Music, My Stories

Old Friends

An old friend from the “single days” was having a christening for his second daughter. These days, our lifestyles are so busy and with three kids of my own and a full time job, I just don’t have the time to catch up with everyone.

Actually I made a decision about 15 years ago that I would be “unofficially” breaking connections with the old crew. This means that we just stop calling each other and we just stopped organising to meet up. At the time, I just got married, I was working full time (which involved travelling for 3 hours in total to my place of work and back) and I was trying to give my music career a shot. Basically I was walking a different path to my “single” friends.

Then throughout the years, the “single” friends started to get married and then started to have kids of their own along with me having kids. So the only time that I would meet up with them would be at these functions. As the years went by, the paths we all walked on started to became so radically different that when I was at the christening on the weekend, I really didn’t want to be there.

I had nothing to say to them and they had nothing to say to me. It was the usual “HI” and the usual “SO, WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO”. My answer to that was “HI” and “THE USUAL”. And the lyrics to “Double Talkin Jive” filled my ears as this conversation was happening.

Back in town an’a all new friends
They sayin’ how ya been?
Fucked up and outta place
That’s how I felt back then

So much living has passed between the “single” days and today, that we are now polar opposites. We are like strangers seeing each other. There is no friendship bond anymore for me. In addition, a lot of “Chinese Whispers” have burned my ears in relation to words said behind my back, so I am very careful around them.

Some of the old crew have remained together, hanging out on weekends and all that, however that is due to the women they got as wives being all friends and knowing each other.

So you have one crew that I call the “Wives Crew”. These are the guys that remained together as “friends” because their wives knew each other. Pantera’s “Walk” comes to mind.

Run your mouth when I’m not around
It’s easy to achieve

Then you have the “Fake Crew”. These are the guys that are all fake. I know this because at one of the functions when they got pretty toasted, they spilled the beans about how hard it is to pretend to like the “Wives Crew”, the “Twins Crew” and the “Backstab Crew”.

Your life’s a lie, that you hide

Then you have the “Twins Crew”. This is the two twin brothers crew, who when single were inseparable and now with wives barely know each other. The older twin by 15 minutes was the one doing the christening and is the one that tries that do the right thing. It looks like the younger twin is under lock and key from his wife, which is causing the issues.

Then you have the “Backstab Crew” that involves two couples that will backstab the “Wives Crew” and “Twins Crew” to the “Fake Crew” and then backstab the ““Twins Crew” and “Fake Crew” to the “Wives Crew” and then backstab the “Wives Crew” and “Fake Crew” to the “Twins Crew”.

Hey! Oh, Mr. backstabbing son of a bitch
You’re living in a world that will soon be dying
And I know, everybody knows you try to be like me
But even at your best, as a man you couldn’t equal half of me

You! You’re another shit talking punk to me
You’re living inspiration for what I never wanna be
And I see, you’ve been blinded by what you believe
And now back up and sit down, shut up and act like you need to be

Nothing sums up the “Backstab Crew” better than “The Enemy” from Godsmack. Legend has it that Sully Erna wrote the song about Nikki Sixx.

And then you have my wife and I. “The Separate Path Crew” that don’t care about what all the other Crews do and that upsets those crews even more. We just don’t fit their mould. And with that, let’s finish the post with some Five Finger Death Punch.

YOU WON’T BREAK ME
NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU TRY
YOU CAN’T SHAKE ME DOWN
I’M FUCKING BULLETPROOF

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My Stories

Did The Transformers Saga Need A Superbowl Slot?

So the new Transformers 4 – Age Of Extinction preview is out. It’s only 30 seconds long. So how can a 30 second preview of a movie that will be at least 2 hours plus long grab a person’s attention. Especially when 111.5 million viewers are tuned in during the Superbowl.

Did the Transformers saga need a Superbowl slot? It’s fan base is already entrenched. I understand the marketing strategy. The more eyes that see the commercial will lead to greater box office returns. The movie’s success is all based on piracy.

Look at TF1. Great box office returns and one of the most pirated movies. TF2, higher box office returns and piracy was reduced. TF3 broke the $1 billion barrier and piracy was rarely mentioned. It didn’t even come up on any piracy lists.

So what about the preview. I will start with one sentence first. Optimus Prime is riding a DINOBOT (with a sword in hand), the same way a Rodeo rides a wild bull. Seriously.

Now I am a fan of the Generation 1 series. So in the original Transformers cartoon, the Dinobots were built on Earth by the Autobots thanks to Wheeljack and Ratchet based on dinosaur bones discovered by Ironhide. So from that we got Grimlock, Slag, and Sludge, otherwise known as the Dinobots.

