Yesterday my class was graced with the Skyping presence of ‘Songwriting Hall of Famer’ Desmond Child. This incredibly interesting and insightful character has teamed up with the likes of Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, and Ricky Martin to create songs selling over 300 million copies. With Desmond having a background so vast I was ecstatic to be given the opportunity to pick this man’s brain. I don’t know how well I did, but sure tried to absorb what he had to say.
I found Desmond very relatable right from the get go. He discussed with us what motivated him throughout his life to get up every day and go balls out. One of my dreams is to be able to support my parents when I’m older, pay them back for all the sacrifices they’ve made for me over the years. This is a dream that Desmond worked hard enough to fulfill, and I was touched as he shared what it was like to be able to buy his mom a new place, car, clothes, etc. It really gave us a window into his roots and showed the class how ‘real’ a person can remain, even after gaining the kind of success that Desmond had.
One of Desmond’s strongest lessons for us was to never forget the fact that although music is an art form, choosing to enter the music-industry as a career path is a business decision. This means we can never stop thinking of ourselves as warriors. Warriors create concrete plans for themselves, cover every imaginable base, and go to whatever length needed to progress their career in any way they can. He laid out an interesting strategy of learning everything you can about the business partners of an artist you’d like to work with one day. Find out his lawyer, try to hire that lawyer, find out his barber, get your hair cut by that barber, find out that barber’s best friend and hang out with that dude. I’ve hopped online to try and find some information on one of my idols, deadmau5, and at first glance the information is sparse, but I have a few leads. It appears deadmau5 is represented by the agencies “Richard De La Font agency” from Oklahoma, “William Morris Agency, Inc.” in Beverly Hills, and “Zero Six Thirty Group” in the U.K. This isn’t very in depth information, but it’s a start.
Desmond gave me many other topics to think about, more blogs to come!
Love, Greg
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