My baby's Tontine Audition Video!!A sample tandem video I filmed at Skydive Houston. I used to do this all the time on the weekends as a camera guy.
My World Visitor Map!
Click the link below to go to my Digital Rodeo site!!!
Wow. What do I say? Back in 2003 I was flying twin Cessna's down in Texas, and something deep inside me told me to move to Nashville, TN. I just had that gut feeling. Someone out there sent out a prayer, now I am just homing in on that source. I moved here April 30, 2006 after I found a room in Inglewood on Craigslist, have been living with my amazing girlfriend, Julie, since January, and now live in a awesome house with wooden floors, high ceilings and 3 Sphinx (hairless) cat, real close to Music Row.
Statistics say 1,000 people move here every month and then 90% leave within 3 months. WHY?? This town is a blast and can't understand why anyone would like to leave!!!
Nashville is awesome. There's something going on every night of the week and the population is diverse. (some cool people and a LOT of just WEIRD people!!!) SO if you're reading this and thinking about moving here, here are some tips:
1.) Prepare on being here for a while
2.) Don't go on thinking you are gonna get discovered in 3 months
3.) Learn how to see thru all the BS 97.763% of the people here will tell you.
And MOST importantly,
4.) DON'T SUCK!!!!!
A tip on songwriting: Don't be a SHOTGUN writer. Shotgun writing is when you write all the time, thinking that if you write thousands of songs, (when you hate it and when you love it) you are more likely to have a hit. MOST of the people tell us they write all the time (1 to 2 songs a day, with various co-writers) after I ask them if they write a lot. And then I think: Are any of these songs any good and are the writers learning anything??
I believe in the theory of "Writing Less!" Why? It leaves more time for Rest and Relaxation out in the park feeding the ducks and enjoying the sunshine. Cause that's when the real inspiration comes from, NOT in an air conditioned room with a table and pen and paper in a scheduled time and place in a "forced" environment.Remember Economics class?? Think of being a factory worker. Remember when cars were first being made? They were made to last and were of great quality. Now, in the name of the almighty dollar, production was sped up, and quality has gone down, resulting in mistakes being made and less quality products (songs).
As a writer, put some quality time into your songs. I write about TWO to FIVE songs a MONTH. My forte lies with melodies, with Julie taking the lead on the lyrics. It's such a perfect songwriting partnership and I couldn't ask for a better co-writer.
ANOTHER tip: Don't EVER EVER EVER!!!! Take a songwriting class from someone who has gotten ONE, and only ONE hit 10 years ago!! One hit means they were LUCKY. Two hits, OK they're building their net worth and clout. 3-5 hits, ok, they know how to write a song. There's BIG business in offering classes to songwriting hopefuls just arriving in town. Don't fall for it. Just study the hits, and find out WHY they work. And don't ever go around asking opinions from everybody about your songs as well. Opinions are like an anus. Everyone has one. Nashville is nothing more than a huge group of interconnected people. Kind of like a reality show where all their drama's and egos are intertwined into a complex network. How do they what's REALLY good or not? They don't. No one does!! It's all subjective!!!! So the end result is that all of it cancels out and you are back to square one again, when you could've spent all that time COMPLETING YOUR SONG!!!
Another tip that should fuel your fire to keep on going, is that you MAY be the WORST singer, or WORST songwriter OR even the World's WORST entertainer, but you might just still have what IT takes to make it BIG and make millions and touch people all over the world!!! I can think of three HUGE multi-platinum artists that can't sing a lick. One guy, I've NEVER heard him sing on key once, but I LOVE his uniqueness and I connect with his style and what he has to say. I've heard of SO many people get all frustrated cause they'll be representing someone who is truly gifted that blows the big acts away, but they are not making it. Reason being, they are the best YES!!! But they don't have what IT takes to make it big. Shocked? Surprised? We'll, study IT and learn IT, so you can pick it out.
And a FINAL tip when surviving the grind in Nashville: When someone says that "they are busy" and don't have time to hang out, ya know, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, they might be. But when MOST people in town says that, the credibility of that statement goes down tremendously. So don't worry about it. In order for a person to stay in business, it's in their BEST interest to say that they are always busy. It creates the allusion that they are SOMEBODY, and know that statistically speaking, you'll keep calling back. You'll also notice that MOST people are in this town for themselves, and have no interest in forming TRUE friendships. So my final conclusion, is that if someone says they are busy, more than likely, probably 80% chance that they are feeding you a line of BS.That's all for now!!
See ya out there!!
Travis Watson
