From Scratch – Adventures in Independent Music Making

Posts Tagged ‘Strategies’

This weekend was exactly what I needed to refresh my songwriting mind. Trying out some of the suggestions offered to me in the comment section of last week’s blog, “Gigging During a Songwriting Phase“, we (the band) decided to test drive a couple of our new songs (one of which hadn’t been finished, let alone performed, yet) during the Wonder Women showcase  (organized by one of our loveliest webcast guests, Arlene Paculan). It was a smash success. The audience responded to the new songs with great enthusiasm and it was the exact boost I needed to get my mind out of the “I’m tired of playing my old songs” funk.

 

Now, with that weight lifted, it is time to shift into writing high gear and who better to look to for output advice than the man who has written, recorded, and released 48 full length albums in just as many months?

50 Albums in 50 Months

Sean T Wright is a fellow Music Success in 9 Weeks Blog Challenger who I became acquainted with last fall. At the time, he was well on his way to achieving a very lofty goal: 50 albums in 50 months. Now at 48/50 albums, he has established himself as perhaps one of the most dedicated and determined musicians in the world-wide independent scene. The man is king of output. Not only has he released over 1000 songs since 1979 (which you can download for free from his website), but he has also published 12 novels and created 1000 pieces of fine art.

As someone who is having difficulty managing their time to produce even one album since January, I was compelled to pick the brain of this prolific British artist… and he was kind enough to let me!

A Conversation on Writing with Sean T Wright

What inspired you to write 50 albums in 50 months?

Now that’s a good question, and one that doesn’t have a simple answer. I started out wondering if I could write 12 albums in 12 months. That first 12 months was the toughest, in the sense of getting into a creative routine, learning to write from the heart. Once I’d completed 12 albums, I then thought: is 24 albums possible in 24 months? I want to find out! I’d like to think that I’m an explorer, stepping out into unchartered songwriting territory.

 

How did you approach the structure for each album?

I’m not sure why, but I choose 12 tracks per album. It kinda felt right. I guess if I’d chosen 10 tracks per album, then I’d now have 57 albums instead of 48 albums! I try to write albums, not just a collection of random songs. While the song topic may vary a lot on each album, I try to use a limited selection of instruments per album, so that they gel with other tracks on the album. For example, one album might be electro in flavour, whilst the next pop, or rock, or acoustic.

 

How did you work through daily life distractions in order to put out each album month after month over such a long term?

I’ve always been focused and obsessed with my music. I set aside time most days to write and record – 2 to 3 hours a day. I work very fast in the studio, almost manically, like a painter at his blank canvas, splashing on textures and colours of sound.

 

How did you deal with writer’s block?

Seriously, I don’t get it! If I pick up a guitar and strum out a few chords, the rest follows – words, melody, and structure. I have always had a LOT to say, about all kinds of things. I write predominantly about my life, how I feel, at any given moment. So if I feel angry, then out comes the angry song. If I’m at peace with myself, then that song pops out, too. What I don’t do is analyse what I write, or try to mould it to a genre or style.

 

Do you do any creative writing exercises? If so, what are they?

I don’t have exercises as such, but I do have routines. One routine is FAWM – the February Album Writing Month – where songwriters try to write 14 songs during the month. Then there’s 50/90 – a twin of FAWM where songwriters are challenged to write 50 songs in 90 days from July to October every year. These two online communities are brilliant places to meet fellow songwriters, collabs, and general support.

Personally, though, I write songs in three ways.

Method One: Depending on my mood, I grab my acoustic guitar and hammer out the words and melody, structure and so on. Then I record it while it is very fresh. It may become a fully arranged song, or just a simple vocal acoustic number.

Method two works like this: I grab my guitar, tap out a click track on my digital recorder, then record a bunch of chords straight through, all on instinct – for example, chorus, verse 1, bridge, chorus, verse 2, bridge, chorus x2, mid 8, chorus x2 etc. After that, the rest of the song takes shape, as I add layers of instruments, drums, synths, guitars etc.

Method three: I create beats, whole song structures in EZ Drummer, then record these to tape. From those beats I write songs around them, adding other instruments, and finally vocals, with no idea of melody or lyrics until the basic backing track is done. So I typically have drums, bass guitar, two electric or acoustic guitar parts done before I lay down vocal parts. Other instruments may follow, depending on how the track is working. I try not to overload the song with a multitude of parts. I believe in the old adage that less is more. It’s what you leave out that makes a song.

