2 posts tagged “rca demos”
Hello,
Got someone for you all to have a listen to, she's got a lot to say so I'll keep my bit down to a minimum.
- A new addition to the format today though. Aswell as presenting an artist for you to listen to, there will now be links to some of the other tracks that the A&R staff here have commented on. See the bottom of this post for more details.
Kayla is 20 years old and has been working hard a her music career for a while now. She's been playing venues around London and the SE including the Jazz Cafe, click here for some footage from that gig.
Here are the tracks, have a listen and see what you think:
Ladykiller
Looking at your bio you mention you came from the Brit School. What's the most important thing you've learned recently that the Brit School couldn't teach you?
The main thing I’ve learnt since leaving The BRIT School is the truth about the music industry as a whole. That’s something that no-one can be taught in a lesson or on paper. We had industry lesson’s but the fact is the music industry, as I’ve experienced it, is just not that straight forward. It’s a cut throat business where only the strongest and most determined survive. Sorry to sound so dramatic but there’s a lot of truth in that statement, you have to be up for the challenge. You need patience, drive, ambition, determination and commitment. There’s no real way to explain to or teach someone about how the music industry works or how to get your big break. Its all a game of chance and you’ve really got to build a thick skin if you want in.
It seems everyone now wants a musical career, do you think that this is a good thing or are a lot of people simply getting into it for potentially the wrong reasons?
I’m a bit in the middle about that. I think its always a positive thing to have more people trying make music their long term career. There are so many genre’s and ideas to explore that having more people try new things and develop new sounds is nothing but a good thing but only if they are in it for the right reasons.
We live in a society that’s obsessed with celebrity right now so there are many people that want a career in music just so they can get a chance to parade down a red carpet every other week or be in the best dressed list with a footballer on their arm in their favourite magazine. Becoming a part of the music industry for the purpose of gaining celebrity seems to be the more likely reason for many and I do not agree with that at all. Having a platform to share your music with the public is a privilege that far too many people have been allowed to abuse .There aren’t enough singer/songwriters or actual musicians being signed right now. Label’s need to wise up and start signing acts with the potential to achieve longevity in the music industry not acts with the potential to have one or two top ten singles who then fizzle out and end up on a reality TV show. That’s not what music is about for me.
Judging from your background, and listening to the recordings, you're quite comfortable in the studio. What advice could you give for those entering recording for the first time?
My advice would be to practice the song or songs your recording before you go to the studio. In most cases, studio sessions can be costly so you want to be able to make the most of the time you have. By practicing your songs before your session, your time can used more productively. You spend less time recording the same vocal and trying to achieve a “good take”. With practice you know your song and how you best deliver it.
At the same time it’s a good idea to try new things. I’ve found that, at times, the best results are achieved by being spontaneous and just going for it. Your allowed to make mistakes and get things wrong in the studio. It’s the best place to find ways to make your vocal performance sound better and also to add to or take away from whats already there. It’s all about capturing a great sound while your there so I’d say try to be well practiced but also be open to new ideas.
How have you been promoting yourself and what have you found to be most useful online and offline?
I like to mix it up a bit as far as promotion is concerned. I have found that the internet is a brilliant place to promote my work. I can make contact with people all over the world that might not have heard of me otherwise. I found sites like Vox.com and MySpace to be very helpful. I’ve made some great contacts and have quite a loyal following. People all over the world have listened to my music, know who I am and love what I’m doing. That kind of promotion, without the aid of a record company, is also priceless.
Offline I’ve found that doing gigs is also another great way to promote my material and myself as an artist. You never know who your performing to, you’ll find the most unexpected people in the most unexpected places. So every performance is an opportunity to gain more following and to catch the eyes and ears of that one person or those people that could change everything. Even just going to a lot of live gigs is a good way to promote yourself. Not only are you keeping up with what the music scene currently has on offer but you can get talking to all kinds of people. They could be your regular music lover, a scout from a booking agencey or even an A&R from a lable. Who knows. What is clear is that both live performaces and web pages are a brilliant way to promote my music.
What are your honest thoughts on this blogging platform and similar?
I think that its great. These days its very difficult to gain recognition from the people that you need to take notice, i.e. the public, record lables, producers and so on. You can’t just walk into a lable, sing your songs and get signed anymore . Many of the top major labels are merging and, as a result, are signing fewer acts, so your left with a limited number of options available to you in order to have someone at a lable pay attention. Blogging pages, like this one, are a great way of giving someone a quick insight into what you are about and what you have to offer. People can listen to your tracks, read up on your back ground, your experience and also get some insight into the person behind the songs. They spark an interest in people to want to find out more about the artist. I think pages like this one are a breath of fresh air and are very important to artists and the future of the music industry.
What would be the one piece of advice you would give someone when presenting their material to a label, and promoting themselves?
