Twitter is one of the most important tools you can use to promote your music and your brand. With the stroke of 140 characters you can keep your fans engaged, informed and ready to spread your music, photos and show dates to all their friends and fellow tweeters.

Twitter has outlined a set of guidelines titled Twitter For Musicians and Artists. You can find this on the Twitter Developers site. Twitter outlines the importance of leveraging their marketing tool efficiently while providing pointers for entrepreneurial musicians and bands.

They touch on a variety of topics:

• Sound and Vision
• Empowering the Artist’s Voice
• Connecting with Fans
• Live-tweet Events
• Tips for Running Band Accounts

Musicians no longer have to rely on the local publications and posters on venue walls to reach their audiences. They build lists of fans using many different types of social media. Twitter is one of the most powerful. Twitter allows Artists and Music Brands to speak directly to their fans while branching out through a network of music lovers. What is the value to that? It allows the artist to connect to their fans on more emotional level. Something happens when a listener connects with music. They relate to the lyrics, the tempo, the orchestration or even a memory brought on by what is flowing through their ears. When you combine that with a personality, a glimpse into the personal life of the artist and a variety of show promotions, new songs, and quirky quips, you have found a form of entertainment and inspiration that is all your own. And that can be priceless.

Twitter is offering musicians, artists and music brands a chance to expand their audiences by offering them $50 Twitter Ads credit. Twitter Ads gives music makers and brands the power to target your message to customers when it its most relevant and top of mind. You can target Twitter users by their interests and conversations they are having.

Reach the fans that are listening to and promoting similar artists. Direct new fans to your music and website. Simply click here to apply for your free $50 Twitter advertising credit.

When you connect with your fans, you create a foundation that will show up to buy tickets to your live shows. They will spend money on your t-shirts, stickers and CDs. Most of all, they will connect and support what counts the most – the music.

At any given time, I may be in the mood for funk, rock, bluegrass, jazz or songwriters. I have never let anyone’s opinion change the way music makes me feel. And when I’ve read a bad review, all I’ve ever wanted to do was reach out to that musician and let them know that no one cares what that Critic has to say.

Seth Godin has a blog that I follow daily. I had to share this as I think every musician should read this and find confidence in the audience that appreciates their talents. Enjoy and please share with your peeps – Dave Tamkin

The critic stumbles

By Seth Godin

Last week, I saw an extraordinary play on Broadway. It got the longest standing ovation I’ve ever seen in a theater, and Alan Cumming deserved every minute of it. The New York Times critic, though, didn’t like the show.

What’s the point of his review, then? Clearly the audience, discerning in their own right, disagreed. Do mainstream critics exist to tell us what to like, to warn us off from the not-so-good, or are they there to punish those that would dare to make a piece of work that doesn’t match the critic’s view of the world? Perhaps the critic is saying, “people like me will have an opinion like this,” but of course, there just aren’t that many people like him.

Have you noticed just how often the critics disagree with one another? And how often they’re just wrong?

For me, the opinion of any single critic is becoming less and less meaningful as I choose what to view or engage with. And the aggregate opinion of masses of anonymous critics merely tells me that the product or content is (or isn’t) mass-friendly. I’m far more moved by the insistent recommendation of a credible, raving fan than I am the snide whispering of some people who just didn’t get it.And yet we not only read them, but we believe them. Worse, we judge ourselves, contrasting our feelings with their words. Worse still, we sometimes think we hear the feared critic’s voice before we even ship our work out the door…

The math is simple: no matter how big a critic’s platform, what moves markets are conversations. And we are far more likely to have conversations about something we’re raving about than something we didn’t like (because when we don’t like it, our friends never experience it and the conversation dies). The win, then, is creating raves, not avoiding pans.

Every single book I’ve written has gotten at least a few one star reviews on Amazon. Every one. The lowest possible rating, the rating of, “don’t bother reading this, in fact it never should have been written.” Not just me, of course. Far better writers, writers like Fitzgerald, Orwell and Kincaid have gotten even more one-star reviews on their books than I can ever hope to.

