I Hate Mornings

“Nick Gill”:http://www.nickfuckinggill.com has “written up”:http://www.themonroetransfer.co.uk/wordpress/?p=56 a conversation we had in the States last weekend, and taken it to a beautiful new level:

bq. We performing musicians are, by and large, an insecure lot- we want our creations to be validated. Nothing says “validation” like an enormous cheque from someone who wants to make you famous. But it’s not going to happen. There are enough people who are willing to do anything to be pop stars that it’s much easier to mould them exactly as you want, rather than spend the time and effort trawling through back-room venues to find someone who has their own ideas about what they want to do. The false conception that this is how you make a career as a band is stopping thousands of musicians competing with major industry.

Nick goes on to stand on a plinth and announce his new manifesto for authentic musicianship:

bq. * Turn off your TV. It isn’t helping you. * Assume that everything a large record company tells you is a lie. The latest fresh-faced youngster does not have a groundswell of young people, who are much cooler than you, following her. She has not built a following by use of some technology that you’re only vaguely aware of. She did not write all her songs herself. Musical ability and independent spirit cannot be purchased from Toni & Guy, or from tight trousers at The Gap. * Do not invite A&R men to your shows. If you’re popular enough that they’d want to check you out for business purposes, then they’ll turn up anyway. If they do turn up, don’t let them in for free. They earn more than you, and they can claim it back on expenses anyway. * Forget about the whole idea of getting discovered. Make something that you care about, and make it as well as you can. Get a profile on the important music sites- MySpace, Last FM, Facebook, everything- and make these sites interact with each other. Write a blog. Make friends with people who are trying to do the same thing. If you’re an interesting person, people will find the things you produce interesting, and will listen to you. Find what it is about you that someone will find interesting, and tell them about it. * Do not sign up to music forums pretending to be a fan, or an interested third party. If you want people to listen to your music, ask them. * Be honest.

I couldn’t have said it better myself. ;o)

“The myth of getting discovered”:http://www.themonroetransfer.co.uk/wordpress/?p=56

• Christine Rosen “agrees (The New Atlantis » The Myth of Multitasking)”:http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-myth-of-multitasking with my notion that successful multitasking doesn’t exist. It’s all about “the zone” (ie. attention).

• Victor “responds (Getting Ready to Get Ready and Singletasking. | Adventures in Songwriting)”:http://adventuresinsongwriting.com/?p=29 to the The Myth Of Multitasking from a songwriting perspective.

• Justin “speculates (How music consumption is going to change – Vox)”:http://justin751.vox.com/library/post/my-prediction-on-how-music-consumption-is-going-to-change.html on the future of music, where tunes will be as customisable as Starbucks coffee. ;o(

• Bruce “argues (Digital music can’t be marketed, it can only be found. – Music Think Tank)”:http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/digital-music-cant-be-marketed-it-can-only-be-found.html that the nakedness of digital music throws the traditional turd-polishing model out the window…

• Peter Holsapple “muses (Catch and Release – Measure for Measure – Opinion – New York Times Blog)”:http://measureformeasure.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/catch-and-release/ about using the TV (with the sound off) as a songwriting tool!

• Just in time, I discovered the “50/90 challenge (50/90 :: The 50 Song Challenge)”:http://5090.fawm.org/ to write 50 songs in 90 days starting on the 4th July. I’m in! And it looks like “Cory’s in”:http://www.songwritingzen.com/?p=158#comment-266 too!

• “Better Than The Van”:http://betterthanthevan.com/ is a new site offering a directory of people willing to open up their house to bands. Keep an eye on this one.

This is a copy of an email that went out today to my mailing list. It might be of interest to creative types trying to deal with the money problem ;o)

I create music all the time. Mostly I create it in my head, but often I write it down (sometimes lyrics, sometimes chord symbols, occasionally real musical notes on little shakily-drawn staves). I really enjoy doing this, so it creates value for me. Unfortunately, nobody else could care less whether I’m scribbling inspired melodies or not.

h3. I create value for other people too!

