I read a lot of great articles about musicians and artists suffering from some kind of mental illness and I can assure you I had my fair share of anxiety and I really believe that music has been a way to handle it and actually turning it in to creativity.
But since a lot of people already wrote about the subject in a great way I will instead talk about positive side-effects of taking part of the music scene of today.
About a year ago I had been writing and producing my own songs in my little home studio for years, and the songs were okay, but I felt I didn't get anywhere with my music. Up until then I was really stuck in the DIY-philosophy that I had a hard time letting anyone else affecting my work.
In October last year when I was going through a rough period personally and that made me evaluate myself and I decided that if I actually want to get some success as a musician I can't sit and wait for myself getting best on everything. So I dropped all the other projects I had going and I started taking other people in to my creative process. I started taking singing classes, applied for a guitar course online and also took some mixing classes. And in February this year I released my first single that I can say that I'm really proud of, namely "Your Dreams". And then followed another single and the whole EP in March. At this moment I didn't know how to promote myself and get new listeners and I was overwhelmed about all the cheesy promoting services promising “real plays and fans” for a (un)fair share of my un-existing musical income.
Then I stumbled over some great people in the same situation as myself and since then I've been engaging a lot in the Independent music scene.
And this has lead not only to me getting my music out there, but also me getting a lot of new friends and acquaintances. It's hard to believe that six months ago I never had sat foot on a stage playing my own music, and now I played three gigs in my hometown Stockholm, and in a month I'm going on a mini-tour in the UK meeting a lot of the amazing people that I got to know online. And this is a lot thanks to the inspiration and support I got from my new friends.
Not only did my own musical career pick up speed thanks to the connections I made. I started discovering a bunch of new independent music, which I hadn’t done for years. And the amount of great music of all genres that’s out there both inspires me to make more music and also makes gave me a well needed amount of humbleness.
So said and done, beside promoting my own music I also started a project trying to promote other artists and connecting dedicated people with different positions in the music scene.
I could continue rant about all the positive side effects and the immense amount of projects I have in pipe line, and of whom I hopefully will realize at least a handful.
Instead I want to summarize what I achieved since I made the decision not yet a year ago: I released an EP with four songs that I’m really proud of and that got quite a lot of attention.
I made a bunch of new friends and got the courage to start playing live. I discovered so much great music that made me realize that not only do I want to work with my own music, but I want to help promoting others and getting great people to connect with each other.
So to all independent artists who want to “make it”. Get yourself and your music out there, take a genuine interest in others and you’ll see that it’s not as a cold world as you might think, it’s actually really friendly and you will have a hell a lot of fun, even though you might not be a billionaire.
And if you like my way of thinking, don’t be afraid to reach out, I’m always open to help and/or co-operate with others.
Jon Magnusson Social Links:
WEBSITE: http://www.jonmagnusson.se/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/jon.magnusson3
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/jonmagnussonof
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/jormaa86/