By Seamus Anthony

Welcome to the first post here on Mewzo.com!

What does “Mewzo” mean? Well it is short for musician, people say it all the time, but maybe it would make more sense to spell it “muso”? I dunno, but whatever, that wasn’t available as a dot come and “mewzo” was, so there it is. Essentially this is a blog about one “mewzo”, me, Seamus Anthony, and my refusal to quit playing music and chasing the professional music dream.

This is my first working day of the year 2011. This is the year that I promised myself to get off my arse and make it happen again for myself. Turns out, after planning to finally get some time to myself today to get cracking, I ended up just sitting on my arse and doing very little to make it happen

Why?

Due to feeling like a deer in the headlights: blinded by the sheer enormity and unlikelihood of my mission…

The Mission: Forge a Profitable, Sustainable and Successful Music Career – Despite Being 37 Already

Yes that’s right, I am 37, a grandpa in rock n’ roll terms. I have one kid and another on the way and all the attendant responsibilities that come with that.

Those two kids and their mother are my number one passion, they come first  – but a very close second to that comes my passion for writing and playing songs. I have obsessively done so since I was 13. I just knew at that age what I was here to do, and I still do, despite not yet having “made it” professionally.

I work a day job of course, but my heart isn’t in it. Like most musicians, I just wanna play music for a living, man.

I am also a believer. When others would quit, I refuse. I have tried and failed umpteen times, but I always get up for another round.

Persistence is important, but just refusing to quit isn’t enough – you have to make a go of it  – and then some – to turn the tide in your favour. Eventually you actually have to get it right – or die trying…

By the way – I don’t care if I fail. Failure is actually impossible for me because I define failure as giving up going for what you want. What I want changes over time (for example, no longer interested in being a “rock god” per se), as does my commitment to pursuing it, but I doubt I’d ever just give up completely and “fail”. Just not in me.

So What’s This Blog All About Then?

• I have decided to tell the story of me pursuing my dream of becoming a successful, professional musician. I have been a successful semi-professional musician in my time, and (more often) an unsuccessful amateur musician, now I want to and have a plan to, finally put this fucker to bed after 20 years of dress rehearsal – it’s time to get it right.
• I am going to tell the story of it separate to my actual music website, as it will appeal to musicians themselves more than music-fans-general, I imagine.
• I am also thinking of setting myself some stretch-but-not-impossible goals like not drinking for a year to see if that helps (sure, probably will – but can I actually hold out? Ha ha!) or being able to quit my day job by the end of the year (with the help of covers gigs which in and of themselves are certainly not the final desired end-result).
• Specifically at this point, I would like to steer clear of “How to” type posts and ebooks and make this a show-don’t-tell type exercise, a fairly navel-gazing diary type thing, even though I know this doesn’t pull as much traffic as quickly as the “10 Ways To Get All The Chicks” type posts of the whats-in-it-for-me variety.
• Having said that, I will probably guide it in the direction of information products as I go but only for things I can genuinely lay claim to having achieved, maybe starting with “how to be the biggest band in your home city” seeing as I (we) did this (albeit 15 years ago) and also maybe a “how not to screw up like I did” e-book too ha ha ;-P

I am not proposing that writing this blog – a diary really – is going to propel me to success, but it may help to clarify my intentions and hopefully to inspire others to also get off their arses and get on with it.

I do not believe in stopping just because you are no longer as young as you used to be. That is just an excuse and anyway, I like music by experienced, grizzled buggers like me better than music by nuffs-nuffs in short pants.

I do not believe in quitting just because you have responsibilities. That is also an excuse. You have to continue no matter what. You must persevere with your art because it is your life calling.

No More Chasing Rainbows

One thing I am done with is chasing rainbows – you may say wanting to be a professional musician is a rainbow – but what I am referring to is ideas (schemes) designed to make money in order to free time up to play music. I have tried this over and over and despite my initial enthusiasm for ideas, I just never seem to gain any real traction with them because at the end of the day if it ain’t your passion then you have Buckley’s chance of making it work. It’s got to come from within, it has got to come bubbling up from within you like an uncontrollable force of nature. You have to tap into that frustration, that desire and make it work for you.

That’s what I intend to do for the rest of my life. I didn’t start this today, I started it about 24 years ago when I was 13, but I am not going to let my lack of any financially viable success stop me, no sirree. I don’t care of I die unsuccessful (in financial/career terms) as a musician, I will die a musician. It actually feels good to know who you are.

It feels better when you are riding high though, I know this because I have enjoyed a window of success and it rocked. But I have endured more confusion, lack of focus and obscurity than I care to admit, and yet I refuse to quit. I am more focused, more determined and more able than ever before. I am also potentially crazy, which probably helps.

So let’s do it. This blog is about a musician who just won’t quit. I plan to keep it informal and pretty much centered around my efforts to get my music out there. I don’t have a lot of time so I won’t always be writing extensive or well thought out posts, or posts designed to bring in the masses (“10 ways to be a rock god”, that kind of thing) but hopefully my exploits will inspire you to get off your couch and get on with it yourself, no matter how old or fat or unsuccessful you are. And feel free to get in touch and tell me what you think. That’s what the comments feature is for.

What I did Today To Make It Happen

(This may end up forming the bulk of my blog posts, a simple run down of what I did today to to make my music happen.)

• I contacted several musician friends to see who is interested in forming a covers duo (more on that later, meanwhile, purists, try not to choke on your plectrums)
• I started a blog designed to help promote my music career (you are reading it)
• I helped a fellow musician out with some technical issues he was having relating to his email list
• I networked with a music industry blogger (email conversation)
• Mentioned this weekend’s gig on Facebook
• Practiced my guitar including some covers songs.

Viva Mewzo!!!