Is there such a thing as bad music?

  New year, new tricks! I hope anyway... Well the holidays came and went and to be honest with you, I'm glad. I like the festivities, but these days it just seems to last too long, with Christmas adds out in October. I always liked January, I know... I 'm odd that way. It's just that it feels like new chapter and everything is possible. With the new year I think most of us do some soul searching and plans for the new year, or new years resolutions. Anyway that's not what I want to get in to know.

  Over the holidays I was exposed to a lot off what in my mind is bad music. And It got me thinking a bit, always a dangerous thing... For most musicians I have talked to over the years, it seems the music charts in most countries is mostly crap. I lost interest in the charts long time ago. Partly because lot of the music really is not to my taste, partly because the more I learned about music business the more I realized how they work. But I think the biggest reason is just a practical one, I don't listen to mainstream radio, or any music TV channel. I don't drive a car, I work from home and my commute to gigs is either 5 mins. When I am on tour, we don't really listen to much music in car. If I listen to music on the road it's from my iPhone and I am in charge of the play list. And when at home, I listen to Cd's on my Hifi, (yeah, call me old fashioned). I also do listen to lot of music on YouTube while I work, in fact this is where I find most of new music. I listen to songs, or even whole albums several times before I actually purchase a CD (that's just for any one in major label office who thinks that sharing music online is bad for sales :-D). If I go out to pubs, I usually choose them either based on the kind of music they play. Still when I do get exposed to the chart music, usually in shops funny enough, often I find my self wondering how the hell did that load of crap got there and again I am sure I am not on my own thinking this.

  But lets just stop for a second here and think. Even though to days charts are very much a manipulated system that works on the advantage of the major labels, which then gets fed on to the radio, or very often the other way around, there still need to be substantial numbers of records or downloads shifted by the public. So are we musicians and dedicated music lovers so arrogant as to think most of the music consuming audience is wrong? That what they listen to is shit and we and only we can see the true gems? Obviously if you dedicate your time to learn an instrument, play years in a band, you do get certain understanding of structures, rhythms, chord progressions etc. And I might even dare to say you would have more educated ears. But does this still mean most of people are wrong and we right? Well, in my opinion yes and no. But to really understand this, lets look at some major label tactics.

  When a major label, puts out an album, single and video they pump what would seem like a crazy amount of money on the promotion. The idea is that if you invest enough on getting the music to the public audience, eventually the scale tips over and people start buying the downloads and Cds and the record labels investment is payed and they are in profit. If the artist does well, the record company gets to multiply their investment several times. The thinking behind a major label is always to please as many people as possible with the music they invest in. This is why very often for us this seems like very middle of the road music. Also it is very accessible, in sense that it is every where! I mean, if you walk around the town, you will hear it in the stores, you will hear it in the main stream clubs on every weekend, you can buy it at the major record shops right at the door, you can even buy it at Tesco and get club card points! And I think this is a big thing for lot of people. They go for it as it is there, they like it as it is catchy and they have heard it already about fifty times over as back ground music. And guess what, they like it.

  Should this be changed? Well I can promise you that major labels will fight to the last living bone to hold on to their market. If they were to loose, I'm sure some one else would take their place and continue pretty much the same way. They are major corporations on the top of their industry, that's just the way it is. But what I do think is needed is some alternative to the old chart system to recognize the immense amount of talent out there. I am not talking about a free ticket to fame, but an opportunity for the independents to expose their music to the greater public. Especially in Ireland where we have such a great underground music scene. But until then, we just need to get out and go to a live shows, or surf on the YouTube for something bit more “interesting music”

  Happy new year to you all. May this be a year full of music:-)

    J.P.

Are the days of promoting your band on the Facebook gone?

