And The Writer Is...with Ross Golan - Key Moment: Russ | What Every Artist Needs to Know (10-Minute Blueprint)

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

In this powerful 10-minute blueprint, Russ breaks down what every artist needs to know to build a real career in today’s music industry. From his mindset of delusional self-belief to strategic release plans and business truths, this clip will change the way you approach your music journey forever.Subscribe for more industry insight and give us a rating if you enjoyed this! It helps us keep this show free forever, which is our commitment to the industry and our audience.Presented by NMPAhttps://www.nmpa.org/Chapters:0:00 Why Songs Don’t Blow Up0:15 Is Inspiration Overrated?0:33 Writing Big Songs While Uninspired1:05 How Russ Would Start From Zero Today1:24 Stockpiling Songs & Posting Strategy1:57 Do You Want Success Bad Enough?2:01 Russ’ Duality: Confidence vs. Doubt2:21 The Power of Delusional Self-Belief3:02 Why Songwriters Should Stop Giving Songs Away3:51 Why Most Artists Stay Broke5:06 Taking Control of Your Music Business6:38 The Purity of Creating Without an Audience7:04 The Audience Picks The Hits8:07 Russ’ Song-a-Week Strategy Explained8:39 When a Song Flops: Russ on Bankrupt9:13 Why It’s Okay If It’s Not The One Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most artists, the song is just not the one. It's not because that person didn't post it. It's not because the label didn't spend money on it. That's not why this song didn't blow up. It's because the song isn't the one. I think sometimes inspiration is overrated. I think just like showing up and doing it can sometimes be what curates the inspiration. You can be inspired by you showing up.

You know, I used to kind of take it as a test from like the universe when I was younger and the studio wasn't at my house. It was at Lugas's house. And days where I felt so uninspired, I would always be like, this is the test. Are you still going to go? And so I would make it a point to go to the studio when I was uninspired. And so many times I would write big songs when I showed up uninspired. Because it's almost like the showing up gave me that motivation.

You kind of get like dopamine from showing up when you didn't want to show up. So I think just relying on inspiration is you're not going to make that much stuff. If you were to start from zero with everything you know now, how would you do it? I would make a bunch of songs first. I think people don't have patience. In order to be consistent, you have to be patient first. So I would be patient, stock up a bunch of songs. I would say I would stock up 24 songs that I know are fucking great.

I would do what I can to just have video shot. Obviously, if there's no budget, get that iPhone out and go crazy. And I would do two songs a month with like posting 200 fucking TikToks to each song, straight up. And I would just keep doing that over and over. Two songs a month. One song a month minimum has to be your pace or I don't think you want it that bad. Simple. Some people don't want it that bad.

That's the reality. I want a six-pack, but not that bad. You know what I mean? Like not bad enough to like really dial it in. Your lyrics are really vulnerable, but they also have like this self-assurance. Which one are you? Both. Both.

I think that's the, um, sometimes I wrestle with that of like feeling sure about myself in the future, but then also having doubts, you know, and insecurities and all that. It's all wrapped up in one beautifully miserable, robust human experience. I think I've gotten really far off of. of just delusion. I think that's my best attribute, though, is just thinking I can do things. And it's almost like, it's not even a arrogance. It's just, I think no matter how many doubts I've had throughout my life or whatever, I still always think I can do something, like whatever it is. And I think moving off of that charge of just feeling like, I think I can do

it. Why can't I do that? Why can't I write a book? Why can't I act? Why can't I, you know, That's like enough to get you going. And then like you're saying, once you start going and start doing it, you realize you can do it. Like you're doing it, you know? Writing a book seemed like a lofty, absurd goal. But it's like, why not? It's just a bunch of tweets compiled into a book, like in a more like digestible.

You know what I mean? Like that's how I was looking at it. Like just ramble, but type it out. Yeah. What advice would you give young songwriters? Oh, man. Stop giving your song. songs away. Songwriters get stuck in this like loop where I feel like they have been told or

they've believed or accepted that you can't be the artist. You're just the writer, whether it's because your appearance or whatever the fuck it is. It's like y'all are the geniuses. Y'all are like the source is what I call them. Y'all are the source. Put your shit out. You know, like one of my favorite songwriters, B.B. B. Borelli, who I worked with on Santiago. Every time I talk to, I'm like, please put your shit out. When I first met her, I was like, stop giving your songs away. Just because I get it. Like there's an art to that too.

