Music Guidance. Thinking About... How You Look

This article originally appeared on the blog at Songeist.com.

In this special weekly guidance series we’re going to be exploring three key aspects of your band’s existence and encouraging you to consider these elements of your act with as much thought and deliberation as you write your songs. Simply expecting the inertia of creativity to steer your ship into the right direction is rarely enough; your band’s command of who you are, what you do and how you come across are all hugely important to consider. Across the series, Barney will use some real-world examples to illustrate how important these factors are and help you to apply these concepts to your own band.

READ PART 1: THINKING ABOUT… WHO YOU ARE HERE.
READ PART 2: THINKING ABOUT... WHAT YOU DO HERE.

LISTEN WITH YOUR EYES

You've identified the original and unique mix of styles with which your band is going to explode onto the musical landscape. You've found every last webzine to pursue, each blog writer to email and sussed out all the happening underground hotspots for your particular style. But what do you look like? And not just what do you look like but what does the band look like? Visually, what does your art evoke? A consistent aesthetic across all your output, from your clothing to your artwork to your interviews is ideal. Your average metalcore band's music is very different from that of an indie-folk act, and so it makes sense that their attire, promotional material and artwork looks different too. If it's representing you visually, it's worth thinking about how it defines and adds to your brand. And there it is, that dreaded marketing speak! But brand is something that all successful acts have a handle on, even if they do their hardest to pretend they've never even considered it. And there's nothing that gets some bands more defensive than talking about that dreaded little word... image.

The Specials, a band with a strong image, across all their content.

IMAGE?! WHAT IMAGE?! THIS IS ABOUT MUSIC, MAN!

Some bands balk at the very notion of discussing image. Some bands detest the idea of their appearance affecting their art. But a successful band without a decent image is very much the exception to the norm. By image I don't necessarily mean that you need to look ostentatious, showy or even fashionable. And while I understand the sentiment behind the cliché that 'people have paid to see you, so you should make some effort', that's really not always the case. A grunge band might look just great in ripped jeans and second-hand lumberjack shirts. But if three of the band members dress like that and the drummer dresses in sports gear, it's just not going to look right. By image I simply mean a consistent look across your band's appearance that relates to your music. There's no hard and fast rules to this and great band images vary wildly. The Police simply each bleached their hair blonde. Your image could even be that you all look completely different. As long as you've discussed your image and have decided what it is, you're on the right track. Certain members in any band are inevitably going to be more stylish than others, so if you're not one of those, consider swallowing your pride and let them help you dress. Franz Ferdinand and Blur were always bands where it looked somewhat like the singer dressed the drummer, but they were both bands whose image was a great part of their appeal. The really tricky part is making it look effortless. Bands like The Specials and The Ramones are some of the most credible bands around, but they also have two of the most iconic band images in history. It’s hard to imagine those groups of people discussing their wardrobe and haircuts. But the evidence that they must have is there, be it matching leather jackets or pork-pie hats, in every promo shot.

If image is something you're struggling with, it's worth thinking outside the box. In my band, image was something that we knew we had really lacked in our past attempts at being in bands. We decided that it was hopeless to try to dress the same because there was a range of styles within the band itself (a contrast of styles we actively drew upon in the music). Faced with the impossible task of streamlining our wardrobes, we decided to simply wear whatever we were comfortable in, but match the colours across our outfits. Red, Black and White was the, on reflection slightly unpleasant, combination I chose, but there it was, and we stretched the scheme onto our CDs, website and merch. We knew we were never going to set the world alight in the fashion stakes but we at least we had something that pulled us all together. Over the years, we’ve changed our colour schemes many times but we’ve always stuck to this strategy.

 The Ramones. Just happened to all dress exactly the same.

YOUR VISUAL BRANDThink about some adjectives that describe your music. They could be words like abrasive, dark and menacing. Or words like tender, fragile and comforting. Now consider if the visual assets of your act, from band photos, to logo design, to record artwork, express these words too. Pop and rock music are art forms that have a strong visual element. It isn't just your band image, your visual brand is part of everything you do, even your stage show. Fluorescent sticks and ultraviolet lights were staples of the live shows of bands in the new rave scene back in the early noughties, bringing the scene's luminous artwork to life onstage. It's simply worth remembering that how you look, both in person and represented by your assets, has a huge effect on how people perceive your music. If that makes you uncomfortable, instead of thinking of it as having to use your image and assets to lie about your music in a way that's dishonest and showy, it might be more useful to consider how your imagery can support your music and the ideas and emotions that you want it to evoke.

First and foremost, think about your band photographs. Once you've nailed a consistent look across the band in terms of your clothing, all the style and philosophy of your music may also be expressed elsewhere in these images. While it's an extreme cliché to have an old-school rapper stood in front of graffiti on an urban wall, it's a fairly clear example of this concept. Just as we discussed how important it is that your music represent where you're from in PART 1 of this series, the setting of your photographs can relate this too. Record artwork is another great way to express the character of your band and the ideal place to start in terms of brainstorming approaches to capture the aesthetic of your music in a visual form. Perhaps nailing the right artwork for your band is the jumping-off point you need to then go back and re-assess how you present yourself in terms of image? You can continue this through to your logo design and the way that you present your website. If you're a cool, quirky, tropical indie band, your logo and web presence should look completely different from that of a dark dubstep act. After all, the emotions that your respective music styles evoke when people listen to them are completely different. The key is to consider the characteristics of your music that are evocative and choose imagery that reflects those characteristics.

