Richard Marx – HuffPost 1.30.12

Mike Ragogna: Can you tell us what inspires you as an artist?

Richard Marx: Well, my process has been the same for a long time. Unless I’m collaborating with someone and have set a specific time to write a song with someone, I write alone and there is no set time or organization about it. I write something every day, but I don’t usually sit down to write a song. Luckily, something forces itself on me every day. It may be a melody that hits me while I’m in my car or a lyric that hits me in the shower. I just make a point to collect these ideas. Some of them just demand to be worked on or finished immediately, some I just tuck away and I may not get to them for months. I don’t use an instrument to write when I’m writing by myself. I’ve found that that’s limiting, you know? No matter how good a player you are – and I’m not a good player – you still have to be able to play an instrument. But if that instrument is your imagination, then I’m not limited to anything, and I find that my songwriting is much more interesting. That’s one part of my process.

The music almost always comes first and sort of tells me what the lyrics should be. Beyond that, I don’t really try to write, I sort of just let it happen. Luckily , for decades now, it just keeps happening. I’ve found that some of the musicians that I admire so much are so proficient at their instrument or multiple instruments if they’re lucky, but they have no freedom. I have had amazing artists tell me that they just know too much about their instrument and the music to use their imagination to its full musical potential. They’re limited by their wealth of knowledge if that’s possible. There are no limitations in your head to what you can come up with. I wouldn’t have come up with a lot of the themes or musical landscapes that accompany my songs if I was sitting with an acoustic guitar or piano. It just wouldn’t happen.

MR: That’s a great insight. I usually wait with this question until the end of the interview, but let me ask you now. Do you have any advice that you might want to share with new artists?

RM: You know, I think it’s a really bad time to start asking people for advice because it’s pretty grim out there right now. The music business has gotten smaller since you and I started talking. (laughs) It’s shrinking a little bit more every day. I don’t have a crystal ball, nor have I ever been good at forecasting things like that. I only know that I’m super-grateful that I came into the business when I did. I feel really bad for young singer-songwriters now because the opportunities that existed for me in the early ’80s before I was singed to learn about the business don’t exist anymore. And they have been replaced with anything equally great. If I were starting out now, I would feel robbed – and I’m sure there are a lot of young artists out there who feel a little ripped off. The opportunities to really make it a lucrative career have diminished a lot, not that that should ever be anyone’s motivation. Before, there was always that hope of writing a hit song and making tons of money. It’s a shame because that opportunity and the fantasy of that have been demolished over the last few years, and I don’t see that toothpaste going back into the tube. So, in my long-winded answer, I would say if you want to write songs and play in bands and perform because it feeds something in you and you’re following your bliss, do it. If you feel like you need it to sustain yourself or to make a living, you’re probably going to have to do something else in addition. And that’s too bad.

MR: True. Though, I would argue that because of the Internet and social networking and other technologies, I would say that people have more of an opportunity to promote and proliferate their material more freely, more so than I’ve ever seen in the industry.

RM: Yeah, “getting your music out there” doesn’t necessarily mean anything – everyone’s music is out there. It doesn’t mean it’s connecting with anybody. If you’ve got 17 Facebook friends who all really like your music, that’s awesome. And if that’s enough to keep you writing songs, that’s great. That doesn’t mean that your music is “out there.” It’s great that we no longer have to rely on large record labels – they don’t do anybody any good. Most major labels won’t even sign someone who hasn’t already done most of their social networking promotion ahead of time. It’s almost a chicken or the egg situation because they may not sign someone who doesn’t have 150,000 Facebook friends. But if they have 150,000 Facebook friends, what do they need a record company for, you know? The one glimmer of hope for the industry is that young people don’t need a big corporate machine behind them to get their music heard. But in order to get it started enough to be able to sustain a career? Facebook ain’t gonna do it.

It’s much more complicated than people think, and I see super-talented people week after week that just aren’t going to get by without having that one major hit unless they get by selling records on the DL, playing gigs, and can keep that train going. But if they want to live in a mansion in Beverly Hills, this is not for them. It’s way more complicated than even I can understand. We could sit and have a round table discussion about it for hours and we still probably wouldn’t come up with any answers. It’s a tricky time for the music business. I think the saddest part is that we’re at a time in our society where the competition for public attention is greater than ever, music is losing. People are still buying and downloading music, but I don’t think the passion for music is what it was even five years ago. People are really taking music for granted now. Do you know why? Because it’s tiny, you can’t even see it now. It’s all measured in megabites. When something gets that physically small, I think there’s a brain correlation that says it’s also not that important.

MR: Right, and the perceived value has dropped considerably because of pirating and such, wouldn’t you say?

RM: Right. And frankly, maybe the next thing to be hit in this way will be sports and professional athletes, only because I feel like the general public has seen the rockstar excess and this legion of people that didn’t look like they appreciated it. People don’t want to support people like that. I feel it’ll be the same with pro athletes. If we see them with everything and still bitching and moaning about it, the average man isn’t gonna continue to support these people anymore. At the end of the day, for every negative part of the conversation, there’s a positive. For instance, The Civil Wars have been carving out a name for themselves the old fashioned way – from the ground up. They’re brilliant talents who are just now starting to get recognized for who great they are.