Alec R Johnston

Forward: This is the first part in a short series on building your fanbase and extending those same principles into the online world.

So, I read a couple articles on the blog Music Think Tank today that got me thinking about using social media to promote our music online. I read about 6 of the articles, including two on music blogs, one on Twitter, and a follow up to it. They were all great articles, and they got me thinking about the way the music business is changing.

I want to make a quick disclaimer here, and say that I am a young guy. I have read about the early days of the music business, and I know what I see in the current business.

In the early days of the music business, labels would support artists that they thought had some talent. It may have taken some time for an artist to become famous, but people were doing this for the love of the music. The labels took time with artists to truly develop their abilities. They weren’t looking for overnight success stories. These days, it seems like the business is focused on creating stars.

As musicians, we have the power to change that. We need to support our friends, and their bands. I know everyone has shows they’ve done with band that they enjoyed listening to. So, go out and see them again, and ask to play more shows with them. Invite a member or two to sit in with your band on a song or two in your set. People who are fans of the other band will tell their friends, who are also fans of the other band, about your band, and mention that the guitarist from the other band sat in with your group. If you want to make a difference in your music scene, you have to put the effort into it.

I’m lucky here in Kalamazoo. One of the reasons I really enjoy the group of musicians I work with is that we do exactly that. If I see that The Cornfed Girls are playing a show somewhere, I will go to see them, and pay the $7 cover charge. I know that I will have a good time, and enjoy their music. I also know that I will see my friends there, because we’re all a part of the same community. As you keep going to these shows, you’ll start to recognize more and more people there. Take the time to talk to the people who you see again and again at these shows. Get to know them, and mention that you play music. Tell them about some of your upcoming shows, maybe they’ll come down and check your group out, and tell their friends about it. If you really want to build your fanbase, you have to get people to pay attention to you. Give them some sort of a connection.

As professional musicians, we may forget what it’s like to not be involved in the music scene. Most people don’t go out to see a ton of music. They’ll go see what their friends reccomend they go to see. I’m constantly reccomending my favorite bands to my friends. And, they’ll usually come out with me to go see them. My friends call their friends. Pretty soon I meet five new people who are friends of a friend, and I’ll tell them about the bands I play with, or work with. Chances are, I’ll see some of them at another show, maybe one of mine. They may not be at every show, but they’ll come a few times and if they enjoy it, they’ll tell their friends, maybe buy a CD.

Sure, you probably won’t become rich this way, but do it because you enjoy playing music. If you work hard enough at it, spend time promoting yourself, getting the word out about you, chances are you’ll be able to make an okay living at it.

What else can we do to build our fanbases?

Tags: Fanbase, Kalamazoo, Music Business, Music Think Tank, Twitter

About a month ago, I did a recording session in the barn behind my house with a group from Kalamazoo, MI called Who Hit John? They are an old-timey string band, and recorded half of their album live that weekend. We had previously done the same thing back in May. Both times, we took 3 or 4 days (Fri-Sun the first time, and Fri-Mon this last time). I think that doing an album this way is my favorite way to record. Whether or not you track everything live is less important than scheduling multiple days in a row.

When you book multiple days somewhere, you save on time that it takes to tear down and setup gear. More importantly, however, no one is paying attention to the time. This creates a much more relaxed feeling session. When you know that you don’t have to worry about going past a certain time, no one is pushing for things to be done quickly. You’ve paid for the whole day, whether that day ends at 8pm or 4am doesn’t matter, at least when you’re working with me. If something isn’t going well, it’s not a problem to put it away and move to something different.

Ideally, if you work with a band whose members you easily get along with, going to a remote location to record is great. I did this back in January for the basic tracking for the as-yet unreleased Airborne or Aquatic album. One of the band members owns a cabin in the middle of a forest in Northern Michigan. We spent 5 days up there. 9 band members, myself, and a couple friends of the band, one of whom was a chef. Working this way promotes comraderie among the band and engineer, which results in a low-stress recording. In my experience, spending a week at a cabin with a band and some recording equipment turns the week from a recording session to hanging out and enjoying a lot of music that happens to be recorded.

We have done this nearly every time Airborne or Aquatic works on their album. Although since then, I don’t recall a session where every member of the band was there. Most of their sessions, however, we will go somewhere in Northern Michigan (either back to the cabin, or to a private studio in Big Rapids) and spend a couple days there to get whatever work done that we can.

That said, it’s especially important to not get lazy on those types of sessions. You still have to pay attention to what is going on, and making sure that the sounds you want are the ones you are getting. It does take some extra time to do setup for a session like that, compared to going into a professional studio. Make sure that you have everything you need for the session. For the Airborne or Aquatic session, I was 3 hours from home. If I had forgotten something important, we would’ve lost most of a day while I drove back home to get whatever it was I had forgotten.

The two biggest problems with leaving for a week-long recording session are finding a week where everyone can get together, and finding a place to do the recording. Airborne or Aquatic and Who Hit John? were both lucky in that they had a place where they can work that way. Nonetheless, when possible, it’s my favorite way to work.

Tags: Airborne or Aquatic, Remote Recording, Sessions, Who Hit John