Aphex Twin's imagery is cold, unsettling and complex, just like his music, and supports his music across all his platforms.

A THOUSAND WORDS CAN PAINT A PICTURE

How a band looks can even go beyond the visual. Any text related to a band is a great opportunity to push the band's brand and express your philosophy, image and style. If you're a hip-hop act whose lyrics are deep, complex and intellectual, then any text related to your music should have the same attention to detail and character as your lyrics. Use your biographies, social media and blog output to express your character and write with the same tone as the list of adjectives that describe your music. I wrote a blog for our friends at the Unsigned Guide called the Top 5 Mistakes That Bands Make on Their Biogs that highlights the perils of going too far with this approach, but as long as you remain aware of the purpose that your writing is for, having some fun with the style of its delivery is a great sizzle on your steak.

Another tremendous opportunity to put across your philosophy, image and style, are interviews. With the amount of internet blogs being written about bands right now, it's inevitable that you'll be asked to do one sooner or later. Remember, just like when you are writing your biography, an interview is a chance for you to put across your band in words and not a dull exercise where you literally answer the questions. If the questions are bad, nix them and answer the interviewer with what you want to say about the band. Steer the questions towards what you want to express that is interesting about your band. I recommend that bands "use the biography to highlight the music’s truth, not relay the literal truth" and I feel the same about interviews. Finally, it doesn't hurt to have stock answers to a range of questions that you, as a band, sit and hash out to keep the whole band 'on message'. As well as meaning that there is a consistency in your story that way, it provides a great opportunity for you as a band to touch base about your philosophy, bounce around ideas about your art, and refresh your memories and vision of where you're at and where you're heading.

THANKS AND GOODBYE FOR NOWI hope you've enjoyed this series as much as I've enjoyed writing it and the ideas presented have enhanced your grasp of who you are, what you do and how you look. To re-iterate my point from the introduction, "these blogs will be most beneficial if used as a jump-off point for discussion between you and your band members. The whole idea is that you, as an emerging band, get on the same page about who you are, what you do and how you look. If you have a unified vision, it's half the battle. Organise a band meeting, hash these things out and I guarantee you'll be making a positive and productive step for your band."

This is my last guidance blog for Songeist. If you've enjoyed my advice and writing, please keep up with my band HERE, my blog HERE and follow me on Twitter HERE. Thank you to everyone that's read, commented and shared these blogs and thanks to Songeist for the opportunity to write them.

The Specials shot courtesy Walt Jabsco's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
The Ramones shot courtesy Sean Davis‘s Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Aphex Twin Logo courtesy Richard Roche's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.

Music Guidance. Thinking About... What You Do

This article originally appeared on the blog at Songeist.com

In this special weekly guidance series we're going to be exploring three key aspects of your band's existence and encouraging you to consider these elements of your act with as much thought and deliberation as you write your songs. Simply expecting the inertia of creativity to steer your ship into the right direction is rarely enough; your band's command of who you are, what you do and how you come across are all hugely important to consider. Across the series, Barney will use some real-world examples to illustrate how important these factors are and help you to apply these concepts to your own band.

READ PART 1: THINKING ABOUT... WHO YOU ARE HERE.

GREAT THINGS GROW UNDERGROUND

When many young bands see their idols headlining festivals it's natural to want to emulate them. Many emerging bands see, say, Foo Fighters up there and want to do the same, so they start a band that sounds like Foo Fighters. But it's vital to remember that Dave Grohl started out in a van in a cult hardcore band called Scream and built up his career from there. Queens of The Stone Age didn’t start as Reading-headlining rock titans; the seeds for the band grew from Kyuss and the stoner rock and desert music scenes. For Metallica it was the bay area thrash scene. For Green Day and Blink 182 there were scores of compilation appearances and toilet punk gigs. For every huge indie band like Foals, there are a hundred arty underground gigs played with like minded-bands put on by DIY promoters under their belt. For every 'overnight success' story like Royal Blood, there are always years of van mileage, local line-ups and band names in their wake. You can’t, and shouldn’t want to, skip this essential part of a band’s development.

For guitar bands, EDM acts, hip-hop artists and practically anyone other than the kids on Pop Idol, throwing yourself into the culture and activity of the underground scene of your chosen genre is essential. Not only does it provide a gigging circuit, an audience and that vital context for your act, it provides an opportunity to learn from a thriving culture that informs and influences the mainstream. Every successful band that I have ever seen live before they exploded, from the aforementioned Foals, to So Solid Crew, to You Me At Six, to Gallows, I saw in the context of an underground, grassroots show, showcasing similar acts as part of an underground scene. Many more of today's stars, from Dizzee Rascal and Chase and Status to Frank Turner and Enter Shikari began as big fishes in small musical ponds before making that coveted leap to the Main Stage.

Josh Homme: I Remember When All This Was Just Deserts...

