Unmarried

Previous generations seem to have been satisfied with THE HOBBY. That’s no good for us. We’re all about THE ART. We demand to earn our living and make our mark as creators. But we are the Peter Pan Generation that doesn’t really dig business, so we’re crap at useful things like self-promotion and networking.

I have friends who are happy with normal jobs. They tend to be the ones who are also married, because marriage is a sign of GIVING UP ON THE DREAM. It’s OK to be with someone for ever, as long as you don’t get married. Because you couldn’t possibly get married until you’ve figured it all out (ie. next year).

So we’re all floating along. We hoped turning 30 might bring a flash of enlightenment. It didn’t. We’ve created a wonderful and free digital world where everyone can have everything and we’ve turned down every opportunity to do things ‘the old way’, because we knew things were going to change.

Revolutionary trinket

And things have changed. Instead of making a trinket for fun, giving it as a gift, being surprised when people want more trinkets, making a few more, maybe setting up a little stall somewhere (always as a hobby – never seriously), selling more, making more and selling more, we think of an idea for a revolutionary trinket design, we register revolutionarytrinket.com, we make a business plan that has a huge question mark by the word FUNDING, we build revolutionarytrinket.com/shop, we set up a hosted Gmail account to deal with the inevitable flood of orders and to streamline team calendaring (there has to be a team), we post a couple of mysterious tweets and we wait.

Nothing happens. We never even get round to making stuff any more. We ignore the voices of THE DRAGONS that float over from the TV: “Malcolm, the best thing you can do is to LET IT GO. This is NOT A BUSINESS, and it will NEVER BE A BUSINESS.” What do they know? They’re old and successful. They didn’t create stuff. They did it the boring way. Little by little. With ice cream trucks and leisure centres and shrink-wrapped toys. What is this? 1982? We’re MAKING ART HERE, PEOPLE. Did you even hear Duncan Banatyne on Desert Island Discs? Worst. Taste. Ever.

What’s the answer?

Crowdsourcing. Crowdfunding. Fundcrowding. Micropatronage. Begging. It’s the new way! It worked for Coming & Crying and, um… there are others. We don’t even need to think about money any more. There are people out there who will just give. We think of a clever name for the second-from-bottom-price-point package² and throw in a personal appearance (OMG! Seriously? You’ll turn up at my house and actually clamp a trinket to my mantelpiece? For only £599?), and the money will come rolling in.

Or not. I think there’s another way. In fact, I know there is because Xander has already thought of it. He just hasn’t built it yet. And while he’s away directing a play in Edinburgh, Miranda and I had a secret meeting (with tea and Co-op Truly Irresistible Stem Ginger Cookies), and planned it all out. When Xander gets back he’ll tell you all about it. It’s going to be amazing. ;)

When you play live, you enter into a negotiation with the audience. You start by putting in the effort to promote the gig and get them to turn up. In return for that, they arrive. And they promise you their attention for about 3 minutes.

So what do you do when the spotlight is shining in your face, when you have one chance to transform a moment of fleeting attention into a long and beautiful relationship between your art and its audience?

You have to entertain people

That’s your half of the deal. You entertain people in return for their attention. Like it or not, you’re an entertainer. All musicians like it on some level: there’s no way people would put that much effort into playing music if they didn’t want some other people to hear it. But a lot of musicians persuade themselves that they don’t like it at all. They want to hang on stage like a masterpiece on a museum wall and be appreciated.

For reference, the following are not in themselves entertaining:

• Virtuosic playing
• Baring your soul
• Beautifully poetic lyrics
• Playing in time
• Singing in tune
• Dressing cleverly
• Being loud
• Tuning up
• Having a funny band name

If you’re not convinced, remember this: people aren’t choosing which gig to go to. They are choosing how to be entertained. Your competition isn’t other bands. It’s widescreen TV, pubs, clubs, dinner with friends or a good book. I’ve seen gigs by very good bands that were less entertaining than reading a chapter of Titus Groan with a cup of tea. And those bands have now lost my attention. I know they’re good, I know I enjoy their music. But I’m not engaged any more. I don’t have time for bands that aren’t going to entertain me.

