http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKAZ5Q22kgE

Check it out, it's my 1st video from my new album "Farther", take a look and leave a comment letting me know what you think!

Summit Coffee is a rustic little coffeehouse up in Davidson, NC that holds open nights every Wednesday night between 8:00 and 10:00pm. They have large variety of really good fresh brewed coffees which you may take up the creaky wooden staircase to where they host the live acoustic music. The light is dim, with old wooden floors, a couple of rugs, coffee tables and sofas thrown around making for a really intimate music listening environment. A friend of mine, and good guitarist Chaz hosts the evening and depending on how many people sign up that night each artist gets between 2 and 5 songs. So for 2 hours of good coffee and chilled music, come to Summit Coffee where i'll be playing pretty much every Wednesday. Here are the details:
128 S Main St, Davidson NC - see you there

Justin Taylor Questionnaire

Firstly, well done on your debut album 'From Tienie Street'. Where did you record it and with whom?

Since I had to record this album independently, at first with no record label, I had to fund it myself and so money was going to be tight. But a friend of mine J. Oberholzer (outstanding producer) was willing to help me in turn for me having helped him with a few of his own recordings. He had a little laptop with a recording program and a mixing desk. We borrowed a microphone, speakers and headphones from a number of friends and went to a little hotel room out in Krugersdorp which was being managed at the time by a friend. The room had a good sound and Andy McGibbon's Guitar World helped us get the right guitars for the recording and so we ended up recording the whole album just through favours and friendships.

Your music is very tranquil and easy to listen too, who are your influences?

I have a number of influences that don't lend themselves to such easy listening, yet for those I follow in that regard I would have to name Norah Jones, Tuck & Patti and Sting.

I read a story of when you were younger about you having doubts of Justin Taylor making a name in the music industry. How does it feel now that your dream is finally becoming realistic?

It feels like I've been given a second chance at a new path in life, and I feel very ambitious about it. I'm very hungry now that I'm striving for it everyday.

What did you study before you became a full time musician?

First I did my MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) and A+ Computer Technician, and then I studied at a Theological Seminary for 4 years

So you immigrated to the states to further your career in music, any chance of you coming back to SA in the near future for a tour?

My immigration process is still underway and the pending case prevents me from coming over too soon. But I love South Africa. It's my home, it's where I was born and I couldn't imagine anything greater than being welcomed back by my own country in the not too distant future.

In under 3 weeks some of your videos drew in over 40 000 views on YouTube, how do you feel about that?

I certainly felt from a business point of view that people were now getting to hear my music and that I was being spread far and wide, but I suppose when I consider people on my own label like Andy McKee who is now sitting on over 17 million views, I feel like catching up in a hurry. Yet no doubt I'm truly grateful to be mentioned amongst names such as his.

You signed a deal with "Candyrat Records". Tell us more about that.

I didn't have any other labels in mind that I thought would realistically sign me until I saw Nicholas Barron on Youtube signed to this label, and I thought then that my music and Candyrat Records were a good fit. So I proceeded to send emails and letters and myspace messages to the company until eventually I did get a reply from the owner of the label who said that I could send my album to him directly and that he would give it a listen.

So I put together a press kit with the CD and some photos and packaged it really nicely to make as big an impression as I could. I followed up further every week to make sure he had received the package and that he was still going to listen to it. I think all my hounding paid off in the end because he did listen to it and did like it. So we negotiated a contract which both of us were really happy about. I then flew up to Chicago and drove out to the home of Candyrat Records to record my promotional live videos which have gone out on Youtube and exposed my music to thousands of people.

It seems that you have been through a lot of struggle to get where you are.

Does this prove that with great struggle comes great reward?

It certainly does if your struggle is well directed and true to oneself.

Lastly, what would your advice be to those who are trying to make ends meet in the music industry?

My advice would be to research more about the industry itself than just playing music. Music is a business and generally musicians don't like to get involved in the business side of music. If you're content just playing music and working a different job, then that's fine. If you're wanting to make money in music, then you got to know how to play the game, and that side of things is worth giving thought and research to. I would recommend Donald S. Passman's book "All You Need to Know About the Music Business."

