Makin' It - Part 99999.....

So how DO you make it as an artist in this world?

I'm not sure I can tell you anything beyond what you probably already know. You have to have superb songs, produced just right and you have to present yourself as an attractive (not necessarily "pretty") package. That's step one.

Then, you need to perform live and showcase your music in any way you can think of, premier among these outlets being your local radio - and other radio if you can get to it (tough one, I know!).

Next, you need to be in a community, be it your local musicians, music and media people or an online group. You need to be active, friendly and supportive of everyone you meet.

Furthermore, you need to invest some funds into your own promotion, be it newsletters, press releases, posters or merchandise - and ensure you start actively building your fan club. When you have an active database of a few thousand fans and you can pack a local venue, you need to start inviting the "right" music business people to come and check you out. And by that time you already need to be friends with music lawyers, A&R men and other artists. And, finally, you need a little bit of luck at each step of the way.

But most importantly, you need endless perseverance. That's not as hard as you might think, if you actually LOVE what you're doing. You'll need to secure some financial backup, of course (and that might be a night job somewhere), but if you persevere and never get daunted by setbacks, delays and critiques (all of which makes you better and stronger!), you will increase your chances tremendously.

But among all those do's and dont's the one thing that will ALWAYS stand out is THE SONG.

If you can write a GREAT song, you'll shortcut the above process by a factor of 1000. And THAT is why it's so important to write songs that are REAL and unique to YOU. But also structured cleverly enough for them to find a wide audience who understand what you're talking about and want to hear that message again.

Take the time it takes!

Ultimately, what wins out is well-organized TALENT THAT PERSEVERES... who has GREAT, TIMELESS songs!

Make sure you check out my sub-blog "Write a Song About This" - http://writeasongaboutthis.blogspot.com/

The Fallacy That Is A Hit Song

One of the things we do here on Fame Games is try to find a "hit song" among all the independent material submitted to us, and then push that along to our contacts in the industry, in the hope that some of our artists will be rewarded with lucrative deals! Wouldn't that be a perfect proof of concept for Fame Games! (We're now beginning now to slowly fulfill that dream...)

And yet, none of us support those cheesy manufactured "hits" written with only one goal in mind: to make money on a musical format for as long as possible.

We come from varied musical backgrounds. Even though some of us have been quite involved with some very successful artists, producers and managements where having "hits" was certainly never spat on, we are quite unanimous in our agreement that the creation of music must be organically driven and "real" and that contriving your arrangements against your instincts only so that they might have a chance of becoming "commercial hits" is a path of self-destruction - and it harms the public ears!

But we're also open to the reality of life. For an artist to be able to sustain themselves from their art, they need at least a degree of recognition. And this, quite often, means that their music must have "credibility." It must be well executed, it must deliver its message in the best possible way for the target audience it is aimed at, and... it must be a "hit" if it is to get the artist noticed. And for us, to have credibility as an A&R platform we must prove that we can indeed find the "best of the best." And only then will our artists truly stand to benefit from those efforts.

The way we think of a "hit" is a song which "hits you over the head" and makes you remember the particular artist. If you produce, listen to and "consume" music for a living, and in the quantities that we do, you soon develop a sense of what "connects" and what doesn't. Erm... except that we don't always agree. (Which is why we've spent years fine-tuning a system which is supposed to help us in making those decisions...)

When we recognized how futile it is to look for a "hit" song, we dropped that word from our vocabulary for quite a while, until... we got picked up by a major radio network whose affiliates didn't want to play unknown music! For them it's not enough that a song is "good." It's got to be a hit already. No, not "a potential" hit. A bona fide hit.

You can't believe the struggle it was for us to convince our reluctant affiliates that radio CAN help DISCOVER future hits (like it used to). We're still fighting this battle. As we reconize that giving our artists maximum exposure can only be helpful to the vast majority of them, we also recognize that we must meet our affiliates (and especially the undecided affiliates) half-way.

So we started using the slogan "Looking for the next big radio hit!"

What do you think? Does this work? What would you do differently, if anything?

Don't forget to check out my other blog "Write A Song About This!"

The Oldest Excuse In The Book

Rant time. ;)

Let's face it. We've all been guilty of this at one point or another: coming up with excuses why our music isn't as good as it should be. "I did it all in one take," "I had no time to spend on making it better," "I was very ill at the time," and the most prevalent of them all "I don't have the money to make it sound good!"