No one has ever built a statue to a critic, it’s true. On the other hand, it’s only the people with statues that get pooped on by birds flying by.

Godin believes that the end of the “TV-Industrial complex” means that marketers no longer have the power to command the attention of anyone they choose, whenever they choose. Second, in a marketplace in which consumers have more power, he thinks marketers must show more respect; this means no spam, no deceit and a bias for keeping promises. Finally, Godin asserts that the only way to spread the word about an idea is for that idea to earn the buzz by being remarkable. Godin refers to those who spread these ideas as “Sneezers”, and to the spreading idea as an “IdeaVirus.” He calls a remarkable product or service a purple cow.

Advertisements on television and radio are classified as ‘interruption marketing’ which interrupt the customer while they are doing something of their preference. Godin popularized the concept of “permission marketing” where the business provides something “anticipated, personal, and relevant”…. more at Wikipedia

Subscribe to Seth Godin’s Blog Here

It’s a funny thing to have six people in a car, day after day, heading to a new town and to another show. What a weird existence! Often we are in that car for hours on end, traveling cursively through space and time, going nowhere in the end because we always end up in the same place we started – home. To pass the time on our journeys, we don’t all talk as a group (mostly). Instead, we have fallen into our own solitary habits. I would love it if someone could travel with us for a time, as a passive observer, noticing our activities while we travel the endless road. That person will see the same things over and again: Patrick is reading a book (a thousand-page brick of a book, nonetheless), Kristina and Mike are sleeping (often times for the entirety of the trip), John is driving while musing on the topics of politics, philosophy, and music, and at the same time Nez is navigating while playing the part of devil’s advocate, keeping John in check and his feet on the ground (the two often remind me of Socrates and his students discussing the same eternal topics in the agoras of Athens). As for me, you will usually find me quietly looking out the window, taking in the sights and deep inside the cavities of my mind … pondering, ruminating, and talking to myself (in my head, of course). If I may, I’d like to share one of my thoughts on the topic of music. I hope it is not overly tedious. Please bear with me.

The etymology of the word “music” comes from the Greek for “muse” (i.e. Μοῦσα – Mousa). You can see the connection, and interestingly, the same root also flowered into the word “museum,” the treasure trove of the arts. The muse – sometimes evoked in plural form but essentially one entity – was the goddesses of inspiration and the purveyor, through the vehicle of the artist, of art itself. Throughout ancient times the muse was evoked before a recitation. Homer, for example, began his great works by calling on the muse to inspire him and to lift his words heavenward. But what’s more, music (along with the lyric) was seen as the highest form of art: that which can provide momentary manifestation of the ineffable; that which can make the inaudible, audible – the invisible, visible, however fleeting. Music, of course, does not take physical shape. It is the only art form that is invisible … not seen but heard and internalized. It is an inhalation and exaltation.

But alas, back to the specifics of music. I remember reading an interview with Bjork, the Icelandic singer, almost 15 years ago. It was fascinating. She mentioned that she continues to write song after song because she is forever in search of the perfect song … an elusive pursuit perhaps. She will never stop, she said. I identified with this. I think the same can be said of all musicians and songwriters. Our songs are never perfect; they seem unable to communicate exactly what we are feeling. We try. We fail. But we get back on the proverbial horse. The question is: is this search for perfection possible in an imperfect world? For some sort of answer, I refer back to ancient Greece, to the reticent poet and artist, Plato. Plato argued that not even a true circle is possible in this world. Though one might try, the imperfections inherent in all surfaces prohibit such a feat. Think of a piece of paper and all is crests and troughs. You might try to make a circle, but in some way, however small, it is not perfect. It is a distortion. To be sure, a perfect circle exists, yet only in another world – the eternal realm of forms. Yet, at the same time, we have in our head an idea of the form, the thing in itself, even though it is not tenable in our world. Thus, worldly circles only inspire. They stand in as an understudy of the thing in itself. Our circles here on Earth, for example, partake in the idea of “circleness.” They are close replicas but not the thing in itself. As such, Bjork embarks on a noble pursuit chasing the perfect song. To do this, she chases the very notion of perfection, that is, perfection in itself. While we know this is impossible, the pursuit itself may partake of remarkable features on their own. She fails, as all creators and artists do, but the search makes manifest things like faith, love, and hope – however fleeting. At best the audience connects with the emotions conveyed and tentatively grasps the artist’s intention. Yet, it is not the perfect song. Get back on that horse. So, the muse is not obtainable in this world. She is there only to inspire, to breath in and inflame. There are good songs and there are better songs. She holds her hand out when coaxed by the latter, a more-perfect melody. Our goal is to grasp her. As a creator myself I also chase the perfect song … and the muse.

