Many musicians have an issue with being a musician. Yes, that’s right, musicians love to complain about their musicianship. One would think that it would stop as soon as an artist has broke big, right? Think about it, you’ve become a millionaire, you’ve sold millions of albums, and you play to thousands of fans every night. There should be no room for harsh judgement from yourself, right? Wrong.
In a recent interview, Bono from U2 spoke about music and how he feels about himself as an artist. Bono didn’t take it too lightly on himself. He spoke about how he doesn’t really see himself as a musician. From the interview, it seemed that Bono views himself as more of a pillar of ideas and those around him are the ones that really piece everything together. It’s a very humbling way to look at everything on the aspect of music.
Bono went deeper into his musical journey as he said that he wasn’t trained at all as a child. Many artists are trained in some form as children which then really helps them when they are adults. By this time, their skills are pretty honed in. Bono is an outlier here.
What’s more is that Bono says that he actually “depends” on the other three in U2 to make the songs really come to life and shine. This is really big of Bono to admit as it’s not really a topic many artists in his position admit too often or would like to admit. It’s inspiring to hear and surely it will help out other artist’s who were once in the same exact situation that Bono was once in as an upcoming artist.
What seems to matter most is the drive of someone and not so much the tools that they are given. Bono stated the following via LATimes: “Making music has been a source of great frustration for me as well as great joy,” he says over a video call. “I didn’t have musical training as a kid. So I have to depend on my three bandmates and others to get the melodies I hear in my head, or the ideas, across. And therein lies great frustration, that you depend on others — and the great joy, that you depend on others — and they happen to be your best mates.”