 

How did you keep up with the demands of MSI9W and your own writing challenge?

I just did it! lol! Seriously, I applied the same focus to the Music Success In Nine Weeks challenge. Focus and obsession!

 

Please describe your recording, mixing, and mastering process.

I’m very old school. I like to start out with a flat board, then shape each sound from there. So drums and bass have to be sonically happening before I move on to the guitars, synths and anything else. I always mix the vocals last, so that they sit in the track as I want them. I like doing different things with vocal mixes – hate reverb! But love chorus in small amounts, which glue vocals together.

I was weened on analogue reel to reel tape machines many years ago, so my ears seek warmth and depth, which recording equipment like Teac and Studer provide. I use the Studer A800 plug-in for recording, mixing, and mastering. There is nothing out there in the digital world to compare, if you want old school warmth and fusion of sound.

On my early CDs (albums 1 to 18), acoustic guitar was recorded in stereo or multi-tracked up to 4 times,  usually with mics in XY configuration, panned 50-50%, or often one guitar laid over the other in the mix. A lot of listeners have mistaken the two six string guitar tracks for a twelve string. I crank the middle up as far as it will go to get some punch. I love single tracked acoustic guitar, too, which you can hear on tracks like “I Keep Wondering”, “Lakota Holy Man”, or “Looking Out For You.” (which you can find alphabetically in his Song Tree)

Vocals are recorded in a variety of ways. Sometimes I get up within an inch of the mic, to get a breathy whispered tone. Othertimes, I’m a foot back when I blast it out! I don’t use compression much, if at all. I often use a delay to give sparkle and life. The Boss Delay is rather versatile.  I often doubletrack lead vocals as well. I prefer dry vocals and only use reverb now and again for effect on the odd word or line.

Electric guitars are straight into the COSM effects unit. My fav setting is the preset Jazz sound, which has a bit of bite distortion-wise, but remains relatively clean. One thing I try to do is to keep a similar guitar sound per album, to unify things I guess.

My mixdowns are one way or the other per album. Either I use the Boss BR1200, or the Ableton Live on my computer. With the exception of the album “Underground” which was mixed in Protools, most of my mixdowns have been done on the Boss BR1200. But from album 28 “Parkour” I used Ableton more and more for mixing.

Because I work so fast with the album-a-month project, I need software and equipment I can trust and use swiftly. The Boss BR-1200, and Ableton Live do the trick for me! (see below for a more detailed list of gear and progams Sean likes to use)

 

How did you approach the album art?

My album art comes from many different sources. Some is unique, commission artwork. Other album covers are my own personal photos or even artwork. Some is creative commons (royalty free) stuff, which I feel fits a certain type of album/theme. I was trained as a graphic designer in my teens, so I know a bit about layout and typography.

 

What impact has the overall experience had on you as a songwriter?

Writing, recording, and releasing so many albums in such rapid succession has been a very positive experience. It has taught me one major thing: there’s no point waiting for inspiration. It’s already there, waiting to be grabbed out from the dark into the light. Because I have written at least three fully recorded songs every week for the past 4 years, I think my songwriting is stronger now than ever. The response I’ve had from tens of thousands of people has made the biggest impact on me.  There’s been almost 1 million free downloads of my music via the internet, which means there are a lot of folk out there listening.

What advice do you have for me, an artist going through a writing phase right now.

Me? Giving advice? Well, I believe that literally anything goes. The creative process for each individual is a very personal thing. For me, I work from my heart, on the spur of the moment, in that moment. It’s an honest approach. I don’t try to force songs in a premeditated direction. I believe in the organic approach. I feel strongly that the songs are already there, hiding in the shadows of the unconscious, lurking like shy creatures, afraid to voice their shape and form. I’m like a song-catcher, rescuing them from a dark place and coaxing them out into the light, so that others can hear them.

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Gear Sean Likes to Use

(1) AKG C-2000B mic -  All vocals and guitars are recorded through it. I love this “for all weathers” mic. Love it! I like to crank up the vocal input so it peaks into distortion, giving a static/driven sound to vocals for a lot of my tracks (listen to “Beneath The Waves” on 69 Love Songs Vol 1 as an example). I call my studio Static Queen, an allusion to my songwriting friend – the genius Mark Linkous.

