No Nü Music & thank u Tom
Bonjour, Hola, Wilkommen, Konnichiwa, iawn cont?
Welcome to week two of the blog, where I plan on discussing new music! So go grab a refreshing beverage of your choice, tuck in, and hold on to your nipples, cause all will soon be revealed (oooOOOooooOOOoooOOoo) x
For those who have read the previous blog post - 1) You have the will power and mental strength of a prime Daniel LaRusso. Congratulations and thank you for getting through that bollocks (this one is a lot worse) 2) You’ll know that I left off mentioning the EP which I recorded a couple weeks ago in Cardiff.
I recorded the EP with a handsome young man who goes by the name Thomas Rees. We call him Tommy Ten Toes, and by we I mean me. Tom is the front man and driving force behind the band ‘Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard’, who recently supported Tom Jones & Stereophonics in a sold out Principality Stadium - so he can do a music. Alongside this he is a fine producer, and mixing engineer. To work with him, but also get to know him was a privilege and an honour, a truly great person - thanks for having me Tom x
Over the 5 days we spent in each-other’s company me and ten toes got talking quite a bit. We talked about rats the size of a bag of meat, snare drums, Greggs vegan sausage rolls, Cardiff’s steady decline into the real life version of the upside down out of Stranger Things, and most importantly, music. It’s always good to surround yourself with people like ten toes, true professionals who work hard. It’s important to get in a room with them and just make yourself vulnerable, ask all the questions and absorb everything - thank you for your patience Tom x
Well to cut to the chase, because of ur conversation, the EP will most likely not be released to the world for quite some time, if ever (probably will but it adds dramatic effect and who ACTUALLY knows… ???) “Why Luke?” You ask… “You’ve put so much time, effort, money, and hard work into it, on top of that you also paid an extortionate amount for train tickets, messed up your Air B&B reservation and almost slept on the streets on a Thursday night as a result.” Recording an EP but never releasing it, “what an absolute useless shmuck this guy is” I hear a little voice in the back of my head say. Well how would you react if I told you I’m gonna do it all over again? Two more times. (This is the part where you get angry because you NEED to consume my music).
Before I eventually reveal the almighty answer to the almighty question that changed my mind on releasing the almighty music that will ultimately lead to an almighty anti-climactic drop to this almighty pointless blog - let me supply you with some pre-context. What it’s like being a solo musician. A true solo musician. “Nobody cares!” I hear you exasperate (ooo nice adjective), well strap in kid cause * we’re in for a bumpy ride * !
I was recently asked to participate as an interviewee as part of a friend’s dissertation about marketing in the music industry. There’s a colloquial term in my area of North Wales where we say “moider”. The closest equivalent of a moider, or moiderer (person), moidering (doing word - I can’t remember what the term is) is to waffle. To just keep talking with no real purpose or relevance - a little bit like what I’m doing now. Anyway, we had a good moider for about an hour, about the music industry and all it takes to “make it”. No clue why he asked me to be a part of it cause I haven’t made anything decent since the beanbag I made in year 9, but it allowed me to chat shit for an hour so I loved it. When I eventually shut up the conclusion was, doing the musics is bloody tough man… unless you have luck & money… a lot of it. Without that you’re toast *.
- before I talk money and musical politics its worth mentioning I completely 100% solely fund and support myself and my music -
What a lot of people don’t realise is how much effort and sacrifice goes into this hobby of mine. I could buy a second hand car for the same amount of money I spend on recording just one single in a professional studio. It’s also the amount of hours I put in to create a song, from the very first demo idea to the fully mixed and mastered version… I could probably watch Avatar back to back 36.5 times and then a bit more. It sometimes takes days, weeks, months or even years for a song to come to fruition… one song on this EP started in the 1st lockdown which was about 12 years ago! I write all my songs on my own, every instrument originates from my brain / fingers. Sometimes a good producer will put their spin on it, but I can assure you every single thing to do with my songs goes through me first. You could think of it as an instagram filter. I’m very proud of that because it’s really cool, but it’s also very draining and it has its downsides, doing everything on your own.
If you’re wondering why I’m moaning and going slightly off topic, don’t worry, cause so am I.
I guess what I’m trying to emphasise is that a lot of people overlook a lot of what us songwriters / musicians do, but there’s A LOT of leg work that goes into it behind the scenes before the consumer hears the end product. And it’s super-hard for unsigned artists who have 0 help from anybody else.
My usual game plan as an artist would be to write - record - promote a bit - release - promote a bit more - repeat. But it doesn’t work. I mean I am right now sitting on 39 monthly Spotify listeners. The month after a release I get a couple hundred max. Hardly successful. Not a single soul in this world cares about my music, and I don’t expect them to. But, I can try harder to make people care and attract an audience. I’ve been doing it wrong. When I used to wash pots in a restaurant, an old boss of mine told me, “when the plan’s going wrong, change the plan”. It’s the first rule of a successful business. Seems obvious really, doesn’t it. But when you’ve poured your heart out into something, when every ounce of effort has gone into creating a product you’re proud of, time, money, ambition, desire, pride has gone into it, you just wanna get it out and for people to listen / care / like it. It means everything to me. I want people to listen to my lyrics and relate to them, I want people to hear the textures I create and wonder how the hell I made that sound come to life, I want people to hear my obnoxious drum fills and think I’m a flashy twat. I love creating things, it honestly means everything to me. I want all of that because I’ve sacrificed (and am prepared to sacrifice a lot more) to achieve my dream. It’s all I want to do for the rest of my life. But, in order to make that a reality it usually goes back to needing luck and money. Neither of which I have.
“Stop feeling sorry for yourself Luke, why do you do it if it’s such a hindrance?”… cause I. LOVE. THIS. GAME. Proof reading all this with a pinch of hindsight I realise it seems like I hate the process, that couldn’t be further from the truth, the process is what I’m addicted to. Like a musical Del Boy I just love the hustle. Ever since I was a kid I’ve been fuelled by the chase & the doubt. The underlying message throughout this whole blog post is that, for the first time in my “career” I’ve actually received constructive & helpful advice from someone professional who has my best interests at heart. Stupidly, this is something that is so hard to come by in this industry. If you know you know, but the music industry gives a whole new meaning to that age old quote of “it’s a dog eat dog world”… which I’m not denying it definitely is, but it doesn’t mean we cant help each other out every now and then. But it helps so much when someone like me asks annoying questions and gets valuable advice from someone like Tom - thanks again Tom x
The advice I received (in short) that’s made me realise I need to change my plan = Don’t release your music until people listen. Create a hype. How tho??… This is my new approach:
1.Write good songs
2. Find a band
3. Gig
4. Approach gatekeepers (the right gatekeepers not just Simon Cowell)
5. Find out what gatekeepers are
6. The secret tactic of how to create a hype, which is actually the real saucy bit of advice - like the krabby patty secret recipe that I’m not gonna share because then it won’t work for me and also makes me a hypocrite (refer back to dog eat dog quote) - but I can’t give it a all away man!!
7. Support slots
8. Stick to one or two venues
9. Get gatekeepers at a gig
10. Cry because you did it all wrong and you can’t handle anymore failure so go back to working your desk job looking at excel price matching spreadsheets and fall into a dark depression
11. Hope your boss didn’t read that ^
And that pretty much sums it up, a very long winded and unnecessarily boring way to say “just do it” - could’ve just watched a Casey Neistat vlog no? I’m gonna do myself a favour and see this blog off now before I go leather a customised pizza, or crewpi as me ol’ American mate Josh used to say.
lol (lots of love),
Luke x