Initially they were incapable of any cognitive reasoning and based on the TF4 preview, it looks like that is the level they are bringing the Dinobots in at. Otherwise why would Optimus be riding a dragon looking thing (that I am assuming is Grimlock) with a Sword no less. Expect Optimus to break in Grimlock.

The storyline on IMBD states that a mechanic and his daughter make a discovery that brings down Autobots and Decepticons and a paranoid government official on them. Now I need to think about how I explain this reboot that is not a reboot to the kids. And that is the market for this movie based on the preview.

But to delve further into the teaser, who exactly is the bad guy here? Does Cybertron still exist? Because where are all these other transformers coming from. Anyway you know it is a Michael Bay flick. Autobots on a parachute, shooting off two guns, things exploding, cars getting diced in half and Mark Wahlberg talking. When I heard Mark Wahlberg talk I just thought of the “Pain and Gain” movie.

Anyway, the preview didn’t entice me. When I showed it to my boys, they loved it. And that is the market. The preview is spread because we the fans spread it. Not some costly Superbowl slot.

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A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories

Rock Star Lifestyle, The 2014 Way

In an interview over at The Guardian, will.i.am mentioned an important point about the current rock star lifestyle. He said that he had made more money from his Beats Electronics equity stake than from the sales of the Black Eyed Peas song “I Gotta Feeling” which has the honour of being one of the most downloaded songs on iTunes.

To put it into context, if you go over to the RIAA Gold and Platinum Database, you will see that the digital release of “I Gotta Feeling” was certified on June 29, 2012, 8 x Multi-Platinum, That means 8 million in digital sales in the US alone. Let’s assume that all of those sales came from iTunes. That is $8 million dollars in sales. Apple takes in 30% which comes to $2.4 million dollars. That leaves $5.6 million for The Black Eyed Peas. For just one song. Of course the record label will take a large portion of that $5.6 million and the remainder will be split between the songwriters, the band members, the manager, the producer and so on.

Will.i.am further stated that “Our music sells other people’s hardware, and it’s a hard pill to swallow.”

This is reality. It is a reality that a lot of musicians do not get in this age, especially the ones in hard rock and heavy metal.

Sure sales of recorded music have declined. In all honesty, how much did bands rely on sales of recorded music as a source of income. And let’s not confuse the generous advances that the labels gave only to claw back that same advance with a lot of creative compound interest.

Look at the above example from will.i.am. Even he states that the money earned is a fraction of what he can NOW make from other ventures. This is what MUSIC has allowed him to achieve.

An artist starting off today needs to realise that music is in competition with technology. Whereas the kids from the Eighties spent their money on cars and music, the kids of the two thousands spend their monies on technology like iPhones, tablets, laptops and other IT style gadgets and they expect to have music on these devices 24/7.

The new rock star lifestyle according to will.i.am involves sleeping about four hours a night. The rest of your time is spent on the vast number of projects you are associated with. For will.i.am, this involves is his own self-funded i.am+ consumer electronics business. It involves serving as Intel’s director of creative innovation. It involves creating and co-founding the Coca-Cola company’s EKOCYCLE recycling strategy. It involves founding and hosting the TRANS4M conference. Way down on the list of activities is the writing, producing, recording and performing of music.

Are the metal heads understanding this? A career in music is not about getting together, drinking a few brews, smoking some green and jamming. There is a lot more to it. Music is the ENTRY. You write a great song or a great album that connects with people and you have one foot in the door to take on other projects.

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Music

A Capitalist Democracy

In the valley of the kings
Na-na-na
Na-na-nahh!
You’re workin’, slavin
Into death every day
Set us free

John Sykes delivers the above in the outro to the Blue Murder epic “Valley Of The Kings”. Replace the word “Kings” with the word “Rich” and you get the following verse;

In the valley of the rich
Na-na-na
Na-na-nahh!
You’re workin’, slavin
Into death every day
Set us free

And it got me thinking about what democracy actually means these days?

Wikipedia states that “Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens participate equally—either directly or through elected representatives—in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. It encompasses social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination.”

Wikipedia also states the term originates from the Greek word dēmokratía which means “rule of the people”. It is the antonym to word aristokratia which means “rule of an elite”.

In other words, Democracy means that “the people rule”. So are the people ruling?

In 2013, the people’s’ rule comes down to ticking a box every three to four years on election day for people who have been pre-selected by the ruling elite. Sounds pretty democratic to me.

The Australian people in 2007, elected Kevin Rudd as it’s Prime Minister and by 2010, he was knifed by the Ruling Elite of the Labor Party and replaced as Prime Minister. So much for the “rule of the people”. The people voted in the Prime Minister, so shouldn’t the people have the chance to throw him out of office at the next election. Not in Australia. The Labor Party replaced him. Sounds pretty democratic to me.