At last, I await to see her, to greet her where she is. When I do find the muse, a pursuit unto death, I hope she will sing for me the perfect song. I will then get off the horse and pause in my tracks.

Check out Mike Mangione & The Union on iTunes
http://mikemangione.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mike-Mangione-The-Union/133976429984287
http://www.youtube.com/mikemangione

The first album “On These Heavy Feet” 2010 was just that – a heavy record – 14 songs. We recorded basic tracks in two days and I spent the next six weeks freaking out to meet my release date, spending way too much money in a studio arranging, recording, overdubbing, re-recording, producing, mixing, mastering, ect… It was my first big experience in the big studio with my full band (4 piece + strings, horns, ect…). I learned tons! But recording 14 songs at once while trying to perform full time was hard!

I just finished my latest album and the experience was the exact opposite. We recorded one song at a time over the course of a year. That’s not the most “efficient” way, but being an active touring musician, that is the only way I could keep touring/playing and funding the recording without losing my mind and going into debt. This way I could focus all my energy into one song & perfect it! I could sit with it, listen to it, give it two months, listen with a new perspective, change a few things. People love singles on the internet, so I’d always share and release a new track/new mix and gauge the response. The growth between these albums is huge!

I needed to find a unique way to release this album and raise funds to promote it. I chose Pledge Music. It’s a crowd funding site similar to Kickstarter, but a little slicker and designed for established bands. The financial goal isn’t displayed and Pledge Music asks a portion of the funds supports a charity of the artist’s choice. It makes it a little easier to ask for contributions and one can alter the goal a little if needed. I made an explicit personal goal for 500 people to back the project. I wanted anyone to back the project whether they could give $10 or $10,000. Whatever money I make from the campaign is immensely helpful, but it’s half the reason to launch a campaign.

I wanted a way to bring my community together. These campaigns do that. It connects me with current fans, long lost fans, friends, old classmates, fellow musicians, and busy hard working folks. It gets people excited, breathes momentum into a project and it is a powerful way to get people to pay for music! In the climate of online streaming and free music everywhere, it feels good to launch a campaign to break that mold. It makes a statement that music should not be free and shows that your money actually supports an artist’s career.

Check out Rob Drabkin’s Pledge Music Campaign here.

Favorite Piece of Gear: My Martin HD-35 and this awful Fostex 8 track I use for songwriting. It has cool reverb which makes me a little more comfortable to explore musically and it’s a great way write lyrics.
One Thing I can’t Tour Without: My heart and coffee.
Listening to: Lucinda WIlliams singing “This Old Guitar” by John Denver. It’s on “The Music Is You: A Tribute To John Denver.

Rob has achieved some big wins in his career so far. He was voted Colorado’s Best Singer/Songwriter by Westword Magazine 2008- 2010. He gathered enough votes to earn his turn on stage at The Mile High Music Festival with artists like The Fray, Widespread Panic, Tool, and Ben Harper. He’s done national tours with Trevor Hall, Tea Leaf Green, Carbon Leaf and Davy Knowles/Back Door Slam. Rob recalls how Davy invited him to join the tour. Davy said, “Rob, why not save yourself the gas money and just come on the bus with us for a month?” We traveled the country and played incredible places like Higher Ground and The Bowery Ballroom. It was a phenomenal experience that helped start my career and reach new fans.”

