Granted, I certainly wouldn’t enjoy having my arm chopped off, but I would definitely love to be able to actually see the gate I‘m storming and trying to conquer.
Even though I’d have to endure the blood and gore of medieval warfare, I sometimes almost wish I could be fighting a more literal battle 600 years ago and see the gate to the castle as easily as the knights of old.
Fast forward a few hundred years and I’m now safely fighting my battles from the comfort of my home. There’s very little chance of having my arm chopped off and the worst that usually happens is I get a massive headache because I’ve been working all night guzzling that black coffee like there’s no tomorrow.
Conversely, I’m fighting on an invisible battle field, trying to get to an invisible gate, that might as well be fictional because no one knows if it really exists.
This is the battle of the modern independent musician.
This gate as you probably already guessed is a metaphor. It is the fabled gate of success in the music industry. Guarded by the fabled Gate Keepers who keep it locked under seven keys.
In this fable, when you step over the threshold of this impossible gate you are “successful”. You have, to the eyes of the world, “made it”.
The reason it is fabled is because success itself is so difficult to define. Is it fame? Is it money? Or more importantly, is it happiness? And how do you know when you’re happy and satisfied with your music career? How do you know that you’ve “made it”? And if you make it, what then? Will we ever be satisfied?
Victory in the battlefield of the modern independent musician is hard to define.
And who are these Gate Keepers? They’re the promoters, the booking agents, the managers, the record labels, the TV music channels… They are The Man…
And today, it’s The Vone versus The Man.
Sometimes The Gate Keepers allow you into their realm. Only sometimes. And if they do, it means you have at least one, but preferably more of the following “talents”:
- 100K plays on Spotify.
- A good like-to-comment ratio on Instagram.
- Influence on Tik Tok…
Are you beginning to catch my drift?
I could spend the rest of this post listing these “talents”, but that’s not the point, because the point is The Vone has none of these “talents”.
So that’s where we’re at with The Vone. We no longer live in a musical world where hard work and good music is enough. We now have to prove that we’re good enough not with music, but with Instagram followers.
We live in the Age of Vanity.
And so The Vone is stuck. We are stuck in this cycle where we need a big company (run by the fabled Gate Keepers) to help us get bigger numbers and more fans, but we need bigger numbers and more fans to get a big company.
And if we had bigger stats to prove our awesomeness, that wouldn’t even guarantee us a key to the impossible gate, it would only help us, maybe, to get onto the Gate Keepers’ radars.
So we’re in this endless cycle that makes us feel like we have to sacrifice our integrity in order to achieve the next echelon of success. And so, we’re at risk of drowning in the big pond of wanna-be rockstars because we’re a small fry fish, with not enough swimming power — not enough social media influence.
And what’s worse, at least the knights in a medieval battle would have a clear path laid out before them. Their king or patron would tell them which direction to travel in. They would’ve had some clue as to which gate they were storming and they’d have a clear strategy for the fight.
In the modern music industry, there are at least 101 ways to “make it” and there is no one way that works for everyone. Each band and each artist is different. So how do we know which path to take? We don’t… The only way forward is through and it requires constant trial and error.
But, we will never surrender…
I’m not a teenage boy capable of being in a boy band, nor am I an influencer, nor do I have a sexy dad bod that I could flaunt to help me get IG followers…
I am however an actor, as well as a musician. And, I’ve recently performed on a CBBC TV show called Andy and the Band, where I got to work (and hang out with) one of the greatest guitarists of all time (more on that later, if you stick around long enough to read more of my stories).
As an actor I’m constantly challenged to think outside of the box when discovering my characters, my voices and when I’m trying to figure out how in the hell I’m going to play my instrument, dance, sing and act at the same time!
So I’ve decided to use some of what I’ve learnt as an actor and apply it to The Vone.
I’ve come up with a new and fun way of releasing our next single. We’re releasing it episodically, just like the TV show I’ve been working on. This will create a cool experience for our fans and it’s our way of creatively releasing music, remaining independent and giving the finger to the Gate Keepers.
In The Vone, we do things our way and we stick it to the man.
So, if you’d like to come with us on this journey, you are very welcome. You can help us stick it to the Gate Keepers, and like the knights of old, storm the impossible gate of this impenetrable castle (figuratively of course).
Together, we can take the music industry by storm, while simultaneously doing the most rock’n’roll thing we can do: remain independent.
Our new song is being released in 4 parts. We’ll be releasing a new episode every Friday until the 15th of October. And by joining our brigade you can count yourself as one of the many vone around the world who are passionate about music.
You can also count yourself amongst the vone who were here first and will carry that “we-found-them-first” badge for the rest of your life. All you have to do is listen to our tune when it drops on the 24th of September and share it with your friends.
Help us fight the man by listening to our tunes!
Together, we can prove that we don’t need these Gate Keepers and we don’t even need their realm. We can build our own!
So here’s to storming The Impossible Gate!
Rock on Voners!
Marcelo (lead singer of The Vone)
#WeAreVone
PS: Leave a comment below and let me know what you think of episode one, when you listen to it on the 24th of September. I’m curious to know!