Part 95

  Why is it that every time you come across some great promotional tool, service, company etc. Eventually there comes a time at the end of the story when they ask for your credit card details? I am not saying you can buy your self a career, but you most certainly can buy your self a small bit of fame, if you wish to do so. Then we have the great promotional tools like the Facebook. But hold on, once again they changed something... If you have a band profile on Facebook, you have under every post a number that represents how many people your post has reached and a percentage of how many that is from your total fans. On average on posts that posted in the past month or so, the reach is around 19%. Once the post is up for longer time, I am happy if it reaches 40% in a month. So not so good news for the next show you are putting on. Seems like you got to go back to the good old fashioned posters... Unless people not only like your band page, but also subscribe to your news feed, most of them wont see your posts... Why is this? Well it comes down to the same thing, they are hoping to get your credit card details. Beside the reach figure there is a promote drop down menu, that promises to reach about 1500 of your fans for €5. That is if you have 1500 fans and I am still wondering what happens to your money if you don't... So yeah, here is the bad news, Facebook as it is right now, does not work as a free promotional tool. What bugs me even more is the fact that once again they decided to do this without letting us know and in the shadow of the company entering the stock market. Seven months ago it was very easy for me to reach about two to three hundred people a day with this blog, but just due to a small change in the Facebook, those days are gone. And I can only imagine how many bands put on shows, posted it on Facebook, and their fans actually never heard about it until long after the show.

  So here we go, if you are reading this blog, you have been warned! And once again we go back to the old truth, you need your website and your mailing list. No social media site is going to ever replace these tools.

     J.P.

It's good to be busy

Part 87.


  I have a very busy week behind me, and another one just started. And guess what? I am loving it :-) We had two concerts with JPKALLIO.COM. On Thursday we were over in the Submarine bar in Crumlin. This is well known Sports bar, but to my surprise it is amazing venue as well. There was a small case of unsuitability though, I'd assume most bands playing in the venue usually are either more folky or indie rock. There is a decibel meter on top of the bar facing a stage and as soon as we started it maxed out and stayed like that until the end of our set :-D. But hey, everyone seemed to enjoy it.

  On Friday we were in Swords and in the Slaughtered Lamb. This is a quite busy battle of the bands. There was eight acts on the night and we were the second last to get on the stage. The Slaughtered lamb had a nice set up, but we were starting to feel the hanging around and two late nights. In all fairness, it is a part of the job and something I am well used to with Sliotar, in the famous words of Charlie Watts on the 25^th  anniversary of the Rolling Stones he was asked what the 25 years had been like he said: “Five years of playing and 20 years of hanging around”. It never really gets easy, but I think with time you learn to deal with it better. I think the biggest thing to keep in mind in a moments like these is that you are not alone, all your band mates and the other bands on the night are in the same situation, so moaning about it does not make any ones life any easier. It can also hard on your concentration. After waiting for four hours, you get up and play, it can feel like it sneaks up on you and sooner than you think the gig is over. There is something I do and find it helpful. After setting up and just before I play. I try to just clear my mind and slow down my breath. If you do this even for like 30 seconds, it can have surprising effect on your performance. So try it out the next time;-)

  Then on Saturday and Sunday I was busy with Sliotar. The pressure is on with the summer tours starting on in mid May. There is always some car maintenance before the tours, which I am very happy Des, the drummer in Sliotar takes a good care of. Also before any tour I look through all my guitar set ups and at the moment I am going through some changes in my acoustic guitar rig. For years I disliked acoustic guitar amps, even to the point that it might have been over 10 years since I tried one. But a friend of mine gave me a lend of Marshall AS50D which I used on the Sunday gig. I must say I was very impressed! There is definitely a reaction between the guitar and an amp that I think I have been missing with the acoustic guitar. It felt like it all made sense lot more once again. So now I am looking what else there is out on the market:-). I have met people who tell me they are very happy with their instrument set up. Personally for me, I have been a professional musician for the past 15 years now and I have constant need to improve on my sound. I think the day I stop trying to improve my sound, is the day I should call it a day... But still, all the nice toys in the world won't change what your fingers do, that's where the real magic is and that's why still after 15 years I practice almost every day.

