Stand and show thyself, Guitarsmith of the Ages!

Last night I had the good fortune of hanging out with my cousin John. We spent the evening shooting pool and generally being lazy, however the topic of conversation quickly turned to his music career that he’s looking to get off the ground.

John and I have agreed that I will be the responsible brains behind his talent. That means when he tries to do stupid things, it is my job to dissuade him. Previous incarnations of this action have been me convincing him that it was completely necessary to copyright your music before you go playing it in bars, sharing it with burnout friends, looking to record it in any fashion. He has yet to scrape up the money to file a copyright form with the Library of Congress, but he is listening to me at the very least.

John is trying desperately to forge himself an image that is unique and memorable. I contend that his music can stand on it’s own (because it is *very* good) and he doesn’t need gimmick names or punk friends of his to make himself marketable. Last night he was adamant about hiding himself behind some crappy band name for his acoustic stuff that he wants to do. I told him that it was better to brand his music with his real name so that he gets “known” as his music becomes more popular. He wanted to use the band name “5 O’Clock Shadow” which, while a kickass name for an album, sucks for an image.

John was also concerned that using his real name (which he shares with a “famous” jazz guitarist that played with Miles Davis) would lead to confusion. I had never heard of this person so I proceeded to point out that many people share names, and the people that will buy into John’s music would probably not be the same crowd that would seek out an aging jazzman.

After consulting my lovely wife about a marketing perspective, I was able to talk him down to branding his stuff as John McLoughlin: 5 O’Clock Shadow so he could drop the tag-on should he become famous/want to change his image/feel like it. I’m going to begin crafting a website for him very soon, as he’s heading into the studio in the next month or so. We’re going to be committing his first set of stuff to iTunes nearly immediately after the copyright forms get in, and we’ll see what sticks.