They Were Rockin’ And Rollin’ in Austin
Contributor: Rylan Keturi Austin, Texas
Promote Your Music: Perform at All Sorts of Events
We’ve been talking about ways to build your fan base. Last week we looked at film festivals, but there are all kinds of local festivals, fairs, shows and events whose main focus isn’t entertainment but still offer up lots of music. There are hundreds of local, small and large, forums for you to perform your music and build a fan base. Start by looking at what is going on within 60 miles of where you live. Some small communities have festivals/fairs that just last one day while others usually last the entire weekend. These websites are a good place to start:
Festivals (General)
Food Festivals For example, in a state such as California, if it is a fruit or a vegetable, there is a festival for it. Almost all of them like to have music while attendees are sampling every type of way to prepare that crop for human consumption.
Cars Whether vintage, new or a specific type there are usually lots of local car shows.
Just to get an idea how large some of the festivals can be consider the Oxnard Strawberry Fest taking place this weekend. Oxnard is about 60 miles north of Los Angeles. In 2011, over 5,500 tickets were sold to the festival. This weekend is the 2012 Oxnard Strawberry Festival. Of course, the main event is feasting on strawberries served up every which way you can imagine, but lots of music will be performed on two different stages and more than likely over 5,000 people will hear it!
Festival/fair planners often start months in advance in lining up the performers so it is never too early to start looking at your options.
Film Festivals Are A Great Way to Have Your Music Heard and Increase Your Fan Base
When musicians think of playing at festivals they usually dream of festivals such as Warped Tour, Bonnaroo, Glastonbury, Coachella and SXSW, just to name a few of the majors. Musicians just starting out don’t have a great chance at being heard at one of these. But why not check out performing at a local film festival? Many film festivals solicit submissions for musicians to perform. Some even award prizes. Lots of film festivals have thousands of attendees.
One yearly film festival that is coming up is the Ventura Film Festival in the beach town of Ventura. At the Ventura Film Festival, musicians perform at the historic Majestic Theater as well as other venues in a talent showcase. Last year the performers played in front of a sold out audiences. Their music was by audiences that included award winning Hollywood directors, producers, actors, and other entertainment industry executives. Not a bad exposure!
One thing you need to know is that some of the festivals require performers to sell a certain number of passes to the film festival. How many passes the band/musician sells might impact the size of the venue played or if they can perform at all. Each festival has different rules.
If you live in southern California you might still have the opportunity to play at this year’s Ventura Film Festival festival. You can still contact organizers for availability.
So why not check out all local film festivals for opportunities? It just might be the start of something big!
Spotlight on: Walk Off The Earth – A Band That You Should Know
About two weeks ago we featured Emma Hack the skin illustrator behind Gotye’s tremendously successful video, “Somebody That I Used to Know.” That video has been viewed over 175 million times and the song is played everywhere constantly. Walk Off The Earth, an indie band formed in 2006 in Burlington, Ontario has made quite a name for itself performing covers. What is unique about this band is that until very recently, Walk Off The Earth, was a band with no record label and no promoters just doing it all on their own and becoming very popular. Their recent cover of “Somebody That I Used to Know” went viral in just 12 hours and was viewed over 50 million times in ONE month and so far has had over 100 million hits in just four months! Their cover of “Somebody” is different in sound and also has something else unusual going on. Take a look, five musicians are playing a single guitar. Gotye himself tweeted on his song’s cover, “I know who to ask for help with acoustic versions of Somebody: Walk Off The Earth the performance was hilarious and brilliant.” If you are someone who is late to the party, you can check out the video and find out what everyone is talking about.
The band members are: Gianni Luminati, Ryan Marshall, Mike Taylor, Joel Cassady and Sarah Blackwood. Just this last February the band signed a recording contract with Columbia Records.
Besides doing an amazing job performing covers with their unique and beautiful voices, the band is popular for performing the songs on instruments that most people don’t hear that often such as the ukulele and the theremin. Check out their very cool video and rendition of “Little Boxes.”
Joining a Band: Seven Things to Consider
You’ve had visions of being the next big rock star, or maybe not! You do know you want to be in a band and have some fun. To give yourself the best shot of making it succeed here are somethings you should consider:
1. Are you your goals the same as the other members of the band?
Maybe you want to play music just to have a good time and maybe meet some hot girls/guys. The other members see the band playing Staples Center in L.A. , the local club is fine for you. You have a fledgling career you want to move ahead in or school is your first priority. The band is more of a hobby for you than your life’s work. Your band wants to go on the road. Is that something you want/can do?
2. On the same note, how much of a time commitment you will need?
Does the band practice three times a week for 3-5 hours and then performs at an open mic or a show on one of the other nights? Do you have that type of time? How flexible will the band be when you have other commitments?
