Unsigned Underground

I was just re-reading an article by Ariel Hyatt (Ariel Publicity) entitled “How To Sell 1,000 Singles A Week on iTunes” and as I was reading it I said to myself – It takes a lot of work to make a million dollars. And I think I also mumbled something about there not being any such thing as a Free Lunch, but… Continue reading »

NYC witnessed the closing of yet another music venue when the venerated club CBGB’s closed its doors after a last hurrah gig on October 16th 2006. Things change. Nothing is permanent. But it seems when one thing closes another thing opens be it windows, hearts, minds or downtown music clubs. So why lament?More…

Well I do lament the fact that another place to go hear live music is gone. There were more than a few that closed when I was gigging in NYC but it seemed that each time one would close I would hear of another one soon to open. The live music connection is special and there are enough entrepreneurs out there that know this and will keep opening new places. Musicians and fans just need to keep their ears open.

I did get to play at CBGB’s twice. Once at the upper Gallery space and once in the Basement for a fund- raising event. The Gallery was very nice: intimate and open with good sound. The Basement? Well let’s just say that there was an aroma. It’s nice to have it on the resume though: I played at CBGB’s in the shadow of the Ramones, Patti Smith and The Talking Heads. There will always be thousands of hungry musicians that need a place to plug in and I was just one of them. When they weren’t at CB’s they were some place else. And I would tend to believe that there will always be a “someplace else”. So once again, no need to lament.

I have read that owner Hilly Kristal will be moving to Vegas and taking the walls of the club with him. Talk about not letting go. I wonder if some venue in Vegas will close just as the relocated CBGB’s reopens. Does anyone know if they wear black leather in the desert?

Here’s to live music!

~sending the most isn’t always the best~

Well I’ve been doing this podcast for almost a year now and I’ve gotten a lot of CDs in my mailbox. After about the 30th padded envelope that I open I start to lose patience with the submissions that take a lot of time to deal with. Poor Darryl. Such self-pity. But it’s not so much about me and my sensitive fingers as it is about the process of selling yourself to and getting noticed by some faceless arbiter of your art. Continue reading »

Staying True To Your Music – And Pursuing Success
Some ideas about being independent.

I got a CD in the mail recently from a songwriter who is a friend of mine. I put the CD in and listened to some really fine writing and a well produced and recorded disk. But I still felt that there was something lacking. I like to think that I have a wide ear and you’re apt to catch me listening to almost any style of music at any given moment. But I’m not the general listening public and as I finished listening to the disk I felt that once again my friend will probably not reach a much wider audience than they hope to.More…

I have several friends that write music that would be considered outside the mainstream. I’ve watched for the past 10 years as they try to support themselves as performing songwriters, but with minimal monetary success. They’ve had great reviews, radio appearances on the eclectic radio shows that would play their type of music, but no record label has reached out, no tours, no money and my friends still have those non-music business day-jobs we all hate. The songs my friends create, on the other hand, are amazingly inventive, quirky and interesting. Just not mainstream.

So what to do if you want mainstream success but you are inspired to write music that is not mainstream? Well I think that the artist needs to begin by defining what success means to them. If good reviews and a niche local following equal success, then no worries. But, if success is a recording contract, TV appearances on Late Night, a national or international tour, then something has to give. Now, what is that ‘something’? In giving in (or adapting or compromising, or whatever you wish to call it) are you staying true to your music?

Well I think we can look to Bruce Springsteen for an example of staying true and yet giving in just enough. Bruce was willing to make subtle changes to his songwriting so that the music he made could be heard by a larger audience. After Springsteen released “The Wild, The Innocent, and the E. Street Shuffle”, the record company was down on him for not selling more copies and he knew he wasn’t reaching as many people as he could. While there is a similar sound to “The Wild/Innocent…” and his next album “Born to Run”, you can hear that he made a slight adjustment in what he was writing about. He wrote less about the individual and more about the everyman. His songs became more ‘radio friendly’ and more succinct. He had a success with “Born to Run” and he seemed to find a formula for connecting with a wider audience.

I’ve run across many articles on the net and in magazines that talk about the rules for songwriting. They talk about writing a good hook, writing a memorable melody, good production, and on and on. I think that rules like those are good to know about in the back of a writer’s mind, but to start basing one’s style on what other people think a good song is will only lead to stagnation. You need to write the music you need to write. Artists have ideas inside them that need to get out and be expressed. But are they all making a connection with an audience and garnering success?

How are you making a connection? How are you staying true to your music? Are you worried about success? These are the things that artists should be asking themselves as they write and as they work their butts off to get people to hear their music. Let me know what you think – darryl@bluecavestudios.com.

~Darryl

Whatever happened to the album concept?
Hey honey, can you go to the store and pick up a few songs? My iPod needs filling

That sounds a bit silly, but it seems to me that that is what’s happening to the popular song these days. People buy single songs for .99¢ or rip one or two tracks from a CD to load up their iPods. Then they categorize them so that they have songs for sunny days, rainy days, break-up days, and laundry days. The songs become a commodity and random fodder for our daily soundtrack. And don’t even get me started on ring tones!

It’s not all the fault of the consumer either. Songwriters are lured by the possible exposure and money they can earn from a commercial endorsement or the placement of one of their songs on a WB network show. And like these shows, the music is getting predictable and boring; they say the same things in the same ways with the same musical approach. I listen to these songs and I just say – So What? -

Thus I’ve come to create a whole new category of pop music called, in my book, “So What Music”. The songs are well played, the singers, for the most part are ok, and there is nothing really ‘wrong’ with the songs except that I’ve heard them before in some guise or another. I’m an XM Satellite radio subscriber and as I bounce around the twenty or so channels that offer popular songs of some style or another I realize that there really are not a lot of signed artists that offer something ‘new’. Perhaps that’s why they are signed – oooh I’m being cynical – maybe, but it does seem that the bigger acts are the ones that appeal to the middle. And, I guess there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s been happening since pop music became pop music, but… So What?

When I was a kid I went to the Kresge’s dime store and bought 45′s for 75¢ and traded those around with my friends, but I also bought albums (when I had the cash). The albums I bought usually had an arc to them and I would listen to the first side and then want to turn over to the other side to hear how the thing ended. Born To Run is a prime example and I can’t listen to just the song Born To Run without humming She’s the One right after it. It’s the next chapter in the story. These albums had songs that had depth and imagery and the albums themselves had an arc to them that demanded that I listen to the entire CD.
So who is doing this these days? If you take a listen to this week’s podcast I feel that the three artists that are spotlighted do and I can name a few signed artists like Elvis Costello, Springsteen, and an up and coming favorite of mine Ryan Adams. We as discriminating listeners have to wade through a lot of mish-mash to get to the real good stuff. But it’s well worth the search and hopefully this podcast is a good place to jump off.

~Darryl