When I started taking music seriously I set out in a van with my dog, slept at truck stops and learned how to travel the country by myself.  I became really good at slipping into conversations, making friends, staying social all the while without being too creepy (at least I think).  One day I realized the music I heard in my head as I played was not what the audience was hearing.  I heard the whole song roaring like an orchestra; the audience heard a guy playing really loud on his guitar … and not very well.

It was perfect timing when my brother, Tom, showed interest in joining me on the road.  Soon after, one by one, we added members until we settled on four others: The Union.  For seven years they have stayed the same, no change over, no replacements.  Just the same old crew traveling from Salt Lake to New York, Duluth to San Antonio, Madrid to Manila and back again … spending countless hours together and at times on top of each other.  The same people day in and day out, year after year, and I love it.

Occasionally someone will ask me what advice I could give them as they begin their music career.  My response is two sides of the same coin.  A. Make sure what you hear in your head is accurately being translated to your audience.  B. Surround yourself in a band of people you love.  The only way this all works is because of love.  We love playing our instruments, we love playing music, we love playing together and most importantly, we love each other.  That’s it.  In this industry and in this day and age there can be so much against you.  Having a band of brothers and sisters, having a family to fall back on, is the only way, I have found, it is possible to bear its weight.  I can not guarantee I will play incredible, I can not guarantee the room will be packed, I can not guarantee the radio will love our single, or critics will love the album and doors of opportunity will fling open!  I cannot guarantee that all we are trying to do as a band will go as planned … but I can guarantee I will be loved by those I am trying with and that makes it possible.

Check out Mike Mangione & The Union on iTunes
http://mikemangione.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mike-Mangione-The-Union/133976429984287
http://www.youtube.com/mikemangione

Low Latent Inhibition and Creativity:
A Musicians Perspective: By Cary Judd

I’ve spent a life time pointing out my observations of the minute details of the universe. It always seemed a typical impulse, though typically met with a perplexed expression from the recipient of seemingly irrelevant information. For those with Low Latent Inhibition there is an underlying feeling of being different. For me, I knew I was different based on people’s reaction to me, but until a few years ago didn’t understand why.

I recall a few weeks after talking with the therapist that diagnosed me, watching a video someone had posted of me performing live. A light went on and I made, for the first time, some kind of sense of why I am the way I am. It was as if I’d suddenly solved what motivates an otherwise cagey individual that I’d known my whole life. The epiphany was multiplied immensely by the fact that it was myself I was understanding in a new way for the first time.

When I perform live there is an array of electronics around me. Foot pedals that make the slightest alterations to the tone of my instruments. One pedal records a phrase or beat, one pedal drops the sound of my guitar an octave to fill bass frequencies, one pedal echoes the sounds I’m making in time with the tempo of each piece and on and on. In any given song there are many different tone alterations, loop triggers, as well as instruments switches. Details, details, details.

To the outside observer, I’ve become more and more oblivious to their reactions to me, most of which are very positive. Someone might say to me, “It’s amazing how you build these songs right in front of the audience, with drums, bass, guitars etc. It’s like watching a producer produce a song right in front of you” (this is almost verbatim of a comment I’m recollecting from the last show I played). The reaction in my head is, “well of course I’d do all those things, these songs need the details. The songs need the beat, the bass line, the layered voices. How else would I do it?”. What actually comes out of my mouth is something more like, “hey thanks for not thinking I’m an alien” (or at least thinking that being an alien is cool).

When I start writing a song I hear a symphony. Not an orchestra, at least not usually. I hear a sound in my head, a big sound, like a big picture, but the details are already implied, they’re already in place. It becomes a sort of algebraic equation, to see the answer, the completed song, then work backwards to fill in the details that are already there. It’s as though I’ve instantly transferred an idea in my mind to canvas, then I go back and study my own brush strokes to understand all of the details.

