Nemesea: Getting ready for the Studio
Hot news from Groningen, The Netherlands today as Nemesea announce that they are assembling a “Dream Team” to work with them on the production of their upcoming album for Sellaband.
Producer/engineer Ronald Prent (LacunaCoil, Manowar, Rammstein, Kane, Herbert Grönemeyer) is being lined up to mix the completed tracks at Galaxy Studios in Belgium, while Tony Platt (AC/DC, Bob Marley, Iron Maiden) will be brought over from the UK to produce Nemesea’s vocalist Manda Ophuis’ at Studio Spitsbergen. The Groningen-based facility is also the location for the rest of the recording sessions to be produced by Nemesea’s guitarist HJ and co-producer and co-writer and engineer Bauke van der Laaken.
Producer/engineer Ronald Prent
"Nemesea impressed me with their musical ideas and their attitude while the SellaBand concept is truly special and represents a new way of thinking about the recording and promotion of music. While final details are being worked out I'm delighted to be working on this exciting project" – Ronald Prent.
Producer Tony Platt
“I have been very impressed with the way Nemesea have approached the planning of this record and I am honored to be asked to contribute. There are some exciting plans in progress to take their songs and music to a new level and I truly believe that the team they have assembled will significantly contribute to this. I am also very pleased with the way that the Sellaband crew is working to support the artist, it's like taking all the best bits of a record company and throwing out the bullshit!” – Tony Platt
To give the new songs an innovative sound and direction of their own, Soulvation’s DJ/producer Ronald Molendijk will create the digital sound designs for each song in his studio Soul Cave.
DJ/producer Ronald Molendijk
“I absolutely love the songs of Nemesea and can' t wait to get deep down and dirty with the sound design of the tracks we’re gonna do. Always on the look out for the next big thing I'm proud to be involved in this first Sellaband project” - Ronald Molendijk.
Nemesea are currently in the final stages of writing and preproduction and will start recording the album in February with June now firming up as the scheduled release date. SellaBand’s A&R man Adam Sieff comments:
“Everyone’s been working flat out to make sure Nemesea record the best possible album they can and give the Believers the most bang for their bucks”.
A&R man Adam Sieff
And finally a word from the band themselves, who are over the moon with the team that will be working on their record:
Nemesea (in case you've forgotten what they look like:))
“Nemesea is really really glad the DREAM TEAM is complete. We couldn't wish for a better team than this! Believers and music lovers all around the world, you're in for a treat! Ronald, Ronald, Tony, Bauke, Adam, Sellaband AND all you believers, thanks for having faith in us and making our dream come true!!”
Pass the Dutchies
It is not often that we pride ourselves in the fact that we are Dutch. Although the orange regularly shines on the football pitch, and historically we’ve produced a number of famous painters, our worldwide claim to fame usually doesn’t go beyond Rembrandt and Cruyff. SellaBand however, is a different thing. The quality of Nemesea, the musical wizardry of MayorMyx and the pure persistence of Snelle Jongens is something that does make us proud. And in recent weeks, we’ve welcomed no less than four very ambitious Dutch arrivals. More importantly, they are bringing in their own supporters, as well as convincing the existing community of Believers. They are Awake, Sowhat, Man Made Ivory and Radius, and they all seem determined to make it on SellaBand. Four bands, four styles, four identities, four stories. So, by way of an introduction, we decided to give them four sentences each, to introduce themselves:
Awake (arrived on January 6):
“Awake is a heavy rock band from Groningen that has been around for more than a decade and has developed into kind of a family. Three singers have come and gone and all have added to our musical identity of fusing pop, rock and metal music. With our new singer Milo and SellaBand all pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place. We're totally dedicated to making this work so check out our songs and Believe!”
Sowhat (arrived on January 17):
“Hello SellaBand-and-all-people-involved! This is Sowhat speaking, a small and young band from The Netherlands. We're just stunned about our start at SAB and the quick progressions we made. We will keep on running! (check our playlist to understand this joke) Thank you all you true Believers and all Believers to be, spread the word and spread the music!”
