What a Week!

As you know we always have a ‘The Week That Was’ feature on the Weekly Update section.  With your permission we'd like to do it a little differently this week and will focus on the current ‘Top 3’ for a special update.  So much has been going on with all of them recently  that we took the opportunity to catch up and ask a few questions...

 

Bulletproof Messenger

 

You are likely to be the first ever artist with over 1,000 Believers. Why is that so important for you?

“An artist is only as strong as their fan base.  In our opinion, without an Army of Believers/fans spreading the news, the chances of success are greatly minimized.  How we see it, there are 2 types of fans, one will support everything you do, work themselves into the ground trying to send CDs out to radio stations, sell CDs to their friends, and promote every day in every aspect.  The other is one who enjoys music but really does not put in an extraordinary effort to promoting.  However, both are equally important.  As much as we like to think we can do it ourselves we need help, the world is a big place.  The more reach we have into more countries and cities the easier it will be to get the word out. It's a simple ripple effect, if you are promoting and trying to reach people each day you will create a larger ripple than a person who isn’t, however, a person who says, 'hey check these guys out' to a friend who becomes a fanatic, or just passes it along to their friends in the same method could ultimately create the same size ripple.  If everyone reached 1 additional person, and they reach 1 more, you go from 1000-2000-3000 fans... vs 500-1000-1500... even the little guy is important, never underestimate their power.  As we have said, 1 guy with 5000 CDs cannot do as much as 5,000 people with 1 CD each... “

Do you still think you will be artist #10 to raise 50K on SellaBand?

“We would love to be number 10 on SellaBand, but it’s not a race in our opinion.  We have the opportunity now to create a solid fan base, one that has physically invested prior to seeing your success and that ultimately will promote and strive for your success as well.  For our futures as well as the benefit of SellaBand and our Believers, the more people we have in the end the better.  Music is not a game to us nor is 'how many believers we have'.  It is a strategic move for the future.  We would rather have 5,000 believers and hit 50k in a month, than have 500 believers and hit it now.  It’s the Believers who make us who we are... we just make the music... “

Just double-checking: in case you are next to reach 50K, will you be ready to hit the studio?

“We are still in the writing process and intend to produce a great album.  Music is an art and comes when it's natural. [Our first album] The Crucial Line is a compilation of songs from 4 years of work.  In addition we like to self produce as much as possible to make the recording process as smooth as possible.  So whether or not we run into the studio immediately is still up in the air, but the end result will be a great album regardless.”

 

T-Ka

 
photo by Sarah Bastin 

 One year on SellaBand, congratulations. Are you still happy to be here? 

“ I'm still happy and addicted to the website and to all the love & encouragements I receive from my Believers every day!”

How likely is it that you will be the next artist at 50K? “Actually I don't really care about being the next. It's not a race between us artists. The more artists we are to reach the 50k, the more widespread SellaBand's concept will be. I just want to reach the 50K to be able to record my first professional album at last and be able to release it...”

Just double-checking: once you've raised $50,000, will you be ready to hit the studio?

“I've been ready ever since I registered... It's been a year I'm waiting to get in! And to release the album... Actually without the 50K I can't begin negotiations with tour managers, distributors, communication agencies etc. So I really need to reach the 50K to start this process and be able to promote the album the best I can with a tour (hopefully that goes through all the cities where my Believers live to thank them all) and a promotion agency to set up interviews and articles in the medias when it's released... And be able to reach a wider audience for you to sell your extra copies and earn from the ad revenue! We're in this together and on my success depends your return on investment... I'm fully conscious of that and committed to make you happy with every dollar you placed in me!”

 

Francis Rodino

 

Over 10K in just one week. What happened? 

“A lot of people have asked what my secret is. Unfortunately, if I knew the answer to that I would have hit 50k a long time ago. What is for sure is that there are a lot of people out there that want to see me get into that studio and want to hear the Francis Rodino album soon. It all started with my ideas I released on the forum. To call it a 50k plan is a little premature, in retrospect I could call it my ideas for production. I think people were waiting for the right time and when they saw I had a couple of large gains last week, everybody started coming on board. What better way to say thanks (and to celebrate my new video camera) than a song :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOhmdGcNZiw.


Is it thinkable you will be next at 50K? “I have no idea. What is strange about SellaBand is that there is no clear pattern or strategy to get to 50k. Sometimes you do things where you think ‘this is going to get me a lot of Believers’ and the plan backfires. Man, I can't even get people to use their free gift parts that they bought at my gigs. (I'm using them now!). I have no idea when I will hit 50k - I hope it will be sooner rather than later.”