GIGS

The wisdom of starting your band at the grassroots of your chosen style is not unique to one band or scene, these ideas can be extrapolated across all styles of music. Take any hugely successful rock or indie or dance act and the majority have a history within an underground gigging circuit. So your approach to gigs should be studied and specific and this is what so many emerging artists playing mixed bills, looking for A&R in their local venues, forget. The lifeblood of any underground scene is the gigs and this cannot be understated. Grassroots music scenes work through friendships, not strength of demos, and the difference between being shunned by a scene and being immersed and accepted into one is often about what you put in. Returning favours and being an active participant at live shows will reap rewards for an emerging band that your songwriting might not. Fundamentally, there is no point playing the kind of gigs where a promoter ropes together miscellaneous local bands with no thought about style or customer, just to open the bar at their venue. Ultimately, the crowds at those gigs are made up of friends and families of the bands, who leave as soon as their artists have finished their show. Even worse are the ghastly ‘pay to play’ shows put on by promoters who ‘showcase’ whomever they know will sell tickets to their circle of friends, at no financial risk to themselves. That’s not a promoter of music, that's a promoter of a bar. Those gigs are pointless and don’t attract A&R. For all the reasons I have already outlined, no matter what the promoter might promise, A&R don't randomly cruise around local shows looking for bands; they wait for bands to begin to make ripples in their own scene before they come to them. At best, local mixed bills are an opportunity to play live, but that can be done D.I.Y with just a little hard work.

When I started my band, one thing we got right due to previous bad experiences was our resolution to never, ever play a 'pay to play' show, a battle of the bands or a miscellaneous mixed-bill on a local band night. We didn’t look at Manchester any different from any other British city and we were not vaguely interested in being a ‘big’ local band. We decided we would forge the path ourselves to become part of our chosen scene and those other things would come on board as we went along. We identified the touring bands that we wanted to play with that were within our reach and then booked those that were affordable to play the venues ourselves. We then put our band and other like-minded and stylistically appropriate local bands in support. After putting on several gigs, favours were returned and we were invited to other cities to play and that lead to strong relationships with other bands. When the bands came back on tour, I let them stay at my house and we became friends and part of the circuit. Pretty soon, we were getting booked all over the country and once we had a record deal we were seasoned enough at playing live to go on tour. But we’d had to take the risk of putting on our own shows and all those steps to build relationships with our peers to make that happen. It sounds calculated, and it was, but we had great fun doing it and made some wonderful friends and I recommend that hands-on approach to gigs to all emerging acts.

Dizzee Rascal. Exploded with his debut album, but began in the grassroots pirate radio grime scene.

DEMOS

Any scene will have its own webzines, perhaps even print fanzines, and so it shouldn't be at all difficult to identify the other bands, promoters and movers and shakers and jump right in. With the blogosphere and online promotion as huge as it has become, there is an immediate networks of blogs and taste-maker sites for practically all styles that are easy to find if you just put in a little effort. I don't want to make it too easy for you, but the list of links on Andy Von Pip's excellent blog is a wonderful starting place. Hype Machine should make short work of figuring out the blogs that relate to your style and the music that's making waves right now. Exciting and thriving though this network is, remember, it's there to help your band along and support good music, not to build your career alone. Only concentrating on your online music listens isn't going to cut it if you can't play live or create a presence in your scene. I've seen bands with quarter of a million online listens that couldn't draw double-figures at gigs. Although MP3 downloads and online plays might have replaced the rigmarole of sending CDs to club nights, the concept of getting to know the people who represent your chosen style at the grassroots remains. So while it's tempting to grab that list of blogs and send your EPK to everyone on there, it's actually better to simply choose a few that you know cover, and have a history of supporting bands that sound like you, and push it to them personally.

The famous story goes that Bloc Party were signed after they gave their CD to Steve Lamacq at a Franz Ferdinand gig. That wasn't an accident, it was a result of knowing the players and playing the game correctly. For my own part, on a much smaller scale, my band's initial approach to sending out our recording was the same as it was playing live. We weren’t initially sending our demos out to the big managers, agents and major labels. We made a rough and ready three track demo before we’d even started playing live and sent that out to all the ska fanzines and nascent webzines we could find. Fortuitously, one of the tracks was chosen to appear on a compilation by the UK’s leading fanzine of our style, which got our name out there very early in our existence. At Reading Festival I was handed a flyer with the name of a club night in London which displayed a list of bands that were spun by the DJ that had a great deal of crossover with my band's music. I sent a demo over to the club, addressing it c/o the club night’s name. A few weeks later I got a phone-call from the promoter inviting us to support a US band doing their only UK show in London. The promoter went on to put us in the studio to produce a professional demo (which ultimately got us signed) and subsequently he also went on to manage us for a number of years. These things never would have happened if I hadn’t seized the opportunity to send the CD to that club with a decent covering letter, based on a list of bands and a wing and a prayer. Just like Bloc Party, I had identified where we fitted in and the places that were playing the kind of music we were playing and it all went from there.

Bloc Party. Good mates with Steve Lamacq.

THINKING ABOUT... HOW YOU LOOK
Next week, in the last blog of this series 'Thinking About... How You Look', I'll talk about another couple of things that you don't necessarily consider when you're getting your band together and those are image and interviews. For now, don't forget to let me know what you think of the blog and please share it! Thanks for reading.

Queens of the Stone Age shot courtesy NRK P3's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Dizzee Rascal shot courtesy michael dornbierer‘s Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Reading Festival Bloc Party shot courtesy Mark Freeman's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.

Music Guidance. Thinking About... Who You Are

This article originally appeared on the blog at Songeist.com.