So I use my music to create value for other people, and more often than not they give me something in return. Sometimes it’s beer, sometimes it’s cake, and occasionally it’s cash. Now that I’m a full-time musician (and don’t drink anywhere near as much beer as I used to!), I’m more concerned with the cake and the cash.

Now, I have a seemingly infinite source of creative energy and earth-shatteringly cool musical skills. All I need now is a heap of opportunities to create value for people. And that’s where I need your help.

h3. (Everything I do) I do it for you

In case you don’t follow these things, let me summarise the state of music in 2008:

• The record industry has no idea what’s going on
• People still love music but are getting more and more confused by marketing messages, and have no idea what’s going on
• Musicians, songwriters, bands and producers (almost all) have no idea what’s going on
• People discover more music through their networks (friends, family, office, online social networks) and less through broadcast media
• You can sell 16,000 singles, have a number one hit and make no money whatsoever.

It’s not good for the record companies, but it’s quite exciting for the rest of us. When you’re drowning in the musical equivalent of a sea of baked beans, what’s better than having your own musician, who can write music you like, play in your lounge and even listen to your problems (perhaps interpreting them in song, thus completing the cycle of happiness ;o)?

h3. Let’s be more specific.

I need cake and cash to survive. So I need opportunities to create value for other people. I create value:

• when I create music in a particular situation (live gigs)
• when I create music to fill a specific need (commissions and cowrites)
• when my musical creations are broadcast (royalties)

Royalties happen when you’re commercially successful, so we can safely ignore those for now. ;o) Gigs are often the only way to get cake and cash quickly. Commissions and cowrites are where we start to see the real value. Writing songs (and/or other music) for people and with people helps to build a reputation, get referrals and recommendations, more cake, etc. Teach a man to fish, and so on.

h3. I need your help.

I’m not asking for the moon on a stick. In fact by reading this far, I would hope you’ve internalised enough of the message to subconsciously help me somehow, some day. But some-day-cake isn’t quite the same as now-cake, so keep reading…

This list may seem huge, but most of it won’t apply to you. Skim it, and pick one thing that seems easy. That’s probably the one for you. But feel free to work your way through the entire list if you like. It’s all good:

h4. Discover me

• listen to some of my songs on “benwalkersongwriter.com”:http://www.benwalkersongwriter.com/songs
• listen to “I Hate Mornings Vol. 1“:http://www.last.fm/music/JB+Walker/I+Hate+Mornings+Vol.+1 on Last.fm
• watch the “Ten video”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovT0nEZipt0 on YouTube
• be amazed by the “experimental dance video”:http://www.benwalkersongwriter.com/film I soundtracked

h4. Recommend me

• in person: tell somebody who might be interested about what I do
• by email: forward this email to someone who doesn’t know about me
• on the web: ** subscribe to my “RSS feed”:feed://www.ihatemornings.com/rss/. ** share me with your network (“Facebook”:http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=http://www.ihatemornings.com, “Myspace”:http://www.myspace.com/benwalkercapedcrusader, “Fuzz”:http://BenWalker.fuzz.com/, “Twitter”:http://twitter.com/ihatemornings) ** mention me on your blog, status, Twitter, Christmas email… ** bookmark me in your browser, or on “Delicious”:http://del.icio.us/post?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ihatemornings.com&title=I%20Hate%20Mornings%3A%20Ben%20Walker%27s%20songwriting%20blog ** listen to my music on “Last.fm”:http://www.last.fm/music/JB+Walker, “Fuzz”:http://BenWalker.fuzz.com/, and let people know your favourites ** watch “my videos”:http://www.youtube.com/user/ihatemorningsdotcom on YouTube, and give ‘em some stars

h4. Book me to do something for you

• I write songs for people (pop songs, children’s songs, rock songs, folk songs)
• I write songs with people (cowriting with artists, producers, musicians, poets)
• I teach songwriting, musicianship, performance, music theory
• I play piano at parties, fêtes, dinners, funerals, bars, pubs
• I play my own songs at gigs, parties, campfires
• I play Sixties songs with “The Legendary Swordsmen”:http://www.legendaryswordsmen.com at weddings, birthdays and garden parties

h4. Give me feedback

• leave a comment on my website
• email me (ben [at] wallpaper jazz [dot] com)
• “Facebook me”:http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=529602587
• text me (07812 204396)
• comment on one of my “YouTube videos”:http://www.youtube.com/user/ihatemorningsdotcom
• “Twitter”:http://twitter.com/ihatemornings me

h3. What’s in it for you?