 

Just double-checking: when the times comes to record your SellaBand album, will you be ready? 

“I don't want to say too much, but I don't think that my album will consist of just recording a band in a studio. I want to start a creative process with the right producer/musician to work on the songs and write new ones in an iterative way. My ideal sound for the future has much more depth and complexity than what you've heard today – whilst remaining true to my radio friendly roots. So yes, absolutely, I'm ready, enthusiastic and excited to make a start. I'm committed to making a full album and exploiting to the fullest the SellaBand framework. Some artists will use SellaBand for different reasons - to make an EP (extended play) or to re-work their existing repertoire etc...my intention is to make my SellaBand album fully commercial so it can be placed and sold in the shops. I'm here to sell records after all!”

 

Adam’s Apples



The Portraits

 

Jeremy and Lorraine Millington live in France where they write and perform music so lazily lush and horizontally inclined that it would be plain rude not to be seduced by it. There's nothing laid back about the lyrics however, as they tackle serious subjects with plenty of wit and humour. They say that what they're doing is "music for those who've seen and felt life a little", and that's exactly what it is.
Playlist: "Bitter".

RehoBoaM

 

Many years ago I produced an Italian singer (Edoardo Bennato, if you're asking) and learned that although Italian is a beautiful language it's not best suited to rocking out. RehoBoaM have no trouble at all wrapping their native tongues around some epic prog rock that's full of the necessary pomp, vibrato and guitar solos. There must be a gong in there somewhere too. RBH are confident, savvy and look like they really mean business. And watch out, they may just make you an offer you can't refuse.......
Playlist: "TERA".

Rokhsan Heydari

 

If you want cute, we got it dept....the 84steps and Little Things singer/songwriter returns with three bubbly tunes that could just win you over instantly. Her vocals get a little carried away at times but it's all the name of good clean fun, in particular "This Town" with it's light reggae groove and chorus harmonizing. The perfect soundtrack for a summer's day - shame it's the middle of autumn - but if Rokhs makes it to the $50K quickly enough it these songs will sound just fine in July '08.
Playlist: "This Town".


Feedback: adam@sellaband.com

 


Q&A – Kontrust

 

Austria’s hottest alt rock act really have us straining at our leashes. This hard working sextet is making a steady ascent and garnering some serious praise from all corners of the community. The consenus is, it really is just a matter of time, so watch this space......and check out Kontrust's “psycho- thrilling” video while you’re at it!

 

Tell us something about Kontrust we don't already know...

"One special thing about Kontrust is that we are indeed one big family – the Kontrust-family. We’re very open-minded to people from ‘the outside’ who want to join us. This is something you can experience both on stage, off stage and in particular back stage:) There are always many people with us on the road. We try everything to be able to pick ’em up and take ’em with us. They just don’t wanna miss our live-shows (which you possibly might not know about either) and we absolutely don’t wanna miss them.
Our Polish roots – Agata was born in Poland – are neither a secret nor a special thing, but maybe something you  don’t know about Kontrust. We feel really close to the people there as we receive a lot of recognition and attention from them. Our concerts in Poland are always amazing and we’re looking forward to more of them. MTV Poland and VH-1 are showing us their support by playing our video. In general we love to travel and we love playing concerts... a perfect combination we’d say..."

What made you join SellaBand?

"We like the idea of having a measurable relation between bands and people who believe in authentic and new styles of music. You know, it’s much more than just claiming, ‘I like your band’. There are so many great artists out there and, the way we see it , they now have the chance to spread their name and their work amongst  people who are really interested in music."

 

What are your experiences so far?

"SellaBand is worth the word ‘community’. At first, when we signed up, we didn’t expect a community who both ‘work’ together but also share thoughts and new ideas, and funds besides. This community does not only exist between artists and Believers, but also among Believers, and – what’s even more amazing – between artists and artists. We like the idea of artists supporting each other, like we do in ‘everyday life’, together with artists from Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Germany, Croatia, Italy, etc. And this is happening on SellaBand for real. This makes the SellaBand-community quite different from other online-communities like myspace. Our myspace-profile is pretty successfull too, but – to be honest – SellaBand has more quality."

How difficult is it for a non-mainstream band to move up the charts?

