Monthly Archives: October 2014

Music, My Stories, Stupidity

Metallica

Metallica never fully recovered from the Napster debacle and in the end what their actions did was bring about the “Anakin Skywalker Effect”. In Star Wars, Anakin Skywalker tried to stop Padme from dying and in the process ending up being responsible for her death, the death of many other Jedis, a fall to the dark side and the loss of human limbs.

In Metallica’s case by killing off one outlet (Napster) many more came to replace it, which brought in an era of unchecked piracy, until streaming services started to rein it all in. Seen the stats coming out of the UK recently. When people are given a legitimate and well-priced legal alternative they will always take it up. More people are streaming now in the UK than downloading mp3’s.

And the thing about Metallica is that Lars Ulrich thinks that what U2 did with Apple was a good thing. Is he serious? U2 will never recover from the backlash of their Apple giveaway. Like U2, Lars is more or less showing that he is the poster boy for aging out of touch rock stars.

Watch the documentary called “Global Metal” from Banger Films. There is a section there that focuses on the spread of metal music globally. Based on interviews with musicians and fans of the genre a link is made to piracy and peer-to-peer downloading.

So in a different scene, the interviewer Sam Dunn explains to Lars what he has heard from metal fans around the world that piracy gave them access to music they could never get their hands on. Sam then asks Lars how he feels about it. Lars thinks about his answer for a second and then replies that it is a good thing that fans are getting access to the music. And isn’t it funny how Lar’s said “WE” had some radical views at the point in time in relation to Napster, when the truth is it was Lars (along with some bad advice from management) that had the radical views.

Remember recently that Metallica played some sold out shows in China. I wonder how that came to be especially when Metallica music is not really purchased in the country.

The thing is this; if Metallica gets back to writing some quality and excellent tunes, they will be laughing all the way to retirement. Because back in the day, good used to be good enough. Today good equals awful. We all want what is excellent. Death Magnetic came out in 2008. It was a good comeback album. Now they need a great album to follow-up “Death Magnetic” and they are already late with that release. “Lords Of Summer” as a song is terrible however there are some quality riffs there that need to be developed into great songs.

Because in the end, a great media campaign can bring attention for a little bit however it cannot sustain if the music is terrible. U2 still believe that smoke and mirrors still works. Their team must believe that promotion is everything. Tim Cook believed it, however do you reckon he will work with U2 again in this fashion. Make the mistake once and learn from it. But Lars reckons that what U2 did was an amazing thing. Maybe for their bank accounts it was, but what about their audience.

The very essence of the internet is that only true excellence rises to the top. And that which rises and lasts usually has an innovative twist to it. Volbeat merged rockabilly, country and metal into a commercial pop song. Five Finger Death Punch merged the hard rock movement of the Eighties with Killswitch Engage. Coheed and Cambria introduced a whole new style of storytelling making each album a mass media event that involved novels, comics and music. When Metallica broke out they merged the NWOBHM scene with fast tempos and then with progressive time changes. When Rage Against The Machine broke out they merged rap with classic rock pentatonic riffs aided by Morello’s grasp of effects.

Metallica’s past history will gain them attention, but it won’t make them sustain anymore because it’s all about the product not the revenue. Metallica stayed out on the road for far too long for the sake of revenue. And our time is limited. That is the only thing we cannot buy or download. So everyone is fighting for attention and because there is constantly something new coming out, very little sustains. Can Metallica buck that trend? If they deliver excellence then the answer is yes, however based on Lars views on U2’s corporate deal the pendulum swings to NO. I will have a drink tonight hoping that James Hetfield will veto any stupid marketing plans that Lars has.

Standard
A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories

Some Thoughts On The Music Business

YouTube

YouTube allows you to go directly to your audience whenever they want and you get paid in the process. It might be small now, however it will grow with time. And surely that is better than having your video on MTV and getting squat.

Longevity

The truth is you get wiser as you get older. You learn from experience and life. Artists done need to tell us how great they are or how great the new album is. The fans are smart enough to decide what is great and what isn’t. In the end, you need to have stayed in the game long enough to win.

Music Is Not Scarce Anymore

The days of growing up at the record store and budgeting what album to buy are gone and have been for a long time. Today our favourite artists release new music and we check it out. If we like it we give it a few more spins and then move on. If we don’t like it, we move on straight away. If we really like it, we commit to it.

Back in the day, music was a commitment. After having laid down our cash on a record, we took it home, dropped the needle and spent months digesting it. But today, music is everywhere.

