Working for an Indie Record Label, Part 1

Hello Chaps & Chapettes.

As some of you may know, I work for an Indie Record Label. It’s a blast, but not what everyone thinks it is. So, I thought it would be interesting to do a little blog about what the day to day is like working for an Indie Record Label because as much as I make it sound like gigs galore and nights out in reality, its really not!

Paperwork. Data entry. There’s lots of it.

Before this job I thought getting a record made meant going to the studio, getting the tracks done and then sending them off for mass production. If only.

So, we’ve got the music. Great. Then you need to get it Mastered. Which is fine. So long as you remember to deliver the relevant ISRC codes (Unique, trackable numbers for each track) with it. Oh, and the correct track listing for the Redbook/DDP (final format for delivery to manufacture). Forgot to write “feat. Blah blah blah”? That’ll be an extra £40 to get it amended.

Then, you enter the lovely world of Metadata, or the spreadsheet of doom as I like to call it. You enter ALL the track/album info into a spreadsheet. Title, artist, feature artist, release data, catalogue number, publisher, composer, producer. Everything. 10 track album? Not to bad. 5 formats? Not so easy. CD, LP, Digital, iTunes Exclusive, German Exclusive? Yup, need to write a separate one for each. And make sure you get a new barcode for each. And the right catalogue number. Did you know Scandinavia cant take iTunes videos? So an exclusive with video means a separate entry all together.

Oh, and the price. Easy you think? “We’ll sell it for £xx”. But then you have to talk to separate countries about their price, and if you don’t, it wont show up on their system. And they don’t tell you till the last minute. Handy.

And between all that, you’ve got the Label Copy. Label Copy is a document that holds all the information about the release. Contributors, publishers, copyright holders. 9 guest artists? Better get all the separate publishing information for them, ASAP!

Whilst all this is going on, you’ve got artwork. Pricing for artwork. Working out the unit cost of each product. Did you know you can’t release a CD in Europe if its not shrink-wrapped?

*Breathe*

That’ll do for now I think. For me, its fascinating to see what goes into actually getting a CD released to the public, and how it works. Above is just a teeny part of what goes on. There’s also marketing, sales notes, picking singles and remixes, track ordering and much more.

I might do another one like this about a topic if someone asks, or if I feel like it.

Enjoy x

Theres more to guitar than rock...

I’m a musician. Music has been a big part of my life since my parents sat me down, 7 or 8 years old, in front of our Sony stack system, put Thriller on the deck and taped a massive set of cans to my ears. That, I think when I look back, is when music became more than something to listen to, but something that I wanted to be a part of.

To this day I still rummage through my parents record collection (or rather, when my dad lets me near it). My Dads love for rock, with the LP’s you’d expect from someone who found music through Radio Caroline (“If I liked the single, I just brought the album”) and the like back in the day. Led Zep (and their various solo guises), Deep Purple, ELO, ELP, the odd curve ball like Sledgehammer and hundreds more.

This element of rock in my life in no doubt played a part in why I wanted to learn to play guitar, and I’m sure its what inspired me to start playing.

But, I started playing guitar….10 years ago now. Im a very different player from the rock/metal/post-hardcore guitarist I started out as. And I think I’ve worked out why. My mum.

As explained, one half of my parental unit is a rock man. I still throw him new rock records for his van when I get them, in some attempt to pay thanks for his doing the same thing. Mama Crook, however, is a disco girl. She still likes rock, but you look through her side of the boxes of records, it’s a different story. ABBA, Discotecs & The Sexolets, Wild Cherry, Bee Gees and the like. The stack of disco/funk/soul-esque CD compilations that accompany us on car journeys is testament to that. Jamiroquai is another one that gets a lot of plays in the living room.

The last few years I’ve started to get involved in learning jazz and funk style guitar. Initially, it was unintentional. A 4 year or so blues binge following a 4 year rock/metal starter course makes your playing get a little…mechanical at times. Guitarists will know all about the joys of being trapped in the pentatonic scale. All those years of listening to my mums CD’s and records was starting to take effect. Wild Cherry licks were happening without my realising. Chord stabs were moving away from standard power chords with more interesting 7^th, 9^th and other odd inversions I was messing around with. My rhythm playing was evolving massively.

Its amazing how you can be influenced without realizing. All these records I heard as a kid and beyond were starting to wiggle their way into my style without my knowledge.

I still play in a rock/metal/prog band, so this change in my playing style was pretty obvious.

Mostly, modern rock and metal needs to be pretty precise, specially with the more tech-heavy genres. Your playing can become very tight and targeted with rock, which is great, its where that attack and pace comes from. Only problem there is that, especially in my opinion with young players, it can stunt exploration a little. Working in a guitar shop is a pretty good example of this. I’ve come across more kids that can shred like the best of them, technically sound and can play me 5 modes of a harmonic minor, but can’t play a 12 bar blues. I shit you not. I’ve taught more of them the all hallowed I, IV, V pattern than I can remember. Don’t get me wrong, I wish I could play some of the licks and patterns these guys do, its an area of my guitar playing im constantly trying to improve, but jeez…it’s a 12 bar. Which brings me to my point below, and the one after that.