Let me be clear about what I mean by “entertain”. I’m not talking about cheese, I’m not talking about audience interaction or variety shows. And I don’t mean “funny”. You can be entertaining and moody. You can be entertaining and quiet. You can be entertaining and serious. You can be entertaining without talking. You can be entertaining without moving. But like my old friend Nick used to say, “Funny is always better than good.”

To entertain an audience is to hold their attention and give them enjoyment. The word “entertain” can also mean to receive someone as a guest, and that’s a good way of thinking about it. By making music and putting it out there, you have invited a bunch of people into your musical home. It’s now your responsibility to make it a good party. If people sit in silence listening to you tell six or seven stories then leave, it probably wasn’t a good party.

Ben’s Big Gig was all about entertainment

We made sure Ben’s Big Gig was entertaining. Whenever there was a decision to be made there was one final criterion: “Will it be entertaining?” I dropped some of my favourite songs from the set list. I put the band together. I had the Funky Llamas play an interval set instead of being a support band. I gave the audience the Twitter screen so they could heckle. I booked George Chopping to compère. I booked Tom Greeves to do a whole stand-up set in the middle of the gig. I put two shrubs on stage. I got Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to endorse the gig. All in the name of entertainment.

I knew the music would be good. But I also knew that if I just walked on stage and played sixteen songs back to back people would be bored out of their skulls.

Music has a universal appeal. Most people will enjoy most music given the right context. If you entertain the audience, they will like you and your music. They will abandon all preconceptions about your musical style and your character. They will have a favourite song. They will tell their friends about how great a time they had and how great the music was.

Steve Lawson knows this. He plays solo bass guitar. Nobody in their right mind hears the phrase “solo bass guitar” and rushes to buy tickets. It’s a hard act to sell, if that’s the way you try to sell it. Luckily, Steve doesn’t do that. He has interesting conversations with people. He talks about how great house concerts are. He tells people about the exciting stuff he does with social media. He earns their attention. Then when he mentions months later that he’s putting on a house concert tour, or playing a gig somewhere, people turn up. And they enjoy the music. A lot. Steve’s a brilliant musician, but in a way that’s a bonus. The audience turn up for him and for the event.

Sell it on the story

The bonus of having an entertaining show is that you can sell it on its entertainment factor, not on the quality of the music. When the audience arrives and hears how great the music is they will want to buy CDs, sign up to mailing lists and tell their friends about you. But that’s not what gets them in the door.

You can’t get people excited about a show by telling them how in tune the singer is, how perfectly the band replicates the sound of the album or how efficiently the band can set up and soundcheck. People get excited by the prospect of entertainment. That’s why circus posters say things like “Death-defying leaps!”, “A woman with the head of a chicken!” or “Monkeys!” instead of “A really well-rehearsed band accompanying an seemingly dangerous acrobatic performance for two hours with a short interval”.

That would be boring.

And speaking of funny…

I just finished editing the video of Dressing Up from the Big Gig. Nothing makes me happier than the sound of 200 people singing “on a t-shirt, yeah, yeah”. ;)

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Did you see his name in the local paper?”¹

You write great songs. You practise over and over. You play your heart out on stage. And all for what? So you can open the local music magazine three weeks later and see your picture alongside a glowing hyphen-heavy description of how your gig was quite good. A good review validates all your hard work. Doesn’t it?

Yes and no. Mostly no. For a modern-day musician who is interacting with people around the world using all kinds of new and exciting internet technologies, a review in the local rag is almost worthless. Which is lucky, because if you’re a modern-day musician doing lots of exciting stuff on the internet your local music press won’t have a clue who you are or what you do.

val(localReview) = ?

Gig reviews in the local press just aren’t relevant any more. Think about why they were useful in the first place:

• they describe the live experience in (hopefully) an interesting and colourful way so you can decide if it’s the kind of thing you would like;
• they compare the band to other local bands, establishing a spectrum of local music with a particular pecking order so you can decide which bands you like;
• they act as a filter and a recommendation system, reducing the thousands of bands and gigs in your area down to a manageable few so you don’t get overwhelmed when you’re deciding who to like.

