Jack Gibson, bassist for Exodus, spoke to Danielle Bloom where he was asked what advice he could give to young musicians who are taking their first steps in their career.
Gibson bitterly responded that he “doesn’t know” what to say to young people, because “not only am I exhausted, but there is no music industry today.”
The bassist then explained what has changed since his youth. “Before, there was a path to follow: you formed the band, recorded music, played concerts and, if you managed to get people to the concerts, the next step was to contact a record label to see if they were interested,” he began by saying.
“None of those steps exist anymore. Now, you don’t even need to form a band, you just need to go viral on social media. And I don’t know how to do that, don’t ask me to do it. I’m 50 years old, I don’t know how to do that stuff.”
“I get asked that question by young musicians all the time,” he continued, “and I always feel like an idiot for saying, ‘I don’t know.’ I don’t know why the bands that are popular today are popular. I’m not saying they’re not good; I’m saying I don’t know why those are the ones that stand out.”
While he agrees that we live in very different times from those in which Exodus formed in 1979, Gibson lamented “the lack of an industry.” “As soon as they started giving away music for free, the industry ceased to exist. We don’t sell records anymore; if we don’t go out on the road and sell T-shirts, we don’t make any money. I’m not a musician anymore, I’m a T-shirt salesman.”
The bassist was also not hopeful about the future: “We’re going to end up losing our jobs to robots. As soon as Artificial Intelligence can make music that people like, they won’t pay us for shit,” he said.
Source: expresso.pt
