Steve Lawson in Leicester on 09/12/12
10 Years Of Blogging
Today marks the 10th anniversary of this blog! Or at least, the point at which I stopped posting long updates about what I’d been upto on my ‘news’ page on my site, and put in a dedicated blog section.
My original blog was hand-coded – no RSS feed, no proper CMS, just HTML and some anchor links for navigation. You can find all of those early entries on archive.org. Continue reading “10 Years Of Blogging”
A Few Thoughts On Careers In Music
Back when I did my ‘ask me anything‘ thread a few months ago, I said I was going to re-blog some of the answers, as there were some really good thought provoking questions, and answers that really deserve a readership beyond those tenacious souls who wade through all the responses to posts here… So here’s a question about having a career in music:
After years of studying music in Higher Education I wasn’t prepared for the outside world when the apron strings were finally cut.
I went into teaching and now I work in an office. which is killing me because I want to be creative. i have music I am happy with. I just want to take the big step to be the musician and writer I envisioned myself becoming when I was an undergraduate.
The truth is, I don’t know where to start. Gigs, website, social media outlet, blog, recording an ep…… It just seems so daunting to jump into.
Am I right to plan for this? Or does being a freelance musician and writer mean you have to go with the flow?
All the best,
Adam
…and this was my answer: Continue reading “A Few Thoughts On Careers In Music”
A New Way To Pay For My Music…
I had this idea ages ago, but have finally got round to putting it in place.
As an alternative to just heading over to Bandcamp and paying with paypal or a credit/debit card, I’ve now added the option via the MP3s page here (which isn’t really an MP3s page at all, it’s just all my albums embedded from Bandcamp, so you can listen then download them in whatever format you like, but anyway…) – you can now ‘pay’ by buying me something from my Amazon wishlist. Continue reading “A New Way To Pay For My Music…”
Whatsapp, Louis C.K. And The Problem Of Advertising
I think it was through searching for an ostatus Android app (more on that later), but I stumbled across WhatsApp’s ‘Why We Don’t Sell Ads‘ page. This could easily be subtitled ‘what’s wrong with the rest of the internet?’ – a beautifully written personalised rebuttal of the consensus that ad-revenue and it’s even more pernicious big brother, data-mining are the ways to fund the internet. Continue reading “Whatsapp, Louis C.K. And The Problem Of Advertising”
Rain Stops Play, No Play Means No Pay
You: “Steve, how was your Saturday?”
Me: nice of you to ask! Not so great, to be honest – we drove a 13 hour round trip to play at a festival. Only because of the flooding we (and pretty much everyone else) didn’t even make it to the festival site. It was cancelled around lunch time… Our route home was marred by multiple road-blocks thanks to flooding and mudslides, and involved hours of fairly torturous winding down backroads.
You: “wow, shitty deal!”
Me: Yeah! Though, it’s nothing compared to what the organisers have had to deal with – Continue reading “Rain Stops Play, No Play Means No Pay”
Talking About A Revolution – Feb 2001, Bass Player Magazine
From the February 2001 issue of Bass Player Magazine – the strapline on the cover was “The Future Of Bass – Fearless Forecasts From 40 Pros” – of which I was one.
Here’s the last paragraph of what I wrote: “As the major labels focus their attention on an increasingly vapid and temporal bunch of faceless clothes horses, the Net will open up more and more channels for heartfelt independent original music”. Continue reading “Talking About A Revolution – Feb 2001, Bass Player Magazine”
No More Unsigned Artists – A Solution To A Semantic Problem
My first 5 or 6 albums were released on Pillow Mountain Records. I would be referred to in American magazine articles as ‘Pillow Mountain Records recording artist Steve Lawson’, and my music would be described as ‘his prolific back catalogue, on Pillow Mountain Records’. No-one ever referred to me as an unsigned artist, no review ever had ‘private release’ next to it (what the hell does that mean anyway?) No-one ever accused me of vanity publishing.
Only, Pillow Mountain Records never existed. It never had a bank account, never had any staff, never did anything. It existed in name only. It was a way of me lifting myself out of the conversation about being signed or unsigned, and focussing on making music. Continue reading “No More Unsigned Artists – A Solution To A Semantic Problem”
Limited Edition USB Stick/Postcards Set Finished
All 10 of the ‘essays‘ are now written and printed – here’s what the full set looks like. Only 10 sets have been printed and a couple have been sold already, but if you want one, head over to Bandcamp to order – pay £30 or more to get the full set, or £25 to get the USB stick plus one postcard. Please message me if you want to confirm that they aren’t sold out before buying… The bandcamp page has a full list of everything that’s on the USB Stick – now 21 albums…
Here’s the entirety of what you get. Proper lovely 🙂
