Foolishly Moving Forward With Failure

Happy April Fools Day!  There are a lot of funny things happening today, and we could use some cheering up.  Fake news is allowed, and it's not taken seriously by anyone like it usually is.  I've got a tidbit of real news to announce, no joke.

I'm going to release a new album with 365 songs on it.  It will take me a year to release at the rate of one song per day.  Just kidding.  It will have a normal amount of songs on it, and less than the experimental track count of my last album.  Seriously, I've been working on it, and I'm getting close to putting some finishing touches on it.

Certainly I've been foolish even attempting to be in the music business, because I've done nothing but fail, and doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is foolish.  Here we are in April, and the newness of spring is upon us, and I'm about to spring more music on you. Writing, recording and releasing another album is definitely a fool's errand.

It all depends on how you look at failure though.  I define success in music as making at least one person happy with a song I write.  I've done that many times that I know of, possibly more.  When I was a ski bum, I used to intentionally live a lifestyle that I knew would be well below the poverty line because I found other aspects than income to be important.  Most do that for a year, I did it for 6.  Amazing experiences and memories are what I achieved vs. things to show off.  Maybe that tells you some things about my character, maybe not.

At some point, I will probably come to the realization that after releasing a bunch of music for a bunch of years that hardly anyone ever listened to or became aware of, that it might be better if I stopped doing that anymore.  This isn't it.  I'm not at that point.

Consider this a teaser post to wet your appetite.  I'm planning to do it yet again for no apparent reason.  The world has 13 Scott Cooley studio albums in it, and I'm gearing up to make it 14.  I'm not superstitious, but #13 didn't set the world on fire, not that I expected it to, and I don't want to end the solo artist career stopped at that unlucky number, just to be on the safe side.  I remain hopeful for an improved reception next time.

Not only do I release music to a barely-existent audience, I also blog about doing it to a barely-existent audience.  I don't know why I do these things exactly, and I'm not sure how I got to this point.  I guess I thought it had a chance to catch on with people somehow.  I never thought any of it would achieve a viral surge in popularity, but I did think the slow, steady audience growth might speed up eventually.  It hasn't really.

I'm getting closer to stopping the public release of any more music at some point in my future, but what's preventing that is the fact that I have more in the vault.  And I keep writing and recording more from time to time.  It doesn't do much for me.  I don't get much of anything out of it, except the satisfaction of knowing it's out there and that it could be discovered and enjoyed.

I say all of this as an introduction to the real point of this post, which is to tell the world that I anticipate releasing more music again fairly soon.  It sure seems like there are actual people out there in the world, you probably included, who would be interested to know about this, so here you go.

Maybe I've already dropped some hints, but I can't remember.  You can pretty much count on one new full-length record of new original material from me at least every two years.  I've proven that.  Sometimes even more frequently, as has been the case in the last few.  It's not so much that I'm on a roll, it's just that I've got to let the stockpile dwindle, and the hobby doesn't stop.

"They" say that you need to slowly build interest, periodically letting people know small amounts of information.  They wouldn't keep doing it if the approach never worked.  I understand it, yet, have had mixed results, but hey, I'm no marketing or PR expert.  Sometimes I'd rather learn about it after the fact.

Don't you hate it when you somehow become aware of a TV show, then check it out, and get into it, only to learn you'll have to wait a year or more for the next season to come out?  I'd rather wait to hear about it after the whole show ended, so that I can binge all episodes in one week.  When you get into a book, you can keep going at your leisure until you finish it, which can be so much better.

As a music fan, I run across and read news articles quite frequently that are about some solo artist or band working on their next album, and as a fan, I am indeed interested enough to enjoy hearing about it.  I guess it gives me something to look forward to.  We could all use more things to look forward to.

When that happens, I file it away in the back of my mind as a reminder to remember to wait a while, then search for it.  Sometimes I sort of almost wish I wouldn't have read those articles because the waiting is the hardest part as Tom Petty sang, and instead only read the official release announcement, which would require less waiting.