The first two records I made, I made with someone else sitting in the engineer’s and producer’s seat. I learned on my third album, in order to get the sound in my head onto tape unaltered I had to take on those jobs myself. My third album, “Goodnight Human” ends up being my proudest artistic moment. The sound the listener hears is identical to the sound in my head for the first time, in spite of my limited understanding of audio engineering.

I find it difficult to explain Low Latent Inhibition to others, I don’t know what it’s like to not think this way. If you are someone with what would be considered a ‘normal’ healthy mind, imagine yourself in a situation where you have to explain what being ‘normal’ is. This is my normal.

Cary

Cary Judd on iTunes
Cary Judd Music on Facebook
What is LLI

Cary Judd (born Cary Dirk Judd on March 4, 1985) is a singer/songwriter from Moose, Wyoming. He has released four solo albums on the China Mountain Records label, and has written an ebook on touring for independent musicians. Judd has performed on Treasure Valley View in 2012. Judd is in the band The Blaqk Family Band and is a former member of Fires in France. Personal: Cary was born and raised in Thousand Oaks, CA. After he began touring, he chose to move to Moose, WY, a small village inside Grand Teton National Park, located 12 miles north of Jackson, WY. Cary lives with a rare mental condition known as Low Latent Inhibition, which he credits for his creativity. More…

COVENHOVEN –  RECORDING A RECORD ON YOUR OWN
By Joel Van Horne

About 6 months ago, I began working on a new record – writing, performing, producing, and recording the entire thing alone in my apartment.  I imposed no outside pressures or deadlines on myself for the first time ever.  I knew it would be a challenge and I also knew that ultimately what I came up with could quite possibly be only ‘demo’ quality and that the real tracking of the record would begin once I came to that realization.  But happily, I am pleased with how things have turned out thus far and am now in the mixing and mastering stages.  All along I knew that I needed to work with an engineer for mixing, to get a fresh set of ears on everything, to gain a new perspective myself, and to get an expert’s opinion on the quality of my rough tracks.

At this point, I have no idea exactly how many hours I have spent tracking, but a safe estimate would be around 10 hours per song, so over 100 hours would have been spent in the studio, which if I went with a cheaper studio, I would’ve been spending around $50 an hour.  So, I’ve saved at least $5,000 by tracking in my home studio.  Not to mention the absence of pressure and the problems that can arise with scheduling… (i.e. let’s say you have a day scheduled for vocals and you show up to find out that your voice just isn’t working that day for whatever reason… so you lose that time and money… this has happened to me).

It should be said that I have spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours in studios over the years, working with many very talented and knowledgeable audio engineers up to this point.  I have paid close attention to their practices, and learned from those experiences.  This is why I now feel comfortable going it alone.  I now understand that when it comes to tracking, the source (i.e. your voice, your instrument, etc.) and the performance itself are the two most important things in making a good recording.  The mics, preamps, A-to-D converters, and software, while obviously important, all come second to these two things.

To raise the money for mixing and mastering, I knew I had 2 options.  I could either sock away whatever I could afford each month and in a year or so I’d have enough to cover the cost, or I could try a Kickstarter.com campaign to raise the money in 30 days, and in doing so, provide a cool way to involve my backers in a deeper way with the whole process.  I took the risk (Kickstarter is “all-or-nothing”) despite my reservations, and am now 130% funded with a few days left, and the buzz and awareness surrounding the project because of the Kickstarter campaign is an added bonus.

Final thought:  I was once told that “good records are made up of good songs, not good sounding songs.”  This couldn’t be more true.  It’s important to get the sounds you want and to produce the record in a meaningful and thoughtful way, but none of that means anything if you aren’t starting with great songs.

