This morning had me thinking about the big music festival I started and later worked at until 2020. I started thinking about bands that charged a lot of money for what they do. I started thinking about how egregious until I realized it all came down to standards. It’s all about the standards we are willing to accept. Some bands were charging hundreds of thousands of dollars to perform. Were they any different than us? Were they better musicians? No. They had higher standards though. Their standards essentially established the difference between us and them. Ultimately: the person with the cheque-book will always look at the prices of the bands, and make the assumption that the cheap bands are going to be a wash. Why? Well why do you think they are who they are? They understand money. This is why they get to hold the cheque-book. If someone doesn’t have high standards for themselves, they won’t have high standards come show-time. How do you set standards though?
I remember talking to a lot of people south of the border in the United States who knew my name more than these other guys. When I would pitch myself and say that I had, “performed with so-and-so,” or “opened for this guy,” people in the United States of America didn’t care because they didn’t know who these people are. That’s because these guys aren’t any different than you and me. So why do people in this country hold them to such high regard?
For one: propaganda. The radio is propaganda. The radio plays their songs a lot. The news shows are propaganda. The news publishes stories about them. The algorithm that promotes their posts to you on social media is propaganda. The people who own the propaganda devices market their products, in this case these musicians, to you. That propaganda is effective in the areas where it is being broadcast. Unless I’m mistaken Dead Brody cost $250,000 in an artist fees back then with another few hundo-grand on top of that in production. Let me ask you something: who the f*ck is Dean Brody and why does anyone care?
Well if you’re from Canada you’d probably say, “Because he is on the radio, and he has all these hit songs, and he’s been playing all these big shows and…” but if you’re from the United States you might just nod and laugh because you’ve likely never heard of him unless you’re listening to SirusXM Canadian Country. This guy’s value south of the 49th would be way under that amount he’s asking for up here. So why is this person worth 250k in Canada?
The propaganda which this guy and his team have subjected the population to have resulted in the following, and since you know I like to break things down mathematically… $250,000 / $100 ticket = 2500 people buying tickets. I’ll be honest with you: there were that many people there who bought that ticket at that price …well sort of, if you don’t count crossover with other artists, people who snuck in, discounted tickets or giveaways… still that proves his worth. Okay so now let’s see: why are local bands playing for $850/3-set-night? Well, it’s because they have low standards. They just want to play shows. They have bought into the psyops of, “look: if you just grind hard enough you’ll make it,” or, “that’s where the real music lives: on these small stages all the other stuff is fake!” Yeah maybe, but at the end of the day people have got to eat. How many 3-set nights do you have to play to make $250,000 if you’re only making $850 a night? $250,000 / $850 = 295 concerts. Yikes. When you spell it out like that what was I doing all those years honky-tonkin’? Doesn’t bother me: I have lived the life I have lived thus far, and I have raised my standards considerably.
I have done things over the last 3 years which have added a lot to my value including: releasing albums, growing my audience, providing value to my audience, building communities for my audience, expanding with the audiences of other musicians, standing my ground in the face of adversity, and that’s just naming a little bit… The majority of musicians won’t go this extra mile though. They want to just do “what works” and shy away from taking risks. History will forget them. They do like to pretend while they are here though…
I can name a long list of bands and artists who have set standards way above their own value. In Canada I surmise the root of this is probably is because they receive a false sense of value from the government money-machine which is arts and entertainment grants. Would they put out the content they do, and could they survive, if that tap was just cut off right now? You know a lot of these big artists continue to claim taxpayer-funding in Canada right?
I remember that some bands didn’t want to take $800 for 1 set at a festival because “it wasn’t enough.” I saw those same bands draw 0. ZERO PEOPLE. These guys do not work to raise their value, but they want to get paid a days-wage because of a false-sense of entitlement. Who is more expensive when you net the gross?
As long as you do the leg work with that big artist, you probably won’t be losing much. You’re more likely to make money because people will want to sponsor the event, give you freebies, and go the extra mile to have an association with this big propagandized name. The small band on the other hand is being a leech, doing nothing and not bringing an audience. This costs more in the end. It doesn’t matter how hard you push these small times, people just won’t care if they don’t add value to the overall experience. People like propaganda. If people hate propaganda they have probably raised their standards, and this likely means their standard for “accepting an artist” into their lives have gone up as well. I believe my audience and I fit into this category: we have moved on from the old times…
I recently performed in Alberta at a fundraiser: those people were my people and I care about them. They cared about me. They showed up. The place had a lot of people out. I hustled all the way to the concert: I released an original 4-song EP, an 8 song free downloadable “road tunes” album, took over art and branding, and made supplementary promotional materials including promoting through podcasts on other networks. That’s the exception. That’s going the extra mile. I brought my higher standards to the event. I set these standards for myself for if I am involved in an event and I do my best to adhere to them. I also screwed up…
I allowed my standards to slip. The guys running the sound, God bless them they worked so hard, couldn’t get me a monitor mix so I could hear my own voice because we were all making due with that was available to us. The result was a very nasally vocal performance which I heard back and was mad about. That’s not how I sound. It wasn’t their fault though. You know whose fault is was? Mine. I should have waited until the problem was resolved, but I let my eagerness and desire to “help out” get the better of me. Next time that won’t be the case, but that is the process of raising these standards. It’s all a learning experience..
How do these standards translate into our regular lives?