Man Made Ivory (arrived on January 15):
"The phrase 'Collaborate and work with me' taken from Man Made Ivory's first single on Sellaband.com, reflects the intentions of the band on SellaBand! An intensive and long night of recording in our own studio is the start of Man Made's Ivory's mission on SellaBand: recruiting five thousand rocking believers! A big influence for us most certainly was growing up in the 90's visiting concerts and listening to records of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Temple Of The Dog, Mother Love Bone, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Nirvana and many others who inspired us to make, listen and enjoy music! We're new on Sellaband and feel really honoured with the massive Believers support we've received so far and because of that we're currently working very hard in our studio to record new material that will hopefully inspire you and the rest of the grunge rock music world to Believe in Man Made Ivory!”
www.sellaband.com/manmadeivory
Radius (arrived on January 9):
“Radius is a rock band from the Netherlands, combining the sound of the eighties with the sound of modern British rock. We're currently finishing our debut album and joined SellaBand to find out how our music is being received and to raise the money to complete our record. But ... Radius also feels promotion is really important in selling a record, so we'd also like to invest part of the budget in a complete promotional package including a video clip, merchandise, etc. Together with our Believers we can let the world know what Radius sounds like!”
Q + A
Mysti Mayhem
Mysti Mayhem likes to do things differently. So, when we invited her for a Q+A in the Tribune, she did not only say yes, but decided to do a little extra for us and her Believers. She taped the interview as well, thus making it the first multi media Tribune experience and giving you the option to read or watch...
Mysti, do you see yourself as a solo artist first and foremost, or as a member of Spellbox?
“Well, I have been performing since I was 6, so I started out as a solo artist. And if Spellbox disappeared, I would still perform. It's a lot like dancing with someone... when you dance, and your bodies are pressed against eachother in a rhythmic engagement, you don't think of yourself dancing alone or with someone... you just dance, and you dance because you love it.”How would you describe yourself as an artist?
“I don’t like this question because I feel that the interpretation of art and music is left up to its listeners and patrons.”Why did you join SellaBand?
“I joined SellaBand on a bet. Spellbox was originally on there, and we weren't getting much attention. What I noticed was that sexy, female solo artists were getting the most money and attention. After about a month, I bet my band mate, Mandocello, a bottle of tequila, that if I joined and placed a photo of me up with my breasts slightly exposed, I would reach 3rd page on the charts before Spellbox did. I was correct.”
How long did it take you to realise that SellaBand could actually work for you?
“I don't know if SellaBand is actually going to work for me. 50K is a lot of money, and I have a long way to rock before I hit that mark. Anything can happen in the meantime, and Sellaband is still a new concept for me and many Believers and artists. Only time will tell if SellaBand will actually work for me.”What's your take on the American music industry?
“I have been put through the ringer. I have knocked on record executives doors, sent over 500 press kits to every name in the business, worked top name industry gurus only to have a slap on the arse and a pat on the head. I have met with the president of BMI, performed for him in his office, and been told, ‘Sorry, I can't help you. We are looking for the next Faith Hill, and you don't look anything like her. What you sound like won't do you any good because we have top notch recording studios and auto-tuning in Nashville, we don't need singers, we need a Poster Girl.’ I have collaborated with Kyle Gass from Tenacious D, who said in order to get recognition I was going to have to wear lifts in my shoes, stop dying my hair and keep it at a blonde or
light brown, and get down to the weight of my competition, (Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears... so on and so forth) if I wanted to be taken seriously. I have even auditioned for American Idol, only to be told after 8 seconds of singing that I wasn't what they were looking for. 
Kyle Gass, Dave Grohl, Mysti Mayhem and Jack Black
Short story long, The American Music Industry is an entertainment business which manufactures fast-food artists. They are not looking for talent.”
How do plan to raise the full 50k?
“I'm going to do a photo-shoot naked behind my guitar. HAH. Just kidding. Honestly, I am so busy writing songs, creating art, recording, making films and playing live shows, that I don't have time to raise it. I don't have a job, so I have to make money by hussling shows and selling my records. As of now, my SellaBand site is just taking off on it's own.”Will Spellbox get there as well, do you think?
That remains to be seen. Spellbox is currently going to take a backseat and see what happens with the Mysti Mayhem profile. Whether or not Mandocello decides to join and create his own account still remains to be seen as well.”Are there any other SellaBand acts you particularly like?
“Maitreya, T-Ka, Melt, Light, Sasha Vella, Seventh Sin, Alexandre Valles, Blue Wine, MOONPENIS, Kobayes and Space Art and saving the best for last, Vegas Dragons.”Why should people Believe in Mysti Mayhem?