3. How will being in the band affect your other relationships?
Being in a band can require some pretty significant time commitments. You might find yourself saying “no” a lot to your girlfriend/boyfriend, family and friends. You say to yourself, “It’s worth it!”
4. Does the band play your kind of music?
For example, you might be very unhappy if you want to sing and play pop and the band’s genre is more alternative or heavy metal. Unless you are open to trying different kinds of music you should hold out for a group that is closer to what you want to do.
5. Chemistry. Ok, so you don’t have to fall in love with everyone in the band but it does help a lot if you think you can get along well. It’s hard to tell right away what the dynamics of the band are. Who is the grand mufti or prima donna in the group? Do you think you can get along with him/her? Sometimes you will just have to “play along” and see where you fit in. You will be spending lots of time with these people. Do you want to?
6. Ability.
Do you play or sing as well or better than the other members of the group? It usually will make for a more harmonious group literally and personality wise if everyone is pretty close to each other in skill. On the other hand, do you bring something to the band that is important? Does the group offer you something you need? Maybe it doesn’t matter you just want to hang out and have fun!
7. Who gets to choose the music?
If you write music but won’t be at the forefront of the band, will you ever have the opportunity to have your music heard? Will the lead singer sing it? Or better yet, let you sing it if you want to? Can there only be one person who gets most of the glory? You will be happier from the git-go if you know you will have the opportunity to have your music played.
When you are first starting out or considering changing from going solo to joining a group of musicians it’s good to have some guidelines in deciding what will probably work best for you.
Feel free to comment with some other ideas of what to consider when joining a band. We want to hear them all!
Skin Illustrator Emma Hack and Gotye: Somebody That You Should Get to Know
It is ubiquitous! Everywhere you go you hear Gotye’s song, “Somebody That I Used to Know” playing. Australian born Wouter ”Wally” De Backer aka “Gotye” has been everywhere lately. He’s appeared on Saturday Night Live, played Coachella and performed at L.A.’s Nokia Theater recently. His addictive duet tune with New Zealand’s Kimbra has been covered on “The Voice” and on “Glee.”
The video has been viewed over 175 million times on YouTube and certainly has influenced the song’s rise to the top of the charts. Emma Hack is the amazingly talented skin illustrator behind the invisible paintbrush in the video. She is the one who so artfully creates the impression of painting Wally De Backer into the wall and fusing Kimbra into the background. If you haven’t seen the unique video check it out here.
Steven Tyler of Aerosmith admits he can’t get the song out of his head. Once you’ve seen this video I think you will agree it’s hard not to get the visual out of your head either.
You won’t want to miss body illustrator Emma Hack’s recent interview where she talks about how she got involved with body illustration, her work in making this video with Gotye and what is on the horizon for her now.
Rainbo
We caught up with Pete Wyrostek of St. Louis, Missouri, the artist behind Rainbo, to find out a little more about him and his music.
When did you first get started in music? How did you first get into the type of music you create?
My very first experience with making music came when I was in 4th grade. I signed up to play the trumpet at school. That really didn’t last long. I didn’t have the discipline to practice. Later I got a guitar when I was 15. I learned a few songs from internet tabs, and jammed a bit with a friend of mine who played drums down the street. However I didn’t really get big into music until a couple of years later when I joined a band. ( I still play in it to this day)
I first got into making electronic music about 2 and a half years ago when a friend of mine let me borrow a copy of Reason 4. At first I didn’t really plan on using it to make electronic tunes. I had been recording post rock tunes in my bedroom using cubase le for a few months by this time. I planned to use Reason for the keyboard sounds. As I got more familiar with Reason I started to get really exited about the things I could do with it. I got a bit obsessed actually!
What did you listen to growing up?As a very young child I was OBSESSED with Michael Jackson. I used to listen to his music any chance I got. By the time I was in middle school I was listening to a lot of anti-establishment punk (anti-flag) and intense rock (tool.) Also by this time I had been introduced to EDM. I spent a month in France visiting a close friend when I was 14. For the duration of that trip my friend let me borrow his Daft Punk cd, coincidentally enough the cd was entitled “Discovery.” After falling in love with Daft Punk I started getting into more electronic music as well as rock music. As I grew my tastes matured, I went through numerous musical stages and my obsession for bands like tool and daft punk (both of which I still love) developed into obsession for artists like This Will Destroy You and Emancipator.
If you could work with any artist who would it be?Wow! That is a really difficult question because there are sooooo many. I hate to sound cheesy but If I only get to pick one artist it would have to be Pretty Lights. He’s been super influential on modern EDM and for good reason. He’s put out a couple of the best EDM albums I’ve heard and his sound is constantly progressing. I could probably learn more in one day with PL than I do in a year working by myself.
