Peter Himmelman – HuffPost 7.16.14

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

Peter Himmelman: I know that a lot of young artists are always looking for a manager. Everybody’s thinking, “I need to invest some time getting this one person who can lift me off of this plateau and get me noticed, do things, cup me in their two mammoth hands and just throw me into the air.” But there isn’t anybody like that. Then you say, “Well, look through history, look at Colonel Tom Parker, look what he did for Elvis, he made him a huge star,” and I say he didn’t make Elvis a huge star. Elvis already was a star. Elvis made himself into something that was totally inimitable. He had a vision of himself that he pursued diligently, fearlessly, passionately. He had no choice, perhaps. That’s what he became. When he was playing these shows that Colonel Tom Parker came and saw he already had a recording contract with Sun studios and all that. He was a star. Be more reflective of what it is that you’re trying to put into the world, what it is that’s going to make you completely unique from everyone else, and put passion and time into that, and the managers and all the other stuff–the catapults, if you will–they’ll just come around naturally. But you’ve got to turn yourself into a heavyweight stone before anyone wants to put you on their catapult. It takes a lot of manpower to push that thing up, they’re not just going to put up any old stone.

MR: And it seems one has to at least have potential.

PH: And he had it, Elvis had this super interesting thing going on, this connecting thing, something that nobody else had. I remember when our band, Sussman Lawrence had our first gig. It was in Minneapolis and it was packed. It was totally, totally sold out. A lot of people complained that it was full of our family and friends. There was some grousing about that. It was a three or four hundred-seat club, standing room only. I’d been playing in this reggae band and was somewhat known, we were working on a record, I think we had a record. How the hell do you think we got three to four-hundred of our family and friends? Because they liked us! We were good, so our families came out. There was some energy there. Why would you come out if it wasn’t happening? I’m just saying, that’s how you do it. You attract attention in your inner circles first.