The artist’s life. Balancing creativity and the need to earn a living. Songwriter Dave Turner confronts these issues head-on:

“Being an artist can be tough when you’re also trying to live on the earnings your art generates. Some of the qualities that make us good artists make us not-so-good business people. Rather than risk stereotyping I’ll just use myself as an example.” (Link)

Kurt Cobain is 40. The UK Independant profiles the artist during the week of his birthday.

“To me he was an amazing songwriter who was both blessed and cursed with this voice that cut through. I’ve read the books, like everybody else, but analysing his life and death has never really taken me any further than the music. Those albums are the real testament.” (Link)

State of the music. The Edmonton Sun speaks with John Maclean (of the Juan Maclean) about the state of music today.

“I attribute it solely to the Internet, which has also done away with regional music scenes,” he reasons. “Everything’s up for grabs now. It’s great for me.

“It’s funny because there’s a perception that the music industry has been doing really badly. I do think the major labels have been doing terribly, getting killed.

“But it’s really never been a better time for music, in terms of popularity. Everybody has an IPod, everybody has music on their computer. Most people aren’t paying for it, but a lot more people are walking around listening to a lot of different kinds of music.” Link

Speaking of birthdays. The band Los Lobos is 35. Santa Cruz Sentinel speaks with Los Lobos saxophonist Steve Berlin:

“Basically bands start out now where we started out, they tour to lose money for a couple of years until people start to pay attention to you or something happens like getting your song on an iPod commercial,” he says. “I think we were really lucky to start out when we did” (Link)