the Friendship Method

okay so I know indeed that despite all this,,, sounds a lot like the care bear stare or worse the care bear cousins hug (which causes even lucifer to tremble).

So this evening after a fair bit of liqour/chats/love in the air I feel compelled to write about a good freind of mine and beyond that what sort of opportunitys this particular friend has bestowed upon me.

From a contract audio persons perspective this may seem obvious or completely off the wall depending on your point of view,, but after some time to think and some time away from the moment of it all I realise the ultimate techniuqe to getting and maintaining work in the industry is truly making friends with the people you work with.

This may be obvious to many of you but from my experience it is slightly overlooked. Too often a client (especially remotely) is some sort of distant enitity that sends you checks and delegates work but in the case of Ian Stocker what started off as a client/sub-contractor relationship quickly became a freindship that will last a lifetime.

Now the motivation for becoming friends with Ian was not making my job easier or getting more work it was simply that I felt a kinship to him in the ways of business and in the ways of music and life that simply pulled us together.

This might seem like an odd topic for a post on game audio but I just got back from a jam at the Fat Mans place here in Austin and I realized the relevance to what I've always thought. The jam was full of people of various walks of life that were somehow brough togethor by game audio and more importantly they were all his friends. I've never been to a game audio event quite like this one where the focus wasn't networking but casual play and making friends (much like Ian).

The reason I bring up Ian is because we are nearing our two year anniversary and somehow through some little device called the Nintendo DS we've become life long pals in the truest of senses. Any sort of wisdom that I have to impart is very simple its think less of your demo reel/schooling/credit list and more in the direction of "this guy is cool and thinks like me" and you'll have more work than you can handle. A few phone calls throughout the week and some serious focus when it's time and you'll not only have work but more importantly someone you can bounce your thoughts off of.

The game audio business is full of salesmen and people that mention too many names/projects and companies that they have been involved with. If you want to make yourself stand out do yourself a favor and forget the projects/demos etc for a moment and make a friend. Talk to that friend about things unrelated to the industry and truly be a friend. The end result is you'll have not only work but an amazing person to bounce ideas off of and someone with an entirely different histroy.

The longer I've known Ian the less important the specific projects become the work has become helping a friend out and honestly I never expected it to become that but for whatever reason it has. These days its much more about "hey I'll see you here in a few weeks" and for me thats good. I know at the end of the day if a DS project comes up (or PSP/GBA) I know to call Ian not just because he's good but because I know him and ultimately trust him, not only as a friend but as a proffesional.

I realize all of this is a bit convoluted but I felt lead to post and I feel that the friendship method is much more effective and rewarding than sending out demos or introducing yourself to someone who is not interested.

--mtcs