Mega Music Talent

Posts Tagged ‘instrumental music’

Views from newly discovered artist.

I am one of the new instrumental music artists with material signed to leading U.K. independent label AD Music during 2008. This was a year that saw a number of advancements for me in my musical aspirations and also where I am now heading on my particular musical journey that only really started in earnest some 2 years ago. I have been a music lover from an early age, I was fortunate enough to have private lessons and reach a fairly high standard before the age of 10 in both the practical and theoretical aspects of music, pushing things further in early teens before stopping everything to concentrate on exams and being a teenager. Electronic music was always my first passion, my first exposure to it in 1977 being Donna Summer’s iconic “I Feel Love” driven by Giorgio Moroder’s pumping Moog basslines. From there I discovered Tangerine Dream, Isao Tomita and The Human League. Then along came Jean Michel Jarre who turned everything upside down in the most positive way possible. Once away from the confines of school education and private music tutors, I allowed my wings to spread a little in the early to mid 1980′s playing in a succession of bands of all sorts of styles, including time in a country band!!! Whilst not my cup of tea musically, it was fun.

As a 20-something hopeful back in the 1980′s, I had a lot of very big dreams and aspirations with regard to my ambitions in the music business. I wanted to be on Top Of The Pops, The Old Grey Whistle Test (showing my age there!!!), The Tube (and again!!!) and Saturday Superstore (and yet again!!!)!!! I wanted a number one song that I had written, I wanted to play arenas, travel in a limo, have my very own recording studio and write my own column in music magazines of the time. Did I get there? Nope. What I did achieve however, was becoming something of a legend in my own bedroom, the greatest keyboard player ever to exist – in my mind. And so life moved on, the passion was dampened by the unexpected things in life as in jobs, losing jobs, getting married, having kids, you know what I’m saying, the same old excuses to cover every reason why I didn’t make it back then. So what changed? Well, quite a few things actually, if you want to consider the facts of no longer being married, kids growing up fast, new line of work, new relationship, new home in a new town etc etc etc. But the really big change was the determination to find a forward pathway in the music business. And the biggest change of all? I got older and wiser.

Okay, I’ve thrown a few bones into the arena here, let’s start putting some flesh on them.

My determination seems to be in the process of paying off, my first album was picked up by a reputable independent label, I’ve garnered genuine support and friendship of people within the business, I’ve played a live gig as support act to a well known electronic music artist and I have found myself being a part of the label who signed my first album. To carry this on, I have opportunities to potentially play live alongside some of the leading lights in modern electronic music, I have people contacting me asking for advice on equipment and my little album seems to have enjoyed a few sales and positive reviews as well. Not bad going for someone starting out in their 40′s!!!

How did this happen? Well, there have been a number of factors at play, not least the element of a little bit of good luck and a touch of positive judgment. When my marriage failed and I found myself living alone, seeing my two kids at the weekend and out of work through ill health, I took the step back to music which had been my first true love. I bought an old Yamaha keyboard, a MIDI interface and a cut down version of Cubase called Cubasis. I took the time to learn about the recording process and with the help of a friend from Germany, set about writing songs and pieces of music. I found the latter to be easier and having always loved electronic music in it’s different forms, the combination of the two seemed to work. So that was the first thing on my little road to proportional success – I learned how to use the tools of the trade at my disposal. Within a year or so, the first version of “The Garden” was complete, my German friend and I had a small collection of tunes ready to unleash on the world at large, which we duly did using on-line distribution. I also took a look at a couple of social networking websites, MySpace and Soundclick, up-loaded a few tracks and took it from there.

MySpace proved to be something of a gem. Within a short time I had contact with a few like-minded musos from around the world and then it started. I came across a small podcast radio show based in the West Midlands of the U.K. called Robo Cast Radio. The man behind Robo Cast Radio was Ian Price, an electronic musician himself and he was looking for new music to play and so I sent along a couple of tracks ? the response was quite something as it brought in new people who hadn’t heard my music before and new contacts who guided me in the direction of an independent local radio station in Leicestershire called Harborough FM, in particular a Saturday night program called “Hawke’s Chill-out Sessions” hosted by the venerable Terry Hawke, a long time fan of the electronic music genre. I sent along a copy of the first release of “The Garden” and a couple of tracks were played, more people found me out on MySpace and within a couple of weeks, I did a live interview on Terry’s show. From that interview, the pathway of the Geigertek project changed. I received an e-mail from Terry Hawke and also a chap called Steve Ruby who lives in the U.S., both of whom told me of a label called AD Music, run by the leading U.K. electronic music composer, David Wright. I knew of AD Music and David through my own love of electronic music ? I had several albums by David Wright, Robert Fox, Code Indigo and Bekki Williams.

