Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining...

After all the negativity you start to wonder if it's all really worth it. I struggled many times with that - many times! However, every time I listened to the album, or replied to all the positive comments via social networking sites, or received emails from all those wanting to know when the guys are going to tour - that's what kept me going. It's all that that reminded me exactly what I had sitting right in the palm of my hand. At the end of the day - that is what it's all about: getting the music to the people. And as long as I kept that in mind, I knew I could carry on and do this.

A lot of my time is spent emailing. Emailing music industry 'movers & shakers', newspapers, magazines - online and offline, potential contacts, promoters, radio stations etc. On opening my email one morning, I had a very welcome surprise. One of the biggest VIPs in the music industry here in NZ wanted more information on this band!

I was very quick to reply of course and I ended up posting him a copy of the album upon his request. Consequently he loved what he heard, couldn't speak highly enough of it and wondered why it wasn't on the radio yet. He as also impressed with the 300,000+ views one of the tracks had received on YouTube.

We set up a meeting with him, the lead singer and I a couple of weeks later. Throughout that meeting we discussed all sorts including the state of the music industry at this stage and also the importance of owning your own material - it gives you so much more leverage! Which, at this vital stage, my artist has retained all rights to his music. He mentioned that he'd like to set up a showcase, to ensure that what is heard on the album can be pulled off in a live environment. In doing so, he would like to invite some music industry execs and other VIPs to come along and check them out.

We haven't yet had this showcase, and have no idea if this will open any doors for us or not, but it's one hell of an opportunity to break into an industry that will otherwise shut you out and show no mercy.

The showcase is scheduled for two weeks from now. I will still be posting every day, so be sure to stay tuned and find out how it all goes!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "Success is how high you bounce when you hit the bottom"

Devil Rears It's Ugly Head... (Part 2)

..[.. cont from part 1..] Hotmail eventually gave me access to the account and after looking into what this guy had been doing - it turned out that it was the SAME person that had emailed us from his REAL address stating that the music "rocked"! Not only that, it also turned out that it definitely WAS the person that reviewed the album!! And now I had the indisputable evidence!

I thought it was about time to contact the editor of the main local paper that had offered to have our album reviewed. I figured he needed to know what his "reviewers" were up to. After emails back and forth, I sent through the proof I had from the Hotmail account and the editor was furious to see the truth! He assured me that this guy would no longer be reviewing for him as he was not interested with anyone that carried on in such a childish vindictive manner. I was happy enough with that.

The next day I heard back from the editor, only to hear that he had contacted the reviewer who was "most upset with what had transpired" and that his email account had been "hacked" and that person had contributed to the hate campaign that had started through the forum we originally tried to participate in!

I knew right when I heard that, it wasn't true. It didn't ring true and it was just a convenient excuse. As if to prove my theory correct - I received an email from the reviewer that same day stating he wasn't "sorry" for anything and that he will be keeping a very close eye on this bands career and doing whatever he can to bring them down.

I didn't bother with a reply and yes I thought about forwarding it on to the editor, but in the end I didn't bother. I knew by then that the editor was one of the people involved in that forum and therefore didn’t trust him. We had to disassociate ourselves from anything like that, move on and focus on our goals.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "Life gives you only what you accept"

Devil Rears It's Ugly Head... (Part 1)

Ok, so we had a few problems with other local muso's just not digging what this band does. And that's all good. It doesn't bother me that other musician's don't dig it. In fact, it wouldn't bother me if the public didn't dig it - let's get real, Bon Jovi might have 80,000 fans in New Zealand that love them!! But they'll also have 80,000 people that hate them, and probably another 80,000 that really just don't give a damn.

Every band will have their share of haters and those that don't care for it, so it didn't bother me too much that there were half a dozen muso's that visited and ran that local forum that hated the band I manage.

Anyways, I sent out the press release after that forum saga just letting them know about this bands album release etc. The next day I received an email from the main local newspaper's music editor asking if I would send a copy of the album in to them - he would pass it on to one of his reviewers to check out and review.

