Brian Culbertson – HuffPost 4.4.14

Mike Ragogna: For what’s probably the tenth time, what is your advice for new artists?

Brian Culbertson: Ah, yes. It’s obviously a changing landscape daily in the music business. There’s a lot of young saxophone players out there that are trying to get somewhere and I try to tell people, “Hey, you’ve got to have good-sounding material so you have to work as hard as you can to try to make your recordings hold up to anyone that you’re listening to.” With today’s technology it’s definitely doable, you’ve just got to really work at it and put the hard work in. Too many people just kind of slap together demos and it’s like, “Eugh. Not exciting.” You’re not going to turn any heads there. Then, you’ve got to get your local band thing going and create some kind of name for yourself wherever you live. Become that big fish there and then you can slowly start spreading out. Then also try to get in someone else’s band that may be well-known already. I’ve brought on a lot of sax players in my band that have gone on to do their own projects and gone off to tour on their own. That’s another good way to get out there. Don’t be fully one hundred percent focused on your own gigs, play with some other people that have bigger audiences. Guess what? They’ll become your fans.