Musician in the twenty first century

Part 65

   It is funny how the modern age has changed the life of a musician. I am talking here about independent musician, the working musician. We depend on things like smart phone, our laptops, internet, wifi, 3G... I got thinking about this after for one day I lost all my phone numbers, notes, pictures and music on my mobile phone. Luckily I had backed up everything on my laptop, but I could not restore any of it until the next day. That one day made me realize how dependent we are on all this modern technology, that simply was not available to us twenty years a go.
  I think for me it was about 14 years a go when I set up my first Email account, and the thought of finding a concert through internet first dawned to me. Now it seems to be the first port of call for almost everything. But the potential of it all still surprises me from time to time. And I must admit I am still surprised how personal in its very sterile nature it has become. Now I am mainly talking about internet for music business here. As an example, when I first came aware of YouTube, I saw it as a great way for a band to represent a video of them selves. I assumed it should be a high quality video of professional quality. Of course if your video is of a high standard it helps, but the real potential seemed to dawn to me when I added more personal short videos of the bands every day life. This is something that I also have find hard to explain to others in the past. Sometimes it is better to do a quick video of something simple and mundane, than wait until you release your master piece that you will take you months or even years to complete. Share something simple. But keep it honest, be your self and people will see this. It is this honesty that makes you easier to relate to, more real. Of course if the part of your bands image is your stage character, you could make videos of your self in that character as well, but my opinion is that it is easier to be your self than put on an act and keep it consistent. This really is one of the many tools that make this an interesting time to be an independent musician. But don't get fooled here. It is not a mater of posting few videos on YouTube and next you become an over night success. We hear stories like these, but there are only hand full of them, and every one would like to think it is so easy. What it comes down to at the end of the day is numbers. The more videos you have, the bigger chance there is that one of them will be the one that gets picked up by the general public and shoots through the mass of videos out there. But if not, even hand full of views on loads of videos ads to a nice number. And don't for get the age old wisdom, at the end of the day, if your music is not good enough, the chances of you making it are slim.
   But let me just challenge you with this. For the next ten weeks, make ten videos, post them on your YouTube channel and share them on Facebook, twitter etc. And they don't need to be the best videos in the world, even half decent camera phone will do. I bet you will be surprised of the reception you will get from these videos, and you might even be inspired to make more. For an example, check out JPKALLIO.COM's YouTube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/jpkallio. And don't forget to have fun while you do this:-)
 
   J.P.

On a shoestring project part 37

  As you know from last week’s blog, life as a musician has its ups and downs. This week we have some great news! Jpkallio.com was selected as the wild card in the King Kong club! So we are performing at this months Semi-finals in the Village on Thursday the 19th of May. As you might know from the last time, it is the band with loudest claps, wildest cheers and craziest fans that gets to the final. They have an Empire state shaped Clap O Meter that measures the volume of the cheers for every band at the end of the night; it's pretty cool looking apparatus!

Also the upstairs venue at the Village is a brilliant, great sound system, amazing lights. It’s going to be one cracker of a night, and we need you there to support us. Here is a link to the event on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=160127527383064
You can select your friends to invite to it, if you are on Facebook and we would really appreciate if you could do so :-)
  The next bit of good news is: jpkallio.com has a new video out! And boy we are proud of this one ;-) Check it out!


  The video is once again a DIY production, our favourite kind of production ;-) I built the set, Qra set up the camera and we just went for it. And I can tell you; those guitar heroe games have not a patch on the entertainment value we got out of it! Then Qra edited the video and we were ready to go. Once again I am trying to make few points here: first videos don't need to cost an arm and a leg. Second: the promotional value of cleverly shot good looking video is priceless!
  So we hope you will enjoy this video, and share it with as many friends as you can. I was talking to a friend of mine last week online. And he asked when we will be on tour in Europe. Well I told him that it is way too early for that! We need to build some following first online. It comes down to the same thing; the value of the band is how many people they can bring to a venue. So if you are reading this outside Dublin and would like to see us play live, you can do us a favour and share this video with as many of your friends in your area as possible, so that when we eventually approach a venue, we can say: look, we have had ex amount of views from your area on our YouTube video.
These really are some of the great tools of the modern music business. Most social media sites offer you statistics and analytics that if used correctly can be valuable tools.
  And how about last week? As you know, Qra was in a bad way with his back, but we still had some concerts... So Krystian Mazur stepped in. And he did unbelievable job, considering he had a 24 hour notice to the first concert!

Krystian on our way to Leixlip

The Wednesday night in the Pint was quiet, I think most people were either broke or partied out after two bank holiday weekends on the row, but this kind of suited us fine as Krystian got to run through the set without too much pressure. On Thursday we were in the Arthurs bar in Leixlip. This was a great night! It is so nice to play at a band night when all the other bands are just nice people, no egos ;-) We were first on and Krystian really stepped up to the task! We made loads of new friends.

The second band of the night was 9thlife, a melodic metal band rocking it hard! The have been taking a bit of a break from gigging due to some line up changes, but this was their comeback gig, and boy was it good! No signs of rustiness here. The last band on the night was The Lost Colours, young acoustic rock band. It is so great to see young guys who understand the business and treat it as such! These guys had some great rhythmic play and tight harmonies. Both of the bands, I am sure you will hear about in the future.

