By Melissa Moody
College today is par for the course, even for musicians. Four years of structured classes and disciplined hard work is supposed to be the start of the road to success. For musicians particularly, college provides an opportunity to gain experience performing and playing.
But learning Mozart’s Fifth Symphony in a recital hall isn’t for everyone. Will Hoge, a musician out of Nashville, deviated from the accepted definition of American achievement.
“I was in college and I hated it,” Hoge said. “I liked playing guitar and rock ‘n’ roll. I figured there was another way for me to be successful.”
Hoge is an old-school musician. Spending more than 200 days touring each year, he has gained his experience on the road and in bars. His throw-back style rock ‘n’ roll is reminiscent of the sixties and seventies, before the music industry had become a celebrity-manufacturing machine and artists were attempting to connect in a unique way with their audience.
“Each [show] is kind of like a first date,” Hoge said, “The most important thing at a live show is for the people in the audience to have a moment where they connect with the band. That they feel like that was their unique moment with the music.”
Though less gritty and more upbeat than Bob Dylan, who Hoge counts as a musical influence, his latest album offers a glimpse of the possibilities at independent record labels, which are stealing the spotlight from labels like Atlantic and Columbia. The Internet has aided the process, with the ability to check out every social group’s sub-group’s Web site featuring the latest underground band.
“Nirvana was the last band a major label broke, and that was more than a decade ago,” Hoge said. “The record business needs to be a little bit dangerous; it’s like gambling. But [major] labels are scared to take chances – it’s an industry of fear. Nothing governed by fear is successful.”
Hoge is certainly unafraid. Along with his band mates, his lack of concern for riches leaves more time for rock. Labels have never been a big factor, Hoge said, the group is simply trying to move people, and play great songs.
Hoge and his band mates have gone from independent to major label and back over the course of three years. Learning that the sacrifices musicians make with a major record label often outweigh the benefits, the band, sans major label, is able to exert more control over their music, and themselves.
“Bands are lining up to get the right haircut and have someone else dress them,” Hoge said. “Money’s great but the bottom line is you [play] because it is part of you. Music means everything to the people in this band.”