Joel Van Horne plays all the instruments. The lead singer and multi-instrumentalist of Colorado’s Carbon Choir begins a new journey with his first solo, self titled album, Covenhoven.

Bands I’m digging lately:  Sigur Ros, The National, Bon Iver

Covenhoven’s Debut Record
Covenhoven on Facebook
www.covenhoven.com

Learning to Work with a Producer
By Danny Safer

As it turns into spring a lot of musicians hope to have something creative to show for the time at home in the winter. I tend to play twice as much as usual from May thru October. It’s always a good plan to try to release a new recording just as the busy season hits. This time, two winters have gone by since the last recording, so I will be releasing a new CD on April 26th at The Wildflower Pavilion in Lyons, Colorado on Planet Bluegrass. This is my first recording released on a Goathouse – Tolstar Records. When it comes to shake a crowd down in just about any club, festival or concert setting I am comfortable after 200 shows a year for well over a decade. Still making a good recording that is listenable to an audience that has heard just about everything is a skill that I was pleased to have a whole lot of help on this upcoming release. How can letting go and letting others in help a process as arduous as the studio? This has been a true relief and lesson to me. Here are three things that have inspired me on this album.

1 – A good producer is someone that can understand what your music can be and bring it to a listener with the help fresh ears. Having a producer take direction of a session has helped me step outside a song I have played for a long time. Sometimes with a new song I may get excited about possibilities and may get ahead of myself. I struggle with editing my own music. If I can step outside my music during a recording session, not only can I take good direction from a producer but also let new ideas come. I may not be able to tell the difference between a B class song and an A class song. It’s been beneficial for me to let someone help me with this.

2 – As a fulltime musician I tend to live in a live music setting. Making the transition from live to studio isn’t always easy. In a live setting I may be singing to the back of the room or interacting with the drummer.   A song may sound better with a more laid back vocal approach. Or the guitar could be strummed differently. On a recording a guitar line may need some help to really make it stand out. I enjoy working ideas out live. The studio can be so different for me but the possibilities endless.  On this last project, as time has gone in to recording, I have learned to rely on the producer. I realize that as a team we can make a better recording.  Though my plans for a song may be good, a good producer can help to make them stronger.

3 – At some point we all wonder when a recording is done. I can never tell. As a songwriter and a live performer I want to trust the song. If I can trust the song, when does it become just right? A musician and the producer can both help with this long lasting studio question. To be able to ask this of another is priceless to me. I would either let it go to early or work on it forever.  I have been lucky to work with people who expect me to work hard and not give up. I still always wonder about when a song is finished, mixed and mastered. To have a good producer’s view point has become something I value.

This new recording was produced by Robert Tarintino who said to me “I can help you make a better recording”. I have learned so much from working with him. My respect for him is connected to music we both love and the wish to do it honestly and with integrity. Music has always been the way I have experienced everything. So working with him has really made a difference in the way I hear to music.

Thank you,

Danny Shafer

Songwriter
http://www.dannyshafer.com/
Danny on Youtube

CD Release: Wildflower Pavilion
500 W Main St.
Lyons, Colorado 80540
Phone: 800-624-2422
Web: http://www.wildflowerpavilion.com/
Doors: 7:00 PM
Show Start: 8:00 PM
Support: LINDSAY LOU & THE FLATBELLYS
Support Web: http://lindsayloumusic.com/
Tickets: $12

Front range legend Danny Schafer is a troubadour in every sense of the word. With over 100 shows a year, his performance varies from Troubadour Fingerstyle, to Country Blues, to his Full Americana band, The Red Glory Ramblers. In every setting, Danny delivers his acclaimed songwriting with impeccable talent. A veteran of both the Wildflower Pavilion and the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival, we are excited to celebrate the release of Danny’s long awaited new release. Don’t miss this opportunity, they don’t come around nearly often enough…

Musicians! Do you REALLY need a big studio for a pro album?
By Everyday Jones
www.everydayjones.com

Alissa and I just released “Season of Hope” without any assistance from a pro studio, so you probably already know my answer. Let me preface with this thought: Pro studios have their place. Some of the greatest records have come from there, some of the greatest recording engineers sit behind that behemoth SSL board and some of the most wonderful people I know own and run one. And if you’ve got $$$ out the ass to spend, then you should definitely get it done there.