Paul McCartney has a new album coming out, which I became aware of recently in that very type of article.  I discovered the single called Days We Left Behind, which is really good.  Now I have to wait until the full album The Boys of Dungeon Lane comes out.  It will be a while, so like I said, a part of me would rather not know until the whole thing is already available.  

That article worked though.  It pointed me to the single, and now I have something to look forward to.  In my mind I'm telling myself to forget about it for now, wait a few weeks, and by then I'll be able to stream the whole album.  I can get bummed out from time to time, but I always have a sneaking suspicion that good fortune is right around the corner.

This is the way it goes.  So, yeah, I'm working on finalizing a new album of songs I've been writing and recording.  I do this stuff from the same desk in the same spare bedroom in my house I'm typing this from.  Like I always do, I write songs here, record them here, type blog posts from here, maintain my website from here, announce releases on social media from here, etc.

I suppose I could record one of those behind the scenes videos of me showing you around my little home office/recording studio, but I'm confident it wouldn't be very interesting to anyone.  I have a computer, with an audio interface attached to it, and a microphone attached to that, and a guitar on a stand here next to me, and there's two keyboards - one for typing and the other for making piano sounds on.  

So, yeah, nothing special, but this is one of those posts to let a few interested people know I haven't given up yet.  I continue with the hobby, and I have plans to make some new music public again soon so you can listen to it.  Wait until the end of June, and it should be out there for you to stream in its entirety.

There, you have a little tidbit of extra information - release timeframe - but astute fans already know June 21st is not only my birthday, but also my typical street date for new music releases.  Street date is a stretch because it won't be in brick and mortar music stores with streets in front of them, but you'll be able to listen via streaming on a device of your choosing, and wherever that is, you'll have some type of street nearby, so close enough.

Yay, we both have something to look forward to!  Another thing I can reveal at this juncture is that it won't be the happiest record in my catalog.  It hasn't been the happiest of times for me lately, nor has it been for a lot of you I suspect.  It's okay to allow yourself to feel bummed out sometimes, and your feelings influence the music you make.

I'm no different from anyone else, and these seem to be challenging times.  It's alright to admit that to ourselves.  I know I'm not alone.  It will be okay.  Things will get better.  They always do.  Hang in there, and just when it seems like there's nothing to get excited about, a new Scott Cooley album appears.  It's in the works.  The music business era that we're in is a fool's paradise, and I'm in complete denial, happily continuing to participate.

Probably The Best Compliment I've Ever Received On My Music So Far

Someone said to me a while back that my music "hasn't gotten the recognition it deserved."  Full disclosure:  this was a friend.  They didn't say they were planning on helping spread the word online or anything, but they wanted to be sure I knew they thought that.  They went on to say that overall, the quality of the songwriting has been good over the years, with at least one song from every album they continue listening to, and further, that my general style is one that had grown on them.  Lastly, this person pointed out that they found themselves continually revisiting my songs throughout the years via streaming, and genuinely looked forward to new releases.  

It's just one person's opinion, man, but I have to admit this made me feel good.  I was sort of taken aback by it, not sure how to react at first, but quickly decided the best way to respond was to simply say "thanks."  In retrospect, I should've gone beyond that and told them how much it meant and that I really appreciated them taking the time to let me know.  They weren't just being nice, because they actually named several of their favorite songs of mine that they thought should have way more streams.  I politely agreed.  By the way, any time people do that, it always freaks me out which ones they say they like most, because they are rarely the ones I think are my best.  That's got to be a good thing though, right?  Right.  They all deserve more recognition, dammit!  😏  Now that I've had more time to process it, it's probably the best compliment I've ever received about my music.

I understand why my music hasn't gotten the recognition it deserves.  I do absolutely nothing to promote it.  I'm not sure it deserves much more than it's received already, because I don't play live shows anywhere at all.  No shows for people to review or write about.  I'm a recordings-only artist, so there's no direct contact with an audience.  It's intentional that I'm not a performer.  I know my music doesn't have many of the qualities that well-recognized music has.  Perfect production, perfect vocals, etc. are not my forte, even though the songwriting may be catchy and relatable.  The commercial, electronic, contemporary mainstream pop with highly-polished sound is almost the complete opposite of what I deliver.  Let's just say I don't kick out dance songs for the masses, and I'm cool with that.