In this special weekly guidance series we're going to be exploring three key aspects of your band's existence and encouraging you to consider these elements of your act with as much thought and deliberation as you write your songs. Simply expecting the inertia of creativity to steer your ship into the right direction is rarely enough; your band's command of who you are, what you do and how you come across are all hugely important to consider. Across the series, Barney will use some real-world examples to illustrate how important these factors are and help you to apply these concepts to your own band.

READ PART 2: THINKING ABOUT... WHAT YOU ARE HERE.

THINKING ABOUT... AN INTRODUCTION

Within four months in my current band, we managed to make more headway then we had in four years in our previous band. Within a year we were firmly established in our scene, being regularly played on BBC Radio 1, taken on a package tour with our heroes and signed to one of the biggest independent punk-related labels in the UK.

While playing the same songs we'd played in our old band.

I’ll be honest. We didn’t do this by suddenly being the best band around or by having the best songs and the best singing voices. Learning to write good songs and play great live shows and all those other things arguably(!) came later and, like all bands, we’re still learning. In fact, all we did was disband one band and start another with a small shuffle of members six months later. But this time we had a clear, defined, and mutually understood philosophy of who we were, what we did and how we looked.

 Even Kurt Cobain had to think about these things.

NO CONSIDERABLE MUSICAL CHANGE

By considering the factors that I will discuss in these blogs and tweaking your approach accordingly, you too may be able to go from languishing local band to being an established part of the national gigging circuit with no considerable musical change. If my last series From The Garage To The Stage was about thinking about everything that happens on stage other than the music, this series is about everything that defines a band other than the music. And these factors are actually just as important as the songs you write.

These blogs will be most beneficial if used as a jump-off point for discussion between you and your band members. The whole idea is that you, as an emerging band, get on the same page about who you are, what you do and how you look. If you have a unified vision, it's half the battle. Organise a band meeting, hash these things out and I guarantee you'll be making a positive and productive step for your band.

What's that coming over the hill? It's a band that know WHO THEY ARE.

DEFINE YOURSELF

First things first. Who are you? What are you giving to people that they can't already get? They're questions, whether consciously or not, that every successful band can answer. The first, and most important, thing to do is to define yourself. What are you giving to music? Where do you fit into what is going on? In terms of members, each band is as unique as a fingerprint. The make-up of no two bands is exactly the same and the music can reflect the various influences, personalities and talents of the people who make it up. Of course, that doesn’t mean switching genres every single song to account for your different tastes. It means that you figure out what unique sounds this distinct combination of musicians can create together and can slot into what is happening in music now. And then focus on that.

Sounds obvious right? Well, you'd be surprised how many bands get together based on liking similar music and 'jam' to 'find their sound'. All well and good, but then they forget to sit down and identify what it is. Just one aspect of your act that's unique is enough make you memorable. Even now, speak to anyone about Welsh indie-rockers The Automatic and they'll probably say 'is that the indie band with the screaming guy on keyboards?' Of course, what sets you apart doesn't have to be something as visceral as a screaming keyboard player. It can be anything that makes you a band that are doing something distinctive among the other bands out there that aren't. What is distinctive could be anything from your vocal accent to using a certain instrument or just a new twist on an old idea.

I can feel some of the purists out there raising their eyebrows... perhaps this feels contrived and gimmicky? Maybe this seems contrary to the creative process? But why is it a gimmick to identify something that came naturally to your group of musicians and set out to explore it in the hope of creating something truly original? The simplest way to look at it is that if you’ve invented yourself, even if people don’t like you, they remember you. You'll always be that band that did that thing. And that thing will work in your advantage as long as there are other bands out there to give a context to what you do.

Radiohead. Blowing Genres To Smithereens Since Kid A.

CONTEXT

'Inventing yourself' doesn’t mean that you need to concoct a new genre of music from the ground up; as long as you can creatively frame what originality you have with other contemporary music and it makes sense - be it one step more extreme or one step towards a different style - then you are a unique snowflake in the musical sky. Very few artists are as pioneering as say, The Streets, who appeared, apparently cut from whole cloth, with a truly unique sound. But even The Streets' influences rang so loud from every song on ‘Original Pirate Material’ that the context of where he fitted into the pantheon of British dance and pop between The Specials, The Prodigy and everything else was obvious to all. Conceptually, you, me and the majority of bands out there are actually just steps away from another.

Think about those old Rock Family Tree diagrams. Now, instead of the act's line-ups and histories, think of those Rock Family Trees in terms of genres. Most successful acts in any genre are really only small steps away from each other in style and tone. Consider Muse's chart-friendly pomp-rock distillation of Radiohead's prog excess and back to Imagine Dragons' latter-day facelift of early Muse. Like it or not, pop and rock music exists in a place and time and the zeitgeist is a crucial element of commercial music. Attempts to ignore these road-signs, or even kick down the traffic cones, are ill-advised for an emerging band. Sure, Radiohead now straddle entire genres of music, but it's important to remember that didn't happen overnight. For years they were a British guitar band navigating their way through the alternative rock landscape before blowing everything to smithereens with Kid A. I see emerging bands out there attempting to make their premature version of Kid A, expelling all their influences, talent and passion without a vision or context to hold it all in place.

Enter Shikari. Master of Context.