You Survive On Your Audience

You want to be in their consciousness 24/7 and the majority of albums today just don’t hang around long enough. Sure there are exceptions to the rule. Volbeat has been selling their new album since April 2013. Yep, that is almost 20 months ago. Avenged Sevenfold and Five Finger Death Punch are in the same league. Bands like Trivium and Dream Theater had albums that came, got lapped up by the core audience and then disappeared from the conversation. The audience wants to always talk about you, so give them a reason to talk about you.

Information Overload

People are overloaded with information so they’ve only got time for the best and they want more and more of it on a regular basis.

Start With Your friends

They actually know and care about you. If you’re good, they’ll tell their friends, and some of them will eventually be friends/trusted filters of others and people will hear about it that way.

Overnight Sensations

Overnight sensations are a decade plus in the making.

Timing

The timing was right for metal and rock acts to go multi-platinum in the Eighties. MTV was rising. The disenfranchised youths were looking for a voice, something to attach too. They found it in “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, “I Wanna Rock”, “Shout At The Devil” and so on.

Rock Bands Were Never Supposed To Last

The Beatles had about eight years before going solo. Led Zeppelin had about 12 years before calling it quits after the death of John Bonham. Kiss’s original line up had about 8 years before they ended. Motley Crue had 10 years before they fired Vince. Twisted Sister had about 8 years from when the core line up was formed. Rage Against The Machine had 9 years before they split. Soundgarden had about 12 years before calling it quits. That is about the average of a band keeping its original line up in tact before other life events impact the dynamics.

Promote The Why and Not the What

Evergrey went all “why” for the promotion of the “Hymns For The Broken” album. We know the story about how the band was almost over and how the return of two former members gave Englund a new belief to continue. And the fans resonated with this belief.

Protest The Hero sold the why. That is why they the fans pledged over $300,000 to them for “Volition”. We understand as fans why they needed to go down the fan funding route. We understood how the record labels had ripped them off. We believed in their story and wanted to be a part of it.

People will do the things that prove what they believe. We don’t don’t buy what our artists do, we buy why they do it.

Personality

The truth is long-term careers are based on being unique and staying true to who you are.

What seems to happen is that artists try to appeal to everybody and in doing so they rub off their rough edges which is the X factor that makes them unique.

We don’t want fake heroes to believe in. We want real heroes with real personalities.

That is why rock and metal took off in the early Eighties. They represented the working class and the youth that lived under iron fists. The metal and rock got all polished up and all of its uniqueness was planed off.

That is why grunge and alternative took off in the early Nineties. They trail blazed their own path by not sounding just like everybody else. While the metal and rock acts lost their edge and started to sound the same towards the end of the Eighties, the Seattle scene was not afraid to go their own way. They didn’t care if radio didn’t play them and they didn’t care if the media wouldn’t write about them. They forged their own path and made everyone follow them in the process.

Standard
A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories, Piracy, Unsung Heroes

What Does Volbeat’s RIAA Certification Tell Us About The Recording Business?

Volbeat just got a Gold Certification for digital sales from the RIAA in relation to their song “A Warriors Call” from the album “Beyond Heaven, Above Hell” released in 2010. So what does this tell us about the state of the metal/rock world in 2014 when it comes to sales.

Recognition Comes Much Later

Recognition and success come much later in the current world. In Volbeat’s case their entry in the mainstream American market was about ten years after they formed. This is extraordinary when you consider that they were very popular in parts of Europe before that. Overall, Volbeat’s first gold certification in the US has been 20 years in the making. The hardest thing today is to make a new fan or to get people to check you out. So anywhere music can be played, your stuff should be there. Volbeat do just that. On Spotify “A Warriors Call” is at 9,630,292 streams. On their YouTube account, the same song has 6,506,260 views.

If you create something that is good you will not be complaining about your income. Write a hit (and when I say hit, I don’t mean number 1 on the charts. I mean, a song that connects with a lot of listeners), you’ll make money in ways you never thought of, and you can sell your rights to the corporations you complain about, license it to every company or TV show or movie. But that means you need to create constantly as you don’t know what could connect with an audience. But that’s much harder to do than complain.

“A Warriors Call” was never a chart hit, however it connected with listeners.

The Bell Curve Is Prominent

With each metal/rock band there is a hardcore fan base that will try the band out straight away. These early fans make up 13% of the total future fan base and they are the ones that believe in the band and its music. Then within time there is a large 34% group called the early majority. These are the fans that will not try something, until somebody else tries it first and recommends it. Then there is another 34% group called the late majority. These fans adopt the band only after they see a clear majority of metal heads fully assimilating the band as a part of their daily life.

