That man Tann and his Vinyl Project

I'm videoing my mate Nick Tann tomorrow recording - here is the press release for what hes doing:

Eastleigh-based singer songwriter Nick Tann has at last raised the funds to kick his year long The Vinyl Project into its second phase!

Working with the hugely talented Matt Stevens, Nick devised The Vinyl Project concept back in February 2010. Consumed by making his music available in an online environment, it came to him that he could veer from the new media path and strike out with a vinyl release, funded by his fans.

“I wanted to keep it simple” said Nick “So I just asked people to pre pay for the album via a paypal button on my website”.

On the strength of pre-orders and donations from resin-loving music aficionados, the studio space is now booked and Nick will be playing to a small, invited audience at Livingstone Studios in March. All live, one take and absolutely no overdubs! "It's an exciting time" said Nick "the pressure is certainly on and I can’t wait!"


Once the recording is in the can, Nick will enter the final phase of gathering the final funds so he can press his tunes to lovely, glossy vinyl and send it out to the world. Exciting times for those of us still in thrall to gatefold album covers and two sided LPs, who still get a thrill from dropping a needle onto a groove.


You can pre order a copy or just follow Nick's progress on his blog at http://www.nicktann.co.uk

Nick can be contacted via email through

nicktann@gmail.com

The Top 5 Thrash Metal Acoustic Intros

Back in the 80's some of the music that really inspired me was only minutes or even seconds long. The classical intros at the start of thrash metal songs were a massive influence on me and a lot of the music I do now reflects this.

Here is an good one from Metallica and one of the earliest Fight Fire with Fire:


Sepultura - Beneath The Remains is great, classic record as well:



My first record was quite influenced by this by Annilhilator - not that I'm a guitar player in Jeff Waters league. This is bloody brilliant, listen to those harmony parts!!:



Megadeth Good Mourning has an amazing intro - not totally acoustic but really a bit special.



And Metallica Again - Battery



Because back then(early 90's)it was hard to get access to classical guitar stuff this was my only really exposure to that sound when I was a teenager. Then I got into Mclaughlin and Paco De Lucia and all that.

Anyone else recommend any good thrash acoustic intros?

The Facebook Principal.....

The irony that I'm reading a book on Facebook as I'm trying to cut back on the amount of time I spend on Facebook is not lost on me. But there is a very valuable lesson to learn for from what they did. The focused on growing an audience before trying to monetize.

Building a community is REALLY important for all us interweb musician types, its took me years to be build a small audience. I believe being open and giving away free music creates goodwill. This wasn't a grand plan, I just learned along the was. You treat people as individuals, you say thank you, treat them with respect. Having an audience is a not a right, its an incredible privilege.

If you focus on money first it costs more in marketing to build your audience. The paywall you put slows the process of discovery. There are just too many other things going on online.

If you like my music please just tell one person about it. Thank you :)

A trip to Denmark Street and Forbidden Planet - London:

Investment Opportunity?

This is interesting:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/carl-barat-dances-to-venture-capitalists-tune-2227591.html

I'm not a fan of the Libertines but this is an interesting article. To quote:

""That was like performing on Dragon's Den," says Carl Barat after perhaps the strangest gig that the Libertines frontman has ever played.

He has just entertained an elite crowd of 20 venture capitalists in a swanky Soho hotel, who are considering whether to invest their hard-won millions in him. The singer performed after the "dragons" had listened to a presentation by the chairman of Power Amp, an investment firm specialising in the music industry, which is offering a tax-efficient opportunity to back a select number of established artists."

If you add investment in PR and Marketing plus tour support to the DIY distribution channels things get really interesting. With investment you have no need for labels even if you want to compete at the highest level as long as you and your team as an artist know what you're doing or are smart enough to employ people who do.

Every day I see less and less reasons why anyone would want to sign to a label.

This a photo by my friend Tim (@kalyr) from the gig on Saturday night:

Panic Room

I'm weening myself off Facebook and Twitter and the moment. I have some great friends on both sites but I've been spending FAR too much time on there. They are both amazing ways to connect with people and basically i just use them for talking to people i consider my friends and gaining an audience has been an incredible bonus, really. I feel very lucky.

