It’s been two weeks now since my departure from the casting show “The Voice Of Germany”, and a lot has gone through my mind in that time. I’ve gone through many different stages of dealing with the situation: denial, sadness, anger, depression, and acceptance, all finally helping me come to the conclusion that maybe it wasn’t meant to be after all. Strangely, it was this conclusion that lead me recently to revisit one of those stages: the anger stage. Here’s why.

I’ve been trying to break into the German music scene since 1989. The main reason I came back to Germany was to persue my dream of being in the music business and becoming a star. I have done everything one could possibly do to break into the business. I’ve made many fans, a little bit of money, and gained a lot of experience. I’ve done a lot; I was (and still am) a talented, reliable music industry workhorse.

What I never had was support from anyone within the industry itself. I’ve never had a record label who knew how to “market” me. I never had a manager who knew how to – or had the balls to try to – manage my talent. There was always something or someone standing in the way of my “big break”, or some lame excuse for not wanting to invest the time or the effort. I’ve never had anyone who was willing to take a risk on me, even though I’ve always been praised for my “amazing” voice. My break never came, due to circumstances that were beyond my control.

These are the reasons I wanted to appear on “The Voice of Germany”. Of course I knew going in that it was a game, and like in any game the chances of failure are just as high as the chances of success. When I made it through the Blind Auditions, I chose a coach who I thought understood my struggle and would really help me to finally reach a level of notoriety that I could finally have the breakthrough that I always dreamed of.

With nine words (“I’m gonna have to go with Jasmin and Benny”), my fate was again taken out of my hands. In that moment, all of anger about my failures, doubts about my abilities, fear for the future, and confusion about where my life’s journey has taken me had come to a head. Yet, I was strangely calm, almost at peace with myself, perhaps because it was clear to me where things were going from the beginning, due to the events that lead up to that fateful moment. As the days went by, however, the anger grew, because for whatever reason, the one person who was in the position to help me reach my long sought after dream had taken it away from me, like so many others before him. I was pissed.

With time, the anger subsided and I briefly returned to the acceptance stage, which is where I continue to hang out today. Eventually this phase will also pass, leaving me with many lasting memories, great new friends and contacts, and a renewed hunger to make it in this weird, wonderful world known as the music business. Many say to me “you don’t need a casting show to make it. You will go your own way!” After twenty years of ‘going my own way’, I could have really used the boost that this show could have given me. Instead, I’m left to fend for myself. Again. That is by no means a reason to give up. Quite the opposite is true; I will now try harder than ever to make my life’s dream come true. It just might take a little longer.

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This turned out to be an extremely eventful week, not only because of the long-awaited release of my new album, but also because I learned a lesson on just how powerful (and intimidating) social networking can really be, and how difficult it is to “sell” yourself online.

I’ve always been fascinated by how people use social networks to get attention and build awareness. Although I’ve been part of the “social web” since 2006 (when I created my first MySpace profile), I never really “got” social networking; especially the concept of taking something viral. As a musician, I understood that I needed the Web nowadays to make a name for myself, but I never understood how, nor did I realize how much time and effort went into making that possible. I’ve bought books on how to build a community, get traffic and engaging people to interact, but I still didn’t really understand the whole process. Until now I’ve followed the “Field Of Dreams” philosophy of “If you build it, they will come”, which I now realize does not work when it comes to spreading the word via social networking.

That became apparent to me as I announced on Facebook this past week that my mother was having heart surgery. The response to my announcement was huge and almost immediate. Dozens of my friends and family on Facebook contacted me immediately via email and Skype, some even contacted mom via telephone before and after her surgery (she’s doing fine, by the way). The outpouring of love and support taught me a simple valuable lesson in how to get the word out, a lesson that I will try to apply to my marketing efforts more in the coming weeks: don’t sell, share.

I’ve been feverishly trying to promote my new album online via Facebook, Myspace (surprisingly, some people still use Myspace), Twitter, LinkedIn and ReverbNation with some initial success, but I’ve noticed that it’s only when I passively talk about my album do I get the heaviest responses. In all my research on social networking it’s stated that the more you try to actively bombard someone with information, the more likely they will be turned off by it, so I’m slowly learning to be more interactive in my marketing. Ironically, it’s the same tactic I use on stage to engage the audience. Does this mean I have to approach social networking like a gig? Maybe. I’ll let you know how it all plays out in the coming weeks.

How and why do you use social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter, etc. Leave a comment!

2009 was an interesting year in many ways, especially in the worlds of politics and entertainment (my two favorite subjects). We witnessed the passing of entertainment legends like Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze and Les Paul; the resurgence of Jay-Z and dance music; the rise of Lady Gaga and the fall of Tiger Woods; iPhone, Facebook and Twitter mania; the rise of the internet as a primary news source coinciding with the rapid decline of newspapers and print publications. America witnessed it’s first year with a black president, followed by an unprecedented effort to discredit, demean and delegitimize him from the political right-wing. Revolution in Iran, pirates in Somalia, diplomacy at work in North Korea, a global recession and an escalation of war in Afghanistan all laid the foundation for what could be coming in 2010. The question is: what have we learned from 2009?. Here’s a list of things I learned in the past year, and what I hope to achieve in 2010.

Basis For Reflection

The events of 2009 has forced me to take a hard look at my life, my business and my future. 2008 was the year I started teaching, something I’d always talked about doing, but was frankly too scared to put into practice. Somehow I overcame my fear and now, after a full year of giving classes and workshops, I’ve realized that teaching is something that I really enjoy doing. The challenge of explaining my concepts of making music to students of all skill levels gives me a satisfaction that I wasn’t really prepared for. I’m glad I took up the challenge.

