From the desk of the editor:

How to Ruin Your Music Career in Three Seconds Flat

By Frank Matheis

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”
Hunter S Thompson

When the wolf stands at the door, don’t let him in, no matter how good his disguise.

As a music writer specializing in roots & blues, with a particular interest in showcasing new talent, African American artists, and women in the genre, I learned a thing or two over the last 30+ years. Not all of it is good and not all of it bad, but there is one peril I’ve seen over and over as an observing journalist and chronicler: There is a shyster wolf around every corner.

Independent journalists like me have no financial dealings with artists, record labels, promoters, radio & press publicists, booking agents or managers. This allows us the freedom to see the music world for what it is, good and bad, and we are not beholden to anyone except our editors.

It’s always sad and disappointing to see young, upcoming artists make obvious mistakes, but it happens all the time. Let’s start with the positive and how to do it right: Surround yourself with experienced, proven, trustworthy and competent people who will work hard for you.

That’s obviously easier said than done. If it was easy nobody would have trouble, but as we all know, young, inexperienced musicians are particularly exposed to pretenders, liars, and scallywags. While there is a long and sad history of exploiting black artists, it hits everyone, not just in country blues but all roots, folk, and traditional music.

So, get to it Frank, you might say. How do you ruin your music career in three seconds flat?

Let me count the ways. There are quite a few trap doors. Bad record deals. Bad lawyers. Booking agents who don’t book. The biggest, baddest mistakes, however, always involve trusting the wrong people and getting in bed with them, nailed down by a bad contract. Sometimes, in best scenarios it just means wasting precious time and stalemating your career for a while. In worst cases, it could have a devastating impact on a career. I’ve seen more than one promising, talented, and excellent musician derail their career and it is heartbreaking to see. Often the mistakes are huge and obvious to anyone who take even a cursory peek, but the artists have already fallen down the trap door and are blind to the truth.

How do you ruin your career in just three seconds? Let in the wolf.

Three seconds is how long it takes to sign with a bad manager and after that all goes down the tubes. From what I see, the biggest mistake often starts with shyster managers, who are best referred to as “(mis)managers.” They will make preposterous promises but get you into bad deals and make you miss major opportunities. Let me share some examples:

Just recently I had permission from a major blues magazine to write a cover story about a highly talented young African American country blues player, who I had championed for years. His new manager called me in the evening when my wife and I were at home watching TV. He started off with an aggressive tone and put-up conditions that were unreasonable to me and the publication. Everything had to go through him, blah, blah. We handed him a big feature on a silver platter, but by the end of the tense and bizarre conversation that all went down the tubes. I tried to reason with the young musician to no avail, trying to make him see that he hooked up with an inexperienced shyster who had never managed a musician, did not know how things worked, and had no connections in the music world. That means no connections with record labels and booking agents; no connections with festival organizers; no connections with publicists and no connections with the media. Essentially, this so-called manager has no clue about any of it, as he has never managed anyone. Any real manager would have done everything to make that cover story happen, something which sensible managers and musicians would kill and die for, but this neophyte with an ego bigger than Baltimore f’d it all up the fast way. So how do you think that will work out for the trustworthy and a bit naïve musician? He is a genius musically, but now he is under the yoke of a ridiculously incompetent nitwit.

Some years ago, I had a cover story for a local magazine here in the Hudson Valley of New York. I wanted to feature a superb rock musician who I considered as a friend. He was a great player who came close to success and fame but got stopped right under the line of making it. Now he was primarily playing locally, but he was very good. To my surprise, when I asked him for an interview, he said “Talk to my manager.” That was the last time I ever tried that. The manager boasted, exaggerated, and lied as if he was talking to yesterday’s fool. It became clear that he wanted me to write a fluff piece. He bragged that the musician was “on his second CD pressing.” When I asked him how many CDs were in each pressing, he claimed “10,000.” Considering that the CD was self-produced, without national distribution, sold mostly at gigs, that figure would be astronomical. I called his bluff and asked him to show me some proof, like a receipt, as part of my routine journalistic fact checking requirement. The next morning, I received an email from him, threatening me with a lawsuit if I dare publish ANYTHING about his client. The cover story went to another deserving party, and guess what, the musicians career went nowhere, because with a mismanager, you don’t go far.

About 25 years ago, I had a feature story for a major blues magazine, and planned to write about a blues elder, a Black harmonica ace who lived in the Hudson Valley and had a great career in the early days in Chicago. His manager, or should I say handler, was his guitar player, well known regionally for his heroin habit. The old musician lived in a boarding house and was completely dependent on this manager, who shuttled him around and managed all aspects of his career, including bookings, finances and more. He called me up as I was trying to arrange an interview with the artist, and it became clear that the manager wanted to make it all about himself. After a certain point, I had to draw the line and demand that the interview was with the artist and not about the manager. He hung up on me and called my editor with a vicious complaint about me. This was the worst case of exploitation I have ever witnessed, with the old musician completely subjugated under the manager. Sadly, the blues elder did not get his story. Even worse, he never got the due he deserved.

So, what’s the moral of the story? Get a good entertainment lawyer who is independent of your manager. Hook up only with professional, experienced managers with sound reputation and a strong success record. Trust only those who have built successful careers for other musicians whose careers are where you want to be, financially and in terms of good bookings. Get someone who has been referred and recommended to you by people who know. Go with proven entities. Don’t be gullible and naïve. There are losers and liars lurking around every corner with big promises and nothing but hot air. Don’t be led by fools and don’t let the damned wolf in the house.