Is anyone reading this? Anyone that’s not in a band? Really?
Everyday on some or other myspace/facebook/bilbobaggins page, young and old hopefulls alike knock on the door hoping that me hearing them will get them a really good gig slot ensuring national exposure and the certain mega million record deal that surely must follow. Why? Because it’s what they believe they need to do to give up their jobs and become rock stars.
Myspace has not made a star of any artist be it Lily Allen, Arctic Monkeys or Sandi fucking Thom. Myspace was used by the record companies, looking after those artists, to a greater or lesser extent to promote the artists. To spin a new story. It’s just marketing.
Just because you click ADD on a promoter’s, venue’s, record label’s, PR company’s myspace page don’t imagine you’ll get listened to. You need to provide these people with a complete package to even consider listening to you. And within 10 seconds, just in the same way that an A&R guy will get the idea of a song and therefore the band behind the song within 10 seconds of a demo CD. Sorry time is tight and they gotta make calls. Maybe I’m exaggerating a tad but I assure you it’s fairly accurate. Better to tread on the side of caution when it comes to your music and getting it heard.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, miserable old fucker with a chip on his shoulder why should I read anymore? Damn good point.
The Falling Leaves are finishing their first album over the next couple of months. Frankly, the idea of chasing a record company that could sign us and leave us with a mortgage sized problem once the regional sales targets are not met isn’t that appealing. A nice little indie could be a bit more welcome but we’d have to find them and then wait for them to release the album.
What’s the alternative?
We’ll zip up the album in high quality mp3 formats along with the artwork, upload it to our site and add a Donate button from Paypal. It’s been done before and by golly it will be done again. We don’t give a shit about a record company that would not give a shit about us.