What is Success?
We need a new definition
Footlight Presents @ the Windjammer is a nonprofit venue that has provided a platform for emerging artists in Ridgewood, Queens, since 2016. This is our Substack where we share industry-related interviews, essays, & encourage discourse
Success. Just saying the word can conjure up anxious thoughts. Is success what our parents imagined for us? The house, the kid, the retirement fund? At a time when that is vastly unachievable for most, it’s probably healthier to re-examine what that word really means to each individual person.
As artists, we’re always told to have a backup plan. We’re expected to fail. I don’t see traditional failures or successes when I look at the artists that are playing on our stage. I see resourceful, resiliant fighters, trying to carve out a place in the world for their art and community. That in itself is a success to me. We need to keep art alive and separate music and art as a commodity to sell shit on Instagram. Art is not a means to an end; it’s supposed to make us feel human.
So, what is success to you? Feel free to comment or share your thoughts. Here are a few examples we collected from artists that you can see on our stage in the coming weeks!
Emerson Borakove - Prairie Princess
LBR: Why did you start playing music?
EB: I think I started playing music because in middle school, I had a very hard time explaining myself to people. I felt that even if there was someone out there who could understand how I felt, I had a very low chance of having the skills to relay my incomprehensible vision of the world. I was a very lonely child with a lot of time [on my hands] in a small city in Nebraska.
I guess I could say specifically what led me to music, instead of say literature or film, is when I was 11 or 12, I heard Weezer’s album Pinkerton for the first time. This instantly became my favorite album for the next 5 or so years, this guy Rivers Cuomo really got it! The self-loathing! The ugly universe! Something that really understood what it felt like to be a suicidal 7th grader! I listened to that album on my little off-brand MP3 player once in the morning on the bike to school, every passing period between classes, again on the bike home from school, and at least once in the evening after dinner with my family.
I started making music because I felt like if I could find some way to make something like Pinkerton, then I should. I wanted to make an album or work of art that could become essentially someone’s best friend. To accomplish that, I imagined it would make me feel less lonely. To make the world a better place, not despite the pain but because of it. Or even better through any happiness I felt. Every feeling could be translated into art. Every moment could be wrapped in beauty. I wanted to live forever, cryogenically freeze myself with my art in case someone could love me 1000 years from now.
LBR: What was your first show? Where was it, what was the vibe, how did it go?
EB: What was my first show! There are many answers to this question: it could be my 5th-grade brass band recital, or maybe it would be more interesting to talk about that time at the 3rd-grade talent show, where I lip-synced or more “lip-farted” to a CD of fart sounds my dad made for me. As exciting as those were, I think what set me on the path to This Life I Lead as a DIY Musician (DIY not necessarily by choice!) was the last day of 8th grade. There was some kind of Middle School graduation party at a popular kid's house (he had a pool!) that my friend Grace heard about through someone she knew who was actually invited. At this point I knew all I wanted to do was be in a band but I was having trouble finding anyone who would play with me. Some kind of last day feeling of ‘oh I won’t see most of these people anymore’ must have given me some kind of ‘let’s pull off a scheme mindset’ so I quickly taught Grace and my friend Maureen how to play “feel good inc” and some song I wrote, where, if I remember right had a freestyle rap section. Maureen played drums and Grace played bass. We loaded up a wagon full of instruments and walked all the way to this kid’s house. Rolling our little makeshift band into the backyard while these kids were protesting and filming us on their Snapchat stories. We set up and started playing, and by the end of the first song, they were won over! And by the end of the last song, they wanted more! Anyways, afterward they asked us to hang out, and I knew that’s when I would start to fail. The music was the connection; any real conversation between them and me would inevitably destroy something accidentally, so I said thank you very much and left quickly. Grace and Maureen stayed and had fun, I think. Not a bad first show!
LBR: How do you define success as an artist?
EB: I define success as an artist in terms of the question: Can I stand to look myself in the eye? If I could make something I’d want to listen to, watch, or read, then it’s my moral obligation to do so. The goal is always to make something that could be useful to me, so it might be useful to you. I’m not so different than you, you know! We are all pretty similar. The stuff I like could probably be the stuff you like and vice versa. I would like to keep making art. If I can keep making art and having interesting thoughts till I’m dead, that will be a success. Most of the old artists I know who reside within some real metrics of “successful” live in a universe so unlike reality. I would like that in some ways. Reality is a rough gambit. It gets worse as you get older, and if it gets better, then you become scary. Most people are so scary. If I could become less scary, that would be a success in my eyes.
Prairie Princess is playing June 13th with Good Morning,Shepherd & Saint Rémy
Áine Mullaly - Boy Factory & Fear of Flying & Angel Landing
LBR: Why did you start playing music?