IT'S NOT WHERE YOU'RE AT... IT'S WHERE YOU'RE FROM

With bands like Klaxons, Friendly Fires and Enter Shikari actively blurring the lines between what it is to be a guitar act and a dance act, popular music has never been so stylistically open. But while it seems like those acts are just throwing together their record collections and making music, it's crucial to understand that the mechanics of those band's genre-crossovers are deceptively sophisticated. They expertly blend a prescribed mix of styles that make sense for their audience and fit within the lineage of the bands that have come before them and the scene they're in. Even though they flirt with dance music and DJ culture, they utilise these ideas as rock acts that understand their crowd's distinct tastes and frames of reference. If you know, like these bands, that your audience can contextualise, and enjoy, the specific mix of genres that you can uniquely provide, then hey... there's your context. But remember that, by design, these guys make it look easy and one man's record collection is another man's jumble sale.

As well as the context of the musical landscape, it's vital to think just as deliberately about your cultural context. Successful music generally relays an authentic truth about the culture of the people in the band and the place they're from. The Red Hot Chili Peppers have a strong cultural context as tattooed, perma-tanned funk-rockers from Hollywood. It's hard to imagine a band from Grimsby, tattooed and perma-tanned or not, having the same success with the same songs. The cultural context of a band is a part of its strength. Think about bands like Oasis and Pulp and how the identities and cultural context of Manchester and Sheffield are indivisible from their music. Ask yourself, does your music say something about who you are and where you are from?

THINKING ABOUT... WHAT YOU DO

Thanks for reading. Next week, in 'Thinking About... What You Do' I'll put across my argument about why success for emerging bands doesn't start by aiming for the stars at all... but by aiming for the roots. For now, don't forget to let me know what you think of the blog and please share it!

Playmobil shot courtesy Xurxo Martínez‘s Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
The Automatic shot courtesy beana_cheese‘s Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Radiohead shot courtesy Taras Khimchak‘s Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Enter Shikari shot courtesy Natalie Aja's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.

Alright then!

Understatement time. I thought it was about time I got back on here and started blogging again. To be fair, this spark of activity is coinciding with a general call to action in our lives as a band that's been going on over the last few weeks. Crucially, this has centered around formal discussions about writing new material and the whole host of intangibles, ideas and questions that throws up. To a certain extent, you put a record out and then go into a sense of creative stasis as you observe and absorb how that lovingly crafted slice of Rock n Roll has been received by the world. Now we're moving onto our last single from the album, it's about time to stop resting on the 'Sonic Boom Six' laurels and all the changes and developments that has entailed and creatively start to look forward.

That's not to say that the last few months haven't been welcome. We've played the odd festival, had some fun times and it's been cool to be at home to have a stable life and be able to eat right and exercise (the first things that fall by the wayside as soon as you jump into the Pirate Ship). But the last few weeks have been exciting with meetings, plans and talk of diversifying within, and beyond, the remit of the band. Specifically for me, that's gonna involve getting a proper start on DJing, (something I've really just played about with in the past) and making more of a go of things with my writing, a side-effect of which paying more attention to this blog is theoretically the start of.



We've also had some recent opportunities to use the band for a few more altruistic ventures. We played a great charity show in Leicester for Oxjam this weekend and spent last Wednesday lending ourselves to make a video with the people at OMG Cameras Everywhere, who provide kids with free resources, training and opportunity to direct, produce, shoot and edit music videos. A couple of weeks back we visited the Teenage Cancer Trust Unit in Birmingham to play a few acoustic songs and meet some of the guys in the unit. We've got some footage and interviews from that coming up for those interested. These experiences have been fulfilling and put us back in touch with why we started the band in the first place and provided us with a chance to keep those flames of idealism burning, albeit in a different time and context. This idea of reflecting and looking back on why we do this on the practical level has a direct synchronicity with our recent discussions on why we do what we do on a musical level. And so, to the main point of this blog... thinking about the future.

We've been for a few meetings to consider and discuss where our heads are at and figure out where to go from here musically. One of these meetings was with a very talented producer and song-writer with a proven track record who is interested in working with us and gave us the benefit of a very frank appraisal of where he thinks we are and where he thinks we could be. We don't want to sit there and have smoke blown up our arses, but this was pretty frank stuff, with some very robust, but valued, opinions being thrown about. Discussion centralised on the concept of truly getting in touch with who and what our band, or any band, is all about and writing songs that convey that. And the idea that writing music for a perceived audience, be they a room full of punks or listeners to daytime radio, is ultimately self-defeating. A band should write the music they want to make, and hear and strive to write the best songs possible from that base. It all sounds so simple. The difficult bit is then going out and doing it. The good news is that we're all a little more inspired and motivated to write. We're currently discussing hiring a cottage or holiday home for a week and spending some time together and having fun writing again. Writing music together, for fun, for us. The way it is when you start a band. Not thinking about audience one way or the other but creating an honest expression of what we want to play and want to hear. Maybe there's a way of getting that sense of adventure and fun, that mixtape vibe, that underpins our early stuff and have it exist in the present day with bigger songs and better performances. To hell with conventions and genres and the radio and all those considerations. That shouldn't matter at the writing stage. The art that rings the truest is that which is the honest expression. And if some of the rough corners we've been compelled to file off in the past sound good to us, then we should keep them. As I say, it's where to go from here that's the difficult question and all this pontificating about the macro doesn't actually create the micro. But it's all good dinner for the duchess as no one has said, ever.