What was the first live show you ever saw?I think the first live show I ever went to was the warped tour when I was 13. The first band I saw was Poison The Well. It was so intense!
Do you have any upcoming gigs?Nope, not yet unfortunately. Keep an eye out for my next EP though. Should be up in the next month or two.
Do you play any instruments or sing?Yeeeep, I’ve been dabbling with guitar for about 10 years now and I’ve been playing bass in a band for about 5 or 6 years. I also play keys a little bit. When you’re a producer it helps to play keys.
What do you do for fun when you are not making music?When I’m not making music I love being outside and doing things in nature. I love camping, hiking, floating, biking etc. I love doing all things outdoors except I’m not big on killing things. I also really love going to shows and festivals when I have the opportunity to do so. Annnnndd on occasion you will catch me nerding out on video games like League of Legends and Gears of War.
Rainbo’s Ep is available for free at SoundCloud and Bandcamp pages. He also plays in the band Io Media which you can check out here: www.iomedia.org
Streaming and Free downloading available at the links below:
All songs in the following links produced by Rainbo
http://soundcloud.com/rainbo/sets/volatile-ep/
EP Title: Volatile
Samples in the Ep include:
The chordettes – Sand Man, Billy Joel – Anthonys Song, Samples from Curtis Mayfield, Tupac and possibly more
What’s so special about this artist:
Rainbo is a unique blend of experimental hip hop and and modern dance music. His Influences are heavily rooted in the likes of Pretty Lights, Gramatik, Star Slinger, Bonobo, Emancipator and other Sample based EDM producers. Although his tunes are influenced by such artists Rainbo offers a unique and modern take on the sound pioneered by his predecessors.
Artist Facebook Fan Page:
Alyssa Broke the Organ
What type of music does the band play?
We always have a difficult time responding to this question. We have some songs that have the bossa nova feel but before you know it we are playing ukulele’s and the melodica is out. It’s best if you come to our shows and take a listen!
How long have you been together?
We started this band late July of 2011. So we are in our 8th month as a band.
How did you meet?
Well majority of us, with the exclusion of our bassist and pianist, are from Lawndale. So we all went to Lawndale High School but we never really knew each other. Jorge(Guitarist) and Joe (Drummer) were in a band prior to Alyssa Broke the Organ. I, Ana(Vocals), met Alyssa(Vocals) my sophomore year of high school in PE class. And Jorge and Alyssa knew each other from a mutual friend.
So the band really started with Joe and Jorge pitching the idea to Alyssa and I was invited after the first practice. We wrote two beautiful songs in our first practice together and instantly knew this was a band.
Jorge and Adrian (Pianist) have been playing in a choir at St. Joseph Church together for several years, that’s how they know each other and Jorge introduced us to Adrian. Jeff (Bassist) recently joined us. He is from Ohio and ended up here with us. I knew him through a mutual friend and knew he played bass. We invited him to practice with us and after that first practice we knew we had to keep him, it was a natural fit.
How did you come up with the band name?
Well we are not proud in how we got our name haha. Joe has a friend whose boss’s friend was giving away an organ. Joe, Jorge and some friends went to go pick it up. They brought it back to Joe’s house before we had a practice. Beautiful organ may I add. Jorge plugged it in and it needed some cleaning but that was the least of our worries. We had rehearsal and we ended up going to get some food. We came back home and we were talking in the room the organ was in. Alyssa placed her drink on top of the organ but forgot to take it with her. A whole week passed by and the drink had penetrated through the paper cup and had leaked all over the organ. After much cleaning and consulting about the organ repair, the organ was unplayable. So that’s how Alyssa Broke the Organ.
Where can we find your music?
We have our music on our SoundCloud- Alyssa Broke the Organ. Or you can
simply go to our website- www.alyssabroketheorgan.com and listen to music and stay updated with us!
Spotlight: Django Django at SXSW
On the Strip (Sunset, of course!):Guns N’ Roses and Slash both at House of Blues
AandROline.com reports on the generosity of artists in making a donation to L.A. Youth Network:
“GUNS BACK ON THE STRIP: Not only will Axl Rose and his Guns N’ Roses be playing tonight at the House of Blues on Sunset in the final show of their three-night Hollywood invasion, but the band’s ex-guitarist Slash and wife Perla Hudson will be on hand to present a check for $27k to the L.A. Youth Network raised from the sale of the 20 10-foot tall fiberglass guitar installments at Gibson GuitarTown on the Sunset Strip. The organization previously received $27k of the total of $54k from the sale. The guitars were designed by a variety of artists, including Shepherd Fairey. Ya think Slash might stick around a little to jam with his old pals, especially since the band is being inducted next month into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? We can dream, can’t we? (3/12p)”
