Joe Edwards

soundisnotasleep:

Absolutely spot on comment in reaction to the “bands can go on tour to make money” argument, in this equally as spot on article about the lack of money in the creative industries by Ian Maleny on Totally Dublin. [read the full thing here]

Thursday, 14th March 2013
Birthdays, Dalston, London

John Harris in The Guardian: Can The UK’s ‘Toilet Circuit’ Of Small Music Venues Survive?

I liked this article and we definitely need venues like this, but it struck me as a little weird that paying the band was cited as one of the potential hurdles that needs to be overcome for a venue to stay open. Admittedly the £75 quoted is a bit steep as a guarantee for a band that potentially doesn’t have a sufficient following to justify it but, while this wasn’t necessarily what the article was getting at, the relationship between new bands and venues/promoters seems, to me, to be quite a strange one.

To some extent the relationship seems fairly symbiotic, venues need bands to draw people in so they can make money, whether it’s from ticket sales or from the bar, and bands need the venues for exposure and to play shows to people. I get the impression that most bands starting out are pretty naive, they aren’t worried about getting paid or even breaking even, they just want to play shows. But even if the band are OK with, or don’t see it as them being exploited, if the venue makes money off a band’s fans shouldn’t the band get compensated?

A small band with very few to no actual fans, who are encouraged by the promoter to bring all their friends, are basically asking people they know to give some relative strangers who happen to own a building some money and if they bring enough friends to cover the strangers’ costs, they’ll get to see some of it. If your friends want to help fund you doing something you love, then that’s cool and seems like something good friends would do, but it could be seen as odd that part of that involves funding a business they might not frequent otherwise.

Fair enough though, putting on shows does cost money, as does keeping a venue open, and anyone who does it well should be able to make enough money to keep doing it, but being in a band costs money too. A lot of these costs might be considered voluntary; it’s not like anyone asked you to buy an instrument and record a demo (then again, no one asked you to open a venue or put on a show, although I’m just as glad that you did), so you do take a lot of costs on the chin. But, expenses that directly relate to playing a gig at least involve some transport costs and, even if you assume you only need one practice to be ready for a gig, any band that’s not lucky enough to have somewhere to practice for free will be down at least £20-30 (£45 for a weeknight!) before they even get to the venue, so they have invested money as well, even if it is less than a venue’s production costs. In an ideal world would that be covered?

I guess the obvious response is ‘sell merch’, but you need money to invest in that and once you’re there, assuming you’re not just trying to sell more stuff to your friends, who have already shelled out for a ticket and are just trying to be supportive, you’re pretty much in direct competition with the bar. People come to a show with a finite amount of money, and the choice between another drink or a CD just before the headline starts is pretty inevitable.

Having said all that, bands really need these venues and don’t always treat them particularly well, not least by agreeing to play shows they know they can’t bring enough people to.

I’m not sure what point I’m trying to make here, maybe this doesn’t need articulating, but the relationship is quite fraught and, just like everything else in the arts in 2013, there’s not enough money on either side. This doesn’t really feel like the best system, but it’s how it is, and a lot of the bands I really love I discovered through shows on the ‘toilet circuit’, and anything good that’s ever happened to a band that I’ve been in wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t play those shows. For a lot of bands, including mine, there’s not really any other way to play gigs and I hope they continue to stay open.

Thursday, 28th February 2013
Birthdays, Dalston, London

Great piece on The 405 on the connection between music and artwork, with some interesting comments from a couple of labels like Mute and Ninja Tune. While reading it did occur to me though that revealing album art is still one of the first steps in an album campaign, sometimes coming before any music, so maybe it can still form a lasting impression of the album, albeit months in advance.

That’s different from it being a proper part of the package though, and seeing it sidelined as just ‘Content’ does seem like a shame. It’s also quite possible that the people that “listen to MP3s on their iPods without any artwork” aren’t really the same people that read news pieces about album releases on websites/blogs either, so it probably doesn’t actually help.

