Music Before the Money

This is a great guest blog from the wilds of the west Coast compliments of Eric Wofold from the Indie band Etched in Stone.

I just recently started following Kim’s Music Before the Money blog, and myself being a blogger, albeit a beginner, I’ve got a lot to say on the topic of surviving in the industry as a indy artist. I live in the cowboy capitol of the world a little hole in the wall called Oakdale California. Don’t ask how it became named as such,(i believe it has something to do with how many rodeo titles the city holds) I don’t really know. As a musician, times are hard. Especially if you don’t have regular paying shows, or are backed by a label.

The average signed musician makes about 300,000 usd a year, and out of that only 6% comes from record sales. Everything else is from playing shows, and getting people to buy your merchandise, and publicity. If your not on a major label, the odds of you pulling in that kind of income is slim to none unless you have a job that allows you to hire a good manager and lawyer. For me, money really isn’t the goal here. Us honest musicians just want to share our music with the masses, and hopefully be able to live comfortably in the process.

I suppose I should move on to what I was gonna write about. I get sidetracked a bit easily if you couldn’t tell. I play lead guitar In the band Etched In Stone. Were based out of Modesto California, and while this year has been a busy one, unfortunately we don’t have much to show for it except for the added experience, and a slightly larger fan base. Id like to talk about the many issues with playing live shows in the Central Valley of California.

Id like to address the subject of the promoter crisis. Promoters in northern California don’t do their jobs, I have yet in all my dealings with them found one that holds true to their word. When you want to put on a show, or they ask you to play at any of the venues they promote for, if you’re prepared, and have a contract that ensures your payment, they look at you like your an alien. Not because they don’t think a contract is necessary, but because they have no intention of paying you any amount of money. When they do in fact guarantee a kind of payment, they find a way out of it. Either by dissapearing mid show, or coming up with the commonly heard, and totally BS excuse, “i’ve got the money in the car, or at home.” On top of that, when they say there going to promote, what they should be doing is going out to the streets, talking to people, and using any possible methods within budget to get people to come to the show. There is no way your going to get a good crowd if you use Myspace or Twitter exclusively to do all of your promoting, and thats an obvious truth.

I admit promoting isn’t an easy job, but i’ve seen better jobs done by bands themselves. For instance theres a yearly underground metal showcase called Project independent that had hired one of the areas supposed top promoters Mike Vanick to find a venue and promote for the show. The concept of project Independent is to bring Metal heads together to pick their favorite up and coming band out of a montage of a good number of bands nation-wide. In order to progress past the battle of the bands show, which showcases the previous years winner as well as the local bands that sign up for the contest, you need a few important aspects which are pretty much general knowledge if your in a band. Merchandise, good music and a minimum 3 track demo, solid self promotion skills, syncopation, and a good band chemistry. The winner receives 50k in equipment, a management contract, 5,000 for merch and recording and a 90 day tour.

Getting back to the main subject, they hire Mike, a guy with a horrible reputation with bands in the area to find them a spot. To make this as quick as possible, Mike took the money he was paid and ran. He never called them, and bailed on the show completely. As you can probably guess, the owner of P.I. was irate. With only a week and one day before the show was supposed to happen he had no venue, no bands, and no tickets sold. He called my band mate trying to get an idea of where he could find Mr, Vanick so he could wring his neck, and instead found that we were hungry enough to play this show that we would do all of the legwork. I suggested this to Brian, and he talked to the owner saying “give me an hour. Ill get us a venue and ill find some bands. Were playing this show. “

A week of sleepless nights later, the project independent van shows up with last years winner, Eminent (a great band I must add) and they were shocked. We singlehandedly managed to bring about 60 people, along with 5 bands out to a little hole in the ground in ceres called the Workshop. This place oozed metal. Imagine bands playing in a place that you wouldn’t dare enter out of fear of being attacked by someone resembling the guy from texas chainsaw massacre. Needless to say, they loved it.