Metallica is a perfect example of the Bell Curve in action. From 1981 to 1983 they had a fan base based on early adopters. From 1984 to 1988, the fan base grew to include the early adopters and the early majority. After the explosion of the self-titled Black album that fan base grew even more as the late adopters and any laggards came to the party.

Volbeat is another perfect example. From 2000 to 2006 it was the early adopters. Then between 2007 and 2010 it was the early majority. During this period they also supported Metallica on the North American leg of Metallica’s World Magnetic Tour. And then from 2010 to know, we have the late majority all jumping into bed with Volbeat.

The internet is another perfect example. In the mid-1990s it was first used only by people who had access to and were familiar with personal computers. By the 2000s, the early majority started using it and a lot more development started taking place around communications, banking and financial services, and mass media (music, movies, books, journalism, newspapers, and television). Over the last five years, the late majority, previously unfamiliar with computers and the internet, have adopted computer skills after realizing the technology’s impact on society at large.

Albums

The core audience plus the early hardcore fans want it, but the public at large want the hits. Most people are casual listeners who don’t always go deep into every act they like. However if they want to go deep into an artist’s catalogue they will go onto Spotify. You can amass an albums worth of songs on Spotify and never actually release an album. That’s the new game.

Labels want albums because that is the best way to monetise for them. It is easier to charge money when there is a bundle of songs involved. Artists want albums, because they grew up on them and they want to be like their heroes and make a statement. However the album means nothing to the listener who has a music collection all on an iPod. Fans always wanted access and the internet era has provided that. And then there is the hardcore element that wants a little bit more like the the alternate cuts, demos, unreleased tracks and so forth.

Also remember this. The multi-Platinum “Stay Hungry” was a tight, nine-song, 37-minute set. “Blizzard Of Ozz” was 39 minutes long. Slippery When Wet was 46 minutes long. “Ride The Lightning” was 47 minutes long. All of them were classic albums that broke the bands involved to a larger audience.

What are these numbers trying to say?

You don’t need 80 minutes worth of new music to be released on one slab at one time to connect with fans. People don’t have spare hours anymore. They have spare minutes.

Streaming Is Not The Enemy

Streaming revenues will go up and you will get well paid eventually. But you need to utilize your recordings and mobilise your fan base to start streaming. If you still focus on the album sales, you will be destined for the scrapheap. So don’t keep your music off streaming services. Seriously what is the point in preventing people from streaming your music so that you can sell an extra 10,000 albums.

What advantage does AC/DC have by not being on Spotify?

What did Jimmy Buffett achieve by standing up in all his glory and asking Daniel Ek for a raise?

Record Labels

Are still clueless. Volbeat finally got a major label behind them in Universal for their latest release. The majors have no idea what connects. That is why they look to the independents or their off-shoot labels. In this case, thank god that Rebel Monster Records, which is an offshoot of Mascot Records showed interest.

Artists still want the label to make them famous as the labels have the marketing power and the relationships in place. So don’t bitch that you’re not getting paid by streaming services when in fact the record label is absorbing these payments and then drip feeding you the change.

 

Standard
A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Perfection In The Modern Piracy Age

The music business world is changing every day. It has happening right now as I type this. That is how fast change happens. In the sixties and seventies groups/artists released an album each year on average. Then in the Eighties all the way up to Napster in 1999, it was okay to release an album with a couple of good songs every two to three years. It was all about getting it out the door.

Then there was the handful of albums that ended up as great iconic albums. These ones took a lot of months to write and record. The labels had the cash and they had the distribution. So they would put their acts into studios for long periods of time knowing that they will be able to recoup.

But in today’s world perfection is the enemy of progress. We’re moving to a world where artists either win it all or win nothing. The in between is slowly dissolving. And no one has time to wait for something to be perfect. Hell if that was the case, Apple and Microsoft or Google would not have released anything. Why do you think our computers are always installing updates for our operating systems. Because those operating systems are not perfect.

There is a reason why some bands have a sold out sign on the door while others are playing to empty halls. It is the product. No amount of marketing will break you. If your product fails to connect or just plain sucks, it’s over. Back to the drawing board. Ozzy Osbourne started the “No More Tears” with a different band and different producers. In the quest for a perfect album, musicians came and went and the producers also got chopped and changed. In between, songs got written and tweaked and outsider writers got called in. However for Ozzy to get to that level of comfort, all the way from his Black Sabbath days he was involved in releasing albums on a yearly basis.