I sometimes used to look at the big acts in their stadiums and tell the crowd how special they are and how much they mattered. I wondered how people could be sincere and yet spill compliments to a crowd composed of individuals they've never met. So then, how is it that fans really matter to someone who wouldn't remember their name? As i have come to discover, they do indeed matter a whole lot. While you're minding your own business and you recieve an email, or a message or a comment (even a blog comment) where people are telling you how much your music matters to them, it's incredible. It's not the same as telling you, "I like what you've done with your hair" or "nice shoes". They're taking something which is a vulnerable expression of your soul (your songs) and telling you that it matters to them. I don't think fans begin to understand how much that matters. Sure we may say a simple thank you, or even a hearty thank you. But with the ink pad or type writer how can you possibly convey exactly how much it has meant, or begin to think of how to return the favour?

I'm not in a position where i look at hundreds of letters a day or  need to employ someone else to manage my pages 'full-time'. But the thanks-you's that i do get and the letters of appreciation go a long way. They let me know that i'm doing the right thing with my life and that others believe in me as i believe in myself and it's a, sometimes necessary, reminder for me.

Another more practical thing which fans do is get your music out there. Some of you may notice i sometimes end off a comment with "Spread the word." And the truth of the matter is, you're all i've got! Sure i've got a record deal and no doubt they do a lot for me. But i don't have major management, publishing or agents that can plug me into the main industry pipeline. All i have to spread my music around is you. I can't reach the world on my own. My most powerful weapon of marketing is the people who say, i like Justin Taylor's music, i'm going to tell someone else about it. If every person who likes my music tells one other person, my fan base doubles in a day! There's no way i can do that on my own. Now imagine each fan tells two or three people a week, and then those people go on to do the same (pay it forward). No myspace page, website, or youtube video can do that the way that you do it.

So what i'm saying is thank you for what you have done, and i guess you could say i'd like to encourage you to keep telling people about my music. The way i see it, managers and labels and all that are only going to take me on if they see that i can generate a following on my own, and the only way i can do that is through you all!

So help me if you will. Spread the word!

I'm very excited today because i just got news via email that i had won in my category for the Best Folk Song of 2008 in the West Coast Songwriters Competition! Just wanted to let all u fans know who route for me all the time! Thanks always for the support! By the way this is a different competition to that of my previous blog, but it's nice to know things are moving along...

Another by the by... i'm generally not too keen on the idea that music should ever be a contest, but when you're just getting started and trying to get off the ground, every little bit of exposure is encouraging and lifts you up along the way. It helps confirm that i'm doing the right thing with my life.

Thanks for the support, Spread the Word!

:-) Justin

Today (09/26/2008) i got this message from a song contest i entered!!

 

Congratulations, you have been selected as a nominee for the 2008 Independent Singer Songwriters Award Contest. Your name will be listed on http://www.issa-music.org as a nominee. Look for it by Monday October 13th, 2008. Announce your nomination to everyone via your website, myspace page, press release, e-mail and word of mouth.

You will also be featured in our nominees gallery. We need to receive your bio and picture no later than Monday September 29th, 2008 for you to be featured on the website.

Contest winners will be announced in November. Congratulations and good luck.

Sincerely,

Shyla Marie
President
Independent Singer Songwriters Association

That's right... i'm writing a blog on my Birthday...

A friend of mine back in South Africa had to write a paper on the music industry for some reason or other and asked me two questions:

What makes an artist big? and

Why do some who have 'no talent' make it and some who do don't?

Here were the answers i gave, hope it's not too opinionated...

 

What makes an artist big?

There are a couple of variables which are within our control that can help us to become successful as artists in the music industry. One is working at your art as hard and as often as you can. To practice and to perform often is key to learning to settle into the stage and to find your own 'voice' as a stage personality. Since is it your primary craft, it is worthwhile to invest in it financially too. If you pride yourself on singing, then you want as good a microphone as you can afford, something worth saving for. It's no good if you have aspirations for singing and you have a cheap microphone whilst your paycheck goes towards affording the latest playstation games. So financially you need to be invested into your career even sacrificially at times. This goes for your emotions too. You need to put your everything into becoming the artist you want to become. Very few people have become 'big' by giving a half hearted slug at it.

Another variable is how well you know the music industry and how much research you do into the business side of things. Many less talented musicians get heard first because they take care of the business side of their music. They have clear direction about which steps to take and in which order, how to manage their internet sites and promote themselves, to aqcuire managers, agents, lawyers and the like. A book i have found which helped me very much in this regard is "Everything you need to know about the Music Business" by Donald S. Passman. Recognising that you're not just an artist, but you're a business is fundamental, and so doing your business homework is very important.

