The Five Things You Need In Your EPK

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

This week, I’m going to get into answering a question I’ve received from Songeist member Jim Bridgeman from punk n' rollers Fish Hook.

JB. "Hi Barney. Have really enjoyed reading the blog! I have a question about press / promo packs. Would you say there are any rules to using these? What should / shouldn’t be in there, who should / shouldn’t they be sent to. I’ve often tinkered with the idea but never really done this properly. Thanks."

THE FIVE THINGS YOU NEED IN YOUR EPK
Be they Zipped-up as part of an EPK, or simply presented on a band's sites and social media, there are several key elements that make up any band’s complete electronic press / promo pack. EPK, or electronic press kit, is a term coined by the inventor of online music sales certifications Andre Gray, and popularised by sites like Sonicbids and Reverbnation, to denote a complete, one-stop resource for a band to present its assets to a promoter or press. Although there is a lot of crossover between the two, for the sake of clarity and the limitations of this blog, I’m going to concentrate on a general EPK rather than a press release to go with a record release. For an emerging artist, an EPK is a great way to ‘introduce’ yourself to a promoter or press in an easily digestible, but comprehensive, package.

THE EPK IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE EPK
Think of your press pack, or EPK, as the digital equivalent of what sending a CD in the post with your biography and contact details folded around it used to be. However, with the help of the internet, we can painlessly use this package to include a few more things to help in our promotion, such as high-quality photographs and logos, videos and MP3s, and other assets. It's very important to remember that we’re entering an age when downloading content itself is going the way of the floppy disk. Now that people are switching to simply using streaming content and their Skydrives and iClouds for storage, even downloading the EPK content alone might be undesirable to the other party.

That’s not to say that just because downloading ZIP files is dying out, EPKs are. Everything in the EPK is vital to have at your disposal. Completing your EPK then uploading it to your various sites, as both a ZIP and the separate audio and visual assets is going to mean that you have everything accessible and up-to-date. Even if the way that the content is disseminated isn't always going to be via the ZIP download, your EPK is still essentially presented piecemeal across your sites. So devising and collating it as one 'project' makes complete sense to ensure your content and copy is synchronised.

The circle of life

1) YOUR MUSIC
When it comes to EPKs, which include large music files as well as other assets, keeping the file size to a minimum is key. You might get that one promoter that enjoys the efficiency of an EPK and refuses to jump around your sites for your assets, but also doesn’t want to wait an hour for your five-song WAV opus to download either.

A maximum of three MP3s at 256kps bit rate is sensible. Make sure that the MP3s are correctly ID3 tagged. Correctly tagged MP3s mean less hassle for the user, it ensures the tracks are named and ordered correctly and they look professional and organised. Fill in the track name, artist, album ("Your band name EPK" is fine for an album name in lieu of anything else), genre and, importantly, track number. This will ensure that when the files are dragged or copied into an MP3 player, they will appear in the order that you want them in. As a fail safe to make sure that the tracks are in the right order (often MP3 players are set to use alphabetical order to denote track order) it’s fine to put the track number at the start of the song name on a promo release. Also recommended is attaching the MP3 artwork directly to the MP3 file.

For creating and editing MP3s and their tags, I recommend MusicBrainz for editing and LAME Front End for encoding but of course, Windows Media Player and iTunes are both more than capable of doing all these tasks. Any music that’s going in your EPK you should have uploaded, tagged and ordered in an online streaming playlist on a site such as Songeist as an alternative to these MP3 files and include the live link to this playlist in the covering email.

2) YOUR BIOGRAPHY
A biography is a must in your EPK and is an incredibly valuable asset to your band. It’s standard to format the biog (as well as additional text like gigs, links and contacts) as a Microsoft Word DOC file, which can be read by practically any system. A PDF is acceptable and has more scope for fancy imagery, but PDFs can be very large and are a pain for a journalist or promoter to cut and paste text from. A TXT or RTF file is fine to read, but is less functional in terms of images, customisation and links than a DOC. A DOC represents the best mix of functionality and size; the file is small and easy for a writer to work from but you are free to include hyperlinks from the document as well as a small logo and photo at the top of page one.

I’d keep your biog to the point, between 200 and 500 words. Three paragraphs of three long sentences will do the trick. The way I structure biogs is to have the opening paragraph an overview of the bands location, style and influences. The second paragraph will deal the band’s most recent record and activity and the third paragraph will be an overview of history in terms of live shows and records released. That way you can periodically go back and tweak paragraphs two and three to reflect recent developments or things you want to highlight, but the first paragraph stays largely the same, and is the paragraph most likely to be quoted on blogs and gig promo.

If you want greater detail on my views of how to write biogs, my Top 5 Mistakes That Bands Make In Their Biogs blog was recently featured on the Unsigned Guide. As Marcus Reeves kindly commented in response, it’s also very important to get someone to proofread your biog. Like a folder of badly tagged MP3s, there’s nothing that screams 'amateur' more than a biog riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes.

Spelling mistakes. Setting you apart from the compitition since day one.

3) PHOTOS AND LOGOS
Do not underestimate how important visuals are to press and promoters. Ultimately, while the success of your band is probably not going to hinge on one photo, it has far more influence than you might imagine. Don't get your mate to photograph you in the garden and do a logo on MS Paint. If money's an issues, just like we've all done gigs for exposure at the start, there are hundreds of band photographers in college that will do you a shoot for peanuts, as well as decent logo designers who will do the same. For the sake of an afternoon's research, you can massively enhance your band's appeal with good images. Two large, print-quality JPEGs at least 1500 x 1500 pixels in size is enough. One live shot and one studio shot, or one portrait and one landscape, will provide versatility. Resist the urge to submit every single one of your studio shots 'just in case' as it will just increase the file size.

Providing a graphic file of your logo is also very useful. I'd go with a PDF of the vector art over a JPEG. There is a school of thought that says a large JPEG is preferable, and maybe it was in the past, but in my mind, anyone currently designing a poster or putting together an article for a magazine is going to have the capabilities to deal with a vector PDF. This means that you can attach the file as a smaller size and the image will not degrade when it's manipulated. The designer will have the ability to change the colours and style of the logo to suit their art if they have a vector. There's nothing more cool to see than a nice festival poster where your logo is stylised along with the rest of the artwork and a PDF or EPS will make the designer's job that much easier to make that happen. The format it comes in might be the difference between him or her bothering or not.

If the EPK is accompanying a specific release, by all means include a large JPEG of the album or single cover at least 1000 x 1000 pixels in size.

4) PRESS QUOTES, LIVE DATES, CONTACTS AND LINKS
Rather than having these details as a separate document, it’s absolutely fine to include the press quotes, live dates, contacts and links in the same DOC file as the biog, making a neat, two-page document. It’s also acceptable to have these as separate documents if you need to split things up a little (having a separate file for a full UK tour might be necessary for example) but always aim to keep the document as compact and clutter-free as possible. Again, be sure to format and proofread correctly and bear in mind that we don’t want a breakdown of everything you’ve ever done, just a digestible, well-presented summation of it.

It’s tempting to include every great press quote you’ve ever had but, as with all these things, efficiency is key. Three short quotes that you present in a way that grabs attention is better than three paragraphs that describe the minutia of how great you are but don't fit on a flyer.

Your list of contacts needs to include at least one email for the band or management, and that goes for your social media and websites too. I can’t imagine how many promoters or blogs have just given up on bands because they don’t have emails displayed on their Facebook or rely on Contact Forms on their site. I know I have. Sorry to burst your bubble, emerging artists, but you don't need to avoid stalkers just yet. Soundcloud messaging might be easy for you, but it isn’t easy for someone who works in the industry and needs to save, organise and cc their correspondence in the way that email allows.

Don't go overboard with the links. You should definitely include your official site, Facebook, Twitter and Soundcloud and could include preferred music vendors such as Bandcamp or Songeist but every last social site isn't necessary. One link that’s becoming an increasingly vital is your band’s YouTube page. Make sure your YouTube Page has its best foot forward. If you're busy on YouTube and your homepage is constantly rotating through content for hardcore fans, create a playlist of a few of your select promo or live videos and link to this playlist through the hyperlink in the text.

Fish Hook's Rachael. Expect her EPK on its way!

5) OPTIONAL EXTRAS
If you're sending out promotion for your latest single, or the whole appeal the band hinges on your visuals, you might want to consider including a promo video as a small MPEG in the EPK. Everyone has access and familiarity with YouTube now, so I would generally advise against sending videos in EPKs, specifically because of the increase in the file size. That being said, it’s certainly been something that I’ve done, and been encouraged to, do in the past.

