Harmonies for Homebodies

I stay home a lot. I'm not a big fan of crowds. They make me nervous. Massive crowds, though, are somehow comforting. Walking around in a big city can make you anonymous. Go figure. Also ironic is that I don't mind performing in front of people. I just don't see it as a primary concern in the continuum of music making.

So, how does this square with pursuing an ostensibly public career like music? I don't know that it has to. At least, not as much as it used to. I think of two groups of people, both voracious consumers of music:

The first group lives for the live show, as it were. They want to see the band, get up close, contribute to the energy of the performance, feel some kind of personal connection. This sensation becomes their reference point for a band's recorded material, whether or not the CD was bought before or after the live show. Oh yeah, and paying 8 dollars for a beer rocks. Woooooooo!.....

The second group are production consumers. By this I mean that the primary kick in music, for them, comes from the unique space created by a studio recording. The EQ, the panning, the backing vocals, etc. This is what interests them most about music, and they rarely go to live shows. If they're not careful, they become fastidious esthetes who appreciate the garden variety sarcasm found in any alternative weekly, in any city.

Of course, there is a little bit of each group in everybody. These are less-than-perfect distinctions. Each paradigm has its benefits - A good show is a good show, and a good album is a good album.

How does all this square from the musician's point of view?

David Berman of The Silver Jews, in an interview for ReadyMade Magazine entitled How to Become a Rock Star Without Leaving the House, makes the distinction thusly: “Rock music has a double life as art and entertainment. I’ve chosen to treat it strictly as art. Live shows are a device to sell records, and I’m not a salesman.”