John Doe is the founder of the seminal Los Angeles punk group X, a solo artist and actor. John answers questions from our community members in the WWJDD? blog. Photo by Autumn de Wilde.

A question from Sophia in Los Angeles

Dear John Doe,

My name is Sophia and I am 13 and looking forward to coming to your show at McCabes on the 11th. I’m from Montana but now we live here in Los Angeles. I play guitar, sing, and write songs.  I listen to all kinds of music but I love old country like Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, and John Prine. Keeping that in mind, Do you know of any other artists that you could recommend?   

P.S will you please play take #52 at your show?

Thanks so much!
-Sophia

What Would John Doe Do?

hey Sophia,
  sorry didn't get yr note about Take #52 before the show but next time I'll do it. Yr definitely on the right track to get all the c & w greats.  How about Jeannie Sealy, Wanda Jackson, Lefty Frizzel, Sammi Smith, Roger Miller, Earnest Tubb, Donna Fargo, Lynn Anderson (great songwriter as well), Delmore Brothers, Emmett Miller & Bob Wills? to name a few. If you have a chance to see Merle Haggard live, DO IT ! He's one of my favorites & probably the greatest of the greats who's still performing.
best of luck & thanks for writing,
Jd  

If you have questions for John Doe about music, the music business or life feel free to email them to wwjdd@knowthemusicbiz.com.

For more information on John Doe check out theejohndoe.com or YepRoc.com .

Have you ever found a band (or several) you were convinced would become a success or even be destined to become one of the most popular band on the planet if only other music fans knew they existed? Isn’t it always completely baffling when a band you love doesn’t catch on despite their outstanding talent, songwriting and live shows?

This happened to me many times during my tenure at Yep Roc Records while working with such a great artist roster. In 2004 we had a new release from a band called The Comas I was convinced would be one of the best selling indie rock releases of the year. The Comas are a very talented band and Conductor , based on singer Andy’s Herrod’s breakup with Dawson’s Creek star Michelle Williams , was a great release. Additionally, director Brent Bonacorso created an amazing full length video based on the album that was included as a DVD in the CD’s packaging.

I thought once we executed the publicity plan, music fans of the world would have a new favorite band and Conductor would be sitting at the top of the indie charts.

The label committed fully to this release with new media, publicity, radio promotions, and retail marketing to build awareness; plus, provided a tour support budget to get the band on the road. The band and release were embraced by the media, a few of the successes included:

• An 8 (out of 10) rating from indie tastemaker Pitchfork Media

• Named to Rolling Stone Magazine’s “Top 10 Bands You Haven’t Heard of"

• Magnet Magazine’s # 3 record of the year

• Multiple songs added into the rotation at KEXP plus a featured interview and in studio performance

• Yahoo Music “One to Watch” selection that included an in studio performance and interview plus a full day feature on theYahoo.com homepage

Conductor sold just over 5000 total units despite strong media coverage and all the other things the band and release had going for them. At 5000 units the record was unprofitable for both the label and the band. The Comas moved to Vagrant Records for their next release in hopes of finding greater success. Unfortunately their 2007 release Spells sold even fewer units than Conductor.

How could a great band with a great release and full backing from their label and distributor not be more successful? Unfortuately, for some reason many bands simply don’t catch on with music fans or become a commercial success.

I have come to the realization over the years that there is some type of unseen “X” factor at work for bands that become successful. Some bands hit, some bands don’t and it’s not always clear why. Ask any experienced musician or industry professional and they will most likely tell you the same thing. I’ve taken to calling this “X” factor magic pixie dust since it’s not easily defined and quite elusive. Magic pixie dust isn’t available from a different publicist or found at the newest online music website to be sure.

How do you go about finding this magic pixie dust? No one knows for sure, but I’m of the opinion that it has to find you. The only way to put yourself in a position to be found is to work hard at your craft, play as many live shows as possible, build up your fan base and simply persevere through all the challenges you face every day as an artist pursuing your passion. You never know when a little magic pixie dust might come your way.

Channeling Fleetwood Mac’s musical stylings with a hint of late-era Beatles, Family of the Year braid catchy melodies, stellar male/female vocals and personal folk tales to create some of the happiest and saddest music you’ve ever heard.  The band’s classic musical style has been integrated with a modern fanbase that the band continues to create and release new music for.  Be sure to check them out on Twitter and Facebook!

We're back from South by Southwest. It was so much more than we expected, and seriously the most fun we've ever had as a band. Despite all the complimentary libations, we're going to do our best at recapping our experience. Because and away we go....

