by stinson on July 3, 2010
I‘m thinking the bands that bubble up enough to blip on the radar screen, do so because of three main reasons:
- They create remarkable music
- One of the band members pulls everyone else’s weight in the “music business” department
- They hook up with a professional in the business who is connected, puts the icing on the cake, and gets the job done
[continue reading…]
by stinson on June 11, 2010
Sometimes it’s not as much about putting on the most incredible live show anyone has ever seen. Sometimes who you’re sharing the bill with is not all that important. Sometimes it does not matter how many people will come out.
Sometimes it’s just about getting out and playing live, so that there is kinetic energy around your band. So that you are participating in the scene. So that the team who is managing you, marketing you, investing in you has talking points in their social circles and business contacts. [continue reading…]
by stinson on June 7, 2010
If you’re spending all your time developing your skill set, and thinking about all the technicals involved with that, you’re not getting your creations out there.
I’ve fallen quarry to this for more than half my life. The first two years I spent at Belmont University, I attended as a music major. My thought process was that I would become “overqualified” to play the type of music I wanted to make. I would be a musician who could practically play and do anything on the guitar. And I spent so much time trying to perfect my performance of other people’s music, learn my way around the neck of the guitar, and being consumed with picking and rhythm techniques.
In parallel I had become obsessed with how certain records sounded. In particular how certain guitarists got the tones they got (The Smashing Pumpkins Siameese Dream, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness blew my mind). So I started trying to learn everything I could about recording-taking many extra studio classes in school that really didn’t apply to my major (until I bailed and switched majors later). By the time I graduated from college, I found myself working at a recording studio… recording other people’s projects… [continue reading…]
by stinson on May 10, 2010