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Show he cool to make your own genre of music. That's the purpose of art, to not be like everybody else," he said. "I always try to keep it unique. That has proven to be good in lots of ways, but it's been difficult when we started to get out into the mainstream world and they'd say, 'Where can we put you?' 1 say, 'We're just a hand that makes good music.'" That's not an answer that typically appeals to record-company executives. For that reason, Shupe has few regrets about the end of his band's relationship with Capitol Records Nashville. The national exposure — including the band's biggest hit to date, "Dream Big" — was great, he said, but the relentless pressure to "categorize" the hand's sound "We'd go to Nashville, and they'd say, 'You don't really sound country enough. Have you gone to L.A.?' " Shupe said. "And we'd go to L.A. and they'd say, 'Have you gone to Nashville?' " Record executives — Shupe calls them the "gatekeepers" of the business — saw other aspects of his music as problematic; for example, its humor and whimsy. 'lake the single, "Banjo Hoy," in which Shupe wishes "to he a rock star, and travel really far, and buy me a big expensive car. ... I'll have parties and friends and places to go, The only problem is I play the banjo." "Behind the scenes, people at the labels were saying, 'You guys, you're not taking it seriously enough. Your stuff is so positive. It doesn't bring depth to your art,' " Shupe said. "I disagreed, I'm like: Most people aren't sitting around all day tortured." Shupe has few regrets about his experience in Nashville, though, particularly in light of recent changes in the music business. One is that there are more ways, via social media and streaming, for musicians to reach out to audiences directly. "The key is to niehe-ify, to get to those people who like your music, to find your core audience and work that core," he said. It helps that musical genres are less important now than they have ever been, Shupe said. "Nowadays, people ... just like what they like," he said. "That's how I've always been." Second, today's popular music rewards elements like acoustic instrumentation, positive themes and humor. continued on 12 |
