It’s Casual’s Eddie Solis – HuffPost 11.4.13

Mike Ragogna: Eddie, what advice do you have for new artists?

Eddie Solis: You have to remember something. If your work is going to be here and you’re actually going to sustain a living off it, you have to be patient and build a foundation. Facebook and Instagram and Twitter are great tools. They’re a great tool for my record label, for my band, and my talk radio show. But you still need to translate things into sales. I think a lot of people get hung up on their numbers on social networking and I believe that that is a huge component in today’s age and you have to pay attention to that, but you also cannot be putting out crap content. You’ve got to put out quality. One thing I’ve learned with collaborating with people, making videos, getting distribution deals, if you really have something that’s great, people will reach out to you. I think that artists really, really have to back track on where certain sounds come from and certain artists who are their influence. I see a lot of hollow art being created these days. There are a lot of shells floating around with no substance and no roots inside. I think that is all connected to people waking up and saying, “Hey, I want to start a band of this genre,” and they just learn about that genre and they see how bands dress immediately because they have that on YouTube and then they let that resonate and be that instead of living and becoming who you are through real life connection with people and places.

Back in the day, when punk rockers had tattoos, that was a heavy thing. “Whoa, that guy’s got his whole arm tattooed.” Now you walk in a guitar center and you’ve got a 21-year-old trying to sell you something, and it’s great that he’s got a job, but you talk to him about music and he doesn’t know anything and he’s got this huge tattoo across his chest. He asks, “Oh yeah, you got ink?” cause he’s trying to make small talk with you. But no, I’m proud to say that I don’t have one tattoo. That’s never been my style. Not everybody’s tatted up. “Well here’s my first tattoo.” He shows me his first tattoo, it’s his whole arm. What happened to the life story? You get one here, you get one there, then finally your arm is fully tattooed. I think that artists, just being a part of society, are not living enough. I think people are trying to just be what they see. If a certain sound connects with you, that’s great, but try to translate your real life experiences to your art and see what comes out the other end.