User:Enzo Dragon/paper

I have been interested in music for a very long time, the intensity of which has only fairly recently come to fruition. My immediate family are all artists in their own style – my mother has a talent for drawing, my father for writing. I found myself writing recreationally at the age of nine, but it wasn’t until I was fourteen and I had joined a band as a vocalist and lyricist that I began writing poetry in the context of lyrics. Since then, I’ve been in a few local bands, generally incarnations of older projects, new names to the same idea. I’ve learned quite a few things about being a musical artist in a few areas of the field – from working with bandmates to performing on stage to managing the tools necessary in the recording process.

Being a musical artist doesn’t require education in the traditional sense, though there certainly is a lot to learn in all areas of the field – from working with studio equipment to playing instruments. Learning these things may require a mentor (a voice instructor, for example) and there are certainly schools that offer these sorts of things, though even if one attends such a school, the bulk of the learning is done outside of the classroom working on various projects that the instructor has assigned. Past the artistic aspect of the career, there is a fierce business aspect. It’s important that one is able to book shows with local venues. There is a point an act may reach where it becomes nearly mandatory to hire someone else – called a booking agent – to take care of booking for them as demand for their act increases.

Responsibilities are very few in the beginning, though as the popularity of a musical artist’s act increases, they may choose to sign to a record label. A record label becomes an artist’s boss, and the artist is responsible for maintaining the contract that has been made between them and the distributor. This