Steve Poltz and Brett Newski live.
Steve Poltz and Brett Newski discuss DIY ethos, surviving the music industry, riskiest stage stunts, perseverance, self-avoidance, worst party moments, and best road moments.
More on Steve: https://poltz.com/
Support the pod: https://www.patreon.com/BrettNewski1
SNIPPET:
Brett: I love your ethos. I love that you're down to get weird, with no shame. Your whole approach and philosophy to music and touring is great. Just, “Let’s play on a rooftop in New York” or “let’s play a venue on a farm in Nashville.” I think the younger kids are starting to adopt that more, and it gives you more control over your destiny in music, which is such a fickle bitch, as you know.
Steve: Well the DIY ethos is where it’s at. When I started playing, DIY ethos wasn’t as common. You’d hear about it via Ani DiFranco or someone like that. But now everyone has to do it that way.
Before, people would swing for the fences, and you’d have a chance of making millions. BNut now you have to be in the tech world to really do that. I find that with music today, the people who are doing it are doing it for the music, I think.
Brett: Yeah. Tell me more about that. To swing for the fences and reach critical mass, you have to be into tech? What do you mean by that?
Steve: Oh, what I meant was that if you want to go for millions of dollars, don’t be a musician. Just give into the tech world.
Brett: Ahhh gotcha.
Steve: Design an app, come up with the next Google or something. I guess what I mean is that the tech people are the new rock stars. That started with Steve Jobs, he’d come out on stage and people would cheer and be wowed by his new product. And musicians used to be the person, “Oh what is John Lennon up to after The Beatles broke up!?”
If you watch that Apple series 1971 that’s out right now, it’s all about what was happening in 1971, which was the breakup of the Beatles, Marvin Gaye was singing “What’s Going On?”, Altamont had happened, somebody was stabbed by Hells Angels. The whole peace, love, and dream idea died.
And we were looking at what rock stars were doing. To get a record deal was a BIG deal. Back when I was starting, you didn’t hear of people saying, “I’m going to put out a record and start touring.” You needed people to deem you worthy, and give you a record deal. And then indies came around. But now anyone can make anything straight from their house.
They have the technology, you can start your own podcast, you can write a song, make a video, and get the whole thing disseminated in the same day. And you can get it out there. And if it clicks with someone, it clicks. I don’t know if we have as many viral moments as we used to. I think the key to it is doing it every day and being very consistent. The Joe Dimaggio person coming out and taking their at bats.
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