  Now this week JPKALLIO.COM will be in the basement of Sweeney's tonight (Wednesday the 25^th of April). We'll be the first on at 9.30pm. This is the first of the Music Mediums rock/Metal nights, which they are hoping to have once a month. In all fairness it was about the time Sweeney's had a dedicated night for the harder side of the music spectrum;-) There are some great bands on tonight, and If Sweeney's basement had a decibel meter, I'm sure it would stay up all night;-)

  Then Tomorrow the 26^th of April we'll be in the Pint once again. There is always an excellent sound in the Pint and we're really looking forward to this one as well. There is a

  And this weekend I'll be in the Porterthouse with Sliotar again on Saturday and Sunday. So yep, busy week;-). And you know, when you are independent musician, busy is good. It is almost always better to be playing than not. The only way to get better at what you do is do it a lot. No amount of rehearsals will never get you the experience you get from playing live. And it is the best way to spread the word of your band As well.  Hope to see you at one of the shows.
   J.P.

How to make sure you won't get booked again

  So here we go, I'll get the rant out of the way first. In the past seven months we have done 15 concerts. In these 15 concerts we have done anything from battle of the bands to show case nights to organizing our own concerts. And as lot of you know through my experience with Sliotar and other bands I have played in over the years, I have done well over thousand concerts. So I have seen a lot and I know how hard it is to get band of the ground. Here is one thing that has been bugging me lately: when a band takes a part in any kind of show case/band night, I would expect them to stick around and listen to the other bands. And believe you me I know some of the music would not be up to every ones taste, I don't have much tolerance for out of tune guitars (get a tuner and get your guitar intonated!) and bad timing (Practice with a click), but suck it up, they are in same situation you are or were. Ok, you might have to get up the next morning early to work, but first of all you can talk with your band mates and some of you could stay, if some of you must go. Second, and do I have news here for you, if you seriously want to make it some day, I mean make your living out of music, you will need to learn to get by with very little sleep. Let's repeat that one just to make sure you got it: Being a full time musician, you need to learn to get by with very little sleep! Six hours is a good night sleep for me. Now in all fairness, about once a week I do pass out for nearly twelve hours... But You get my point. There is always some excuses and sometimes they are more valid than others. So just stop and think about it the other way around. Think what you would want the other bands to do while you play? Musician’s talk that's how the word goes around and to be honest with you, what I've seen in the past year, this is what separates the frustrated amateurs from the pros.

  Let's look at this from a different perspective. As I mentioned there above, we have organized some of our own gig nights, and helped other organizers to book bands as well. This is something I have big plans for, and will be doing more and more. From a gig organizers perspective, unless the band has a genuine reason, I mean if you have a important festival gig the next day and a long drive, that's fair enough. But if I just see the band come in, play their set and run off, because it's well past their bed time, you can be sure I won't be booking them any time soon. And if you think I am the only one who thinks this way, I've talked to few organizers and it is one of those things that register at the back of their mind. They will remember the band that stayed till the end and checked out every act. You might think here, what does that have to do with music? Everything! You expect other people to support your band if you don't support others? Anyway, enough of that ;-)

                                         Thanks to Will Bury for the photo.

  So we had a busy week :-) JPKALLIO.COM played twice in Sweeney's. Wednesday was the Music Medium Live night in the basement. As the regular readers of this blog know we've been there few times before. They are a small group of people working hard trying to do something for the music scene in Dublin and slowly but surely they are building momentum, once again proving that hard work and persistence does pay off in music business. They run a Singer songwriter night in the Sweeney's on Tuesday nights, Juke box slot showcase on Wednesday nights, FissionFriday once a month upstairs in Sweeney's and they are just starting another night in the Mezz on Sundays. So if you are looking for a gig for your band or solo act, get in touch with them, they are really nice people as well :-)

  On Saturday night we were back in the Sweeney's, upstairs this time. Weekend nights in Sweeney's are busy, so we had a hopping gig. This was number 15 in our 100 concert challenge, slowly but surely getting there ;-) Also on both gigs it was great to see so many familiar faces, we are making friends on the way.
The next concert at the moment is the Rocktober semi-final in the Fibbers on Saturday the 19th of November. The standard of this competition has been very high, so it will be a great night of music. I think we need to pull out few extra stops for this one ;-)

  In the mean time, we have decided to go and record few tracks in the Trackmix studios, so in few weeks time we'll lock our selves in there for few days and we'll see what comes out of it. We will be bringing camera with us and try to document some of the stuff while we're there. So before that we'll be rehearsing our backsides off. Oh yeah, and we need to agree on the songs we want to record...
So that's enough for this week. Hope you managed to get through the autumn with out a cold; I'm trying to shake mine. Have a good week and I'll be back for more next week.