What about the recent TPP negotiations led by the U.S? Did you know that the TPP has been negotiated in secrecy. The only time the public hears about the terms of the agreement are via leaks because the public should trust their elected officials to do the right thing. That fact that certain interest groups, like the record labels and the movie studios are allowed to participate in the negotiations and other groups that counteract those views are not. It sure sounds like the rule of the people.

When interest groups and copyright monopolies lobby hard, they know which politicians pockets to hit. This is where the Rule Of The Elite comes into play in democratic nations. Money and wealth is in control. The people who have it, have built up a monopoly from their ivory towers. And they will do anything to keep it.

In relation to copyright, these industries have taken a government granted monopoly that is given to a creator of works and turned it into a corporate empire, where the copyright term expires 70 to 90 years (depending on the country you reside) after the creator’s death. And they are lobbying hard to even remove current Public Domain works and place them back under Copyright. Sounds pretty democratic to me. Did the people have a say in this? Of course not, we trusted our elected politicians to take care of our needs.

In short, our ‘democracy’ is a charade. Our democracy is corrupt and riddled with bad laws, that more or less do not apply to the ruling elite. As Geoff Tate sings in “Speak”;

The rich control the government, the media the law

How many people have participated in a meaningful way in how society is organised and run? The answer to this is probably NONE.

Sacred Reich released “The American Way” back in 1990. Has anything changed in the last 23 years.

This was once the land of dreams
Now these dreams have turned to greed
In the midst of all this wealth
The poor are left to help themselves
A capitalist’s democracy
No one said that freedom’s free
Lady liberty rots away
No truth, no justice
The American way

That is the democracy we have. A capitalist democracy. We have allowed this to happen. Corey Taylor nailed it with the lyrics in “All Hope Is Gone”.

We’re the problem,
but we’re also the solution

Our fascination with accumulating wealth has allowed us to give away more and more of our freedoms. Quoting from “Eye Of The Beholder”.

Independence limited
Freedom of choice is made for you my friend
Freedom of speech is words that they will bend
Freedom no longer frees you

Freedom of choice is indeed made for you.

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Alternate Reality, Music, My Stories

Alternate Reality – What If Randy Rhoads Didn’t Get On That Plane?

I like “The Family Guy” and I like Brian the family dog. So when Brian got killed off in a recent episode, I was not happy. However when Stewie found a way to go back in time and save Brian, a conversation started at work about which person we would go back in time and save.

I was first to go and my answer was Randy Rhoads. There was no hesitation. What a different musical history we would have if Randy Rhoads lived.

One of the people in the conversation said that if Randy Rhoads lived, then Ozzy’s next album would not have been called “Bark At The Moon” because Jake E Lee would not be on it.

I replied back that the “Bark At The Moon” album would still have been written as Ozzy Osbourne had the song titles already at hand and lyricist Bob Daisley was also on hand to write lyrics again. The big difference would be the music. Instead of hearing the Jake E Lee riff used for “Bark At The Moon” we would be hearing a Randy Rhoads riff instead.

Then another person in the conversation goes that if Jake E Lee wasn’t identified as a hot guitar player, then the Badlands project that I love so dearly would not have existed.

That is true from a certain point of view. It is pretty clear from all the interviews that I had read that Randy Rhoads was growing tired with the touring and the Osbourne camp. However, it was also pretty clear that he was committed to delivering one more album for Ozzy.

So if Randy Rhoads walks away from Ozzy after the “Bark At The Moon” album, who would step in for the next album. Jake E Lee would have seen the band Ratt take off without him and Rough Cutt was nowhere near the level of a platinum selling act.

Maybe Jake E Lee was always meant to break out in 1989 via the Badlands project. Maybe that is how his life was meant to play out. However, Randy Rhoads stepping on that small plane in March 1982 changed everything. Then again if Badlands didn’t exist, would Ray Gillen still be alive today.

So let’s say that Randy leaves Ozzy after the “Bark At The Moon” album to study classical. That means by the end of 1985, Ozzy is in need of a guitarist.

So which guitarist was out of job by then. Vivian Campbell comes to mind as he had a nasty split with Ronnie James Dio.

Keeping with the alternate reality theme, Jake E Lee at this point was not available to join Ozzy’s band as he was hired to replace Vivian Campbell in “Dio’s” band on the recommendation of keyboardist, Claude Schnell. The song “Dream Evil” would have the music that we know as “Bark At The Moon”. Or would it have something entirely different. Jake has said in interviews that for the “Bark At The Moon” album he was throwing riffs and ideas out there and he was getting a lot of rejections and some approvals.

Would it be wise to say that the “Bark At The Moon” music would not have been written in the way that it was without the input from Bob Daisley and Ozzy Osbourne?

Where does this leave Zakk Wylde or Phil Soussan?