Like we said in our last blog, we toured up and down and all around the country before finally making it to Austin. We played shows in Cleveland, Chicago, Toronto, Columbus, Milwaukee... While in Cleveland, we made friends with the staff at The Beachland Ballroom, the venue we played at that night. We stayed after hours and danced to Brendan Benson, Blur, and Abba, thanks to David, the best bartender slash DJ ever to walk the streets of Cleveland. When we got back to our hotel, something happened where Joe and Seb got in a huge brawl. Over what? We have no idea. Joe and Seb were covered in mud and we woke up with various combinations of the following: sore muscles, sprained fingers, chunks of hair missing from our heads, and cracked ribs. Then we ate Denny's for breakfast and were on our way.

While on the road, we were simultaneously trying to work on a separate project that we had started before we left. We had a friend ship out our computer with all our pre-recorded files on it, and we posted up in a hotel room in the boonies of some really cold town to meet our deadline. The band stayed up all night while Meredith and Joe finished vocals, and Jamesy spent his birthday mixing. We sent the project via really slow wifi just as it was due, which meant overstaying our welcome at said inn and lots of calls from the front desk saying we needed to get the hell out of there. Eventually we did.

With a couple days before SXSW, we stopped at a motel just outside of Little Rock, AR, where we planned a budget birthday bash for Jamesy. Pizza and drinking games at a cheap motel! As if we hadn't learned our lesson already, many towns in the middle of the country are not like LA. There's no late night delivery, chinese food, pizza... nothing. So we skipped dinner and got sloshed. We played King's Cup, which we are now currently obsessed with. You should see how fast we can plow through a 30-pack. That night ended in a pillow fight.

3/16/10

On our last leg of driving, we were really pumped that we were finally going to be pulling into Austin. The project we were working on was done, and we couldn't wait for whatever shenanigans the next four days had in store for us.

Just as we see Austin's downtown city lights in the distance, Seb got a call from our lawyer who had Steven Tyler on the phone for Joe. We're not kidding. He had just listened to our music and was so stoked on it that he had to talk to Joe, and said we sound like "The Mamas and the Papas on acid." If that's not a good start to SX, what is?

We arrived at our destination around 9pm, quickly got ready and met up with our manager Emily White and some friends downtown. We stopped by a couple venues, saw a few bands, met our UK booking agent Rob Challice and his boss Paul for the first time and Bon Iver's young and beautiful manager. We missed our friends Classixx play but hung out with them anyway because we like them. They gave us free beer and vodka. That's what friends are for, right?

3/17/10

Seb and Emily woke up early to have breakfast with a French lady with beautiful hands and a treacherously thick accent.  The rest of us stopped by the convention center to wait in an embarrassingly long line for some purple hologram wristbands and free backpacks, then bee-lined it to the nearest BBQ stand for pulled pork burritos. Meredith and Seb went back to the convention center for a podcast interview for LikeZEBRA and free beer, while the rest of us were sloths at the hotel until we could pull it together.

We all met up at the Virgin Free House via serious wristband transferring skills, where we polished off a number of free vodka drinks and Seb fell in love with three different girls. We wished our booking agent Steve Ferguson a happy birthday, and then headed over to Stubb's to watch Spoon. Our friend Sean was denied entrance because the door guy said he looked like a terrorist, and our lawyer Heidy ripped him a new one. Once we were in, Farley made his way through the crowd to the very front, only to realize he doesn't like Spoon. We hailed some cabs, and just as we got one, Farley disappeared into a bush. Meredith and our documentarian Chris went home in the first cab, where she was hit on by the driver and acquired his number. Farley, Joe, and Christina spent the next hour trying to hail another one. Jamesy and Seb were nowhere to be found, and we later found out Steve spotted Seb stumbling down the streets of Austin alone, heading back to the place we had stayed the night before, where he and James spent the night spooning our management and attorney.

3/18/10

We started our morning very hungover by drinking beer in the van and playing a day show at Cafe Mundi with our friend Sydney Wayser. We left shortly after to stop by the SPIN Artist Loft. But remember that project I mentioned earlier? The one we had to complete on deadline? Well, turns out there were some problems with the files, so Jamesy spent his afternoon fixing the project and FedExing packages while the rest of us chowed on Wahoo's tacos, downed vodka lemonades, played ping pong and got free stuff. Jamesy, we owe you! 

We then booked it down to a wine bar to play an acoustic show that was streamed live on Viewtopia. Saw our friends The Chapin Sisters, and then hauled ass somewhere else. Probably had too much wine by that time.

Later that night we stopped by Beauty Bar where Joe and Christina fell in love with various members of Moonrats, then went to Stubb’s for Band of Horses and Broken Social Scene. Not many details because we don’t really remember them. 

3/19/10

Seb, Meredith, Farley and Chris woke up early for the BMI brunch, then watched Emily speak on a panel about building a high value fan list. We stopped by the Fader Fort where we usurped some free Levi's and Lady Gaga t-shirts. We then went Maggie Mae's to play the Sonicbids party. Still thirsty and hungover, we drank water that tasted like beer and then booked it to The Ale House for our Coda Showcase. We killed it, if we do say so ourselves. Meredith and Christina charmed the pants off the British industry (not literally, we don't think), drank many more drinks, and then ran over to various venues to catch our friends and fellow Whitesmith family members (the funny ones) Margaret Cho and Kevin Avery tickle some funny bones. At this point most of us were seeing double. We went back to the Ale House to load out and watch some friends play, where Christina kissed a married man.

