Hi there,
I’ve spent a lot of cyber inches defending the practice of singing
‘other people’s songs’ but today I’m going to be the Devil’s Advocate. Here's
why you should not sing covers if you want to be an original music artist:
 |
| Amanda Gaga |
1. Branding Badly – The pilgrimage
from disco queen territory to cool indie princess land is a long and arduous
one. If you want to make a decent living from singing covers, chances are you
will be singing pop and dance hits from the last three decades. Once you
establish a reputation – among punters and industry – as this type of
performer, it’s hard work shaking that image and establishing a new one at the
other end of the spectrum of cool.
2. Sullying your Style – Becoming an
original artist is all about finding and honing what is individual about you.
On the other hand, the best cover and session singers can sing just about
anything and do it convincingly. Cover singers spend so much time in Lady
Gaga’s songwriting shoes that it can drag their skills and style in everybody’s
direction but their own.
3. Distracting Habits – A few gigs a week, a few sets a gig adds up to lots
of other people’s songs to be learnt. And if you want to stay in that game you
can’t rest on your repertoire. It needs to be constantly refurbished and revised.
Precious time that you could be spending writing your own masterpieces.
4. Losing the Love – sweaty, sleazy punters (show me one cover singer who’s
never heard ‘Show us Yer Tits’ during a normal night’s work); a sound system
from 1975 that makes it almost impossible to hear yourself sing; being on stage
in front of a Spinal Tap-worshipping guitarist making it almost impossible to
hear yourself sing; venues that make you sit in a broom cupboard in between
sets and then ‘forget’ to pay you…you get the picture and I’m only
scratching the surface of this particular image. If you were doing your own
thing you might see a light through the end of the tunnel of poker machines,
but sometimes singing Beyonce and Britney night after night just doesn’t make
this scene worth it!
5. Showing your Bad Side – When you write for yourself, you custom the
songs to suit you. You don’t have to try to sound like Ke$ha to please the
punters. Your own lyrics reflect the way
only you would express yourself and you can manoeuver the melody to sit in your
sweet spot. You’re presenting a brand new piece of art that is all you with no
compromises and shows you at your best.
Next time: ‘Five Reasons You SHOULD Sing Covers’.
As usual, love to hear what you think,
Cheers,
Amanda
