Difficulties and Sacrifices of Aspiring Professional Musicians

This post is really aimed at those aspiring to become professional musicians although it might also give insight into a side of Isurus that has not been spoken about publicly in the past. As I am currently in the position of aspiring to work on our music full time (as are all members of Isurus), we can all certainly attest to the struggles involved in maintaining and building the band's presence and reach whilst working full time and having other commitments. 

Hopefully, at some point someone that is in a similar position will read this and be encouraged in some sense to continue knowing that there are others that are living or have lived the same type of lifestyle. The type of lifestyle that I am referring to is one in which all 'me time' or 'free time', has ceased to exist. 

After searching online I have found surprisingly little written about this but for me, what I am detailing in this post is the daily reality of those with a deep passion and drive to succeed in spreading their music as far and wide as possible. To be specific, I am referring to those that are not supported financially by their music but still treat it as a full time job. 

Within Isurus, this is a weekly topic of conversation and a constant reality for all of us. It's such an important and defining aspect of the band that in a recent mid rehearsal discussion with Dave (Guitar), we agreed that if we had only 1 word to describe what the project as a whole has been for us, it would be the word 'Struggle'. This may have just been a particularly difficult rehearsal and it is certainly true that a lot of time is spent being proud of our effort and achievements as well as generally feeling dizzy with joy when a section of music we've been working on falls into place but enough time is spent being generally stressed about where we're heading, whether the next track will ever come together, whether it's all a big and expensive waste of time, etc, to justify writing this. I would say that it's a 50/50 split between the 2 states of mind. 

As an example, my life consists of working in a full time and quite demanding job and then working on Isurus in the evenings during the week and on weekends. You can see that I view Isurus as a job and that is essentially what it is, most of the time. I often hear statements such as 'But you love making music', etc, and that is true, I do love writing and making music but that can also be a very difficult process which ultimately, at most only amounts to 50% of my activity in the band. Essentially, my view is that in order to succeed and create the best music possible as well as achieve the largest possible reach, you have to be 3 things; 1) Utterly and completely obsessed/stubborn, 2) Willing to do whatever it takes to succeed and 3) Hugely confident in your music. Sometimes I feel like going out for a drink and relaxing or sitting around and watching a film, etc... Those things are long gone!

An interesting part of this is that although I do not read much written about this by aspiring musicians, I have read similar stories in many autobiographies and interviews by individuals that did eventually succeed in their aim. Some examples would be Kurt Cobain, Mikael Akerfeldt, Mastodon, Gojira, etc. Stories such as spending 10 years touring almost non stop and living in a small van are common and I do not believe that this is a recent phenomenon. I believe that it is due to the fact that in order to really gain traction and build a large, international fan base as well as be taken seriously by any major record label, you first need a fairly large fan base and generally high level of exposure. 2 of these points are seemingly opposed to each other in that in order to build a large fan base, you need a large fan base. This is due to a large percentage of people generally feeling that if not many others are already established fans, then they themselves must be wrong if they happen to like your music. These people will only buy into something, even if it is just them spending their time listening to your music, if they see a lot of other people already doing the same thing. As such, for a large amount of time, bands are dependent on individuals who frankly don't care about anything other than whether they like what they hear. Those that are confident enough to define what is good/worthwhile or not for themselves They could be called Early Adopters. Almost all current Isurus fans fall into this category so.. respect!!  :)

Increasingly, as can be seen within shows such as 'The X Factor', it's not the case that all musicians experience the struggle that I am writing about. Some are just plucked out of wherever they happened to be, dressed up, covered in make up, autotuned and thrown into the spotlight. But those that go down that path do not generally stay in the limelight for long and that is because they are not used to the demands that such a lifestyle places on them. Luckily there is not (and hopefully never will be) a rock or metal version of 'The X Factor'. I suppose that in some sense, this is 1 of many attributes that differentiate the Pop and Metal genres.

So, in summary, living the type of lifestyle that we currently do in Isurus is incredibly difficult. It drains our time, our money, our social lives, etc and it can be very difficult to keep going. 1 positive comment to us from a fan can and often does make a huge difference so to any Isurus fans out there reading this, THANK YOU!! 

Now I'll get back to working on this new album.. From the sound of it, this is going to be the one that makes it all worth it!!