All that's not to say that 'Sonic Boom Six' isn't still alive and kicking. We're currently sorting through lots of awesome treatments for the 'High Cost' video, some of which are great. I'm leaning towards the concept of making the video more velvet glove in terms of getting the message of the song across. The lyrics are explicit as it is, so we don't need to hammer the point home. I'm thinking a visual companion and counterpoint to the song will be better than something that goes to far in making a political statement. There's lots more on these subjects where that came from but I think I'd better save it for another day if I'm gonna be blogging once a week.

Last night we spent the evening doing the first, and only Suicide Bid rehearsal in preparation for our BoomTown Fair set. If the shows without rehearsal have set a precedent for being great, I can only imagine what the reaction's going to be now we've got our shit together, especially at a venue as up-for-it as Boomtown is.



Alright then, I'll let you get on. Remember PLEASE to keep sending me questions, it really helps with the motivation to keep this blog happening.

Listening this week: Kanye West, Yeezus

First couple of listens left me marveling at the boldness of production but balking at the lyrics. By the third listen, I realised that only lyrics that insanely egotistical and cheeky could measure up to what's going on musically. Tremendous.

Watched this week: The Killer Inside Me (2010)

Micheal Winterbottom's stab at the classic crime novel eschews much of the novel's filthy visit into the mind of a psycho and boils the story down into a solidly-acted murder yarn. The male on female violence is for a strong stomach, but serves to underline the despicably psychotic character of the Casey Affleck character. I feel that the critic who infamously printed "I was so queasy, I had to go and stand outside. I thought I might actually faint" about the experience really needs to get her sense of perspective straight. Worth a watch.

Reading this week: Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens.

Being a huge Neil Gaiman fan but never anything remotely approaching fandom towards the work of Terry Pratchett, I've always been turned off by the smug Radio 4 tone of this book and have never made it past chapter 3. Like a mountain, this is there to be conquered, but I think I'll have to binge on some very violent, brainless comics afterwards to wash the twee out of my hair. We shall see.

Until The Sunlight Comes... Barney x

I wonder when I hear sonic boom six tracks whether the politics is a gimmick » divine-providence

This is a reblog of a Tumblr post.

Divine Providence: I wonder when I hear sonic boom six tracks whether the politics is a gimmick »

divine-providence:

Like there seems to be no thinking in it any more just the latest buzz words to resonate with people.
Also having followed them on twitter for a while there is no politics there either. People that actually believe in something campaign for it. I can’t help myself rebloging or talking about…

Thanks for writing the column. Someone DM’d me and asked for my reaction as it’s an open letter. I’ll try and I hope you take my points in the friendly, discussional spirit they are meant in. It’s kind of hard to know where to start.
The obvious one to me is what possible positive effect does having politics as a ‘gimmick’ have on our career? It’s the actually the exact opposite. ‘Virus’ was held off certain radio playlists for being too political. There is no gimmick or bandwagon to jump on, it’s simply something I’m compelled to do because the music that influences and stimulates me is music with a message.
I never said I was a politician, music is my primary influence. Maybe ‘being nicer to each other’ is the most important politics of all, and the only one I know for sure I support. Maybe the politics are vague, and aren’t partisan and because my politics are vague and aren’t militant. And lots of people feel that way too, and I hope that resonates with people. Heaven knows, there’s enough punk bands with big left-wing slogans out there to fill up that demand. What you find vague, I think some people find sincere.

I’ve had numerous fans complaining to me on Twitter when I have done political tweets (especially during the riots) because they didn’t want to hear it. So I shut up after the first day. We worked with the local groups with the clean up effort and took part in the concert afterwards and tried to DO things in that sense rather than rant on about it. Surely posting pictures about what demo you’ve been at or pushing your political opinions down people’s throats is more in danger of being a gimmick?

We have always striven to be a band that puts the message in the lyrics and keeps politics away from the live show in terms of talking about them between songs. We feel that velvet glove approach works. We respect bands that are more militant and we encourage activists to set up stalls on our merch from anything from hunt sabs to anti-facism and they have done in the past and will continue to do so. But we don’t do that ourselves so it’s natural that to reflect that we don’t do it as much on social networks.

A cursory look at our history will confirm that there are numerous causes and charity shows that fall fully in line with all our beliefs that we have supported, a lot, such as Love Music Hate Racism.

Maybe the real problem is that you expect our politics and political involvement to mirror yours. Sorry if they don’t. I’m assuming nothing about you but we’ve stated MANY times that we aren’t socialists, anarchists or even anti-capitalist in the full sense of the term. But we are socially conscious and I think that’s the same for a lot of kids out there and I feel that’s what makes our band interesting.

Thanks for writing the column, it was interesting to read, and I kind of see where you are hypothetically coming from, especially if your political involvement strongly eclipses mine. It might seem frustrating that we don’t do more. But for every one of you there’s gonna be a kid that gets turned off by us pushing the political thing harder, so I’m kind of sat in the position that I’m most comfortable in, which might be fence-sitting of me. I get that. But I frankly think your being unfair on us for the simple reason that the accusation of ‘bogus’ posturing rings hollow when confronted with the fact that there is no commercial or even artistic advantage drawn from writing the kind of lyrics I do in the current media climate. I do it because I’m compelled to it and because I know that there are people out there that dig hearing a point of view that mirrors their own and is unique.

