A tough business

By Doug Page | Wednesday, April 30, 2008, 03:47 PM

Tomorrow’s (May 1) Neighbors section has a short story on a 17-year-old girl from Brookville who wants to pursue a career in pop music as a singer/songwriter.

What teenage girl doesn’t want to be a singer? For that matter, what teenage boy doesn’t want to be a guitar hero?

The chances of Alyssa Sease becoming the next Beyonce or Billie Holiday or Alicia Keyes are slim. But those that know say she is doing all the right things.

“The music business is very competitive, very cut-throat,” said Robert Gwin, a Louisville lawyer whose practice includes entertainment law. “It’s a more difficult career path than becoming a lawyer or a journalist.”

Good thing I’m not a journalist or might feel insulted.

But Gwin ought to know. He was once a musician. Now he advises them. In this case, Aylssa’s mother called to find out what traps and snares awaited her daughter.

Gwin sees some potential.

“Given her age, her song-writing is more mature than you generally find. Her lyrics are well done,” he said. “A 17 year old playing at that level has potential.”

But potential doesn’t get anything done.

“In the next three years, she’s going to have to decide” where she is going, Gwin said.

For the short term, Alyssa will be at Bellarmine University, a small Catholic liberal arts school in Louisville. There she will study music technology.

“I don’t want to have a ‘nothing’ to fall back on,” Alyssa said. If she can’t perform, she hopes to produce.

“Some people need to breathe,” she said with an impish smile, “I need to write songs. … People who hear my songs, they are reading my diary.”

To listen to her work, go to http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/mplayer/m/84187

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