The next morning we booked it back to LA with eight people in the van and no hotel breaks so we could make it in time for our show with Gomez at the El Rey Theatre. We ran out of gas and hung out at an abandoned gas station in the middle of Texas for two and a half hours, and called a sketchy number where a man with a thick Texan accent said he'd bring us five gallons for fuel for $125. Eventually we made it home, showered, and played a great show.  It was Christina's birthday and she acquired a number of shots, so she left all her birthday gifts at the venue. Real smart, Schrodes.

Rick Goetz is a Musician Coach and Music Consultant by way of a fifteen year career as a Major label A&R executive at Atlantic and Elektra Records a musician and a music supervisor. Throughout his career he has played bass for members of the Cult and Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings and on the industry side has worked with artists like Kid Rock, Matchbox 20, Sugar Ray and Damage Plan. His current client list ranges from Grammy award winners to people just looking to get their foot in the door. You can check out Rick at www.MusicianCoaching.com or twitter.com/musiccoaching.

Ever gone ego surfing?  If not, it’s time to start.  Sure it may seem self centered and masturbatory but probably not less than anything else about the quest to make sounds for a living.  If you haven’t tried it – it’s simple.  Enter your name or your band name into Google and see what comes back.

Why Google?  Well according to the February Search results posted by Silicone Alley Insider In February of 2010 Google domestic core search volume was 65.5% vs. 16.8% for Yahoo and %11.5 for Bing.   Google is the 800 lbs. Gorilla.  The reason want control over where you come up in search Engine results?  According to a recent study by icrossing - roughly 95% of all clicks for what people are searching for come from the top page of results across the big three search engines.  I’m going to guess you are coming along with me on this ride and see where this is going – you have to be able to be found when someone is looking for you and preferably they should find you through a destination page that you have 100% control over.

A word about websites in general – if you don’t have one – get one.  MySpace and ReverbNation are fantastic tools but they are only tools at the end of the day.  For perception alone it is required that you have a website – it makes you appear considerably less fly-by-night than the bands who only use social network profiles.  It sends the not so subtle message that yes – I make music for a living and yes- I am serious about my job.   A website does not need to be complicated and does not need not be expensive to do what it is supposed to do.  A website is to get people looking for you to be able to find you and to listen to your music and your message when they arrive there – that’s it.

I often hear that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can’t be done for art or for music.  There is some truth to this in that unless you are making music for a certain purpose like “Music for Meditation” or “Music for Halloween” it is very hard to determine exactly what keywords (words people enter into a search engine) would lead people who are fans of what you do to your homepage.  On the other hand, a well-optimized site can ensure that your most important keywords (your band name, the name of your last album, the name of your single / song in a recent TV commercial) can be found.  It is best to have your site set up to be found just in case your promotion and marketing activities get you some placement where people would know your song but not your band name (TV placement, radio play, opening slot on a tour – whatever it happens to be).

Here are some very basic things to consider about SEO.

1)    Your band name.  If you have a simple ordinary one-word band name that is a commonly used word – you might be in trouble.  The more people who search for that word – the harder it is for you to manipulate the search engine algorithm to ensure you come up in the top positions on a search Engine Results Page.  In this instance an Artist like DeadMau5  or Deadmaus would do really well  because of the deliberate misspelling and a band like Stand for Dublin are going to have trouble coming up for a search for their name alone.  If you are just starting out and haven’t really branded yourself yet take a moment to consider whether or not people will find you based on your name.  If you don’t know how often people are looking for a given word or phrase give the Google Adwords Keyword Tool a try.

2)    Your Website Text.  Search Engines read a webpage from top to bottom, left to right.  This is why owning the domain name that is your band or performing name is very important.- so important that people will pay lots of money for domains that get lots of traffic.  Owning the domain name with your biggest keywords (usually band name) is the biggest single advantage you can have in showing up first in results.  Also along those lines dot COMs seem to rank better than dot NETS and any other suffix for your desired keywords (by way of example – radiohead.com) except for dot EDUs which are not available to the general public.  It is also important that your home page have real text on it rather than flash or a photo.  I can’t tell you how many people ask me why they aren’t coming up in results only to look at their website and see that the “text” on their homepage is actually part of an image file and therefore not helping your case with search.