“They should only Believe in me if they really want to invest in a good cause. I am not interested in receiving Parts just to climb the charts and have them pulled out. I have subject topics that people can relate to that no one else is singing about. I sing what people are afraid to speak of. I work very hard... Every second of my day is dedicated to my musical career, and whether or not I reach the 50K, you can guarantee every day I am in your world somewhere writing my next lyrics, filming my next movie, and singing my heart out like it's my last breath of life.”
www.sellaband.com/mystimayhem
Duelling Dames…
Well, we could’ve called this item ‘Battle of the Babes’, and it certainly would’ve caught your attention, but the word ‘Babes’ doesn’t do them justice. What are we talking about? The fierce, but friendly rivalry between three of our Top-ladies. Judging by the current budgets, there was only one spot left in the Top 10 of our artist ranking, and three fine ladies wanted that position really bad: Clémence, Mandyleigh and Mysti Mayhem have all seen a very healthy increase in budget in the past week, but only one of them seemed to be able to end up on Page 1. Who would it be? And, equally important: who should it be. So, we’ve asked their biggest Believers to come clean and battle it out amongst each other. One issue only: why should ‘your’ lady be in the Top 10?
Walter Braunsteiger (Austria, 100 Parts in Clémence):
“After just one month Clémence is in the Top 10 and she is worth it. Why? She has one of the world’s best voices, which is clearer than a crystal and her songs are full of great melodies. And well, what is helpful too, to be a real successful star: She is very pretty, too. All together these are very good basics for her future as singer. I believe she will be one of the top stars worldwide in a few years. So I Believe in her and I believe she will be in the Top 5 at end of February.”
Rusty (Australia, 115 Parts in Mandyleigh):
“I believe Mandyleigh has an amazing depth of talent (songwriting and vocals). I've tried to, but can't categorise her music. She switches between mellow and up-beat, jazz/blues and pop/rock effortlessly. There is so much honest raw emotion in her voice and lyrics. I believe that with proper time and top production in a studio with a full band (which is what the whole point of Sellaband is... getting that album produced with a great studio), we have a real superstar on our hands who can cross many musical boundaries and markets. If her acoustic stuff is this good, imagine how fantastic the real thing will be.”
Elvirkan (Switzerland, 80 Parts in Mysti Mayhem):
" Mysti Mayhem is a really good investment. She has all the qualities to be an example of why SellaBand was created. Talented, authentic, completely devoted to her art and strong enough to live a great career… She is Talented, full of ideas and creativity as a true artist, authentic (she's not selling you the music that you already have on your ipod…), she is completely devoted to her art and to her fans. Her songs talk about real life (we're all concerned) and real emotions (I've cried and laughed listening to her music). She's a revolution. I would say it because of her true sensitive-rebel personality. Mysti Mayhem is strong enough for the job because she's used to managing her career herself for several years in everything and has a big experience in live. She also has a graphic vision of her art, so she may, for example, bring a self designed album cover. You'll have a complete art production, from music, to draws and videos!! For all these qualities, she naturally deserves to be in the top ten of SellaBand. If it's not today, it will be tomorrow, but I've no doubt on her success. "
www.sellaband.com/mystimayhem
Watch video of the interview
Weekly Update
Chart analysis
Over 30,000 brand new dollars invested in the past 7 days, making our weekly charts more and more interesting to watch. For all new arrivals on SellaBand: the weekly charts are published every week at noon (CET) on Tuesday and show you which 20 acts have gained the most money/believers/plays in the past week.
The top position on this week's Charts is taken by France's Clémence. No suprise, if you've been watching her spectacular 'fight' with some of the other artists to claim a Top 10 overall position. Clémence must be an example for other new arrivals, because amidst 1,700 other acts it has taken her less than one month to join the elite artists on SellaBand. A grand total of five ladies in this week's Top 10, six, if you include Second Person's Julia Johnson.
Elsewhere in this Tribune you can read about four ambitious young Dutch acts. To back up their spectacular rise, you can find all four of them on this week's Chart. Most spectacular of all is the new entry at number five for Sowhat, three 18 year old youngsters from Holland, who, if this start is anything to go by, will go very far on SellaBand...
Cool quote
Everyday we stumble upon new blogs and stories about SellaBand. Whilst we’ve stopped boring you with the praise we usually get (as well as the predictable “It’s a scam” we also keep getting, although much and much less of the latter, as of late), this week we ran across a nice quote on a site called www.techdigest.tv. 
