Thursday, January 10, 2008 - Quantity Is Just As Important As Quality
Yes. It’s true. I said it. I believe it and I know that it is. This is my most recent revelation. It is also a great lesson, as I listen to more musicians and read more and more writers. I have gained a lot of respect for any artist who has a “body of work”.
Think of any artist you know. Anyone. I dare you. Think of any actors, directors, producers, songwriters, musicians, painters, models, sculptors, and any other artists. Anyone. Do they have a “body of work”? Fame and success is not a factor here whatsoever. As long as the artist has a “body of work” they are proud of, that is something to be proud of. In my opinion, that is what amounts to success. I’m sure anyone would agree. There are more failed musicians and writers alive and dead than there are successful ones, alive or dead. As the idea of becoming a published author and an established songwriter and musician overtakes my ambitious and determined mind, I have become very sure of the fact, that “quantity is just as important as quality”.
A year and a half ago, I decided to put together a rock band to do one thing. That is, to record an album that I can be proud of. I found and collaborated with a great singer, found a lead guitar player, and I learned to play bass and recorded most of the acoustic guitar tracks on the album. I also sought out a drummer to record the drum tracks. I bought all the equipment necessary to record and mix the songs. The band recorded eleven songs, and nine of my own songs are in the album. I then found a recording studio and had the songs mixed, edited, and mastered by a professional recording engineer. In the end, everyone in the band, especially myself, were very proud of the result.
But the end result wasn’t enough. The goal went from recording an album, which wasn’t very easy to accomplish, to recording a “body of work” immediately, almost as soon as the album was done. As a band, we played some live gigs locally; worked on some old songs we didn’t record, and wrote some new ones. But from what I can see, the hunger for quantity became just as important as quality.
If you listen to the album, you’d probably “love” a couple of songs, and maybe just “like” a few others, and “not care” for other ones. You might love the album, but you won’t necessarily love every single song. The entire band, including myself, feels the same way, but in the very core, we are proud of the album. But again, this is only one album. Not yet a “body of work”. My goal is to record at least three more full-length albums, with about a dozen songs each. That way, if we are ever asked to play for a two-hour gig (it happens all the time), then it won’t be an issue. It is because, you guessed it: we have a “body of work” we can be proud of.
With every musician’s albums, every writer’s books, every painter’s paintings, etc, all the previously mentioned logic applies!
In the business world, or any world for that matter, the same logic also applies. “It’s a numbers game.” “Practice makes perfect.” You win some, you lose some.” “Never give up.” I truly hate these everyday clichés, but these really do apply. The continuing effort, or quantity, amounts to eventually, more quality. One of my favorite quotes of all time is Winston Churchill’s: “Success is going from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm.” He’s also saying: “Quantity is just as important as quality.” And that person who doesn’t want to do anything “unless it’s quality”, doesn’t get anything done whatsoever! Unfortunately, that’s the majority of the world, alive or dead.
As I work on the columns, such as this one you are reading, (I have about twenty now, and the goal is one hundred a year) and the books I’m currently writing, the new songs, I am creating a “body of work”. My only criteria, again, is that will I be proud of them. The quality is secondary, because I am sure not everyone is going to like every column, every book, or every song that I will ever write. As long as I like them, I will eventually be proud of them.
I have always expressed that in writing songs, stories, columns, etc., if you like what you have accomplished, the goal is to put others in your shoes, and they will most likely see the same quality you’ve produced, and like it the same way you like it. Let others see what you see. They might not like every single thing, but I’m sure they’ll like some of what you like. Isn’t that what art is all about? It’s just really about sharing, isn’t it?
I know it’s a very subjective matter, but there aren’t too many artists that I know of that most can say “every thing they did was quality”. Personally, and I do mean personally, I would suggest the Beatles, Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Stanley Kubrick, just to name a few. These artists, if you look at every single thing they created, was absolutely quality. I am a huge Beatles fan, but I don’t particularly think every song they wrote was great. In my opinion every album they recorded was great, but not every song. As for Shakespeare, Michelangelo, and Stanley Kubrick, I would argue that every single work they did was great! (I am even a bigger fan of the band U2, so I personally find quality in everything they’ve done! I honestly don’t know why I like those guys so much!)
If you don’t know whom Stanley Kubrick is, you are missing out on the greatest filmmaker of our time. After Steven Spielberg finished his movie ET-The Extraterrestrial, and became a household name, he was quoted as saying: "I would like to get to the level of Stanley Kubrick”. Talk about quality!
I’ve recently been reading Charles Bukowski’s writings. If you know who Bukowski is or what kind of life he had, it was amazing that he was even able to write at all. He was a self-confessed gambler and a drunk, who was at times a vagrant and a bum. In a lot of ways, he lived a “Franciscan” gospel life. I love some of his poems and stories, but most of them I would argue are pretty silly and ordinary writing. He also found romance and poetry in the most mundane things. Bukowski just wrote, and wrote, and wrote, and the result was: he created an amazing “body of work”. His greatness, in my opinion, is not just in quality, but also in quantity.
Sometimes I think: “ambition is not a blessing, it’s a curse!”
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