Hello Ween

It’s half-term week here in the UK, so my hectic work schedule is on pause, at last. I’ve already started working on production and mixing of Laurence Made Me Cry‘s album after meeting her and collecting the audio files on Monday. We were supposed to meet at the National Museum of Wales, but I’d forgotten it was shut on Mondays. So, the caffeine-peddling megalith which is Costa coffee had to act as a stand-in. We ended up spending more time in there than planned as my backup drive wasn’t working, so a quick dash to buy a pen-drive was necessary. The files are ultra hi-fidelity, so they’re massive! Suffice to say, file transfer took rather a long time. I was psychotic with caffeine-rush afterwards!

Courtesy of Rhys Anslow

The night before that I went to see The Fierce And The Dead play at Clwb (Ifor Bach). Unfortunately, we only arrived midway through TFATD’s rather short set, which was a pity. But I did manage to catch enough to know that they’re a formidable live act who play great music with skill. ‘Prog’ rock tends not to be something I listen to, or even particularly like; but despite the rough genre definition, this music is something else. A thing between prog rock, post rock, metal and punk; it also takes aboard influences from movie soundtracks and jazz. Cool stuff. I took a group of friends who I hoped to convert/initiate in the ways of ‘the Dead’. I was partially successful, which was gratifying. I also met two long-time Twitter buddies, Matt Stevens and John Toolan for the first time which was brilliant. Suffice to say, they’re both jolly nice chaps. Matt (TFATD guitarist) has been incredibly supportive in his comments and advice regarding DIY music over the last few years and John runs a (highly recommended) music blog as well as writing for This Is Not A Scene.
The evening made me resolve to see more independent live music, as well as made me ruminate on my own live music aspirations.

I’m starting to get new ideas for new tracks of my own….which is a relief, after a slight hiatus. As per usual, the titles of the tracks seem to come first and I’ve got lots of track names floating around my head. It helps to spur me on when music-making and acts as a starting point. Where it will end, I don’t know. But with titles like ‘Morris House’, ‘Mesnes’ and ‘A Fear of Marsh Green’, those of you from Wigan may recognize them as places around the conurbation. In fact, I’m going up there tomorrow for my quarterly fix of northern-ness (“you don’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been” etc).

Anyway, it’s Halloween….which actually means absolutely nothing to me. But here’s a John Carpenter-esque older track which you could listen to at the witching hour……..mwahahahaha!

Goodnight

The Lovely Bones (of contention)

Hello there.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. It’s been a while since I’ve posted there. Anywhere, in fact.

Music has taken a bit of a back-seat of late, as has my social media activity. As we approach the end of a long and sometimes arduous academic year, I’m looking forward to time away from my real work life and more engagement in music, friends and family. This means that my Twitter presence and Facebook status will probably be ‘on hold’ for a while, or at the most, minimal. The odd post about music or art will probably surface occasionally though.

Also, I’ve set up a Tumblr page. That’s going to contain random ramblings about (mainly) non-music related stuff and some half-arsed photography.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking. Yes, I know…..it’s a dangerous thing. But I have been having some thoughts about music/promotion/social-networking. The issue is a bone of contention and one that didn’t really exist ten or fifteen years ago. It’s all new….. as we, as musicians and particularly as independent/DIY musicians, try to come to terms with old certainties not being so certain any more.

Here’s a post about Facebook. This is what got me thinking.

Hmm, interesting? Nearly. But here is where I start to get a bit sceptical. Y’see, the thing is; I’m not sure whether Facebook and Twitter really work any more. I’ll try to make sense of this as I go along……bear with me. There’s also going to be a fair bit of honesty included in this post which may lose me some ‘followers’ or ‘likes’.

I’m a musician who likes, and whose music requires, a fair degree of anonymity. I’m not sure that I really need to connect personally with my audience. My music is not really personality-based. It’s evocative, perhaps. It’s ‘cinematic’, maybe. But it doesn’t rely on my being there, giving great gig. Or being directly associated with my instrument, like guitarists for instance, or jazz musicians.

I don’t mean that I don’t appreciate my listeners, or that they don’t matter. Actually, I’m all too aware that the opposite is true. But I don’t play live, I don’t really photograph myself, I don’t feel any compulsion to share any aspect of my personal life with daily tweets about what I’m doing on a minute-by-minute basis. I do share stuff I like. But this is infrequent and absolutely inconsequential.