3)    Tags.  Header tags, Meta tags and title tags.  Learn what these are and make sure your web designer has these filled with keyword heavy descriptions including the band name – i.e. “The Righteous Dudes – polka music from Plymouth”

4)    Breadcrumbs.    Also called external links.  The more sites that link back to yours the more search engines think your website is worth.  The caliber and quality of these sites that link to yours are also important because people who overdue the gaming of their external links tend to wind up on sites called link farms that can actually negatively impact your SEO.  All that said make sure that all of your social network profiles – Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, ReverbNation, Linkedin etc point back to your site.  Search Engines also value sites that link to themselves even if it is just from one page of your site to another.

5)    Anchor Text.  The words that are highlighted on what is usually a blue underlined link to another page are called Anchor text.  What those words are can help determine how well you show up in results for those words.  You never want to highlight the word or words “here” or “click here” when you have the option to use anchor text.  Use your band name or whatever keywords you think will help potential fans arrive at your site.  I run a site called musiciancoaching.com but lately I have been trying to boost my search results for the words Music Consultant.  ß--- That should help.

6)    Frequency and Consistency.  Do you know why the most boring businesses out there blog about their products?  I assure you it is not because they enjoy it but rather because search engines favor sites that are regularly updated with new content.  As an artist you should make sure that your shows, new albums, press releases etc are online regularly anyway and if you use rich media (photos, mp3s, videos etc) make sure that all of the files are tagged with the words you want people to find you with…

There is much,  much more to ranking in search engines but if you weren’t at all familiar I hope that was a bit of help to you.  If you set up your website correctly to begin with you won’t have to scramble to make sure that people can find you when your promotion efforts begin to bear fruit or when people have heard about your band and just want to see what you are all about by entering your name into their favorite search engine.  Specifically try making Amazon album lists including yours, iTunes iMixes and post on the message boards and blogs of artists who have fans that you think will like you.  If you do it in a non spammy way and you have a good product these things will help you tremendously.  As always though a good product is always worth more than good product development.

Daniel Kohn has been working, touring, managing, promoting, living and blogging in the music business for over 15 years. His blog is read by thousands each week http://askkohnny.com.

Last week I was out at a bar watching a band play and I happened to notice something they did which was extremely subtle yet at the same time proved to be very successful at helping them sell more merchandise at the end of their show.

My guess is that they sold well over $500 worth of merch after their show all because of this one little strategy.

Basically what they did was right before their last song, the lead singer got on the mic and thanked everyone for coming down to watch them play. He then continued by saying –

“After our set, were going to be hanging out by the merch table so come and say hi!”

That was it. Nothing more nothing less. He wasn’t selling, pitching or promoting anything specifically that they actually had at their merchandise table, rather he was just informing everyone, in a very informal way that he’ll be hanging out over there.

Following that, the band continued to play their final song and right at the very end, once again he said into the mic –

“Thanks again for coming, were xxxx. We’ll be at the merch table so come and say hi!”

What transpired after that was nothing short of amazing. The lead singer walked off the stage, B lined for the merch table, didn’t stop for anyone and before I knew it, half the room flocked over to their merchandise stall and crowded around him and the guitarist wanting to say hi.

It was incredible.

As I stood and watched all these people go over and say hi, it occurred to me how clever and undercover that idea really was.

Let’s face it, no artist likes selling their T-shirts or latest release and if they don’t mind pitching their stuff, they are usually not very good at it anyway. But this particular band figured out how to get people to their merchandise table without even mentioning that they have merchandise! There was no mention of anything other than a warm gesture to say hi.

What happened over the next twenty minutes is that as people spoke and hung out, the natural progression was to buy something and boy, did they start buying.

As time went on, the merch table became a hangout area at the venue and as more people hung around there, other people wanted to see what the commotion was about, so there was this constant gathering around this bands merchandise and for every couple onlookers, there were a few that would pull their wallets out and buy something. Some would also ask for their album or t-shirt to be signed etc.

I guess the reason why this strategy worked so well for these guys is that they were so casual and natural about it all. They never gave the impression that they were only there to sell merchandise. Rather, they made a genuine effort to connect with their fans and audience, which at the end of the day is what fans really want, a genuine connection.

Give them that and they’ll give you their wallet!

Sounds a little sick and twisted, but it’s the truth.

Martin Atkins has a 30 year career in the music business that includes touring with the bands Public Image Limited, Killing Joke, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails and Pigface, owning an independent record label celebrating its 20th anniversary with over 350 releases, and is an instructor at Columbia College Chicago teaching The Business of Touring, Applied Marketing, and Indie Label Management. He is also the author of the book Tour:Smart. Be sure to catch Martin’s presentation at this year’s SXSW Music Festival on Thursday, March 18th at 12:30 pm at the Austin Convention Center.