(2) Audio Technica Atus ATR30 cardioid mic – this is an ancient mic that I record acoustic guitars with on my analogue Yamaha 4 track. (You’ll have to get it second hand, as it is now discontinued)

(3) Tannoy Reveal R5A Monitors – Near-field monitors used for mixing down. I also use my pathetic Logitech computer speakers for infrequent mixing. But my real workhorse is the Technics RP – F400 headphones.

(4) I love my Boss BR-1200 digital recording studio, with it’s super COSM guitar effects unit. But I also use a PC recording rig with Ableton Live 8. I adore Live’s effects and sound/instrument library – especially the strings sections. I play every instrument (unless credited otherwise), and love tracking. I have Protools with a whole host of software that includes Melodyne, but I use it very infrequently (listen to my album “Underground” as an example).

(5) I use Arturia’s Analog factory programme (wonderful Yamaha CS-80 sounds), controlled by my equally wonderful Axiom 25, which controls all of my computer-based software. Since album 28 “Parkour” I have used Toontrack’s superb EZDrummer for the majority of my drums. I love it! So authentic! Before EZDrummer I used a host of drum loops imported into the Boss or Boss’ EZ Compose  programmable rhythm.

(5) I tend to record my acoustic guitars on an old Yamaha MT100 analogue 4 track recorder, which gives a warmth and richness, then transfer to digital. Good examples are to be found on my album HELLO, where warmth, tape hiss, and natural distortion abound!

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Big thanks to Sean for sharing his ideas and insight into the creative process. I am officially setting aside 2 hours today just for writing, no interruptions allowed!

Meghan Morrison

www.meghanmorrison.com
@MegsMorrison

Tweet Hashtag #aiimm to share your own Adventures In Independent Music Making

Ethan Waldman was one of the Music Success in Nine Week Blog Challengers that I connected with during the contest (you may also recognize him as being the Paratroopa in my newsletter a few months ago). Many artists approach me for web tech advice and so I thought it would be helpful to let Ethan (a fellow  artist) share (on my blog) what he is getting up to: creating a service for independent artists to help them with the burden of tech problems and strategies.

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Cloud Coaching

by Ethan Waldman

During my second round through Ariel Hyatt’s Music Success in Nine Week challenge, I was challenged with the task of creating a Continuum Program. Basically, it’s a plan for alternative streams of income that are related to your music to help you make it as an independent musician. It was at that time that I became fully aware of the paradox of my day job.

The Day Job Paradox

One one hand, my comfortable 8-5 job allows me to purchase musical instruments, recording software and hardware, and generally indulge in my musical whims. It pays the rent at my house where I keep said equipment, and bought the car that I drive to gigs in.

On the other hand, it consumes 50 waking hours per week, plus an additional 10 hours on a commuting.  That’s over half of all of my waking hours for the week,  spent in an environment that stifles my musical output and creativity.  Add to that that I’m most creative and energized at about 10 AM, my day job is seriously putting a cramp on my style, so to speak.

Enter: Self Employment

So, I realized that I needed to make some changes and begin to take the steps required to become self employed.  While music is my main and most spiritually rewarding passion, I recognize that I have other marketable strengths and skills that I enjoy putting to use. Back in February, I started working with a fantastic life coach named Jonathan Mead. The goal? To build a business doing what I love that provides the flexibility and income for me to focus way more on my music, once it’s up and running of course.

And aside from music, I love technology, and helping people use it to make their lives easier. That is why, I’m proud to announce the launch of a new website, Cloud Coach, where I’ll be blogging and offering my coaching services. The goal is to help people live and work in harmony with technology.

How can I help you?

I know that as independent musicians, we are constantly faced with technology challenges and don’t always have a team of professionals to help us.  I’m happy to be offering free 15 minute sessions, and would like to invite the readers of From Scratch to stop over to Cloud Coach, and sign up for a free session.  Perhaps there is something I can help you with that will help you take your online presence as a musician to the next level. Also, if you stop by between April 6th and 13th, I’ll be running a contest where you can win a free month of coaching!  I would be honored if you stopped by Cloud Coach and said hello.  Cheers!