What about Quiet Riot (the band)? When Randy Rhoads died in the plane crash, it more or less sealed Rudy Sarzo’s fate and he preceded to quit the Ozzy Osbourne band. Kevin DuBrow then contacted Sarzo and asked him to play on a track called “Thunderbird”, which was a tribute to Rhoads which then led to a full albums worth of material and a name change back to Quiet Riot from DuBrow. So if Quiet Riot never made “Metal Health”, then heavy metal in 1983 would have been in a different state, instead of the multi-platinum army it started to become.

It’s pretty scary when you think of “The Butterfly Effect” principle in relation to this. When I started to play guitar, the live tribute album was my bible. I learned every lick and every riff. If Randy Rhoads lived, then that album would have been released and I would be a totally different guitar player.

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Alternate Reality, Music, Unsung Heroes

The Metal Manifesto

I can’t recall how many times I have been in a conversation about music and then when I am asked what styles of music I am into, I reply back with “hard rock and metal”. Then I get a smug look and an “Oh”.

In most cases, the people respond back with, “I didn’t picture you as a metal fan” or “You don’t suit the stereotype of a metal fan.” You see to those outsiders, us metal heads are still seen as misfits, criminals, drug takers, mentally unstable, satanic and people who in general do not conform to any standards that society wants them to conform to.

However, if you look into it, the metal heads are the ones that assist society the most. We are the tax payers. We are consumers. We spend the money we earn, in the areas we live and we keep people employed. We spend the money we earn on the bands we like, showing them a devotion like no other, which in turn keeps those bands employed and making music.

Look at the history of metal and rock bands. They don’t seem to disappear like all of the manufactured pop crap that comes and goes. The only metal and rock bands that disappear are the ones that got into the business for the wrong reasons (which for them was pure cash).

And then I started thinking about the quote “metal as a lifestyle”. It is a lifestyle with a million unwritten laws that somehow all of us metal heads abide by.

So without further delay, here is The Metal Manifesto;

Metal music is a way to belong. We wear the patches/colours of our favourite bands on black t-shirts.

Metal heads are rebels. We are the ones that question everything put in front of us, as we strive to find our own place in society and our own road to walk on. It’s okay to be “weird” in the eyes of society. What people see on the outside is just skin. What is on the inside is what matters.

Metal heads are knowledgeable.
A study from 2007, showed that a large number of members in the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth list heavy metal – or “metal”, as their favourite kind of music. Look at other famous people in other industries like Jack Black, Javier Bardem, Jim Carrey, the South Park guys (Matt Stone and Trey Parker) and the current Russian PM who is a Deep Purple fan.

Metal music allows us to make sense of the chaotic and corrupt society that we live in. It is for the outsiders. The underdog. It isn’t about getting rich quick. It is a lifestyle. We live it and we breathe it.

Metal music is empowerment. It is freedom. It is release. The live show is the rally. While generations of children are turned into generations of links and cogs on the factory floors, metal fans are the ones that stand out. The unique ones. While others were brainwashed to fit in, metal music lives on the fringes, as an outlier ready to change the world.

Metal music has its own heavy metal salute, a call to arms, in which the pinkie and forefinger are raised over a clenched fist. Credit Ronnie James Dio for the salute.

Metal music has its own code of conduct when it comes to circular mosh pits. Those who fall, will be helped back up. Those who are violent will be forced to leave. The aim is to vent our aggression and have a good time doing it.

Metal music is confrontational. Deal with it. From listening to our heroes suffering, it provides us with redemption. From listening to our heroes views on the world and their views on governments, it provides us with purpose. We embrace change, while others litigate. From confrontation, innovation is born.

Metal music is diversity. It doesn’t matter what colour, religion or country you are from. We are all one.

Metal will never fade into obscurity. It is always there, a survivor of the times and the mega corporations that tried to kill it after they raped it and abused it and made billions from it.

Metal is derivative. We wear our influences on our hearts.

Metal music is more than just the term of “Heavy Metal”. It is Hard Rock, Heavy Rock, Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal, Technical Metal, Math Rock, Math Metal, Djent, Death Metal, Metalcore, Emo, Melodic Death Metal, Symphonic Metal, Punk Rock, Pop Metal, Industrial, Nu-Metal, Alternative Rock, Alternative Metal and many others. There is no room for elitists.

As Robb Flynn screams out “This Is Who We Are”. Instead of saying the word divided, I will say UNITED WE WILL STAND.

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

Roadway

Not the actual roadway but a band called Roadway. I am listening to their self titled EP from 2011.

Has anyone heard their song “This Is Why” recently. It is a derivative version of “Soldier of Fortune” from the David Coverdale era of Deep Purple. If “This Is Why” broke through and the mainstream press got a hold of it, guess what kind of conversation people would be having.