Then there's the news which will get the messenger killed: either you're good enough or you're not! It's not a simple case of having talent, many talented people never make it, and some with less talent do. One has to have an x-factor. An un-namable thing which attracts groups of people to the music. This is at the heart of music itself, to take a couple of tangible things like vocals, music, lyrics and a performer and bake it into something transcendent... this IS music! One can't always be tought this part. You have it or you don't. How do you tell? Not only by how you feel, but by how your audience feels. If they're 'feeling' you, you've got it. This doesn't mean you give up if one audience doesn't get you... finding your target audience takes time and refining as does refining your own sound.

Why do some people who have 'no talent' make it and some who do don't?

If you think music is a multifaceted thing, the music industry is even more so. Through working in the music industry i have come to appreciate many things which i used to initially label 'untalented.' When i now try to appreciate something about an artist i ask the question, "what is it about this person?" Often we take someone's voice we don't like and we ask this question, and we limit the question to their voice only. It has occurred to me that their are so many layers to music appreciation and so many different reasons why people like a certain thing. A person can have a 'bad' voice [which already is an opinion], but be a good singer. Another person can have an amazing sounding voice, but not be able to use it very dynamically. One person can play a song on guitar with 65 different chord variations, whilst another plays 3 chords with such emotion that it moves you to the core. One person can have a simple melody over beautiful chords while another has a beautiful melody over simple chords.

But then to another person none of these matters at all, only the lyrical content. And even within this some prefer artistic and poetic lyrics while another enjoys a story in the song.

Then you get another dimention to music which many musicians overlook though it is probably the make or break for many music listeners as to whether or not they will like it (even if they themselves don't know why). And that is production. The creating of an original sound, knowing what song merits what sound. Knowing whether a song warrants an epic sound like U2 and Dave Matthews Band or something simplistic like Jamie Cullum and Norah Jones. It is in this area of music that people overlook which is just as much part of the essential make up of the artist itself as their ability to sing, have a good voice or make music. The question, "are they talented musically" is too narrow. The real question is, "Does it sound good in my CD player or ipod?" It may sound good because the person is super talented like a John Mayer for example, but it doesn't have to be. It could just be good because Timberland made it that way. This is the question that record labels, MTV, and CD stores are asking. This is how they make money.

I'm sitting here at home. No one really knows i'm here. I am not really famous... yet, as i hope. I'm not in a musical state of things that i should be hounded, that people should want a piece of me. My life is still relatively peaceful and without too many complexities. How i long for them though. I long that my music should touch so many masses, that people should want a piece of me. I want to be desired because of what i do. To achieve some sort of iconic status because of my art would serve as a guage to tell me the extent to which my music has touched people. And i want this.

But here i sit, unnocticed and in a saturated sea of great artists. Though the art of making music isn't and never should be a competition, i feel like i have to strive and strain just to get enough airspace to say my own name, let alone get my craft heard by the masses. And in a world where so much music is going on around me it seems that only the loudest bands get heard.

Sometimes i feel a sense of hopelessness when i hear and see loud acts. Not because they don't have talent or the right to be heard, because they do. But my music is a music which i feel requires a still soul in order to be heard and appreciated. How do i beckon people who are having a loud good time and draw their attention away from the blaring speakers to listen carefully to the quiet acoustic nuances which give me such pleasure to create?

If i am to be brutally honest with myself, this is now intoxicating my creative process. Where before i alway just wrote my music honestly and with a sense of undetered integrity, i now am buffered by the wondering of what i need to do in order to actually be heard. It's no longer purely an art, it's now a science. It's a business of figuring out the minds of people and how to stand out in the industry. Shouldn't i just make my art and allow those who want to enjoy it, enjoy it.

I find myself tempted to compromise the music, that means so much to me, in order to be heard because i want to be heard so badly. Creating my music is only a part of what makes me come alive. Watching the faces of people enjoying my music is the other side! In fact i'm sometimes mildly satisfied with just seeing faces attentive at all, even if they're not enjoying the music.

I've played so many bars and pubs opening up for rock bands on my acoustic guitar. Playing to people who came primarily to watch someone else, and care more about conversation and eating than giving ear to someone new. I have now grown weary of striving for the space to be heard. I long for the machine power of a company [i.e. record company] to give me the space to be heard. I believe in what i do enough to know that if i were only to get that chance, that many would enjoy what i do for what it is.

This is a sad and yearning blog isn't it? Well that's where i'm at friends. For now my guitar sits in it's case while i slave away at Myspace, Facebook, Youtube, Radio Stations and Gigs! Not even to express myself through my art ~ but just for the chance to be heard. All musicians who have any degree of fame & success have had to pay their dues. I'm just paying mine at the moment, and having a bitch session about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsGs3PwDP40