Making Music in 2022 by Esme Barker

Making Music in 2022

By Esme Barker A look into the life of a modern day musician in Austin, Texas.

Ben Kweller fell in love with music at a young age, when his dad introduced him to the Beatles. As soon as he got his hands on his own instrument, he knew that music was his calling. He started his first band as a preteen, and would call up music venues in the Dallas area looking for gigs. Eventually, his band produced a CD of an album, and sent it to his dad’s

Making Music in 2022

A look into the life of a modern day musician in Austin, Texas.

friend, guitar player Nils Lofgren. Then, like a scene from a movie, a producer saw the album lying on Nils’s coffee table. He listened to it, and at the age of 15 Ben and his band signed a record deal with Mercury Records. Ben dropped out of highschool and got a GED so he could go on tour and pursue music full time. Now, he’s made a name for himself in the music industry, and produced many successful albums.

But what is it really like for most rising musicians trying to make a name for themselves? For years, Austin has been a hotspot for musicians. From its early beer hall days to its massive ACL concerts, the Live Music Capital of The World has always had a thriving music scene. It’s the place where legendary artists like Janis Joplin and Willie Nelson got their start, and there’s

always a new name popping up, but that’s only a select few. For everybody else, making it in any music scene, even Austin’s, is a constant uphill battle. Even with hundreds of live music venues and huge events like ACL and SXSW, there’s just not enough room for everybody. The once small city has been growing rapidly, showing over a 100% increase in population in the last 20 years. With the influx of people, the city itself has been changing, and the music scene has grown with it. As people and trends shift, new problems arise for musicians. “An important lesson I’ve learned,” says Ben Kweller, a successful musician from the area, “is that you always have to stay true to yourself as an artist, and you don’t want to compromise who you are as an artist because you’re the only one who lives with the art for the rest of your life.” A smaller local artist, Alesia Lani, shared similar sentiments. “Don’t try to please everyone in your hometown… they’ll be way more impressed when you’re not even trying to catch their attention.” Thanks to modern technology, musicians no longer only have their appeal within their own town to worry about. As soon as you post something online, you have the whole world’s eyes on you, yet somehow, it can still feel like nobody is watching you. Though social media allows musicians to reach an audience without the help of a record deal or a magazine article, giving everybody this ability makes it much harder to stand out. “It’s like the attention spans are just diminishing,” said Alesia. “Everything’s so quick and

Mural in Austin. Photo by Dale Cruse, courtesy of Flickr.

fast. Everything’s so hot and ready. Everybody’s posting stuff. Everybody has the opportunity, the space to do anything.” Growing a social media following is a whole new skill that rising artists are expected to master. It’s not just fans who look at your social media, but people who can get you a gig. Margaret Galton, a talent buyer for ACL, looks at metrics like TikTok views to determine if somebody is right for the festival. In Austin, one of the best ways for an upcoming artist to reach people is through ACL. ACL is a yearly music festival held in Austin that attracts around 70,000 people per day. According to Margaret, “ It could be an opportunity to gain new fans, meet someone in the industry that might take their career to the next level, or even provide a chance for them to meet a fellow festival artist that inspires them. Truly the opportunities are limitless as long as the artists are willing to put themselves out there and make the connections.” But it isn’t easy to make it onstage. In 2022, only 24 Austin-based artists earned a spot. According to her, the qualities that stand out the most in artists are a “passion for music, stage presence, dedication to their fans.” Numbers can be important too though. The best advice she could give to an artist interested in playing at ACL is to provide the talent buyers with as much relevant information as possible. Not just links to music and live videos, but also information like ticket sales, artists you’ve opened with or performed here where artists want to help each other out, and everyone’s rooting for everyone because we all know the grind of it and how difficult it is to make it in music,” said Ben. Nothing helps keep people going quite like a supportive comunity of those

Sixth street in downtown Austin. Image courtesy of iStock.

“You don’t want to compromise who you are as an artist because you’re the only one who lives with the art for the rest of your life.”

with, and other festivals you might’ve played in. Despite all of the struggles musicians in Austin face, the community and music scene is a blessing. “I can say that Austin specifically has always been an incredible hub for musicians, and there is a strong sense of community with similar experiences. Though the music industry can be tough, music brings people together. As trends and people change through the years, musicians in Austin will always have the support and sense of community that comes with living in the music capital of the world.