I don't get out much in general.  My day job is a remote, work-from-home situation.  Sometimes my car doesn't leave the driveway for a week or more.  I like it that way.  I read a lot.  I enjoy a fairly normal life with my wife and dogs.  We get together with friends and relatives occasionally.  We play board games and cards.  I'm into going out to dinner and movies sometimes.  I listen to music.  I enjoy walking the dogs.  I get out and ski every winter.  Once in a while, when the mood strikes, I pick up my acoustic guitar and write a song.  The songs come in bunches flanked by long droughts of creativity.  

I tell people when I have new music out.  They know they don't have to pretend that they like it.  Or pretend that they checked it out.  They get around to it eventually, or they don't.  My announcements are quick, and I never even read the comments, let alone reply to any of them.  So, I guess I have a somewhat normal, quiet life that allows for a hobby of writing and recording songs once in a while.  Other than that, I'm not out in public much, and don't do much online interaction.  I like my life this way, but it doesn't allow me to get many compliments about my music.  It could be that it's because my music is generally pretty bad and unworthy of praise, which I can accept 😜, but on the other hand, it could also be that if I played live, I'd hear this type of thing more often.

I dabbled with performing live shows at bars back in my early 20s with bands, duos, and as a solo artist, and the applause and compliments were addictive, but not enough for me to stick with it.  The songwriting hobby was what I gravitated to most, but otherwise, I suppose I'm a little too introverted.  Needless to say, as strictly a non-performing solo artist, I don't do personal appearances as a musician, so I never get any applause or compliments after a show.   Since I generally shun social media and no one ever writes about my music, I don't get much feedback about my music at all.  When I do, it boosts my mood for sure.  In a way, telling me directly is almost better than recommending me to others.

It seems like a lot of effort to court people to write about your studio album releases, so I never have.  You have to submit press releases and kits to publications and sometimes even pay to get them to write about your music, so I've never done that.  If you don't play live anywhere, people that write about live music shows wouldn't have occasion to know about you in the first place.  

Another thing one can do is to enter a contest to win an award.  I did that once and felt like a fool (because I didn't win, of course)  😂.  You can read all about it here:  

https://www.scottcooley.com/awards

I would rather be able to say some influencer found my music and recommended it and it went from 100 streams to 1,000 streams as a result, than being able to say the same thing only after I repeatedly badgered said influencer, begging them to recommend my music.  There are tastemakers and curators and bloggers you have to pitch - each with their own weird soup nazi rules.  Sounds almost as dreadful as writing a cover letter when sending a resume to apply for a job.  I could include a nice compliment someone I know paid me as a quote, but you sort of need a real quote from a real reviewer to include in the pitch to other reviewers to get the first review, so it's a chicken/egg scenario.

As a music fan myself, I'm not a "hey, you guys should check out this awesome new song by this artist I'm into lately" kind of person, so I understand.  I discover new artists from time to time that I like, and probably more often than that, I discover old artists I'd never heard of before that are not active anymore.  I like a fairly wide variety of different kinds of music, and some might call my taste weird or strange.  I dated a girl once when I was in my early 20s who claimed she only liked heavy metal.  That's it.  Didn't like any other kinds of music whatsoever.  Never had, never will.  I wonder if that changed over the years for her.

