The Song Is King
Booking agents, artists managers, event promoters, tour managers, music publishers, sound engineers, recording studio managers and ever label all rely on one thing. The song. The strength of that song. The power of that song to connect one human being to another. You see all of these people in these roles, would be twiddling thumbs all day if it wasn’t for a 14 year old kid, sitting in his or her bed who makes the transition from guitar student to songwriter. We’re not all meant to be songwriters and we’re not all meant to be great songwriters, but the fact remains that the building block for this industry is good songs. That’s what has an artist’s phone buzzing, venues selling out, merchandise selling off the shelf and the bands on the road.
DIY!
– The old adage “want a job done properly, do it yourself’ has never been so true for this season of the band. Here are the things that band members have done themselves:
– Engineering and recording all the vocals, guitars, bass and keys for the new album I nour own personally built studio
– Booked a national tour to promote the release
– Executed two successful crowdfunding campaigns and applied for a music grant that altogether raised $30,000
– Conceptualised album artwork merch designs and two video clips and seen them through production.
– Audio editing, video editing
– Set up online store and fulfilment of all merch orders
– Directly liaising with digital aggregators for online distribution
– Managed and built social media
– And so much more. We’ve never been so DIY as a band! We are literally handling all sides of the business from top to bottom and we’re got a great working relationship within the band internally.
You Only Get So Many Spins Of The Dice
A good friend of mine challenged me on some of my lyrics once saying the words, ‘you only get so many spins of the dice’. This intrigued and on further enquiry, he was saying all of the songs that you are going to write (which might be around 400-500) only 20% will ever see a professional recording and proper release. The challenge of writing an album is pretty full on. A lot of people don’t realise just what sort of work it is to finish, pre-produce and record a full length album. I love that challenge though, and I thought that I’d ever get that change again.
IF We Could Do This Again, With All That I know Now…
Throughout the years of 1999-2008, we all learnt so much about being in a band, being professional, pushing through ill health to put on a good show and generally getting along on tour without killing one another. Not that we have all the answers but there is a lot that we have learnt so to get to do this again, with all that learning in our heads is an exciting and less daunting place from which to relaunch.
Have Fun!
It’s important to take a step back from everything and realise why you started playing music in the first place- for the sheer joy of hanging out, having a good time and getting loud with your mates. Having had a few years off from being in the band, made me realise how many ‘moments’ we’d probably missed because we were taking things too seriously and pushing things so hard. This time around it’s all about soaking up every moment, enjoying every opportunity that presents itself and remembering why we do what we do- for the fun of it! Our music and the energy we have when we’re together is far better for it.
