Neil Speers on making it in music, part two

00:00

Host: Welcome back. Sorry about the little glitch we had there, but it appears once again there are ghosts in the machine. We’re going to continue with this recording. Neil gets the job of mixing the two parts together. Congratulations. You feel like you [unclear]? Well, you are number one. Something like that, anyway. Sorry about that, folks. Hopefully it’s not too much of an inconvenience. We’re going to finish off here. Thoughts on, and I’ve got to do the air quotes, “making it” and realizing what you haven’t done?

00:46

Neil: I quite often see posts on places like Reddit, Facebook and music forums talking about what it takes to make it. How can I make it? I particularly like, “Am I too old to make it?” from a 16-year-old. When I think about making it in terms of selling millions of albums or billions of streams online, having a worldwide fan base and doing concerts, if that’s your definition of making it, it can be done. But most musicians aren’t willing to put in the work. I know I certainly haven’t. I do know what it would take.

01:49

Neil: Between doing other things, including photography, and being ADHD and not always doing the things I know I should be doing… Although I had a coach say you should never say “should.” “Should” and “could” are two different words, with a few different connotations. I haven’t done the things I could have done to make it.

02:19

Neil: To make it to that level takes a few things, all of which I think can be learned. Like I said earlier about being a musician, you have to be willing to suck long enough to actually get good at it. I haven’t had that mindset in a lot of the areas that would have made it more possible to make it on the world stage.

03:07

Neil: Some of those things include putting in 12-hour days just on my music. There are various aspects to that: songwriting, writing a hundred songs to get the 10 you’re going to put out, co-writing with world-class musicians. I’ve written a ton of songs, but I haven’t written a hundred to get to the 10. You could spend an hour a day connecting with people who could be fans, who could be super fans. You could spend an hour or two a day on singing. I’ve come a long way.

04:09

Neil: There was a time when I was called the backup singer. If I got near the mic, they’d say, “Please back up. Back up some more. Back up a little bit more. Good, yep, just a little more.” I’d be outside. That’s what I was like as a singer in my 20s. I’ve learned so much about singing in the last 20 years, and I coach other people on that stuff now. But did I take lessons and learn how to sing properly as a kid? No, I didn’t. I didn’t spend time writing songs. If I wanted to make it, I should have actually stuck with music instead of going back to school and becoming a journalist.

04:59

Neil: I love a quote by Jim Carrey, who said that if you’re likely to fail at anything, why not fail at the thing you want to get done? There’s a good chance you can make it, so why not go for it? His father was apparently a great comedian himself, really funny and very smart, but he became an accountant because he was afraid to try. Jim Carrey said that was such a shame. His father got laid off and couldn’t find work again. So why not fail as a comedian instead of failing as an accountant?

05:48

Neil: Another thing I haven’t done is spend a ton of time making videos or performing online. Those are things you can do, and any musician can do. If you do it consistently and authentically, not trying to be the next person you idolize, but being authentically yourself and strong in that, ignoring the instincts that tell you that you can’t do it, or that you should play it safe by trying to be like this band or this performer, and going all in on being 100 percent yourself, actually 110 percent yourself. You should step up who you are more.

06:55

Neil: Those are the things I haven’t done. I’m not going to complain that I didn’t do them. I realize that if I’d wanted to make it on the world stage, doing those things would have given me a lot better chance. It’s no surprise I’m not getting millions of streams of my music.

07:26

Neil: That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed performing and gotten a really good response from people. I’ve enjoyed recording music. I’m really enjoying working with my friend. Those are all great things. I’ve had a wonderful career in photography. I used to own two portrait studios. I’ve really enjoyed helping people overcome their internal problems about being photogenic, asking, “Am I too ugly to be photogenic?” Helping people overcome that has been a wonderful gift and a blessing.

08:20

Neil: I can’t complain about not making it as a musician, because I was busy doing other things. But I know that if making it was my goal, that’s what I would have to do. A lot of musicians don’t put in the work and then say it’s way too hard to make it these days. They just haven’t put in the work. Yes, it is hard. It’s really hard. To succeed in any field at the top levels, it takes that kind of work and dedication. It is hard, but it can be done. You just have to put in the work and not stop because you feel you’re not worthy of it. You continue because it has to be your drive. You have to be a little nuts to be a musician.

Host: That definitely helps. You have to continually put yourself through that. Definitely.

09:21

Host: One last thing, because we’re running a bit long. How has the process of writing, producing, playing instruments and all that changed since your most recent diagnosis?

09:48

Neil: I worked with a coach for ADHD. There’s a local group I got hold of, and they get sponsors to pay for people who aren’t doing as well financially. Luckily, I got into that program. One of the last things she told me, which I thought was absolutely brilliant, is that people with ADHD, not always but quite often, are really strong at problem-solving.

10:17

Neil: Approach all these little things, like, “I’m having trouble getting going on this,” or, “I’m having trouble organizing that,” as problems you have to solve in order to get on with it. Figure out what’s going to work for you with ADHD to get yourself to a place where you can do that. I keep trying to remember that.

11:00

Neil: Physical issues have been throwing a kink in that because I keep having to go for MRIs and doctor’s appointments. It’s been constant. But when that’s done and said and done, I think I have the tools to tell myself, “What is my problem? How am I going to get past this problem? What can I do at each step to get past it?” Knowing I’ll lose interest in the short term, what do I do? Maybe I change my whole office around to give myself a fresh place to do it. Maybe I take my iPad to a coffee shop, put on headphones and play around. I have a keyboard I can take with me, and I can play into my iPad and produce music that way. Maybe those are things I can do. Now it’s a case of realizing my diagnosis has helped me because I’ve been given tools to help manage it.

12:25

Host: That’s what I was wondering. You would figure out an issue before you knew about your ADHD, and now that you know it, it’s not like it’s a great thing or anything, but you know there are ways to manage it and how to do it without going to extremes. That’s what I was learning about there.

12:49

Neil: Back when I was running my portrait studios, how I got around my ADHD, which I didn’t know about at the time but worked brilliantly for me, was to hire people to do the stuff I wasn’t able to do. That was awesome. I’ve been thinking, it’s hard as a solo musician or solopreneur, somebody working at home, to afford to hire a virtual assistant. Maybe I should find a way to get a co-op deal where everybody chips in an amount and they get three hours of somebody’s time to do the things they can’t do on their own because of things like ADHD. It’s a thought.

13:51

Host: Yep. It is how we adapt to whatever we’re given.

Neil: That’s exactly it.

Host: I want to thank you again, Neil, for coming on. Wonderful talking to you, as always. We should do this more often. I have to get down to Calgary soon, before the snow really starts flying, so we’ll meet up for coffee again and have another chat while we’re there. Once again, thank you to Neil Speers for being on In Conversation With, Season 4, Episode 1. Have yourself a good day, everybody, and [unclear] happy mental health to you.