For the rest of us, (most of us anyway), we don’t have oodles and oodles of $$$ to spend on our record. Sometimes we can hardly afford that seasoned bass player or drummer to come lay down 12 tracks and spend two days recording. And once you’ve paid them, you’ve only begun paying people, such as the person mixing your album, the person mastering your album, the person designing your CD artwork, the duplication house, and on and on and on.

So, why not save $$$ when you can and record in your own home-studio? For Everyday Jones, it was our only option.

Here are my 10 cons to recording at home. They are, in no particular order:
1. You have to have a space quiet enough from outside traffic/noise
2. You have to have time to actually record during quiet times
3. Got neighbors? Forget tracking drums
4. You have to learn how to run a DAW (digital audio workstation such as ProTools, Logic Pro or Studio One). Maybe you don’t know where to start? Try downloading from our MiXiT files to see what we did on “Season of Hope”.
5. You have to invest in microphones. Now, you don’t have to run out and get the Neumann U87, but really, anything less than at AT4050 or a Neumann TLM104 and I think you’re fighting an uphill battle.
6. You have to invest in an analog/digital converter. We went simple. We have two PreSonus Firepods. Not the best, not the worst.
7. You have to invest in a compressor. Well, maybe not, but it sure is helpful. Believe me!
8. If you’re the only one in the band that knows the DAW, guess what, you’re the one recording everyone…even yourself!
9. You have to know proper mic placement. “Fix it in the mic”, not the mixing. This is the one killer of a good record.
10. You have to be dedicated. It’s super easy to get sidetracked or complacent when no one at the controls (or the money you’ve put down) is telling you it’s time to record.

So, what are the pros for recording at home? Obviously this outweighed going in to a big studio for Everyday Jones.
1. You invest in microphones. Once you own one, you own one for as long as you take good care of it. Subsequent records (if you like the mic, obviously) will use it. You don’t have to pay again to rent a mic.
2. You invest in a DAW. See #1; Sentence two.
3. You invest in a Compressor. See #1; Sentence two.
4. You invest in an A/D converter. See #1; Sentence two.
5. You can take your time. There’s no clock ticking down. Feel free to be creative. Write some really shitty parts. Write some more shitty parts. Delete them. Start over. Pick only your best parts.
6. You are in control of your sound. Don’t like the vocal take you just did? Do it again! Comp a different vocal take.
7. You send your audio files to someone that knows, and I mean really knows how to mix the record. You may think this is a con, since it costs, but to have fresh ears on your song? It’s the best thing you can do.
8. You save money. Sure, it might be expensive starting, but if you plan on cranking out new albums, it’s not as though you have to re-purchase everything.
9. Recording this way is a 100% collaboration between songwriters. No one else is doing the work for you. No one else is making the decisions. Yet, everyone in the band must be happy with the end product. Talk about learning how to compromise!
10. Pride. It feels really fucking awesome to have a tangible item in your hand that you did 95% of the work. That’s a really good feeling. No one else made that record sound awesome (save for the person mixing and mastering), you made it sound awesome. Because you took your time, you weren’t rushed and you chose the best parts and didn’t have someone that lacked interest in your music quickly choosing parts just to get the project done.

Now, maybe you’re thinking I’m new at this and I don’t really know what I’m talking about. However, we’ve been getting reactions from our new album as one that goes up against major label releases. So, do you need a big studio to make a pro album? That’s for you to decide.
Comment below and give me your take if you’ve done this or want to do this.