Wednesday, 13th February 2013
Underworld, London

Mazes’ Jack Cooper. No. 9 in The 10 Golden Rules Of Being In A DIY Indie Band on The Guardian. Made me laugh but I’m actually a little surprised no one’s ever done this, or perhaps they have and I just believed them.

Also, the Mazes album stream is sandwiched between numbers 5 and 6 and is worth a listen. I saw Mazes a few months ago supporting Cloud Nothings and enjoyed their set but neglected to follow it up. Glad to have come across them again as on first listen the album sounds pretty good.

Port St. Willow - Tourist

I came across the Port St. Willow album, Holiday, in the end of year list on The 405. I’d never heard of them before but it sounded like the kind of thing I’d like, based on “sparse, ambient and clearly heartfelt” and the fact that they’ve toured with The Antlers, and it turned out to be genuinely amazing.

This song is particularly splendid.

Over the weekend the band had our first practice at Storm Studios in Holloway. It’s a pretty amazing space, everyone who worked there was really nice, and it’s the same price as where we normally (it’s a safe bet that by ‘normally’, I really mean ‘used to’) practice, but far less sticky. Plus all the equipment worked, and there were no crudely drawn genitals on any of the walls.

At first I missed those sharpie penises and their subtle nihilism, but not for long. Who is it who even draws them? What are their core values? How do they live their lives?

Holy Roar - Winter/Spring 2013 Sampler

26 FREE tracks celebrating the past/present/future of Holy Roar Records as it stands. Feel free to post this on tumblr, blogs, filesharing sites and generally spread the bad news.

If you like something you hear, maybe pick up an LP, a CD or a shirt or something and support independent bands and labels! 

1. This Is Hell - The Enforcer
2. Coliseum - One Last Night*
3. Bastions - Amongst Crows
4. Strife - Life or Death
5. Mine - What Kind of Bird Are You
6. Full Of Hell - Molluck
7. Calm The Fire - We’ll Be Fine
8. Hang The Bastard - King Of Adders Black
9. Kerouac - Fiends (Live)
10. Cutting Pink With Knives - Rhythm 16
11. Run Walk - Blank Canvas
12. Pariso - Cold Venom**
13. Desolated - Gods Eyes
14. Throats - I Love Turbulence
15. Last Witness - Saccharine
16. Maths - The Wind Swept Away (Demo)
17. Katie Malco - Tearing Ventricles
18. Brontide - Coloured Tongues
19. No Fun - Guideless Ghost, Hopeless Hoax
20. We’ll Die Smiling - Feed The Need
21. Monolith - Forever Noir
22. Crocus - Left To Bruise
23. Goodtime Boys - Harrows
24. Will Haven - Object of My Affection
25. Abolition - Opiate
26. Daggers - Mohawk
27. Vales - Caves (Anxiety)**

*Taken from Parasites EP, courtesy of TRL/Coliseum
** Courtesy of Tangled Talk Records

The band had it’s first gig of the year on Friday (proof below). It was the first first show with Ableton, so it was quite stressful, but actually went pretty well, and ironically it was the guitars that proved problematic rather than anything electronic.

The issue with adding new kit is that when anything does screw up it can be a little overwhelming. In one song when turning on a pedal made my guitar cut out (still now idea why, and it hasn’t happened since) it threw me off to the extent that I wasn’t on time triggering anything either, so that was a bit disastrous, but one of the advantages of playing a song you haven’t recorded yet to people who’ve never heard of you is that sometimes they don’t notice that kind of thing. As a result though, I initially felt pretty low, directly after coming off stage, but in retrospect it could have been a lot worse, and now that a bit of time has passed I feel pretty good about the set as a whole. Next show is in just under a month, and I’m fairly optimistic, I think.

