[Backhousepro]

Moving to LA: You have to ask yourself a question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well do you?

Hard to encapsulate living in LA, which is something you have to learn how to do — it's not easy. A friend of mine who wanted to be an actor was told this by Michael Ironside and chose to ignore it. I thought Ironside was blowing smoke. During the next ten years, I realized on an almost daily basis how true his statement was. Before you can do anything in the arts, you have to learn how to live in LA. Interestingly enough, my friend never did make it as an actor, but he wound up marrying one was one of the female leads in one of the most popular shows in the '80s — and still hasn't stopped complaining about life in LA. He and his wife recently moved to Manhattan — he tells me that he's feeling something unusual. He thinks it's happiness, but he is unsure as he has nothing to compare it to. (In LA he had three emotions: Anger, less anger, and more anger.) On the other hand, there are those for whom LA is a magical place.

Here's my best advice. If you don't have friends or relatives that can walk you into the business, it's best to go with an invitation — a job waiting for you, even if it's just a runner in the studio. By just showing up cold, you join a huge population of people all scratching for a piece of an ever-decreasing pie. Also, it can be pretty lonely. People will have a hard time trusting you or accepting you as a friend, since LA, along with being the scam capital of western civilization, attracts people from all over who want someone to make them something (a star, famous, rich, etc.) just for showing up, or being cute. If people sense you are being friendly for what you think they can do for you, doors will slam shut, but you'll never hear them closing .

The best thing you can do is make a name for yourself where you are and have LA invite you to work there. That tends to breed continued success. In LA, people are not concerned with what you are hoping to do, they care about what you've done. It's cool to be a student or an aspiring whatever in New York, but aspirations are not generally respected in LA — accomplishments are.

If you do decide to move to LA cold, which I recommend just for the experience, give yourself three years. If you haven't found what you're looking for by then, you probably won't —or at least you'll have experience and information based on who you are to serve as an indicator of how things will go. Overall, a certain personality type does well in LA. If people like you in general, you'll probably do well. It helps to look good (much more than you would imagine).

Oh yeah . . . if you are planning on seeking your fortune as a musician, the LA clubs are not the place to do it anymore, and haven't been since the '90s. When you're there, if you meet anyone in the record industry who asks where you've played, tell them that you just moved there from New York. Whatever you do, don't mention playing the LA club scene or you'll be dismissed as a flake. (Of course, this information might be out of date, but I doubt it — it was still true in 2002 when I left.) Aside from the flake stigma and the fact that since the days of Burt Cocain and Nirvana, LA has been looking for the next Seattle in which to find bands, your problem is that along with having to sell tickets for the club and play for free, you're one among 10 bands that are playing that night. In essence, you're playing to nine other bands and their friends, all sitting at their tables with arms folded, saying you suck. Hardly the environment to impress an A&R rep. And if your band goes on first, no one will remember your songs by the end of the night — if you go on last, chances are the A&R rep had enough by the third band and left quietly.

Again, your best bet in my opinion is to save the time and money it takes to move and establish yourself in LA; make a name for yourself where you are; and then take LA by storm. (Anyway, that's what worked for me when I was there.) Others I've known showed up and instantly had opportunity after opportunity thrown at them, and others still, worked their butts off for years and never got a break. It's entirely up to LA.

Best of Luck,

-B-