Like you writing something and somebody else singing it, whatever, I get it. But I'm like, nah, like when she'll play me like her demos, and I'm like, this is so much better than what came out. And oftentimes it's the emotion behind it. It's like, I can tell you wrote this based off how you're singing it. And I can tell that person did not write this. They sound like they're reading off a script, you know. And it's like, especially in today's day and age where there's not the gatekeepers of the past who are like, I think it was the dream.

They told like, no, you're not, like you don't look good enough to be a songwriter or some shit like that. That's out. That doesn't apply anymore. Like, this is the internet. Like, put your shit out. The dream solo albums were so good. So good. Why do you think most artists are unaware of their business?

And why are you so aware of your business? That is a good question. I think most artists are unaware of what's going on due to lack of asking questions. Maybe they're intimidated to like know about it or it's just a lot of times too when you don't know about something, it just feels like foreign and intimidating and overwhelming. and I remember like when I was still not like mixing, you know, our shit. So like I started out just producing for my boy and we would send it off to get mixed because mixing felt like this crazy world that I didn't know about.

And then we were getting mixes back and we didn't like them. And I was like, let me just figure out what this is. And so then I started mixing everything. And so same thing I think with like the business side. I think I would speculate and say most artists are probably just overwhelmed. But for me, why I'm so, like, aware and want to be aware is because it's my shit. Like, it's my shit. It's my business.

I'm not like, I'm not going to let somebody else just tell me like, yeah, no, no, no, this is just how it goes. I ask questions. I call my lawyer all the time. I call my business manager all the time. Like, I don't know everything. I just ask a lot of questions. If I don't know what's going on with my business, I'm just free falling in limbo.

I'm just putting music out and songs out and not knowing what's what. Like, that's scary to me. It feels very unsafe. It feels like I'm not in control. It feels like I'm just trusting that people I met via the business are just going to have my best interest. And, you know, I like to, it's, I think it comes from a lack of trust. I don't trust anyone more than I trust myself. I wish I could go back to like when I didn't know as much as I know now.

Why? Because that was the like purest form of creation. is when you don't know what you're doing. You know what I mean? Were you better then? Not better than I was more free mentally. You know, like 2017 or 2015 when I'm making all those SoundCloud songs.

I'm not even the audience was not a factor because there was no audience. You know what I mean? But I do think the audience is king in the sense of picking hits, you know? Yeah. Like I think artists, like you're wasting your time. caring or thinking about is this going to be a hit because the people pick the hits like you

could think it's this one and just put the music out and the people will tell you it's this one you know so I do think the audience is king in that regard but I don't know man I think so antithetical to how most record labels have traditionally worked where they pick the first five singles before the albums come out yeah and now it's like it isn't that yeah you don't have to play the guessing game anymore, though. Just the the relationship, the artist-fan relationship, I feel like, has just been democratized, you know?

And it's like, bro, put the music. This is kind of why I did my approach of a song a week and why I still just throw so much shit at the wall. Because for me, it's a couple things. One, I love making music. Two, I love sharing it. And I love sharing it consistently. In three, I'm not going to waste

brainpower and bandwidth and energy and get attached to like this. the song needing to be the hit. I'm just going to put all this shit out. And y'all will tell me, based off of the streams, which one is the one? And then I'll go do a video to that, and I'll take that to radio, and I'll do campaigns and or I won't. But that's, you know, like 315 was just week three of week 21 when I did 21 weeks in a row

in 2021. That was just week three. I dropped 18 more after that. Do you ever feel disappointed when you're pretty sure that you know what the single is? Yeah, all the time. Oh, my God. What's a single that the audience didn't pick? Oh, man, bankrupt.

I think it's a beautiful song. I think the concept is incredible. I think the melody's incredible. I think the video is a super special video where it just looks exactly how the song sounds. It's not everything about it was perfect. And shit did nothing. My God, damn. Well, there goes 200 grand.

Why do you think it did? Live to fight another day. I don't know. Just not the one, you know. That's also like, because I put out so much music, I do have a pretty good relationship with the songs from an emotional level. Like, it's all good. It's just not the one.

And some artists, like most artists, the song is just not the one. It's not because that person didn't post it. It's not because the label didn't spend money on it. That's not why this song didn't blow up. It's because the song isn't the one.