People normally find posts on ere if I tweet about them or via Facebook, so I'm not sure how many hits this will get but it makes me happy writing it.

The gig last night was a lot of fun, the Panic Room crowd were lovely as were the band. Great live act and nice people. I met the Tinyfish guys and they have a very similar attitude to me with music stuff. And I spoke to many friends and listeners old and new. The set seemed to go well I played:

Rusty (new song)
Burning Bandstands
Moondial
Burnt Out Car
8.19
Big Sky

A lovely audience:



Panic Room onstage:



Playing to people at the Peel in front of a full room of people is great, didn't expect that when I was doing open mics and all that. Amazing and massively unexpected :)

How do we make records?

Hello :)

Thanks to everyone who downloaded my album in the last few days, you give me the opportunity to make more music. Amazing.

We're still recording. For my 3rd album and finishing the mix/last few overdubs on the debut Fierce And The Dead album. Thanks to everyone who has stayed with us during the recording process, it takes ages but we're really conscious of trying to do something special. Soon me and Kev we will be enjoying arguing over TFATD song titles.

The way we make my stuff and Fierce and the Dead stuff is pretty much exactly opposite, oddly as they are made by the same people. We do always try and keep costs as low as possible. The difference is that TFATD is very much a collaboration - three people decide on and define the creative process. With my own stuff only I have to like it (although Kev is very much a guide there as well and he puts in some brilliant creative ideas).

A Matt record:



Our current method of working is to record as much as possible at home. I have a rough arrangement of the song and the majority of the parts. We record the parts, Kev Feazey does the production/engineering and programming. My stuff is sometimes difficult to program due to the odd timings so using someone as talented as Kev is essential.

This way I only have to pay for Kev to engineer the record, I still pay him but its cheaper than hiring a studio. Then when most of the record is done we'll hire a studio (most likely Livingstone) and overdub drums and percussion/noisy guitars and other stuff. Also for this record I'm hoping to get some overdubs from my friends online, as long as i can find appropriate uses for their (vast) talents. I think if you're going to get guests in you need to be able to give them something good to do.

After this Kev mixes and we discuss and review the mixes until everyone is happy. Easy! (although the process takes around 2 years!!!).

My first album was done 100% in a studio, Ghost 80% so this is a relatively new way of working for us. The last few tracks for Ghost we did as above, I was so pleased with way they came out we decided to keep going this way (not to mention the amount of money it saves).

This will be the last one we make this way. Its essential to keep changing your working methods to open new creative doors.

A Fierce And The Dead record:



First me and Kev write/demo the songs - as a collaboration in my living room mostly. Then we jam/improvise/learn the songs in a rehearsal room for a few days as a 3 piece with Kev on bass and Stuart on drums, get the structures and all that.

Next step is to go into a studio (Livingstone again) and record the tracks, pretty much live, just a few overdubs. Then Kev mixes and treats/re-arranges the tracks, almost like a DJ record/krautrock type feel. Once this is done we do more overdubs and Kev carries on mixing and we all approve it. You can hear a track made like this here.

Then we learn the tracks off the recording so we can play then live.

Weird eh?

Hopefully i'll be able to play you some more stuff soon.

And the conclusion:

Work with good people, get out their way and let them get on with it (but retain creative control, if its your project).

Somehting else happened today - an old video of me playing in 2008 has appeared and had lots of views on twitter - no idea how it happened but i'm very pleased:



Speak soon


Matt Stevens
www.mattstevensguitar.com

Who really grossed the most in the US last week?

Just to clarify I don't think its the death of the music industry, its the EVOLUTION of the music industry. Middle people (managers/retailers/labels etc) beware, musicians are realising that by investing their own money (if the music is good enough) they no longer need you.

This from Bob Lefsetz - and shows how distorted the industry really is:

From: Jamie Howarth
Date: January 29, 2011 9:47:53 PM PST
Subject: Grateful Dead - not noted...

Dead moved 3.5Mill of merch in 4 days.
Europe 72 sold out 7200 units (65CD set), presold won't deliver until September - at 450 bucks apiece. Already on ebay for 1000 bucks. Again, presale. Sold out. Boom

Nobody noticed the biggest gross of the week.