"OMG, what a question:) We guess this is not the right moment to discuss the common issue, ‘What kind of music is mainstream and which one is not?’. Our debut-album, ‘we!come home’,  and the songs on our SellaBand-profile are self-produced. We make the kind of music we like and know about, and others do too, which is very important to us. Whether you call it mainstream or not doesn’t matter.
To move up the ranking is difficult for everybody on SellaBand. It’s different from time to time, but the last few months were pretty successfull for Kontrust. Within the last week we flew right over page 5 in the ranking and now find ourselves in the TOP 40-range. From this perspective, and if only it would go on this way, we’d say  it’s not so difficult :) But as you can imagine and as you all can see on our profile: it’s a lot of hard work.
We know, with the proper producer and the right SellaBand-team, Kontrust will produce a ‘must-have-album’. Or like ‘Peatnik’ said: 'With the proper production facilities and equipment, and with adequate financial support, Kontrust will turn some heads. They certainly turned mine.' Call it mainstream or not..."

How much time do you spend on SellaBand?

"Fulfilling the motto: ‘It’s a hard job but someone’s gotta do it!’, everyone in the Kontrust-family has his/her own area, like booking, website, graphics, etc. (and let’s forget about songwriting for a moment :) In Kontrust’s SellaBand-activities alone we invest about 3 to 5 hours per day. Updating the profile, cultivating our friendships with Believers and artists, starting new ad-campaigns and writing press-releases is indeed time-consuming:)"

What are your ambitions?

"Well, this is easy: Everyone of us agrees that Kontrust is his/her calling. We’re on the right track to be able to live from our music, and that’s what we wanna do."

 

Tell us about the video for Phono Sapiens...

"The reason why we chose the song ‘Phono Sapiens’ was that we thought it would  best represent the whole variety of influences in our music. The phrase ‘phono sapiens’ describes nothing more than a person whose life constantly revolves about music. The video shows some kind of an experimental institute where people get transformed from ‘normal’ human beings to ‘phono sapiens’. All in all, it’s some sort of a psycho-thrilling video."

How did you finance that video, was it expensive?

"In fact,  it is an expensive video but our luck has it that a good friend has been producing music videos for years. We were able to compensate for the costs by doing some marketing and promotional work for his company. You know, the typical situation of , ‘You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’."

Why should people Believe in Kontrust?

"First of all, we believe in ourselves. We know Kontrust is for life and we know we started something steady. When Kontrust hits 50k, we’ll have the opportunity to prove this to our Believers. Kontrust has 6 marvellous musicians and an awesome live-show; it’s time to produce an awesome CD – with SellaBand. Be part of the Kontrust-family!"


Sommersby’s Spectacular Strategies...

 

It started as a little, private initiative, but turned into something that is so much more. Believer Phil Sommersby has caused quite a stir with his Parts competition in September. And with the imminent start of his October Special, it seemed more than appropriate to invite the great man to spill the beans on this one himself…

 

"I don't have any musical ability other than the ability to listen to music for hours at a time. When I bought my first Parts as a Believer I started to think about what I could do to support my artists. Other than making full use of my profile page, opening up a Myspace page and encouraging my artists I couldn't think of much else.

But I began to get involved in the Forum and  watched what was being offered by Sellaband and came to the conclusion that while some artists were being catered for the vast majority of Believers weren't - and that included me. So I sat down one evening and started to think what could I actually do that would involve my fellow Believers. When I posted the announcement regarding the September Giveaway Competition I could never have imagined what a success it would turn out to be and within hours of Wetwerks and Confused 5 slugging out a tie in the final I was receiving messages asking what was planned for October!

The one thing that stuck in my mind from the first few days of the September Competition was the number of nominations that came in with "he/she doesn't get the recognition she deserves". So when I sat down to think about a competition for October it struck me that with the same rules and format we could easily finish with the same finalists. Hence the decision this time to restrict nominations to artists under $9999 in budget on October 25. This should open up the competition and given there has been nearly 4 weeks to prepare a surprise result might well ensue.

With just under 3 days to go the prize fund is within a whisker of $500 which will guarantee a first prize of 25 parts. All eight artists in Phase 2 will win a prize. Has the competition been tweaked in any other ways? - Yes it has. The second phase will have a real 'Champions League' feel to it and tactical voting might well play a part. Full details of Phase 2 will be published on Saturday 27th Oct.”


Finally a little bird tells us that something else is brewing and we asked Sommersby. He told us "Certainly it could be an intriguing and exciting week and you'll read it first in the Forum". Asked when this would be disclosed all Sommersby would say was "Sometime this week". The October Competition begins at 6pm BST on 25 October - but just what has Sommersby got up his sleeve this week. Like you we can only wait and see…


Don't forget to vote!

click here