Maybe it’s just me, but none of that seems relevant or necessary given that even the most technophobic bands have at least a Myspace page these days. We don’t need a description of the gig because we can look up live videos on YouTube. We don’t need to know the pecking order of local bands because our appreciation of music isn’t limited to our local area, and we can compare bands from around the world in a few clicks. And as for filtering and recommendation systems: I trust recommendations from people I actually know, and I get them from people sharing their favourite tracks and bands on Last.fm, Spotify, Blip.fm, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

So stop worrying about getting the local review. Start thinking about whether your friends and fans will share their experience, and whether you’re giving them the opportunity and tools to do so. I know most audiences won’t be as geeky as mine. They won’t all bring their own cameras and upload photos and videos as soon as they get home. So do it yourself. Get a friend to video a few songs at each gig, and post them on YouTube. Then tell the audience at the gig that they can see themselves on YouTube and share it with their friends. Easy.

How do people know who to trust without reviews?

Why do reviews have to be written? Why do they need to be published in magazines? Why do they need to take effort and time to write? Why do they need to be so formal?

Vox pops (one-sentence interviews of people in the street, from ‘vox populis’ – the voice of the people) have been a mainstay of television news for decades. People implicitly trust the random statements of the “man in the street”. Unlike the smoothly rehearsed newsreaders and the clever, slimy politicians, the man in the street isn’t trying to trick you. He has no agenda. We probably (although we don’t admit it) think he’s too stupid to think of doing anything except blurting out the truth when faced with a shiny video camera.

Use responses instead of reviews

So make your own vox pops. I’ve used 12seconds.tv, but almost any online video service will work. Or just film them on your phone then edit and post them later. Put them on your website, or your Myspace page. How could people not like you when they see good, normal people saying how cool you are, or how much fun they just had watching your gig.

And you can extend the vox pops idea in all kinds of ways. At its core, it’s just a casual review. And casual reviews can come in many forms. If your fans are on Twitter, check what they tweet during your gig, and feature the tweets on your website. If they upload photos, that’s a great testimonial in itself – they enjoyed your gig enough to take photos, edit, upload and tag them. Stick them on your website too. And how about the friends and acquaintances who email you the next day to say what a great time they had? Use it all!

People want to connect with you

If people really enjoy what you do, they will want to let you know. The medium of congratulation will vary with the audience: teenagers like to loiter at the side of the stage while you coil leads then grunt something unintelligible but positive; students tend towards a handshake and “That was so good. Really.”; and the oldies prefer an email or maybe a floral card with their address printed on a little gold sticker on the back. All of these can be captured with a little confidence and ingenuity.

At the very least, prepare a quickfire question to catch them off guard. Something like this:

Teenager: “Uh, thx dude. ‘s rul gud. Yeah.” You: “No problem. How would you describe the band in three adjectives?” Teenager: “Wha? Uh, dunno, like… Uh, maybe ‘indie-prog-folk’, uh, ‘intense’ and, uh, ‘beautiful’?” You: “Perfect. Thanks. That’s actually really insightful. Come and get a photo.” Teenager: “Uh, ok.” You: (putting your arm round them) “Ok. Smile. Ready? 3…2…1… Brilliant. Good to meet you, man. What’s your name?” Teenager: “Gary.” You: “Hi Gary. Hey, listen. Write down your email address and I’ll send you a link to the photo.” Teenager: “Oh. Sure.” You: “Cool. See ya.”

Gary’s gamble has paid off, and he has a story to tell his mates. You have a photo, a response and an email address. Everyone’s happy.

When someone goes to your website to see if you’re the kind of band they will like, they will find all this evidence of other people, real people, who enjoy being your fans. And that’s better than any 5-star review from the local music mag.

Geeks respond publicly

Geeks like all kinds of music. But they tend to like other geeks more than non-geeks. So it doesn’t matter what style of music you write or what scene you’re into. When you start publishing stuff on the internet and using social media to communicate your ideas and news (which you absolutely should if you want to survive), you’re going to get some geek fans. And you’ll quickly find that there’s nothing better than having geek fans.

Geeks respond publicly. They respond quickly. They tell other geeks about what they are doing and thinking in an intelligent and efficient way, and their responses are searchable and shareable. Let me give you a few examples.

Ben Werdmuller: the quickest reviewer in town

It was the day after Ben’s Big Gig, and I was lying in the park trying to make inroads into the Guardian Saturday cryptic crossword with Xander and our ladies. I thought I had at least 24 hours of quiet before the storm of responses, emails, phone calls, blogging and video editing started.