I do connect with some people on Twitter and Facebook….and, except for distance and time, these are people who I would happily meet to chat and discuss and laugh with. But these people are few and far between.

So, as a musician, what does soc-net (social networking….in case you didn’t figure that out) mean? The promised land of Twitter and Facebook is a duplicitous one. Unless you use it personally also; though, even then, it’s still a bit of a facade. It could be summed-up thusly:

“I like cake; I like ‘Alien’; I’m sharing a video; be my friend; now listen to my music.”

The idea of musicians ‘keeping it real’ and being ‘authentic’ due to their use of Twitter, for instance, is a misnomer I think. At least it is presently; it wasn’t always the case. But there’s a certain amount of cynicism in me now that makes me think bands and other artists are ‘interacting’ only to expose their music. That’s why they (‘we’) set up Twitter accounts under our band names. But then we claim to be there to interact and connect in an authentic way. In some ways, it was better to just go the old route and rely on labels/promoters to do the promotion. It was more honest.

As for Facebook, as the article says, it was ambivalent to musicians until fairly recently. Now, it seems to be about numbers. The more ‘likes’ you have, the more people see your posts. But how many people actually listen to/buy/like your music? I don’t have access to statistics (and I don’t necessarily trust them), but I assume only a fraction of your likers/followers actually listen to your music.

Just one more point. The problem with DIY is that anyone can do it, though not everyone is successful at it (including me). With articles like the one above in existence, and other ‘How To’ guides, it levels the playing field a bit too much.

The secret to success becomes useless once it’s no longer a secret.

Now, I am playing devil’s advocate here. I genuinely feel that much of the above is true; but I am also generalising wildly. There are musicians who genuinely interact well, and honestly, with fans. In fact, the success of their music relies on it. That, and good music. And there’s the crux…… at the end of the day, no amount of social networking can help you if your music is shit*.

In conclusion, I don’t think social networking is the ‘bright new way’ to promote your music any more. It’s in a transitional phase at present: still in its infancy in some ways, but also not so novel, not so new. Audiences, unless they’re supremely naive, can see through promotional ploys and I’m not talking about out-and-out spammers/blanket tweeters; but that in itself could be seen as a more honest way of promoting music…..just not very clever….and very, very irritating! Now, there’s a bone of contention for you.

 

*Shit = plagiarised, derivative, lacking in artistic merit, y'know....shit.

*This* is Independent Music…

I don’t know what it is about Spring/Summer here in the UK (besides it’s utter crapness, that is! Rain, bloody rain….it’s like living in Blade Runner!), but people have been releasing quality independent music recently, particularly in June! I’m not referring to myself here, of course…..I just do what I do and hope people like it.

No, I’m referring to these little gems of sound (actually that’s misrepresenting them, ‘cos some of these sound MASSIVE!)

The Fierce & The Dead – ‘On VHS’ (‘kin awesome)

Pulco – ‘Man Of Lists’ (bloody lovely)

Jewellers – ‘Lakeswimmer’ (Gareth’s & Gareth’s new one)

Do you like my new, succinct, reviewing style?! Seriously though, it’s best to let the music to do the talking and these are very good releases indeed.

9 Days To Go…..and A Bandcamp Appreciation

Hello. At the risk of repeating myself repeating myself, there are just 9 days to go until the new album’s released unto the world. I’ve been fooling around with Bandcamp download codes, mainly just to see if, and how, they work. First reports have been generally “OK”. As my albums are pay-what-you-want with no minimum price (ie: free, if you want), the idea of a ‘free’ download code is a bit redundant. But it’s a useful feature for sending out preview copies of the music, instead of using a file-sharing site….and it keeps everything ‘in house’, within Bandcamp. Musicians, it really is an awesome site. In fact, the only thing it lacks is the ability to send mailouts through the site (as the rather ‘clunky’ Reverbnation interface allows you to do for free….it’s the only reason I use the site).

Again, repeating myself, but if you’ve received a download code, or if you download the album after the release date (18th June, remember! At http://demento13.com) and you like it, please please share/tweet/torrent it. Your support is more than appreciated, as usual.

