The Punk Rock DIY Entrepreneur

As I was thinking about how to categorize this interview with Martin Atkins my first instinct was to select “Music”. After all, he drummed with Public Image Ltd, Ministry, and Nine Inch Nails, to name a few. He founded the band Pigface and started the Invisible Records label over 20 years ago. He wrote a book on touring and teaches on the same subject. He seems to live, eat, and breathe music and the music industry.

Yet, we didn’t talk about music at all. We did talk about the music business, however: why it’s not working and why punk rockers make successful entrepreneurs and why the merger of LiveNation and Ticketmaster is a good thing; why concerts at Wal-Mart aren’t out of the realm of possibility and why Netflix should go the way of the Dodo bird. I say we talked, but it’s more accurate to say that he talked. I’m bright enough to realize when I’m having a conversation with someone who has much more to say than I do, and who has the insight of decades of experience and enough intelligence to not only learn from those experiences but to also articulate those lessons for others.

He’s been articulating them in a more structured sense through his Revolution Number Three school and through his Tour:Smart PLUS weekends (next one 4/9 – 4/11), but he does it all with the heart of a punk rocker. Joanna Quargnali-Linsley, co-founder of Misery Loves Company and Toy Block Music, teaches some sessions at those weekends and she said “Everything Martin does is with that punk mentality.” When I learned that I would be chatting with Martin I asked Joanna for some insight. She said to me “you listen to him talk and you’re inspired and you want to go do fantastic things.”

She’s right. Listen. Then go. Do.

(full disclosure: Joanna’s on the Writing The Rails team that I’ve been involved with and is a personal friend)