I want to make several recommendations if you’re doing an indy-esque approach to recording music:
1. Who to mix your album: Graham Cochrane. This guy is simply the best. You won’t realize how flat and lifeless your mix is until you A/B it with his mix.
2. Who to master your album: It’s a toss up between Graham Cochrane and Steve Turnidge. Either one, you won’t go wrong. Steve wrote the book on mastering. Seriously, he has a book out.
3. CD Artwork: Clint Bush. Massively talented graphic artist and literally gives away his work, since he should be charging into the thousands for it.
4. Bass Player: Jason Gray. Simply the best bass player in Seattle.
5. Drummer: Cody Rahn. Cody is a mind reader. Our album went something like this, “Hey Cody, I’ve got this rhythm in my head, can’t really explain it, but can you play it?” Boom! Played it. He reads minds.

Follow Your Passion
By Scott Wilcox

I’ve wanted to be a rock star from birth. When I was three my mother said I used to makeup great songs that would go on and on and on. My father, a semi famous disc jock in the 70’s, spent his whole life always trying to reach a star that was just out of his grasp; so naturally, my mother became very nervous when I showed quite a bit of music potential at a young age. My mother always feared that If I pursued music, I might fail, so she liked to tell me, “Music is a hobby, don’t quit your day job!”. At the age of 12, I wrote my first song and learned to play piano. As I grew older I wrote more and more songs and my voice began to develop. When I graduated high school I had already made a name for myself and had earned a music scholarship to a local college. The day I sang for my own high school graduation I received a standing ovation. I went to my mother and she said, “Music is a hobby; don’t quit your day job.” So for the next 20 years, I didn’t. I got a degree in advertising and then went back to school to be a Special Ed. teacher and taught middle school special education for 5 years. I found myself constantly trying different occupations because none of them fulfilled me like my music did.

One day, I was teaching class and a student came to me and said, “Mr. Wilcox, I love you to death. You’re my favorite teacher in the school but I have to say, I think you’re a hypocrite!” When I asked him why he thought so he said this, “For five years you have told me and all the other students that we should find our calling in life, the thing that we were meant to be and do and then follow it with all our heart and soul. Then here you are with all this musical talent and you choose to stay here and teach us. You’re not following your dream Mr. Wilcox. Doesn’t that make you a hypocrite?” I could have easily denied that he was right and told him that I get my inspiration my watching them become inspired, but the truth was; I was hiding. All my life I’d listened to the outside voices in my life tell me that my dreams were unrealistic because they were too hard. But they were wrong. What is wrong is living your life doing something passion-less and pretending you are satisfied. So, I finished out my teaching year, left my job and I began to try.

In my first year of trying, I produced my first CD called Love Notes, appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Lifeclass Show, won the Bob Dylan songwriting competition, and appeared on many local TV and radio interviews. Being in advertising and marketing for 20 years gave me the ability to market my music nationwide on a non-existent budget. Being a teacher helped me to set and reach goals, make successful plans, and even teach others to do what I did along the way. I not only promoted my music but I created a music festival where I gave others a chance to showcase their music. I started a songwriters club to help show other songwriters how to do what I do, and I volunteered to play my music for students, business leaders, and soldiers. In the brief ten minutes I got to talk with Oprah, I realized something about myself. I realized that music has never been what I do, its who I am. And I can’t deny my music any more than I can deny the blood in my veins. The only voice that matters in this world is the one inside of you. When I left teaching, I began the real adventure I was born to live. If I have one bit of advice for you, it’s to follow your passion with all your heart mind and soul, and never let anyone tell you your dream is too big to become a reality.

Before you think that’s the end of my story, realize that its only the beginning. I’ve now recorded four albums, and I will be playing at the Hard Rock Café in Chicago this March. I am still looking for a record label, opportunities to tour, write music, and perform on the road. You can reach me at www.bearcreekrecording.com.

Singer Songwriter Scott Wilcox

Check out Scott Wilcox on iTunes

http://www.facebook.com/ScottWilcox.songwriter
Affiliated with Bear Creek Records – BMI
www.bearcreekrecording.com