Warrior Soul and Galactic Cowboys are two bands that come to mind that failed commercially. They had big label deals with Geffen. Great label support. Good music. They had critical acclaim however no money to back it all up. The labels put money into breaking them however the audience just wasnt ready for them. Their products just failed to connect like the labels expected them to connect. By 1994, both bands had been dropped by Geffen. On 1992’s “Salutations From The Ghetto Nation” this is how Kory Clarke from Warrior Soul summed up the song Love Destruction. “We have a lot of critical acclaim throughout the world but no money to back it up.”

Then on the other hand, you had Geffen Records hedging their bets. A flyer of Geffen’s which did the round in a May 1992 issue of Hot Metal has the label promoting the following albums. “User Your Illusion 1 and 2” from Guns N Roses, “Nevermind” from Nirvana, “Want Some” from Roxy Blue and “La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One” from White Zombie. Whatever connected was kept and whatever didn’t got discarded.

The end result is that once a song becomes a hit, it then becomes a megahit. Music lovers demand excellence and they have the ability to filter out the average. So any artists that are just good at what they do are actually the same as average and more closer to bad than great.

HBO knows this. That is why they have first pick at the best people and best stories. Netflix knows this. That is why they are signing up filmmakers and TV shows. John Kalodner knew this and that’s why he fought to get good bands to become great. He knew that a ten out ten album was 300% harder to make than an album rated a seven. What this means for newbies is that the world has no place for good, let alone average material.

In the world of entertainment technology the two best technological developments for consumers is the “Bit Torrent” protocol and “The Pirate Bay”. And the creators of the tech have done it so great, that both products are still alive and relevant when you compare it to other tech products that launched the same time as these two products. And “The Pirate Bay” caters for music, movies, eBooks, TV shows, software, comics and many other different products. So even though Netflix and Spotify go a long way in addressing a problem, until there is an encompassing entertainment product that is better than The Pirate Bay/Bit Torrent relationship and a product that allows consumers to have all the options that “The Pirate Bay” offers, piracy will always exist.

Ask yourself, this. If people are downloading your music is that a good thing or a bad thing? If people are listening to your music on Spotify free, is that a good thing or a bad thing? If people are listening to your music on YouTube, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Standard
Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

My Own Top 40 List Based On iTunes Play Metrics

I made the upgrade from the iPhone 5 to the 6 and when I synced up the old phone to iTunes to back it up, I saw the top 30 songs that did the rounds over the last 12 months.

1. Lift Me Up
Five Finger Death Punch
The Wrong Side Of Heaven and The Righteous Side Of Hell Volume 1
Released: 2013
Plays: 1481

What can I say, “The Ultimate Sin” influence just connected with me and I kept on coming back to the song over and over again.

2.Shepherd Of Fire
Avenged Sevenfold
Hail To The King
Released: 2013
Plays: 1319

Any song that can combine “Enter Sandman” and “Trust” from Metallica and Megadeth deserves attention.

3. West Ruth Ave
The Night Flight Orchestra
Internal Affairs
Released: 2012
Plays: 1271

What can I say, the Kiss “I Was Made For Lovin You” vibe connects and that Chorus melody is infectious.

4. A Day in My Life
Five Finger Death Punch
The Wrong Side of Heaven & the Righteous Side Of Hell, Vol. 2
Released: 2013
Plays: 1071

Five Finger Death Punch have two entries in my top 5. This one is a classic from Volume 2. The chorus is indelible.

5. Angel Of Mercy
Black Label Society
Catacombs Of The Black Vatican
Released: 2014
Plays: 1124

The monster that is Zakk Wylde returns with a classic. The song opens up for Zakk’s masterclass in soloing.

6. Be Somebody
Thousand Foot Krutch
The End Is Where We Begin
Released: 2012
Plays: 996

The song just flows that it sounds effortless. Brilliant.

7. Used To Be
Arrows To Athens
Kings And Thieves
Released: 2011
Plays: 743

Very surprised by the album when I came across it this year.

8. Mist
Protest The Hero
Volition
Released: 2013
Plays: 660

I thought this song would have been higher as i certainly feel like I have played it a 1000 times. Guess I’ll be a Newfoundlander.

9. Conquistador
Thirty Seconds to Mars
Love Lust Faith + Dreams
Released: 2013
Plays: 557

The riff owes a lot to Marilyn Manson’s “Fight Song” and when Jared Leto/backing vocals sing, “we will, we will, we will rise again” you can just imagine Freddie Mercury singing “we will, we will rock you”.