Another thing that’s a standard in an EPK is a stage plan. If the main purpose for your EPK is to send out to live venues, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with including this. However, I would certainly confirm that it’s been read and acknowledged before turning up to a gig and expecting a full rider and saxophone stand based on the fact it demands one on your stage plan in your EPK. There’s a handy stage plan creator HERE.

Finally, it's important to note that this blog is my breakdown of a small, efficient, multipurpose EPK that's easy to download, touches all the bases and is my personal preference. Bands can make a wonderful impression by presenting all of the above in a huge, multimedia PDF file with interactive menus and videos if they so desire, especially if they're targeting to specific press and promoters who have a vested interest, patience, and ultra-fast broadband. Whether having an esoteric, resource-heavy EPK is something you want to utilise over the small, humble, 'does what it says on the tin' EPK I've described is something you need to decide for yourself.

SENDING IT OUT THERE
With the separate assets complete, remember to take this opportunity go back over all your sites and refresh your tracks, photos and copy to correspond with the material in your EPK. Then select the place where you're going to store the EPK, such as Dropbox or OneDrive. It's a good idea to upload the assets separately in two separate folders so you can give people who, say, just want the tracks, the option to grab them. That means first Zipping up your MP3s into one folder, then Zipping up the photos, logos and DOC file(s) in another folder and uploading them separately. Then take both the original folders and plonk them in another folder called 'Your Bandname EPK'. Zip that up, upload it, and you’re done.

Last but not least is your covering email. It’s important to take the same care and attention to detail in writing this email as you did in making your EPK. I'd use your email’s HTML editor to link using words like HERE rather than having long, ugly URLs all over the place like this… http://www.songeist.com/tw/4V5a9em

Laying your links out like this would be perfect.

Listen to 'Your Band Name' EP HERE (link to your streaming site).
Download Full 'Your Band Name' EPK HERE (link to the EPK file).

Good luck!

Barney

I’d really love to hear any more questions you guys have about music and promotion as it pertains to emerging artists. Please email me your thoughts, suggestions and queries to barney@songeist.com

Vinyl photo courtesy Acid Pix's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Sign Spelling photo courtesy John Lillis's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.

Closing in For The KillBillies

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

Killbillies are Ben Childs, Micah Scott and Zak Mahoney. This brutally hardworking three piece can be found playing their jammed-out mix of impassioned originals with classic bluegrass, country and folk, somewhere in a bar in Miami, Florida on every night of every weekend. As the band drop their second album, Transplant Life - which you can hear and buy on Songeist now - Barney catches up with his ex-bandmate and British ex-pat Ben Childs to fill us in on everything we could ever want to know about mashing together British folk and Americana but were afraid to ask.

The Killbillies (from left) Micah, Ben, Zak.

B. Hello Ben! How the devil are you? For those of us that don’t know, can you give us a brief introduction to Killbillies? How did you guys get together and how would you describe your style?

BC. Hi Barney! Well thank you. Long time, no see, Old Bean! In answer to your question, the style of music we play is very influenced by the instruments we play. We have feet drums, a standup bass, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar and accordion. This gives us a palette through most kinds of European folk music to bluegrass, country and Americana. It's a rough and ready folky sound that draws from a lot of influences. Although we take stylistic conventions seriously we also enjoy a lot of different types of music and this is evident in the noises we make. We go where the songs and instruments take us and the last thing you could accuse us of is purism!

B. The album Transplant Life has dropped recently and the tracks are available on Songeist now. It’s the strongest and most coherent statement that Killbillies have made to date. Transplant Life presumably refers to your moving from the UK to Florida. Do you actually see the album as a concept album around that theme or is it just a cool title?
BC. I agree it is our best one so far although our début self-titled record can hold its own! We have been writing for a while and quite a few songs didn't make it. The creativity that we have found however bodes well for the imminence of the next album. The name of the album speaks of the unifying factor between the members of the band. None of us are original Floridians. All of us have moved here in our early adulthood. The songs speak of where we have come from, where we are and where we are going. We all have songs on the album and they describe our loves and losses, mistakes we have made, successes achieved, the oddities of our new surroundings and some social commentary on both Florida and where we hail from. It isn't a concept album as it has no unifying narrative but as a collection of songs it describes our lives as transplants. It's also a cool title.


B. One thing that interested me is the ties, and differences, between British folk traditions and Americana stylings that you manage to combine on the record. Across the album, I think you do a wonderful job of mixing the sounds and it feels like, from song to song, the styles often lean one way or the other. I hear the British pastoral echoes of Nick Drake on 'Invocation' and straight-up US bluegrass on 'Bring The Light' and 'Alligator Smile'. Are these slight shifts in style the result of having different song-writers in the group? Do you discuss and plan out the balance between British folk and US Country and Western or is it something you just go with as it comes?

BC. This is a good question! It's not planned out but rather the end result of having both European and American songwriters. Micah and I have been developing a sound since the conception of the band and we have always had different ideas of where songs should go, how they should move and what we are trying to say through the music. We have found that with this record, songwriting took precedence over stylistic concerns. Micah wrote 'Bring the Light' and Zak and I wrote 'Alligator Smile'. Both songs were written very much in the American tradition. Zak wrote 'Long Way Down', the most Irish sounding song and he is American.

With 'Alligator Smile', Zak brought a riff and I wrote the words and chords very quickly upon hearing it as I had been ruminating over something like this for a while. Then we jammed it as a band and played it live a few times to get the structure right.

Micah's favorite music is blues and old time Americana and this has had a huge effect on our writing and playing. His song, 'Bring the Light', that you mentioned displays this prominently. In direct contrast to this is his waltz 'Quarries of Pawlet' which sounds very European and almost Beatles-ish at times.

B. The album has a live sound, with all the instruments arranged and played in one take as they would be at a concert, with very little post-production, which sounds like a very conscious choice on your part. Was this something you considered? Is it making a statement about current production values or did you simply feel that this production style would showcase your talents in a more natural, and therefore more exciting, way? Or was it simply a financial decision to cut down on hours in the studio?

BC. Yes we did think about it. We recorded many of the songs prior to our recording at Blackwood Studios in Lake Worth with Chad Palmer. Previously I had recorded them and we were all unhappy with how regimented the sound became. I have, through living in Manchester for many years and playing in Sonic Boom Six, a dance and rock/punk background where you want the music to hit as hard as possible and be right. Not always with punk but certainly with dance music.

What we found is that the way we were recording was drying up the spontaneity of the music and we were left with a collection of songs that sounded nothing like each other. I, and I'm sure Micah would agree, wanted the music to sound like it does when we play it. Many of the takes are first takes. It isn't necessarily about making a statement about modern production values, it is about making music that you like the sound of. Music is a subjective medium!

In answer to the last part of your question, we could have pored over the album in post production and weeded out imperfections and we spoke at length about this but my personal feeling is "on to the next one!"

Killbillies love it live.

B. When the band started out, there were just three members, and you were using quite novel approaches to the rhythm section between the members. How has the band developed in terms of members and instrumentation and why have you made the choice to expand? Do you feel you’ve lost any of the novel nature of the act by expanding it or is it freeing not to have to consider playing drums with your feet any more?
BC. Killbillies was started by Micah and I in 2011. The current nuts and bolts version of the band is still just a three piece- Zak, Micah and I. We still use the feet drums. It has proven an excellent guerrilla approach to the Palm Beaches! However, we have had many other people play with us over the 3 or so years. The most recent and integral to to the band is Virgil Price. He supplies the accordion parts that drive much of this album, co-wrote the last track 'Paper Aeroplane' and was playing with us for a good long time. Another great musician, Neel Shukla, provided the drums for the album and played with us for the release party. Neel is a beast of a drummer and a very nice man!

B. 'Cradle To The Grave' is the song you chose to go with a video with. Can you speak on the style and lyrics of the song? What prompted you to choose this song as the song to represent the band in video? And is that your motorbike?!

BC. It wasn't really a video choice but more of a promotional thing. We had a bunch of footage from the album launch show that Patty Shukla (Neel's wife) recorded and I was trying to keep busy and get it out there. When I was piecing it together on my computer I thought "well hell, I'll have a stab at a video!" As it so happened, my brother-in-law, PJ, was wheeling his bike in while I was editing and I thought "It's now or never!" This is my effort at pushing the songs a little. We are going to release some official videos in the near future so keep your peepers open.

