Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner – HuffPost 7.18.12

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

Dave Pirner: I always think of Doc Severson on The Tonight Show. I was very young and Johnny Carson said, “Well Doc, what do you have to say to young trumpet players?” At the time, I was a trumpet player, another reason I ended up down here in New Orleans. Doc just looked at the camera and said, “Kids, be a doctor or a lawyer.” It struck me as really disappointing because I was looking at the trumpet-playing dude to give me a tip and he said don’t be a trumpet player, it’s a hard life. That’s the advice I would also extend to kids, especially in this age of virtual-reality. It’s still in this strange place where people are taking their music in a way that we don’t really know how the hell we’re supposed to make a living doing this. To that effect, learn the piano first. Here in New Orleans, what a lot of the musical families do–and this is a romantic concept on my part–is they teach their kids to tap dance first. Then after tap dance, you learn piano, and after piano, you get to pick between all the instruments that are out there. That’s where it’s at for me. I just watched a bunch of eight-year-olds doing synchronized dance moves. You can see it in every single one of their faces–some kids are counting, some kids it comes naturally to, their parents are dancers… Some kids hate being up there, some kids are so challenged by it that they can think about what they’re going to eat afterwards, and you can just see it in every single kid. That’s where you have to follow your focus. If the flute’s not working out for you, try the tuba. (laughs)