I checked out the AD Music website, looked at the criteria of what they were looking for and how they operated, all of which sounded good to me, And so I prepared my Jiffy Bag with the CD and a covering letter that had a couple of photographs I had done of myself and when I came to put the address on the package, I got a surprise. What I didn’t realise was that AD Music was based in a small Suffolk town called Bungay which is only a 20 minute drive from where I live ? I had a good feeling about this, but being a “feet on the floor” type of person when it comes to the music business, I sent off my package thought no more of it. What happened next? Well it’s more than just a little surprising – find out more in part 2: “Expectations”.

Author Bio: Neil Fellows ‘Geigertek’, is based in Norwich and his debut album “The Garden” is available from AD Music Neil’s music is also available from Music Downloads for Free

Within a few days of sending my Demo to AD Music, I received an e-mail from David Wright expressing interest in my little album and inviting me to contact him, which I duly did. A longer than expected conversation ensued (an indicator of things to come!!!), and an appointment was made to visit David’s Planet Recording Studio in Bungay. The meeting was nothing like anything I expected, very informal, very relaxed and the time from 7.30pm to gone 3am flew by. We talked about a great many things, but David was very clear about the direction and approach of AD Music, how it worked, what it offered and what it would appreciate in return. And for me, the upshot was AD Music were happy to sign “The Garden”.

To me, this was success – my first instrumental music album signed to leading independent label. Why now and not 20 years ago? Apart from the obvious thing of the music being what the label was looking for, a lot of it has been to do with attitude and expectations. When you are coming into the music business, at whatever level, there are a number of things that you have to realise, learn and accept. The very first thing is that you absolutely have to know and accept that this is NOT a fast-track to fame and fortune, so many more fail than those who succeed. And this is also something that is very true when you are in a particular genre, such as electronic music, that does not have total global appeal. Artists within the electronic music genre do it for love, to satisfy a particular passion that pushes you out of the armchair and away from the hi-fi to make the music yourself. So rule number one – don’t expect to get rich quick.

To those who choose not to make music, people of our disposition can seem like “larger-than-life” characters, we are something out of the ordinary, something or someone who takes then away from their everyday lives to a place they may only dream of, even if only for a short time. If you make electronic music, or any style of music, then in my view, that makes you an artist as you are creating something conceived in your imagination, a fantasy coming to life if you like. As I see it, it’s perfectly natural, and quite logical, that if you want to take your art further, then that fantasy has to be extended to include you and how you want the world to perceive you, including a prospective music label. I come from a working background where image was vital and how our first impressions really do have a lasting effect, after all, this is a first introduction and it’s vital that you make the right impression. I decided upon a particular look that I liked, one that I felt suited me as a person and as an “artist” and so I followed that through. I took a few pictures with an ordinary digital camera and played around with the images in a standard image manipulation program to get the “look” I wanted. When preparing my covering letter, I emphasized what I was musically/artistically rather than what I was in everyday life. I created a persona and a look that was not the “normal” me ? I think the television advert created for Norwich Union’s pending change of name to Aviva perfectly sums up the point I am making. You have to ask yourself a couple of questions: would I be more appealing to the label using a bog-standard passport photo, or a quick snapshot taken in the garden that showed the real me? Or would I be better off presenting an image that showed what I wanted to be, giving a more professional look indicative of the music I made? I know what I chose because it showed that I was as interested in marketing me as the music, at the same time you and your music are separate, but you are also one and the same. There are many who believe that image takes a second place and that “it’s music that’s important” ? very true from a certain point of view, but I believe that to make any head way from the outset, you need to back up your product. From my limited experience thus far, it really does seem to be the case that a little effort in the early stages goes a long way.

I’ve looked at expectations and now I want to look at another important factor which I believe helped me a great deal ? attitude. You can take it as red that music labels don’t have time or resources for divas and this is something that can be discovered early in the process. Your demo won’t be perfect and there’s every likelihood that the label will make a few suggestions ? be open to these suggestions as what they are doing is not criticizing your work, but making constructive comments that will enhance your product. For example, AD Music felt that one of the tracks from “The Garden” was being let down by poor percussion and they suggested that I go back and re-do that part of the track. I completely re-recorded the percussion and it gave the piece a new lease of life. Another point raised was the production side of things was generally a little lacking in terms of frequency levels needing more attention paid to them through the use of EQ. I was also told that the album was a little short and could I do another couple of tracks ? I did this and came back with two new and, for me, quite exciting pieces of music using production principles explained to me in earlier conversations. In short, I was receptive to the minor re-recording suggestions because I knew my production limitations and I knew that these people had a lot more experience than me and, ultimately, it was for my benefit in the long term. Not only was I getting a product that sounded better, but I had learnt new techniques that I could take forward with me into new works. I also mentioned about luck and this was certainly the case as I built up a good rapport with David Wright and in the end we re-mastered the whole album having a barrel load of laughs along the way!!! But I also learnt a great deal from David about production skills and techniques. I am presently mid way through a second album, but a lot more confident of what I am doing on the production front because of everything that I learnt during the mastering of “The Garden”. Tune in for the final part of this article, part 3; “Effort and Continuity”.

