The 5 Browns – HuffPost 10.8.13

Mike Ragogna: I have a traditional question, and it’s an annoying question, and yet I will ask it because I know you’ll forgive me afterwards since you’re all so cool. What advice do you have for new artists? Please, I’d love for each of you to answer, if that’s okay.

Deondra: Sure, sure! My advice for new artists would be just to find what type of music you love, what you feel you can attach to, and play it as genuinely as you can. Don’t take “no” for an answer. If you get somebody who doesn’t want to be your manager or you get declined here or there for your album, just keep out there. The relationships that you form are so important. Nico Muhly, for instance, like Desirae said, composed the piece for five pianos and orchestra for us and we met him back at Juilliard. So go out and meet people and make those connections. You never know when you’ll be working with these people. The music business is full of artists who are performers and then went and took their talents in a different direction. Feel free to, just as much as you can, get yourself out there.

Desirae: I remember some of the best advice we ever got was from one of our teachers at Juilliard. He said, “Find your niche.” You go to your conservatory and you’re expected to play Bach and Beethoven and Mozart, this full range, but it doesn’t mean you have to make your career doing that. We made our career playing five pianos. Who does that? Don’t be afraid to think a little bit out of the box. Find your space in the music world and just enjoy living there.

Gregory: What I would say is don’t be afraid of doing things differently than everyone else has done them. I know we had multiple discussions early on about what direction we wanted to take our careers and sometimes, it was hard making some of the decisions that had been made because they hadn’t been made before and people weren’t doing those things. But we decided that we should be ourselves and go about our career the way we want to even though that’s not the stereotypical way. I think people understood the authenticity of that and they can see that we’re just having fun and playing music the way we want to play it, and I think that resonated with audiences. If people are just authentic with themselves and they’re not afraid to do something new, then I think there’s a possibility they’re in there.

Melody: I think a big thing is to be “current.” For instance, in the classical music world, you go to school and you think, “I’m just going to be playing my Bach and my Beethoven and I’m just going to lock myself in a practice room and that’s all I’m going to do.” But what you don’t realize is when you get out of school, suddenly you’re supposed to be able to relate to an audience. Suddenly, you’re supposed to be wearing clothing that relates to younger people, like Yuja Wang, the famous pianist that’s making the rounds right now. Not only is she an amazing, amazing artist, but she’s cool. She’s wearing cool clothes. Don’t take for granted the avenues of social media. We’re just finally starting to get more into it and it’s funny because all of these elements of being current, of being able to be connected to your audience through social media and being able to be marketed in a way that gets people excited, all of those things, I think, are really important and when you’re in school nobody tells you that. Nobody tells you that you’re going to have to learn to do all of these things, learn how to work with a website, learn how to work with managers, just be “people” people. A lot of times as musicians, we just want to be introverted and lock ourselves in a practice room and that’s just not how it is these days.

Ryan: I’m the last one, so there might be some similarities to what other people said, but I think that for young musicians or musicians just starting out, it’s important to still have fun with the music. I know that a lot of kids get inundated with how much work it takes and the practicing behind it, but it’s important to try to find, like Deondra said, some pieces or music that you personally want to learn, not just what your teacher wants you to learn. Also, work with your teacher to find out what suits your personality best. I think that can cause a lot more fun in the practice room and in your performances as well. Also for young musicians, I feel like it’s important to try other types of music, like singing, playing the violin or piano, try different instruments and see what you take to the most.