Atkins coaches aspiring musicians at Northridge

"Aim low, get high," is one of the many tidbits of advice ACC students went home with after spending an evening with Martin Atkins.
Organized by the Commercial Music Management program, Atkins shared his experience of life with the aspiring rock stars that gathered in the Northridge Campus lecture room. He spoke about life on the road with bands like Nine Inch Nails and Pigface, running his own independent record label and other experiences in the music business.

"Aim low, get high" is not to be mistaken for a pro-drug campaign. Atkins uses this phrase as a reminder to be humble. Most musicians dream of playing sold out arenas and touring around the country on someone else's dime, but this does not happen overnight.

"If you're wandering around aiming for that, you're going to miss your next step," said Atkins. He compared the process to the Great Wall of China
"It's one of the seven wonders of the world," said Atkins. "On one hand you can stand there, how did they do this? I mean, how could they? On the other hand, it's just a f---ing pile of bricks."

"So you can start your own pile and after a couple of weeks, now all you have is kind of a meaningless pile of bricks," said Atkins. "After maybe six months, you have a bit of a war going on."

That war will then attract outside observers.

"Then people will say to you, ‘This is ridiculous, this is insane. How can I help?,'" Atkins continued. "Because that's what people are into, insane crusades that don't make any sense. If it all made sense, it's just a business plan, isn't it?"

One of Atkins' main points of this whole lecture was to stress that aspiring musicians need to do it themselves. They should learn how to screen-print for merchandise and make cool promotional materials, but keep it authentic. Musicians should accumulate diverse skills whether or not they relate to music to help them get their foot in the door.

He shared a story about a sound engineer from Indianapolis called ‘Squirrel' who is one of the house engineers for The Pop Machine recording studio. During the hiring process, he had one skill that the other prospective engineers did not that made him valuable for the job. That skill? Aquarium management. He took care of the fish tank in the studio.

"Many studios have a fish tank which is a really calming experience before a vocal take, unless it's a rotting, dead, stinky, maggot-ridden (tank)," explained Atkins.

The department Chair, Geoffrey Schulman, felt Atkins was the perfect person to speak to his students as the Commercial Music Management Department stresses the use of classroom education and to do hands-on training outside of the classroom.

"Everything he said here is what we try to teach our kids, to pursue your dreams, and get out there and build your audience," said Schulman. "It follows our philosophy of do it yourself. If you want to do something, do it. Don't talk about it. Do it, and that's kind of what we teach."