The point of this is that a band was able to bring a larger crowd, and a better vibe in a week than most of he areas promoters would be able to do in three months. THREE MONTHS! Mind you that none of us are pros, and 60 people may not seem like much, but in this area your lucky to get 10 people to go to a show that has never heard of your band if you go through a promoter unless of course your also playing with a nationally touring/signed band.

I must say, the Californias Central Valley needs honest, and dedicated Promoters badly. I have thought of taking this a step further and becoming a promoter myself, but with what I’m currently doing for my band, I barely have time to sleep let alone go out and put shows together so that people and bands can say, this has been an amazing experience. And bands can walk away with the little hard earned cash that they deserve.

If you enjoyed this little snippet, I encourage you to check out my own blog at adventofdmg.blogspot.com its a chronicle of my adventures as a Death Metal Guitarist, and while i’m a bit behind in my posts, I look forward to hearing your comments on this, and my other posts. This is Savage Eric of Etched in Stone. Thank you.

“It’s a trick I picked up from old Les Paul.”

- Gary Busey in The Buddy Holley Story when asked about overdubbing
the process of recording another track on the same piece of tape

Mid-way through my list of “Guitars-That-I-Should-Have-Kept”is the 1959 Les Paul “TV Special,” one that I got in a trade for a 1976 Wurlitzer electronic piano (I should have kept that piano but you still see them on on Ebay). This guitar was a step up from the least expensive Gibson electric, the Les Paul Junior.

Guitar virtuoso Les Paul brought a solid body to his friends at Gibson in 1941 but they rebuffed the famed player until Leo Fender designed and marketed such an instrument with the introduction of the “Broadcaster” in 1948. Renamed the Telecaster two years later, Fender’s creation remains a mainstay of country and rock musicians who like its clean, biting sound.In 1951, this initial rejection became a design collaboration between the Gibson Guitar Corporation and Les Paul.

It was agreed that the new Les Paul guitar was to be an expensive, well-made instrument in Gibson’s tradition. However, there was a large student population to think about, a group who were happily buying the inexpensive “Telecaster.” So Gibson countered with the “Les Paul Junior,” a one-pickup, single cutaway, mahogany-slab guitar.

(Picture from the Gibson Catalgue)

In 1959, Les Paul appeared on his TV show with wife, Mary Ford, with a double-cuaway, 2-pickup version of the Junior and it became known as the “TV Special.” Unfortunately, this version was discontinued because there were other products that were becoming popular like the SG’s and upper-echelon Les Paul’s.

The twin P-90 “black bitches” are astounding pickups. The use of the Alnico 5 magnet makes the P-90 a powerful pickup with a high, mid-range output making it more than suitable for rock. Pete Townsend used these pickups on the Who Live at Leads album and Leslie West played a Les Paul Junior to get the long, sustaining leads on Mississippi Queen with Mountain.

During my “acoustic phase,” in 1990, I sold my Les Paul T.V. for $800. Like my other old guitars it was refinished so the price was good for the time.

Generations of musicians and music producers also owe a debt of gratitude to Les Paul for his inventive spirit in electronics – even more than they should for his amazing guitar. This is because Les Paul developed the art of recording onto a narrow strip of recording tape while another piece of music is playing below it. This was called “overdubbing” and was the forerunner of multi-track recording.

And lastly, he was very good jazz guitarist!

I remember when the album Woodstock came out. It was a three-disc set that we quickly wore out (I still have the scratched copy) and I also bought it on 8-track. The only problem with that – besides obvious mechanical failures – was that I’m Going Home by Ten Years After was cut in half and you heard the last half of the song on the next track.

The other thing I remember even more than the music was the picture of a young couple hugging under a dirty sleeping bag or quilt of some kind. They were “The Woodstock Couple” and came to symbolize hippies everywhere. Well, the Woodstock couple are  Nick and Bobbi Ercoline, both now 60

They only met three months before and, to their complete  surprise, in 1970 the picture became the cover of the Woodstock album and was seen on  various posters as well as the movie artwork.

For many, the image of Nick and Bobbi wrapped in a blanket amongst a bunch of concert goers, garbage andgray skies represents the festival. Because even with the wetness, mud and hunger pains nobody fought or yelled. It was the most unique calmness in a summer that wreaked of death ( Brian Jones, the Manson Murders, the Vietnam death toll).