B. My personal favourite on the album is 'Long Way Down'. Across the song it relays different situations in your life and relates them to a central concept. It’s definitely a song I think could be interpreted in different ways by the listener. Can you give some background on the ideas being explored in the song? I don’t want to look behind the wizard’s curtain too much but I’d love to know a little more about where you’re coming from.

BC. Zak came to me with this song and said "Oh my god this a banger!" I quickly agreed. Zak and I worked on the lyrics together and then we jammed it into the song that it is on the album by further working on it at shows and practices. Zak says that his eight-year-old idealistic and eager self would be pissed off with the man he is today. He is a man who has felt the heavy tides of lost love, tasted addiction and grappled with the vacuum of irretrievable innocence. But when you part with your childhood frivolity you do gain the ability to see a little more beauty.

B. How did your time spent in the UK and worldwide punk scene over the years influence your approach to being in The Killbillies? Which part of the DIY philosophy have you applied to your band?

BC. My time spent in the UK punk scene made me feel like a rockstar and I enjoyed it!

I was scared when I moved to Florida because I didn't know how to make money. I spoke to Micah. He was a few years ahead of me in terms of migration. He knew how and we started a band. That is the root of all of this music.

Everything I did with Sonic Boom Six enriched me. You remain my deepest, firmest go-to's for knowledge and insight and love. DIY means do it yourself. We are. For a long time we have paid our way playing our music in different towns every weekend. Being a working musician is a dying breed and not to be sniffed at. We work hard at keeping that concept alive.

Speak to Micah Scott about DIY. He is without doubt the leader of that side of the band and achieves it with style and grace.

To quote Jimmy Cliff.... "You can get it if you really want".

B. On a more general note, how does the US live music scene differ from the UK live scene? Pros and Cons? From here it looks like you’re playing live lots, in venues that look like American bars, very different from the live venues of British cities. Can you speak on that?

BC. I find that in this area it is easy to get a gig... but a certain type of gig. We own our PA. We play 3-4 hours at most gigs and play 3-5 times a weekend. The main places we play currently are bars but also, concert halls and festivals.

It is hard to say how it compares because West Palm Beach is not a good cross section of America. We have been out on the road, up the east coast and found ourselves in similar venues to that of the UK. There is more similarity among cities in different countries than there is between city and suburbia in the same country.

My answer is that to become a festival level band is just as hard to attain here as it is in Europe.

B. Final questions, let us know what you guys have got coming up? Any plans to tour the UK?

BC. We are coming over soon. We have been figuring out the touring unit. Finally I'll persuade Zak to put oars through his double bass and you won't be able to get rid of us!

The future holds many possibilities and our UK trip is LONG overdue.

You can listen and purchase Transplant Life by Killbillies on Songeist HERE.

If a Lion Barks in a Forest, Everyone Will Hear it

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

It's been just twelve months since the release of their début song 'Two Prongs,' and in that short time Brighton's Lion Bark, true to their namesake, have been making a lot of noise. There's been gushing write-ups in blogs like When The Gramophone Rings and Indie Shuffle, features in the NME Radar, Clash Magazine and The 405, not to mention sessions for BBC Introducing and even Burburry. As the band get ready for the release of their next single 'Come Into My Arms', Barney caught up with Ozzy and the guys to give us the skinny on the recording of their hotly-anticipated debut album, frontman Guy's distinctive voice and what it's like to play a session on a boat.



B. Sorry about the predictability of this question but let’s get it out of the way like pulling off a plaster! You guys are a new band so please give us a brief history of Lion Bark; where you met, who are your influences, what you’ve done until now…

LB. We all have quite different musical histories. Each interesting individually, but they're long tales for other times. These stories merged 3 years ago when we all moved to Brighton and began writing together. We were at music school, being taught how to murder our imaginations when we birthed the band. Shortly after, we left the institute, for obvious reasons. Our career history consists of a lot of writing, a handful of gigs, and half a tea spoon of song releases. As i write this, we're about to release our next song, Come Into My Arms, which we had a great time recording. And, in terms of influences, it's a never ending list, which i shan't bore you with.

B. You don't need me to tell you that you guys have been getting an amazing response to the small amount of material you have out there. There's been a huge amount of plays and views of your 'Longhorn' video and blogs are really building you up. Has the weight of the hype added any pressure or are you taking it all in your stride?
LB. Thank you. It's certainly been enjoyable to watch the materials reception. We've received a few emails from people that the music has really touched and lifted. That's such a joy. I see uploading and sharing a song as akin to smiling at someone in the street. It's a little thing, what with all the music out there, but it can brighten someone's day. If they smile back it just makes us smile more. I'm sure that individually, we feel different levels of "pressure" though. We've said things like, "sounds Two Prongsy. That's good." or "let's just write a happy one.", when we're wondering about how a song will be received. But we've learned so much over these few years that it's hard not to apply it to our music, and so that natural progression or deviation from the old happens by accident. The thought that occurred a few seconds after Two Prongs release, "Oh man, now all our songs have to sound like this or people will hate us." has been well and truly shattered. Our new singles, to us, feel like a whole different ball park and we're excited to share them. So, to answer your question, we're taking it in our stride now. Pressure becomes excitement when you're proud of your work.


B. The most immediate thing about 'Lion Bark' is Guy's vocal style. The way I described it to a mate was ‘grown man’ vocals. Has the croon quality of it been something you’ve attempted to feature in the songwriting or has it just come through naturally? It's distinctive and unique and that takes a real maturity and confidence to put out there. Has there been any vocalist that has particularly influenced the Guy style?

LB. Haha, yeah. I remember when i first heard Guy sing, i thought it was strange but had a lovely tone. It's just one of those "that's how it is" things. It's how he's always sung, and he wasn't going to change that to be in this band. It's probably been the easiest part of our songwriting, it's the constant. We can throw whatever sounds we want underneath it, but that's how Guy sounds so ... that'll be there no matter what.

B. The video for ‘Longhorns’ is remarkable, almost a horror. Ben Pender, the director had a very in-depth explanation for the way it interprets the lyrics. Was this something you collaborated on or was it a case of leaving him to interpret the lyrics as he saw fit and present the resulting idea to you?

LB. Yes, Ben is a friend of ours and he had offered to make the video for us. I was readying ideas for collaboration, we had some storyboards flying around, when all of a sudden this finished idea of his was on the table. He had the know-how, the equipment and the passion - so it sort of steam-rolled from then on. And from "then on", to it being finished, was a very short space of time. The idea accurately represents the lyrics for the most part, as he did converse with Guy on the subject matter. But yeah, we were all proud of the result. Ben and his team did a great job.



B. You played on BBC Introducing live session in the library with a stunning arrangement of 'Longhorns'. The live vocal harmonies really jump out. Did you have to think a lot about the stripped-down arrangement or did you essentially just play the live version without drums? What was the experience of the BBC Introducing session like?

LB. We just played the song in a really simple format! That was it really. Same song, just with less going on. The experience of being in the studio was a fun one, and hopefully not the last.

B. There's a wonderful video of you guys playing 'Two Prong' in a boat on YouTube. You're all very professional and earnest looking in the vid but that must have been an absolute hoot to do right? Was it a memorable experience and is it any harder to play intricate folk guitar on a rocking boat than it is on dry land?

Ha ha. The thing that made playing guitar hard in that boat, was trying to hold the one mic we were recording the sound with, between my knees as i played. Other than that, I'd say it's similar to playing on dry land. I suppose our next challenge would be to do an acoustic session, but just be swimming as we play. That might prove harder. But yeah it was great fun.



B, Brighton is a city known for its music scene, especially the more arty and (does inverted commas sign in the air) hipster indie bands. Have you found being in Brighton a help to your progress or is it harder to stand out with so many other bands vying for attention?

LB. Brighton has a strange and wonderful music scene. The list of inspiring musicians and creative persons here just goes on and on. I would say that being here has helped us, partly because - we wouldn't have met otherwise, and because all the other bands here already sound so good. If it doesn't inspire you and make you up your game then you're at the wrong gigs. The thing that makes a band stand out the most in Brighton, for me, is the level of maturity they have. With so many musicians around, you can tell when a band don't really know what they're doing. I mean that creatively, and technically. It's natural to be at the starting line at some point, we've all been there, but a lot of the acts in Brighton have been going for a long time. And they sound great because of it. As for ourselves, we're one leaf on the musical tree that is Brighton, we're not trying to stand out per se, but we're involved and we're having fun.

B. I've seen the studio photos on your sites and can't wait to hear the result. Let us know where you are with new material. Are you working with the same producer as last time? What can we expect in terms of new material?

