Songwriters/performers/musicians doing original music - what the actual **** are we going to do now?

camf

I'm hoping a few people can contribute to this and make it a meaningful conversation that can maybe even go outside tFB into the wider social media world. 

With gigging looking unlikely for the foreseeable, what are you thinking the year ahead might hold for you and your music? Is it all doom and gloom? I confess to not being a massive fan of the unflattering iphone sofa performances, shot against the plain magnolia wall, invariably with too much comedy headroom above the artist's head (you know, like when they've framed it all weird), or the 'here's-me-in-my-terribly-lit-home-studio' thing that looks nothing at all like the sort of gigs they've probably played several hundred times so why do you think it works on YouTube. (Come on, SORT OUT THE ***ING LIGHTING - IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. TRY HARDER! TRY ANYTHING!!) 

Anyway, the paying public aren't going to suck that **** up indefinitely, so what to do? Outdoor concerts, I suppose that would be great if feasible. But, the UK weather? And what about after September? Or should we release more recordings but with no gigging to back them up? Will this hiatus affect bigger bands more severely, providing an unexpected opportunity for the little guys? Where do you find your socially isolating audience? Instagram for the kids, Facebook for us oldies seems to be how it goes. If the industry contracts, does that mean more attention for those that persevere from the music media and broadcasters?

I don't know. I want to make a plan. What do you guys think.  

stickyfiddle

I'm hoping it will lead to more writing & recording, as everyone seems to have a home studio these days, and with TV/film and games industries shut down or majorly slowed music is the only creative medium we have a chance of seeing anything new from over the next year. 

Beyond that, I don't know. I do hope that folks will start to increase production value on "home video" concerts as they'll have more time and good musicians are typically perfectionist types who won't ever be happy with a half-arsed video.

camf

stickyfiddle said:

I do hope that folks will start to increase production value on "home video" concerts as they'll have more time and good musicians are typically perfectionist types who won't ever be happy with a half-arsed video.

This! It amazes me that people I'd admire would keep putting out stuff that sounds and looks dire. We need to get better (me too, obviously.)  

flying_pie

Have you seen any of Devin Townsend's lockdown concerts? He found a genius way of using a PlayStation controller to switchcameras on the video feed. It really upped the home video concert level

camf

No, but I’ll check that out. I might look around and try and get a sense of what works. But beyond that, won’t we have to create more interesting stuff? How do we do that? Do our own interviews, behind-the-scenes stuff? I don’t know but I do know someone’s going to plug that gap.

Can it only be the tech-savvy wunderkids? Can older artists stay in the race? It’s so not my thing, but Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp have shown some chutzpah in creating their own idiosyncratic response to the problem, so age needn’t be a total barrier to doing this. 

TTony

You don’t have to record yourselves playing in the living room anymore ...

camf

This is true (although that does not apply in Scotland yet). So where to go? £300 a day in a decent studio - probably not for most people. Persuade your local venue to let you in a record behind closed doors? I've been thinking about this. Might help keep their name alive and, if there are costs for tech staff or staff to open/close, the bands might even have to stump up a small fee - it would be a different take on paying to play maybe?

camf

But who do you get to film and light it and do sound? There will be film/tv folk also kicking their heels but they might not, perfectly reasonably, be enthusiastic about giving up their time FOC. What kind of deal could make something like that work? I'm just spitballing here to try and start a conversation. It matters to me, and I'm sure it will matter to a lot of other people too.

camf

Relax. It’s fine. Nothing to worry about....
https://youtu.be/zAWfhc2VPzQ

stickyfiddle

I would like it a great deal if Livenation fucked off and died.

camf

Yeah. Seems like that might be a very good thing. It's really going to fuck things up, but I think, with a bit of luck, it might shake some people into taking some action. If it just becomes vehicle for stadium rock and people who just want to consume bland music, then that would be fine as far as I'm concerned. Just as long as they get the fuck away from the newer, good and interesting stuff. 

spark240

I did think about trying a live half hour or so for recording, just a Zoom type event with a few folks from here to see how we do things and throw a few questions in.., say about 6 people ....pick someone DAW mix and talk us through what you did , break the song down live so we can see / hear plugins  FX etc...

Any mileage ?

 

TTony

View from the Economist ...

https://www.economist.com/business/2020/06/27/live-streaming-will-change-rock-n-roll-for-the-better?utm_campaign=the-economist-this-week&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=salesforce-marketing-cloud&utm_term=2020-06-25&utm_content=article6_flytitle

(I don't think that's paywalled?)