About the Author: Ethan Waldman is a technology coach who believes you should always have control of the technology in your life.  He is also an independent musician who sounds like an acoustic version of Radiohead collaborating with the John Lennon.  Ethan lives in Burlington, VT.

*Photo, “Launch”, courtesy of tricky. CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0

Advice needed…

I have been struggling for months now to find the best approach to holding and completing a successful “Songwriting Phase” with the goal of pulling together a new album. The albums I have put out to date have been pieced together, not written together and I want this one to be different.

I need advice. So, if you have an idea, philosophy, story or strategy that you think might help, please leave a comment below.

What is the best approach? Do I disappear from the gigging scene entirely and focus solely on writing new songs? Do I compromise and do one show per month to keep visible? I have a hard time saying no to shows when they are offered to me.

If I do shows, what songs do I play -old, new, or a blend? I want the new album to be a complete surprise when it comes out, but I don’t want to play the old songs anymore… at least not exclusively. Do I start playing cover songs? Won’t that take away from the time I could be spending working on the new songs? Maybe learning and studying covers will give me ideas for writing even better new songs…

Do I give myself a deadline? Or let it happen as it happens? Do I start touring and reaching other markets, building my fanbase with the old songs while writing new songs on the road? If I want to be a full time musician, I need to perform in order to have income.

Do I work on fleshing out older ideas that never were finished? Or do I start completely fresh and focus on where I am now as a person and songwriter? Can I accomplish both and still have a cohesive album? Am I thinking  about this too much instead of just making it happen? Why am I so worried? Is this more important to me than it should be?

Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Meghan Morrison

www.meghanmorrison.com
@MegsMorrison

Tweet Hashtag #aiimm to share your own Adventures In Independent Music Making

Change of plans. I was going to write about copyright today, but have been working on music this morning and feel more compelled to write about lyrics than legal concerns.

Being in the middle of pre-production for our next album, I have been making an effort to engage in “object writes” every day. An object write is a lyric writing exercise designed to a) improve your ability to write with deep description and b) train you to ‘get in the zone’ more quickly. I learned about this strategy from a great songwriting book called Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison. There are a number of awesome approaches in this book that have helped me problem solve during writer’s block or even just start an idea from scratch. Unfortunately, I can’t remember who I lent my copy to, so I am going to have to buy a new one. Balls. (If you’re reading this and you have my book, give it back!).

So how does an object write work? Basically, you set a timer or alarm to sound after 10 minutes. During those 10 minutes, you focus exclusively on writing as much as you can without stopping (letting your instincts guide you), while trying to incorporate all 5 senses into your project. I usually write each of them on the top right hand corner of my page so that I can check them off as I go. The point is to develop a mental picture of where your object is, everything that surrounds it and how things/people interact with it. From there you can pick out elements of imagery that jump out at you and build off of those or just abandon the whole idea all together. The point is simply to get your mind in the ‘descriptive zone’.

I’m usually very hesitant to share unfinished ideas with people (Admittedly, I’m a bit of a perfectionist), but am trying to overcome that insecurity because I know that collaborating and sometimes just sharing ideas is a great way to grow an idea … and as an artist. So here it goes… one of my object writes from the past week.

Object: Robot

Once shiny, now rusted like the Tin Man, his joints creek as they are moved into a seated position. Once lit up, now burned out, the light bulbs in his eyes are quiet. I try flipping his switch, but only a squeal ensues, later accompanied by a delayed puff of burning rubber smoke. Small and flimsy in my hand, I straighten his back flush against the wall and look on… as his empty eyes look back at mine and we both taste the sadness.

Okay, so it’s pretty short. But I think I’ve got all 5 senses in there.

Any suggestions on where it could go from here? What I could do differently? Or perhaps, would you like to share your own object write about a robot (or other object)? Leave a comment below :)

Next Week … I’ll try to get that copyright stuff done (eep), but it might turn into more songwriting topics :) haha

Meghan Morrison

www.meghanmorrison.com
@MegsMorrison

Tweet Hashtag #aiimm to share your own Adventures In Independent Music Making

It is Week 5 in Wave 3 of the Music Success in Nine Weeks Blog Challenge

What a week!