Of course I saw no problem with this because, even if you didn't dig the music, you could still hear the calibre of musicianship in it, so I sent him a copy. A week later, I received an email suggesting that they shouldn't print the review as it was so bad that it wouldn't do the band any justice with their first review being so bad.

That same day we received some emails from a guy (locally) stating how he thought the music "rocked" and how great it was. However, we thought nothing of it because we have received many of those emails - albeit many are generally international. So we wrote back to him - as we reply to every email/message we get.

We ALSO received that same day, an email from a Hotmail account that was in the name of the band I manage!!! I knew that we hadn't created a Hotmail account, so read it and it was one of the worst hate-mails you have probably ever seen! Ok, that's cool, didn't bother me. Just left it. But then we got more... and more!! All over the next day or two and he assured us he would "contact every reviewer I know in the North Island" to ensure the band don't get a good review. After reading them, it was pretty easy to see that he was the one that had reviewed the album.

I then decided to contact Hotmail to let them know what was going on - as I didn't know if this person was contacting others in the name of this band. And that was the only thing that really worried me…. [.. continue here..]

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "Other people can stop you temporarily. You're the only one who can do it permanently"

When People Love To Hate You

Ok, assuming you all have a local live music scene - how good is it? I'm talking about your particular city/town (not the whole country). Seriously, I'd love to hear about it - how involved are you? Are you mates with the other bands? Do you work together and put on events/shows? Because that’s what I want out of a live music scene locally.

I'll now share with you the beginnings of much drama and tall poppy syndrome that the band I manage have suffered.

When the guys finished their album and it was all mastered and ready for release, I was given a suggestion to check out the local music forums. Thus thinking this was a great idea, I googled music forums in our area.

I came across a site that was based in our area, and had some of the local bands involved in the forums. They had the usual posting area's that you see on forums (i.e gigs, music, bands, general chat etc). So after looking round the site a bit I signed up and in the 'music' section created a post letting people know that this band had a single coming out with the album following shortly after. It also mentioned that this band had already received 73,000 views on YouTube and if you would like to be kept up to date, visit the artist website and sign up to the newsletter.

So, anything wrong with what I wrote? I would have thought not. It was a local forum, local muso's, I thought the support would be great! I couldn't have been more wrong. It started from there and hasn't stopped since. After that first post, they attacked the band's music, insulted them personally and then all these pseudonym's started popping up in the name of this band!! They all started arguing with each other and it's about that time that we stepped right back from the situation and broke the ties. It was crazy to watch, and almost laughable. However, we did not wish to associate with such types and have not been back to that "forum" since.

This is the perfect example of a clique – there were ringleaders involved and it could almost constitute internet bullying - they ridiculed the band and the whole situation became larger than life with different pseudonyms impersonating the band and rumours flying within their circles.

A real hate for the band had developed... simply because they were viable - and very good at what they do. Leagues above the muso's on that forum - and they knew it... the beginnings of Tall Poppy Syndrome made itself known.

That's all? No.. not by a long shot. More coming...

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "Pay no attention to critics. No one ever erected a statue of a critic"

Repercussions Of Tall Poppy Syndrome

Ok, so back to the whole Tall Poppy Syndrome and how it's effected us thus far. For a start, one of the repercussions of Tall Poppy is that it has revealed different cliques in our town.

After the drama that happened with our sound man, I have since realised that he is involved in that clique - hence the reason at both festivals, his mates' bands had a nice big sound, but when the band I manage came on - there always seemed a 'problem' and the mix was never as good.

The troubling thing is, the main clique around here is a bunch of musicians that are fully against anything commercial or mainstream - and do not want to see anyone succeed. Unfortunately, this leads to ostracisation of those outside the clique and leaves them subject to insults and bullying. Ok, you're thinking, we're all adults here, so they can't do much damage. Right? Wrong.

Unfortunately for us, it turns out that this clique of musicians here in our town pretty much run the live music scene - they work at CD stores, within the local media, at the student union offices for local techs and uni's, are in with venues. These muso's have gone to a couple of extreme lengths to make our lives a misery...

I will get to how and why in the next post... stay with me for it!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "Ideas won't work until you do"