[edit] - turns out it *is* paywalled, so, summary;

The response may prove the biggest jolt to live music in decades. From home quarantine or empty concert halls, artists—including classical musicians—are videostreaming live performances straight to fans. What they started off doing for charity, some are now doing for profit. Rolling Stone magazine reported that bts, a k-pop band, earned around $20m from a virtual show for 750,000 fans on June 14th—more than Ed Sheeran gets for a gig. An avatar of Travis Scott, an American rapper, reached an audience of 27m via “Fortnite”, a video game. Laura Marling, a British singer-songwriter, streamed a paid concert from an empty chapel in north London. She sold many times more seats online than exist at the venue.

As I said earlier - bands don't have to stream themselves from a living room.  There are plenty of other options ...

Freebird

Write and record the best album that you can, and have it mixed and mastered properly.

camf

I agree with you both. I can see my focus being on recording for the next nine months and just waiting to see how things go. I don't think people need to see a band touring an album everything is going to have to change and we'll just need to try and adapt with it. o decide if they want it or not. Obviously it helps to sell albums if you are touring but I think.

@TTony, the challenge for bands now is being able to find somewhere big/safe to rehearse properly to prepare for any live performance. We haven't played together since Feb, I think and I'd want to know we were well rehearsed before putting up an online performance. I think that might be for the months ahead. Although I bet a few rehearsal rooms might have closed up, so that will make it even harder to find decent rehearsal facilities and fighting other bands to get the more accessible times and spaces. Oh joy. 

ewal

At the start of lockdown I had grand plans to really move a few projects on - getting a suitable collection of songs together in to an album ready state. However I've found it really hard to sustain motivation and commitment ... How to shake off the 'can't be arsed' mindset and general laziness...

spark240

ewal said:

At the start of lockdown I had grand plans to really move a few projects on - getting a suitable collection of songs together in to an album ready state. However I've found it really hard to sustain motivation and commitment ... How to shake off the 'can't be arsed' mindset and general laziness...

Ive found this also....but you just got sit down, commit for a few hours and it starts to happen...

camf

The trouble is, even when you’ve done that, you still face pretty huge hurdles regarding what do you do next. No rehearsals, studios still closed, no gigs... even if you’ve written material, all the usual next steps now seem far more complicated to navigate. 

spark240

camf said:

The trouble is, even when you’ve done that, you still face pretty huge hurdles regarding what do you do next. No rehearsals, studios still closed, no gigs... even if you’ve written material, all the usual next steps now seem far more complicated to navigate. 

In reality there arent that many artists who write, play, and record, and produce all their own material alone, so why should you ?

There is usually some interaction and collaboration to get the finish line, Ive been doing this via file sharing with other people online, but its not easy....you need to find the right people !.....

Have you tried any colabs on here ?

camf

spark240 said:

camf said:

The trouble is, even when you’ve done that, you still face pretty huge hurdles regarding what do you do next. No rehearsals, studios still closed, no gigs... even if you’ve written material, all the usual next steps now seem far more complicated to navigate. 

In reality there arent that many artists who write, play, and record, and produce all their own material alone, so why should you ?

There is usually some interaction and collaboration to get the finish line, Ive been doing this via file sharing with other people online, but its not easy....you need to find the right people !.....

Have you tried any colabs on here ?

I’m lucky enough to be able collaborate with quite a few different people but, let’s face it, it’s just nowhere near as exciting or stimulating swapping files compared to being in a room with other musicians. 

(I looked at one of my comments above and it looks like I was drunk... I don’t think I was. Just slack. Apologies.)

JohnS37

TTony said:

You don’t have to record yourselves playing in the living room anymore ...

No, you don’t, but there is a way to have the convenience of indoor home cinematography with ‘location’ settings, or indeed any background you fancy.  It’s called ‘green screen’, and you don’t need too much extra kit to make it work.
Being a cheapskate, I bought a £6 piece of green cloth on eBay and have devised a way to hang it up in a well-lit corner of the living room.  Because you can knock out all the green areas, shooting against this cloth allows me to substitute any background image that’s appropriate.
Now there is a learning curve here, but it’s not really rocket science, and although my early efforts do look a bit half-arsed (all right, a lot H-A) it’s great fun doing it and i’m learning lots of new skills.