Yep you guessed it.

Everyone would be saying “What a rip off”. Lawyers will contact David Coverdale and Richie Blackmore and whisper in their ears, that they have a case for plagiarism.

“This Is Why” is a great song and no one has even heard it. By the way, it features Doogie White and it actually made me call up “Soldier Of Fortune” on Spotify. Yep, “This Is Why” made me want to revisit the Coverdale era of Purple. I even set up a playlist with both of the songs. It is also their most played song on Spotify, however at 17,620 streams it’s virtually unknown.

In no way does Roadway’s song, “This Is Why” take away from the original. Much in the same way that most of the music from the Seventies didn’t take away from the blues music that came before that. And that is what Roadway do well. The Seventies hard rock vibe. They have it down and it is so refreshing to hear a current band be influenced by that era, especially when the main songwriter Ross McEwen was born in 1988.

“Fight For Freedom” is a derivative version of “Fairies Wear Boots”. I saw on Spotify that there is another EP called “Set In Stone” released in 2013.

Ross McEwen is a star. He is cut from the same old school coat that spawned Deep Purple, Rainbow and Whitesnake. He wears his influences on his sleeve. He writes music because he doesn’t want to do anything else. He wants to be involved in music. He has a music career. Not only is he the main song writer for Roadway, he is also part of Doogie White’s solo band and part of Dave ‘Bucket’ Colwell’s band. In addition to all of that, he also underwent a shitload of surgeries on his knee.

Musicians rarely have just the one gig/band. These days, it is more common for artists to have more than one musical outlet.

Of course, when a band got picked up by a label back in the day, there was a good chance that the band would be the only gig that the musicians would try to keep, however up until then, musicians jammed with other bands, changed bands, played in cover bands and just gigged with anyone. You see Ross, gets it. Roadway is just one outlet in his music career. He also is a lecturer in commercial music courses.

However, in Roadway he shines. Check em out on Spotify. You will not be disappointed.

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Music, My Stories

And The Grammy Goes To……. Metallica

The Grammy awards is not about the awards, it is about the performances. The Grammy organisation exists solely to sell a TV show and advertising. Go on all the music and news websites and what are people talking about after the Grammy’s.

If you said, Metallica and their mashed up performance of “One” with classical pianist Lang Lang, then you are right.

If you said, it is people blasting Metallica’s terrible and pitchy performance of “One” then you are right again.

If you said, it is people applauding Metallica’s performance, then you are right again.

That is why after the Grammy’s, Metallica got a 125% boost in Spotify streams for the song “One”. So if they had 100,000 streams the previous week, they had 225,000 streams after their Grammy performance for their song “One”. Overall, across their whole catalogue, their Grammy performance gave them a 63% increase.

Heard anything about the actual winners in the Best Metal category. Who was it again? Who won the Metal award?

To prove my point, look at the Daft Punk performance of “Get Lucky”. Their performance of “Get Lucky” included Stevie Wonder and a large portion of Stevie’s song called “Another Star”. Guess by how much that song streams increased by on Spotify after the Grammy performance?

Did you say 635%?

Yep, spot on. Was Stevie Wonder nominated for anything?

Okay that was a trick question, he was part of two nominations. A massive group nomination for Best Musical and a nomination in the R&B category for a song that he featured in. However no other song performed at the Grammy’s got even close to the percentage increase experienced by Stevie Wonder on Spotify.

When you carry out a performance in front of 28.5 million U.S viewers, it is bound to get a reaction. Metallica and their management team know this. Credit Cliff Burnstein. A good manager is the difference between the haves and the have-nots. And that is what Cliff is. A good manager.

So what about the winners of the metal category. “God Is Dead?” from Black Sabbath didn’t get much traction after the awards. Out of mind, out of sight is what I say.

But back to Metallica.

You see while Keith Urban and Beyonce played some of their new stuff that no one cared about, Metallica played what the people wanted to hear. They used that exposure to remind people, why they care about them in the first place. They didn’t try to promote something recent or a special new song, written for the Grammy’s. They played “One” goddamn it. Even though I didn’t really like the mash-up, it was still Metallica, playing a signature tune that is 26 years old.

Who cares about the categories? There are too many of them anyway, so no one cares about who wins. The artists that do win at the Grammy’s are the ones that perform. And the Grammy for Best Metal Performance goes to Metallica once again.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2014/01/28/daft-punk-post-grammy-streams-jump-205-percent-on-spotify/4968507/

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

A Metal Heads Guide To The Key Of Music Success

The technology of today allows for convenient costless copying and transportation of large chunks of data across the internet. Before the rise of streaming, people were still given a raw deal when it came to digital music and forced to overpay. In Australia, an iTunes song costs between $1.69 and $2.69. This price remained the same, even when our dollar was stronger than the US dollar.

