Film Courage: What do you think about the term starving artist?
Khoa Le, Entrepreneur and Filmmaker: What do I think about it? I think every creative is going
to go through adversity and not have any way to sustain themselves, that’s how I think about it.
That a starving artist is someone that’s so passionate about what they are doing that they’re
willing to do everything they can to make that art form work and they’re willing to die for it.
That’s how I think about it. Film Courage: Have you seen this in yourself?
Khoa: Oh yeah, for me I was 19 years old when I hurt my arm from baseball. I decided to go into
music. I worked a nine-to-five job. Really it was a nine-to-seven job, that’s what I felt like
to me. From eight o’clock to four o’clock and five o’clock in the morning I’m making music,
I’m producing the record, writing a song and figuring out how to engineer it to make the best
sound, seven days a week. My vacations were all about the music and I would always fund my music
through the job that I had. I’m not a starving artist because I had a job, but I hurt myself
to be the best I can be in doing it. Now I look at me being really lucky to have had a corporate job
where I could do that and had the flexibility. I look at artists that don’t have that capability.
They don’t have the technology background, they’re just not wired that way. They are extremely
creative, extremely talented (music, art, whatever it is) and they can’t function any other way
and they are doing that 16-18 hours a day and they're willing to just eat peanuts just to
make a living just to do that and I think that's the yeah that's what a starving artist is and
that's that's the one of the reasons why I'm I want to fix and you know not me but personally
I want to bring a community in to help flip that world upside down so they don't become starving
artists and I think those are the probably the ones that are the ones that can enlighten people
and you said there was a lot of predatory tactics in the music industry do you think because you
had a day job you didn't give off the desperation because a lot of predators they sense desperation
and they usually go after yeah people that that they know are weak and that can't fight back you
think that you think that you kind of were able to deflect some of that because you had this job
no I had the that's I was desperate to you know because you go so much you know I mean
you I'm working like crazy on it's no I had the same feeling that of desperation
and I signed bad contracts too and I remember myself just yelling on the phone
you know to get myself out of the contract because they screwed me and and then eventually I did
get out of it you know luckily but it's but I've been screwed so many times in the music industry
so because because I was an idiot taking on something that I because I was desperate for
so so even though you had a you were able to pay the rent so to speak you still got oh yeah
there were still sharks okay there were so many shocks for that yeah so you decided to leave
and put a pause put on pause that's right put on pause yeah okay so it's
on pause and do you think that the most talented artists are the most successful
well let's define success
success to me is being happy and and in what you're doing
you know if the artist is living in the garage you know
and and but still happy where they're living I would look that as a success for artists you know
and so so to me that that's a that's really just a it's success is a personal question
why do you think so many artists struggle financially despite their talent
the first of all I think the medium is is the medium right it's the you know the music the
films it's anything that's creative outside people don't value it like that even though
they use it every day right they you know from anything they see visually to the things that
they listen to they listen to the the music that helps them program their thing or help to do their
homework but they don't want to pay for it and so if the consumers don't pay for it that means that
the artists are not going to be as valued as they should be
but but that's why they call it a business you know it's not just music it's not just filmed
it is a film business it is a music business and most artists have no interest in business
at all who wants to actually go into QuickBooks or spreadsheets and make updates to to a client it's
a CRM system you know who wants to do that nobody wants to do it they want to go in there make music
be emotional about it tell a story go to sleep you know and that's what they want to do for a living
I get it I was that guy too but but if you want to survive in the financial world and that's another
game then you gotta be good at business if you're not good at it then I don't know what to tell you
you know I think that's it goes hand in hand if you want to survive in that game financially
plus I think too it helps someone not be taken advantage of if they just blindly turned
everything over to someone I've heard horror stories of all sorts of stuff happening where
they weren't aware but if you ask questions and you are aware of sort of accounting and different
things and yes you must likely yes I think that you'll be less taking advantage of however
business people to business people take advantage of each other too and so it's it's a it's not
about understanding about the business it's about leverage like if you're an artist that has the hit
song or hit film where it is and then you get all these distributors the ages wanted to go after you
they're they're in advantage and they could take advantage of the business people because of the
because of that you know what I'm saying and so it's and so I think that it's so it's so yeah
being taken advantage is all about leverage it's not about knowing more business on what
what it is you know if you're a great artist if you're in demand if you're like Whitney Houston
right or you're like Mariah Carey or Ariana Grande they don't need to know anything about business
but they could take advantage of the business people that's how I can look at it because they
got the goods because they're the ones that are going to make a billion dollars to these people
and those people will be desperate for those type of artists that don't come around often
why is it that artists lack business skills
it's like a oxymoron right it's like the it's a you know it's a complete opposite of their nature
artists is creative there's a different brain and business is a different brain
for me speaking I never wanted to touch a spreadsheet you know or
even though I'm Asian I actually suck at math okay and so
and business is math you know and it's it's this this negotiations it's it's being able to
talk almost sometimes non-transparently in order to get a deal done it's a it's a game it's a war
it's still creative in that sense but it's not but in in the art in making musical
films you want you know there's nothing I mean you tell you're writing a script
you you know you you're you're telling a story there's no business or it's so much more fun
right you get to be emotional with it business is business you know and and for my experience that
like some artists try to be business people and they just can't be one and they just don't they
don't practice it enough do you think all artists deserve to be paid for their work 100 percent
I believe that artists need any great artists great artist that deserves that that that is
recognized for their talents it should absolutely be doing it for a living you know there's no
reason they should be be a painter when they could you know when they could move a 50,000
people crowd as a musician there's no reason for that you know if you're a filmmaker that could
that that's a you know another Quentin Tarantino of storyteller that could
impact the world there's no reason that we should be should be waiting tables
when they could be changing the world another way yeah so artists has to get ours the artist
needs to survive and then you know they need to be able to sustain themselves
so yeah and we want to see those people people out there right to do that and inspire people.