I Hate Mornings: Ben Walker's songwriting blog

The myth of "getting discovered" [1 comments]

23/07/08

Nick Gill has written up a conversation we had in the States last weekend, and taken it to a beautiful new level:

We performing musicians are, by and large, an insecure lot- we want our creations to be validated. Nothing says “validation” like an enormous cheque from someone who wants to make you famous. But it’s not going to happen. There are enough people who are willing to do anything to be pop stars that it’s much easier to mould them exactly as you want, rather than spend the time and effort trawling through back-room venues to find someone who has their own ideas about what they want to do. The false conception that this is how you make a career as a band is stopping thousands of musicians competing with major industry.

Nick goes on to stand on a plinth and announce his new manifesto for authentic musicianship:

Turn off your TV. It isn’t helping you.

Assume that everything a large record company tells you is a lie. The latest fresh-faced youngster does not have a groundswell of young people, who are much cooler than you, following her. She has not built a following by use of some technology that you’re only vaguely aware of. She did not write all her songs herself. Musical ability and independent spirit cannot be purchased from Toni & Guy, or from tight trousers at The Gap.

Do not invite A&R men to your shows. If you’re popular enough that they’d want to check you out for business purposes, then they’ll turn up anyway. If they do turn up, don’t let them in for free. They earn more than you, and they can claim it back on expenses anyway.

Forget about the whole idea of getting discovered. Make something that you care about, and make it as well as you can. Get a profile on the important music sites- MySpace, Last FM, Facebook, everything- and make these sites interact with each other. Write a blog. Make friends with people who are trying to do the same thing. If you’re an interesting person, people will find the things you produce interesting, and will listen to you. Find what it is about you that someone will find interesting, and tell them about it.

Do not sign up to music forums pretending to be a fan, or an interested third party. If you want people to listen to your music, ask them.

Be honest.

I couldn’t have said it better myself. ;o)

The myth of getting discovered

tags: artist 2.0, creativity, gigs, musicbusiness, musicians, promotion, web

Tipping

22/07/08

An offline voluntary pricing experiment

The last few years have seen a host of interesting online experiments with voluntary pricing models for music. I came across the idea through Jonathan Coulton (internet superstar), who was himself blogging about Jane Siberry and Songslide. The system generally relies on an artist having an established and loyal fanbase who are sufficiently understanding and aware of the realities of the musical career that they are willing to patronize their favourite artists by volunteering real money in exchange for music that is available for free.

The idea has always intrigued me, but I have never had a chance to experiment with it myself. The other night, however, I was surprised to find myself at the centre of an offline voluntary pricing experiment, during which I rediscovered the long-lost phenomenon of “tipping”.

“Tipping”: offline voluntary payments

It was 3am and I was sitting behind a grand piano in a hotel bar in Manchester, four hours into a set of singalong requests and going strong. Out of nowhere, a drunk guy in a suit sidled up with a glass and set it down on the piano. I was mildly disappointed to find that it wasn’t full of beer, but very pleasantly surprised to see that it was full of money. An impromtu collection had taken place, and my new best friend had created what you might call a “tip jar” from a Belgian beer glass.

Now I’ve had coins thrown at me before, but this was different. No coins. Notes only. I quickly wrapped up my hilarious rendition of “I Wanna Be Like You” from The Jungle Book, and counted my winnings. £240. That’s right. Two hundred and forty pounds. Of course I carried on playing until everyone was passed out or ordering breakfast.

A useful income stream?

There are certain parts of that situation I can recreate: the drunken crowd, the late night singalong and the pockets full of money. But the drunk guy with the tip jar was a magical catalyst. Enough of the crowd knew him to start off the generous tipping, and he was drunk enough to persist (but not drunk enough to accidentally spend it all on more beer…). Without him I would have woken up the next morning just as hoarse and hungover, but none the richer.

We’ve all heard stories of piano bars in distant lands where tips are as forthcoming as applause. I hear there might even be a couple in London. I’m going to find them. If there’s one thing I can do better than anyone I’ve ever seen, it’s playing five hours solid of requests in any key (and 90% of the lyrics intact), including shameless covers of Neil Diamond, Disney, Tina Turner and Billy Joel. There’s no depth of musical populism to which I won’t sink for cake and/or cash.