I’ve spoken and blogged a lot about what events like the South by Southwest Music Festival are and what opportunities really exist there. It basically comes down to one thing: NETWORKING your ass off and connecting with people that otherwise would cost you a fortune to hook up with. If you are in Florida and have aspirations to succeed on the west coast, then how valuable is each single contact you can make with anyone from that part of the country? It’s MASSIVE. It might mean a place to stay, a connection to someone who can really help, or maybe just an email from someone you met that says, “Watch out! I saw you are playing at XXXXXXXXXX club. They have been having some problems with their PA.” Forearmed is forewarned. So, if you are in a band that’s trying to expand, you had better be looking at 18+ hour days, RABID networking, and anything you can do to increase your mailing list from 27 people in Tampa to 27 people in Tampa, 14 people in Jacksonville, 31 in Orlando, etc.

Divide and conquer

Get a band mindset on this. You know how it works when you all start drinking – it spirals right? Well, get all of that (or some of it) out of your systems before arriving in Austin then spend some time planning and reinforcing what each of you will do at SXSW. If there are four of you, then what happens if you split up? Twice the networking!

How to distribute your message

Right now is a great time to be thinking about how to get your message out there. Which media best carries your message and communicates your vibe? Drop cards? Discs? Flash drives? Now that I come to think about it how about first thinking about something that communicates more effectively than, “Hang on… Do you have a pen? Excuse me, do you have a piece of paper I can write illegibly on then give to this guy who could be instrumental in my career but I’m blowing it right now? So, I should really be asking you for a card pre-printed with the words ‘Lame- ass Loser’ across the top. Hello, hello…?”

Think about what it is you are going to say to someone when you are handing them your media, flyer for your show, or your business card. If, when you hand over a disc, you preface it by saying, “we just hired a new bass player so this is crap.” – STOP. Get in the studio and get real. Wait until next year to go SXSW! Time is what I don’t have so I certainly don’t have time to listen to your CD, then listen to it again with the new bass player.

Mastering!

If you’ve gone through the process of writing and recording songs, and having a hard think about which media to put them on for SXSW, for fuck’s sake at least have them mastered. If someone has actually decided to listen to your music, don’t make it horrible for them.

Business cards

You must, must, must have business cards with you at all times! Pay attention to quantity. Think about who you are and what you are doing.

At some of my events there are 150 – 200 people in a lecture hall. I put out a pile of cards on the table and encourage everyone to take one (along with a warning not to call me on my cell phone!) Ordering 10,000 or more at a time works for me. You might only need 100.

Do something!Be noticed!

A Tour:Smart seminar attendee at Drum Tech in the UK heard my diatribe about time (the lack of it) and offered to pay for a massage for me while I listened to her classical CD. It was a great offer and demonstrated outside of the box thinking for sure. I had a long drive and didn’t have the time to take her up on the offer but I was so impressed I listened to the disc on my drive and made notes. Then, when I got back to the studio, I actually did a few edits on a couple of tracks to show her what I was thinking! Think about what everyone else at SXSW is trying to do. Everyone there is networking their asses off. What makes your band different from any of the other 2,500 other bands (and the answer better not be “the bass line on track three is killer” because, first if it is killer it should be track one, and second no one is going to listen to your music at SXSW). Do something that will make you stand out in the moment. Offer massages, shoe shines, anything!! Just do something different. If you can’t change yourself, change the background.

Thursday, March 18: Welcome to the Music Business -You're Fucked!

12.30 PM - 1.30 PM @ Austin Convention Center

Been fucked by the music business?  Share your stories with us and win a free shirt!  Click to enter .

Thursday, March 18: Book Signing 3.15 PM - 3.45 PM @ Austin Convention Center

All week long:  Tour:Smart SXSW Headquarters Dandyland Tattoo (513 E. 6th St., Austin, TX  78701),

That’s a lot to digest...but no fear.  We’ve come up with a package that does it all.  Breaking the Band - $1399 for four songs, 120 CDs, 40 T-shirts, and brainstorming session with me.  More info: www.mattressfactorychicago.com

Channeling Fleetwood Mac’s musical stylings with a hint of late-era Beatles, Family of the Year braid catchy melodies, stellar male/female vocals and personal folk tales to create some of the happiest and saddest music you’ve ever heard.  The band’s classic musical style has been integrated with a modern fanbase that the band continues to create and release new music for.  Be sure to check out the band on Twitter and Facebook!

3/5/10

Hi, we're Christina and Sebastian and we're in Family of the Year. Seb's been a musician forever and done this whole SXSW thing before, and Christina is sans SXSW experience. We're not fortune-telling gypsies or anything, but here's what we have to say about our forthcoming SXSW experiences and expectations and what have you.

Over the last couple months, we've been touring on and off. We've driven back and forth, east and west, left and right all over this land of stars and stripes, jumping on mini-tours where ever we could. We picked up a few shows here, some over there, left our gear on the east coast, flew back west and bought some temporary gear, played a few shows with it, sneakily returned it sans restocking fee, and then jetted back to the east coast for some more shows. Aaaaand then drove back to LA.