Cheers mate

Barney :)

Bye bye Bomb Ibiza!

All good things must come to an end as they say, and it’s with a heavy heart we wave goodbye to Manchester ska-punk institution Bomb Ibiza. With the club-nights and the gigs, over the last six years Em Johnson and the gang have provided countless great memories and times and showcased and helped out a ton of bands, from the jolly madness of Sunday’s Ska Bars to the bigger gigs held at Satan’s Hollow. It’s hard to overstate just how important Bomb Ibiza was to SB6 in the early days so I feel like writing something about Bomb Ibiza for those of you that are interested. The most I can hope for is that someone might read this and think about promoting gigs and all that it entails. I know firsthand what a difficult, thankless task it is and I know that promoters don’t get nearly enough credit when things go right but always (often rightly so!) get the kibosh when things go wrong. So anyway, here’s my memories of Bomb Ibiza and my own little tribute to something that me and Manchester are gonna miss, more than we probably realise right now…

Back in the days of yore of early SB6, 2002 or so, the Manchester punk scene was a different beast. Whilst there were punk gigs (there was the more cider-punky gigs at the Star and Garter and the hardcore scene catered for by Marios at Say it To My Face and some others) the ska-punk scene never really got a home. A lot of the bands and people from the DIY punk scene, where the likes of Capdown had played their early Manc shows, had gravitated to Leeds. Whilst we were going down south and playing our first Sonic Boom Six shows for amazing, up-for-it punk crowds with bands like Howards Alias, No Comply, Adequate 7 etc in Manchester the promoter to make those kind of shows work hadn’t appeared. Apart from the odd decent gig of that kind here and there, and the odd band, there was no focused place or promotion for it. Hell, we even promoted gigs ourselves and got bands like Lightyear, Shootin Goon and Captain Everything over because it was the only way we could think of to try and get things going. It just turned, spluttered and wouldn’t kick into life.

You could see that there were enough people into that kind of stuff, and enough local bands to make it work (I remember us, Rhythmic Coughing, Harijan, Minions of Jeffrey, Echo Freddy and others all jockeying for gigs) it just needed a focus. That came largely in part through a website that Mackie from a ska band from Yorkshire called Milk 2 Sugars and his friend Si started when they came to Manchester. It was called MancPunkScene and, although it was met with a lot of understandable skepticism by parts of the punk scene, it did slowly but surely build up a dedicated user base.

There are a lot of different takes on how much difference MPS made. I understand that people that had previously felt at home in parts of Manchester’s punk scene would feel affronted that MPS ‘created’ anything. But to me, and others like me, and to Sonic Boom Six, which means a huge deal to me, it was simply very important. It was the epitome of what is good about the internet; a tool to communicate. Personally, I know I never really felt properly at home dipping into Thursday nights at Rock World, dipping into the hardcore gigs, dipping into the DIY bands scene. It was good, but I still liked silly bands that skanked and played trumpets and everyone at those places had hated that for a good few years now. From my perspective MancPunkScene meant that a lot of the kids that liked different punk bands started being friends but most importantly to me it meant that the kids that liked the bands like Lightyear, Five Knuckle, No Comply etc finally started speaking together. And when I say ‘being friends’ I don’t mean e-buddys that you speak with online but then can’t say boo to a goose when you see them in real life (I’ve met a few of them…) but genuine, dyed-in-the-wool, speak on the phone, this is what life’s about friends that I still have. A lot of people who I’d seen about and said nothing more to than ‘hello’ previously you’re suddenly planning to meet up before a gig with for a drink. And then you’re waking up in their spare room with a coat over you not remembering much of the night before but knowing you had a good time.*

So, with the vim and vigour of a place to speak about strange things like Antimaniax and Aquabats, suddenly gigs like the HouseHoldName tour 2004 at the Star and Garter that Rhythmic Coughing put on were totally rammed. The one we put on the year before literally had about 30 people paying in. An all-dayer at the Star and Garter which had No Comply, Howards Alias, Sonic Boom Six and a bunch of other bands on was rammed and really exciting. People were talking, people were meeting new people, something was happening. I remember speaking to Em at that gig and she was definitely inspired to capitalise on this crowd (in a good way!). With this new-found little community developing, Em with help from Gail and Mina decided to do a skapunk clubnight at the Squirrels Bar in Owens Park Student Halls of Residence in Fallowfield and they decided, after a Lightyear song, to call it Bomb Ibiza! I remember pompously telling them it was a bad name because there was nothing wrong with Ibiza (I was big into going out to dance music nights at the time so was wounded by any perceived sleight from my punky cohorts) but over time I grew to like the name because it was silly and fun and unpretentious which is something I always liked about the ska-punk scene. Whilst every other scene, from hip-hop to hardcore to dance I’ve been a follower of has a capacity for pretentiousness and cool cliques in every club, Ska-punk is so geeky in the first place that you never get any of that. People don’t look you up and down when you come in and check your trainers. It’s the outside world that has the hang-ups about ska-punk and all that. When you see a load of kids jogging on the spot to ‘Ska Wars’ it’s easy to see that none of them give a flying fuck about that and none of them are looking at each other to see how each other is dancing either. It’s just silly, trivial fun, which is, to me, a huge part of what rock music is about.