2009 was also the year I met two of my musical heroes, jazz keyboard player Jeff Lorber and Jean-Paul “Bluey” Maunick of the legendary UK jazz / soul band Incognito. To watch these two masters at work really helped me put my own musical aspirations back into focus. I also met some extremely talented musicians during not only my regular teaching gig at the Popakademie, but also as a guest instructor at the Academy of Music in Dinkelsbühl, where I had the pleasure of performing with my good friend Alex Auer for the first time in 4 years. I’ve worked with some fantastic musicians, writers and producers in 2009, both on stage and studio.

Less fantastic in 2009 was the saga of my rock band iO; though we started out the year with a kick-ass live concerts in Rabenau and Brno in the Czech Republic, the future of the band was placed in doubt as my bandmates informed me that they were reforming their old band Guano Apes to play a series of european festivals in the summer. When their tour was over, they informed me that they were going to work on a new CD as Guano Apes, which will all but kill the prospects of a future iO CD. That’s really a shame, since iO has such potential. However, we’re hopeful that we can come together some time this year to make music together…

So, what have I learned from 2009?

…which brings me to my list of things that I learned from 2009. I’ve always been a believer in the notion that one can always learn something out of any situation, no matter if it’s positive or negative. So, given all that I’ve experienced in ’09, heres my list of wisdom:

1. The show must indeed go on.

2. NEVER take things for granted.

3. Seeing life through only one lens is never a good thing.

4. If you think you’ve had too much, you probably have.

5. Sometimes, doing stuff you’ve always dreamed of doing is fantastic. Sometimes, it’s not.

6. Get your mind right, and the rest will take care of itself.

7. If it takes more than three days to write a song, something’s wrong with the song. Not always, though.

8. Not everything that tastes good is good.

9. The best thing about new things is that they sometimes help you to appreciate the old things.

10. Kids grow fast.

11. Making a plan and sticking to it are two TOTALLY different things.

12. The phrase “don’t hate the player; hate the game” is just as relevant now as it was in the early ‘90s.

13. Though you may be better than most people at what you do, there is ALWAYS someone who is better than you.

14. When two grown people of completely different viewpoints can’t have a civil conversation about anything, NOTHING will get done.

15. We don’t appreciate what we have until it’s gone.

16. Going to bed angry sucks.

17. Fighting (in a relationship) can be good.

18. Sometimes, it’s better to just shut the f*ck up.

19. We all need balance in our lives.

20. It’s never too late to be the “you” you’ve always wanted to be.

If I ever needed proof that the smartphone is quickly becoming the 21st century’s version of the Tamagotchi (those widely popular and extremely annoying “digital pets” from the 90′s), I found it on Saturday while waiting to catch my train back home. On a beautiful, warm, bright Saturday morning, I was shocked and intrigued by just how many people I witnessed (myself included) hunched over, faces buried in the tiny screens occupying the palms of their hands.

Based on my very unscientific observations, it’s quite easy to tell which type of current smartphone people are using:

- If they’re hunched over while flicking with their left or right index finger in different directions, or sporadically rocking from side to side or forwards and backwards, they’re more than likely iPhone users.

- If they’re hunched over working their thumbs in a twiddling motion as though practicing for a thumb-wrestling match, they’re likely Blackberry users.

- If they’re hunched over constantly rotating their phones from the upright to the sideways position, they’re likely Android or Symbian users.

- If they’re hunched over constantly reaching for the power button, they’re likely Windows Mobile users.

Now, keep in mind that I didn’t specifically mention the brand of smartphone hardware (given that only iPhones use the iPhone OS and Blackberries use the Blackberry OS, it made no sense to try and differentiate between Nokia, Samsung, LG and Sony-Ericsson devices); these traits are specific to the operating systems of the different brands, according to my observations. Now, before I’m accused of being an iPhone fanboy (which I am, admittedly and quite proudly), also keep in mind that I have tried all of the above mentioned gadgets out in various cell phone shops before and after I got my smartphone of choice, and not all of my smartphone owning friends have iPhones, so my own experiences do somewhat come into play regarding my observations. My point is not about preferring one gadget over another.

The much larger point is about the sometimes total lack of acknowledgement that other human beings exist when these gadgets are in use; if “normal” mobile phone users are bad personal communicators, smartphone users are much worse. I’ve witnessed accidents on both busy and not-so-busy sidewalks involving people bumping into each other head on while typing on their Blackberries; arguments breaking out on trains between PlayStation Portable and iPhone users regarding which device has the better games; Windows Mobile users become loud, agitated and downright violent while dealing with the slow user interfaces and crashes of their gadgets. I’ve been involved in demonstrations of my phone’s capabilities and program comparisons with other iPhone users, which is fun and interesting on the one hand; not so cool however, when having such exchanges in an expensive restaurant filled with people who just want to enjoy their meals. Nothing, though, has quite matched up to the time I witnessed a group of about six or seven smartphone users sending text messages to each other, all standing in the same room.

I myself have been involved in numerous debates over the merits of one smartphone over the other, the latest of which actually made me pause and think about how dependent on gadgets our lives have become. Does technology really make our lives easier? I guess the answer to that now age-old question is definitely sort of. On the one hand, things like smartphones, laptops, Facebook, Twitter, etc. have allowed us to increase our ability to not only communicate with the world outside of our own little boxes, but to do so extremely quickly, from anywhere. Your life can really be in your pocket, which is on the other hand one of the serious drawbacks to faster, smaller, easier technology. Sometimes a good book or a walk in the park is far more entertaining than fiddling around in Facebook with my phone.

In any case, I look forward to a quiet, relaxing evening with family, just as soon as I upload this post, water my virtual iPhone plants and feed my virtual iPhone fish.