So who knows a good piano bar…?

tags: cash and cake, live music, musicbusiness

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall: the video is live!

20/07/08

Today I made a video (or a “music clip”, as the Australians would have it) for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the second song I have written for the 50/90 Challenge. Shot entirely on location in rural Oxfordshire, it features several different fields, some sheep and even some lavender. Check it out:

I was going to include a load of explanatory photos to add to the comedy effect but I couldn’t bring myself to detract from the pure rural beauty of the raw footage, so I’ll explain here. Firstly, for those of you who don’t know who Hugh is:

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (born 14 January 1965) is a British celebrity chef, television presenter and “real food” campaigner, known for his back-to-basics philosophy.

On television, Fearnley-Whittingstall’s reputation is that of a eccentric chef. Initial exposure came in Cook on the Wild Side, an exploration of earthy cuisine. His habit of “picking up roadkill and eating the hedgerows […] earned him his nickname of Hugh Fearlessly-Eatsitall”. He followed this with the series TV Dinners, during an episode of which he notoriously flambéed and puréed a human placenta which was served as a pâté and “much enjoyed by the baby’s family and friends”.

from Wikipedia

I was introduced to Hugh by my friend Rowan, who recently appeared out of the blue on the Channel 4 reality holiday show Shipwrecked. Back when we were in a band together, Rowan used to bring bags of videos to the studio and make us all watch alternating episodes of River Cottage and Ultimate Wrestling, in which fighters from every discipline would be pitched against each other in a battle to the death. Or so it seemed. Lucky for me, I repressed all memories of Ultimate Wrestling until recently and instead concentrated on the rural, organic idealism of the Hugh.

There’s a line in the song that says “he grows PSB in the shade of a tree”. If you haven’t tried locally grown Purple Sprouting Broccoli, you haven’t lived:

I also mention that Hugh can tell his woodcock from his snipe. Can you?:

And while we’re at it, to pass the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall chicken test, can you tell the difference between battery farmed and free range chicken?:

That’s probably enough quasi-educational rambling for now. I hope you enjoyed the song and the video. And if you happen to run into Hugh in your local Tesco car park, be sure to tell him about it…

[thanks Flickr for the Creative Commons licensed photos. Click the images for originals.]

tags: 50/90, solo, video

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall [1 comments]

11/07/08

So we’re a week into 50/90, and I’ve uploaded one song and a set of lyrics. That doesn’t sound like a great average, but I have written four more that I haven’t had a chance to demo yet, so I’m going to be busy when I get back next week.

The list looks like this at the moment:

Glider Man
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (lyrics finished, no demo yet)
You love what you already know (most lyrics done)
I Just Want To Be Pretty (transvestite self-pity song, started writing with Ben Salmon)
Cat and Fish (half written on the plane to Boston)

Songwriting on steroids

I’m happy with the progress. Forced productivity (or active creativity) is quite amazing. It makes you realise that there’s never an excuse to sit around not writing. If you want to be a songwriter, write songs. By the end of the summer I will be a fully fledged songwriter, with a catalogue of songs in different styles and a work ethic to die for. ;o)

One thing that has suffered is the blog. Now that I’m spending any downtime writing song ideas, I haven’t been scribbling the blog ideas like usual. I’ll find the balance soon.

tags: 50/90, creativity, productivity, songwriting

I'm going to write 50 songs in 90 days [1 comments]

3/07/08

Tomorrow I embark upon my greatest musical adventure to date: to write 50 songs in 90 days. The 50/90 Challenge has been running for a few years, and is hosted by the FAWM guys. So far 1700 songwriters have signed up to the open challenge, which runs from tomorrow to the beginning of October.

Why would I do this?

I was settling in for a 3-month writing session this summer anyway, and the 50/90 Challenge coincides exactly with that. More importantly it offers me a structure for my writing, on many levels. The 50-song target means that I will have to aim to write a song a day for at least 4 days each week. That forces me to imagine, write, rewrite and demo each song in less than 8 hours (much less if I want to earn any money over the summer ;o). So I also get a daily structure out of it. More of that later.

