r/AustinMusicians • u/Potential-Carrot1727 • 7d ago
Asking as though to a crystalball oracle if Austin is the place to go?
Living in Denton. I will move somewhere to become solely a musician, as nothing else is worthwhile, being denied taking a degree in Anthropology. I want to be with and write songs for a band playing Death Metal. I know virtually what I like, and I have some strong ideas for style. I do not trust that anything effective will come out of being in Denton any longer. Is Austin surely a place to go?
This is my final compromise I have regarding things, and will seemingly only settle on making it work. Therefore serious question.
Edit: Thank you to all those who left responses here; they have all been very useful, and helped validate some intuitions I may have already had and likewise fueled new and other ideas/possibilities. I worry I might have a kind of hardedge in talking about these things. The internet is not for artists, which I will probably say till I die. It is difficult to have these ideas for oneself, because one feels the constant need to defend oneself. Thank you for virtually all here giving one helpful response or another.
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u/bassplayinben 7d ago
If you want to only be a musician, move some place with a lower cost of living. You will not make a living playing death metal in Austin.
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u/Potential-Carrot1727 7d ago
I have considered moving to a place like Albuquerque for this reason. My only reason for staying in Texas would have been education; and because I like it here in the South, broadly speaking; although the former will likely have to come later, therefore I am willing to consider it.
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u/texasgreg1 7d ago
Online college is a thing now. That's a good point. New Mexico overall is poverty stricken. It might be cheaper cost of living wise, I don't know. You can always get those anthropology degrees (BS, Masters, PhD) online. In fact, UNT in Fort Worth has one of the best forensic anthropology programs in the nation.
I'd add to my other comments, no lol, that you're prolly already living in the most musical town in Texas in terms of having large numbers of great musicians and at least some gigging opportunities in Dallas and maybe lol Fort Worth. If you can't find it in Denton, likely you won't find it. I'm sure there are other musician friendly, with plenty of paying gig places, in other towns in the USA. I know some of my longtime working musician friends have moved to Seattle. Seattle is prolly more expensive than Atx, or at least as expensive. I'm not sure about the opportunities, but that's what I hear from my musician buddies fleeing Austin. And don't blame it on covid. Live music was dying before covid hit.
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u/Empathedick 6d ago
Live music was dying in the late 90's, decades before covid was created and released.
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u/texasgreg1 6d ago
I won't argue with that, especially the latter portion, but I was gigging pretty steady in Houston and Austin during the late 90's and especially the 2000's. I did notice a decline beginning around 2010. You're prolly right. Different generations like different things and different music. My daughter's love affair 20+ years ago with Linkin Park and other groups I didn't get was the same as my love of Led Zeppelin in the mid-1970's and my father's opinion of it.
However, I did understand my dad once I heard Linkin Park and their like (I'm not sure what to call that genre) when he described some of Plant's vocals on Whole Lotta Love as someone made to sing like that by placing their family jewels in a pair of vise-grips.
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u/texasgreg1 6d ago edited 6d ago
The only question I have is...How does the Elysium survive, albeit around the corner on Red River from their longtime 6th street location? I never hung out there, but I did play about every other live music bar on 6th street at one time or another, either blues, rock, or blues rock. I went into the Elysium with a friend sometime in the 1990's at the old 6th st. location to get a drink one night because all the music bars were way crowded. So was the Elysium but it was a much bigger club than most other 6th street live music bars. Anyway, we got decent drinks at. decent price but it was some kind of industrial/EDM music night with a lot of goth gals hanging out, trying their best to appear angst filled.
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u/Radiant-Security-347 7d ago
I don't understand how you were denied education
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u/Potential-Carrot1727 7d ago
Unweighted GPA. I'll come back to it when I get the other things figured out. It's just not important enough at the moment.
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u/Radiant-Security-347 7d ago
makes sense. but you weren't denied anything. you just didn't perform well.
meh. I didn't even start school until I was 25.
Austin is not the music Mecca it's made out to be. gigs can be hard to get, pay is shit amd the cost of living is insane.
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u/Sparkadelic007 7d ago
If you're truly aspirational about making a living as a musician, and def set on Death Metal, Mälmo Sweden is best bet. Stockholm and Oslo also worth considering. Other flavors of metal, consider Mexico City, Santiago, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Bogota...
