Hi 

My name is Harry Jon Nanos, I am a professional musician and have been actively employed in the Australian music industry for 20years. I front a contemporary Country Band called Crakajak, perform all over the country, record and produce Music for all types of other artists, write songs, compose jingles, and mentor young and new artists
I also play guitar, bass, sing, program music, arrange songs and have a good understanding of the technological side of the recording business.

Like most young and aspiring muso's I started playing guitar around 13 years old and by the time I was 16 I was convinced that the world of Rock and Roll was just waiting to find out about me and that I would be a star one day.
After convincing my best mate to learn Bass so that I had someone to jam with, and searching the neighborhood for a drummer I finally got my 1st taste of being a performer. We (can’t remember the name of our 1st band) scored our 1st non paying gig at a friends party in our local area.
Much to my delight the party was full of girls, although most of them were 5 years older than us and the only real reason they took any notice of us standing in the lounge room corner was because we were so bad and they thought we were cute... We played lots of half songs and basically tried to impress anyone who would listen. As the night progressed we realized that our breaks between sets were getting longer and longer because the party goers for some dumb reason preferred to listen to the Stones, Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath on record player.
The thing that I will always remember is the applause every time we actually finished a song, and even though the party goers were just being nice, we actually thought they liked our music. Just the thought that I/ we could touch people some way with our music was enough for me to decide very early in my life that Rock and Roll was the life for me.

Soon I began to live the life of a semi pro muso. Lots of hours rehearsing, auditions, the occasional school dance and party and eventually at the age of 17 my 1st paid Gig. I remember at the time thinking how easy is this.
As I progressed and tried to balance my day job, with my aspiring career I began to meet lots of other musicians and continued to earn extra money on the weekends doing paid gigs and developing my skills and contacts.
I played around the local Melbourne Music scene for a few years until one day I met a guy who owned a small recording facility and was looking for musicians to invest in his project and built a state of the art facility unrivaled in this town. He was also wanting the investors to operate the particular areas of his business he was developing. At the time I had been writing songs and recording them on my home 4 track and I was able to convince this bloke that I was his man.
Within 2 weeks I quit my job in the family importing business, coughed up 10k and became a shareholder and studio manager of a brand new recording facility. This had to be heaven. I could now play music all day, record all my songs for free using all the latest equipment and hang out with other musos full time, and get paid.
Over the next 10 years I worked/ owned, recorded and stayed involved in the music business with little real financial gain. It seemed every time I had a few bucks in the bank some new piece of equipment or opportunity came along that would hack at my bank balance ruthlessly.
I was beginning to realize that if I was going to continue my journey and become a working and debt free musician I had to be prepared to become multi skilled and take on whatever jobs came my way.
I taught guitar, arranged songs played gigs, recorded songs for other artists, got involved in the advertising world and wrote jingles, and just kept trying to keep up with the technology and trends. I also took a couple of courses in Marketing to help me have a better business sense.

As the years progressed I got better and more specialized at what I did and decided that the recording studio was my Shed. I set up a facility at home on my property on the outskirts of the city and began actually making a living.
About 10 years ago I became interested in Country music, not so much the traditional style but more the contemporary style and after researching lots of American Country artists, I started to fall in love with this music. I realized that country music was so much about the song and was taken back by the awesome and unbelievable amount of great songwriters within this industry.

After months of research and countless hours making my wife sit with me in front of the TV watching music videos I decided that I was going to put a band together and become a country music artist.
Crakajak was born in 1996, a bunch of underachieving Rock musicians with plenty to offer but no where to play original music. This was our chance to continue writing song and still go out on the road and play them.
On thing led to another and 10 years on the band is still together and about to release our 6th studio album.

The two most important developments that have made this all possible are 1... the rise of the independent artist and 2... Technology.
Today if you have your shit together, (and many do) it is actually very possible to maintain an independent profile and turn over dollars.
Technology has made it much easier to produce and make records and the internet has opened huge doors for artist that are prepared to take on the business side of things and manage their own affairs. In other words if you are versatile and prepared to allocate some of your time to marketing yourself and doing all the things that a label would do for you it is very possible to make it work for you.
The best part is that as an indie artist you actually and should always own your IP and if someone wants a part of it, you the owner get all the bucks instead of paying for record company executives' lifestyles before you get anything.
Obviously in most cases indie artists will not sell in mass numbers but if you do your numbers properly you will realize that it is possible to make a profit, and like most successful businesses if you are prepared to re invest the chances of selling bigger number will increase.

After 10 years in Crakajak and a growing and developing recording facility I have managed to make my music career work for me. Sure I don't drive a porche and I don’t fly 1st class but I have managed to entrench myself in this industry I love and on a day to day basis do what I have always wanted to do for a living.
A young guy 20 years old asked me the other day what was the best career advice I could offer with regard to getting involved in the music industry and my answer was simple. Always try to improve and nurture your gift, be versatile, learn and seek as many skills as you can, keep up with technology but most of all remember what it is about playing music to an audience that turns you on the most
The applause........or in a songwriter’s book ... The ability to connect
Harry Jon Nanos