Mysti Mayhem at 50K



Most of us thought it would happen this weekend already, but there is nothing so unpredictable as a '$50,000 Countdown' on SellaBand. On Monday, February 18, shortly after 6 PM CET, Mysti Mayhem

became the fifteenth artist to raise $50,000 with the help of her fans. And while celebrating we can report the first Countdown Injury: Miss Mayhem broke here toe...

 

 

How have you experienced the Road to 50K?

"To me the road to 50K was a pleasant and smooth ride.  Through the process I learned more about myself, more about the music business, and gained a great deal of exposure and support from all over the world.  Joining Sellaband is possibly the best career decision I could have made.  Since I joined my website www.spellboxmusic.com has received triple the amount of daily hits than it did before I joined. My album and digital download sales on www.cdbaby.com/spellbox have also tripled.  I am very confident in the future of my career due to the outlook and exposure Sellaband has given me, and the people who help make this company and website a possibility."

What did you feel when you finally got there?

"When I went to my www.sellaband.com/mystimayhem page and saw my 50K video pop up, I cried and put my hands together and thanked my creator for giving me the ability to touch others through my music in such a way that my music is being touched by others, and I could not ask for more.  I am very thankful and excited about this new door that has opened for me in my career."

 

What's Next?

"Correspondance with my engineers, and studio musicians has begun and tracks will be exchanged and recorded within the next few weeks.  The scratch tracks and orchestration is already laid out, and pre-production is finished.  The process will be recorded and Vlogged on www.youtube.com/mystimayhem made special and private only to Mysti Mayhem and/or Mysti Mayhem & Spellbox's Believers.  So if you aren't a Believer, sorry, you will miss out on the documentation of the recording of the 50K record, the making of the music videos and the behind the scenes of the 50 dates in 50 states.  All Believers and investors of Mysti Mayhem will be constantly updated and be included in this process.  Much action willhappen live via internet on http://mystimayhem.camstreams.com so please check in to see updates, and make sure to join Mysti Mayhem's mailing list for more updates on http://www.spellboxmusic.com/list.html  And if you missed out on the chance to invest in your Mysti Mayhem CD, you can invest in Mysti Mayhem's other Musical Mischief at www.sellaband.com/spellbox."


Mysti broke her toe while celebrating her 50K 


Clémence is recording... again!

 

SellaBand Recording artist Clémence is in the studio again. With her SellaBand album producer Haydn Bendall in control of the production once more, she plans to record another 7 impeccably sounding tracks. Read on...

 

When Clémence signed up with SellaBand in December 2006, she had just finished recording her 14 track debut album. Recorded in France, with French studios, producers, musicians and songwriters. Then she discovered SellaBand, fell in love with the site and decided that she wanted an album with an international sound, using a network of people mostly outside of France..

This is precisely what has happened. With the help of producer par excellence Haydn Bendall, the former chief engineer at legendary Abbey Road Studios and under the guidance of A&R man Adam Sieff, she has been able to transform 7 of her existing songs into perfect staples of extremely well produced pop songs. Just 7... And with the studios and producers the team have used, they still had to pull a few strings and favors, to fit it into the existing budget.

The result is called 'Bewitching', they are all brand new recordings, five in English and two in French. The numbered, 7 track album, including two previously unreleased bonus videos will be sent to her Believers' homes soon and will be up for sale as of early March. The stunning result has caused great interest from several companies outside SellaBand, including traditional record labels. And it has inspired Clémence and her team to find a way to re-record the other 7 existing songs as well. With the same production team, studios, musicians, etcetera. But with a different budget, coming from different sources.


We have always said that if and when a really good opportunity comes along for one or more of our artists, and we still manage to find a balance to defend the interest of our Believers, we will not stand in an artists' way. And with Clémence this clearly is the case. She is currently recording 7 extra tracks with Haydn Bendall in London and together with 'our' 7 songs, this will be released as a double album, later this year. The revenues of this album will be split evenly between Clémence and her company on the one hand and SellaBand/Believers on the other hand. As an extra token of appreciation, all Clémence Believers will be able to download the content from this to be released double album for free.

Details of the album (title, tracklisting, etc.) have yet to be decided, as well as release date and the exact nature of the deal that Clémence is going to sign, but we wanted to share this very exciting information with our community as soon as we could. "Imagine you had 1% royalties in the first Coldplay album", is how our Managing Director JohanV recently described SellaBand's model at Midem. "Imagine you have 1% royalties in Clémence debut album" is how we would like to be able to rephrase that sentence two years from now... 


 

 

Adam's Apples


Niki Thunders

 

Skitzo Calypso may have teased and run but their frontman Brad Cox is back with humility and style as alter ego Niki Thunders. Three excellent, well recorded and rocking songs plus over $1500 in a couple of days shows he's both taking and being taken seriously here. So who needs Skitzo anyway?
Playlist: The Sickness Of Dreams

Lijie

 

A west coast singer/songwriter who writes some wonderful piano based repertoire and has a voice reminiscent of nothing less than a young k.d. lang. The three tracks here are taken from her independently released album Roam and are beautifully produced and performed. I love this.
Playlist: Blue

The Mitchell Blues Band


There have been blues artists at SellaBand before, but none of this high calibre. Tim Mitchell is an experienced professional with a solid soulful voice, plays fine guitar and writes excellent contemporary blues songs. If you've never realised how good modern blues can be this is an excellent place to start.
Playlist: Illegallity

Shira

 

All we know about her is that she's a New York based singer/songwriter about to start work on her music in Los Angeles. But we do know that she writes fine and deceptively simple acoustic songs and the more adventurous "Her Ghost" has a stunning haunting quality. More information here and no telling how far Shira can go.
Playlist: Lightning


Feedback: adam@sellaband.com


Q + A

Civilized Tears


He arrived on SellaBand like a new year's resolution and has been an office favorite since day one. Good to see we are not alone in our appreciation; Civilized Tears have been steadily climbing our charts and main man Tim Bennette is more than willing to give us some insight on his plans and ambitions...