10. Heritage
The Kindred
Life In Lucidity
Released: 2014
Plays: 419

Love the band formerly known as “Today I Caught The Plague”. The message in this song sums up exactly how I feel about culture, we build on what came before.

11. Fly On The Wall
Thousand Foot Krutch
The End Is Where We Begin
Released: 2012
Plays: 403

Another song that just flows effortless from the fan funded “The End Is Where We Begin” album.

12. Fallen
Volbeat
Beyond Hell Above Heaven
Released: 2010
Plays: 387

Our Danish heroes deliver a rockabilly metal classic.

13. Draw The Line
Disciple
O’ God Save Us All
Released: 2012
Plays: 322

The lyrical content connects and the song is a great pop ditty from a band that borders on metal, rock and Christian gospel.

14. Tuesday’s Rain
Asphalt Ballet
Asphalt Ballet
Released: 1991
Plays: 223

A brilliant song that got lost in the seismic shift of 1991/92. You were either in or you were out. Asphalt Ballet was deemed to be out.

15. Strife
Trivium
Vengeance Falls
Released: 2013
Plays: 222

With a Judas Priest sing along intro, Trivium deliver with “Strife”. Go on Spotify and you will see that it is getting some serious traction.

16. Denial Waits
Ashes Divide
Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright
Released: 2008
Plays: 215

This song is unique and in a league of its own for production, craftsmanship and melodies. A classic that deserves more attention.

17. High Wire
Badlands
Badlands
Released: 1989
Plays: 210

If Jake E.Lee wants Red Dragon Cartel to reach a certain level of success and be ubiquitous than HE needs to write songs that are better than “High Wire”.

18. Hail To The King
Avenged Sevenfold
Hail To The King
Released: 2013
Plays: 209

What can I say, who doesn’t like a song that reminds them of AC/DC and “Thunderstruck”.

19. American Slang
The Gaslight Anthem
American Slang
Released: 2010
Plays: 200

The song that Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi wish they wrote.

20. Lick It Up
Kiss
Lick It Up
Released: 1983
Plays: 197

The song that saved Kiss’s career.

21. Rainbow in the Dark
Dio
Holy Diver
Released: 1983
Plays: 195

The Corey Taylor version from the Dio tribute album appears further down the list. An infectious song just tattoo’s itself on the skin and remains forever.

22. The Last Time
Badlands
Voodoo Highway
Released: 1991
Plays: 194

If Jake E.Lee wants Red Dragon Cartel to reach a certain level of success and be ubiquitous then HE needs to write songs that are better than “High Wire” and “The Last Time”.

23. Moth
Hellyeah
Blood For Blood
Released: 2014
Plays: 177

Clearly the best song on the new album.

24. Live In Love
Times Of Grace
The Hymn Of A Broken Man
Released: 2011
Plays: 167

This should be added to the set list of Killswitch Engage, it is that good.

25. Until It’s Gone
Linkin Park
The Hunting Party
Released: 2014
Plays: 167

It’s a return to the Linkin Park trademark sound.

26. Attack
Thirty Seconds to Mars
A Beautiful Lie
Released: 2005
Plays: 147

The song that got me into the band. A pure masterclass in electronics, industrial and fuzzed out rock.

27. End Of My Rope
Asphalt Ballet
Asphalt Ballet
Released: 1991
Plays: 139

From a band that deserved way more than what they got.

28. Hell Or Hallelujah
Kiss
Monster
Released: 2012
Plays: 135

The best song that Kiss or Paul Stanley has written since “Psycho Circus”. Mmm, “Live To Win” was also pretty good, however that was from Paul’s solo album of the same name.

29. Wolvish
The Kindred
Life In Lucidity
Released: 2014
Plays: 122

Progressive music the way it should be.

30. Watch You Bleed
Five Finger Death Punch
The Wrong Side Of Heaven and The Righteous Side Of Hell Volume 1
Released: 2013
Plays: 121

Another chorus melody that is ubiquitous.

Other songs outside the Top 30 are as follows:

31. Rebellion
Linkin Park
The Hunting Party
Released: 2013
Plays: 103

It was like System Of A Down never went away. Having Daron Malakian on it doesn’t hurt at all.

32. Orestes
A Perfect Circle
Mer de Noms
Released: 2000
Plays: 103

This song was pivotal as my development as a songwriter. Much in the same way that Evergrey showed me that good music is still being created from a metal point of view, A Perfect Circle showed me the same from a progressive art rock point of view.

33. Wrong Side Of Heaven
Five Finger Death Punch
The Wrong Side Of Heaven and The Righteous Side Of Hell Volume 1
Released: 2013
Plays: 93

The emotion grabs me. One of the best ballads that FFDP have created.