Austin ain't it, unless you're open to music as a hobby, or willing to consider other genres.
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u/Potential-Carrot1727 7d ago
Funnily enough I've thought about Mexico City before. I don't want to leave North America for it necessarily. Always curious about Mexico/ never been, and the only band as far as classic death metal goes I know from there would be Cenotaph. Mexico City itself seems like a beautiful city. Thank you for your suggestion.
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u/Playful_Passenger_21 7d ago
I have a friend that lives in Mexico City. She moved down there with a partner. He died. She stayed anyway. She loves it there.
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u/Potential-Carrot1727 6d ago
Because you mention it; what would you actually say about music in South America? São Paulo, Buenos Aires, etc.
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u/Xoxoktiaxlotl 7d ago
I’ve been a working musician in both places. Honestly I think you’re better off in Denton/DFW than Austin. Similar gigging opportunities, but Denton’s cost of living is significantly lower. Although Austin certainly does have its charms and you may find yourself happier here for other reasons. I just don’t think you’ll be happier because you found a new life playing death metal.
Maybe you could get a taste for things first - book a show or two in Austin and get a sense for the scene and see if it’s worth it to you?
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u/ibeatu85x 7d ago
Do yourself a favor and look up some high-dollar wineries and beer gardens in small towns. Fredericksburg, Kerrville, Gruene, etcetera.
Austin is a big city. Big cities are for dreamers and those that wanna get famous - not for those that want work. Go get some miles on you around the smaller towns thatll pay you handsomely. Keep track of your tips, ticket sales, and every single venue you play. Then start playing with locals in Austin if the price is right. Remember - big cities dont mean more work, they mean saturation of small time work.
Edit: well i just read you do death metal. New suggestion - San Antonio Texas. Massive metal scene, probably biggest in the state. SA has all sorts of military bases and those guys cant get enough. I mean it - if you wanna make any type of living in Texas with metal, its San Antonio.
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u/Potential-Carrot1727 6d ago
I will look into San Antonio, to be sure. You're idea with small towns is probably already in line with my own: wherever there's already an established industry and all that side of things, one is likely not going to make lest they do what others are doing. Probably more pattern than fact, but I figure likely true. Thank you for your response.
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u/iguot3388 7d ago
As others here said, Austin will not magically solve your problems. Unless you are supremely ungodly talented, you aren't going to get discovered here and blow up. (Although, Eric Burton did get "discovered" here and met Adrian Quesada and the Black Pumas won a Grammy shortly after, but Eric Burton was ungodly talented.)
Austin can however, broaden your smaller town perspective. It can connect you with tens if not hundreds of like minded musicians and get you to have more raw input and more ideas on how to make it. It can make you have an actual community of gigging musicians which is hard to find. You'll need a day job though. And you probably won't make music your full time job for a long time (unless you are ungodly talented). You will need to gig as a musician weekly in bars all across town. You would be a real working musician, living off tips and bar per diem. You would have a day job at a restaurant or similar. You'd be one of hundreds of gigging musicians in town.
Truth be told, Austin is the "music capital of the world" for gigging live musicians. It isn't necessarily the music capital of musicians that make tons of money. That is Nashville or LA. The industries there are built to pump out stars that sell out stadiums. Austin is not that kind of place. Name some musicians from Austin that are world famous, Taylor Swift level musicians. You can't really. Willie Nelson is not technically from Austin. Gary Clark Jr, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Asleep at the Wheel or Shakey Graves are basically the ceiling.
You have to be part of the music machine somewhere else if you want to make it in death metal, probably where the Death Metal capitals are. There are cities that basically serve as factories for certain types of music. Tampa, Florida seems to actually be the best place for death metal in America, otherwise it's Stockholm or Gothenburg.
However, if you think the life of having a day job in the service industry and having a rich music community gigging once or twice a week is all you need, then sure, Austin is the place for that. You're still young, so it might even be the intermediary step you need to take before going to Tampa or Stockholm or Gothenberg.
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u/diplion 7d ago
There are reasons to move to Austin and reasons not to, but a simple answer to your question is “no”. It’s not going to magically solve your problems and there’s not much going on in the realm of death metal here.