Tell us something about Civilized Tears that is not in your bio.

"I love the taste of my lover's tongue."

How would you describe your style and sound?

"'open heart surgery' -   revealing , rather bloody and hopefully healing."

How did you come to join SellaBand?

Steve Bush mentioned that he was producing Francis Rodino for SellaBand. He explained how the site worked and encouraged me to sign up.It seemed like a 'Winner'."

What were your expectations?

"Expectations are dangerous things to have in life."


Is it tough to stand out amidst over 6,000 other acts on the site?

"I am not trying to stand out. For me Sellaband is not a competition it is more like a shop window. I think we are all unique and all have something to offer to the audience."

What are your ambitions? 

"To feel complete."

How much time do you dedicate to SellaBand now?

"An hour an a day on average , although  I spent a lot longer when I first signed up as I needed to familiarize myself with the workings of the site."

Are there any other SellaBand acts you particularly like?

"Yes, but I think it would be unfair to single out any individual act . They who know who they are."

Why should people Believe in Civilized Tears?

"Alea iacta est."


 


Still Going Strong!


Mua'Dib & The Awakening


Right now there are so many active artist on SellaBand, but only still one Tribune Q + A. To salute those who have been with us for a longer period of time and are working their butts off to lure in new Believers, we have created a new column: Still Going Strong. And there are non stronger and more willing than MDATA and their captain, Uncle Ben...



How are things in the world of MDATA?

"We are doing great thanks, it's been 2 years since our first gig and we have never stopped looking forward. February marked the launch of our untitled as yet new demo and we are having a blast playing new tunes and revamped version of our classics.
Lustypopfunk as we call it has been gathering a quite a following in France and southern Ireland so we are mainly concentrating on writing hot new tracks and not disappointing our fans. Headlining Sellagig U.K. was unbelievable fun and I personally regretted that the great Luckyhorse didn't play for longer, they and all the bands that night were astounding, major thanks to Dreb from the mighty SHEET METAL  and ISCA for that gig."

What is keeping you busy right now?

"Errrrrrrrr, right now? I'm sitting here in my polka dot boxers wondering about what position I would like Carla Bruni to be in.......umm, yeah, you meant the band didn't you?
Well, We are back to gigging quite a lot and finding good venues (Open to any offers anywhere in the world folks!!) is pretty much a full time job and as usual I'm behind on getting us bookings for the summer festivals in Europe. Keeping Patrick and las bastos (Greg) fully clothed and out of prison is also quite demanding. At the moment we are juggling around a set list of about 17 original songs and we decided we would like this to be roughly 30 before the end of the year, so song writing is of paramount importance nowadays, we are all a bit weird in general so pooling song ideas is always a howl, The last song "las Bastos" threw on the table is called Jooozzz and it's a jazz, groove piano bar funky vibe thing, which of course Pat will be bass funking and I will be adding wah, sultry vocals and distortion too, should be a blast........ahhh the subtle joys."


What is the most frustrating thing about convincing people to Believe in you?

"I suppose it's when I threaten them with my 'The sniper shoots your dog thing' and then they don't have any friggin pets, I feel pretty stupid then. The Prophet Wood (Aka Kristen) has been a shining light for MDATA in recent times, and to be quite honest when you see people (Believers or other) promoting your band from the other side of the planet and asking for nothing in return, it kind of replaces the frustration with a nice warm feeling (and no 'that's only because he wet himself plastered drunk' jokes please, ok?)
It is an amazing experience when someone believes in your band and trusts you with their hard earned cash, so all our stupid arse jokes aside THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH (was very tempted to write 'spank you all so  much' but thankfully didn't hurr hurrr hurr)
I promise all potential believers that we will make a "mental as hell, ground breaking, pull- start-50cc dildo lustypopfunk of an album for you and you will not regret your trust and belief in the band."

Will 2008 still be your year?

"I do whole-heartedly believe that MDATA will hit the 50k Marker before the end of 2008 and As I've said on many an occasion to various unsuspecting potential believers: I believe, Do you?, with of course the added incentive of 'Do it now, or I shoot the puppy, do you really want puppy brains all over your carpet, dead dogs can't fetch = unhappy kids, all that crying' etc. etc. and so forth.

What can we expect from MDATA in the near future?

"Our next big gig will be at Capitol studios Paris (see flyer) on the 1st of March for the Fallenfest battle of the bands so anybody who wants to come along and throw their underwear at the stage is more than welcome (incontinents unwelcome). We are working on a Sellagig Germany concept with the amazing German rapper SIMEON for April and May, June and July will be festival time so keep watching our page. Mashing up with Maitreya in London was a blast live on stage and me and the lads would love to record a track with him when we hit the 50k budget.
We are planning to release a live demo mid-May made up from various concerts in 2008, this should be fun because there are certain "special bits' that you only get on a live CD....jaknowwadimeanlike?
Well, as the Back street boys put it so cutely it's all "step by step baby" so lets get MDATA to a nice solid 10k marker and keep SAB's favourite "late bloomers" happy in their nappies."