34. It’s Time
Imagine Dragons
Night Visions
Released: 2012
Plays: 84

The main vocal melody is the same as a melody for an instrumental song I wrote for my wedding. So it connected from the outset.

35. Key Entity Extraction I: Domino The Destitute
Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Ascension
Released: 2012
Plays: 83

What can I say, when the “Wasted Years” like intro starts off, I was hooked.

36. Line Of Fire
Vandenberg’s Moonkings
Vandenberg’s Moonkings
Released: 2014
Plays: 79

The mighty Dutchman is back and he sure knows how to turn it up to eleven.

37. Out Of Reach
Vandenberg’s Moonkings
Vandenberg’s Moonkings
Released: 2014
Plays: 73

An emotional roller coaster that straps you in and doesn’t let you go.

38. Rainbow In The Dark
Corey Taylor
Ronnie James Dio – This Is Your Life
Released: 2014
Plays: 73

Corey does a stellar job on the vocal.

39. When Truth Lies
Vanishing Point
Distant Is The Sun
Released: 2014
Plays: 69

One of the most consistent and best progressive metal bands to come out of Australia.

40. Coming Home
Avenged Sevenfold
Hail To The King
Released: 2013
Plays: 63

Synester Gates goes to town on this song. That whole minute plus lead break is beautiful.

Standard
A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories

Success

Creators Don’t Have A Clear Definition Of Success

On one hand, Nirvana sold 7 million copies of “Nevermind” in the US. By December 1992, all the band members had to show was a house. The rest of the monies went on fees, lawyers, accountants, managers, record labels and miscellaneous expenses.

While on the other hand, Tommy Emmanuel has a career in the music business. He releases new music frequently, tours frequently, runs master classes, works as a session guitarist and songwriter. He doesn’t have the 7 million multi-platinum sales on the board however he has been in the music business since the mid Seventies.

What is your definition of success?

Define that first.

Creators Are Not Sure On What To Focus

There you are, in your room, writing and demoing away the killer song that will break you to the masses. Time goes by and suddenly you have created 5, then 10, then 15 songs. When do you say enough and start focusing on that one song and putting that out to market and seeing how it floats in the sea of twenty million unheard songs.

Then once the song is out what do you do. This is where you will need to focus on three things:

1. Are new people gravitating to your song
2. Put time frames in place and measure it and then compare the time frames.
3. Work and finish off the next song.

Creators Don’t Put Their Time Into Understanding Metrics

How is your song being used? How is it being listened too? Which musical platform is getting the most traction?

There are a few ways to do this. Talk to your fans. Create fan groups and give them ranks. Tell them to email you so that they can join one of those groups and talk about the songs released, the new songs in the pipework and so forth. You would be surprised how much goodwill and loyalty this fosters.

Creators Have No Budget

You need to invest in yourself to launch your music onto the world and after that is done, you still need investment in yourself to maintain it.

No Sign Of Life

In IT/Product launches, the actual creators of a new product get really scared right after their products launch because of the very typical “launch bump” and the eventual “pit of despair” when the press and social media stop caring about you.

So let’s take that analogy and apply it to music.

You create your song, record it, mix it, master it and then release it.

And nothing happens.

There is no sign of life that your song is even alive.

Maybe it wasn’t good enough for fans to like it enough that they couldn’t live without it.

Songs have a funny way of finding their way into people’s lives. The big difference today is that the get paid right now paradigm of the past is gone. That paradigm worked when the Record Labels had control of the distribution and acted as gatekeepers. Todays paradigm is different. A song released 5 to 10 years ago could connect with an audience right now. Are you still around to capitalise on this change of fortune. If you are in the music business for the right reasons you will be still around.

No Idea On How To Grow

I am sure that any business entity has come across the following three questions;

Why are we not growing?
Why is growth slowing?
Why are we shrinking?

In order to plan for growth businesses put someone in a position to build that plan, execute that plan and study the results so the next plan can be 20% better.

Apply that to music and ask any artist if they have a growth plan and how do they measure if they are growing.

Standard
A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Hymns For The Broken

I have been a fan of this band since their inception so all albums that Evergrey have released have been a pure blind purchase for me (including the debut). They basically came out at a time (1998) when I was losing faith in the music world. At the time, the Industrial metal movement was at its peak and Nu-Metal was starting to rise. Grunge morphed into Alternative and punk became a commercial viable product again thanks to Green Day and Offspring.