So I was shocked, and indeed stunned, when Xander noticed that Ben Werdmuller had already reviewed the gig. And not just in a casual way. This was a serious, intelligent, eloquent review packed with hyperlinks and references. It even had the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall photo at the top, and the live video stream embedded at the bottom. Go and check it out now. This is gold: Ben Werdmuller’s review of Ben’s Big Gig.

Garrett and Adrian’s videos

Later in the week Garrett mentioned that he had taken a few videos at the gig on his Flip. Although I had heard good things about Flip cameras I assumed the sound quality wouldn’t be up to much, so I was planning to use some little bits of Flip video edited in with the main Bambuser stream from the gig.

I was wrong. The Flip video captured the audio and the atmosphere of the gig amazingly well, and gave me a whole new perspective on the event. Like Xander said, “It looks even better from the front ;)”. I posted the video of Turn It Off And Turn It On Again later that evening, and there are more to come.

As if that wasn’t enough (and this is where Twitter comes into its own), Adrian noticed me posting the video and casually dropped this bombshell:

“Wondering if I should upload some of the 3GB of video I took at #BensBigGig”

Once I get hold of Adrian’s video, and Garrett’s, and mine, and the Bambuser stream, and the 12seconds audience responses, and the Flickr photos, I’ll be able to knock up a brilliant highlight reel of the Big Gig, and even edit together some multi-camera live versions of some of the songs. God bless the geeks.

Phil Campbell is a one man video streaming army

There’s a whole other post about Phil and his video streaming magic in the pipeline, but I couldn’t miss him out of this little geekfest. Because he didn’t just sort out all the live video streaming and the Rezpondr page. He recorded no less than 10 AudioBoos about it on the day and followed up with a review of the tech the next morning, providing a perfect talking point for the post-gig tech conversation.

Conclusion: “Get the net”²

It’s not difficult to draw a conclusion from all of this. But in case you’ve skimmed the rest, here are the take-home points:

• Stop caring about the local music press. Waste of time.
• Turn casual responses into usable reviews.
• Embrace the geeks. But not physically. They aren’t used to that. ;)

Footnotes

1. The Kinks: Did You See His Name? (from The Kink Kronikles, 1972)
2. Wayne’s World, 1992

The Twitter song I wrote last week has been getting some serious and much appreciated Twitter love and even a blog mention. And within a couple of days I got a message from the BBC (delivered by a mustachioed messenger on horseback) asking if I would give them an interview for the Pods and Blogs show on Radio Five Live.

Despite having a tyre explode on my Volvo I managed to dash home greasy-handed just in time to answer a Skype call from the BBC studio (I was only kidding about the horse earlier – the Beeb is pretty hi-tech these days ;o). If any of you happen to be listening to Five Live at 2am tonight, I’ll be there. I will undoubtedly be tucked up in bed, but I’m assured it will be on the podcast (and I assume the iPlayer) afterwards.

If you found my site from the radio show, hi. Be sure to subscribe to the feed or the email list, or follow me on Twitter!

Jonathan Coulton became an internet superstar by writing songs about computer games, programmers, Flickr, the internet and associated themes (mostly zombies). That’s what he cares about and that’s what his audience cares about. He’s being authentic and connecting with like minds. He doesn’t try to get the rest of the world to listen. There are always going to be enough geeks to pack out his shows.

I’ve been thinking about JoCo’s approach to online superstardom for ages, trying to figure out whether it would work for any web-savvy musician (ie. me ;o). For a while I thought it would: build a decent website where you can preview and buy songs easily, and where the audience can interact with the artist (JoCo’s fans create videos, remixes and other derivatives of his work, which he releases under a Creative Commons licence) and Bob’s your uncle.

But then I figured out the snag. Think of your target audience. If you’re like most songwriters they will be educated, tasteful young adults with cool friends who put on your music at parties and rave about you to everyone they meet. Now think of the kind of people who create fan videos. The kind of people who remix Creative Commons music and transcribe ukelele tab. The kind of people who comment on every blog post. The kind of people who even read blogs. That’s right.

h3. I’m talking about geeks.

