Let us introduce you to Young Borra, an insanely talented independent artist from NYC. He gives us the run down on his family’s musical background, his start in the music biz and the current state of affairs in the music industry.
He also runs “Artists Anonymous”, a networking group of independent music artists. They Zoom meet weekly to exchange ideas and share thoughts in a time when the whole music industry has been flipped upside down due to COVID. He shares his thoughts on the struggle of independent artists pre-pandemic and how those challenges have changed in 2020.
Hit up Young Borra on IG @youngborra or jump on YoungBorra.com to check out his music or to get involved with Artists Anonymous.
Here are nine high quality questions with Young Borra!
LEG: Can you give us a quick little background on you and your road into the music industry?
YB: I've always been around music since I was a kid: my dad played sax and piano professionally and my mom sang and acted on Broadway - they had to get 'real' jobs when they had me so they stopped pursuing their artistic dreams but they always kept the music alive, so to speak, with me.
My road into the "business" of music didn't really start until I signed with the men's division of the Ford Modeling Agency in 2004. Although an entirely different thing, the modeling world led me to meet so many people: I started playing guitar in a band that eventually signed a development deal with Island Records - I became friends with a ton of music managers, label reps. Sadly, I didn't have my own songs ready then that I do now - but if nothing else, I learned that timing and early adoption to platforms is pretty much 90% of the game when it comes to getting somewhere in the music industry.
LEG: What are three words to describe Young Borra to someone that’s new to your music?
YB: Listen to it!
LEG: What do you think are some of the challenges facing independent artists in the current musical landscape?
YB: In 2020, the internet is no longer the great equalizer: it's basically the opposite - whereas pre-internet, pre-spotify, pre-instagram, youtube, etc. etc. the true hustlers, the people who would stand on the corner and hand out flyers, the people who would hang out in the bars and clubs and meet potential fans or managers or bookers, the people who would stencil their art on the streets, the people who actually put in the time to grow their audience physically through mouth to ear conversion - the times when those people could win, has ended. Now it's about becoming the FIRST person to join a new app before it becomes mainstream (i.e. you're the first person to post guitar shred videos on Youtube so when people type in "shred guitar", your video comes up first) - if you're late to the game, you need to spend money on advertisements or do something INSANE like burn your house down while blasting your song on a boom box and pray and hope that the right celebrity shares it.
But then if it's not shared, you have no house and you're just left with a shitty boom box.
See, if you don't have a ton of money to invest into growing your "brand" on social media platforms (and you can't just pick one - you need to be available EVERYWHERE which just increases your cost) - you're basically going to have zero to little stream counts/like counts/comments which is all anyone who could make a difference in your career care about.
Either you're a professional athlete (where your skill matters and you're not judged by the opinion of others - if you can dunk a ball and score thirty a game, no one cares - you're getting paid), you have a TON of money to make people believe you're good by throwing enough repetition at them (if you see the same ad 10,000 times, you're eventually going to check out the product and IF it has enough numbers and enough people talking, regardless of its actual quality, you're going to click on it) OR your dad was famous once-upon-a-time, it's almost impossible to break through.
So yeah - in a nutshell - even if you write the next THRILLER, unless you have a way of promoting it and getting people to repetitively see it over and over again, it doesn't matter. People's opinions about what is good and what is bad is a moot point - good is what's present and relevant in a google search - not what is actually quality anymore. So there it is - hah!
LEG: You’ve created a group called “Artists Anonymous”. Give us the rundown on the group, what it’s about and the overall goal. How can artists participate if they want to get involved?
YB: Music Artists Anonymous started with myself and a few like-minded NYC based independent artists deciding to do a zoom call on a Monday night: since we can't play live shows and we can't really "gather" in real life right now (this quarantine has basically hyperdriven the issues I laid out in the previous statement for question #3), I started this little conference where we could basically talk strategies, promotions, etc. - information share about what's been working, not working for us as musicians/artists.
After that first call, I started inviting other creators (producers/dj's/singers/etc) to the group - and then decided to start inviting guest speakers for Q&A sessions on the Monday calls. It's been really wonderful and is growing - we have our own little chat on whats app and a holding page on instagram. As of now it's invitation only but any artist could theoretically join as long as they are making sound of some kind and an independent artist.
LEG: Do you think the COVID pandemic helped or hurt independent artists trying to breakthrough?
YB: COVID has basically made it impossible for artists to breakthrough even more than it was before. Now the physical, mouth to ear conversion that was being eliminated already, is a total non factor because people can't do anything in real life and now have to SOLELY rely on their online audience which as I've already stated, unless you were an early adopter, have a ton of money - it's a total disaster.
So basically unless you had an audience PRE-COVID, growing one now - and I'm a perfect example - is very, very difficult. But hey - if you don't try, then you never know, right? The artist dream keeps going - regardless of what's going on in the world.
LEG: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve learned from the Artist Anonymous networking?
YB: I'm not alone in my struggle and frustration. Not sure this is advice but it certainly helps me sleep at night knowing that all the emotions I'm feeling about the business side of music aren't just my own.. Other than that, i would say - keep going, no matter how hard it might seem.
LEG: When talking about the music industry with other independent artists, does it give you hope for the future of the industry?
YB: It gives me hope that there are bright and talented, smart people like the folks at Lakeside Management who know the realities of what music is/is facing. It doesn't give me hope however that all three major American record labels are run by non-American people or corporations - it doesn't give me hope that the smart and bright people in the music business can't rely on their personal taste for anything anymore - it doesn't give me hope that the internet and digital media manipulation are the only ways to break through - but then again, maybe someone, maybe you (yes, you Dan and you Kerry) can help lead the charge for change!
LEG: Who are some other independent artists that we need to check out and listen to immediately?
YB: Spencer Draeger, Richie Quake, Valley Latini
LEG: Last question that isn’t really a question: say whatever you want below. Tease new music, leave a solid quiche recipe, leave us with one of your favorite quotes... whatever!
YB: I'm not complaining about the way things work in music for the sake of hearing my own voice. I actually want a change to be made: sure, in the 1990's and prior it was a lot more difficult to get access to a studio to make a record. And sure, it was a lot harder to get people together to play shows. But guess what? Only the strong survived - and not everyone and their best friend thought it was a good idea to be a musician. That's why the quality of those records from every era prior to the past 15 years was so good: because only the BEST would make it through and the talent didn't have to fight through the noise of 42,000 other Spotify releases every day in order to get attention.
I want quality to come back to popular sound and I want the ease and accessibility for people who haven't passed the basic exam that qualifies them to be a musical artist to vanish: right now it's like every single person who tries out makes the team and then the people who actually deserve to play in the big leagues never get the opportunity unless their dad owns the team. That's a totally whacked world that I don't think anyone who has truly put in the time to their musical craft wants to live in anymore.
Lastly -
To all of you who have put in the time - keep going. To those who haven't, learn how to play an instrument or take some vocal classes. Just because you might have a way to rig the system (building fan pages of other people who are already famous and then incorporating your own work in - downloading someone else's' work off Youtube and then rapping over it: videoing yourself do something stupid with hopes that it goes viral overnight), doesn't make you an artist - you're just a poser.
Soon things are going to change back to the way they should be - so if you're one of the people who have done the work, keep the faith.
For more Young-Borra:
Website | Spotify | Instagram
To learn more about Artists Anonymous:
www.artistsanonymous.co/articles