While strolling through social media posts last week, I came across one from a local musician that inspired me. It said, “Any other musicians/artist out there that don’t want fame but need people to buy tickets/merch, don’t want attention but need bookings and show attendance, don’t want to be public but need publicity, all to make a living? The struggle is real.”
The post’s author is David Miller, the de facto leader of Miller and The Other Sinners, a popular touring and recording band from Western New York.
I’ve kept an eye on Miller’s career for the past few years, and his band’s happenings and releases appear in my social media feed and occasionally my email inbox.
Miller has done everything right. He stays busy, culminates relationships with national musicians and promoters, regularly releases new music, and engages with his audience.
So, where is the struggle?
“I’m very much an introvert,” Miller noted during our conversation last week. “And, it’s not that I don’t love people, I do, but it takes so much energy out of me. It just drains me. Learning to receive from a crowd has been a real challenge because I can get up there and play for two people or two thousand. I’m going to deliver the song pretty much the same way because I am internally driven. I have had to accept energy from a crowd and give it back.”
That might sound contradictory, but plenty of musicians enjoy the creative process and need help with the other aspects of the music business. Unless you have reached a point where the revenue justifies hiring people to take over different parts of the business, an artist is forced to take on multiple roles. They also have to be the face of the band.
“There are different jobs in the music industry where you can be somewhat anonymous and make a living. There are people behind the scenes who make money writing songs for other people. Still, as an artist, you have to be a personality,” Miller said. “That’s hard for me; I prefer privacy.”
Miller has also had his share of setbacks. His previous band, Dive House Union, split just when they were gaining momentum. Then, after building up Miller and the Other Sinners, the pandemic changed the landscape for smaller touring acts.
“I am constantly asking myself what our philosophy for touring is,” he noted. “During my first few years, I just threw everything out there to see what stuck. We were starting to make some progress. The pandemic hit, and now, there are a lot of venues that I used to work with that are closed. There are people I used to work with who aren’t there anymore.”
“Relationships that we had nurtured are just gone, and so, what is our philosophy now? How, how do we want to approach touring and gigging? Where should I be focusing my time? Where is my time best spent? The biggest question is where should we be and how do we get there?”
Miller’s struggles aren’t unique. The reality of the music business is that more than just raw talent is needed, especially if you are trying to make a living as a musician.
The struggle is real.