Here are some links to videos/previews/etc….. am not going to embed them here, as I have done so already in previous posts and it makes this page slow to load.

Videos on Youtube

Previews at Amazing Tunes and Soundcloud

Just for the uninitiated, what I do is make electronic music. It isn’t earth-shattering or revolutionary. It’s mainly just nice tunes, some odd sounds and some beats. I call it ‘electronic post-rock’, but you can call it whatever you like. The new album is a mix of mildly dubsteppy tracks, some droney bits, a bit of ‘singing’ and some use of guitars. If you were going to compare it to ‘established’ music, I’d say it’s possibly a bit like Luke Vibert/Wagon Christ, Stereolab and early New Order, all mixed up.

Ennui? Oui…

Hello again. It’s great liking music, isn’t it? I certainly do like the sounds made by some of our very best popular beat combos, especially those managed by Simon Cowell. Bands such as ‘The Cockers’ and solo artists like Cynthia Razzle and her hit “Razzle Vajazzle”. Hope you like it too.

As you can tell, I’m a tad bored. Well, not exactly bored as such. I’m actually quite active mentally and, sort of, creatively. The fact is that I’m listening to lots of old and new music, trying to get some inspiration for new tracks. Influence, inspiration, whatever. I’ve hit a bit of a wall for the time being. Apart from loads of loops I’ve made and uploaded for people to use (On Soundcloud) and a few experiments, I’ve not really made anything new. This will change, of course; and I do acknowledge that the playing about with loops and ‘experiments’ is exactly what will lead me to making new tracks.

What I do take solace from is that I have a small but loyal and supportive fan-base (far better and nicer than a ‘large but casual and fairly apathetic’ fan-base) who are willing to listen to and share my music because they like it.

After a fairly decent first response to the ‘Crash St’ album, the downloads have (inevitably) tailed-off for the time being. It’s difficult to pique people’s interest in a release they’ve never heard, from an artist they’ve never heard of, promotion not being my strong point. In fact, if I keep tweeting/posting about the album ad infinitum, people are going to get pissed-off (if they’re not already). So, the promotion of the album lies with listeners sharing and word-of-mouth. Some of you have been excellent at doing that already; many thanks for that.

All I can ask is that you keep tweeting/posting/sharing/torrenting and encourage other people to do the same. Also, I have embeddable players on Bandcamp and Soundcloud which I’d love you to include in blogs, etc if you can.

For instance:

As per usual, many, many thanks for all you do….including reading this blog!

Cheers, Paul

Welcome To ‘Crash St’

A short one……here it is. Am so pleased that it’s now here for you to listen to in its entirety. If you like it and download it, please share it on your favourite social networking sites. Thanks.

February Mailout – ‘Crash St’ Imminent

“Hello again. This is just a reminder to tell you that my new album ‘Crash St’ is available from Thursday 1st March (ie. next Thursday) at http://dementio13.com . I’m really pleased with it and hope you can share in the music.

It’s a pay-what-you-want download, with no minimum price, so you could have it for free. All I ask is that, if you decide to download it and like it, please share links on Twitter and/or Facebook; your recommendations help it reach a wider audience.

Bloggers/DJs have been very complimentary in their reviews:

“…electronic, programmed machine music, bursting at the seams with humanity and soul, imprinted with the traces of its creator…….Dementio13 has mastered the art of creating human music, organic music that breathes, while capitalising on the power and impact of the machine.” (Jan 26, 2012)
Oliver Arditi – oliverarditi.com

Full review at oliverarditi.com/2012/01/26/dementio-13-crash-st

“…his forthcoming Crash St album reveals him to be still moving forward in invigorating and never predictable directions, his exploratory electronica more varied in texture and mood than pretty much any of his contemporaries.” (Jan 31 2012)
Unwashed Territories – unwashedterritories.blogspot.com

Also, there’s a free album of my older stuff over at http://cutmatrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/alt-delete, so help yourself. You don’t even need to join a mailing list to download….no strings.

CRASH ST. PREVIEW:

Thanks,

Paul”

Preview: ‘Crash St’ Album Mix on Mixcloud

Here’s a preview of the new album as a single mix – ‘Crash St’ Album Mix Cloudcast on Mixcloud.

Preview: ‘Crash St’ Album Mix on Mixcloud, posted with vodpod