AM: I started playing music because it felt like a logical step for me; my parents are both musicians. My dad is a guitarist and my mom plays classical clarinet. I grew up around music constantly, singing harmonies in the car with my parents, seeing their friends and family playing in bands around Queens and Long Island. It just felt like something I always knew I was going to do.
LBR: What was your first show? Where was it, what was the vibe, how did it go?
AM: My first show was in my college student-run coffee shop with my first band, Crotona. We had about 4 songs that were barely even real songs and a cover. I remember it being a bit awkward and I was nervous but I think it went well enough. I was lucky to have the opportunity and just excited to play original music.
LBR: How do you define success as an artist?
AM: It depends on the day — I feel successful whenever I finish a song lol. I think I started to feel successful when the band I was in started to kind of gain its own momentum, we got asked to play more shows than we were piecing together ourselves, and people I didn’t know liked my music. In starting a new project, all I can think about is getting back to that level, but it’s so rewarding after you do all the work that gets you there. When you’re working hard and putting all of your time and effort into something, you don’t really take no for an answer anymore.
Áine is our in-house graphic designer & marketing admin. Check out some of her work on our socials. She is open for commissions.
Yoko Sawai - The Knickerbocker 5 & Hot Nips
LBR: Why did you start playing music?
YS: I used to go see US indie bands while I was living in Japan. I was a big fan of indie bands and that scene brought me to New York. My Japanese friends and I would hang out all the time. Then someone said You guys are wasting time, do something creative!’ Then we shouted, “We will start the band.” I didn’t know how to play instruments, but I knew how to play keys. During the pandemic, I had nothing to do. So I started to learn bass, and I love it.
LBR: What was your first show? Where was it, what was the vibe, how did it go?
YS: Death by audio. (RIP) It was the end of Dec in 2009. Great indie vibe and lots of people came. We kept doing it.
LBR: How do you define success as an artist?
YS: We sold out the room
The Knickbocker 5 is playing on June 26th with Doser & War Honey
Jamie Frey - Nite Music
LBR: Why did you start playing music?
JF: When I was in junior high school, my two best friends and I started to talk about music a lot, and ask for CDs and instruments for birthday presents instead of video games and whatnot. We started learning together and trying to play songs; the thrill of even the attempt to play songs together was greater than any activity I had engaged in previously. Soon after that, we started writing our own silly songs and never looked back.
LBR: What was your first show? Where was it, what was the vibe, how did it go?
JF: Our first gig, the same best friends plus a rhythm section, was at L’amour, a famous metal club in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn - we were opening an overlong bill that concluded in Iron Priest (a cover band that did Iron Maiden AND Judas Priest), though the original closing band was a KISS band that canceled. We played half covers and half originals, opening with Blitzkrieg Bop. We had sold many paper tickets to our high school comrades and had a lot of friends in the front. the minute we kicked into gear I started flying around the room like Axl Rose or something. I would say it went quite well. I found my calling in life that night.
LBR: How do you define success as an artist?
JF: Art can have all kinds of intent, but from where I sit, someone who writes pop and rock n roll songs, if I can make anyone feel better about their life, themselves, even just step away from their troubles during a set or listening to a song: that is success. If anyone, especially a younger person, sees or hears me and feels like they might want to write, perform, sing, or express themselves in any way, that is success. When I see someone singing the words to a song I wrote, that is success.
Nite Music has a show coming up at one of our favorite local independent venues, Purgatory, on June 11th with Labrador & Freezing Cold.
Laura Regan - Bridget and the Squares & HAWT ME$$
Why did you start playing music?
I have always loved to sing and was born with a powerful voice. In high school, I was forced to choose between theater and music performance. I chose music because I had less practical training and education in music. (VIRGO **cough cough) Little did I realize at the time that the decision would shape my entire life. Becoming a songwriter saved my life and brought me to places I couldn’t have imagined as an angsty teen.
What was your first show? Where was it, what was the vibe, how did it go?
I honestly do not remember my first show. I have been performing in some capacity since I was 8 years old. My first show with a band was at a random indie venue/restaurant in Lowell, MA. I was so nervous that I needed to face the drummer to perform. I remember it being way too well-lit for a rock show. I had never experienced stage fright until I started leading a band. I was always petrified of screwing up. It took a lot of the fun out of music for me. Creating the stage persona, “Bridget,” was the only way I could get through it. In the end, blending my theater and music backgrounds helped me pursue my music career.
How do you define success as an artist?
My answer to this question has evolved so much over time. When I was younger, success was being active, touring, playing shows, producing new music, and constantly growing as a musician. The goal posts are always moving. As I grew more interested in operating a venue, that definition has changed dramatically. Success is sustainability. Not just growth or reaching more people, it’s about connecting with an audience that will help sustain your work long term.
Laura is the operator, executive director & program director of Footlight Presents. Maybe she’ll play a song at our 10-year anniversary block party on July 12th on Bleecker St.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on success! Comment, re-stack with comment, email us, follow on socials and engage with our content!