have thought my promotion of my music trek as an ego trip. Not once EVER did I say I can play an instrument better than anyone else. Not once did I say my band is better than someone elses. The reason is simple. I enjoy music, I enjoy promoting it and the groups I play with. It's no different than 1000's of other bands on the internet. I'm a graphic art designer by trade so why not take advantage of that and use it as a tool to promote my music. I also love creative writing and use it for the same. So why is this called ego? Some say my ego is my opinions of others. What? Others have opinions. Do you bark at them about ego? People seem to think because I love music, create it and promote it my own way, that's ego but how else do you want a person to do this?
Sure I could spend money and hire people to do it but why? If I love doing all it takes to get my stuff across, how can that be ego? I just took advantage of the media and made it work for me and what I want to accomplish. Obviously, it can work for you too. ;-) Sometimes it makes you wonder if people are envious or just full of sour grapes. ;-)
As the forum goes, it's great to have the input from others and read their posts every day but as it is in the real world, dickheads come on to these forums and attack people, ruining it for everyone. That is a sick a part of society that is growing. You see it on every forum including comment sections on CNN and the like. There's no point to it yet some small brained people get their jollies off on it. It just starts to spread like a disease and eventually, a forum becomes polluted with these idiots. Sadly, our local forums are no different. Tons of local forums have come and gone for this reason alone. In my case, I had to block numerous knobs like this out. I could write a list of these people and post it and you'd be shocked. Some are local drummers, singers etc., who for some reason can't be happy in their own world of sickness. They have to spread their sickness around. That's the part of forum life that most don't get to see. An admin having to deal with that kind of crud is almost a fulltime job in itself. So blocking people helped to keep my forum civil but it did block out good people too. It's the price one has to pay to keep a forum somewhat on track and in focus.
So this brings me to the end of this final thread. I had a blast over the years doing research on bands in our area from past, to the present. I learned a hell of a lot about people, both good and bad. I learned a lot about myself too and that is to always be yourself whether people like it or not. You have to believe in yourself and the goals you set out for yourself. This forum was one of them for me. To all the great musicians I've played with and still play with, thanks for taking this journey with me. To those musicians with those evil quirks that tried over the years to disrupt my enjoyment of music, let's just say you failed as usual because my quest is still on course and I'm having the time of my life writing and recording music. You can't stop that ya dickheads ;-). You wasted your time on little old me and it makes me
feel all warm and fuzzy inside.. hehe ;-)
To the public who actually read and enjoyed my rants on this forum, I thank you and I appreciate all the messages I've gotten over the years from you. Thanks for being a part of Freq's world. To my close friends on here, you know we'll be on Facebook anyways but thanks for helping keep this thing afloat for so many years. The comic relief was a riot!!!
This forum is now officially retired. All threads, posts and links will remain on this site but they will not be updated. My personal music sites on the main page like Reverbnation and Myspace will continue to be udated with new music by yours truly but that's it. Music is the important thing, right? :-) If you want to follow me and my rants, look me up on Facebook as I will no longer update my blogs either. Facebook is it baby. ;-)
My mom gave me the gift of music so in her loving memory, I will continue to write, record and promote my music and music projects I'm involved with, so keep your ears open folks. ;-)
Peace,
Glen "the Freq" Thomas
With that in their minds, they went on to belittle others as their trek of insults continued to pick up momentum. Then, things got even uglier and then innocent people became victims. It was like a giant vacuum. People were getting sucked into the gossip. What I discovered over the years is that the local music scene just enjoys gossip. It's that simple. Very few non musicians actually support bands or musicians and very few musicians support other musicians. It is true and this little experiment has shown me that. You can say that I wasn't innocent in starting gossip but if you were in fact a true follower of my forums you'd see that everything I post was a "reaction" to something started or stated elsewhere. I just voiced my opinon to respond to the topics.
With over 10 years into this forum experiment I learned that educational facts just aren't what people want to read, at least not in the Sault. They want gossip. When I gave it to them, readership went up. When I would post educational things or something to do with a famous artist, readership went down. It's like what's on TV these days. Reality TV with people shitting on each other, yelling, screaming, making others look stupid is what sells. That's about it. Maybe I was naive and thought the local music scene would be different but after 10 years, I've seen the worst of it. After 30 years in the music biz I even wonder why some got into music at all. Some have no goals what so ever with music and most just waste people's time. That is so common locally. Sad but true.
So why pull the plug on the forum now? Easy, I have other things to deal with in my life. I am also dealing with an illness and a host of other things that I'd like to accomplish so time posting and moderating forums is getting less and less. I had thought of passing the torch onto someone else but then I thought, why would a subject them to the crap I've had to deal with from local musicians. HA! The fact is, it's true. There are some sick morons out there in our city let me tell ya, and yes, they're part of our music society. For me, doing these forums was a labour of love. I love graphics, I love creative writing and most of all, I love music. Those who truly know me, understand my madness. ;-) Those who think of me as an egotisical opinionated asshole just never got to know me and at this point in time, your mind could never be changed anyways, so keep believing it. I can live with it. haha.