Then the ACCC, our competition watchdog launched an inquiry into these geo-blocking price restrictions. Apple went in front of the commission and stated that they didn’t set the price for music in Australia and that the price was set by the Record Labels. It was found by the Commission that there should be no reason why Australians should pay more for software and music. However, nothing has changed in relation to the prices.

When music is offered in a convenient and low-cost legal alternative, the rate of piracy drops because most people do want to support artists and the various research out there points out that is the case.

For example, let’s look at TesseracT, the band. They released a great album in “Altered State”. It didn’t sell huge amounts in the U.S, so based on the record label success model, the album is a fizzer. However, the band knows that touring is where they make their money. And that is what they are doing. Musicmetric data showed (before it went behind a pay wall) that TesseracT’s music was downloaded the most in North America via peer-to-peer Torrent networks. So guess which area’s TesseracT have toured?

Yep, North America. They are touring there again from March and April 2014. The previously toured North America between September and October 2013. Coincidence. Maybe.

In relation to Spotify, they have a combined album stream count of 1,705,734. What this means, is that if you tally up all of the album songs shown in their popular list you will get to that number.

Go on YouTube and you see that the “Nocturne” (OFFICIAL VIDEO) by Century Media Records has 302,002 views. My favourite track from “Singularity” on the Century Media Records channel has 260,817 views compared to the 130,835 on Spotify. These numbers matter. Especially for a band that plays to a niche market.

What about the band Volbeat? They fall on all sides of the equation. They are one of the most streamed metal bands out there, plus they are downloaded a lot via peer-to-peer networks and in addition to all of this, they are still selling albums in the U.S. Their “Outlaw Gentlemen And Shady Ladies” album was released on 5 April 2013 and as at 29 January 2014, it is still selling in the U.S.

Yep, that’s right, in an era were physical sales of recorded music are non-existent, Volbeat has been selling consistently for 42 weeks straight. Prior to the release of “Outlaw Gentlemen And Shady Ladies”, their previous album “Beyond Heaven, Above Hell” was still selling up to and past the release date of the new album.

From a record label point of view, this is pure gold. They have a band that can consistently sell albums and Volbeat has been doing that each week for the last three years in the very competitive US market.

That is why they are hitting the U.S market again for the third time, this time with “Trivium” and the best DIY independent band out there in “Digital Summer”.

Look at their song “Still Counting” on Spotify. It has 21,193,159 streams. On the YouTube channel of Tomas Grafström “Still Counting” has 11,725,300 views.

My favourite song “Fallen” has 12,392,089 streams. On the VolbeatVEVO channel, “Fallen” has 4,583,706 views.

“Cape Of Our Hero” from the new album has 5,838,326 streams. On YouTube, “Cape Of Our Hero” has 2,999,070 views on the VolbeatVEVO channel.

Another band that is doing great numbers both in actual sales, streams and peer-to-peer downloads is Skillet. The album “Rise” was released on June 25, 2013 and at this point in time, 31 weeks after that, it is still selling. That is what the labels want, bands that can sell week in and week out. What does the band want? They want people to listen to their music.

To compare to the current mainstream rock band, none of these bands come close to Imagine Dragons. “Night Visions” came out on September 4, 2012. 73 weeks later, the album is still moving physical albums. At this point in time the album has sold over 1.8 million copies in the US. The main songs are high on Spotify’s streaming chart. They are also very high on the peer-to-peer download lists.

Seriously their Spotify numbers are insane. “Radioactive” is at 172 million streams compared to 128 million views on YouTube. “Demons” is at 73 million streams compared to 50 million views on YouTube. My favourite “It’s Time” is at 75 million streams compared to 59 million streams on YouTube.

Music is now a game of data. The key to any artist is not how many albums or songs are sold. The key is this;

ARE PEOPLE LISTENING TO YOUR MUSIC?
ARE PEOPLE SHARING YOUR MUSIC?
ARE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT YOUR MUSIC?
ARE PEOPLE DOWNLOADING YOUR MUSIC?
WHERE ARE THESE PEOPLE LOCATED?
MUSIC IS A RELATIONSHIP BUSINESS. DO YOU HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH THESE PEOPLE?

If you answered YES to the first question, move on to the next question. If you haven’t answered YES to the first question, take a step back and start writing more music.

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Music

While My Depression Gently Weeps – Part 1 of The Music My Savior Chronicles

I gave up smoking in 2010. My last cigarette was at Thessaloniki Airport, Greece in August, 2010. I had the last drag, coughed and gagged like I was choking and said with determination that I quit.

I haven’t had a smoke since then. You see back in November 2008, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. For a 32 year old, this came as a big surprise. When I went into the doctors surgery complaining of migraines, my blood pressure was 170/120. This was on a Tuesday and the doctor said to come back on a Friday to see if it was just an off-spike. So what did I do after hearing this news.

