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That's what Steve Jobs did best. Wrestle with concepts, do his best to tease out excellence. It's what's absent from our me-too society.

There's a culture of business books that teach you how to get along. As if life is a game with set rules and you only have to learn them to win. 

But what's great about life is there are no rules,

it's changing every day, and he who is on top of the world today might be a shithead tomorrow, it happens just that fast. You've got to keep your eyes open, 

you've got to be ever-changing, resting on laurels is for pussies.

But we've created a culture where he who is rich is king. You don't challenge society's winners. That's what the media and the wealthy have against 

Occupy Wall Street. They won, the game is over, shut up and go home. 

But if it's not reasonable to ask why someone is paid double digit millions to do a piss-poor job, then it makes no sense to ask questions at all.

And the reason the music business has become a second class citizen is because it has embraced these same concepts. The executives are kings. 

You do it their way.

 Do you hear anybody standing up to Jimmy Iovine?

That would be like standing up to David Geffen. And if you don't know what I mean, you've never met the man.

And isn't it funny that art is supposed to challenge preconceived notions.

Everything's up for grabs. That's what's wrong with assembly line Top Forty, it's not. You've got usual suspect writers and producers doing it the

 same way as more and more people tune out. 

Sure, Top Forty might have the most critical mass, but its share is shrinking.

Then there are the wannabes who just can't handle the truth. That they can't sing and can't play. Steve Jobs tolerated no bozos, he believed in 

A players, that these top-notch people inspired each other.

If you're not willing to look at yourself, evaluate the criticism, you're never going to win. Steve Jobs rarely responded, but he read all his e-mail. 

He was taking the temperature, he didn't want to lose touch.

We've got a whole industry that's lost touch. With overpriced tickets you can't even get. If you owe your career to your fans, shouldn't you treat them best?

I'm always questioning, always probing, and I always get the same response. THE MONEY! That's the answer to everything these days, you 

can't argue with monetary success. But I will. Because it doesn't last forever.

Who are the leaders in our industry? It's devolved into a zillion fiefdoms. No one with any power is leading for the sake of the industry. 

And that's just sad.

Stop kissing butt. Be brutally honest. No amount of ass-kissing can turn a second-rate track into a classic.

Everybody's so busy protecting their own turf they can't see that the landscape is being pulled from beneath them. 

Whether it be the tone deaf classic artists bitching they're being ripped off by the public or the newbies lamenting there's no one with a deep pocket, 

no label to make and save them. 

That's like being angry you can't find someone to buy you an IBM Selectric after the introduction of the Apple II.

Jobs wanted to revolutionize textbooks. Sure, he was gonna sell a lot of iPads, but kids would have less to slog around, but more important, he 

knew that the creation of textbooks had become politicized, 

that they were written by committee and took years to write. But if he got experts to create them and gave them away for free... He could 

do an end run around the establishment.

That's what Steve Jobs considered himself. A rebel.

There are no rebels in music anymore. Everybody wants to sell out to the corporation, whether it be Jay-Z or the wannabe or Live Nation

 trumpeting its marketing deals with the Fortune 500.

What in the hell happened to us? We didn't used to need anybody else. The music was enough. And we had to get it as right as Steve Jobs 

did with Apple products.

Me-too never delivers greatness. May temporarily deliver money, but not quality.

That's what made Steve angry. Companies run by marketers. He didn't put money first, Apple led with its products. Microsoft is now run by a 

marketer and look where it's taken them, straight to the dumper.

I guess you could say you bought their stock and dumped it before stagnation, but I'd say you're just a profiteer. Everything Microsoft has 

ever made is imperfect, has rough edges, just like the Word 

processor I'm using to write this screed. But rather than delineate its faults, let me just say when I encounter greatness, perfection, 

I'm thrilled, I tell everybody about it. That person, that team would settle for no less, 

it whittled ideas into seamless quality. That's what sells. But even more important, that's what we're looking for. Everybody.

Bob Lefsetz

My wife asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday coming up and that I should start thinking about it, so I started: I'm turning 35! Holy toledo Batman Thirty frickin' Five! Then I started thinking, ok where am I so far? I haven't fulfilled my life-long (life-long meaning since I was 18) dream of becoming a career musician. This means, making a living, supporting a family etc from money earnt from being a songwriter/performer/musician. After all these years I'm still at it.

My biggest fear was becoming one of those old-burnt-out-dreams musicians that Bruce Springsteen sings about in The Promise "Felt like I was carrying the broken spirits of all the other ones who'd lost". You can tell when someone's spirit's been broken, when they get up on stage you can see it, but they keep going.

Surely approaching 35, is my spirit broken? The probablility of becoming successful at this age in music diminishes exponentially to the power of -I-don't-want-to-think-about-it!