My Dad arrived the Friday before last; he came up from Nova Scotia to help me repair and improve the house before winter comes. Coincidentally, he was here during Week 5 of Wave 2 as well and is in the video blog I made that week. We were pretty busy over the past 7 days (the house is a fixer upper … big time!) and I learned a lot about attic ventilation. Lesson 1: don’t insulate your soffits and make sure you install vents to let air in the attic or else you get dry rot… yep, we’ve got dry rot. Fun times. I had the privilege of ripping all the old insulation out. I also went to a SAC Songposium where I had my song “This Song” (the pre-mix is now up on the MyBand tab of my facebook page) critiqued by industry folk and songwriters like Dan Hill and Emm Gryner … and they actually liked it!

Since you can read about how I incorporated Ariel’s blogging strategies into my music marketing strategy in my Wave 2 Post, I’m going to take this opportunity to discuss how blogging is relevant to me as a musician , how it relates to my plan of becoming a career artist, and a few interesting tips & tools I have found since the last wave that have helped me improve my blog and it’s searchability.

It starts with an email…

I received a message this week from someone who found me on cyberspace and has been checking out my blogs and general web presence. They pointed out that from their perspective it was hard to tell if I had a clear vision or direction… they weren’t sure if I knew what it was that I really wanted to do. This took me off guard, I’ll be honest. In my head I have a very clear ‘bigger picture’ in my mind, but it’s true that the paths to get me there aren’t as clearly mapped out. There are a number of reasons for this, but that is probably better left for another blog post. I’m mentioning this now because this communication highlighted something very important: The viewer’s perspective.

I have a lot of different things going on at the same time: The Music Success in Nine Weeks Blog Challenge, Weekly Webcast, Button Making Campaign, Awareness and Fundraising for Charities, a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Style Newsletter, My Resources for Indies Page, “A Musician’s Attempt At Videography” (the series of videos I make, usually for other people, on my YouTube page), Songwriting & Performing, etc. Each of those things could be separate pursuits on their own … so which one do I really want to do? In my head they are integral to each other and work as one cohesive organism, but to my readers, fans and followers it’s probably not as obvious. That is important for me to realize! And I’m very glad this person took the time to point it out.

My vision is to create a self-sufficient and self-sustaining career as an independent artist and a business that not only envelopes all of my creative passions, but also provides a forum for me to share my trials, tribulations and resources with other artists as I learn more and work my way through from scratch … because you have to be a business to survive as an artist in the new music industry and all of us are struggling to figure out how to do it. One of the great things about this blog challenge is that the challengers are actually all working together to move forward in their separate careers: sharing their experiences and new found knowledge in their postings, then commenting on and tweeting about each other’s blogs and having meaningful discussions in the CyberPR forum. You’ll notice that Ariel, our marketing mentor, is doing the same thing with her peers in the music marketing business: Bandzoogle and Air Play Direct. They have networked and met with each other (online and/or in person), developed a partnership during this third wave that offers an even better prize for challengers (like we can for our “fans”), and now blog and tweet/retweet about each others projects in ways that are of interest to everyone’s followers.

Network and knowledge sharing is how the record industry has always worked, but the contacts and resources are exclusive and espensive… so if the record companies are going down the tubes, investing less and developing fewer and fewer artists, but wanting a bigger piece of the pie then we just need to make our own network and make our knowledge accessible to each other. In the end, there is no competition and the results are still the same: The great artists will be recognized and succeed over their peers and the “bad” music (as cynics call it) will still be popular if the masses like it. What changes is that the people in the middle actually have a chance to make a comfortable living doing what they love. That is how I see the future of independent music: A strong network of artists who work together, instead of competing against each other, to move the music industry (read: not record industry) and their own lives and art forward. Blogging, by the way, is a great way to network and share such knowledge and resources.

Much like how Ariel teaches us to make our web presence visually consistent across all platforms and sites, my challenge now is to find a way to clearly express not just the image, but also a consistent message of “who I am” and “what I am doing” in all of my online spaces, not just in my head, so that people who follow my blogs and webcast and tweets, etc. can clearly understand who I am … which is ultimately the point of blogging for me. Tomorrow I’m being interviewed by a college radio station about all the craziness that is my music business… I always find that I learn a lot about myself during and after interviews; perhaps the solution will come to me during this reflective opportunity.

