Hey – I’m Sel.  I'm a Capricorn. No I'm not.

 

I play guitar, make records and then try and sell them to people.  I’ve made lots of records for over a decade – sometimes with Major Labels, sometimes with Indie labels, and sometimes on my own label.

 

My greatest successes have been when I’ve just done everything myself – because it’s true – none cares more than you do yourself – infact,  I’ve just been awarded an IMPALA silver award for selling 20,000+ copies of the  last album which I released on my own label. 

 

Anyway - as a consequence I have a lot of experience in everything that is related to making records – from the principles of artistic thought and understanding the process of creation, through to setting up a record label – manufacturing physical products – understanding why CMYK 100 doesn’t work on the printing press and why the master you have got is not going to work on the vinyl cut.

 

I have toured the world with my band Amplifier, promoted my own tours, worked with agents promoters and played every sized gig from the dives and toilets in Europe through to the main stage at Download. And loved every single second. I know how to get around the withholding taxes in France and that BUMA are going to try and scalp my fee in the Netherlands if I don’t pull the promoter up on it.

 

All this is neither here nor there because all you need to know really is that If I can hustle a living doing music – then so can you

 

There is only one secret to making a living in the music industry - and that is to ask yourself a really simple question:

Why am I doing this?

 

That’s not really a question you can answer in 10 minutes on the toilet – but the important thing is to start thinking about it in the background.   When the chips are down it’s going to be your understanding of your commitment to your ambition that is going to keep you going and ultimately keep you in the game long enough to get to a place where you are happy.

It might not be the place you thought you were going – but I can guarantee that it will be somewhere really pretty cool.

 

Most importantly - Don’t forget to have fun,

because life is just a massively weird kind of game…