I started drinking straight whiskey, three shots a day, believing that whiskey will ease the pressure readings. I walk into the Doctor’s office on Friday and proceed to sit down while the doctor puts the arm band on, presses start on the machine and I am confident that all will be well.

210/130. The Doctor’s eyes popped out of his head. He wrote referreals for echograms, cardio tests and blood tests for blockages, along with scripts for blood pressure meds. He asked me if I was a smoker and I said yes. He said to me to STOP immediately if I want to watch my kids grow up. He asked me to lose weight and to start taking the medication and to come back on Monday morning.

So of course, I started taking the medication however I didn’t stop smoking. On Monday, my blood pressure was at 150/110. Another type of tablet was added to my dose that involved two tablets in the morning and one at night. I went back on Friday and it was all better. 140/90.

I was still smoking and every month when I went for a check up the blood pressure was still up but “controlled” in my own twisted way. I was spending $90 on Blood Pressure medication a month, along with a $200 smoking habit. The good deeds of the medication was getting undone by the smoking habit.

It wasn’t until 2010 that I started coughing and gagging every time I had a smoke and eventually that year I stopped smoking. Apart from the blood pressure problem, I was in between houses, selling one house and building another house, while the Global Financial Crisis was happening all around me. On top of that, one of my boys was hospitalised on two occasions for urinary tract infections and had to undergo two procedures. I swear I couldn’t see the light at the end of this journey. To top it all off the band I created was splintering and I had so much money invested in it, I couldn’t walk away from it without the guys paying me back. So during this period 2008 to 2010, I started listening to music with sad and depressing lyrics.

Breaking Benjamin entered my life around this time. The “Phobia” and “Dear Agony” albums got played constantly.

Machine Head’s “Descend The Shades Of Night”, “Goodbye To Romance” from the Blizzard Of Ozz band (yep, every time I refer to the Randy Rhoads era it will be via the name Blizzard Of Ozz) and Megadeth’s “A Tout Le Monde” came back in my life.

And as depressing as some of the songs are they helped me through my own depressive period.

The reason why I started thinking about smoking is because I was at a party on the weekend and everyone smoked, making it very difficult to interact with the people.

20. Give Me A Sign

It is from the album “Dear Agony” by Breaking Benjamin released in 2009. On YouTube it has 7,088,460 views and on Spotify it has 1,229,610 plays. The song is a superstar in the modern metal and rock circles.

Daylight dies
Blackout the sky
Does anyone care?
Is anybody there?
Take this life
Empty inside
I’m already dead
I’ll rise to fall again

Benjamin Burnley sings the above over a slow haunting riff about losing his way and screaming for help, looking for the sign. My advice to myself from listening to this song is that “when it comes to the end, you have to let go”.

19. Break Away

It is from the album “The Illusion Of Progress” by Staind released in 2008. One YouTube channel has the song up to stream and it has been viewed 382,520 times.

Like a wheel
That keeps turning
If I could break away
From this moment
Break away
What is real
Break away
Never showing
Break away
How I feel
If I could break away

Apathy
The ignorance it brings
The tragedy
Of all these things
We keep repeating

I felt like the song was about me when I heard it in 2008. It is about repeating the same actions everyday, looking for a change and not having the guts to make it happen, believing that some deity in the sky will do it all for me.

My advice to myself from listening to this song is that it was time to make the change and break away. By the end of 2010, the band was over (at a large financial loss to me), the house was finished and I had quit smoking. I made the change/s.

18. What A Shame

It is from the album “The Sound Of Madness” by Shinedown released in 2008. On YouTube, 4 channels have it up with a combined view count over 2.5 million.

Two packs of cigarettes a day
The strongest whiskey
Kentucky can make
That’s a recipe to put a vagabond
On his hands and knees

When I heard the opening verse, I said to myself, damn, that is me. That is exactly what I am doing. Brent Smith nails the emotion in this song. It is about his uncle and a beautiful song. So many of us are judged from everyone around us. It is wrong. Even I do it. Sometimes we all need some help and what we get is criticism instead.

My advice to myself from listening to this song is the chorus line; “What a shame, to judge a life that you can’t change.”

17. Broken Bones

“The Rev Theory” is a very underrated hard rock band. “Broken Bones” is from their 2008 release “Light Me Up.”

Caught in the confines of the simple life
And I am
Holding my head high in the rising tide
And I can’t win
And I can’t fight
I keep holding on too tight
Running away from the world outside

It’s the denial principle within us all. We run away from the problems we are facing by putting on a smile when all we want to do is cry. And when we have problems, the person that we need the most isn’t there to help or is there and doesn’t understand what the hell is going on, which is a shame.