A few tips and tools I have recently employed:

Sharability: Did I make that word up? Yep, it’s not in dictionary.com, but I’m keeping it. If you write a blog, you want people to read it, right? So sharing your blog is important to help increase your readership. Obviously, I change my various status updates to show that I have a new blog up, but prompting other people to share is probably more important. Like Ariel says, people are more likely to believe other people’s opinions than your own when you are trying to ‘sell yourself’. That is why word of mouth is the said to be the best form of advertising. So, without hounding people to spread the word, how can you prompt them to? I’ve been adding the “share” button to my posts (which I learned how to do through a Bandzoogle forum), but that button no longer exists and I think they have changed it to “like”. I also saw on AgendaRed‘s Blog a widget from TweetMeme for retweeting a page on Twitter. I’m going to try that out now… retweet if you like this blog! :)

By the way, if you are using WordPress you may find that iframe widgets (such as the facebook ‘like‘ button) mystically disappear from your post even after you’ve saved them. I find it only happens if you switch from “html” view to “visual” view when writing my blog. To get around this, I put them in at the very end and then leave the post in html view.

Searchability. Under the “Blogs” section of my Google Alerts, I discovered that one of my songs was featured alongside Matthew Ebel (my webcast idol) in The Philosophy Guy’s podcast this weekend. I was very excited and immediately went to listen to the podcast … as I was listening it occurred to me that my own blog didn’t show up in the “Blog” section of a search for my own name. Coming from a background in research, I am always keen to experiment and problem solve. So, I asked myself: “How can I get my blog to show up in the Blog results of a Meghan Morrison Google Alert?” … I think I just did it. I never write my name in my blog posts and that is specifically what the search bots are looking for: the words “meghan” and “morrison”. Now, I don’t want to start writing in the third person (that would be ridiculous), so I’m going to try something new this week … signing my posts with my name. It’s authentic and not out of place or cheesy. I think it will be a good solution and will let you know how it goes.

Readability. White on black is hard on the eyes. I recognized this with my old website design and changed it to black on white during Week 3 (Website Optimization). It’s okay for short stays, but for longer reads it can be almost painful for people, especially with lined backgrounds, as Sean T Wright commented on my Week 9 posting (it took me a little longer to switch over the blog page, because I have it hosted separately).

Universality. Being an artist who wants to tour the world and connect with people from all over, it was important to me to make my blog available in as many languages as possible. When I first started researching how to do that I stumbled on Mojofiti and have been re-posting my blogs there (I get Addie to help me with that now when she comes in for office hours on Tuesdays) with a link on the original blog post to “Read this blog in 27 different languages“. I did recognize an important limitation to this: you would have to understand English to read it in the first place, but thought it was a step in the right direction. On Mojfiti, however, people find the blogs in their own language. Both my blog and Mojofiti are WordPress platforms and so that got me thinking that maybe there is a way to make my WordPress blog multi-lingual too. I contacted my web guru, Byron McQuay (of OneDesign) who sponsors my blog site and asked him if he knew anything about it. Shortly thereafter we found and installed the Global Translator plugin. It’s great because translation is as simple as clicking on a country flag (no need to interpret words)… the limitation: You have to translate from my blog’s home page and then select the post you want to read. I’m not sure why,  but the plugin doesn’t show up on the individual post pages… something I need to look into (might be my theme design or the way my settings are configured).

I think that’s all I’ve got in me this week, time for sleep! haha

Happy Blogging!

Meghan Morrison (let’s see if it works…)

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Read This Blog in 27 Different Languages

Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Facebook fan page, You Tube, Twit Pic, Flickr, Forums and the list goes on … there are SO MANY avenues for connecting with people online. It is both a burden and a blessing and for career musicians, whether we like it or not, it is an integral part of marketing in today’s world. Note that last word: “world”. Isn’t that what makes social media so exciting? It doesn’t matter if you have a label or management team and a big marketing budget, as a musician in this era you can literally connect with people (aka potential fans) all around the world… and the only investment you have to make is the cost of a computer and an internet connection (both of which can be used for free at the library). Limitless. That’s empowering. That being said, having a marketing team certainly would make your life A LOT easier and free up your time for improving your songwriting and stage performance.