And now we're on tour again, and so far our experience getting to SXSW this year is not so different from our last tour. We just drove 17 or so hours to Denver for a show in our brand new blue beauty, Buttercup, a 15-passenger van from 1998 who very comfortably accommodates the six of us. We pimped her out with a Super Nintendo, and you better believe Mario Kart is way more difficult when you're in a real moving vehicle. Right now we're en route to Mt. Rushmore since we have a couple days off and we're jonesing for anything that isn't a rest stop. Then we're jumping the fence to Toronto for a day, and then finally heading down to Austin for a couple days of parties and trying to impress people. What do you mean Toronto's not on the way to Austin?

Oh, and about two minutes ago when we wrote that we were going to Mt. Rushmore, it started kind of aggressively snowing, so we've officially turned around and we're not sure what we're doing right now. I guess just bee-lining it to Minneapolis for our next show. But like we said, we like to drive one way only to drive back, and then forth.

3/8/10

It is currently a different day now, and we sure didn't make it to Mt. Rushmore. We're on our way to Milwaukee for a show at a place called The Irish Pub. We're late and we haven't showered. Hopefully everyone's so dosed up on PBR and Miller High Life that we'll get away with it.

Anyway, last time we were in Austin, Seb said the next time we'd be there the streets would be crammed with tour vans and trailers and -- most importantly -- babes.

We're playing at Cafe Mundi on 3/18, a day party presented by TJO Presents and our lovely management team, Whitesmith Entertainment. After that, we're doing a live stream interview and performance for Viewtopia and Whole Foods Market. On 3/19, our manager Emily White is speaking on a panel about the importance of email lists. Trust us, she is passionate about email lists. Then we're playing the Sonicbids party as well as a showcase for our wonderful across-the-sea booking team, The Coda Agency.  And we might be doing some in-studio session things in between all this madness while we're in town.

All that already sounds like we're not going to have time for anything else, but we're pretty sure we'll make time for parties and free swag and excessive amounts of free SoCo and lime shots (which got Seb and Farley kicked out of the bar last time they were at SXSW) and juicy pulled pork and texas BBQ in general, and whatever else all those SXSW email invites said. One said haircuts and massages, both of which we could all totally use at this very moment.

THEN there's trying to see the bands we wanna see. We'd love to watch our good friends Classixx DJ at Malverde at midnight on Friday 3/20. They just finished a remix of our song Psyche or Like Scope, which was on our last album Songbook, and it is aaaawwweeeeesome. We'd also love to check out Fanfarlo who are playing the Coda showcase with us. And we want to support all our friends like The Growlers, Local Natives, Delta Spirit, Moonrats, Junius, Frank Smith, Invade Rome, Sydney Wayser, Kevin Avery (hiiilaaarious comedian friend of ours who may or may not be a gangster)... and we'd love to see Evan Dando and Thurston Moore and (do you want us to keep going?)... And then there's checking out all the new acts we haven't seen yet. What's a band to do?

One thing we are not looking forward to is parking sweet little Buttercup on those crowded babe-filled streets (at least we look at the bright side?).  So far we've had good parking luck, but we may have just jinxed that one. Great. Knock on wood?

As far as industry-type expectations go, we're not expecting our lives to change dramatically overnight.  We're just going to SXSW to have some fun, charm some pants off, make friends, play shows, shmooze a little, and get as many people as we can to hear our music. Our biggest challenge will be maintaining some sort of mental/social equilibrium/dignity between the time we wake up and the time we play a show. With six of us, it's gonna be tough with all this free booze all up in our grills, and speaking of grills, we are SO stoked for Stubb's. And a shameful morning of wearing our sunglasses inside for mimosas and brunch at The Magnolia Cafe. So good.

Hi there. My name is David and I'm in an Irish band heading to SXSW for the first time called, STRAIT LACES. I'll be blogging about our SXSW experience for KnowTheMusicBiz.com. If you’re interested in what we have to say and want a taste of what Strait Laces is all about then you can check us out at straitlaces.com. Enjoy.


So ahhh, it's Monday 8th March, and I've woke up with a
schedule of things I have to be getting on with in preparation for next week at
SXSW, everything from getting paperwork ready for our last Visa interview
tomorrow, buying batteries for my pedals, strings for my guitar and telling all
you lovely readers how it's all coming together through this blog.

We leave next Monday morning, early, and fly Belfast - London - Chicago - Austin.
This will be our first time heading to SXSW so once we land in Austin I
literally don't have a clue where the venues are, where we are staying (we do
have accommodation lined up, don't worry I’ll not be on the streets :) ) and
generally what to expect from being an artist at the festival. Having said this
I would be curled up in a ball, crying on the floor right now if it hadn't have
been for our management, Jen @ Bruised Fruit Management, she’s  been taking the bull by the horns the past couple of months with setting out plans of how we were going to make the most of this opportunity! Since finding out the good news that we were going, it didn't take me long to realise that SXSW is a festival full of opportunity. We are not going there with a smug look on our faces thinking that everything will be set
up for us, we are there to have a good time, party when we can but ultimately we
are there to work!