So I am a highly skilled and successful music teacher, wait a second, how can I have two callings: Teacher and Musician???? Well, they aren't too different, think about it: What is music: A set of humanly organised sounds and silences put together to generate collective emotion. Hmm collective emotion - that's about people coming together, teaching is also about people coming together - it's the same effect. Music by yourself is not as fun as with someone else being there and sharing it, why do you think 40 billion songs are downloaded illegally a year - because it's better with somebody else. What's a teacher without a classroom to teach in? Enough said.

I always keep this very secret promise: If I become super successful in music, I'd give all my students free lessons for the rest of their lives - I still like that idea and would do my best to make that happen. I wish I could.

Why do I teach and perform and write all this music: well, I truly believe it is the most powerful artform in the world and on a basic level, I am such a huge fan. It has the power to transform and make you dream. It can make the life that you live inside your skin every day a better place, therefore, it makes the world a better place little by little.

So as I get older I can see that I ain't gonna get my thrill of a career musician, but looking back, I already am a career musician. What about the money I hear you say? If I was in it for money I wouldn't do music, I'd do finance and be a hedge fund manager!

In the end I can't wait to be that old guy who sits out on his porch on Sundays strumming and playing his guitar, only I'll be friendly because my spirit hasn't been broken! Rock on!

"All artists are willing to suffer for their work. But why are so few prepared to learn to draw?" Banksy

__________ EUREKA! THAT'S IT! I want you to read this article: http://nyti.ms/hNYFZZ It's a further explanation of Gladwell's 10,000 hours thing. Actually, it came out before, but it took Gladwell to popularize the theory, because he's a much better writer, could it be that all the time he put in at the newspaper made him so? I'll excerpt the relevant portions:

1. "Or, put another way, expert performers - whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming - are nearly always made, not born. In other words, don't say you don't have the ability, say you don't have the INCLINATION!

2. "When it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love - because if you don't love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good. Most people naturally don't like to do things they aren't 'good' at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply don't possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin. But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better." The desire to be good. Too many people have the desire to be rich, or famous, ergo the Banksy quote above. They're willing to come to Hollywood and scrape and starve, sleep on mattresses and eat McDonald's, but they're just not willing to practice.

3. "Deliberate practice entails more than simply repeating a task - playing a C-minor scale 100 times, for instance, or hitting tennis serves until your shoulder pops out of its socket. Rather, it involves setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome."

In other words, it's not about world domination, about becoming rich and famous, it's about how well you play your guitar. We're taught not to believe this, that anyone can make it if you just work hard enough on your art, develop the background and skills necessary. Used to be if the school called and said you screwed up, your parent would berate you.

Today, your parent goes to the academy and berates the administrator, says you're perfect and couldn't possibly have broken the code. Huh? We've taught our children that success is easy, only a motion away, which it isn't.

Fame might be, but once the spotlight fades, exactly what is Snooki going to do? No one's going to be paying her the big bucks just to show up. She's going to have to get a job. And she's qualified to do..? I'd recommend staying in

school.

And not choosing a career for money, but for love. And if you want to be exceptional, you've got to spend more time at home woodshedding than auditioning, more time practicing than waiting in line to try out for a TV vocal competition.

Do you think these Silicon Valley wizards just wake up one day, go to Sunnyvale, sleep on floors and then become big successes? No, they code starting in their single digits, and they study math in college, and it's hard, and all those rewards come way down the line.

Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates may have dropped out of Harvard, but they were computer nerds long before, and in the case of Gates, when almost no one else was! The Allman Brothers didn't have to tell everyone they were good, they just had to plug in their instruments. That was enough to show everybody, when they started to play.

But that's because Duane Allman was so dedicated to his axe that he even took it to the bathroom.

You're texting, you're networking. Those may get you laid, but they won't make you a good musician.

People are sacrificing and suffering all over the world. That doesn't mean they're ready for the hit parade. Just because you have a hard life, just because you're willing to forgo the spoils of the middle class, that does not mean you're good. You're only good if you work at your craft. And that does not mean learning how to play "Stairway To Heaven"...that's just the beginning.

How do you get to the point where you know all the notes, have practiced the scales and can come up with something innovative and new that will make our heads turn?

By spending a lot of time picking.

Your move.

Bob Lefsetz

Albums are for fans, singles are for newbies.

Don't make an album expecting to reach a new audience. If you want to reach a new audience, focus on the single.

I'm baffled by those who make a full length project the basis of their marketing campaign. Hell, I'm baffled they've got a campaign at all. You mean you want me to stop and listen to this much bad music? Okay, okay, don't get offended, but it seems that so much is shite, wading through the crap is a full time job, and I'm only gonna listen if a buddy tells me to and then only one track. If you're incredible, I'll want more, but only in bits and pieces. It's not like I go to Ben & Jerry's, order a cup of Phish Food and decide I like it so much that I go back to the counter and order TEN! I might buy a pint at a later date, but that's it.