Recognition is people writing about you publicly, I guess, but then there's also the public popularity, which is clearly displayed in the streaming platforms next to each song.  Some are head-scratchers.  There are the analytics to consider.  Streaming stats, metrics, - whatever you want to call those (streams, plays, adds, likes, saves, shares, downloads, subscribes, friends, recommends, follows, etc.).  Some are freely available online.  None of it makes much sense, and none of it seems all that accurate or reliable, but it does tell a little bit about the overall reach, engagement and amount of recognition, I guess.  Or lack thereof!  Here are some links to a few of those sites:

• https://songstats.com/artist/bftjeorh/scott-cooley?source=overview
• https://app.chartmetric.com/artist/991782
• https://songstats.com/artist/bftjeorh/scott-cooley
• https://www.viberate.com/artist/scott-cooley/
• https://metrics.musicstax.com/artist/7vHKrgpa0sJLI7feJTakSZ/
• https://app.artist.tools/artist/7vHKrgpa0sJLI7feJTakSZ?tab=overview&fromHome=true

They say the cream rises to the top, but they also say things like nepotism and luck and payola also work.  I just assume that if my music is good enough, it will become popular without any effort on my part.  Therefore, a part of me knows it would've happened by now if it was going to.  When I hear it deserves more recognition, I can't help but think about making more of an effort to get it more recognition.  I suppose I have trouble mustering the courage to ask, and I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's because the resulting recognition might not feel like it was deserved.

I'm not sure I fall into any easily-definable, well-known genre or style as a solo artist.  I've never known what to call it or how to describe it.  Even if that was possible, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't fall into any major popular category.  That might help explain why my music hasn't gotten more recognition a little bit, but I know the real reason is that I haven't done anything to get any recognition at all.  I prefer it that way.  We all know of music artists who seem to become popular primarily because of their marketing budget and hype tactics and not for the quality of their songs, and I'm for sure not in danger of being lumped in with them.

So, there are two obvious reasons:

• My music is not easy to classify, and isn't close to what's popular
• I haven't ever taken any action to seek any recognition for my music

Now it occurs to me there might be a third reason:  My fanbase.  My music doesn't attract the kinds of people with personalities to jump on the bandwagon and publicly voice their support.  I'm aware of a few superfan cheerleader types, but for the most part, they are a subdued crowd.  They're into the songs they're into, but don't feel the need to shout it from the rooftops.  I think maybe people who have come across my music and liked it are the types of people who are likely to keep it to themselves as if it's their own private secret discovery.  It's not that they are necessarily reluctant to reveal their guilty pleasures, it's just that they are not serial recommenders of their own personal tastes in music to anyone.  I suspect they are the types of people who are not big social media users, and are not public supporters of any music.

That's okay.  This is all just fine with me.  Yes, I wish I had more recognition, but it will be alright if I don't ever get it.  It's just a fun hobby for me.  I like making up songs.  That's all.  I record them as best I can with my limited resources and skills, then release them.  I don't try too hard or put much effort into it.  You can probably tell.  😀  That's part of the appeal, so I've been told.  However, I have to say that a kind word once in a great while goes a long way toward me continuing on with what I've been doing.

Still A Solo Artist, Still a Skier

I haven't posted anything for a while, but today, I got around to it again.  I went skiing in Michigan recently and loved it.  We're having a good winter for snow.  A perfect cure for the winter blues.  Actually, the last song I wrote was a of the blues variety.  That's about all I have to report on a personal level.  I haven't had any newsworthy information to share, but I wanted to reassure you that I've been continuing on with the songwriting/recording hobby sporadically.  I haven't done any marketing at all for my existing catalog of music, as usual.  I haven't written about myself, nor has anyone else written anything about me that I'm aware of.  

Even as a first-time reader of this blog, you can probably tell I'm not a hype man for my own music.  I don't like revealing much about myself, but I do understand that if you've discovered my music and like some of it, you might be curious to learn more about me.  I'm not a solo artist with much of an "image" or "brand" to get you more interested.  I like it that way, and I'm guessing that's part of my appeal.

Although there's quite a lot of information about me on my web site, and in my blog, I primarily let the music do the talking.  In other words, I'm not the type of person to tell my whole life story online, although there are bits and pieces in my lyrics that may reveal a little about who I am as a person I guess.

There are not a lot of photos of me out there, but the ones that are out there, are really me, and I don't wear any disguises.  I'm not out to be some type of enigma, so it's how I would look if you saw me in person.  I'm a private person, yet a public artist, albeit one who is barely known.  