  Oh nearly forgot to mention:-) The Halloween is on its way. I am taking few days off and going to Warsaw for the long weekend, but there are some great concerts around during the Halloween weekend that deserves a mention. Our friends the Pimps and Gimps are playing in the Harbour bar in Bray on Sunday the 30th of October, so head over there for some quality punk rock. Also the EHT promotions are running a fancy dress metal night in the Pint and our friends 9thlife will be on the bill along with loads of other great bands. Hmm... how do I get a feeling you might find Qra at the Harbour bar and Sebastian at the Pint;-)

J.P.

Reality check

Blog 53

  So the second year, here we go! I'm just back from a short break on the north coast of Poland. I had a week of sunshine, beach, sipping cold beer and making funny faces to a four month old baby. So as I am sure you can imagine, I am pretty relaxed at the moment. But I knew I had a big work load waiting for me here in Dublin, which I was actually looking forward to, but I do miss the sunshine...

  Our birthday bash is getting closer, Friday week, to be exact and if you want a sneak preview whats coming up, The 9thlife who will be playing on the night, are playing in the Pint this Thursday. You should check them out!
We are really looking forward to the show as JPKALLIO.COM has had a bit of a break from the live shows. We have few more dates booked for the rest of the year, but I am playing this bit safe as Qra has few hospital visits next month and until we know that his back is ok, we'll concentrate on rehearsing songs for the album. I am the type of person who rather does things than over analyze them and wonder if I should or should not do something, so holding back can be tough for me, but I'll still rather be safe than sorry. Making sure Qras health is OK and he can play any shows in the future is our priority number 1 right now.

  But as I mentioned this before, we do have some tough decisions ahead of us about the recording of our first Album. These are the same problems most bands face. Will we record the album with our own equipment, or in a studio? If we decide to go for the studio, I know for sure that the album will take much longer to finish, just because of the finance, or lack of it. In the other hand I can understand that especially Sebastian is worried about the drum sound on the album. This is something that many bands fail to get right in their rehearsal demos, but still with little bit of knowledge(and microphones, leads and stands combined with your usual recording set up) it can be done. But by recording the album by our selves, it would give us more freedom, time and room for experimenting. In a studio it is always a race with time... But I would like to hear your thoughts on this, as we will be sharing the process here with you guys. Would you like us to record in Studio and share with you what goes on in there, or would you like us to record the album by our self and go through the process step by step?

  This actually brings in mind another subject. Money! This is something that has some sort of effect on all of our lives, weather we want it or not. But lets just look at this for a second from a musicians point of view. I'm sure most of you think Money should not get in the way of music, but it does play big part on things. The very least in my mind what band needs to do to exist is to play music and to do this you need a rehearsal space. I would say the usual going rate at the moment in Dublin is €50 per session (usually four to five hours). If you want to take your band seriously, you want to be rehearsing minimum twice a week. So do the maths, it does add up pretty fast. Then you have all the equipment you need, even the basics. If you want to record some of your tracks that you spent endless hours rehearsing, studio don't come cheap. When you get your demo out, and get some concerts, you do need to get to the venue with all your equipment, another cost. I am not trying to scare any one here, but you do need to be realistic about all this. If you play in a band that plays original music (not just covers), you do need to accept that it is an expensive hobbies, which will take lot of your time and only has an microscopic chance to lead to career. Once again let me tell you, I am not trying to scare you, but I've come across so many websites selling you the short cut and telling you how you can do this. If this is so, why only so few of the thousands of bands out there “make it”? Well, persistence and hard work definitely do come in to the game. Most bands fail because they give up.Life gets on the way, work, family... and yes, money... But if you really do love playing music, let me ask you one question: what would you rather spend your little extra cash that is left after paying your bills? So what I guess I am trying to say here is if you rather spend your money on your music than for example holidays in the sun, nights out in the town, new car (even second hand) etc, you might just be on the right track;-)
J.P.