Actually, I love Phish Food, and I buy pints on a regular basis. Imagine if they only made the ice cream once every two years. And I had to keep up with the marketing to know it was out. I'd have to be one hell of a fan to care.

In other words, if you're putting out an album every couple of years you're reinventing the wheel, you're marketing from ground zero over and over again. You've even lost touch with your fans. You need a steady stream of product to keep people interested. But the main point is do not release ten tracks at a time for ten bucks, that's positively archaic thinking based on the CD and major label profitability schemes.

Think of it this way. Do you constantly worry about the size of your hard drive? Do you think about coming up with a bevy of files that fit it perfectly? That's what making an album is like. In a world of unlimited storage, you're still trying to fill a floppy disk. It's a ridiculous pastime.

Concentrate on making music. Focus on making the best music you can. And release it when it's ready, don't hold it back as a result of some sales scheme. Once again, that's major label thinking for dead bands. That's how they sell the Stones or the Beatles or... All that hype about the "Exile On Main Street" anniversary set... Have you heard anybody talk about it recently? It's set in amber. Whereas the music of a working band must be in the ears of listeners on a regular basis.

The flaw in this thinking is especially prevalent in the work of classic acts. They finally put out an album and no one cares. They think it's still the seventies. That radio is waiting and everybody is listening and visiting the record shop every Saturday thumbing through the new releases. They're baffled when their album stiffs.

Usually, the music is not great. But there might be one gem included. Why not put out only that? Something that good has a chance of being spread via word of mouth. You might get some traction. Otherwise, it's the best player on a losing team. It's like being a bad baseball club with one superstar, playing in Iowa, with little or no media coverage. Your album is a team. No one wants to play with a loser. But unlike in sports, you don't need nine or eleven members on the team to play the game, in music you only need one!

We're getting there. At some point artists will catch up with the audience. But for a decade now, not only have labels been behind, so have the music makers.

Look at the statistics for new acts. They sell singles more than albums. Katy Perry's album sales are anemic, she stands on the strength of her single hits.

Oh, that's right, you're an "artist". Show me where in the manual it says an artist makes music in sixty minute chunks. Or that people listen to it that way.

I've got no problem with you combining ten tracks and selling them as a CD at your concert. Or as a double vinyl package. That's about selling a souvenir, not music.

But please, stop making albums. It's a waste of money. You lose momentum between projects. No one listens to most of the music. You're in the music business, not the album business.

And the music business is about three or five or even ten minutes of glory. An experience that cannot be denied. Concentrate on constructing that. Then you'll grow fans.

Or just make albums for the few people paying attention. But don't expect to be much bigger than you are now.

Bob Lefsetz

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A guy calls the musicians' guild to get a quote on a 6 piece band for a wedding. The rep says "Off the top of my head, about $2000".He says"WHAT? FOR MUSIC?. "The rep responds " I'll tell you what. Call the plumbers' union & ask for six plumbers to work from 6 to midnight on a Saturday night. Whatever they charge you, we'll work for half."

I was talking to a friend of mine on the weekend and I mentioned that I was away from my wife and child on that given Saturday night and had the 'night off' so to speak. He whispered: "Enjoy your freedom" in my ear and that made me reply: "But I'm already free" The notion that a family or having a baby takes away your freedom has always seemed a little weird to me.

Let me get this straight, growing up I had all the freedom in the world to choose what profession I would take on, to go out with this girl and not that girl. I had the pure luck freedom that I didn't live in poverty and I had the pure luck freedom that my family wasn't very rich either. I also had the freedom to choose to marry the woman I loved, the freedom to have a baby.

Luckily we were blessed with a beautiful girl, the freedom which she has obviously takes away certain physical freedoms for us, such as sleeping in, recording in the studio as much, going to movies etc. Underlying these ‘un-freedoms’ is the freedom that we chose this life – come what may this is all built on freedom, whether it is the choice of an almost unaffordable mortgage or the fact that we now own property in Sydney, the whole underlying plan is freedom, we didn’t have to do any of this, we wanted to.

So when someone looks at your 1 dimensional life and how lacking of freedom it is, just smile, they’ll never get it so don’t’ even bother.

NK

I just had a major idea.

Talking with my wife, she was telling me how one of her friends is opting for a caesar for her next baby as she doesn't want to got through the natural pain. Another friend had one natural birth and is now opting for caesar as she can't handle the pain.

This got me thinking, more and more people are turning away from natures intention, you can see it in the plastic surgery people, a nose job here, a boob job there, colouring over grey hair, colouring over natural hair, removing hair, botox etc.