Toward the end of this 4th week of Ariel Hyatt‘s Music Success in Nine Weeks blog challenge (Wave 3), I started feeling “the angst”. The ahhhh!-I-can’t-keep-up-with-all-of-this-and-be-committed-to-my-music-too! kind of pain that  suffocates you every now and then. I think it’s healthy though, it proves to me that I am still an artist under this business hat. That is a comfort in itself. Though I try not to get caught in the viscious cycle of complain-suffer-complain and burden my friends/family with that kind of negative energy, which really just keeps the problem alive instead of fixing it, I do think it is necessary to let the frustration out when it starts to rumble in your tummy. If you’re like me, it will be on your mind until it leaves your lips.

A few strategies I have adopted to cope with “the angst” and that have helped me complete the full 9 week challenge once (going on twice):

1. I tell someone … once. Then thank them for listening and tell them I’m moving on now (it usually gives rise to a chuckle). Telling them one idea for how I might be able to fix the problem also helps, because it gets my mind moving in a productive and positive direction. Did you know that if you ask yourself a question, your mind will keep looking for the answer subconsciously until it finds it? That’s why when you can’t think of the name of  a song it will come to you spontaneously hours or days later. I learned that during my training as a Cutco sales rep (oh yes, I once sold knives. I love those knives) and have found it to be a very useful tactic in approaching problem solving and creative endeavours.
2. Telling myself it’s okay to step away. Sometimes a break is as good as a vacation, right? Sometimes 5 or 15 minutes isn’t enough though and once I’ve given myself permission to abandon the project I tend to be happier coming back to it and often come back earlier than I planned because…
3. I remind myself that this is the Dip;  it takes as long as it takes, costs what it costs, and I’m going to do it regardless of the challenges, so I might as well enjoy the ride. If I’m feeling like I’m not enjoying it, then it probably means I have neglected something else that is important to me and I need to find a way to get my needs back in balance (or harmony, as I prefer to approach it).

And that is exactly how I came to write my blog tonight. I have absolutely no desire what-so-ever to write about social media this week, but this program is an important part of the long haul I’m in for, so I am determined to make some kind of step forward in this dip. What is my problem? So much of my time has been gobbled up over the past 13 weeks, trying to learn how to set up and use all these new programs, that I have felt a bit mechanical and my creative side has been neglected. I was expecting this. This is bootcamp and what Wave 2 was all about for me. It was about dedicating myself to my marketing project so that I could build a strong business foundation that I can be confident will support my creative pursuits and, eventually, lead me to a place where the house is capable of running itself without my constant supervision. I wanted Wave 3 to be about smoothing the integration so that I could focus more on music this time around. I don’t feel like I’m there yet. Thanks for listening, I’m going to move on now :)

A solution for my problem?  I wrote a lot about setting up social media sites during my Wave 2 Week 4 blog, so during this wave I want to satisfy my artistic need to reflect and write about the experience of using social media as an artist.

It has been AWESOME! Yes, it was a lot of work to set up and once you open a new social media application it never ends… but that’s a good thing. I can’t express how vitally important platforms like Twitter and Facebook have been in developing not only my online presence, but also my connection to the people who care about me and my music. My numbers suggest I don’t have a ton of followers at the moment, which is true, but those numbers are always growing; Especially with the webcast (84 visits to my website on the day of the last show. That’s huge for me!). With physical exercise, in order to maintain or improve upon the gains you achieve with all your hard work, you have to keep exercising. You don’t always have to be pushing your limits and comfort zone, but you do have to keep using those muscles and systems for them to continue functioning optimally, keeping your body healthy and efficient. Same thing with social media. If you stop using it all together, you will be forgotten and unfollowed. What I am trying to do now is find a way to blend it into my daily routine so that my social presence is alive and healthy, but not overwhelming me and taking all of my attention (if you only exercise your right bicep, it’s not going to help the strength of your left arm).

One major thing that has helped with this is … a team. Having other people on board that are actually keen to help out with social media and marketing has been a major asset in integrating social media into my life in a more manageable way over the last few weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I tweet my own tweets and post on people’s walls myself, but I do have a couple people now that can help with setting up and optimizing profiles on new sites (Addie), desiging/managing event pages and booking gigs (Leandra), and other tasks that don’t require an authentic artist interaction. You’d be surprised how much time it takes to upload music, pictures, etc. and design profiles when you’re trying to be everywhere on the net.

