Bedrocker

Today's mood...

One of my local favs...

Monostone has been giving some excellent advice and his insight and experiences mirror my own. My part-time band recorded six albums during its 20 year existence. Five of these made up entirely of original songs written by the band's members. They were all recorded, mixed and mastered in my home studio. The reasons we went this route are twofold. (1) Financial - although we all had "daytime jobs" we also had families to provide for, (2), our geographical location. Even if we'd been able to afford studio time it would have cost us a small fortune to take leave, drive 900 - 1 000 miles to recording facilities, pay for accommodation, catering and so on. Only one of the band, at that time, had ever had studio experience (as a guitarist and not as a sound engineer or producer). Just after releasing our first album of originals we had a lucky break when I took the album to a well known music journalist who liked it. At the time he had a weekly rock program on the country's largest commercial radio station and told our story and played a track of ours on his show. Our material was already on CD Baby (and the other usual sites). To cut a long story short, we received an increasing amount of air play, made a couple of local TV appearances and so on and so forth. Having said that, and in retrospect (with the benefit of experience), I think that our material suffered for not having had a professional, recognised, producer. In my view, as musicians and the writers of songs, we are too close to the work and this, undoubtedly, influences our objectivity. In the case of a producer, there is a distance that exists between him/her and the material - and, with it, greater objectivity. With each of our releases we (the band members) made predictions about the songs we believed had "hit" written all over them. I'm embarrassed to say that, other than one song (out of about 60!), we've been totally wrong and all our predictions have "bombed"! The audience out there have taken to tracks we've under-estimated, ignored or casually dismissed as having potential. I'm sure that, had we employed a producer, their sense of what would be well received by the public would have been far more accurate than our dismal powers of prediction! As a result, we would have been marketing the right stuff, as opposed to material we thought was good. (PS: I'm writing this from South Africa so my context/environment will be a little bit different to circumstances in the USA or Europe. This is why I haven't named publications, radio stations or personalities as they wouldn't mean anything to someone not familiar with the context in this part of the world. I returned to SA, from Namibia, nearly 3 years ago. The band and recordings I'm referring to were in Namibia.)

I'm of the view that everything has its place, depending on the circumstances. Obviously, none of us want to be bored to death by some artist rambling on about things that should be accessible to the listener through the song itself. Having said that, I have been to concerts where an explanation has resulted in my enjoying the song more. This is particularly true where I'm new to a particular artist and their material, or where lyrics have been deliberately obscured for a reason (to avoid political repression, banning etc). It is also applicable where a songwriter may use, for what is for him or her, local expressions or jargon, landmarks, events and public figures. It's a bit like when you're studying poetry. You can read it and interpret the contents for yourself, all of which make wonderful sense - until you read the study guide and find that, as much as you enjoyed it, your understanding of the content is far removed from what the marker would be looking for. So, yes, there is pleasure in reaching your own conclusion about songs and lyrics but you may not necessarily share the writer's interpretation or intention. Being in a band which does 50% original material at gigs, I avoid giving explanations if we're playing on our home turf. There's no need to say anything because everyone understands the context. If, however, we play away from home base, I would provide a preamble to songs, where necessary. We tend to play in front of multi-cultural/lingual audiences where we do not share common backgrounds, values or perspectives. One has to be especially careful with innuendo, irony and humour as, in trying to be innocently funny, it may, at the very least, not be appreciated and, at worst, cause insult. We spend a lot of time trying to understand our audiences in the hope that we end up making friends and not enemies! We've also realised, over the years, that things that are patently obvious to us, as songwriters, are sometimes not that obvious to listeners. Some years ago, when most people were on modem dial-ups to access the internet, we prefixed the recording of one of our songs with that sound. It was at the height of the Metallica spat with Sony over music copyright, file sharing and piracy. We made the mistake in thinking that, because we were interested in this topic and followed developments closely, everyone else did, too. Wrong!! In seeking to create a connection, at the beginning of the CD, in the listener's mind between listening to music and piracy all we did was provide people with a pretext for returning our albums saying there was "Something wrong with it"! It was surprising how many people never went beyond the dial-up sounds. Those who persevered and allowed the dial-up to run into the actual song actually "got it". We think, anyway. In order to get radio play, we edited out the dial-up sounds. (I know I could be accused of mixing up songwriting techniques with production but I'm using this example to illustrate a point about perspectives and mindsets). I guess the bottom line is not to be patronising and boring. If there's a good reason for believing that an explanation will enhance the listener's experience, so be it. As always, a sensible balance is required.

Thanks, Tom. Looking forward to making further clntributions!

Name's Pete from BEDROCK (The Band In The Sand). I'm a "veteran" part-time rocker who's been at it since the 70's. No great success to date but, hey, gigging and songwriting keeps me young! Have had my current band since 1994 - celebrating our 20th aniversary next year. My band mates and I are probably experts on running a band in an extremely isolated place, hundreds of kilometres away from venues, the media, music shops, the opportunity to hear other bands live and audiences. That's not to mention language, either - English is not, generally, the preferred language of the audiences we play to at "home base". We have met these challenges head-on as they are a fact of life. Thanks, however, to modern technology we've been able to grow our market and profile way beyond the confines of our desert oasis. Finding this site is another step along that path as it presents us with the opportunity to interact with folk with similar interests and passions. Please feel free to pay us a visit at our main website www.bedrockband.com You can also tweet/follow us on @BedrockBand We only record and release original music, composed by the band. Constructive critcism always welcome - we're just trying to get better! More than happy to share experiences, knowledge, advice, laughs and ideas. Pete PS: Any other Namibian bands or musos out there? Didn't think so!

1. Do you sing, play an instrument or instruments? Yes. What instruments? Bass, lead/rhythm and keyboards (if no alternative!). When did you start playing? 1974. Did you teach yourself? Mostly - bit of help here and there. 2. Are you in a band or bands? Yes. What is the name of the band? Bedrock (The Band In The Sand). What do you play? Lead. What other instruments are in the band? Bass, keyboards & drums. Do you have a band website? www.bedrockband.com 3. Do you write songs? Do you write lyrics, music or both? Yes. Do you have a writing partner? Sometimes - usually other members of the band. 4. Do you record your music? Yes. Do you use a home studio? If so what gear do you use? Home studio. Roland VS-1680. Do you use a recording studio? No. Do you have music available on the web? if so where? CDBaby, Jango and Soundcloud. 5. What other roles do you perform in the music business? None. Management? Label owner? Publishing? Promotion? Other? 6. Are you a tech head? No. 7. What country do you live in? Namibia (in the Namib desert, faraway from venues, audiences, markets, studios, radio & TV stations, technology support and what-have-you!). 8. What are your ambitions? To become a better songwriter. 9. Do you draw/paint/write stories/computer art/dance or other creative pursuit? Yes. What are your pastimes? Have always done quite a lot of writing, usually satirical. 10. What would you like to get out of Songstuff? To share - learn from others and to share my own knowledge about bands, songwriting, gigging, etc.