“It’s about baby steps,” says Langdon. “We’ve only released one EP and we haven’t toured yet because we’ve been studying, but I think it’s been good, the way that we’ve come. We lost a bit of our focus mid this year in terms of what we wanted to do with the band. Now we’re at the pointy end of education – Bryce is actually finished now, but I still have a week of classes. It’s hard to just focus on a band when you have essays to write. I’m going to be a lot happier and more prepared to work on promotion and gigs as soon as it’s done. Thank God for that.”
The Bean Project have made great strides this year, winning the 2014/2015 FReeZA Push Start Battle of the Bands competition and performing at events such as Belgrave Platypus Festival and Panacea Festival. While they’re already generating interest, Langdon knows they’ll need a more thorough strategy to further the band’s profile.
“It’s an awkward thing to promote yourself, especially at the level that we’re at,” he says. “We’re starting to develop a small fan group, but the main people who come to our shows are friends and its awkward trying to push through that. Using videos online and things that people can actually connect to, such as covers that people know. Take for example, we play CatDog – everyone knows that song, but they don’t know that they know that song. If you see a video that a mate puts up of a band playing CatDog, you’re going to think they’re all right. Just little things like that. It’s not fully formed I suppose, but we’re just creating things I’d want to watch. Putting stuff online is a good way to do it.”
The internet can be a great tool for generating exposure, but a lot of people who engage with online content are only interested in brief and immediately amusing videos. There’s a reason you’ve never seen a 20-minute long viral sensation, and Langdon’s sympathetic to the wants of the masses.
“If something doesn’t grab me within the first 15 seconds, I won’t want to watch it,” he says. “If it’s a song I know, if there’s a cool arrangement, if it looks pretty, or it’s something I don’t expect – those are all things I’d tune into and that’s the sort of thing we try to focus on creating. Having a French horn helps to do that, and thankfully there aren’t a huge amount of dudes playing French horn in small folky duos. We’ve found that on the side of the road when you’re busking, it’s a good way of testing people’s attention spans. Like a video, people tend to judge by looking at us off the bat because it’s a sound that you don’t hear very often.”
Crowd involvement also plays a huge part in winning over an audience. Langdon and Turcatokept this in mind when planning for their upcoming shows at Sooki Lounge and The Wesley Anne.
“We’re making a music video and we’re basing the show around that. I’m not going to reveal too much, but when you walk in there’ll be something special happening on stage. Making it a bit of an event is totally my vibe. Bryce is a bit more conservative.”
BY THOMAS BRAND