Geeks aren’t tasteful young adults who party with their cool friends. Geeks have bizarre and obsessive tastes, bizarre and obsessive geeky friends, and they don’t have parties. If you want to be an internet superstar your audience is geeks. To some, that’s not ideal. ;o)

Lucky for me, I’m a card-carrying geek and I love writing quirky pop songs about geeky things. So I have a chance at internet superstardom. Now, if only I had a breakthrough hit song that was guaranteed to go hyperviral the second it hits the Twitterverse…

Holy cow! I just recorded a song about Twitter! I bet that would work!

h3. You’re No One If You’re Not On Twitter

It’s true. Like Twitter itself, this entire blog post has been a pathetically disguised press release for my new superviral, Twittertastic song: “You’re No One If You’re Not On Twitter”. Shame on me. It’s in the player at the top of the page – you can listen to it now, while you’re reading! Now go tweet, people. Tweet until your little beaks are sore. Then wait a few minutes and tweet again. Let’s fill the Twitterverse with glorious music. ;o)

You can tweet the link to the song page on the 50/90 Challenge website, or the link to this article. Better yet, just retweet the tweet!

Feel free to flame me or give me love in the comments.

Girl with guitar and laptop

The latest redesign of ihatemornings.com incorporated some fundamental changes under the hood, most obviously a switch from “Textpattern”:http://www.textpattern.com (a trusted friend) to “WordPress”:http://www.wordpress.com (the popular kid in the class). WordPress is fast becoming the standard blogging platform for music types (and many others), so the switch had to be made. I have built a dozen sites on Textpattern over the last 5 years and it’s a beautifully versatile piece of software (once you get to know it), so it’s with a heavy heart that I let it go.

You might be wondering why I want to adopt the same technology everyone else is using. Doesn’t that make me a sheep? Where’s my character, my backbone? Don’t worry. As I’ll explain, I am infusing this blog design with just as much hand-drawn character as the old, brown Playschool version. But I want to lead by example. I want to build the ultimate musician’s blog. I want to figure out how to integrate social media widgets, music players, links, archives and videos in the best possible way. And I reckon that once I’ve managed that it will be something that musicians can copy. The copies won’t look the same because part of the ultimate musician’s blog is a very personal surface design. It doesn’t matter if the structure is similar to somebody else’s blog. Blogs are all the same anyway…

h3. The redesign that never ends

I see this as the beginning of a research process that may well last a year or so. I am getting involved with new services (“ReverbNation”:http://www.reverbnation.com/benwalker, “Last.fm”:http://last.fm/music/JB+Walker) that take a while to build up. I also plan to build an audience from almost scratch. So this is no overnight success scheme. That’s the point. I want to show how best to build an online presence as a musician over time and with plenty of hard work. A one-click template isn’t going to do you any good.

Along the way I’m going to use and evaluate all sorts of advice from “blogging”:http://www.problogger.com “gurus”:http://www.skelliewag.org, “music”:http://www.stevelawson.net “gurus”:http://www.soulofsongwriting.com/, “web”:http://www.happycog.com/ “gurus”:http://webtypography.net/ and any other “gurus”:http://www.netblogsrocknroll.com I can get my hands on. I’m also going to harness as much of the power of Social Media as is possible without spending 24 hours a day with a webcam strapped to my head talking in hyperlinks while playing the guitar.

h3. What am I doing right now?

WordPress. Importing all my old articles and comments from Textpattern was super-simple, and I’m up and running on my new favourite blogging platform.

Template. My old site template was built from scratch, and it showed. I’m no designer… For this one, I’ve kept the style (hand-drawn doodles), but used the popular Grid Focus template to make the content much more attractive and readable.

ReverbNation. The old site used embedded Flash MP3 players to play each song. They were great, but didn’t do anything but play. The ReverbNation player is just a small part of a huge web backend that encompasses mailing lists, community, reporting, tactical marketing and all sorts of fun stuff. So far I’ve used none of it, so this will be a big learning curve for me. If it works out, I will end up using ReverbNation to host and play (and maybe even sell ;o) all of my tracks.

Twitter. It was on the old site and it’s here too, with a sexier plugin. I use Twitter a lot, and it’s central to my conversations with the Social Media crowd (and lately more musicians).

RSS. It’s amazing, and I love it. But very few people I know use it. I’m going to create a perfect RSS feed, with exactly the right amount of functionality, then I’m going to convert everyone on my mailing list to news feeds. It may take some time…

Integration. I’m going to try, as far as possible, to integrate my blog, Myspace, Facebook, Reverbnation, Twitter, Last.fm and the rest so I don’t have to spend my life updating 16 profiles and uploading every new song to 4 different servers. I want to streamline all of that so I can spend my time creating and communicating.