Now I'm thinking, human beings are actually becoming the aliens we think that live on another planet. If this pace of turning away from nature goes forward for the next 100 years, by the time we reach 2111 there will be bionafied aliens who look nothing like humans walking the earth in weird  turn of forced evolution.

Don't look for aliens out there, look inside yourself, maybe you are the alien.

How can you ban Money For Nothing 25 years after its release? http://tinyurl.com/4pyw8tt

They have become what the song is about. Bozos. Progress does not involve becoming more small-minded.

Besides Mark Knopfler even created an edited version leaving the faggots off.

Seriously I can't believe a country I love so much would make such a huge step backwards!

I'm 20 years old and find an advert in the entertainment section of our local news paper saying that on Sunday Mark Knopfler will be having a world wide call in phone chat for an hour from 6-7pm. You call the BBC, state your question and if they deem your question good enough they call you back.

So I called them from my bedroom in Johannesburg South Africa.

I've decided to blog about this as I remember it in blinding clarity sitting here in Sydney Australia being 34 years old now, before time wipes this memory clean I better capture it here for longevity and better or worse!

MK had just released his first solo album Golden Heart and to celebrate the end of the year, Christmas etc, they had this world wide chat.

If you followed Dire Straits you'd now that MK started his solo career in film soundtracks really so having Golden Heart come out seemed to really just be an extension of that to me.

I noticed on Golden Heart how much mumble-singing MK was doing, much more than any other recording I had ever heard. I could hardly make out the words, and the guitar playing, well, seriously lacking the glow of the solos Dire Straits brought. Golden Heart had an Irish/world music sound and clearly focused on songwriting over guitar virtuosity and, well, singing I guess!

So my question was "What are you going to do after Golden Heart?" to which the BBC called back saying it was perfect to wrap up the show with. I was so excited that I forgot to hit the record button on my Tape deck (I learnt to live the moment to it's fullest right there, no gadgets - something I do to this day, and the reason I remember this whole event so clearly).

So they did the sound check and "can you hear Mark?" "can you hear your voice?" etc. So I wait through all the fan outpouring of love for this man - army people ringing in telling MK how Brothers In Arms helped them through the Gulf War, people from Pakistan calling in just to wish him a Merry Christmas and ask the odd question.

The last caller before myself gets on the line, and I can hear it all. She is from New Zealand, all she does is sing his praises, how she loves Local Hero and what it meant to her and on and on.

The BBC tell me they might not have time for my question if this (bitch) person continues. She did, they ran out of time. "Neville, I'm so sorry we've run out of time and have to go to our next program" - not on my life buddy! In a split second of genius that I perhaps never showed again in my life : ) I asked "Well, can I speak to him off air for a moment?" See, I'm not interested in the broadcast, the fame, I'm just interested in the music. BBC says: "Blimey, that's a good idea! Mark, MARK! can you take a few more calls here?" (not sure if they said 'blimey' - artistic license there!) footsteps, FOOTsteps, FOOTSTEPS and "Hello?" (it's Mark - frickin - Knopfler! on the phone to me!)

I'll write out the dialogue here:

NK (Neville Kaye - that's me!): Hi Mark, I was just wandering what you plan to do after the tour wraps up?

MK - I have plan to go into the studio and do some film work. (This turned out to be Metroland)

NK - Any plans to tour South Africa.

MK (a little perplexed) - Well, seeming we just came off tour we don't have any immediate plans no. (he toured SA in 2005 for Shangri La)

NK - Mark, I've been learning guitar since I was 18 and I'm 20 now.

MK - Great have you recorded anything yet?

NK - Oh no, no I've only been playing for 2 years, but I'm worried I started playing to late in life.

MK - Don't worry, I started playing when I was 15 years old, keep at it. (I knew this!)

NK - Thanks man (in a think SA accent), hey, in Guitarist Magazine you mentioned your playing wasn't up to scratch.

MK - Yes, well a friend of mine has given me some books and I'm going to start going through them.

NK - Cool, thanks for your time Mark and I look forward to being in the front row whenever you tour South Africa.

MK - (not sure what he said here but it must have been "Bye"!)

- See, before the interview I remembered 3 questions I wanted to ask him - I know it seems as if I came off a bit arrogant telling Mark Knopfler his guitar playing was shit lately! But I did not want to suck his dick and kiss his ass as every caller did! Besides he said his playing wasn't up to scratch in Guitarist Magazine, so I didn't just make it up! I was interested in the person, the musician, not the celeb.

I got off the phone, shaking, so happy, the greatest guitarist in my world!..

Sometimes I hate him for having such a profound effect on my music and my life, but if it wasn't him it would have been Clapton or Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughan or or or or or...

So there it is, hope it wasn't too boring.

Next I'll write about the time I met Feddie Mercury at Sun City in 1984! Seriously!

NK