Somewhere in between all of that noise came Evergrey. Even though the lyrical issues were dark, the band gave me hope that good music is still being created. Back in 1998, it was the era of the gatekeeper. So in Australia, we got a lot of music from the latest bandwagon the major labels jumped on. Evergrey’s music was available as an expensive import however I took the punt on it.

And to this day I have not been disappointed with an Evergrey release. The fan base is devoted and loyal to them. With each passing year now, Evergrey is being discovered by a whole new generation of fans and yes this “discovery” has a lot to do with piracy, which is seeing the band go from strength to strength. Indeed, I am a fan for life.

One thing that has been ever-present in Evergrey is Tom Englund on vocals and guitar. He has been there since the start, which goes back to 1995. Rikard Zander on keyboards joined in 2002 and has been a loyal servant to the Evergrey cause since then. Henrik Danhage joined in 2000 and by 2010 he departed/was let go to focus on the DeathDestruction project. Jonas Ekdahl first tenure in Evergrey was from 2003 to 2010 and then he also departed/was let go to also focus on DeathDestruction. Bassist Johan Niemann is a newbie since 2010.

Isn’t it funny how life works. If Henrik and Jonas didn’t leave back in 2010, Evergrey would not be here today. It was a massive decision back then by Tom. And the thing is if Jonas and Henrik didn’t return in 2013, Evergrey would not be here today. The “Hymns For The Broken” project started back in October 2013 and wrapped in May 2014. As a loyal fan, it is good to see all of a sudden everyone all over the world getting into Evergrey and understanding what they are about.

“King Of Errors”

After the spoken word prelude of “The Awakening”, the thought-provoking single “King Of Errors” explodes out of the speakers. Then the verse riff kicks in. That is one for the head bangers. Melodic metal at its best. These Swedes sure know how to blow our doors off right off the top, grabbing our attention and keeping it.

“We are crowned by our errors
And we’re lost and alone”

So true. In any occupation and in any situation, as soon as you stuff up, people take notice. Do great things all the time and no one notices. Henrik Danhage is back with his unique style of Euro Shred. Another unsung hero in the world of guitar heroes.

The video is breathtaking, explaining how the band is on top of the world in one shot and then you see Englund drowning in the river of doubt. A perfect example of how we try to portray ourselves as kings on social media. I have said it a lot of times to anyone who cares. How come nobody posts pictures when they are feeling sad? Every picture is happy, which we all know is a god damn lie.

“A New Dawn”

The song is addictive with its modern metal grooves. The keys are there as well, present from beginning to the end. By the third song, you can hear the benefits of a super high quality mix. It is way more professional and crisper than their last couple albums. Great chorus and how good are the latin-esq voices.

Then the breakdown interlude bridge section mellows down with the piano taking the lead. However the song is still rocking.

“Wake A Change”

Like “Back In Black”, “Dr Feelgood”, “Images and Words” and all those classic long players, the album keeps going, sounding different from cut to cut, but still demanding attention.

“Archaic Rage”

A change in groove. There’s no fat, just pure melodic progressive rock and metal. Easily it is one of the best songs about social media ever written and recorded. This one is another Evergrey anthem driven by Rikard’s atmospheric style of keys. Plus the mix is top-notch.

“These shells have lost the capacity to hope and be free”

The shells’ are the external layer. It is what people see. And if we allow ourselves to conform to some unachievable standard than the internal self-will disappear as well.

“We rise from ashes and stone
Cause who I am to you does not reflect the truth”

What people see on someone’s’ Facebook’s account is not a real reflection of who they are. So much truth in those words.

Imagine a kid growing up today and they have this ideal of perfect lives all around thanks to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. And these kids are not feeling that perfection, that happiness they see all around them. So they feel isolated. But they are not alone in their feelings. Thousands of others feel the same way. The spoken samples sum it up.

“You are not alone……you will never walk this path alone….there are thousands and thousands of people just like you……”

From the 3 minute mark, love the whole Iron Maiden style solo section. Goose bumps.

“Barricades”

A nod to the sound of the day, but for some reason Evergrey still makes it melodic and dark. Rickard has really gone out on a limb here with some great keys playing. It’s got all the classic Evergrey elements, each band member integral to the perfected sound. And Jonas provides a pounding beat.

You need to hear it to appreciate the various soloing on offer from pure Al DiMeola shred to a jazzy/blues section before it picks up again.

“Black Undertow”

It’s dark yet hopeful and what about the heavy riffing and the nod to the progressive influences.