Interaction. I want people to be able to interact with me through my website. The comments on the new WordPress install are vastly easier and sexier than the old ones, so that should encourage some more conversation. Twitter should help. I’m also working on a “Suggest a song title” feature to give me some good ideas for the 50/90 Challenge.

Content. I’m going to carry on with the “Ben Walker updates” style of content, and commenting on relevant blog posts. I’m also going to post a couple of article series on songwriting technique as I write the chapters for my songwriting eBook. And my medium-term plan is to guest post on some good blogs, both songwriting-specific and more general lifestyle sites.

Songs. I’ll be writing pretty much one a day until October for the 50/90 Challenge, so I needn’t worry about pumping out the material! I’m keeping the 50/90 songs separate from the rest for the moment. When it’s over I’ll pick out the favourites and rewrite them until they are ready to join the canon of JB Walker classics. ;o)

Gigs. The old site pulled a gig feed from Eventful, which was quite handy. It didn’t help with updating listings on Reverbnation, Facebook, Myspace etc. I’ll hopefully figure out the simplest way of keeping the gigs lists up to date by the time I start playing some more gigs…

So have a look around, enjoy the new design and why not “leave me a comment”:http://www.ihatemornings.com/2008/08/10/the-ultimate-musicians-blog/#respond to get us started? ;o)

Photo by BdwayDiva1

Good question. Not anyone you’ve heard of, that’s for sure. In fact, although I fully intend to get my songs covered by big names, to cowrite with rising stars and to make a fortune in royalties from random Japanese TV ads, for the moment I’m writing for me.

h3. Who am I?

Andrea Stolpe “wrote about”:http://andreastolpe.berkleemusicblogs.com/2008/08/04/write-what-you-know/ authenticity of songwriting this week, and it hit a nerve:

bq. Back then it was Nashville, and so I my plan was to dive right into the types of songs that were making it as singles and basically write my version of them. This was always a frustrating endeavor. Just when I’d think I’d get the groove down, acceptable lyric material, and some good melodic ideas, I’d realize I’d be writing too close to the original. Even if I managed to draw a clear line between my tune and the one that inspired it, I was left with something that was an excellent caricature rather than an innovative trend-setter.

The only way I’m going to end up with a catalogue of great songs is to write for myself. Not for myself as an artist – I’m not planning to get famous that way – but for myself as a songwriter. Of course, this leads to some tricky decisions, and some serious self-assessment. If I’m writing for myself, how am I going to get the songs out there? And how am I going to build the reputation I will need to get them covered?

One way is to network and schmooze my way to the top. Although I’m not great at this I’m getting better and networking is absolutely necessary to get anywhere. But… there’s not much point networking if you can’t back it up with at least one success story. I will get my name known, which is a start. And it’s always fun to learn the new-media-speak lingo…

The second way is to sing my songs to people, either live or recorded. It seems like a weird way to do it because the songs are supposed to be for other people. But I can’t afford to produce top quality demos with session singers and producers. I know that I can deliver my songs the way they were conceived and with the right kind of attitude. The songs will need to stand on their own at some point and if they can impress through my strumming and wailing, they can go a long way without me.

h3. Brand awareness

So I need to build a solid brand around “Ben Walker, Songwriter”. Which is what I’m starting to do. I have started a good songwriting “blog”:http://www.ihatemornings.com which is starting to get noticed, I have introduced myself to hundreds of people as a songwriter, and I am writing songs (almost) full time. The blog, my business card and “all”:http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=529602587 my “online”:http://twitter.com/ihatemornings “profiles”:http://www.last.fm/music/JB+Walker are tied together by the “I Hate Mornings” “cartoon dude”:http://www.ihatemornings.com/images/2.png and I’m working on a redesign of ihatemornings.com to clean it up and highlight the good stuff without losing the cute, hand-drawn feel that people always seem to like.

