Dave Alvin
Molly Ivins in churchAlvin unplugged: Confessions of a professional musician
While on tour a few years ago, Dave Alvin was sitting backstage listening to members of another band engage in conversation. A veteran of the music business was lecturing a young drummer, telling him that if he could make it 20 years as a musician without working a day job, he’d have made it as a professional musician. Sitting there, Alvin decided to add up the years of his own career and was surprised to realize that he’d been a professional musician for 20 years. “Hey, I made it!” he exclaimed to himself that night. Indeed, he is living the dream of thousands of talented musicians who wake up each day and go to a day job.
Alvin has a successful career. He is an accomplished musician, singer, songwriter, and producer, but most importantly, he loves his job and, as he tells it, that is all that counts. As a veteran of the music industry, he shared some of his experiences with The Ebbtide and offered a great deal of wisdom and insight into what it is like.
Alvin’s earliest memories were of music. He remembers listening to Elvis and Chuck Berry with his older cousins and going into restaurants with his parents and hearing West Coast jazz. He didn’t deliberately set out to make music his living, but he always knew it would be a part of his life. In 1979, he formed the band, the Blasters, with his brother Phil. He was working as a cook at the time. It paid so little that as soon as the band started to get steady work, he was able to make enough to equal his paycheck and quit. That was 23 years ago, and he hasn’t had a day job since.
Alvin said he “fell into music.” He’s known musicians who have planned their careers down to the songs on their second and third album — before they even had a record deal — and gone on to become multi-platinum artists, but he’s not that way. After he left the Blasters in 1985 he worked with X and the Knitters before going solo. His career has steadily progressed since that time, and he has gained recognition among his peers and fans for his powerful songwriting and performing. He blends American-based roots rock, blues and folk in his rich, authentic songs and showcases them in high energy performances.
In 2001 he was recognized by the Recording Academy with a Grammy for “Best Traditional Folk Album.”
When asked if it had changed his life, he said, “The best thing to me was that me and my kind live way on the outskirts of music town, and to even be acknowledged by the folks in downtown music was nice.” Now he uses his award “as a dust magnet” and keeps it in a room with his favorite music memorabilia. Currently he is on tour promoting his live album, “Out In California,” and he offers this advice to aspiring musicians:
What are the different aspects of your job as a musician?
I play music. That sounds absurdly simple, but that really is what I do. Everything is secondary to playing music. Getting your car fixed is secondary to playing music .
Walking the dog is secondary to playing music. Sometimes your health, sometimes your personal life, everything is secondary to playing music.
I tour a lot. I love touring and I love to play live. That is my major love, performing live.
I’ve written songs covered by other artists. I produce records. I’ve been involved musically with films. You have to look at whatever pays the rent.
However, the most important thing for a musician is to be true to themselves. I’ve always tried to be the best Dave Alvin I can be.
What kind of education or training would you recommend to potential professional musicians?
Learn to read music and learn how to read by ear. It takes both skills. Learn how to communicate nonverbally. Learn how to read body language, especially if you are going to be a sideman. Learn how to read when the lead singer is pissed off. Learn how to duck beer bottles thrown at you. Learn how to read an audience. Learn how to not get ripped off in the industry. Learn how to know when you are being conned. Learn where in the universe what you want to do fits in. This is stuff I learned the hard way.
My brother and I were little kids when we started sneaking into bars to hear old bluesmen. We learned a lot from them, about business, music and attitude. Some of the old guys we knew were bitter and angry about the way they’d been treated, and others had that bitterness and anger but had such a love for what they did that they had transcended that and it kept them going. Maybe the ultimate thing that you have to learn, the key element for survival, is that you have to love this.
What other skills does it take to succeed in your business?
You need to like people to some extent. You need to be able to work with people. There’s a practical side. You need to be able to play in tune. Remember to have an extra set of guitar strings. Buy a van. Get a good lawyer. Get a good booking agent. The other thing is that you have to be intensely honest with yourself.
In some ways I’ve tried to get better over the years. I know people who have quit practicing their instruments; well, I still practice my instrument. I want to be better, I want to be a better musician. You have to be driven to a certain extent.
For a musician it’s the little things. If you get a chance to buy a house, buy a house. I never did. I recently did, and I wish I would have done it 20 years ago. It’s mandatory. If you are going to be a free-lance musician you must have some property.
But it really just boils down to you have to love this more than anything, more than you love your husband or wife or kids or thought of having stability.
How have you dealt with feelings of instability?
That feeling of “I will probably be working in a gas station in a week,” that feeling of uncertainty and instability, leads to a lot of insecurity in musicians. People always wonder why musicians are so weird. Well, just the nature of what they do is insecure. When I became a musician, I could have gotten some well-paid, blue-collar job instead, but blue-collar jobs have pretty much disappeared and now, even white-collar jobs are being shipped overseas, and there is no stability anymore anywhere.
I look back now and consider myself lucky, not only that I’ve been able to be a professional musician but also that I’ve been very lucky in that all the jobs I thought were an option for me back then are just as unstable as being a musician. If I was giving a commencement speech, I’d tell students to go ahead, do it, be a musician. It is just as unstable now as anything else.
What is the range of salary one can expect as a musician?
It varies widely. A very close friend of mine is on just about every record that gets made. He does really well. He plays a variety of instruments and plays them all incredibly well, and because of that he is always in demand by producers and artists.
If you get a good studio gig, you can make a couple hundred thousand dollars a year. If you are in a band that has some big records you can make a lot of money, maybe, if you don’t get ripped off by managers and record companies. But most people will never be there. It all varies.
If you go into this for money, if that is why you are playing music, just sell your soul to the devil ASAP, whatever the devil is. The devil is always changing in this business. These days, to become the kind of star like Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan, you basically have to sell your soul. The question is basically unanswerable because it varies so much.
How intense is the competition for jobs in the industry?
It wasn’t until I became a solo artist that I realized how backstabbing musicians, songwriters, everyone is. Everyone is scared. They are scared they will be working at a gas station next week. I have musician friends across the country whom I am very close to. They’d do anything for me and I’d do anything for them, but normally now when I meet people I am trying to read them real quick so nobody will put a knife in my back.
Are there more extremely talented musicians out there than there are opportunities to make a living at music?
There is more supply than demand. It’s like poetry. There are more people who write poetry than read it. The best way to survive is to be yourself, as corny as that sounds. Most people trying to make a living playing music are trying to be someone else, and they are trying to be whatever is hip. For longevity, you’ve got to be yourself.
Any final words of wisdom?
Play in tune. You always want to play in tune, and sometimes you don’t.
It’s like world peace. Love one another. Play in tune. They are both noble goals that you hope to reach.
For more information on Dave Alvin see www.hightone.com. or www.davealvin.com.