Speaking of Tom, there’s a reason why he’s one of my favourite vocalists. This song is all about the vocal, the urgency, the sadness and the depression. Listening to this makes you forget about the rest of the world, makes you believe that in the black darkness of the undertow there is always hope. You just need to survive the trip to the destination.

“Hymns for the Broken”

“Reach out, show me how that you feel the same
Scream loud these hymns are for the broken”

Another incredible vocal. It’s amazing how consistently good the songs are. No filler, just winners. One thing about Evergrey is that they always stayed true to the core audience. All of their songs have an element of struggle in them and as fans of the band, we have gone through the same stuff that they have. That is their core and Evergrey has served us well.

“The Grand Collapse”

The next video and one of the most progressive songs on the album. Best of all, the seven minute track does not conform to any predictable structure. In essence, it’s a clear return to a style that Evergrey found success with in the past and nailing it on your own terms, and this does! Listen to the guitar work and you’ll know you’re in the presence of something special. At track number 11, Evergrey are shining light on an era when it was all about the album cuts.

When the history of progressive metal is written…Tom Englund and Henrik Danhage will be left out. Spread the word to ensure that they are not missed out.

“The Aftermath”

The ‘Aftermath’ is one of the songs that just has this epic-ness vibe to it. The acoustic atmospherics nail it. It’s a mood and its human. In a world were everything is written to a formula it is good to hear a track that takes you away to some other place. THIS SOUNDS LIKE THAT!

Oh, it’s all good, the groove, the guitar, the bass, the vocal, the keys. But for a track to be indelible it must have a magical element. And in “The Aftermath” it’s the break, at the three-minute and twenty-second mark…

My only complaint is that the album is not on Spotify at this point in time. If you want your voice heard all over the world you need to release to all formats. That is what the internet is all about, reaching out immediately. For Evergrey, their core fan base would mobilise and buy the physical album. I did. So withholding it from Spotify is a mistake. And maybe back in the day it was easier to sell albums with gated windows however today it is all about access.

In the end, Evergrey have released a stunning album. The “WHY” factor is there. By continuing the band when there wasn’t sufficient reason for doing so has inspired and mobilised the fans to see the journey out with them.

Standard
Copyright, Music, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit

Hendrix And The Madness Of Copyright

There is a new Jimi Hendrix Biopic called Jimi: All Is By My Side out and for anyone that has seen it, you will notice that the movie is missing Jimi Hendrix’s original music. So the story goes something like this. The Jimi Hendrix Estate denied all attempts to license the music unless they had control over the story line of the movie. The producers felt that this would not gel well with their vision  so what the public has is a movie where the actor who plays Hendrix is performing cover songs of other bands.

This is ridiculous because in case anyone has been living under a rock, Jimi Hendrix has been dead for 44 years. Based on retroactive copyright terms his music will never even enter the public domain in our lifetime.

It’s worth noting that when Jimi Hendrix created his original works in the Sixties he did it under the agreement that he will have a copyright on those songs for 55 years during his lifetime. However, the corporations have ensured that agreement got retroactively changed to be life plus 70/90 years (depending on which country you reside in). It is also worth noting that a lot of his original compositions were influenced heavily by blues compositions from 20 to 30 years prior to the 60’s who already had their copyrights expire. That is why Hendirx flourished and that is why the British Invasion flourished. They built of works that had entered the public domain. That is how culture thrives, by building on what came before.

Copyright was always meant to be a deal between the creator and the public. “We (the public) will give you (the creator) exclusive rights and related legal rights for a limited time to your works, so that you have an incentive to create more, but in exchange once that limited time has passed the rights to your creations go to the public so that people can build on what you’ve created”. Copyright was never designed to a welfare system for heirs and ‘estates’ like actual property or a product to be monopolised by greedy corporations.

Any copyright term lasting past death is excessive and at that point it’s time for the public to receive their half of the deal.

I have heard the argument that a lot of Hendrix’s fans, family and friends are not happy about the way he is portrayed in the movie. My answer is so what. If you look at the history of biopics based on musical heroes like Jim Morrison or Johnny Cash, I am sure that fans, family and friends of those people would not have been happy about how those artists have been portrayed in movies. But that’s not the point of copyright. It’s not a right to block or censor representations the creator doesn’t like. In this case the Hendrix Estate was trying to use copyright to block a version of events that the family did not approve of.

Of course, the Hendrix estate might be making their own biopic or documentary on Jimi’s life and I am sure that they will portray Jimi in the most favorable light possible. Sort of like re-writing history from a certain point of view. However that is why other stories like “All Is By My Side” should be told and that is why copyright should not be used to censor those stories.

Standard