But when you listen to stuff like Wild Cherry, Jamiroquai and funky people, the guitar playing is a lot…wider. Its not messy, and it still has that precision for the right timed lick and string rake, but it gives you a lot more freedom to go off the beat a little, shake up the rhythm with some triplets or a more interesting strum pattern.

So, what im trying to say, in a long and round about way is:

1.     Raid your parents record collections. You are guaranteed to find some gems that will change how you feel about genres. Things were a lot simpler back then.

2.     Listen to as many styles as you can, as often as you can. Now, obviously, if you don’t like it, don’t listen to it, its simple. But(!), you might not, like me, enjoy all of Dillinger Escape Plans music, but love Protest The Hero. Same band, different name. I shit ye nae. I know it too, but for some reason I cant get on with it. So I guess im trying to say, for every band you don’t like, there are probably 2 others doing more or less the same thing that you will like. Ears and brains are weird man.

3.     Don’t be afraid to be influenced. I naturally play with a bit of a loose rhythmic style, injected with moments of technical accuracy when needed. I used to suppress it, playing a very standard rock style, but I found that my natural style of playing brings something unique when the lead/other guitarist is on it with his playing.

A Little Something About Me and Music

Hello again readers.

Once again its been a while. I apologise. I’ve been up to my eyeballs and other assorted extremities in work.

As explained in my last blog I’ve been working as an intern for the record label Sunday Best. We’re coming up for 4 months now. It’s mental. I love music, all types (we’ll get to that later…) and it’s been a rollercoaster since starting there in September. Not many people can say in their first 4 months of working for a small independent record label operating out of a box office on Denmark street that they’ve worked at one of the biggest festivals of the year with Bjork and The Cure as headliners. Then put out the legendary film director David Lynch’s (Twin Peaks, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet) first solo album. Then put out a 32 track live album of The Cure. All on a label which started as a DJ night in London. Mental. I’m very privileged to have played a part in all these things. And I’ve learnt an absolute bucket load in the process, and I’m fairly certain now that the record industry is where I want to make my career. God that’s a dangerous word. Career.

Not bad for a rocker working in a hip hip/dance label…

Now, most that know me will know that I’m a rock man. Born and bred with the likes of Led Zep, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and much other weird and wonderful collections from my fathers array of vinyl. Others may know me as “that guy who likes blues”. A lesser-known curse of the pentatonic scale (Sorry, I’m talking guitar for a moment), is that every ruddy lick you play has a blues edge more or less. And then there are the few out there who know me as the metal/post-hardcore/’emo’ guy.

The latter set of genres there are what I learnt to play guitar to. Funeral For A Friend, From Autumn To Ashes, Senses Fail, (Early(!)) Soasin. From there, I found hard rock and blues. There were a good few years there where I was exclusively a blues guy. Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King and the list goes on and on.

Now, where am I going with this you may ask?! I fear that people are becoming less multi-genred again. I remember at school, anywhere between 11 and 4 years ago, you were either a grunger/greebo/emo, or a chav/pikey/sket. If you listened to Hip-Hop/R&B/Rap, you were a chav. If you listened to Rock/Metal, you were a grunger. If you listened to Jazz, the only reason you were on the fence is because you were being pushed on from either side of it.

I was a grunger. Long hair, played guitar, loved music. But I can remember thinking “Jay-Z is a genius” or “Timbaland’s beats are so inventive” back then. I remember on more than one occasion being heckled for long hair or something equally as trivial, walking past, and then correcting a set of my oppressors (That might be a bit over the top) on Hip-Hop lyrics/release dates/collaborators. Much to their surprise.

And there was a shift. I remember it well. Chavs started listening to ‘Rock’, or should I say ‘bands with guitars that didn’t look like greasy metal heads’. Hard-Fi, The Ordinary Boys, Libertines (Although they did look greasy at the best of times).

Indie music had arrived.

Now, indie music is not a new thing. It wasn’t even a genre to start with back in the day. It just meant ‘A Record Label that wasn’t a major’ in a nutshell. I work for an Indie now, but I wouldn’t say we put out Indie music. Warp Records in the North is an Indie, but I wouldn’t call Battles and Aphex Twin indie acts. Worth remembering that. Hell, Roadrunner records, known now for Slipknot, Nickelback and Mastodon, was an indie back in the day!

Anywho, back to my point. This ushered in a time of great music. Cross-genres. People listening to more than one genre. Rockers listening to Rap, Chavs listening to Rock. Anyone could listen to anything.

But im starting to fear that the trend is shifting to one or the other again. I hope it isn’t. We shall wait and see.

And why am I writing this?

At work I had a flashback to a track my old drummer from a Post-Hardcore/Emo band I was in back in 6^th Form showed me.

The Sound Of Animals Fighting - Act 1: Chasing Suns.

Live

Studio

A bit self indulgent this blog. But I wanted to write it, so there.

Enjoy!

PaisleyMusic x