And guess what, Nick and Bobbi havebeen together ever since!

As the 40th anniversary of the The Woodstock Music & Art Fair (An Aquarian Exposition) approaches there is the memory of failed attempts to recapture the feeling and history. As many historians agree Woodstock was the pinnacle of the 1960’s flower-power surge. (After that even Madison Avenue executives were wearing their hair over their ears and celebrities were wearing peace signs on chains around their necks)

The last attempt to put on a big concert, for a 30th anniversary festival, was in 1999. This ended in a completely opposite drama, complete chaos with hundreds of police officers going after rampaging idiots who were doing everything from torching the stage to looting the overpriced vendors.

This summer, on August 14th & 15th, music fans from the Chicago area and from throughout the Midwest (and beyond) will converge on Galt Airport to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. The neat thing about this festival is that it includes 9 tribute bands:

• Jimi Hendrix
• Janis Joplin
• Joe Cocker
• The Who
• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (2 of these)
• Creedence Clearwater Revival
• The Grateful Dead
• Santana

Friday

On Friday evening Kelven Dyson, as Jimi Hendrix, will open the show with a set scheduled to begin at 7:00. Following Hendrix, direct from New York City, will be Lauren Bernal, who will deliver an uncanny tribute to Janis Joplin. Woody James and “Ohio” will perform its tribute to CSN&Y. Abraxas, the world’s finest Santana tribute band will close the show.

Saturday

Saturday’s music will begin in the afternoon at 3:00. Saturday afternoon and evening acts will include: Creedence Clearwater Revival, performed by “Creedence Again” featuring Rich Perez as John Fogerty; Boneyfingers, an extraordinary talented Grateful Dead tribute band; The Who, performed by The Wholigans and Marrakesh Express who will pay tribute to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Headlining Saturday night’s show will be Joe Cocker, performed by Alan Kaye and his Mad Dogs Band.

This should be a great concert. Anyone interested in going should go to A Woodstock Illinois Tribute

When I started out performing I used to have stage fright so bad that I once hid behind a curtain at the school auditorium. We had a trio and I would always choose the most dimly-lit part of the stage. Thankfully, this did not last long but the first song of the evening is still the most important to me.

1. Who Is the Crowd?

What I look for before I step up on stage is the type of people in attendance.

Are they:

• Sports teams?
• Couples?
• Business people?
• Teachers?
• Young?
• Old?
• A mixture?

When I started out I used to pray for people my own age who weren’t country fans. Why? Because at that time it wasn’t “cool” to know country and so I never learned any.  Dumb, huh?

Now, I am lucky enough (and old enough!) to have a large repertoire that includes many good starters. In a lounge setting or a warm-up for an after-dinner crowd I choose Mack the Knife because it’s a classic and, based on results, I do a good job of it. I also get to show off a decent piano solo and its important to get off on the right footing with yourself, too. The crowd picks up when a performer is in to what he or she is playing.

If I have a sports, or rowdier clientele, I may choose Hotel California at the first song because everyone likes the tune and I can introduce myself in the middle of the tune during the bridge.  For a dance crowd I may do a songs like Flip, Flop and Fly or Keep Your Hands to Yourself by the Georgia Satellites.

2. No Dead Air at First

The next trick I use is to follow up the first song quickly to avoid lags which may cause the audience to focus attention elsewhere. It also doesn’t give any would-be hecklers an opening to build an audience of their own! (although, these days, that isn’t even an issue)

My first sets are always an hour. To me, timing my sets was always low-brow. Part of my success has always been: give ‘em more. Of course my timelines have to coordinate with the person who is hiring me so none of this is written in stone.

3. Dress the Part

The way you dress is also of great importance. Being anti-establishment in a corporate gig is a sure-fire way to lose you audience and future engagements. You can be anyone you want to be on stage – but not if someone else is picking up the tab.

Remember my take on an old adage: First impressions will decide how the night will go.