Everything and nothing. It depends how you look at it. Maybe you’re more than happy to be filling the world with beautiful music. Maybe you’re looking for something more tangible in return. Well, what is it? Let me know and I’ll see what I can do. My cash and cake resources are limited, but I’m sure I can tap my seemingly infinite source of creative energy for some good ideas…

Another day, another City Showcase workshop. Friday’s panel was full of songwriters, and the subject was ostensibly Turning your song into a recording. The star of the show was “Randy Bachman”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Bachman (Canadian rock hero of of “Bachman Turner Overdrive”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachman-Turner_Overdrive fame) who, guitar in hand, told tales of writing his biggest hits in moments of panic on stage mid-tour. More of that later.

The rest of the panel (David Stark ["Songlink":http://www.songlink.com/], “Bill Padley”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Padley, “Paul Tipler”:http://www.discogs.com/artist/Paul+Tipler and the other guy whose name I’ve completely forgotten) did their best to answer a bewildering array of questions from the audience, and seemed to have a story to hand for any occasion. The discussion was peppered with the usual rants about The Old Days, Learning On Tape, Bands These Days Think They Can Just [insert musical crime], but there was plenty of meat to go around.

h3. And the message is…

As always, it’s difficult to distil a coherent message from the five panellists, but I get the feeling that persuading them to agree on everything would be like asking the Ghostbusters to cross the streams – ultimately destructive. They each had a unique and interesting vantage point on the songwriting business, and they kept us effortlessly entertained for a couple of hours.

Here are some key points I fished out:

• From the start, make the elements of your demo good enough to make it onto the record. Or, don’t make a demo, make a record.
• Keep several reference tracks to hand when building up your demo, and really listen to them. Try to pick out the parts (often not the bits you notice first) that make those tracks really sing.
• Radio pop songs are extended commercials. Write an epic jingle.
• When the chorus repeats, repeat it exactly (the vocal at least). No exceptions. People should be wanting to sing along by the second chorus, and you’re making them look stupid if you sing something else.
• Don’t waste your life playing with plugins. Work on the performance until it’s great, then record it.
• A good vocal track will withstand any treatment. You can rearrange the song underneath it to be in a different style, different groove etc. Try remixing your own songs (ie. take out all the clever bits).

h3. And now… Randy Bachman’s classic tales

Just because he sounds like a classic rock legend when he tells stories, try to imagine a great grey-bearded Canadian in a tie-dye t-shirt telling this story about JJ’s bass sound:

James Jameson (the Motown bass player) never changed his strings, and they had that great flat, thuddy Motown sound. When Motown moved to LA, Jameson got a sponsorship deal from Rotosound, who gave him a brand new set of super-bright-sounding bass strings (“like piano strings…”). So he turns up for the first session in LA, and the producer stops him and says “What happened to your sound? We want the James Jameson sound!” Jameson calls the music shop that fitted his Rotosounds to ask for his old strings back. Turns out they sold them for $2,000 – they were the Motown bass strings! So Jameson hunts down the guy who bought them and eventually has to pay $6,000 to get his strings back. Genius.

h3. How Randy wrote his hits

h4. “American Woman“:http://tinysong.com/iz0

The Guess Who (his band at the time) drove from Winnipeg down to Texas to play the circuit, but when they got there the US Army tried to draft them to Vietnam. They fled back to Canada, ending up in Toronto. To make the money they needed to get back home (over 4,000 miles of snow), they took a gig in a curling rink. Randy broke a string, and while tuning his guitar he came up with the riff for American Woman, called the band back on stage and launched into it. Voila. Megahit.

