Since I got here, I was wondering if anyone makes music as well... I'm a producer myself so I'm always curious to know about this kind of things in order to share ideas and whatnot. I remember vividly a thread at least a couple years' back where there was mention of Oval and Ryoji Ikeda, so I figure I'm probably not the only one who dabbles in or at least likes electronic music as well. I've actually just released an album which you can listen to here : http://digitalisrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/escape-velocity (yay self-promotion) and there are a couple more things on my soundcloud here : http://soundcloud.com/zweikreise So if you've got a music project of any kind (doesn't have to be electronic as long as it's music you're making, or a band you're in for example), be sure to post links here, and take it away
Cool stuff. I like some of the work on that bandcamp link you gave. Very smooth. We had a thread like this a while back, but it's been inactive for quite a while, so it's good that you started another one. I'm a musician myself, though I don't have a band, and I don't play live regularly any more. But I'm always playing and writing new stuff. Here's my Soundcloud page: https://soundcloud.com/anshinanshin Like I said, it's just me. In the songs on that page, there's vocals, guitar (sometimes 2 or 3), and bass. There are no drums because I don't have a drumset, and I suck at drums anyway. The recordings are a little rough, since I didn't really intend for them to be finished works, but I never got around to developing them further. Let me know what you think.
Man this is cool... I like that kind of cold almost decadent "folk" aesthetic. You're a skilled guitar player, to be honest, really impressive in my opinion (I was never able to get one not-out-of-tune note out of a guitar so, take it for what it's worth). Also you have the quitessential "indie rock" voice in a way, which I like. All in all it reminds me of a band called Freshly Wrapped Candies that I'm pretty sure I'm the only one to know, but they're awesome nonetheless. Thanks a lot for sharing, those are really good ! You should try to make a couple more to have an ep and send it around to some labels me thinks...
Thank you! I appreciate it. My aesthetic is very much influenced by indie rock bands like Built to Spill and Modest Mouse, so that's an accurate assessment. I've never heard of Freshly Wrapped Candies. I'll have to check them out. I've thought about sending stuff to a label, but I'm not sure how I'd go about doing that. I'm also worried that it might be problematic that I don't have a band currently.
I don't think the fact of having a band or not is of any concern to any label really. As long as you can have tracks that you're happy with then I don't think you need to be concerned about being in a "guitar/bass/drums" configuration. About sending stuff to labels it's pretty much always the same. Back then labels usually wanted a demo cd, but nowadays because of ecological concerns most will ask you either to upload mp3s on sendspace (and the like) or send it to them via their soundcloud dropbox. After that, the only thing I can tell you is, put together an ep with your best songs (usually three to five is enough to give an idea of the sound), and get ready to have a lot of disappointment and unanswered emails. For example, the album I linked on bandcamp, I think I sent to at least half a dozen labels before getting a response. It's just how it works, you have to be lucky, pretty much. When you're sending your email or message to the label, try to avoid the really busy days. Don't send your mail on monday, and avoid friday night and the weekends like the plague. That's when all the mails are usually sent and yours risks getting lost in the swarm of spam and other demos. Try hitting them right smack in the middle of the week, from tuesday night to thursdays is your best bet. Otherwise, just be friendly and approachable, introduce your music and the tracks briefly, list a couple of influences and inspirations, and say why you sent the demo to the label, but remember to try and keep it short. Doesn't have to be text-message length but something concise and well written will work wonders. And by god if you send mp3s, tag them with your email address/contact details in the "artist" tag. Labels that have to keep track of demos have a lot of mails and even if they have a good opinion of your demo, if they can't find your email they just won't get back to you, and they're definitely not gonna go to the trouble of digging through their mailboxes. Trust me, I know. And last but not least, even if it seems completely obvious, pick your labels wisely. If you have a couple of them in mind already, that's good, but especially when you send stuff to labels you don't really know or only heard about, try to preview their stuff a bit to really know what they usually publish, and if you would fit stylistically speaking. If you do, it's the assurance that you're sending your demo to the right people. Also if you like a couple of artists or releases on the label it never hurts to say it. Don't overdo it or you'll sound like you're sucking up, but a subtle reference is always nice, and most of all it lets the guy on the other end of the line know that you know his label, because there's nothing more grating than receiving a mail that looks like it was tailored for someone else entirely, or worse, that sounds completely generic. It has to at least give the impression that you wrote it just for this occasion. I won't lie, it's a bit discouraging at first, because you get the impression no one's even reading your mails at times, but once you'll get the hang of it it gets better and easier. Just don't try to target the big ones at first, because the bigger the label is the least amount of time they have to spend listening to demos.
Haven't made anything in ages, but here's some stuff wot I done made: https://soundcloud.com/sonny_jim http://www.b3mused.com/members/audios/40/Sonny_Jim p.s If anyone wants to use it for some of it for video game music, contact me and I'd be happy to let you use it.
