Semisonic’s Dan Wilson – HuffPost 10.1.10

Mike Ragogna: …I can’t let you go without you giving some advice to new artists that are coming up right now.

Dan Wilson: Wow, okay. Well, I can only speak from my own experience, I guess. But I would say, in my opinion, the main thing to do is to find your audience. That means getting out in front of people. Don’t save your ideas, and don’t protect your songs from being stolen. Get them out in front of people and don’t worry about hoarding them until you have your great opportunity. Instead, just find an audience. Find people who will listen to you, and then some of those people will love what you do and you can proceed to build the audience. That’s the way to do it. The second thing I would say is find a community. Find a crew that you want to be a part of or find other people whose work you respect and just work with them. Don’t slave away on your own, alone in front of a computer making incredible tracks. Get out and jam with people, help other people on their records, accompany other people and just be part of a community. Because eventually those peers are going to be influential, and they’re going to be the people that turn to you when they need something important done.