Bob James – HuffPost 11.11.11

Mike Ragogna: What advice do you have for new artists?

Bob James: Well, it would be right along those lines. I don’t believe there are any shortcuts, so the better prepared you are, the better your chances of having a successful career. I hear a lot of young artists talk about needing to get a break–I believe that everybody gets the break, but it’s a question of what you do when that break happens. Many people that I see struggling are not as prepared as they should be when that time comes. Getting a break can mean many different things. It can just be having the right person hear what you do at the right time and word of mouth takes over, which is a very powerful part of our field. I’ve seen it happen so many times when somebody seizes that moment when the break happens, and just show off what they’ve done with all that hard work and preparation. The upside of that is limitless. The laziness that I see happening with people that are looking for shortcuts or people who have misinterpreted what they see on television–they can sort of make it look really easy to do those things that successful people do, when in fact it really isn’t. To me its no shortcuts. Work hard and be realistic about what you instinctively know is your gift because that’s different for everybody. Not everybody is destined to have the talent and instinct to be a performer, and there are people who no amount of practice will ever make that a possibility. They love music and they’d love to be able to do it, but it’s just not in the cards for them.

MR: That may be one of the fullest answers I think I’ve ever gotten to that question.

BJ: Well, really nobody knows the answer. There are exceptions all the way down the line of everything that I’m saying even. There certainly are people who become instantly successful with seemingly very little effort because they happened to be able to do the right thing at the right time to grab the attention of a large audience. I can only sort of generalize based on seeing a lot of different situations go down. If you want to be a realist and not have to limit yourself to being one in a million, the realistic person prepares as much as they possibly can. I think that will always serve you well no matter what you end up doing.