Halloween might have passed, but I’m still in the spooky spirit. So, as a musician I would like to share terrifying things that will make an artist wake up in cold sweat. Here are some musician nightmares that I have experienced in the past, and see if you think you can handle them if you were me.  

Playing to a Dead Audience

Imagine you rock out so hard on stage and pull everything from your bag of tricks to impress your audience. Then at the end of the song you hear a quiet slow clap from the back dark corner. Or, you want to hype up your audience by shouting “Everybody say YEAH!”, and your audience replied with a flat monotone “yeaaa…”. That sucks, but you’d be surprised how often that happens. And it’s worse when it’s actually an important gig, like when you are playing for VIPs or at your dream venue. Most of the time, all musicians would just brush it off and keep going, but you know that they are probably crying inside.

(John Tuesday / Unsplash)

Being Asked to Play for Free

This is truly a nightmare, especially if you are the kind of person who can’t say no. Some people would use flattery or make you feel guilty for not saying yes to free gigs. A worse version of this is when someone asks you to play, and instead of paying you with real money, they would pay you with “exposure”. I mean, if it’s reeeally a good exposure, like on primetime TV, I might consider it. But most of the time, it’s just not worth it. On the other hand, sometimes I would actually do free gigs for the right reasons. For example, I’d perform for free for a charity, or if I get a rare opportunity to collaborate with my favorite artists. At the same time, I also need to make a living. So unless it benefits me in a significant way, I’d probably say no to a free gig. 

Traveling with Unreliable Airlines

As a musician, your instrument is your everything. I even joke sometimes that your instrument is your first boy/girlfriend, and your real boy/girlfriend is your second one. However, when you are traveling on an airplane, many airlines will ask you to check your beloved instrument in the baggage. When this happens, you will spend the entire flight worrying about its safety. And if you are some of the unlucky ones, you would find out that your instrument is chipped, bent, or snapped in half when you land. If you ever travel in an airplane with your instrument, I wish this will never happen to you. 

(Marios Proniaris / Pexels)

Online Haters and Trolls

Oh, the beauty of the internet. Many people feel invincible because they can hide behind the screen. They would just send hateful messages with no filter. I’ve been called names online, and someone even made sexual jokes about me on social media. I think this is one of the worst things about being an artist. People feel entitled to you just because you put yourself and your work out there. But I think this is probably what makes artists and public figures some of the toughest people on earth. We learn how to ignore the negative and keep going. Plus, we learned how to use that “block” button.

I still have plenty of musician nightmares, but these are my top four. So, if you were me, do you think you can handle every single one of them?