One thing that is set in stone for us in Austin is that we
have lined up 9 gigs during the 5 days of the festival. We have been on tour
before and have played gigs night after night but never for example, 3 in the
one day (March 20th) Being the singer I am a bit apprehensive about
this. I can’t wait to play every single show, but I guess one that will
hopefully stand out will be the “Belfast Rocks Showcase @ Latitude 30 // ONSTAGE
12.30 pm” I believe this is the first UK showcase of the festival in the
British embassy hired venue, we are the first UK band to showcase there this
year! Awesome!

We recently wrote a song based around a chain of events that
happened in War World 1. The song is in two parts and is called “Kids like John
Need A Hero (The Glorious Dead)” It’s recently been recorded but as of yet,
unreleased. On this song we got a local Irish rapper called Slaine Brown to
guest some vocals. Unfortunately Slaine will not be at SXSW so we found this
guy, Homeboy Sandman : http://www.homeboysandman.com/ Homeboy is currently
putting his own lyrics to the tune. The reason I’m explaining all this is
because at the “Belfast Rocks Showcase” we are collaborating with Homeboy
Sandman and he is going to perform the song with us (practiced or not...uhh ohh)
It will be the first song we are playing in the set so...

...now, for the shameless plug, if you want to check it out “STRAIT
LACES @ Belfast Rocks Showcase @ Latitude 30 // ONSTAGE 12.30 pm” there will
cds with the song available and a free customized “Kids like John Need A Hero”
army shirt!!!!

Our main aims at the festival this year would be, 1. Have as
many people watch us play as possible, 2. Give out as many cds as we can possibly
manage 3. To play with Homeboy Sandman and not fuck it up!  Well the last isn’t going to happen but we are going to push as hard as we can to make the first two.  We are all too aware of how difficult it is to get noticed at SXSW each year, we are not going over there with the main aim to get signed, we know what kind of people we want to meet and chat with and what would help us more with our next few releases. Let’s be honest, in an ideal world, you don’t want to be booking d.i.y tours your whole life, so if we
got a few booking agents heads to turn slightly towards Strait Laces and get
into our music, then I think that would be cool.

So that’s it for now and until I get back, I take great
pleasure in the fact that we are a band going there with nothing to lose. We
are a band that has got new songs recorded with something to say, if nothing
happens at SXSW 2010 this year then it won’t be the end of things for us, if
anything it should encourage us even more to better ourselves for the years
ahead!

Strait Laces 2010 SXSW Schedule

SXSW WARM UP PARTY @ BULL McCABES Austin, Texas

MUSIC TECH MASHUP @ RUSTY SPURS SALOON // ONSTAGE 4PM Austin, Texas

BELFAST ROCKS SHOWCASE @ LATUTIDE 30 // ONSTAGE 12.30PM Austin, Texas

MUSIC GORILLA SHOWCASE @ TREASURE ISLAND // ONSTAGE 3PM Austin, Texas

MUSIC FROM IRELAND BREAKFAST PARTY @ BD REILLYS // ONSTAGE 2.30PM Austin, Texas

OFFICIAL SXSW SHOWCASE @ WAVE // ONSTAGE 8PM Austin, Texas

SXSW PARTY @ BLU LOUNGE // ONSTAGE 12AM Austin, Texas

IRISH PARTY @ FADO // ONSTAGE 1PM Austin, Texas

PARTY @ LOVEYS LOOT // ONSTAGE 7PM Austin, Texas

Alex Maiolo has worked with The Future of Music Coalition for almost nine years, primarily focusing on the health insurance crisis as it relates to the working musician. In addition, Alex plays in various bands, including the PsychPop outfit Violet Vector & The Lovely Lovelies and Ambient/Slo-Core staple Hi Fi Sky . He is a partner with an insurance agency in the Carrboro/Chapel Hill area of North Carolina. Insurance as it relates to the artist, studio owner and musician is all part of a typical day's tasks.

You don’t have to be a news junkie to know that the health care debate has been heating up in recent months. With all of this back-and-forth, it’s easy to forget that this is about getting more people covered. And musicians are one portion of the American public that could definitely use some help.

My name is Alex Maiolo, and I’m the project manager for Future of Music Coalition’s Health Insurance Navigation Tool (or HINT, for short). I’m also a musician. Like everyone at FMC, I’ve seen too many of my peers have to deal with unforeseen health calamities without the benefit of insurance.

I’m no fan of the big health insurance companies. I own my own business that’s based in other kinds of insurance, but I know a lot about the health business. And I can tell you point blank that my sympathies lie with the uninsured — especially my fellow musicians.

In 2002, Future of Music Coalition issued a report that found that 44 percent of working musicians lacked health insurance coverage. One of the main reasons, besides cost, was that many artists thought it was something they could just get to later. But as anyone who has ever played a benefit show for an ailing musician knows, “later” is often too late.