h4. “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet“:http://tinysong.com/kPW

Randy was producing the Guess Who. He’s in the studio testing out the guitar levels, so he plays a quiet, jangly bit (“Only You Know What I Know“:http://tinysong.com/kPJ by Dave Mason) alternating with a loud, rocky bit. So that’s the rhythm track. Then he records a vocal to make fun of his brother who has a bad stutter (“B-b-b-baby you just ain’t seen n-n-n-nothin’ yet”), with some Van Morrison impressions thrown in for good luck (“She looked at me with those big brown eyes, and said…”). The track was only meant to send to his brother as a joke, but when the A&R guy turned up to listen through the album he decided there wasn’t a good single. Until the engineer played him the joke track, which he loved. Bingo.

As Smashie & Nicey “so memorably put it”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtZKvHmU8vg, “In the words of Messrs Bachman Turner Overdrive, LET’S ROCK!”

I just got back from “Making Money With Music”, a “City Showcase”:http://www.cityshowcase.co.uk/ workshop in London featuring Remi Harris (“AIM(The Association of Independent Music)”:http://www.musicindie.org/), Anthony Hamer-Hodges (“management”:http://morethan4.com/) and Michelle Escoffery (“writer”:http://www.emimusicpub.com/worldwide/artist_profile/michelle-escoffery_profile.html, “musician”:http://www.myspace.com/michelleescoffery, producer and “promoter”:http://www.kindredspirit.org.uk/). I’m not sure exactly what I expected, but I’m starting to spot a pattern in these expert panels. The experts got where they are through some random chance and a lot of hard work, and there’s no concrete advice they can give aspiring music industry people, so they tell their story as if all the answers are hidden between the lines. It’s not their fault. Their own path makes perfect sense in their head. It’s our fault for asking them.

h3. We’re asking the wrong people

The first problem is that they don’t know the answers. The record company folks don’t know what’s coming next. We all know that. But neither do the managers, the publishers, or the lawyers. And the artists and songwriters know least of all – they don’t really know where the business is coming from, never mind where it’s headed.

The second problem is that these experts, arguably the most qualified to figure out the answers, can’t afford to get involved in the building of the new model – they have too much invested in the old model. All of these people rely on the existing corporate structures for their income, even those running independent outfits.

We need experts who really know what’s going on, and who don’t rely financially on the existence of the old music industry. And I think there are plenty of them around. People who have been constantly observing, criticising, discussing and reinventing the music industry in their blogs for years. Andrew Dubber over at “New Music Strategies”:http://newmusicstrategies.com/. “Steve Lawson”:http://www.stevelawson.net/. David Jennings, author of “Net, Blogs and Rock’n'Roll”:http://www.netblogsrocknroll.com/. They are all accessible through social media, blogs, articles and books. But that’s not quite the same as an expert panel, in a room, bouncing ideas off each other in front of a fascinated audience. Why not?

h3. What about networking?

Possibly the main reason people go to the City Showcase style industry workshops is to network. I walked away with a handful of business cards and a few scribbled Myspace addresses today. It’s worth going for that, even if you have to sit through the talk to get them…

But when the “new experts” speak at events they’re talking to a room full of industry people, who are invested in (ie. employed by) the old model, and therefore aren’t really listening. At best, the opinions and rants of the new media experts become novelty water-cooler conversations and pub arguments. We need a non-industry audience. A room full of people who are invested in the new model (whichever one) because the old one’s broken and the new way is the only way. People like me. ;o)

h3. Let’s do it right

So here’s my big ask to the universe:

Bring me a ticket for an all-day freeform event in London where the real experts get to talk to people who understand and care, and the new generation of social media-savvy musicians, songwriters and labels get to hang out, learn, network, create and enjoy. With free wireless, obviously.

I’ll keep you posted.