I’m not coming home now
I know
I’m so far away
So far from home
I’m not coming home now
I know
I’m so far away
I’m so far away

This part is emotional. I know that the song is about a band member that they lost along the way, however when i was in hospital with a shattered foot waiting surgery to reconstruct it, this song got me through the days. Coming into 2010, I was in a dark place that I didn’t think I would survive to see the end of the year. “Broken Bones” helped me through it.

My advice to myself from listening to this song is that I needed to get back home and realise that everything that loves me and everything that I love is right in front of me. Like the Three Doors Down song “Heaven” released in 2011 on the “Time Of My Life” album, “I didn’t have to let myself get so far gone, I didn’t have to make the ones I love feel so alone, I didn’t have to die to go to heaven, i Just had to go home.”

16. Let Me Be Myself

Three Doors Down nailed what I was feeling in this song. It was released in 2008, on their self-titled debut. To me it is all about doing what society and my family wants me to do, instead of doing what I want to do. You only get one chance at life, so why waste it living someone else’s life.

I guess I just got lost
Being someone else.
I tried to kill the pain,
But nothing ever helped.
I left myself behind,
Somewhere along the way
Hoping to come back around
To find myself someday

Life has its highs and lows, however I made the choices that got me in these situations. So when I made the choice to get married, the part of the word “me”, I should have left behind and focused on the word “we”. However for years, I focused on the ME and the I. Even after I had kids. Listening to this song when it came out, I said to myself, damn, this song nails my feelings.

Then listening to it at the end of 2010, my view was different. When the lyric states “I guess I just got lost being someone else”, I saw that as me being lost on how to be a dad, thinking I had to do things in a certain way because hey, everyone is a judge in life.

15. Alias

Released in 2009 by In Flames on the “A Sense Of Purpose” album.

Don’t tell me,
Tell my ghost,
Cause I blame him
For all I don’t want to know

In Flames are a great band. I love this song and the title and the Freudian lyrics.

We all keep the real part of us hidden. That is why we are able to adapt to different situations. The ghost is the face that the people all see. It is the mask that we all wear to keep ourselves protected from the truth.

Life’s wrapped in a riddle,
Easier said than done,
Hate to play the victim,
Rather run and hide.

It was time that I acknowledged that I was in fact my own victim. Only I could make the decision to change.

14. Wake Up

Story Of The Year are very underrated in the metal community. From the outset the band got labelled as Emo. However, to me I always saw them as a metal band. It took an album about “The Black Swan Theory”, released in 2008 that got my hooked.

So what is “The Black Swan Theory”. It is a metaphor that describes an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit of hindsight;

Wake up!
To the sound of this time bomb
Wake up!
To it’s deafening song
Wake up!
Cause you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone
Until it’s gone

With all the chaos in my life at that point in time, this song made me feel alive, calm and confident. It was like it understood me. The message was simple. Wake Up.

13. That Was Just Your Life

Call it the “Enter Sandman” riff backwards. Call the harmony guitars at about the 5.50 minute mark Thin Lizzy rip offs. Call it that they plagiarised “Jump In The Fire”. Call it a great song, to open up the “Death Magnetic”.

“Like a release from a prison that i didn’t know i was in”

What a brilliant lyric. That is what music is on the days where the blues kick in. A release from the prison we are in.

“I blind my eyes and try and force it all into place,
I stitch them up, see not my fall from grace.
I blind my eyes, I hide and feel it passing me by
I open just in time to say goodbye.”

Denial and acceptance of what I believe the version of the truth is. You can easily combine verses from so many different songs and come up with a new Buddhist mantra that is a hundred pages long.

12. The Forgotten

The last album of the Howard Jones Killswitch Engage era released in 2009 and what an album it is.

What have you given up will never return again
Now you’re dead inside I hope it was worth the cost

This is like looking in the mirror at your own reflection and asking yourself “was it worth it”. Sometimes it is better to be the forgotten.

11. The Unforgiven III

Set sail to sea, but pulled off course

A welcome return from Metallica. By 2009, I thought I was doing what I wanted to do and that I was going out to be the best that I could be in my own way, however, I started to see that I was getting side-tracked, following paths that I never should have walked on. By the end of 2009, I was frustrated and I got even more frustrated when I realised that the position I was in, was all of my doing. There was no one to blame except me.

These days drift on inside a fog
It’s thick and suffocating
This seeking life outside its hell
Inside intoxicating

Alcohol and tobacco. It’s easy to numb the feelings when you are intoxicated. The funny thing is that even the songs mentioned deal with dark subject matters, I saw a sense of hope in them and when Robb Flynn screamed “Music My Savior – Save Me” in “Darkness Within” two years later, I knew exactly what he meant.

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