That first night was a good little laugh. I can probably name everyone there, but it was something new. There was another one that followed at the Brickhouse (maybe there were a few at that venue…) and more people started turning up. I remember Alex from Reading ran the PunkerMentality website turning up with some competition prizes. Em had also started promoting some gigs under the Bomb Ibiza banner. Forgive my memory but I can’t remember many but I do remember the Toasters at the Roadhouse with us and Zen Baseballbat and the ensuing chaos that followed because Fandangle’s drummer had a problem with the kitshare organisation. It turned into a shitstorm and I remember the woman at the Roadhouse screaming at Em and calling her an amateur which was well unfair. That venue has a great atmosphere and some of the best gear and dimensions for live music, it’s just a shame that the staff there didn’t give a shit about live music. But that’s another story.

However, it was when the night moved to Satan’s Hollow that it really got moving because you had the mutually beneficial relationship of a venue and club that needs both gigs and a night to bring students in the week with a promoter who can provide it. Marios from Say it To My Face was a great help in those days and helped the Bomb Ibiza guys through their steps into putting on bigger touring bands and the organisation and professionalism that takes. The first few club-nights were - in the echoing truth that a large dance-floor declares - relatively empty but the dedicated few always trundled their way over, happy to drink beer and engage in drunken conversation with the omnipresent Miller. However, with heavy heavy flyering over the freshers period, I guess it must have been in 2005, the first club-night of the student year was absolutely rammed in Satan’s and had an amazing atmosphere. The music was more varied too, with a more student-pleasing indie bit (with Ordinary Boys, Dead 60s etc) to a punk set courtesy of Jess (who dropped NOFX, Against Me! and all that) which worked well and kept a lot of the people who weren’t just there to hear ska coming back for the social element. From then on, Bomb Ibiza was up and running and, although attendance does go up and down, never returned to the empty-room-with-the-dedicated feeling of the first few club-nights.

The first gig I remember being really rammed was Suicide Machines, Howards Alias and us in January 2005 (actually Dave Kelly’s last gig!).We went down really well and I speak to a lot of people who say that was the first time they saw us. It was a great night and I got to sing a bit of ‘Nervous Breakdown’ with Jason from Suicide Machines and he did a little ‘Sound of The Police’ shout-out which I was stoked about. The gigs started to get bigger and better over time and soon it became the place for the punk and ska gigs in Manchester, even with its stupid fucking round stage. Tons and tons of memorable gigs from Bomb Ibiza followed as it got established over the years with Streetlight Manifesto, the Slackers, Voodoo Glow Skulls, RX Bandits and the Aquabats being some that spring to mind. In the summer of 2006 we did a launch gig for Ruff Guide and played ‘Saw Red’ by Sublime for Em which is on YouTube somewhere… There were just a ton of good gigs for a good few years. And I guess the thing that I need to impress upon the reader is, in general, before Bomb Ibiza these gigs were missing Manchester.

Once the club-night and gigs had been established Em didn’t rest and, as I remember, borrowing an idea from a Bradford gig that she co-promoted with another lad she brought the Ska Bar to the Retro Bar in Manchester. There simply weren’t enough big supports to go around all the smaller bands and with Satan’s being over-sized for the littler touring bands the Ska Bar at the Retro Bar was the answer. Essentially a developmental territory for the bigger Bomb Ibiza gigs and a chance to keep prices low and music-business politics out of the equation as much as possible, the Ska Bar quickly became a whole little life of its own, with bands like Stand Out Riot, the Fractions, Harijan (RIP!) and coming into their own as part of this in a way we had been lucky enough to do in the early days of Bomb Ibiza. The small community that was built here is awesome with the fun of nights like the charity Karaoke (which is always blessed with a star turn from another of Manchester’s omnipresent gig barflies, Mikey Wong) to the rapport that has been built with the staff. Francis from Stand Out Riot will be continuing the good work Em and co started in the Ska Bar after Bomb Ibiza is lain to rest.

Over the last few years, with Em leaving uni and getting a job that takes up a lot of time and with the inevitable ebb and flow of lives and people, Bomb Ibiza has slowed down a bit and the Ska Bars have really taken on a life of their own and become a little institution. They’re always proper good fun so if you’ve never been down to the Retro Bar on a Ska Bar Sunday, keep your eyes on the forum and go and take a look, it comes recommended. It’s great that

So, all that’s left to say really is to Em and everyone that helped her (shouts to Gail, Francis, Jess, James, Marios and anyone else that lent a hand) THANK YOU! and goodbye to Bomb Ibiza. I’ve met a ton of great friends through Bomb Ibiza! and had some amazing times there and it really meant the world in the first few years of the Boom to know that a local promoter that was helping out the music scene that we were a part of had our back. It was a massive help. All the effort and time that Em and co put into Bomb Ibiza was massively, truly appreciated. I need to give a shout-out now to TNS, Slit, Say it To My Face and everyone else that will continue to provide Manchester with quality punk nights and does the tough job of being a promoter and bringing us these shows time after time. And maybe if you’re reading this and you have some time and passion on your hands, maybe it might inspire you to go out there and create a little Bomb Ibiza of your own?! The world needs you!!!

Bomb Ibiza are having one more event. Come and check their forum HERE and come and support the cause. I hope that we can be part of it one way or another!

Your dearest pal

Barney x x x

* Not in a sex way.

Applecore

I had to laugh.

BB x