Author Bio: Neil Fellows ‘Geigertek’, is based in Norwich and his debut album “The Garden” is available from AD Music Neil’s music is also available from Music Downloads for Free

Which brings me nicely onto the last part – effort and continuity. Effort pays off. End of story. But, there is the element of continuity, the need to keep that effort going. One of the things that attracted me to AD Music was that it is something of an artist run label, a lot of people do different bits and pieces and that appealed to me. It also made a lot of sense from the commercial point of view as well for both me and AD Music. And that’s where continuity comes into play. The album has been signed, but it still needs to be marketed and whilst to most that would seem to be a part of the role of the label, there are areas where you can help push things forward. Being active with your label will always help to promote you and your music, as I said at the beginning, it’s highly unlikely that you will find enormous wealth coming your way, but, every sale helps provide a little return for your artistic labours. On top of that, if you make an effort to help out then the label will be more willing to help you, so it’s very much a case of mutual back-scratching, but in a good way.

One of the main ways to promote you and your instrumental music (remember, you are one and the same from a certain point of view) is live performance. When I started the Geigertek project, it was going to be a studio only thing. I didn’t have the resources to set up a live rig with synthesizers and mixers etc etc etc. But it then dawned on me that it might be necessary at some point. One evening in early January 2008, David Wright was telling me of a concert he was doing in the following September in Bungay and out of the blue (for me) he asked me if I would be interested in playing as his support act – without thinking I said yes. Erm, when I started to think about it, I wondered what the hell I had let myself in for. I had a computer and a MIDI keyboard controller, a small mixer and that was it!!! But, I knew I needed to do a live performance and so I looked to ways of sourcing equipment – it was easy, a few choice purchases through eBay put me on track. The equipment was old, out of date and limited, but rather than give up on the idea, I sat back and looked at how I could get round the situation. Again, a bit of resourcefulness paid off ? I had a laptop that provided me with bags of power in the way of connecting two MIDI keyboard controllers and I had the benefit of having something of a classical training as a child, all of this coupled with continued effort paid off in terms of the time put in practicing and rehearsing – bringing everything together with the old equipment enabled me to deliver a performance that many didn’t believe was my first in over 20 years (and then that was only in bands). Another benefit playing this concert for me was that I was able to play alongside David Wright at the end of his set and meeting and playing alongside Robert Fox and the great Klaus Cosmic Hoffmann from Germany, a true character and master of the legendary Mellotron and another inspiration of my music.

So, it can be seen that live performance is quite an effective, and potentially fun way of marketing your product. Another way is through social networking. I’ve already talked about the impact MySpace has had on the Geigertek project, but also a website. It’s true to say that it won’t take off immediately, but within time and with a bit of effort, you can enjoy something of a web presence. And you don’t need to be an HTML genius to build a website, there are so many packages available that do the coding etc for you ? the only limits really are your imagination. But linking everything in together between MySpace, your own website and your label’s website can start a reasonably effective mechanism to kick-start you and your music, and ultimately, that can lead to sales.

Another area is festivals. Helping out a label by manning stalls is a great way to help promote your music and also for getting yourself known as you become accessible to those who would buy your CD. My partner Anne, and I enjoyed a fantastic weekend in October attending E-Live in Holland with David Wright and his wife, standing on the AD Music stall, talking with fans of the instrumental music genre, watching some great (and not so great) live performances and meeting some of the leading lights of the current electronic music scene, including Ron Boots, Mario Schonwalder, Thomas Fanger and Detlef Keller.

The music business has changed in a great many ways over the last few years and I hear it often from the people I have come into contact with since nailing my colours to the mast of the AD Music ship. There is no room for the prima donna or any excuse for substandard presentation. If you want to succeed, you can, but it is essential that you have to learn and accept the redefined measures of success within the music business. Music and its creation is a fun pursuit. It’s not about money, but everything about art, creativity and enjoying the journey. My music is heard on a global level, I have an album signed to and the support of a leading independent label, I have played as a support act to a prolific artist who has become a friend and I have met mingled with some of the best within the genre I chose to enter. To me, this is success and in my mind, I’m no longer a legend in my bedroom, I’ve achieved what I set out to do, therefore, I’ve made it

Author Bio: Neil Fellows ‘Geigertek’, is based in Norwich and his debut album “The Garden” is available from AD Music Neil’s music is also available from Music Downloads for Free