LB. The line up of people we're working with has changed around a bit. We had the pleasure of working with Tarek Musa, musician/producer extraordinaire for the first two singles, and since then we've been invited up to work with Barny Barnicott. Last time we were in the studio, taking those pictures you've seen, we were on a confidence high and were just experimenting as much as we could. So, don't expect these next few releases to be tame.

B. Your new year’s resolutions were posted on your Facebook. Nearly halfway through 2014 it’s time to take a look back. Did you…
Learn a new chord? If so, which one?
(Tasteful) Fill a song with cowbell?
Release and sell your own brand of cereal?

LB. Ha ha. I haven't learnt any chords actually, but i've invented a few. "The Glory Chord" has made it's way into our live set. ( But no, we have learnt some chords, some named ones. We're just not sure on their names )

The cowbell waits in the shadows.

The cereal is ready, but we're not sure the public are.

B. What’s the rest of the year got in store for Lion Bark? Throw us your social networks and site and any final info so we can keep up with your ascendancy.

LB. The year has excitement in store. We've got our happy faces on and we're eager to share our creations with you. Best place to check for these, and other updates, would be at www.lionbark.co.uk. From there you can reach our Facebook and other social media where it all goes on.

Let’s Get Engaged (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Book)

This is the original version of a music guidance blog that I wrote for US site Music Clout HERE and the UK version for Fresh on The Net HERE.

Facebook Pages. For a musician, they are an increasingly frustrating proposition. Their functionality, features and business model are still developing while over forty-two million users can only observe and react to the changes taking place. Month after month, it seems that your Page’s non-paid reach is less and less. The platform has simply become another advertising avenue for acts and businesses with deep pockets to use. It’s easy to become despondent. Complain about this on Facebook and some bright spark on your timeline will quickly point out you’re moaning about the free resource you’re currently using. But while the platform is free, it seems only fair that fans that have taken the time to 'like' you on Facebook should receive your updates and not have the site’s content generator getting between you. So what can we do about it? The truth of the matter is, and I hate to say it, that your annoying Facebook-defending buddy is actually right; complaining about a free site performs isn't going to get anything changed. At the Music Biz 2014 conference this week in Los Angeles, Facebook representatives were less than forthcoming with answers for an angry artist asking them why he has to pay to reach his fans. With no indication that this trend is going to reverse it means that our perspective, techniques and understanding of Facebook Pages needs to change along with the technology. We might not like this fact but unless we’re going to pay for the service, we have to face it.

I manage a Facebook band Page with nearly 24,000 fans. That may sound like a lot, but between albums and promotional pushes, the Facebook Page can actually be a profoundly lonely place. Photographs struggle to get in double-figures of 'likes'. Unanswered questions bounce around the wall like echoes down a ravine. Every now and then, we'll have an unpredictably viral post, be it a photograph of Flea with his bass guitar unplugged or a funny-looking shot of Beyoncé, heavily shared and seeded from our photo upload. While the reach these successes gave our profile was welcome, they were not without their drawbacks. Many strangers to our band met the posts with direct hostility, often engaging with the content but not bothering to read the neutral accompanying messages and assuming we were attacking the artist. Some of our established fans actually 'unliked' us, accusing us of gossip-mongering. While proving that engagement in a hot topic is a route to Facebook Page traffic, unless I was going to change the site to a Superbowl half-time gossip column, these excursions into hundreds of shares weren't adding much to the page’s overall purpose.


BEYONCE. POST WITH CAUTION.

FED UP WITH FACEBOOK
In the face of such emasculation and loneliness I went on the offensive. These are our fans, god-dammit! Why should we have to pay to speak to them Facebook?! As have many bands before me, I sent an image in our mailout asking that fans actively add themselves into the ‘Get Notification’ category for the page. Rather pathetically I also did it on our Facebook and asked fans to share it. It never really occurred to me that for this to have any tangible effect, I’d have to do it at least once a week, cluttering up my feed with more requests for attention and taking up a precious post that could be used for some engaging, original content. I was fed up with Facebook.

It was while I was writing a blog detailing some mistakes that bands make when addressing crowds at gigs (which you can check out on Songeist.com HERE) that it struck me. There I was in my blog, complaining about the bands that stand onstage and tell their fans that they've ‘driven here for hours’ and ‘have no money’ so ‘please buy our CD.’ And yet, there I was doing the same thing on our Facebook page. I was practically telling our fans, ‘you like us’ so please ‘go out of your way to complete this convoluted process’ because ‘Facebook isn’t fair’. I sounded just like one of those whiney bands that always irritated me with their demands on their audience. Looking back, I should think myself lucky that nobody posted a ‘Call the Wambulance’ meme.


PLEASE BUY OUR CD!

A DIFFERENT APPROACH
We can't change what Facebook’s algorithms are doing to our non-paid reach, but we can change our approach. If we want to use our Facebook Page to boost our exposure, and not simply respond to it, it is no longer viable to simply use the page to pass on information and expect a result. We must actively engage and then use the fallout from the engagement to pass information on. For emerging artists and businesses in quiet periods we need to assert ourselves and deliberately stoke the coals of our user’s reactions. With this home-truth realised, I became inspired to see if I could make something happen on Facebook by grabbing some impressions and extending our reach. I came up with a small branded promotional image to test the theory. Just over a week later, the image has had nearly half a million impressions and is still going strong with no boosting and just a small push from me. It truly is just a case of putting a little thought, creativity and work into our Pages and reaping the rewards.

The idea came to me one afternoon when I happened upon a ‘What’s Your MC Name?’ Facebook post from a radio station and saw the colossal amount of shares it had accrued. It was a simple variant on the old ‘first letter of first name / first letter of last name to denote a new name’ gimmick. It wasn’t anything mind-blowing but here it was with millions of impressions. I considered the post’s success and I realised that this worked on a similar principle to another viral post I’d shared days before. A video which promised that 95% of people, after completing a maths problem, think of ‘red hammer’ when asked to think of a colour and a tool had duped me into sharing it. The amount of people who answer ‘red hammer’ is actually significantly lower than 95%, but it's enough that people like me, who did think of ‘red hammer’, are amazed by the video’s ability to read their minds. And so they share it. The penny dropped that a key to engaging people is providing the user with a post experience where they feel their own result is worthy of discussion. A list of rappers is mundane until you include the user's own name in the process. When the image reveals the distinctive MC name it seems unique, original and worth a share, even when, in reality, the same names come up again and again.


What’s Your MC Name? MINE’S DEADLY MONEY. So is many other people’s.

WHAT’S YOUR SKA NAME?
I went home that night and did a Sonic Boom Six variant on the name generator. After making sure that the idea was original by doing a quick Google search, I threw together my own ska name generator. I added a small band logo and hashtag at the bottom of the image, careful that the branding wouldn't get in the way of the content. The process of devising it was simple enough. I broke down around forty-eight names of old ska singers, making sure to never include a first name and surname that could together result in an actual ska act’s name, i.e. for ‘Prince Buster’ I would only use either Prince or Buster, ultimately meaning that every name was original. I added a few vector graphics of dancing ska men, neatly processed the image using Adobe Illustrator and posted the image on our Facebook. I then messaged a handful of the ska sites around the world just to get the ball rolling. While I did post it on Twitter and Tumblr pages, I was careful to prioritise the Facebook post in my efforts. The image was conceived to promote the Facebook Page and there would be no point cannibalising my audience. After two days the sharing really began to take off exponentially across other act's and promotion's pages.

One thing to remember is that it’s important to stay on top of the shares and track the places where your viral image appears. With any successful image, it is inevitable that some people will re-upload it without sharing it directly from your site but you don’t have to stand by and do nothing. The SB6 Page was deprived of impressions when one of the leading ska bands in the world innocently re-uploaded the image and posted it. Rather than ignore this, I messaged them and politely pointed out what had happened and they were good enough to re-share it direct from the Sonic Boom Six Facebook Page. By the end of the week, in a large part due to the band re-posting it, my page’s reach was over 800% further than the week before with hundreds of thousands of users 'talking about' the band. For days afterwards, my new photos were hitting double the 'likes' than they had previously. My little experiment proved that we don’t have to pay to get our Facebook posts out there, but we do have to work.


What’s Your Ska Name? Daft but half a million people have seen the name of our new album.

