Last night we went to Ipswich to watch the premiere of 'Pronoun', a theatre play which Andy composed the music for and which is a candidate in the National Theatre Connections competition at the moment - fingers crossed!
Watching the performance was quite an emotional thing to do - first, because it was an intense portrayal of the sometimes harrowing experiences of transgender teenagers and the people around them when coming to terms with their sexuality, with the issues of societal expectations, love, feeling at home in your body... and then I also felt much awe and pride hearing my friends' music played in the theatre, Andy, who composed and produced it, and Henri, who played guitar on the recordings.
If you happen to be in Ipswich tonight or on Friday, check it out as it will be shown again, as you can see on the flyer. It will also be staged in a theatre in Kent at some point.
In terms of band news, We're 'trying out' a bassist tonight and got a few more interested. Yay!
On another note, I wanted to do a blog post on online promotion. I got fairly many artists' Facebook pages on my newsfeed and through this I've been observing a few things.
I don't need to explain again that online promotion for musicians is useful and, above all, necessary. The influence of the internet basically enables everyone to share their creative output with everyone else, which has the downside that you really need to make an effort to stand out among the countless Facebook artist pages (there are about 8 million active ones, or at least that's what our music business lecturer said in 2012).
Now this causes some artists to post lots, and subsequently causes Facebook users to deactivate notifications from the band pages - at least I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who banned a few artist pages from their newsfeed, while still wanting to support their work and therefore not 'unliking' them.
First of all, there is the sheer amount of bragging, about things that otherwise aren't worth bragging about to virtual audiences. Of course, you should tell people when e.g. you're getting signed because that's the huge thing that everyone is hoping for you to, and also on a smaller scale, when they are making people aware of a great magazine article written about them which they wouldn't find otherwise. But quite often, there's narcissism coming in, along with information overload. I am glad when someone's awesome track on Soundcloud reached 50000+ plays, don't get me wrong, but is posting it of much use to the reader, or is that just the author satisfying their ego massively? Also, as opposed to solo artists who obviously will be careful with too much self-praise unless they're Kanye West, bands seem to spend a lot of time telling fans online how FUCKING AMAZING they are. Reports from the rehearsal room how great the new songs are sounding, especially without actually giving any soundbites to the fan, are just not helping anyone, I think. Also, at some point we have all noticed that you're playing a gig soon and decided whether we are going or not, no need to share it every day.
Generally, when it comes to sharing content online, I think it's good to consider whether whatever you're posting will be a helpful and/or uplifting input for the reader. Also, it's important to keep a sense of humour and maybe self-irony, or just a modest, friendly, neutral-ish tone.
Gaze is Ghost One positive example is my friend Laura's project Gaze is Ghost. She writes, records and performs beautiful music for voice, piano and strings with electronic elements, and those well-crafted compositions and their appearance in a few but the right places - as a mini album on Bandcamp, on a BBC show for alternative music, at the Northern Irish Other Voices festival and on the blog of the Irish Times - has brought her more recognition than most of the other bands whose members I know personally. But she doesn't rub it in anyone's face. She just shares the information where it's important, that's it. No indulging, whiny thank yous to all of her fans for the longterm support, no 'Oh God, we recorded quarter of a song today and it's sounding amazing' with a pretty/quirky selfie, she gives just the info you need, along with a few great-looking promotional pictures and artwork at times.
Echo Trails Another thing I noticed is that many artists don't seem to support other artists in their online presence, with exception of their best mates' projects maybe. Which means that they're missing out on a lot of potential for more recognition for everyone. We all played those gigs where a promoter has lovelessly thrown together a lineup and none of the bands actually bother to watch each other's set, let alone talk to each other beyond sharing equipment. But it shouldn't be like that, communication at venues and in the virtual world should increase as it may help everyone getting recognition beyond their circle of friends/local fanbase.
Another befriended band, Echo Trails from London, are a great example of how it should be done IMO - they rave the hell out of both bands they are friends with, but also bands they shared the bill with, or just groups they discovered when going out to a gig without playing themselves. This genuine enthusiasm to share music without self-interest shows that they love music for the sake of it.
I may have been guilty of a mixture of useless information plus self-indulgence too, and if I'm not too careful, this new blog may also turn into my home for relentless self-dramatisation and pathos, Amanda Palmer-style. Although, I love reading her blog actually. Her music still comes first though. So, here we go, just give us the music!
Another befriended band, Echo Trails from London, are a great example of how it should be done IMO - they rave the hell out of both bands they are friends with, but also bands they shared the bill with, or just groups they discovered when going out to a gig without playing themselves. This genuine enthusiasm to share music without self-interest shows that they love music for the sake of it.
I may have been guilty of a mixture of useless information plus self-indulgence too, and if I'm not too careful, this new blog may also turn into my home for relentless self-dramatisation and pathos, Amanda Palmer-style. Although, I love reading her blog actually. Her music still comes first though. So, here we go, just give us the music!
RSS Feed