  Also we will be playing the basement of the Sweeney’s bar on the 25th of May in the Juke Box night, so if you can't make it to the King Kong, then see you in the Sweeney’s. But sure, why not come to both :-)
Talk to you more next week. Oh yeah and almost forgot to tell you, Qra's feeling better and will be with us next week in the King Kong!
J.P.

On a shoestring project part 10

   I survived the Halloween weekend, hope it was ok for you guys as well. Once again it is upwards and onwards. I am getting closer and closer to the start of the actual recording of the album. Rehearsals have been going great, the songs are taking their shape, but more so I can hear an album. I think sometimes people forget this, I have made this mistake in the past... When rock music started to become more and more available in LP format, artists started making albums. Now when home recording has become so accessible for most people ( what used to be a price of a studio for one day, now you can buy a basic home recording equipment), The market has been exaggerated by millions of CD's or download albums ( Not a bad thing in my humble opinion, makes every one work harder to stand out). I did the mistake once thinking more is better. An album that had 14 tracks and a running time of over an hour. I must say, listening back to the album is hard work. Don't get me wrong, individual tracks are good, lots of great moments. But as an album it is little bit disjointed and too long. The standard running time of LP was 45 min. And I still think that best albums are around about this length. Also the collection of songs need to work as a unit, making a good album is little bit like making a film. Set of scenes that put together makes sense, keeps you interested and leaves you wanting more. This is very much what I want to achieve. And dare I say this loud? It would be nice to be able to release it as LP as well some day...

   As the idea of this project is to achieve a professional quality CD with a minimum budget, the home recording rout was always the first option. But let’s look in to this for a minute. The direction that the music has taken in the past few months is pretty solid rock album, drums, bass, electric guitar and vocals. And lot of the tracks would benefit from really classic sounds. I have considered in the past few weeks whether or not I should try to get to a professional recording studio for some, if not all of the recording. But this would blow the budget well out of portions (and possibly bankrupt me). I don't think I would benefit from spending my money on mediocre or budget studio, but the top studios still have some of the "toys" that create that exquisite in the sound. So what would they have? Well... Good studio would have great sounding acoustically treated rooms (never under estimate acoustics!), they would have a selection of microphones that I could not even dream of, and I once had the pleasure to record my own voice for one track with AKG C12. This is probably my favourite vocal microphone; at least I haven't got my hands on a better one yet. This I must say was magic... The detail was just out of this world, it was warm, clear, listening back felt like being in the room during the performance. But this microphone comes with a big price tag... in Thomann it is currently going for €3599... The other great industry standard is Neuman U87, Neuman certainly knows how to make rery nice microphones! The next thing in the signal change would be the microphone pre amp, maybe some nice Neve, Avalon or TL Audio. The smoothest compressors in the world, maybe a good old fashioned analogue tape machine. Selection of studio monitors, and of course an experienced engineer that could take all the stress of recording out of my hands... But as mentioned above, this would come at a big price... Even with the dreaded “R” word hanging over our heads, the studios of this standard would be charging anywhere from €500 up to €2000 a day... And let’s face it, if I had that kind of money to throw around, this blog would not be about recording an album on a shoestring budget.

   So I have a laptop, nothing fancy but OK, Acer aspire 5738Z, I have a Shure beta 57 a, a very good industry standard microphone, I have matched pair of Octava MK 012 small diaphragm condensers and I have access to pair of Shure SM 58. I also have friends who could possibly borrow me more microphones for a short term. I've been doing lots of research in the past few months on recording equipment, trying to figure out what would be most suitable for my needs and what would be the best value for money, without compromising on quality. And this is what I have in mind: I would need enough inputs to record drums, and hopefully something to spare. So minimum eight, and I would need XLR microphone inputs, and at least few with phantom power. And a silent operation would be a bonus. So the winner at the moment is Zoom R16 (follow the link for manufacturer’s site) It works as individual unit, as an interface for computer and also as a controller for your recording software. I think it is a genius of a device, and the feedback and reviews have been great. But obviously I will not know for sure until I get my hands on one. In Thomann they are priced at the moment at €345, Waltons in Dublin are selling it for €385, and for my friends in the states side Sweetwater are selling it for $399. But there is a great little store here in Dublin called the Goodwins, on Capel Street. I have bought lots of equipment from them over the years, and their service is brilliant! About year an half ago I bought a guitar amp from them and it had a problem in the valve sockets, and they ordered a replacement straight away and gave me another amp while I waited for the replacement. And I do like supporting a local shop especially if they try to compete with the internet giants. The list price in Goodwins is €359, and I am sure they can negotiate few Euros anyway, and if there is any trouble, the shop is with in walking distance from me, and I don't need to be posting stuff back to Germany while the project gets delayed by weeks, if not even months. Also I need some sort of studio speakers for mixing. And I have my eyes on ESI Near05 active speakers, in Thoman for €175 for a pair. I haven't found anything in Dublin to compete with them at the moment, but I am also keeping my eyes on Gumtree for second hand studio speakers around that price. Also I would like to get an large diaphragm vocal mic, and as the C12 is out of question, AKG has a budget range of microphones that are supposed to be great value for money. So the microphone in question is AKG Perception 120, and again in Thomann for €85 which I think is a bargain. If I was to invest more money on it, I would recommend looking in to Neuman TLM 102 (€555 in Thomann), Or TLM 103 (There is a second hand one on Gumtree at the moment for €500, a bargain!)

Anyway, that’s enough of window shopping for now; Let me know your thoughts and suggestions on my shopping list.