It is now over a week ago that I posted the image. Slowly but surely the engagement is creeping back down to the level it was at before posting it. Am I upset about that? Whether I am or not, there doesn’t seem to be a lot I can do about it. This blog isn’t an attempt to justify Facebook’s commercial decisions; it’s an attempt to face up to them. Ultimately, I would never advise that a band puts all its eggs in the basket of another site. I’ve seen bands spend years concentrating solely on building up their Myspace, Facebooks and now Tumblrs only to lose all that equity once those sites outstay their moment of popularity. It’s a hare and the tortoise analogy; bands should maintain their own website and mailing list to have an independent platform protected from the whims and decisions of the ‘hot’ sites of the day. What this exercise did prove is that if you need a boost from your Facebook page you can realise that challenge with a touch of creativity and a little hard work. Every day I’m thinking of different ways to engage and it’s had a knock-on effect on my attention to detail on our own website, improving interaction between us and our fans beyond Facebook. If the silver lining of their campaign to monetise our interaction is that we all have to reconsider how we communicate with fans and give them a better user-experience across the net, that’s something. I’ve proven that something as simple as an engaging image can extend our reach. Now I just have to come up with the next one.

Think of a colour, and a tool…

Barney

From The Garage to The Stage Part 6: Set Times and the Sound Man

If you're just starting out as an artist, there are many hard lessons to be learned onstage that don't necessarily appear in the 'how to play' manuals or educational music books. To help you along, we've enlisted our very own Barney to impart his hard-earned gigging wisdom in this ongoing series of weekly blogs. If you're recently started playing live or even if you haven't yet done a gig yet, we at Songeist believe that these blogs will be a great asset to help you to consider all the aspects of your live show. We'll be posting a new entry every Wednesday around midday for the coming weeks so don't forget to visit!

READ PART 1: MAKING A SPLASH HERE.
READ PART 2: STRUCTURING YOUR SET HERE.
READ PART 3: SEGUES AND SPEECHES HERE.
READ PART 4: CONFIDENCE AND CONNECTION HERE.
READ PART 5: CAMARADERIE AND CONTROL HERE.

Remember to comment and let us know any live tips and tricks you have...

FROM THE GARAGE TO THE STAGE PART 6: SET TIMES AND THE SOUND MAN

Over the past five weeks we have talked about everything that goes into the conceptual side of planning a set. We've discussed tricks and tips to deal with stage-fright, the right way to address the crowd and even strategies to relate to your other band members. I hope that I’ve imparted at least a little hard-earned wisdom! But for the last piece of the puzzle I’m going to extend some advice about dealing with the people outside your band and crowd that are nonetheless essential participants to make sure that your gig goes well. The sound engineers, crew and tour managers.

YOUR CONDUCT IS MORE IMPRESSIVE THAN YOUR SONGS
A crucial thing to understand about live music is that the majority of crew, sound engineers and tour managers don’t really care about your music. They've heard quite enough music, thank you very much. They simply care that you don’t make their life any harder than it already is. Yet crucially, they are very the people who often hold the key to that sweet support slot you want to grab. It isn’t always writing the killer tune that gets you the tour. It’s getting on and offstage quickly and efficiently, acting courteously and professionally to crew and being friendly and respectful to the headline band. As with each of these blogs, there are exceptions to the rule. I’ve certainly met massively popular bands out there that act like a bunch of school kids (and, appropriately, they often are the ones who achieve fame just out of school). But if you follow the guidelines below you shouldn’t go far wrong.

How much tech would a drum tech tech, if a drum tech could tech drums?
THE SOUND ENGINEER IS YOUR FRIEND, WHETHER YOU LIKE HIM OR NOT
Let’s get this out of the way. Being a local band isn’t fair. Often the venue will promise you a soundcheck and you get bumped because time is running late. Often there are sound issues onstage. Often you get no dressing room at all and have to pile your gear in a tiny, spider-infested corner. But these are simply things you need to accept and attempt to overcome. The first thing to relate this week is that it’s always advantageous to show courtesy and respect to all the crew, from the roadies to the tour manager to the promoter but especially to the sound engineer. He or she has the power to make or break your set. Learn their name, be polite, and be considerate of what they need.

The first place to get this right is during soundcheck. If the crew are setting up the stage, be aware of this and try not to get in their way too much. You’d be amazed at the bands I’ve seen jamming, blissfully ignorant, at full blast as a visibly seething sound engineer changes drum mics. Drummers are often the worst, thrashing the hell out of their kits or tuning their snare while the sound man changes the kick drum mic at a distance that makes it tantamount to assault. Until you have your own crew and plenty of allotted time, this really isn’t the time to jam that tune from rehearsal while everyone else waits around because you read that U2 wrote 'One' during a soundcheck. Listen to the sound engineer when he asks you to play and be reasonable and intelligent with what you do play. Drummers, play a repeated groove that covers the full kit, guitarists and bassists play a riff that's a solid loop and covers a reasonable range. Granted, no matter how well-behaved you are, some sound engineers will inevitably treat you like an irritating nuisance. Some will be nice and laugh along with your japes and learn your name. You never know. Just be aware that whatever their demeanor, their experience with you is naturally likely to affect the work they do for you when you’re up on stage.

The sound engineer is your friend, whether he likes it or not.

SPEAKING TO THE SOUND ENGINEERS DURING THE SET
Every now and then, dealing with sound issues while onstage during the set will be necessary, but remember, just as we covered last week, nine times out of ten the crowd aren't hearing that squeal that comes from your monitor every time you lean over, so don't draw attention to it. If you look like things are falling apart just because there's a hum coming from a guitar amp then, even if they can't hear the difference, people are going to assume that things are falling apart. If you need to communicate monitor directions by using hand signals (pointing at your guitar, then to the monitor, and then up in the air to denote that you need more in the monitor for instance) remember to be as calm and clear as you can and stay in control. Don't even bother mouthing words as it will draw the crowd's attention to the issue. I’ve watched sets where the drummer has spent over half his time on stage scowling and pointing in different directions at the hapless monitor engineer and, although I as a musician feel his pain, I also realize he’s oblivious to the energy of his screwed-up face and attitude spilling all over the stage. If the sound is that bad, it's better to stop the set between songs, get it sorted and then move on than be in a constant gushing leak of panic and anger, letting the crowd that there was something wrong during the set, though they had no idea what it was.

If hand signals aren’t going to cut it, there is an art to speaking to the sound engineer between songs. Never start making demands through the mic the very second that a song finishes and the crowd is still clapping. This will confuse the audience and kill the appreciative energy in the room dead. Instead, being sure to indicate to the rest of the band that you want them to wait, calmly thank the crowd as normal, maybe even add a little comment about how the gig is going, and then address the sound engineer with a polite ‘Mr Soundman, I need a little more of me in my monitor’. Thank the crowd, let the mood settle, then put your demands out there in a clear and friendly tone, owning the moment.

That's the face you get when you start copping a 'tude at a sound engineer.

GET ONSTAGE ON TIME
It seems strange to me that I even have to make a point of this, but I still go to gigs and at the stage time the support band are due onstage, someone from the venue is running around trying to find the band. That scenario is simply unacceptable to anyone involved in live music and, believe me, it’s absolutely abhorrent to the tour manager of the headline band. Unless otherwise clearly stated by the headline band’s TM or the promoter, the stage times are NOT a rough guideline of how they want the night to go. They are strict, absolute orders about where your slot is in the running of the night. Feckless local bands often break this rule because no one has ever really sat them down and pointed this out. It simply goes unspoken. You see it so often in live music, as a band or tour manager you sometimes can’t even be bothered saying anything until the band runs over by ten minutes. But here’s the rub, this isn’t school, you don’t get detention. YOU SIMPLY DON’T GET BOOKED AGAIN TO SUPPORT THE BAND. That ten minutes was ten minutes less time at the end of the night where the headline band could have sold their merch. You mess with their bottom line, and things get personal!

If you’re opening, you will have the luxury of leaving your gear set up, so in that instance there’s even less of a reason for lateness. Getting onstage when you're the second band on, with just a quarter-of-an-hour slot to do it in, is stressful so it’s absolutely essential you’ve planned in advance. Have your cables and gear ready and accessible so you can get straight on and give the band that preceded you space and time to get off. It’s totally acceptable to help them get their stuff off. Not only does it make things quicker, it asserts the point that you want them to move off the stage ASAP. There will be times when, through no fault of your own, the changeover overruns. Nine out of ten times in this situation, as long as the overrun wasn’t your fault, the tour manager or sound engineer will reimburse you an extra five minutes at the end of your set to compensate, especially at festivals. If this isn't forthcoming, there’s nothing wrong with asking if this is possible, but never assume. Overrunning is a bigger sin even than getting on late. In fact, it’s the most sure-fire way for you to never get booked as support to a professional band again.

