The Oenyaw Proclamation

The Oenyaw Proclamation

An observation of the world we live in.
Why is it that nothing is done because it needs to be done?  Anything and everything is only done if there is money to be made.  Not just covering expenses, but maximizing profits is the reason behind every act.  All business is so driven by the maximization of profit, that lie cheat and steal have become accepted, if not sought after qualities.  Medicine, law enforcement, religion, education, art, music have all been reduced to nothing but ways of making money. Our society has become so driven by profit, and the goal to be number one in everything we do has led us to the brink of the destruction of the indiviual.

I can only speak for myself as a musician.
Some musicians make a living by touring and selling t-shirts and cds at shows.  Fewer musicians make a living making hits for the pop machine, and they become popular and travel all over the world, but from what I have learned from studying these individuals over the past 40 years is that they really don't make a whole lot of money for themselves, the largest percentage goes inot the pop machine.  Most musicians are like me, making a living at a day job, and posting music on the internet.  In that category, many of these musicians sell their music via hard copy cds or downloads.  Some make a few bucks, enough for a nice bottle of wine or maybe even a piece of equipment that they have been wanting.  I used to be in a really cool band that considered what we did as lunch money.  Let me tell you, if you can play a gig once a month for two years and consistantly make lunch money, you're pretty close to the level of professional musician.

Freedom.
I made a conscious decision last year NOT to even attempt to make any money off of my music.  I did not want to put any of my discs on the internet for sale.  I tried that once, but after a year, and a really good bottle of wine, I found that most people who visited my website were looking for a used Epiphone Sheraton (I listed "equipment used: Epiphone Sheraton").  Most of the activity on my PayPal page were people trying to hack into my bank account.  It was a long and humiliating exercise, but I turned it into a positive experience.

Radio/Internet "Airplay"
It would be absolutely insane to expect anyone to play my music on their webspace.  The tracks are so long that playing one of mine would mean that 10 to 75 other people would not get played at all.  I played around with the idea of changing the music, making it shorter, conforming to that 5 minute song format.  My music would not allow such a thing to happen.  I have done shorter material, but even the shortest pieces become part of a much larger item.  My son has awoken me to a concept of disgruntlement among music listeners.  I thought I was a dinosaur, the only one who would only buy an "album," but through him I found that I was not alone.  He told me that what he like in my music was that it was all presented in album form.  Even with the music being incredibly long, and the albums being 5-6 hours in length, the concept of "the album" is always there.

So....
If you want a hard copy of one of my discs, ask me.  The same goes if you want to use my music for a project or get me to play at your house for a diner party.  We'll work something out.  I'm easy to deal with.