Musician Mike Posner recounts the injuries and hospital stay he endured while completing his 2019 walk across the United States.
Insight
Posner: Great artistry is vulnerability and human connection, not technical skill
“Music is not about hitting the high, it's like life, it's not about hitting the perfect no or doing the run, it's about, does it, does this part of my humanity speak to that part of your humanity? I'm raising my hand, I'm taking my clothes off out here, and it…”
Insight
Posner: Labels no longer develop artists without an existing audience
“So these days of a record label are, Hey kid, you got talent. We're gonna develop you for six years. Like that doesn't happen. And now it's even more so. You only get a record deal if you already have an audience. So that, that no longer is, you know, the resp…”
Insight
Posner: Record labels cannot start fires, only pour gasoline
“And that's what labels are great at. It's not so great at starting fires, but if you could start a fire, they got a hell of a lot of gasoline.”
Insight
Posner: Artists must win Spotify before radio, reversing historical trends
“You win Spotify and get on the radio, or you win YouTube and you get on the radio. Then it was the opposite.”
Insight
Posner: Emotional pain and reluctance signal ideas worth writing about
“A huge, huge barometer of something I should be writing is that, oh, I really don't want to write this. This moment was so painful. Like, I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to think about it. So yeah, that, that it's not the only, you know, it's not t…”
Insight
Posner: Taking on harder goals paradoxically makes life feel easier
“I'm gonna make my life harder, but then paradoxically, my life feels easier when I'm doing the harder thing.”