You want to be a rock star? Professor and former band frontman offers advice
David Herlihy, a Northeastern professor and former frontman for the band O Positive, gives tips on balancing creative and professional pursuits.
In his past life, Northeastern University professor David Herlihy was the frontman for a band.
Back in the 1980s, Herlihy swapped working as an attorney for performing as the lead vocalist for the alternative-rock band O Positive.
“I really felt this calling (to music),” Herlihy, now a teaching professor of music and copyright at Northeastern, told Northeastern Global News. “I wanted to pay the mortgage with my guitar.”
Founded in 1983, O Positive made four albums before hanging up its hat in 1995. Herlihy pivoted back to law and eventually began teaching music copyright law at the university. Between work and raising three kids, his music was pushed to the back burner.
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But in the last few years, Herlihy began writing and producing music again. He recently released a song called “Good Trouble” and made a music video of himself performing it with Northeastern students.
Having had some experience juggling a 9-5 job with making time for music after hours, Herlihy offered some advice to those who find themselves in similar situations.
Work music into your everyday life
This is Herlihy’s top tip for anyone balancing a creative pursuit with other life obligations.
“If you don’t make room for it every day, or at least every couple of days, it’s not going to happen,” he said. “If you want to play, then play today. Just keep doing that, and it’ll feel good.”
The balance requires finding time to create. For Herlihy, this came during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than binge-watch “Tiger King,” as many who were stuck at home did, he used the extra hours to try writing again. He ended up completing 40 new songs, he said.
Your phone is your friend
Herlihy recommends doing something meditative — like hitting the treadmill or gardening — and seeing what comes to you.
Songs in your mind “are like fish in the water,” Herlihy said. “If your water is too turbulent … you’re not going to see the fish.”
Herlihy said he gets some of his best ideas while running in the woods. When an idea strikes, he pulls up the notes app on his phone and uses the microphone feature to record the lyric or melody that came to him. Once he gets home, he pulls up the note on his laptop and saves it for when he’s writing.
Herlihy said he created hundreds of lyrics this way, which he’s incorporated into dozens of songs. Others, he said, could use the same strategy while brainstorming on their commute or their lunchtime walk, for example.
Reassess your goals
Everyone wants to be a rock star, but not everyone wants music to be their life. If you fall into the latter category, Herlihy said, consider what you do want from playing music.
Some people might be content having regular time playing or singing. In this case, Herlihy suggests having a standing jam session with friends or playing covers at open mic nights.
Others may be more interested in creating their own work and building a local following. In that case, Herlihy recommends seeking out regular gigs, but not too many, since overexposure could work against the effort.
Musicians should release some songs as their own songs. Dropping a few singles over time is better than debuting with an album, he added. This allows for a fan base to grow over time.
Focus on what feels good to you
Even when he was a kid, Herlihy would go over lyrics of songs he liked and “deconstruct them” to figure out why they resonated so much.
This guided his music writing process then and now: he tries to make music he likes rather than something that’ll appeal to the masses.
“Even if you’re trying to make it big, you have to please yourself,” he said. “I don’t try to be good. Good is more like a plurality of people liking something, but I think if I like something, then that’s good.”
