How does an independent musician make a living in Australia, raise a family, buy a house and put some money aside?
In part one of this piece we looked at Williamson’s journey of discovering the music scene – what is his secret to staying above the water in the inevitable lean times an artist goes through?
Every week is different
No two weeks are the same. In the previous month, the band had played a week in New Caledonia. When they flew back Williamson played a school concert on Wednesday, the Brunswick Green on Thursday with singer Michelle Nicole, and two gigs on Saturday at Melbourne’s Paris Cat with singer Heather Stewart.
A special gig was the New Orleans–style funeral of jazz drummer and composer Alan Browne, who formed the Red Onion Jazz Band around 1960. “It was an honour to play,” Paul said. ‘My father took me in 1967 to a Red Onions gig, a farewell concert before they went to Europe.’
Teaching & mentoring
Paul has taught music for up to three and a half days a week. He tried it full-time for a bit, but it was “not for me”.
“I can write things for them easily,” he says, “I can make things sound easy for them – it’s just a skill from running lots of bands: you can harmonise things, get people up and running, and give them ideas. A lot of kids have no idea how to solo, so you give them a couple of notes, a limited vocabulary, and say, ‘Hammer on those and you’ll get through that.’ And I can do that quick – if a kid has got a solo, sometimes they’ll give them very difficult chord changes, so I’ll give them a road map through there within their expertise that’ll sound good.”
The sax-playing lessons Paul posted on the Digital Pill website have half a million hits, fully half the total traffic for the website.
Paul has also had his own mentors. “You see people doing gigs, someone like Wilbur [Wilde], he’s always a really great player, can do that rock ’n’ roll thing and play jazz; he’s a larger-than-life character. Camilleri was a great saxophonist, the only saxophone player I’d ever heard of in Oz was Joe Camilleri.”
He also had a lesson from Lenny Pickett, the tenor saxophonist who leads the Saturday Night Live band and was a long-time leader in the 1970s to mid-’80s of the Tower of Power horn section.
Marketing & branding
“Marketing has never been one of my strong points,” Williamson admits.
“Marketing for me is just keep doing it. Stay at it, say yes… There’s a video of Michael Brecker giving a talk to kids at Berklee College of Music saying that when he got to New York he took every gig he could – because you never know where that gig will lead you.
“And always do a good job.”
Turn up on time and look good.
“When I worked with Allan Browne, drummer with Vince Jones at the time, Allan’d say, ‘Turn up on time and look good.’ As naff as that may sound, there’s a lot of people who do not heed that and consequently fall foul of something along the way.”
Facebook is Williamson’s preferred publicity channel – he’s gathered 1100 Facebook friends. “Facebook is a good tool to find out what’s going on and to let people know what’s going on,” he says. “I haven’t got a website – I’ve been meaning to, it’s just one of those things I haven’t got around to doing.”
Managing the money
Williamson has renovated two houses in the last couple of years. “It’s kept me very busy. Now I’ve just gone through a fire and we’ve got to move out soon and it’s a real pain.”
Rather than depending on an accountant, Williamson is constantly aware of cashflow. “My secret to staying above water is just to keep saying yes,” he says.
“I come from a fairly frugal family and that’s been instilled into me – if you can’t afford it you don’t buy it – so I’ve always been very frugal, salted money away and bought a house young. If you decide to have children then the concept of being turfed out … I just couldn’t think of it. So I bought a house and then I bought another house and I’ve managed to make it work.”
Paul’s tips for success
“Just take it seriously, do the best job you can and don’t piss people around,” Williamson says.
“If you keep performing at a good level people are going to enjoy it and everything will work. You get much more out of music than you put in.”
“I’ve toured a lot with people. You’ve gotta be resourceful, know how to get things done, don’t lose it and get along with people.” Paul explains that sometimes the money’s not so good and you can’t make the best travel arrangements. “There’s a lot of people I’ve seen who don’t travel well,” he adds.
“It’s just that thing of being frugal and working and looking after the music. If you play good, you’re gonna work.”
Jackey Coyle, Wordy Gurdy Publishing, www.wordygurdy.com.au
This article first appeared in issue 11 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine
Photo: courtesy of Leo Dale
