Food Truck Chefs, Rehab and Building a New Artisan Class

A Chef, Not a Home Cook

On February 1, 2014, I decided to take the improbable leap into DIY-dom. Whether it was fear of letting go of an old paradigm, or just the misconception I had of DIY, it was a path I never dared take until now. My dreams of being The Next Big Thing proved to be more than just a hinderance. Like being in a bad relationship and wondering why my partner didn’t love me, I spent the majority of my career waiting for approval that would never come. My core values had been screwed up. After years of banging my head against a wall, I needed to make a change. If I was true to myself, sustainability would follow.

For the longest time my perception of DIY comprised a guy playing lounge jazz covers in a booth at the Arts & Crafts Fair. It just didn’t seem cool. To the layman, DIY is still perceived as amateurish, and frankly, kinda crappy. Because I have a BA in music and a I am veteran of the music industry, I prefer to see myself as a trained Chef who chooses to run a gourmet food truck. A chef is still a chef, no matter the setting.

Ouch. Quit it. Ouch. Quit it. 

Though the perception of DIY is slowly changing, the lure of stardom still permeates our society. Being a signed artist still carries a certain cache. Me? I spent most of my career chasing the dream of rock stardom; it was the world I grew up in. I have had some success: I was on a record label run by Richard Gottehrer (the producer of the Go-Go’s and Blondie, and former owner of Sire Records), had music in movies, played a concert with acclaimed jazz pianist Fred Hersch, and even received a grant for a musical I wrote and produced. That said, I have never made enough money to live off my music. That was my fault. Every time I would start a new band/project/venture, I would get sidetracked by the shininess of major label success. At one point I even had my own label that I ran with my bass-player. We worked very hard to get the label off the ground, and by the second year we were able to break even through constant touring and CD sales. But that wasn’t good enough: we wanted to be rich.

Soon after, a larger label swooped in. They showed us shiny stuff; we abandoned our label and signed with them. Two years later we were all but dropped. We were one of thousands of bands that fell through the cracks. The following five to six years involved various producers and managers who promised big payoffs. I thought because I wrote a couple cool songs and looked good onstage that I was owed a career.

Sound familiar?

Rehab 

As musicians we look up to the rockstars of the world and think, “That should be me.” But Rock stardom is the exception, not the rule. It is a lesson I have had to learn over and over.

I had to detox myself, and it wasn’t until I completely severed myself from the music industry, that I began to find my own voice again. Years of seeking approval from industry types had clouded my vision and affected my music. I went back to school, studied composition and became enamored with laptop music. I reinvented myself as an electronic/organic hybrid. As graduation loomed, I had to figure out how I would continue doing music. I researched the internet for inspiration.

My New Heroes

Besides my wife, who has supported me through all my endeavors, I can point to three people that have changed my opinion on DIY. Zoe Keating, Brian Hazard of Color Theory, and The Impossible Girl’s Kim Boekbinder have all shown me that there are other ways of building a career. Keating has been pretty much on the forefront of this DIY movement. By opening her finances to the public, she has engaged musicians, audiences, and management in a conversation that the middlemen may not want to have. Though Hazard does not play live, he has found ways to make up for it by constantly trying out new technology and diversifying. While releasing his own music, Hazard also remixes songs, masters albums, and writes about DIY. Kim Boekbinder’s unique approach to booking shows has shown me that I don’t have to go through the club system. All three have managed to build their audiences one fan at a time. More importantly, they all make great music. No really, check their stuff out.

 Here I go again on my own

I am at the beginning of my journey for the umpteenth time. I have little-to-no fan base at all: a couple hundred Facebook followers and less than one hundred Twitter followers. There is no doubt I’m starting from the bottom. I would love to be able to follow in the footsteps of the aforementioned artists because I want to make a living at this. I would like to show that it is possible to have sustainability without the support of the music industry.

My goal here is to open a dialogue with other dedicated musicians and to share ideas. I would also like to change the conversation from “DIY “ to creating an artisan class of musicians. An artisan musician is no different than the local baker down the street, the micro brewer in town, or the chef-owner of a gourmet food truck. It is only fair to be afforded the same opportunity and the respect these other careers have.

 Quick History

Ryan Holiday is a laptop musician/vocalist from the Philadelphia area, and performs under the moniker Diseases of the South(DOTS). Holiday has released over a dozen albums and has written music for stage and commercials. DOTS works with pre recorded loops and mixes them with live vocals, live layering, and live sound manipulation. It is a hybrid of DJ and live musicianship.

Contact:

Ryan Holiday aka Diseases of the South:

https://Diseasesofthesouth.tumblr.com

https://twitter.com/MrRyanHoliday