There may be only two fans watching, but remember, the TM is ALWAYS WATCHING.

GETTING OFFSTAGE.
This is the most important rule in this whole series of blogs. If you follow every other point to a tee, but overrun your set by seven minutes at every show you’re going to be the greatest band in your local toilet venue for the next four decades. Get off on time. No ifs ands or buts. Drop a song if you need to. GET OFF ON TIME.

When you do get off, get off as quickly as possible. After the intensity of the set, you'll feel the world slow down. It's natural that getting off stage feels like it should be a stress-free, peaceful affair done with your face flushed with happiness, basking in the glory of your wonderful concert. But there's another band to get on! Getting offstage is a hurried, stressful and almost always slightly unpleasant chore and you must hustle as quickly as possible. Feel free to walk off stage to underline the end of your performance but then get straight back up there and work to get your gear off efficiently and into the designated zone. Help each other and be aware of the crew, who will almost always give you a hand. Get this job done, then go and chill. You've earned it!

The first time SB6 really experienced a hard lesson in getting offstage was touring with The Levellers in 2009. The Levellers are a big, cult band and their crew are professionals with no time for holding the hands of some punk band just because they can’t afford a crew. The change-over time was forty-five minutes, plenty of time we thought, seeing as though The Levellers were already set up. So on the first night we got off stage and afterwards we relaxed for a moment together, drinking water behind the curtains, ready to go back on and grab our gear. The crew proceeded to storm the stage, and, faced with our gear set-up, tore our guitar pedals off the floor and pretty much threw them at us. Suffice to say, we didn’t hang about after the set the next night and the lesson that we learned that day was a good one. There is simply no excuse. Get off stage on time and get off as quickly as humanly possible.

And, if you hadn’t already figured this out, if you are not the headlining band, never, ever, ever do an encore!

Follow all the rules, and this is how you'll feel.

FINAL THOUGHTS
There are ‘local band’ nights all over the country where venues simply want the friends and family of bands to come and drink at the bar to keep the business running. The venue and 'promoters' don't care about the bands, they care about the drinks being bought, and often the rules I've outlined above are not enforced or even laid out. At these nights, bands pick up bad habits. But you try pulling out those habits supporting a touring band with a tour manager and you simply aren’t going to get tours. And don't expect them to tell you why, because they don't have to.

At the beginning, being in a band is very tough. In the UK, at local gigs, you get treated as the lowest of the low, often not getting a dressing room, food or drinks. You see the headline band swanning about with their grub and lager and passes in their dressing room, not watching the local bands, and tend to think they’re stuck-up idiots. But what you need to remember is that they have all been in the same place as you have. And you’ll find that when you’ve not been home for three weeks and have driven for 7 hours previously, a beer and a sit down without having music blaring in your face is not that much to ask. By all means, politely introduce yourselves and ask them to watch you, but be prepared for the fact that they might choose not to, and that's their prerogative.

Finally, remember that at this stage, for you, watching the other bands is important. 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 it really is about what you put in. People can smell a band that are only out for themselves, so returning favours and being an active participant at live shows at this point will reap rewards that your songwriting might not.

And that's that. It's time to get out there and rock.

Barney

Thanks for reading this blog series and all your support and feedback. I have a special case study blog coming up where I impart some more general rules and philosophies to being in a band but what I’d really love right now is to hear any questions you guys have about music as it pertains to emerging artists.

Please email me your thoughts, suggestions and questions to barney@songeist.com

Drum Tech photo courtesy Gareth Harfoot's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Sound Engineer photo courtesy Howard Stanbury's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Sound Engineer 2 photo courtesy Andrei Rusu's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Tour Manager Photo courtesy David Jones's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Onstage photo courtesy Annais Ferreira's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.

From The Garage to The Stage Part 5: Camaraderie and Control

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

If you're just starting out as an artist, there are many hard lessons to be learned onstage that don't necessarily appear in the 'how to play' manuals or educational music books. To help you along, we've enlisted our very own Barney to impart his hard-earned gigging wisdom in this ongoing series of weekly blogs. If you're recently started playing live or even if you haven't yet done a gig yet, we at Songeist believe that these blogs will be a great asset to help you to consider all the aspects of your live show. We'll be posting a new entry every Wednesday around midday for the coming weeks so don't forget to visit!

READ PART 1: MAKING A SPLASH HERE.
READ PART 2: STRUCTURING YOUR SET HERE.
READ PART 3: SEGUES AND SPEECHES HERE.
READ PART 4: CONFIDENCE AND CONNECTION HERE.
READ PART 6: SET TIMES AND THE SOUND MAN HERE.

Remember to comment and let us know any live tips and tricks you have...

FROM THE GARAGE TO THE STAGE PART 5: CAMARADERIE AND CONTROL

So far, we’ve covered how to write a setlist, how to structure your set, how to segue your songs and how to connect with a crowd. But what about the other connection that is happening onstage, the connection that many musicians don’t immediately consider but is the connection that is, above all, the most important part of being in a band? What about the connection with each other? You may have spent more hours in a garage and more miles on the road with these human beings than anyone else on earth but put you on stage together and you either pretend they don't exist or throw dirty looks at them every time they even look like they might mess up. Dealing with on-stage stress is a part of being in a band, especially for an emerging band, and the most natural thing in the world to do is to lean on your friends; your band-mates. One thing that you’ll have to accept as a band starting out and using in-house sound engineers is that sometimes, even often, onstage sound will be awful. That causes stress. The very task of performing in front of strangers causes stress. And these band-mates you call friends are going to make some musical mistakes that will cause you stress. Being onstage magnifies all these feelings of stress but, just as with last week’s blog, you need to focus those emotions to compose yourself and not sell an iota of that stress, let alone take it out on each other. We know we have to emote confidence, but we also need to emote a sense of camaraderie and control.

The Horrors, emerging from their spaceship, full of camaraderie yesterday.
CONTROL YOURSELF
Following on from last week’s talk of confidence and connection-building, nothing relaxes a crowd more than a band that appears at ease and in control of their environment. If you look like you know what you’re doing, they will believe you do. Nothing belies a band’s nervousness and sense of being at ill-at-ease more than negative body language towards each other. A band that appears united as a team and comfortable on stage with each other evokes that same energy to the crowd. That sense of camaraderie is key to a band and should be part of your overall philosophy and approach beyond the stage. Some of the best bands, think The Ramones, The Specials, The Horrors, actually look like they've emerged from a spaceship together to take over our world. A band that look uncomfortable with each other or even worse, visibly hostile, tutting and scowling at mistakes, are facing a huge uphill battle in winning over fans. Just as I relayed last week, the crowd WANTS to like you, just don’t give them reason not to. You might be the kind of player (I know I am) that can’t tune out the other band member’s performances and picks up on every fluffed note, every scuffed fill and every flat harmony. The vital thing to remember is that 99% of mistakes, no matter how bad they seem to you, the audience will either not pick up on, or not care about. A rock gig isn’t a piano recital. No rock gig has ever been ruined, or even badly affected, by a few rogue mistakes in a set. But you can ruin a gig by creating a tense, awkward atmosphere onstage between band members. A dirty look early in the set can have its negative energy increase exponentially across the performance, as the band member's become more reactive and angry at one another. No matter how well they think they're hiding it, this will sink the connection at a show even if the crowd can’t quite put their finger on what the problem is. You can feel a bad atmosphere, and feeling is more important at a gig than simply hearing.

Don’t get me wrong. Mistakes count. The fact that Steve went into the wrong part for the tenth gig on the row does matter, especially after you brought it up in rehearsal twenty times. It matters to you and so, ultimately, it matters to the performance and the band. But you’re kidding yourself if you think that if you turn around and shake your head at him onstage, anyone in the crowd is going to sympathise with your exasperation. You just look like a mean so-and-so and you’ve created a negative onstage vibe, all over a bass mistake in a room where the sound is so boomy not one single person noticed. To physically register it onstage does nothing but bring attention to it, increasing the tension and making the gig worse for everyone. Again, it’s a case of implosion, not explosion, and even thought that messed-up fill daftpot on the drum's has done for the whole tour feels like nails down your back, it’s your mistake if you let it throw your own performance off track.


I fully endorse the loving, positive, fully-in-control eye contact, if not the shorts, of this band.