I got into music 30 years ago to make it in the business. My dream was to make it big with a local band with the best local players the city had to offer. Just imagine, a Sault band making it on the Billboard 100!!! I toured with these musicians and have written and recorded numerous CD's with these musicians. At the end of the day, you end up like 1000's of other bands and musicians fighting for one small piece of the pie. At that time I dedicated 10 years of my music time and goals to trying to "make it", practicing hours a day without fail. One group was close to making it that I was part of but it just never happened. We needed some luck and never found it What does that mean? Simple, it's failure. I believe you only get one shot at success and it passed us by. So, what next? Easy, you regroup and replan your next move. My next move was to write music with whomever wanted to write music, publish it and see what happens. At the time, I got laughed at for creating my own music. Local musicians mocked it and wanted no part in it. Oh yes, I remember who you are. Musicians seemed to be stuck on playing cover songs and calling it a day. That's fine, but I had done that and wanted to move to the next step. I still think some of my recordings are still being laughed at but with the growing popularity of the internet, I found out that some people are in fact interested in the music I create on my own and the music I create with others. What I discovered through my forums is how much the Sault's tastes are in a backwards time warp. What is popular in the Sault is not the way of the world. Time to wake up folks. ;-) Musicians here are locked into the music of their generation and can't seem to expand on it. Very few expand on their music tastes and very few experiment with other styles or are afraid to. I discovered that I wanted to learn and play as many styles possible when it came to music. This led me into my next goal in my music life and that was to become a studio musician. Being a studio musician allows me to play any style but it also gives me creative freedom to make music that I like. It also gives me a chance to record with other artists without the headache of wasting years on a band to play live and tour, only to have it fail. Too much time wasted and not enough to show for it. How can anyone not enjoy recording? :-) So this is where my time is being spent. I get to record drums, bass, guitar, keys, vocals on my own stuff and send it out on the internet but I also get to play on other people's recordings and actually have something to show for it. This answers all my creative needs as a musician. It's not about money with me. It never was. It's about music. Playing live is still a part of it but by no means is it the most important thing to me anymore. To be quite honest, the last few times I did play live locally, most just wanted to see you fail. Yup, that's the Sault musician mentality for ya. They stand there at the stage and want you to mess up. Now that's pathetic don't you think?
For some time now, a few have thought my promotion of my music trek as an ego trip. Not once EVER did I say I can play an instrument better than anyone else. Not once did I say my band is better than someone elses. The reason is simple. I enjoy music, I enjoy promoting it and the groups I play with. It's no different than 1000's of other bands on the internet. I'm a graphic art designer by trade so why not take advantage of that and use it as a tool to promote my music. I also love creative writing and use it for the same. So why is this called ego? Some say my ego is my opinions of others. What? Others have opinions. Do you bark at them about ego? People seem to think because I love music, create it and promote it my own way, that's ego but how else do you want a person to do this?
Sure I could spend money and hire people to do it but why? If I love doing all it takes to get my stuff across, how can that be ego? I just took advantage of the media and made it work for me and what I want to accomplish. Obviously, it can work for you too. ;-) Sometimes it makes you wonder if people are envious or just full of sour grapes. ;-)
As the forum goes, it's great to have the input from others and read their posts every day but as it is in the real world, dickheads come on to these forums and attack people, ruining it for everyone. That is a sick a part of society that is growing. You see it on every forum including comment sections on CNN and the like. There's no point to it yet some small brained people get their jollies off on it. It just starts to spread like a disease and eventually, a forum becomes polluted with these idiots. Sadly, our local forums are no different. Tons of local forums have come and gone for this reason alone. In my case, I had to block numerous knobs like this out. I could write a list of these people and post it and you'd be shocked. Some are local drummers, singers etc., who for some reason can't be happy in their own world of sickness. They have to spread their sickness around. That's the part of forum life that most don't get to see. An admin having to deal with that kind of crud is almost a fulltime job in itself. So blocking people helped to keep my forum civil but it did block out good people too. It's the price one has to pay to keep a forum somewhat on track and in focus.
So this brings me to the end of this final thread. I had a blast over the years doing research on bands in our area from past, to the present. I learned a hell of a lot about people, both good and bad. I learned a lot about myself too and that is to always be yourself whether people like it or not. You have to believe in yourself and the goals you set out for yourself. This forum was one of them for me. To all the great musicians I've played with and still play with, thanks for taking this journey with me. To those musicians with those evil quirks that tried over the years to disrupt my enjoyment of music, let's just say you failed as usual because my quest is still on course and I'm having the time of my life writing and recording music. You can't stop that ya dickheads ;-). You wasted your time on little old me and it makes me
feel all warm and fuzzy inside.. hehe ;-)
To the public who actually read and enjoyed my rants on this forum, I thank you and I appreciate all the messages I've gotten over the years from you. Thanks for being a part of Freq's world. To my close friends on here, you know we'll be on Facebook anyways but thanks for helping keep this thing afloat for so many years. The comic relief was a riot!!!
This forum is now officially retired. All threads, posts and links will remain on this site but they will not be updated. My personal music sites on the main page like Reverbnation and Myspace will continue to be udated with new music by yours truly but that's it. Music is the important thing, right? :-) If you want to follow me and my rants, look me up on Facebook as I will no longer update my blogs either. Facebook is it baby. ;-)
My mom gave me the gift of music so in her loving memory, I will continue to write, record and promote my music and music projects I'm involved with, so keep your ears open folks. ;-)
Peace,
Glen "the Freq" Thomas
