You’ll remember a few weeks ago I was on a panel, chaired by the lovely Andrew Dubber, at UnConvention in Manchester. The panel was titled ‘Outside The Box’, and the aim was to address some of the unique issues that face musicians and bands that don’t fall into the ‘guitar/bass/drums/vox’ indie band format. So there [...]
Entries Tagged as 'tips for musicians'
Podcast of the Outside The Box Panel from UnConvention
July 3rd, 2009 · No Comments
Tags: the future of music · tips for musicians
Abe Laboriel Snr Interview From August 2000
June 30th, 2009 · 4 Comments
I’ve mentioned before how fortunate I feel to have got to meet so many of my musical heroes early on in my music career. Back when I was writing for Bassist magazine - and then Guitarist magazine when they were merged - I had the opportunity to hang out with and chat to so many [...]
Tags: journalism · tips for musicians
Fame, Fame, Fatal Fame - Michael Jackson And The Death of Global Super-Stardom
June 27th, 2009 · 21 Comments
The death of Michael Jackson - like so many celebrity deaths - has brought with it a swathe of responses, both from the public and in the media.
Anyone who ever met him gets dragged out to talk about ‘their relationship’, and anyone remotely famous who might have a connection (be it sharing the pop-charts [...]
Tags: Musing on Music · Rant - Politics, Spirituality, etc. · obituaries · tips for musicians
After CDs. What’s next?
June 11th, 2009 · 12 Comments
Following on from yesterday’s post about the anachronistic nature of the term ‘label’, I’ve been having a think about the actual format that music is released in.
It’s amazing how containers can make us lazy about content. The assumptions we make about the nature of music, collections of music, what constitutes a ‘complete work’ etc.
There’s [...]
Tags: the future of music · tips for musicians
The End Of Record Labels?
June 10th, 2009 · 23 Comments
One of the most interesting things about UnConvention this weekend was the chance to listen to some people from a number of record labels talk about what they do.
The thought that struck me from the discussion was that, while a lot of the work they do is still very much important and of value, [...]
Tags: the future of music · tips for musicians
Brainstorming New Models for Music Careers
June 9th, 2009 · 12 Comments
As you know, I was at Unconvention in Manchester at the weekend, on a panel titled Outside The Box.
On the way up there, on my epically crap train journey, I wrote down a load of ideas for the session, some of which I shared, some of which there wasn’t time for - so here’s that [...]
Tags: the future of music · tips for musicians
The Earnestness of Being Important
June 3rd, 2009 · 7 Comments
…AKA, What’s Important about your Music… To You?
Following on from the discussion about ‘what makes you interesting?’, I’ve been thinking about the other ‘value metrics’ for what we do as musicians, and the directions they flow in.
Interestingness is one bi-directional value:
What you think is interesting, or find interesting about what you do
What your audience [...]
Tags: Musing on Music · the future of music · tips for musicians
Guest Post II - Jennifer Moore on ‘Interestingness’
June 2nd, 2009 · No Comments
[This post was originally posted as a comment on my "What Makes Your Music Interesting?", but was far too wonderful, and involved, to leave as a comment. So please do read the other post first, and Jennifer's earlier comments. Jennifer Moore is, as I said in the comments there, the first person I ever saw [...]
Tags: Managing Information Streams · Musing on Music · the future of music · tips for musicians
What Makes Your Music Interesting?
May 28th, 2009 · 20 Comments
These last couple of weeks, I’ve been SO busy with geek-things, that I’ve had little time for picking up a bass and making noises. It feels like a bit of a shame to have lost the momentum I picked up whilst posting my series of new video experiments to vimeo, but it also feels like [...]
Tags: Geek · the future of music · tips for musicians
London Songwriting Week seminar with Andrew Dubber and Tom Robinson
May 18th, 2009 · 12 Comments
I’m going to be live blogging this today - here’s a link to the page about it
[12:41] It’s going to be a group seminar/workshop on collaboration in a digital age, but the sounds of things. Just had a chat with Tom and Andrew about the whole thing. Let’s see how it goes.
[12:51] Just tried [...]
Tags: Geek · the future of music · tips for musicians