A quarter into 2011 ...

2011 is going to be a big year for me ... I can feel it ... I've felt it right from New Year's. But we're almost a quarter of the way through and though it feels as though loads of things are shifting, nothing big, concrete or tangible has happened yet.

I've started going to Artist Development workshops in earnest, and am starting to get an idea of what I need to do to get my music out ... Unfortunately, most of these workshops are near Middlesborough, about an hour-and-a-half drive away. But this is important!!

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a talk by Juan Paz, of Music Ally. He's emigrating to Colombia soon apparently, to head up an EMI division there. He asked each person in the workshop to introduce him/herself and to say what they wanted to get out of the workshop.

I said (laughingly) that I hoped I'd find out in the workshop what I needed to do to get onto "Later with Jools Holland". And Juan rolled his eyes, as if I'd just said something silly, and not very amusing or useful. Perhaps he didn't mean it. And I suppose facilitating a workshop like that comes with pressure. But regardless, I was so unimpressed with his response. He's got his own agenda, his own interests, his own work, and came across (to me) as a bit jaded, a bit "I haven't really got much time for you people as individuals; I'll try to help you out as best as I can but you are all probably losers who are not going to make it in the music industry" ...

Perhaps this is a bit of a defense mechanism. Perhaps to make it in the music industry, one has to believe that one's own music and musical interests are extra special, and probably superior or more special than other people's music. Or perhaps it comes from being a "self-made man" ... of having by sheer dint of hard work pushed bands through from the masses of anonymity and poverty to the realms of acclamation and economic sustainability. Perhaps this experience makes him scorn the masses of artists clamouring to do the same, and of course he realises that many artists will never break through.

Or maybe it's just an unfortunate vibe that he gives off without meaning to, and once you get to know him, maybe he's actually not as dismissive and patronising as he seems in person.

I really don't know. And I'm not going to find out.

My gut tells me not to bother getting in touch with Mr Paz to follow up on the workshop. He may be super skilled at digitally marketing new acts, and helping them get noticed, but that's nothing to me if he has no conviction in my music or in me.

Saying that makes me feel surprisingly cheerful! Roll on 2011 ... let's get the tunes out!!