But what about the songs? The production rate of songs for the “50/90 Challenge”:http://5090.fawm.org/writers.php?id=1747 is forcing me to write in a very natural style – I don’t have time to pastiche or pretend or rework. The process is starting to reveal my “true” style, which is (rather unsurprisingly ;o) sort of folky-country-pop with quirky and/or funny lyrics. It’s not everyone’s bag, but it’s what I do best. And if I can be known for writing great quirky pop, I’ll be a happy man.

h3. Going forward…

By the end of the summer (and the end of the 50-song challenge), I’m going to have a couple of healthy heaps of quirky folk/pop classics on my hands. October will be the month of rewrites and rehearsals, then I’m going to get back into the gigs as Ben Walker, Songwriter (hopefully with the “Legendary Swordsmen”:http://www.legendaryswordsmen.com rhythm section). I’m not going to waste my precious evenings playing no-hope support slots in Oxford pubs. I will organise decent gigs, roughly once a month, with other songwriters, and I’ll put on a good show. ‘Cos if I don’t do it myself, nobody will.

This isn’t news. But it is interesting. And it’s not just me who thinks so. Nick Gill talked about it in a “review of the Bon Iver album”:http://www.themonroetransfer.co.uk/wordpress/?p=60 earlier in the week:

bq.. …the lesson for people like me is that people like stories; not just in their music & lyrics, but as related to the artist him/herself. Marketing people have known this for years, and have been extending and stretching the truth to sell more ever since they realised (see yesterday’s little rant about Lily Allen, Sandi Thom et al. for all the associated horseshit that that record-buying public was fed). People like us, making music unsolicited and undemanded, need to have actual, real stories behind our records.

And, importantly- stories are all in the telling. The story of How I Recorded My Album isn’t going to rival Ulysses but, told well enough, it might be enough to persuade people to listen to your creation. It worked for Bon Iver, it can work for us.

p. And Steve Lawson just wrote a post on “Telling Stories…”:http://www.creative-choices.co.uk/server.php?show=ConBlogEntry.147 at the Creative Choices blog yesterday:

bq.. What’s important to realise is that there’s always a story told – if you don’t tell it, someone else will. I had this conversation recently with some band-mates about a forthcoming album, explaining to them that they could frame the release of the album with their own story of how they got involved with the project, how the music came together, what it meant for them to be playing this kind of music (it’s an album of freely-improvised music that still sounds like well crafted songs…). The response from one of my fellow musos was that he wants to let the music speak for itself.

The problem here is that it never does get to speak for itself – there’s almost always a descriptive context in which people first hear music, or decide to watch a film, or visit a website – whether it be a review or a recommendation from a friend. For music especially, it can be a random encounter via radio or film, which provides a framework that may well be misleading, depending on what the DJ says about it on the radio, or the kind of images your music accompanies!

p. Wise words indeed. Check out both articles for more info and insight into the need for narrative.

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…

h3. Kate loves me big

Kate Mason (of “Love You Big”:http://love-you-big.blogspot.com/) featured me on her “Talented Friends Tuesday”:http://love-you-big.blogspot.com/2008/06/talented-friends-tuesday-ii.html series, which is wildly generous and very cool. Apparently I’m “irritatingly clever”, “endearingly humble” and an “all-round lovely bloke”. I would say that’s a fair appraisal, but my endearing humility leaves me no choice but to say “Oh, don’t be silly. It’s nothing special, really.” while furtively analysing my feet.

h3. Mr Thinking thinks I’m OK

I posted a new song “last week”:blog/new-song-ten called Ten, which was inspired by a book I read from the School Of Thinking in Melbourne. Ever quick off the mark, “Michael Hewitt-Gleeson”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hewitt-Gleeson, head honcho at the Thinking School featured my song on “the SOT(School of Thinking) blog”:http://www.schoolofthinking.org/2008/you-times-me-by-10/, thus potentially catapulting me into the celebrity stratosphere of Melbourne’s alternative think-rock scene. Thank you, Michael.

h3. There’s always a sneaky way

While most bands are still trying to attack the celebrity dragon head-on, I’m being featured on beautifully obscure (and obscurely beautiful) blogs on the other side of the planet. Nobody will ever expect that!

But seriously, I have it on the “highest”:http://www.netblogsrocknroll.com/ “authority”:http://newmusicstrategies.com/ that niche blogs and tiny tribes are the future of music distribution in the digital age. It’s all about connecting, man… And I’m on a mission to connect.

As Wayne Campbell said so insightfully back in “’92″:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105793/quotes, “Get the net!”