I resist oversharing on social media.  I barely even announce new music when I release it, and beyond that, I don't care for self-promotion.  I've trusted that discovery happens somehow, and people who like it, recommend it.  My identity has been revealed from the start, with my artist name being my real name, but people I work with in my day job have no idea.  I don't try to maintain a mystique, nor do I try to be elusive, but I do have some degree of anonymity.  I don't care for the artists and bands who wear masks or whatever, but I do envy them being able to be completely anonymous.  

I am a somewhat established solo artist with a longer "career" than most, but I've never been signed to a record label, and few music-related publications have ever written about me.  I'm not famous, not a celebrity, not notable, no wikipedia page.  That's my deal.  I let the "artistry" take center stage.  I'm the complete opposite of new young artists like that Alex Warren guy who spend a huge chunk of their time every day posting content and working the algorithms.  I'm not a court the influencers or be your own influencer type of person.  I don't crave popularity, but more of it, if it happened organically, would be nice of course.

Despite being a little immature in some ways as an older person, I guess what I have going for me now is what they call "catalog maturity."  I've released over a dozen albums in twenty years, and they're all still available for streaming in most music streaming services.  There is steady growth every year, even though the amount is relatively small.  I think I like this better than if I was all of a sudden an overnight success with millions of streams.  It's so cool that I've been allowed in, that I can stay in the game.  I hope to keep it going, and to continue with the slow momentum.

I'm more suited to being a songwriter than an artist, and more of a behind-the-scenes guy than a frontman.  I'll never be a good singer, and no one will ever accuse me of being a shredder on any instrument.  The appeal might be that I do everything myself, and that I keep doing it.  My style is unique, and hard to describe.  It's way different than what is trending in mainstream popularity.  Some people find out about my music, and some of them like it, and some that like it tell others about it, and to paraphrase that old TV commercial, they tell two friends, and so on.  Strictly word-of-mouth, and I like it that way.

I primarily write love songs, songs about romantic relationships.  Sometimes the mood is dark or blue, sometimes sunny and happy.  There's a lot of variety in genre, form, tempo, key, instrumentation, and style if you can get past the constant sound of my singing voice and ever-present strumming of an acoustic guitar.  Most of the songs are fairly serious, although I don't take any of them that seriously.  Many people don't dive into the deep end of my catalog, and I'm cool with that.  They like the funny one about the island with a swear word in it.  I get it.  All artists have one song that is more popular than the others.  I'm lucky to have written that one.

In some ways I feel like I've already over-shared, but the reality is you can find out a lot about most people online nowadays.  Unless you completely unplug and live off the grid, people can find out about you.  I think there's enough already about me out there, and even though I know if I would promote myself more it would be good, I just can't bring myself to do it.  I don't have it in me.  Not that kind of person.  

I plan to just stick with releasing new music once in a while in the form of a new album of originals I write and record myself at least every two years, maybe more frequently if enough songs materialize.  I'll announce them herein, then let the chips fall where they may, as I've been doing for a couple decades.

There are metrics and milestones that you can look back and reflect on, but I'm not one to rest on my laurels.  Not that I would've ever been able to garner interest from a record label in the first place, but if I had, I'm sure they would've dropped me long ago.  With a couple more albums, I should be able to reach the 200 mark for number of original songs released, which might be a good quantity to end up with.  A convenient, round number anyway.  A goal, perhaps.  

I probably won't ever quit writing songs, but that might at least make sense as a time to take a break for a while from releasing albums publicly.  Who knows?  It seems like there's still a demand, but I don't really know.  Nobody knows.  I've been very self-deprecating in this blog and on my website.  

I've said things like "I know I suck, but I do it anyway because I can."  There's some truth there, and my music certainly isn't for everyone, but there are statistics that show it's still catching on with new people, and that existing fans keep coming back for more.

Check back in after a while and I may have another new music available announcement to make later this year.  I'm working on it.  If it does happen, you can probably expect it on my birthday - hey, there's a personal detail - which is June 21st.  It's also Make Music Day, World Music Day, or if you parle Francais, Fete de la Musique.