CAMARADERIE
Being onstage is stressful and in stressful situations, friends are mean to each other, and that doesn’t always stop between songs. One faux pas I’ve seen many times – and have been guilty of - is taking the mickey out of other members of the band over the mic between songs. We’ve all seen this, if judged correctly, be a fun addition to a live set but, just like erupting into synchronised head-banging from the second you get on stage, more often than not it only serves to highlight how vulnerable the musician feels at that point. What you imagine in your head is charming repartee between two band members, lifting the curtain into the group's lovable real-life personalities, is actually just two incoherent human beings, tuning guitars and mumbling 'dick head' at each other, like a pair of three-year-old siblings lashing out at each other because they're tired after a day out at the zoo. Of course, the crowd may smile. They may even laugh. Just like the raising a fist on stage is often mirrored in a crowd, the audience will attempt to follow suit at the pantomime of witty conversation that they perceive to probably be happening before them. But that doesn't mean it's anything but slightly embarrassing for all involved.

Speaking of addressing the room, sometimes the crowd will speak back. As we outlined last week, standing and conversing with mates does nothing but create a cliquey atmosphere. But if you play enough gigs, someone in the crowd, at some point, is going to say something bad about you. Just like reacting to a fluffed note from a band member, you do not sell it because you are in control of the stage, not the crowd. Follow the same rules as you would someone posting comments on YouTube; do not feed the troll. Granted, if someone is heckling to the extent it’s affecting the rest of the crowd’s enjoyment of the show, then perhaps, being as assertive and emphatic as you can, you need to face that. The crowd will thank you for it and facing down an idiot spoiling other people's fun can really bond a band and crowd. But if there’s one guy shouting abuse and giving you the V-sign in a crowd of hundreds, do not give him the satisfaction of knowing you have even seen him, even worse he's got you rattled. Ignore him completely. Focus your energy to keep in control of your own performance and don’t let him gain any influence over you. Just think; if a human being is so odious and has a life so bereft of happiness that he or she must stand in front of a stage and make gestures to bands they don’t like, they really do not deserve any validation for their actions, let alone the attention they crave. Ignore these sadsacks. They will get bored and, quietly and sullenly, wait for the headliner they came to see. They don't get out much, to be fair.

You might not quite manage it, but this is the post-gig atmosphere to aim for.

WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW
The discipline of control and camaraderie should not stop the second you get off stage, you need to remain focused for at least a few hours afterwards. This is difficult because you've been affected emotionally and the music means a lot to you and once you come off stage, there's a temptation to let it all spill out. After internalising your chagrin towards the guitarist’s multiple musical indiscretions for half an hour, there's the desire to come off stage and immediately start rattling off a laundry list of his mistakes. But it's a bad idea. Emotions are so high that a post-gig conversation will be ferocious, overblown and erupt into something far more intense than is constructive when discussing specific drum fills or vocal harmonies. Not only will you be angry, the other band member will be defensive, especially after a disappointing performance, so a fight will inevitably erupt and, essentially, what you are saying and asking of them gets buried under a landslide of emo, feels and mardy-bum melodrama. Save it for the bedroom.

With great diplomacy and experience, it's possible to get your band's communication developed enough that you can manage to talk about the set quite sensibly within an hour or two after the show. It's not always mistakes that you want to discuss and important things do get forgotten if you set a cast-iron fatwa on talking in the dressing room about what went on on the stage for the last half an hour. But as a rule of thumb it’s generally better to simply wait until the next day. If the mistake or observation is important enough to comment on, it’s important enough for you to make it your responsibility to remember it for the following morning. You could even write it down or pop it in your phone notes, as I do. If you calmly and clearly express the problem the next day and the band member is still being a tart about it… well, that's their problem, not yours. But that’s the thing with band members, they’re human beings and part of being in a band is learning one-another’s limits, abilities and even short-comings and having the wisdom and will to work with them and around them.

Next week in From The Garage to The Stage we'll discuss the final details of being onstage, beyond the band and crowd. We'll explore speaking to sound engineers, the logistics of working with crews, getting on and offstage and all the subtle, unspoken stuff that's expected of you as a band at a gig that no one tells you beforehand.

Until next time...

Barney

Horrors photo courtesy Neil Klug's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Lucacookus photo courtesy Mark Scott Austin TX's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Backstage photo courtesy Chillhiro's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.

I Should Cocoa (Futures)

As part of our Songeist Showcase at The Great Escape last Saturday, COCOA FUTURES rocked The Mucky Duck alongside Haze, Mas Agua and Swell. The buzz around this new band from Tottenham (via Scotland) has all been generated by ‘Do Something’, a summery slice of politicised funk-pop that’s been played on Amazing Radio. As Killing Moon attests, ‘huge things are expected from this four piece’ and after the show Barney caught up with Greg for an interview where he lifted the lid on the past and present of Cocoa Futures.

B. I saw you live for the first time tonight. You were great! Did you enjoy the show? How did it go for you guys?G. Thanks Barney! Yeah, the gig was loads of the fun - apart from the power cutting out to half the stage in the first song. All the bands were really good, so thanks loads for having us. I think it was our eighth gig and our first in a festival setting. So it was great to come down to Brighton and be part of The Great Escape, and to meet the Songeist team. Very windy though, isn’t it?

B. That it is! And those damn seagulls! For those who haven't heard you, give us a brief rundown of Cocoa Futures history and your involvement, if any, in previous bands.G. Well, Dave the drummer and I moved down from Scotland a while back and started writing songs together last year. After a while, we met Zoe (Synth) and Jack (Guitar) through mutual friends. They’re both great musicians who whipped us into shape and moved us on a lot. It’s a good team. We’ve all played in bands before which has really helped in having an idea of what to do. With Cocoa Futures, we were really clear that wanted to have fun and play music we really enjoyed. Hopefully that comes across when you see us live.

Cocoa Futures. They don't give a solitary sh*t about hayfever.

B. It definitely came across. So, what bands have been an influence on Cocoa Futures?We’re into bands/artists like Talk Talk, Tom Tom Club, Tina Turner, Talking Heads and The Invisible.

B. You have a thing for bands with two Ts in their names. But no Tanita Tikaram. You call your style Yumcore? How did that intriguing little name come about?G. I just made it up. Are you allowed to make genres up?
B. I don't believe so.G. Probably not. Sorry. We’re pretty indie to be honest! (laughs)



B. Well, one thing that was distinctive to me about Cocoa Futures was Greg's bass guitar playing. A lot of the bottom end was handled by the synths and Greg played funky bass with a pick in the middle of the sonic spectrum. It worked really well. Was this a conscious decision for the band or just something that evolved from your playing style?G. It definitely wasn’t a conscious decision. I used to play guitar, and I love getting fruity with the pick, so it just kinda happened. Someone did come up to me after our Notting Hill Arts Club gig and say ‘you need a proper bassist mate’ though, so I’m glad it works for you. Thanks Barney!

B. You're welcome. It worked for me, and it was unique. Tell us the details about your next single 'Do Something'.G. It comes out May 30^th and you can have a listen on Songeist. We’ve got a lovely launch show at the Finsbury in Manor House. Forget the fact it’s at a tube station you’ve probably not been to, it’s a great venue so come along.  There's a Facebook EVENT for it. A band called Black Forest Ghetto are playing too. They’ll make you dance.

The single is backed up with a rework from a great young artist called Coby Sey. He’s taken the song to a very, very different and incredible place. We’d love to work with him again in the future. The rework is up on Songeist too, so check it out.


B. The lyrics of 'Do Something' discuss contemporary UK politics quite candidly. Not many pop bands dare touch these kind of topics. What is your perspective on this and what would be your respond to anyone suggesting that politics in music is commercially a bad idea?G. I’m pretty sure it’s a horrible idea commercially. I think quite a few people who are into pop would be uneasy with the subject matter. A song referencing Gordon Brown and Alan Greenspan is unlikely to get the fists pumping at V festival(!) But talking about corruption in politics was something that we wanted to talk about and get off our chests. And that’s what music is for, right? From the other perspective, people interested in the subject matter probably aren’t drawn to these issues being talked about in the context of a two minute pop song. So yeah, possibly a terrible idea all round. It’s bloody fun to play though.

B. I applaud you for it. And I think people will be into the honesty. I was struck by the contrast between 'Do Something' and some of the other songs in the set. It sounds like the album will be a darker affair and you've put your most poppy foot forward to make a first impression. Is this an accurate appraisal?
G. Yeah, spot on. There wasn’t a huge amount of thought behind it. We recorded three tunes and ‘Do Something’ turned out best. The other stuff is definitely a bit darker. I’m really looking forward to recording it and putting it out.