The second main benefit of the 50/90 is that it offers me community involvement and feedback. The 50/90 forums are hyperactive, with hundreds of songwriters posting daily on their progress, frustrations and adventures. And because I will upload a demo of every song I write to the 50/90 site, other writers can give me feedback on my work, which is always invaluable. I will also be posting here on ihatemornings.com with songwriting stories for the creative crowd and tall tales of my time locked up in the barn for family and friends. ;o)

I’m also looking forward to cowriting a few of the 50! I’ve talked to Rob Stevenson (A Silent Film front man and songwriter) about trying some cowriting sessions over the summer, and Ben Salmon has already pitched me his vision for a Hinton-in-the-Hedges concept album of folk-country comedy songs. I can’t wait!

The routine

To meet the challenge I will need to run a pretty tight ship, with early mornings and some serious concentration. This is my plan (which will undoubtably change):

10 song ideas before breakfast. I find sitting on the lawn with a cup of tea is ideal for this.
Hearty breakfast (probably porridge, with some sort of banana, blueberry and maple syrup combo), while picking 2 or 3 ideas and storming the brain.
Berkleemusic songwriting assignments (1 hour).
Short walk
Write the song. 2 hour limit. Rewrite and craft as much as possible, but try to get at least 2 verses and a chorus.
Lunch
Demo (simple piano/vocal or guitar/vocal)
Email, feeds, etc.
Listen back. Re-record if necessary.
Upload. Blog, forums.

I usually spend days working on a demo but for the 50/90, that’s not possible. I’ve fired up the old laptop with Pro Tools, which means two things: that I have a permanent recording setup, which is super-conducive to creative flow, and that I don’t have all the usual MIDI instruments and loops that I usually tinker with in Logic. It’s going to be simple and pure. No click. No MIDI. No options. ;o)

Prolificacy is underrated.

I overheard some random dullard shouting about art in a café this afternoon, saying that true artists should never be forced to create, that they should be allowed the freedom to create only when inspiration strikes. “Balls to that!”, I shouted across the room. “Waiting for inspiration is just a pathetic excuse for not understanding your creative process!” Well, that’s what I might have shouted had I been the kind of random dullard who shouts in cafés. ;o)

I’m a convert to the Jack London school of creative thinking: “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” (via fawm.org). And I’m not the only one. If you’re interested in examining your own creative process, here are a few resources for you:

Check out Joshua Pearl’s podcast, Hear and Now: Debunking the Myth of Inspiration for a healthy discussion of inspiration and songwriting.

Steve Lawson posted today on the very topic of teaching creativity over at the Creative Choices site, saying that “the act of creativity as a musician begins with playing two musical phrases, choosing which one you like and playing it again – that’s the root of composition and improvisation.” Sod inspiration!

Andrea Stolpe also posted today on kick starting your creative process:

Every few months it can be a great idea to change up our process. Not only do we realize greater depths of skill, but we consistently knock down the tower of hesitation that keeps us bound within our typical melodic, harmonic, and lyrical styles.

And one of my favourite art movements, Crap Art, sums it up perfectly in their 4th Principle of Crap Art:

That which is created rapidly and in high quantities contains more variety and is more likely to be successful/innovative. Applying the 80%/20% “rule”: If only 20% of the effort is needed to get 80% of the quality, then spending by spending only 20% of the effort, we can create five times as many artifacts at 80% quality!

Wish me luck!

It’s going to be an amazing adventure full of rural drinking songs, lofi demos, massive creativity, hearty breakfasts and maybe even time-lapse photography (“Oooh! Aaah!”). If you want to be involved in the adventure, read this blog! Subscribe to the RSS or just check back whenever you’re bored at work, and watch me create an entire catalog of legendary songs in 3 months! For free!

If you’re down with the technology, check the cash and cake post for details of how to watch me on Twitter, Youtube, etc.

And be sure to tell your friends. ;o)

tags: 50/90, creativity, productivity, songwriting, web