Now, all that is "fine" until it spills over to a secondary attitude which, if it goes unchecked WILL spell the end of your hopes and aspirations. It's when you start blaming everyone else even when it clearly doesn't make sense. "Their music is fake, but mine is real and that's why nobody will play it!", "Everybody I know loves my music, but radio won't play it because they're corrupt and don't know good music!" - and so on and on.

This doesn't mean that some of the sentiments expressed aren't in and of themselves true, but it does mean that you're now using that as a crutch, and a permanent excuse for simply not getting any better!

Now, it's one thing if you're a professional and are well and truly producing great music which is "blocked" by radio and records because it doesn't "fit" the current model. Any bitterness there is much more easily understood, if not entirely excused (though it must be noted that very few professionals ever actually talk like that!). But it's a whole different thing when a novice makes the same kind of comments! And even worse where they try to bolster their case by accusing anyone who's better of being "cheap," "commercial," "sellout," or just plain "crap!"

You know people like that? I bet you do. And I know that chances are that you too have been there yourself. As have I. But the lesson I have now been able to piece together from this is that it's a waste of energy and it functions as a very real show-stopper. People who are successful don't focus on the negatives, and they certainly don't go around blaming the world for being what it is.

I just got an email from a Fame Games member who just happened to receive a slightly negative review. In fact, it wasn't negative as much as it wasn't entirely positive. And off he went on a rant of his life... "Only cheap commercial crap artists have a chance of making it on this show," "my parents love my music and they stop and listen to what it could be! If only I had the money to produce it right.." and so on and on.

So I went and listened to his tracks. Well... indeed they had some promise, but the flaws in them weren't related to not having money. They were just sloppily recorded; unrevised lyrics, dull melodies, imprecise playing. Potential? Yea, I'm sure. But there's almost always potential. It's what you do with that potential that matters!

LISTEN TO: 230-Q/Wednesday Jul 08, 2009

Making The Most of MIDI Programming

There are loads of excellent MIDI manuals out there, so I won't restate and repeat the obvious. Instead, I'd like to briefly focus on some general techniques which will make your sequencer recordings feel more "alive."

As with everything in music, it's all about basic principles and approach, as much as learning how your particular programming tool works. I'm assuming you already know your sequencer very well.

The thing about sequencers is that they make so many things so much easier, that it's very easy to forget that music is a human endeavor! Functions like Quantize, time-stretch and autotune have made life a lot easier for musicians, but they're also responsible for allowing artists to take the easy way out exactly when the opposite is required.

So, here's a few general rules when working with a MIDI sequencer.

Treat is like a tape recorder. Resort to special tricks (e.g. quantize, etc) only when you absolutely must. Reserve it for certain parts only. It might be ok to have your hats and perhaps the kick to run quantized for much of your track, but don't overdo it.

PLAY everything live with your track. That kick pattern is supposed to be the same throughout? Ok. But PLAY it. Don't copy and paste. The little dynamic and timing variations that you'll encounter because you're playing it "live" can be hugely important to making your track interesting and "alive."

AVOID copying and pasting. Yes, it's a great tool when you want to make a quick model of a track. But when you get down to the final version, scrap all that and replay everything. And then quantize only the blatant mistakes, if any. Leave everything else as is.

If possible, introduce live instruments (i.e. not hooked up via MIDI) to your recording. Analog instruments respond differently to digital ones. An unquantized piano part played on your sampler will have a distinctly different feel to one played on that trusty old REAL piano.

DON'T change note velocities with global commands. In fact, assuming that you're at least a passable player, there should be no reason for you to change note velocities at all. Perhaps one or two manual adjustments, but never using automation.

Finally, try not to settle for presets. Yeah, I know. Some of those synths have such luscious, great sounds and they're so hard to resist. Okay. Go ahead and use the presets, but EQ them to suit the track. Unless you're making generic music, there's no way a generic preset will stand "as is", no matter how great it sounds in isolation.

I guess the bottom line is, no matter what type of music you're making, human feel is essential. Even club/dance music benefits from REAL playing. In fact, the best dance producers do exactly as described above. No Grammy was ever awarded to a machine. Was it...? Erm... I better not go there. ;)

LISTEN TO: 230-Q/Tuesday Jul 07, 2009