Why I'm Not famous

I've actually had people ask me why I'm not famous for my music. However, it's usually asked by people that don't personally know me, which I think answers the question perfectly.

But let's examine it anyway.

Here is a poem that a former landlord wrote about me:

"My name's not Mick, and my name's not Seamus,
My name is Paddy, and I'm will never be famous."

Were I a different type of idiot, I would consider the idea that magic is real and that I had been literally and actually cursed.

Because I am the type of idiot that I am, I consider that absolute poppycock.

Hehe.

'cock'.

"What are you, 12? Jeez."

Also, I have no interest in maintaining a social media presence, I actively hate and avoid people because they suck at society which somehow means that I suck at society, I no longer perform and 'not releasing songs' is the only way I have to make sure I'm not bringing joy to racists and paedophiles, because, you know, fuck those guys.

So, basically, in reality, the actual answer is that I'm clearly way too impressed with myself to try and fit in with the current so-called 'entertainment' infrastructure because I never grew out of my teen angst "NOBODY UNDERSTANDS ME" phase.

Further, I am quite possibly the living embodiment of the musical version of the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

But it MIGHT be because magic is real. You never know!

Hey - whatever, as long as it's not my fault...

-------------

All jokes aside, people have often said to me: "If I had your talent, I'd be rich."

I agree completely.

But, unfortunately for all concerned, I was the one given my talents, and I have weird rules about stuff (like 'not wanting terrible people to listen to my music'), so, it was ruined before it began.

Talent doesn't happen in a vacuum. Every artist is different, but my musical abilities have more to do with 'curiosity about patterns' than 'talent' or 'skill'. For instance, to this day I still can't shred ('play guitar really fast').

But I can tell you why another guitarist's shredwork is good or bad, using maths.

Just gonna leave this here for no reason at all...

THAT'S my talent. Finding the MATHS in music.

My talent isn't in 'replicating other people's songs'. I can do that, but why bother? It's not like I ever made money on it. Others can. I cannot.

My talent isn't in 'writing music that people want to hear'.

Those two things are why I will never be famous. Which suits me fine - when you're famous, you have to 'waste time staying famous' instead of 'creating the kind of work that made you famous', and people stop judging your work on its own merits.

I wanted to be famous when I was younger.

I honestly think that it would have destroyed me.

I would've had no incentive to have changed my personality in a manner that allows me to spend time with the few humans that I do want to spend time with. I could go on and on about that, but I won't.

Nowadays, I am grateful that I never even achieved local fame. The social responsibility that I always wanted to bring to the role, the one original thing I had to give, is par for the course now anyway.

That social responsibility, though.

I said before that I don't want to bring joy to racists and paedophiles, and that remains true.

But I don't have people like that in my life anymore, and seeing as it's most likely only my friends that will buy my music, well maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way.

So, I'll do it. I'll release stuff.

Just a random picture to break up the text. Do not overthink this.

You're looking for a metaphor, aren't you?

(sigh)  Next time, I'll just use a picture of some fluffy bunnies or something

But let's be 100% clear - I'm doing this for ME. I tried writing music that I thought other people would like, and they didn't.

I tried. For decades.

So, you can question and judge all sorts of shit about me if you want - but you cannot question my tenacity until you suck at something for 30+ years without quitting.

The only thing I ever 'quit' was performing. That wasn't 'lazy of me' that was 'a really stupid mistake to begin with'.

Or maybe it was lazy of me and I'm just delusional. That's certainly not impossible.

I just don't care anymore.

Final Transmission - Original Cover Art

What, do you want me to write 'Final Transmission' in bright blue crayon or something, stores?

This is the intended cover for my first single, Final Transmission.

The stores rejected it because 'it wasn't clearly titled'.

The title, Final Transmission is clearly written in Binary. Granted, that's not a common method of communication for humans, which is kind of the point of the song itself. Thematically, it is literally PERFECT. But I wasn't allowed to use it.

How does this restriction benefit the creator or the consumer?  I see no reason to blindly accept that there is any good reason for this anti-artistic nonsense, especially seeing that no good reason was given me. The reason was 'because the art was confusing, because it didn't have the title on it'.

Okay, but...seriously, who cares?

"Oh, I meant to buy the latest Nine Inch Nails album but I accidentally bought a Taylor Swift album instead, because neither of them had the name written in hot pink across the cover in Times New Roman" said nobody ever.

"I thought this song was called Final Transmission, not Hell Zero or Hello or whatever that's supposed to say, because I don't know how to read a store webpage properly" - also said by nobody ever.

So, essentially, the artwork was rejected "because 'reasons' or whatever".

Pffft.

Artistic restrictions should happen either 'due to circumstance' or 'artistic reasons'.

They should NOT happen because idiots wearing business suits want their life to be easy, or whatever their damn reasoning is, which I have no way of knowing, apart from "derp derp just shut up and do what we say derpa derp"

I have two choices: Change the art, or don't release the single.

Along with 'being creative in the so-called album art for my song', do you know what else I'm not allowed to do?

I'm not allowed to put a website address on it.

Yet, the actual store-sanctioned album art clearly displays the URL for this very page written in Binary, plain as day!

Now THAT'S art.

- Paddy

My distributors, DistroKid, are fantastic. My issue isn't with them, it's with the stores, so I wanted to make it clear that this post wasn't about them in ANY way.