With the debate about health care raging on, we figured it would be a great time to re-launch the survey for 2010 to see if artists have made any headway in terms of insurance coverage. With a down economy and the music business in a state of seemingly permanent flux, we’re thinking things might look pretty grim. Still, getting updated numbers really helps us make our case that something needs to be done.

Of course, we haven’t been twiddling our thumbs waiting for someone to come along and magically fix things.

Our studies have shown that a lot of musicians think that health insurance is unnecessarily complex. We at Future of Music Coalition know that we probably cant do much about the costs of coverage. What we can do, however, is demystify the process and help musicians understand their options. This is exactly why we created the HINT program in 2005. HINT doesn’t sell insurance; we don’t even recommend specific plans. What we do have is a website with tons of musician-friendly information. And artists can sign up online to get a FREE phone consultation from a HINT representative (also a musician) to go over their options on a case-by-case, state-by-state basis. We’ll even call you on our dime.

 If you’re a musician, I want to encourage you to take a few minutes (literally, like 10) to fill out our online survey . It’s completely anonymous and confidential. And it’s incredibly important.

 I’ll also be at South By Southwest (SXSW) in Austin Texas on Thursday, March 18 for a special Mentor Session on musicians and health insurance . It’s a great way to learn about our HINT program and schedule an appointment for a more in-depth phone consultation. Hope to see some of you there!

Martin Atkins has a 30 year career in the music business that includes touring with the bands Public Image Limited, Killing Joke, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails and Pigface, owning an independent record label celebrating its 20th anniversary with over 350 releases, and is an instructor at Columbia College Chicago teaching The Business of Touring, Applied Marketing, and Indie Label Management. He is also the author of the book Tour:Smart. Be sure to catch Martin’s presentation at this year’s SXSW Music Festival on Thursday, March 18th at 12:30 pm at the Austin Convention Center.

I’d be happy to describe this as cutting edge Music Business 2.0 philosophy.... except for my quote (and inspiration for this blog) is from Flaubert written in the 18 fucking hundreds or so....   Incrementalism is so easy.  You have no excuse. 

INSTEAD of following the old model - constipating your creative self trying to create that classic album - STOP!  Make a few good songs, record them, release then in whatever format you want (I’d suggest physical as well as digital) then, use your audience and their reactions to guide you towards the next three songs. Even if you don't consciously do this, you will have a natural aversion to playing songs for people in the same style as ones that have previously caused a mass walk out, things being thrown at you, booing, lack of blowjobs, etc. I watched an interview with Groucho Marx recently.  He said that at the height of their Vaudeville careers they were performing four times a day and the audience was basically writing their material.  Anything that was funny stayed in the set and was polished, anything that wasn't, didn't.

Using this shampoo method (wash, rinse, repeat, repeat, repeat) you'll quickly have a second EP, more t-shirts and you will be monetizing your efforts whilst conducting market research and increasing your fan base. WOW.  After a year of this (or so) you'll be able to choose the best songs (or let your fans) from all of the releases, tweak them a little or even re-work and re-tool them if your focus or your line-up has changed, and then, release a much better album. Then it’s not really an album. It’s an easier to carry, “best of” from your first four EPs.  You're not releasing AN ALBUM, you are simply providing a service to all of your fans who are tired of keeping track of all of your releases.

You slowly, incrementally, build your Great Wall of China, you aim low but get high (kick in reverb FX and xylophone) you continue, you struggle, you move ever onwards and upwards and achieve whatever level of success that you want to. Unless of course, you don't listen, are an asshole, smell bad, have shitty songs, poor stage presence, overly loud equipment and not enough juice for the fog machine.

“Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.” – Gustave Flaubert

In this age of instant communications, global everything and constant change, who are we to argue with some nut using a quill pen and covered in body lice?? (That’s Flaubert not me)

I'll be at SXSW for a week, come and get some free advice from me. 

Tuesday, March 16 - 5:00 - 8:00 pm:

Momo's (West 6th St & Rio Grande) FREE and open to the public. 

RSVP: www.austinmusicfoundation.org

Thursday, March 18: Welcome to the Music Business -You're Fucked!

12.30 PM - 1.30 PM @ Austin Convention Center

Been fucked by the music business?  Share your stories with us and win a free shirt!  Click to enter .

Thursday, March 18: Book Signing 3.15 PM - 3.45 PM @ Austin Convention Center

All week long:  Tour:Smart SXSW Headquarters Dandyland Tattoo (513 E. 6th St., Austin, TX  78701),

That’s a lot to digest...but no fear.  We’ve come up with a package that does it all.  Breaking the Band - $1399 for four songs, 120 CDs, 40 T-shirts, and brainstorming session with me.  More info: www.mattressfactorychicago.com

More tour dates