Happy New Year of fantastic, meaningful music

Every new year's I think of resolutions. What do I want to achieve? How can I improve as a human? as a musician?

Musically speaking 2011 is basically mapped out for me, with the CD release my calendar is busy until the fall at least. With those plans behind me, I started thinking more about the current state of the music industry (and I hate that this art of ours is an industry...) and what the next year may look like for it.

I've been inspired by Arcade Fire, who pack Madison Square Garden without a record label, maintaining full control of all aspects of their art, and it shows in their music.
I resolved to go DIY (Do It Yourself). I've always written, arranged and performed my material, but I decided to be completely self sufficient with promotion, marketing and all logistics. It's hard for me, I'm a creative type and not so business savvy but I'm putting a lot of effort into this upcoming release in so many ways, good things are bound to come. They already have.

I am happy to have the opportunity to maintain full control of my vision and dedicate my time to making the best art that I can.

Finding out about those who put their art first, and reward them with our attention and support is what I hope our new year's resolution will be. DIY artist can't afford times square billboards and endless ads, and rely on buzz and word of mouth. They are found in blogs and indie mags and radio and their success depends on us being active about searching them out and passing them on.

Wouldn't it be amazing if next year was filled with a new "music first" generation? Isn't it time to find more quality, innovative music that has artistic integrity, and reward it over formulaic, tiresome and absurd gimmicks?

It's going to be a good year, I can feel it.

HAPPY 2011 !

surprising survey results, and a video!

first of all, thanks to all of you that took the time to answer a few questions on my "business-like" survey from the previous blog entry. It was actually very helpful and it'll take me a while to figure out a proper strategy, I found out a few interesting things. 

for example:

- hardly anyone buys music anymore! just torrent it from youtube. 

so, how do musicians still make money? i'm not quite sure. probably if you get a lot of hits on youtube you get some commercials placed?

- hardly anyone reads music mags, or listens to much radio. as a musician out with a new project, one of the first things you do is try to get some reviews in print. but it looks like it hardly influences anyone who might like my music. hmmm.... 

- hardly anyone can classify my genre! the responses where anywhere from reggae (?) to pop, indie, rock, blues, jazz, classical, singer/songwriter etc. 

As a writer I think it's fantastic, I've always strived to create a new sound and stray away from generic, but it's very tricky to market. hmmm....

- people who like my stuff are artsy and interesting. score!

more thoughts on marketing shmarketing will follow, but now - back to music.

here's a video from the keyboard overdub session and some sneak peaks at what's coming. stay tuned for the guitar session, shortly after new years.

and yeah, happy new year and various holidays!

marketing shmarketing

as a musician, I hate music business. there I said it...
as someone that works on music's creative side it's very hard to treat it as a product.

however I suppose it is a necessary evil, and I am set out to concur it. What is the point of putting so much effort and funds in an album, if it's not going to reach as many ears as it should?

so, as I start writing out a detailed game plan on what to do, I realized I had some difficulties in pinning down my genre and target audience. as an artist it's a great thing; I've crossed a barrier, I'm outside the box!
as a marketing strategy, that's not good news.

one idea a book gave me was to ask friends and fans to answer a short survey about who they are, what kind of music they like, and how my music relates to them. I'm hoping to get a better idea as to what kind of people might respond well to my music, and where to find them and how to make it known to more of them.

if you'd like to fill out the survey yourself, I'd like nothing more! it takes 5 minutes and it's anonymous, so go for it.

click here for the survey

it seems that "recording" introverse is the fun part, and I will have to address the business side on the blog more often, since it is such a huge part of making a new release.

'til next time, happy season!

pianos, organs and wurlys! a day of keyboard overdubs

After a grueling editing period (which I can compare to basically photoshopping...) all the basic tracks are sounding solid, and it's time to start putting on the frills.

and today was a very fun day at Rotary Records - the keyboard overdub day!

it's one of those days where I do all the work, playing on 6 of the album's tracks.

we started with acoustic piano, playing some of the pretty ballads and my signature song "a bus to sunshine".
Then we moved on the my highlight of the day - the B3 organ! it sounds ridiculously good, and can't even be compared with a sample! the touch of the keys takes a while to get used to, and I haven't played a real B3 in a few years, but was very happy to have those sounds be part of my record. So much so I'm pretty sure it elevated "Maps" to be my most anticipated song - ooh just wait until that guitar solo!

Then we moved to the soft Wurlitzer, for the sweet sounding "you (wedding song)".

Got a lot done! my favorite thing is seeing the project slowly getting built and adding weight, it's a fantastic feeling, especially when things are going right.

click here for photos from today's session

a video from this session will be coming next week, (once I get all the music files) so make sure to subscribe.

what's next?

we're resuming shortly after new years with a session I'm really looking forward to - Guitar!

until then, happy various holidays!