Greg's unique playing style is not apparent in this photo I took. You'll just have to check it out at a gig.

B. Where can we follow Cocoa Futures and keep up to date with you and your releases?G. Come along to a show. Let Jack the guitarist buy you a rum. He’ll tell you about his Saab and probably rope you into doing some DIY. After the single launch, we’ve got Camden Crawl on June 21^st which we’re all looking forward to. Oh and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

You heard the man! Go follow Cocoa Futures and check them out on Songeist HERE. Their show at The Finsbury Pub on 30th May has limited free tickets so go and grab your now from the Facebook event HERE.

From The Garage to The Stage Part 4: Confidence and Connection

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

If you're just starting out as an artist, there are many hard lessons to be learned onstage that don't necessarily appear in the 'how to play' manuals or educational music books. To help you along, we've enlisted our very own Barney to impart his hard-earned gigging wisdom in this ongoing series of weekly blogs. If you're recently started playing live or even if you haven't yet done a gig yet, we at Songeist believe that these blogs will be a great asset to help you to consider all the aspects of your live show. We'll be posting a new entry every Wednesday around midday for the coming weeks so don't forget to visit!

READ PART 1: MAKING A SPLASH HERE.
READ PART 2: STRUCTURING YOUR SET HERE.
READ PART 3: SEGUES AND SPEECHES HERE.
READ PART 5: CAMARADERIE AND CONTROL HERE.
READ PART 6: SET TIMES AND THE SOUND MAN HERE.

Remember to comment and let us know any live tips and tricks you have...

FROM THE GARAGE TO THE STAGE PART 4: CONFIDENCE AND CONNECTION

During a live gig, especially a club show, the dynamic between the crowd and act is very different from one of simply Performer and Audience. The relationship is probably more analogous to that of a stand-up comedy show than to a classical pianist and a hall full of patrons, or a crowd watching a game at a sports event. There is very little separation between the parties and a huge deal of direct interaction, both explicit and subliminal. Emotions are high and the audience and band feed and react to them. Sometimes the crowd speaks back. Bluff and self-assurance are essential and, like with so much in life, confidence is the key.

PEOPLE LIKE CONFIDENCE
Consider this. A stand-up comedian can perform to a room with great material but if he stutters nervously through his set, avoids eye-contact with the room, or acts hostile and complains about the crowd’s sense of humour he will leave the stage to silence or boos. A comedian with poor material who projects confidence and a sense of ease, or simply a likeable presence, can create a bond with the crowd and leave the stage with polite applause or even cheers. It’s exactly the same with a band, especially in a support slot. A band's music is a smaller part of a live show than most music journalists get paid to tell you it is and certainly far less than most punters consciously realise when they watch a live show. The crowd wants to like you so don't give them a reason not to. If a band looks as if they’re enjoying their music and come across as confident and cocksure, that will convince a crowd as much as the songs. Conversely, bands that look shy and embarrassed will make the crowd feel awkward and that negative emotion becomes associated with their music. With this in mind, if, like me, you don’t have the kind of natural boundless confidence that lights up the room every time you walk in it, it could be time to put some strategies and concepts into action.

Matt Reynolds, ex-guitarist and singer of rock band Howard’s Alias and now fronting folk act Big Fin, played guitar for Sonic Boom Six for a few tours at the end of 2009. A veteran of live gigs, Matt conveyed a striking live music philosophy to me on stage in Europe that stopped me in my tracks. Its simplicity was its genius. He said ‘every second that you look away from the crowd during a live show is a moment that you are cheating from them’. Over time it's become clear to me that as a general mantra to follow, it's a tremendously effective motivator. Of course, it’s not advised to stand on the edge of the stage and stare dementedly at the crowd for the entirety of the set. And as musicians, it’s great to share eye-contact and moments with your fellow musicians during the performance. But it’s also important to bear in mind that if you look at each other for the whole set, you are depriving your attention from the very place it needs to go… into the audience. Matt’s philosophy is the perfect concept to keep pushing you to do that. And looking at the crowd and conveying your energy, passion and belief in your music is what creates connection.

Matt Reynolds, looking AT a crowd and not cheating them.

CREATING THE CONNECTION
The idea of connection is a great way to conceptualise it. We've all been to sold-out arena gigs where there is a lack of a bond between the band and the audience, yet we've seen half-empty club shows where every single thing the band does has an effect on the mood and causes a reaction in the crowd. Equally we've watched festival headliners electrify thousands but stood through bands in tiny venues getting no reaction in a cold room. It's not the size of the show, it's the connection that creates a truly exhilarating live performance. For those of us petrified of performing that find ourselves looking down and smiling nervously throughout a live set, we need to put some thought into ways of avoiding this behaviour because it inhibits our connection. A good trick to start with can simply be looking over the audience, choosing a spot on the back wall of the venue just above the crowd's eye line and literally performing to that. Initially, your main goal is simply to get the energy out there and not elsewhere on the stage and to get comfortable doing it.

Eye contact is difficult for many people and feeling exposed on stage can increase one's self-consciousness. You may have heard how, to keep eye contact in police interviews, hardened criminals look between the eyes or at the eyebrows of those giving them a grilling. Start by using this technique. Smile at people. Connect with people. You don’t want to give all your attention to the same group of people through the entire set; look to the spot in the back of the room, then to the mass of people in the centre of the room, then give some time to those at the front. There have been times on stage where I have consciously tested this, observing the visceral difference in the body language of the people before me when I look and emote to them as opposed to looking elsewhere. You really do have the power in your body language to convey the energy of your music and to will people to enjoy it the way that you enjoy it. But you have to work at it.

Look, a lovely bunch of foreheads to connect with.

CONTROLLING THE CONNECTION
The paradox of creating connection, is that it's an exercise in controlling energy rather than unleashing it. We've all seen bands that think the key to a great live performance is to leap around the stage and thrash about like maniacs. Rather than encouraging the crowd to get involved, this can have the opposite effect, serving only to underline the lack of excitement in the rest of the room. The contrast between the energy of an act trying so hard and the ambivalent atmosphere in a venue can seem absurd, pathetic even, and this breaks the connection. Onstage, you may feel like you want to leap out of your skin but you need to harness that nervousness and adrenaline and focus your energy to coax the crowd to get involved, not to compel them to.

At the risk of sounding a little 'New Age', the best live acts can adapt to the vibrations in a room, focus them and then amplify them. This goes right back to the 'turning of the screw' through the first part of the setlist that we discussed in Part 2. When you hit the right vibration and take a cold, still room to a heaving mass of sweaty bodies in the space of three songs, it's the greatest feeling in the world. The gigs we all live for are those when the crowd erupts and you no longer need to worry about any of these blog subjects and you can lose yourself completely. But it's important to remember that you and the crowd go through the process together, not separately. Physical reaction and dancing from the crowd is a goal that inexperienced bands often pursue above all else, yet movement is not always the indicator of the best show. A gig's overall connection can even be broken by over-enthusiastic pockets of fans being super-served, moshing violently or chanting louder than the rest of the crowd. The most powerful, memorable and life-affirming gigs are those where the connection across the room between crowd and band is strongest. And the trick to connecting is more often implosion than explosion. It's reaction rather than action.

A mic, between songs. Remember, you don't HAVE to use it.

KEEPING THE CONNECTION
If there's one place where even the best bands lose their confidence, let their guard down and break the spell of the connection, it's between songs. There’s always a certain amount of discomfort in the act of being on stage with a mic and talking to a crowd and it’s only natural that it feels odd. I don’t want to belabour the point, but to emote clearly and briefly is far preferable than mumbling. If what you do and say between songs is affecting the connection between you and the crowd, then just say very little. There's no rule saying you have to say anything. Don't ruin the mood with stupid jokes if you're not a natural comedian, or, as we covered in Part 3, don't say the same thing again and again for the sake of it. Don't create a cliquey atmosphere by sharing private conversations between you and your friends in the crowd. It's a tempting crutch to lean on but the people in the audience that aren't in your close circle of friends will not know about that mad thing that happened to Batshit Barry at Reading 2007, and frankly won't care, so don't bring it up.

A good way to look at it is that if you get the feeling that you might possibly, maybe, perhaps, just a little bit, be mumbling rubbish into a mic between songs then you definitely are. Next week we'll continue these ideas about projecting a good positive atmosphere onstage and communicating with each other, and others, with efficiency and wisdom before, during and after the show.

Until next time...

Barney

Crowd shot courtesy Cabaret Voltaire's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Mic shot courtesty Ashley Collins' Flickr used under Creative Commons License.