In this interview spotlight, we chat with music industry veteran Pete Berwick about changes in the industry over the last few decades, his influences and music, his book (The Bar Singer), favorite physical formats and much more.
Full Q&A along with links and videos can be found below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
I am based in Northern Illinois, close to the Wisconsin border, though I have lived in Florida, Texas, and Nashville. I have a hard time describing my music, because over the course of six albums, and the seventh on the way, my songwriting has run the gamut of punk and country and rock and folk. It gets labeled as cowpunk, and I have used that label in marketing, but have grown weary with it. I am basically a songwriter. My new album, which I am still penning and tweaking some of the songs, will be a diversion of sorts from my past work, though I try not to think too much on how one album compares with the next. I just try to create the best work possible and challenge myself as a songwriter to take my writing to a higher level.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to stay the course?
At the age of fifty nine I am staying true to the little kid I once was, around eight or nine, who saw Dean Martin on TV in the early 60s and wondered where one applied for that job, and made a promise to himself that he would never be a slave to the day job but find a way to be a professional entertainer. I’m not really sure what motivates me anymore other than possibly insanity and stubbornness. It’s just who and what I am, the way I am wired. There is no turning back for me or a career change–this is who I am. Growing artistically is the one focus that keeps me sane in this business, because the return on the investment is small and far between if one’s only goal is more fame and popularity instead of a love and devotion to the art of music. I have always been naturally driven, was born that way. I don’t think too much about it, I just get up really early everyday and pick up where I left off the day before. I try to live in the Now, which is not always easy in this business, because you always have to be looking ahead and behind you.
How have things changed since you first found yourself in the music biz? Are they good or bad changes?
Actually, I hate these times, though I make the best of them. I have always believed I was born at least fifteen years too late, but I never really had a choice in that matter. Very few are interested in CDs anymore, which is a shame, because the album is an artform, a beginning and middle and end, just as a book is, but in these ADD times people don’t have time for that. I personally have never downloaded a song, and I am an avid reader, have written four novels myself, and will never own a Kindle. What we have today is everyone and their mother trying to get noticed and “famous” online. Yes, the Internet is a great tool, and one would be a fool not to employ it, but it is a hard reality that hits you when you realize that you will merely get lost in the infinite wasteland of it all.
Being a live performer and entertainer is still the key. Sweat and blood and guts and reality–actually getting out into the world and into the trenches. I cannot and will never relate to technological “rock stars” who spend all their time selling themselves online instead of making a go at it in the real world. Johnny Cash and Keith Richards didn’t spend all day on Facebook trying to amass a lot of LIKES.
I don’t know, these times are just sort of creepy to me, and it’s all hard to digest. Mass Iphone addiction disturbs me. The same person that almost runs you off the road because they are looking at the crackbox in their hand ends up being the same one out in the audience gazing into it in search of the next dopamine high instead of at you as you perform. Few people are interested in living in the Now anymore.
And as far as record labels and the fat cat guy behind the desk chomping on a cigar telling you he is going to make you rich and famous–well, wake up from that wet dream, because it ain’t happening. My best advice to any young upstarts and those harboring those fantasies is to look in the mirror and say hello to the only one who can guide your career. It is all in the artist’s hands anymore. It’s all do it your damn self. It takes a hell of a lot of work, every day, and it is not easy. Those who fantasize about instant online success, or whatever, are in for a long and hard fall. My best advice is instead of praying for some manager to lead you to success, learn how to manage yourself. Read the books, take some courses, learn all you can about the music business. Get out there and perform every day of the week if possible.
Bleed and sweat and live and die for it. It’s war, is what it is, and nothing less.
How do you listen to music these days? Vinyl? CD? Streaming? Other?
CDs in the car and home, youtube when I am doing research in my home office.
Where can we follow you online and hear more music?
www.peteberwick.net and https://www.facebook.com/berwickpete
My youtube chanel is https://www.youtube.com/user/peteberwick
I have little to no use for Twitter.
Anything else before we sign off?
Well, there’s always something else, but we could be here all day. My 500-page novel “The Bar Singer” covers a lot of ground, truth and history mixed with fiction, and is available on my website or Amazon.