The team is still pretty new though, so it doesn’t always run smoothly yet and there have  been challenges in communicating my vision to others and we have all made mistakes along the way. For example, team members forgetting to sign out of my facebook profile before commenting on something on my wall … which makes me look like I’m having a conversation with myself or attempting super cheesy promotional tactics. While this is kind of funny in some ways, it’s also really serious. I don’t want to lose my fans/friends’ trust. If they have reason to believe that someone else is posting for me, they will have no reason to believe that I’m the one responding to them and may stop following.

Something that surprised me in a pleasant way was that even though I have my facebook fan page linked everywhere, there are waaay more people finding me and adding me as a friend with my personal account than liking my fan page. Though it doesn’t look particularly good for me as a musician, I think this is far more exciting. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to know that people I meet at shows and online are genuinely interested in getting to know me, not just my music. I’ve never used the “suggest to friends” function before, so I’m going to try that this week when Addie comes over.

Addie is a Fanshawe graduate who is really keen on getting into music marketing, especially social media. I recruited her by contacting her program director at the college (who was very eager to help me  and recognized the value of real-life experience for their students). I sent him a list of ‘available opportunities’ and he forwarded it to all the students in their Music Industry Arts program. Addie responded with a resume, came in for a semi-formal interview, and got the job! She has been coming over once a week for what we are calling “office hours” and has been a major asset in helping me cope with the demands of social media.

Leandra is a Harris Institute graduate who seriously wants to get into booking. She has scored me some pretty big gigs and free recording sessions and I am very grateful for her firey ambition. I met her at the NXNE conference this year through a mutual friend (who I met at a CIMA talk). When the arrangement she had with the band she was representing didn’t work out, she contacted me and asked if I was looking for management help. Indeed I was, so she came out to a show and interviewed me. We discussed our visions, goals, and work ethic and have been learning a lot together ever since.

I want these ladies to feel like the professionals they are and I want my business to operate like a real business, so they both have contracts (I got a package of music industry contract templates from Indie Artists Alliance) that are open to renewal and renegotiating. They also get paid. Not much, because we’re not bringing in much yet, but by offering to pay them something instead of asking them to work as unpaid interns (which is very common in this industry) they know that I respect them, apprecaite their work, and want them to be compensated. They know that the better we all do as a team, the more I will be able to give them.

If you want to build a team around you, I’m not an expert, but here is my suggestion: don’t give up on the idea when the first person doesn’t work out (because it probably won’t) … or the third person … or the tenth. Addie wasn’t the first person to send in a resume and be invited to join the team and I’ve gone through a number of people who tried acting as my manager or  booking agent, but in the end couldn’t commit to it. It has to be the right fit for everyone or it won’t work. Don’t take it personally and don’t blame the others for not following through if it’s not the right gig for them. It sucks to deal with turn-over, but it will give you the momentum you need to eventually get the right people on board. When you can advertise that you’ve got a booking agent, for example, that gives you credibility. People will take you more seriously and that will help attract other people who are interested in this kind of work.

It’s all stepping stones until you get to the other side of the river. Much like this week was for me. I don’t have my entire social media network all together and I haven’t quite figured out the best way to integrate it into my daily life, but I’m getting closer! (TweetDeck has been a BIG help with keeping updates regular, even when I can’t be at a computer for  a while. And the Pomodoro Technique has helped me make better use of my social media time when I am at the computer -thank you for blogging about it Ethan Waldman. I typically arrange for 1 “pomodoro” to check my tweets and schedule replies at the beginning of the day. I’ll also schedule retweets of things I think other people will find interesting. During the rest of the day, I send my own personal updates from my phone and catch up with the replies the next morning. I generally dedicate 1 – 2 “pomodoros” to check and respond to stuff on facebook before I go to bed. Since some of my tweets are set up to go through as facebook updates, this gives people time to comment on the posts and start discussions before I sit down to interact and catch up.

If you’re an artist going through “the angst” I hope this blog may have provided some coping strategies for you :) Feel free to forward it on to other social media sufferers :)

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