They ran the remarkable story of Cubworld’s rise to the recording studio and came up with a very interesting angle, which we just had to share with you all: “That said, it'd be even better if someone could invent a site called StopaBand, where you could raise $50,000 to PREVENT James Blunt recording his next album. Count me in.”
More links
Second Person have uploaded Part Two of their Amsterdam video diaries. Lots of SellaBand celebrities making a cameo appearance, so definitely worth checking out,
Meanwhile, Nemesea have posted their own take on their Amsterdam gig. It is Part 5 of their video diaries and you can find it here.
Two more interesting posting that caught our eye this week:
- Maitreya has uploaded another home video, in which he goes ‘busking for Believers’. Quite hilarious indeed.
- Canada’s strong arm of the law Jesse David has started an interesting experiment. A video in which he plays a ‘song-in-progress’ and invites all Artists and Believers to finish it.
New Blood
As you may or may not know, Pim, Dagmar & Johan pretty much form the nucleus of the SellaBand team. Our young friend Christiaan Kröner, better known as Chris, has supported us from day one. He is about to graduate from the Hanze Hogeschool in Groningen with a degree in commercial economics, but instead of entering the corporate world, he has decided to accept our invitation to join SellaBand on a fulltime basis. As of February 1, Chris will be an official SellaBand employee, please join us in congratulating him.
Chris
Joyce Dijkgraaf has just started an internship here at SellaBand. She studies music at the Herman Brood Academy in Utrecht and most of you know her as the lead singer for Elleanore. When she approached us for an internship, how could we resist such a talented young lady?
Joyce
And finally, Yvonne Graven will join us as of February 1. She is a student at the same institution were we found Chris and hopes to follow in his footsteps as an intern for SellaBand. She will be uploading her profile page soon and will execute a number of surveys on our behalf. 
Yvonne
I’m A Believer
Until now, all we new about him, was that his name was Klaus, and that he quietly but steadily, kept increasing his number of Parts and kept adding new artists to his Believer’s list. A mysterious man, and that’s exactly what this column is for. “I’m A Believer” invites our community members to come clean...
Who is Klaus?
“My name is Klaus Sonnenleiter and I am 45 years old. In my day job I develop software for a very large software company. I am a victim of commercial radio: My ears are hurting when I have to listen to yet another repetition of the "hits of the 80s" playlist. I found some relief in National Public Radio here in the US, which still prides itself in finding interesting new music for its listeners and explaining it (I believe this used to be called ‘doing your job as a radio DJ’). This is the primary reason why I was very excited when I found out about SellaBand.”
How did you find out about SellaBand and what attracted you to it?
”I read an article about SellaBand that was talking about the model of audience supported artists - I was instantly hooked.”Until now you had decided to remain anonymous. Any particular reason for that?
”It was not a conscious decision, more the result of my natural laziness. I never got around to write up my own profile. Even worse: Although I meant to get it done for weeks now, I still have not written a single review for any of the artists I support, which is bordering on criminal negligence and I really have to fix it soon.”You've already bought quite a few Parts in several artists so far. What makes you put your money where your mouth is?
”Pure selfishness. I'm suffering from a severe case of radio-induced boredom. Against all my hopes, satellite radio actually managed to make things worse instead of better. The only way to cure this disease is to find a steady supply of interesting new music. SellaBand is my best hope.”
If push came to shove, who would be your absolute favourite, and why?
”Not to dodge the question, but there is nothing I like more than diversity itself. In each artist I support I usually find something different that attracts my interest. I like Mandyleigh's intensity - just check out ‘Grey’ and I think you'll know what I mean. Then I
recently found Jerzy Wolochowicz's recording of my favorite Prokofiev sonata. And for straight-up rock, Slim Void is hard to beat although Luna Assassins come close. But it almost seems wrong to single out anyone because every time I listen to any of the artists in my list, there is a very good reason why they are absolutely the best at the moment.”
What does an artist need to have and do, to get your support?
”I am definitely not a good talent scout so I won't even bother to look for the next big star. All I care about is that it is music that is somewhat unusual, is well done, carries a message and has something in it that appeals to me. I also want to see that artists understand their markets and what drives them. Finding ways to promote and to then cultivate a fan base is crucial especially in an environment that supports diversity as much as SellaBand - you can't just lean back and let the record company do the work of finding the right audience, and that's probably a good thing. So I rarely buy Parts immediately, I usually watch an artist fora while to see how they act.”