Mark Rivera – HuffPost 4.11.14

Mike Ragogna: Okay mister, so you knew I was going to ask so let’s just get this over with. What…yes, what is your advice for new artists?

Mark Rivera: Go online and find Bruce Springsteen’s South By Southwest keynote speech and listen to it, and don’t assume that you’re listening to an old man, assume that you’re listening to a person who’s still thinking about finding your way through this whole maze. Never accept mediocrity. Think about the greatest bands that you love, I’ll cite The Beatles but any young person could cite any performer that they really think is great, and then go back do a little due diligence and find out how many thousands of hours they played, how many thousands of miles they drove to get there. People don’t get discovered on American Idol. They find their way on their own. What you said before, that we’ve been American Idolized–I hope I don’t offend anyone–but quite frankly, that, to me, is a race to the bottom. The race to the lowest point of mediocrity. I’ve never accepted that. I don’t accept that in a relationship with a person. I talk to people I just met as if I care for them because I do. If someone says, “How are you?” I say, “Very well, thank you, and how are you?” because that’s part of the communication of life. If you want to get somewhere in life, be present. Stay present. The greatest musicians, the most present person I know right now is Ringo Starr. Ringo is the most amazingly present person I’ve ever met. He is right in the moment and when he’s on stage he’s right there. The greatest musicians I’ve ever played with are the most present because they’re aware of everybody on stage. They’re not so hung up on “Me, me, me, me.” They keep their monitor level so they can hear the bass player, anything he might play, andything a rhythm guitarist might play, that’s called complimenting. That’s where your chops really lie. On the firing line. Not in some closet and not when you can autotune something. Perfect ain’t right. Stop making music to a computer, make music to how it feels. That’s my advice.