It’s no secret that the lifestyle of an artist can be quite fun with all the glitz and glam of the entertainment world. However, Australian musicians at the 2024 ARIA Awards have challenged that perspective by dropping a heap of boiling tea about what the music industry is really like.
When I think of what it’s like to be a musician, scenes from MTV Cribs and Fergie‘s “Glamorous” weigh heavy on my mind. I’m thinking fur coats, shots after shots, cash shmoney and not a care in the world.
However, speaking to PEDESTRIAN.TV at the 2024 ARIA Award red carpet, a handful of musicians revealed that it’s all a damn facade.
Australia’s Kobie Dee revealed that there’s a lot of “sacrifice” and “hard work” that musicians have to put in when it comes to the industry. However, it often gets overshadowed by all the fancy perks that come with being an artist.
“[The biggest misconception] is that it’s all glitz and glamour and life is so much easier and better,” the artist began.
“There’s a lot of hard work, there’s a lot of sacrifices, there’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears that goes into being an artist and so much that we invest within ourselves and within our craft that people don’t see. “
Sycco (Sasha McLeod) chucked in her two cents by adding that there’s a lot of waiting when you become an Artist. Kinda like a corporate purgatory, if you catch my drift.
“A lot of it is just waiting around in the airport and yeah, you gotta have a lot of patience,” Sycco shared, before realising that this lesson could also be applied to everyday life.
New Zealand’s Luca George admitted that even though a majority of musos were dressed to the nines for the ARIAs, it’s usually all for show.
“On a day like this, I’m dressed in a really expensive suit and like really fancy bags and pants but I have three dollars in my account,” George shared.
George isn’t the only artist who voiced their reality on the financial side of the music industry. Sydney pop duo Cat & Calmell echoed their fellow artist’s sentiment, stressing that musos do not get paid enough.
“[The biggest misconception] is that you live glamorously or have any kind of money,” Cat began.
“Yes, artists are broke as fuck!” Calmell jumped in before revealing that she felt she’d “lost a lot of her friends along [her] journey” because they thought she had a different lifestyle to us normies.
“If anything, started from the bottom, I’m still at the bottom and that’s okay,” Calmell laughed.
“We’re doing what we liked to do,” Cat continued.
“Did we go on tour in Europe? Yes. Were we eating Mi Goreng and instant noodles the entire time we were in Europe? Yes.”
Although money and straight-up ~ vibes ~ seem to be the biggest misconceptions of being an artist, most of them agreed that it was all well worth it because they were doing something they loved, which is delivering crunchy AF tunes and making bloody art.
But with cozzie livs, I don’t blame them for not being paid enough. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: PAY YOUR BLOODY ARTISTS!!!
The post Artists Reveal The Biggest Misconceptions About The Music Industry: ‘There’s A Lot Of Hard Work’ appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