My advice would be to know you product, your musical direction and your market. I’ve found that labels would prefere to sign an act wherein the workload and financial investment required from them is significantly reduced. Very rarely do you hear of labels offering development deals these days which is a real shame but is, nonetheless, a fact so I would say do your best to cut down the artist development side of things. Try to show that there is an obvious following and or clear public interest in what your doing. That way the label knows there is a market for your product. Know your story, how you want to be portrayed to the public and where you want to go with your career. The most profitable kind of artist is an artist with the potential to maintain longetivity within the music business and keep a continuous cash flow coming. Labels want to profit from siging an act, this is business at the end of the day so do your best to ensure your showing your potential to do that. Get people talking about you, knowing who you are and what your doing. If you have a solid product that people believe in then the rest is, potentially, history. I would also advise artists to get writing. Being able to write your own songs is a big plus.Not only is it better from a marketing prespective(the public are hearing the thoughts and feelings of the artists not the thoughts and feelings of there person who wrote to song for the artist) but its far more cost effective not to have to hire writers. Being able to write songs is also a plus in the sense that it opens up opportunity for the lable to also bring a publishing deal to the table. Therein lies an additional profit for both artist and lable.Like I said, this is business at the end of the day so get your business thinking caps on! :-)
Have a listen, see what you think. Also, what do you think on her view of working as an artist in the busniness?What have been your experiences of promoting yourself and what do you find works.
If you're interested in how the other side works, have a look at Ged's blog this week where Anna, Goodbooks' manager has guest posted about what happens within the label with the release of an album.
Ok, as mentioned above here are some of the tracks our A&R guys have been listening to:
Jo and the Flood - Which Way Do You Come From
Hello,
So the festival season is in full swing, I'm sure many of you braved Glastonbury. Did you remember to take wellies? I've already been sent a lot of stories regarding the festival, none of which I can publish. Though keep sending them and I'll be sure to link to them or republish here if they're not too bad. Been sent a few horrific ones involving Potaloo pranks, ugh. There are a few posts from our lot regarding the festival, have a look at this one and this one. I'm sure there are other's floating about out there.
Ok, got an oddly named band here 'Absent Elk' and they're not even Candian.
Every track I've heard sounds really polished and has a great sense of contrast and texture in the production. But I'm not going to waffle too much this time. Have a listen to:
Let's start with the most obvious question (I'm not very imaginative), what influences are within your band?
"All 5 members have very different taste in music, but we still tend to agree when it comes to creating our own. Somehow the different styles just seem to slot together. We like to think we have a dynamic/varied style, and these differences in music taste are probably the main reason that we often end up heading such contrasting directions within a track. As a collective rule though, we are probably influenced by anything which moves us, physically or mentally."
What's been the best gig so far?
"Every new show feels better than the last, so long as the sound system/engineer is decent. We are quite particular about the big sound we aim for. A bad engineer can really destroy the vibe in the music, and remove a lot of impact."
I've seen a few badly engineered gigs recently, it can really destroy the gig. How do you write new material? Is it the work of one songwriter or do you work through ideas collectively for example?
"A track can appear from anywhere and anyone. Usually a member will bring one small part (eg. a riff, a bassline, a beat, a vocal etc), which the rest of us then build on layer-by-layer, until we have a song … by improvisation. Sometimes Kjetil (our frontman) will just arrive at a jam with an almost complete acoustic song, and we just work on band arrangement, writing additionaly instrument parts, filling gaps, making gaps, building dynamics, chopping and changing etc. We’ve also been known to write entire pieces of music instrumentally when Kjetil hasn’t been around, or before he joined the band, that he has then written a vocal to later. It all just happens naturally really, and almost subconciously"
How do you promote yourselves?
"Like everybody these days, we have a myspace. It’s a pretty handy tool. We also have a mailing list. The most powerful thing still though, is word of mouth …making music that appeals to people. That way it can promote itself, to a certain extent. That’s the theory anyway!"
Hopefully this post may aid the word of mouth theory. :-). What do you think a lot of bands should do, but don't?
*"Concentrate on writing a song. Lots of bands seem to focuse on the style, rather than the song that lays beneath all the current scratchy production fads and funny outfits. There seems to be a real ‘form over function’ thing going on right now. People usually master their wardrobe and ‘attitude’ a long time before they master their craft."
I'm seeing a lot of comments on the blogs along those lines actually. I'm thinking now people are more empowered than ever to distribute themselves, some people may loose sight of the artistic side to a degree.
(Many thanks to the band for contributing on here, I will be posting more interviews soon.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*What do you think out there on this? Are we experiencing one of the biggest artistic melting pots as regards expression in music and other media, or is the internet being swamped with wannabe's with funny hair?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't know the names of all the band members but apparently the band found Kjetil (singer) at a local beer festival in Brighton.
Hopefully they'll read this and leave a comment telling us their names.
So lets hear what you think. Sounds like they're promoting themselves in the way most bands are these days, do you think they could do more?
Keep the good stuff coming in, this week has been a good week for submissions and I've been forwarding a lot on to A&R which is a relief after a dry spell last week.
Be sure to say hello to the band, chat about their music maybe ask them about yours?
RCAD