I guess there were a couple of other surprises, the promoter didn’t show up, or at least didn’t introduce themselves, and the sound-man didn’t know who we were or what our set up was, or how many bands were playing, and it turned out there was a headline band that had been confirmed about a week in advance, but neither us nor the other band we knew where playing had been told. I also got the impression the surprise headline thought they were the only band playing; it’s disconcerting, turning up to a venue to find posters for that night that don’t mention you, and list the band as playing at what you thought was your set time. The show went surprisingly well for all that, the crowd were really responsive and we heard some nice things after we played, and I’m not complaining. We’re a small band, who’re maybe not quite there yet in terms of sound and are taking what we can get, and I think we knew it was going to be that kind of show going in, but it’s sad when that sort of thing happens.

Thursday, 31st January 2013
Electrowerkz, London 

Clip Stamp Fold

I agree with this. (Sentiments originate in this blog post, written by some guy I know.)

Sunday, 20th January 2013
The Old Blue Last, London 

Really looking forward to this show. I first saw This Town Needs Guns at Notting Hill Arts Club with Cats & Cats & Cats (and picked up the split while I was there). I’ve seen them a bunch of times since, but that was a few years ago now, and not since the singer from Pennines joined. I’ve been meaning to see Among Brothers again for a while too, so it’s not a bad line-up really.

Sargent House are streaming the new album, 13.0.0.0.0, on Soundcloud at the moment. I’ve only listened to it a few times but I think it might be really really good.

@mofgimmers:

I’ve started a collaborative Google Map called Your Local Record Shop: http://bit.ly/W4WnUQ Please add your local shop and share it around.

Friday, 11th January 2013
The Gallery In Redchurch Street, London

vesselsband.com

London dwellers ahoy - the 1-2-3-4 Neu Gallery in Redchurch Street will be hosting an installation of our interactive Helioscope video next week as part of the London Short Film Festival.

On the evening of Monday 7th the gallery will be open all evening for a private screening (which you Vessels fans are invited to) and the directing team including Tim Harrison will be present to answer any questions.

On Wednesday 9th and Friday 11th, and as well as being in the gallery from 4pm, in the evening it will be projected onto the gallery window with passers-by being able to control it using their smartphones in place of the mouse. If you’re thinking of heading down, remember to take headphones to get the music as well!

Demos (2012-2013)

Three demos from a bunch of songs written August 2012 - January 2013. Guitars recorded in Ableton, and drums, bass and keys are programmed in Reason/Ableton. These are only demos, I’m no producer, and I think they need vocals, but you get the idea.

If pushed I’d try to describe them as ‘minimal indie’, so it’s probably best if I’m not pushed.

No definite plans with these currently, but I guess contact joesedwards[at]gmail[dot]com if interested.

I started working on some songs on my own towards the end of the summer, while the band was quiet, based on some ideas I had that didn’t really work with what we were doing. It’s been good working on them, and while I do enjoy writing with other people I’ve also enjoyed just doing it by myself. Admittedly neither the drums nor bass are quite right (which is unsurprising since they’re programmed and I don’t really play either instrument), and they’d need vocals before they were totally finished but as they are, I’m quite proud of them in a way.

I decided I’d get together 6 or so before I did anything with them. I’ve now accumulated 6 demos, and I’m still not sure what to do with them, so I’ve stuck 3 up on Soundcloud just for fun and so I can post them here (feedback welcome), and we’ll see what happens.

clipstampfold:

Friday, 18th January
The Wheelbarrow, Camden, London (Free Show)

Hello friends, and happy new year!

Our first show of 2013 will see us back at The Wheelbarrow, next Friday, 18th January. It’s a free show, with the lovely Beneath Wolves, the apostrophe to our inadvertent backslash.

FREE ENTRY
Doors: 8pm

Clip Stamp Fold
http://music.clipstampfoldband.com/

Beneath Wolves
http://www.facebook.com/BeneathWolves

Join us.

Rapper/Producer J-Zone on the slightly less popular, but more common, story of not making it big as a band/artist. Taken from an interview on AV Club: ‘J-Zone Lost His Wikipedia Page - And His Interest In Being A Rapper’ | AV Club.

The sections about his final shows, destroying stock, and the impact of branding, by which I think he means being considered part of a scene/movement, as well as the importance of his own image, are all fantastic. Really well written, with a lot of humility. Definitely worth reading.