Well for one: you need to set standards for the types of people you associate with. I know this might sound harsh, but if you don’t you’re just waiting to be taken advantage-of. Think of everyone who bought into the covid narrative: they were happy to toss anyone aside who didn’t play the game, didn’t take the vax, spoke up and said, “hey something feels off here…” Now that the covid narrative has been dismantled, many have decided to come back and try and reestablish contact. A bunch more are pretending nothing happened and it wasn’t a big deal: they literally called for people like me to be “put in camps” or “shot by child soldiers.” Do you not remember that? That isn’t going away…
If you’re like me, you have no interest in those people. They sold us out: do you think they’re not going to do it again? They’re going to do it first change they get. They are below my standards. They don’t have the courage, honor, or strength to be in my circle. Here’s another example…
Think about when I was slandered by the Canadian Liberal Government: how many people turned tail and ran on me? A lot. Pretty much everyone in the industry. Now that time has passed, and the Canadian Anti-Hate Network has been discredited as a bunch hate-mongering communist members of antifa who support pedophilia, people are starting to realize I was right when I called them all communists. I have new standards though. You should too. Do you know what “cAnAdIAn cOunTRY sInGerS” are? They’re communists. Do you like communists? Do communists not ruin everything? If they were silent, they didn’t get mobbed for speaking the truth, and they kept their heads down: they are communists and they will betray you. If you go to their concerts or support them, what does that make you?
I don’t have an open door policy. This is not a commune. This is not a shelter for lost cats. This is my life and my circle. I had an open door policy and look what it got me… I literally would help anyone and everyone regardless of who they were. I had stood up for people even when I didn’t agree with their beliefs because I was tricked into thinking this was the “right thing to do.” This is all false. This is not the right thing to do. It is not the right thing to accept people just because they’re people. I should have known better, but I let my standards slip. People who use you, then discard you when you are no longer beneficial, are parasites. My own personal standards for my beliefs, and the people I associate with, have been changed in a huge way by the people who have entered my life over the last few years as well as the experiences I have gone through.
Some of these people I used to associate with were dysgenic substance abusers who are proud satanists because “that’s what’s cool in music man”; absolute degenerates. I was psyopped into thinking this was okay because we should be tolerant of their beliefs. This couldn’t be any less okay. Look at the results: I fell into that world a bit too, but by the grace of God and those amazing people in my life who didn’t give up on me, here I am today doing important things for people I care about. Those other people took advantage of my kindness, as was taught to me by my family and my community growing up, and then used that kindness to get close to me only to hurt me later when it was advantageous to them. This is the behavior of a parasite: they act as though they are beneficial and then one day “poof” your ecosystem is destroyed. Cleanse yourself of parasites: it is all-the-rage these days anyways…
Is being afraid of being called bad names and avoiding confrontation really worth the long term destruction you will be subjected to? You do not get to go through life without conflict, especially not if you are a man. How many people do you know out there who are just going to die now because they were afraid of being labelled something by the slander machine? They’re too afraid to try detoxing the poisons in their lives because they don’t want to be labelled something by people who hate them. You need to realize that these labels from your enemies break your bonds; they break your chains. Your enemies think they’re hurting you by setting up this system of oppression, but once they strike they are freeing you because our enemies are ridiculous. All they are doing is from a satanic system of slavery: a prison with walls you can’t see, but accept because you don’t want to be brow beat by the slave-drivers. Slavery is their culture. Once they come at you to whip you, you either cower, or you find strength in your own way and break free. They hate it when you free yourself, hence: the slander machine. F*ck their whips and f*ck ‘em too. They are lesser than you. You have been through so much. Reclaim your strength. Assert it.
Strength means holding those around you accountable to your own standards. That doesn’t mean those around you can never slip up. What it does mean is you need to evaluate the true character of a person based on the things you can recognize about them. I have done this for myself, and because I have I live in far less fear of being ousted from any communities I am a part of. In turn, those members of those communities know that my character is solid. They rely on me to hold my ground and be strong. When people make up things about me now, I have a giant group of friends, followers, and colleagues who laugh at those libelists. My communities surround me and defend me, and I do it for them.
We have all raised our standard-of-acceptance for the information we receive so these libel-literaries who have nothing, not in real life, not on the internet, can squeal all they want like the pigs they are: they are nothing. You have to be among the stupidest most self-indentured self-whipping demoralized-rodent to believe any of the garbage being put out there by these goblins. It isn’t even well written… they are incapable of beautiful creation.
Don’t allow your kindness to make you drop your standards. You are not beholden to anyone. You don’t owe anyone anything. If you can raise the standards of yourself, of your community, and those around you, why wouldn’t you?
Are you being paid enough for your time? Are you being respected enough for your contributions? Maybe you need to start with your own standards for yourself: your self-respect is catamount. It is always better to charge into the fear of the unknown than it is to stay comfortable in a hostile environment. You might lose if you fight, but you will lose if you don’t fight…
Do not allow yourself to be fooled by false standards presented by people overvaluing themselves to you. This is greater than just pretenders: this is the media and their lies, this is the college system and their network of “published papers”, this is the “fact checkers” given false authority to tell you what is real and what isn’t. Use your eyes to see, and your ears to hear, and your mouth to speak the truth…
Do not allow yourself to settle for less. Make sure to do something that raises your personal standards and live a better life starting NOW.
There are a lot of merch items in the store at gregarcade.com including T-Shirts, Hats, Stickers, and digital albums. There is also a FAFA Fife And Fiddle Orchestra album available for purchase on CD. For a sample check out the playlist on my youtube
Have a wonderful weekend.