Hello... Hello Again!

[Pleasantly Disturbed]

Hello everybody! So I joined these forums a while back when I first started recording some music. I dropped a couple tracks and reviewed a couple of things and then totally forgot about it (life gets busy)

I'm Caleb! But you can call me Tahva since that's my old username. I'm 21 years old currently in between jobs, very passionate about music and making it something that I do professionally but still figuring it out. I go by Pleasantly Disturbed online since that's what I'd like the band's name to be but right now it's only me, think of it like a Lightning Seeds sorta thing. I write all my own lyrics, and I love to write poetry as well.

Anyway, I remembered this place and so I thought I might want to come back since I've started doing music again and I wanted to try and meet some other musicians so yeah here I am!

Right now, I've been doing the independent thing I'm trying to amass a little following on Instagram and YouTube, I used to have band mates but they were too busy to continue pursuing music so to speak so I'm left the only one in the band which is fine since I have most of the equipment and I'm pretty versatile most of the tracks you'll here is stuff I've recorded all on my own except for one or two here or there. I'm trying to learn more about production so I can get better at it. I'd like to be able to do something like this full time someday but right now I'm just trying to get a little following and gain a skillset. All of the stuff on my page is independently done by me. I write the songs and record them, I have a couple base plugins that I use with FL Studio.

Speaking of studios I have a little home one I've compiled saving up money to purchase a couple of things, just a couple guitars, a minilogue and some mics really...

Umm, let's see.

I'm really into 80s music, New Wave, Post Punk and I like electronic music. Not a super big fan of modern stuff though I have a couple really choice pics, I've been liking a lot of stuff out of Scandinavia recently especially an artist called Aurora been pretty obsessed with her stuff, I like pretty much every song. My other favorite artists would have to The Smiths, and a little bit of Morrissey's stuff since he went independent. I also love The Beach Boys especially Smile that shit's just masterful. And Depeche Mode like pretty much every song by them as well.

I can play guitar intermediately to professionally though I'm a bit rusty, and I'm very beginner piano player but if I need to plonk stuff out on a midi controller I don't have much trouble. I like to think my playing style is a mix of Johnny Marr, Santana, and Clapton though I don't claim to be anywhere close to that amount of talent you could say it sounds a little bit like them. Most of the basslines in my songs are just guitar put through a plugin that drops at an octave it works out okay though, not a big fan of midi-bass it just never sounds quite right to me.

As well as getting some critique and meeting new people I was hoping to expand my musical tastes a bit as well, I like most electronic stuff and like hard rock alright but I wanted to try to gain a new appreciation for different genres and get an idea of what people are listening too out there.

Big fan of Phil Spector's production as well and all that golden oldies stuff. I like 50's and 60's pop and rock and roll quite a bit as well.

I'm hoping to spend quite a bit of time on here but as with anything we'll see how things go. It'd just be nice to have a community of other like-minded musicians to talk to about music. Considering I live in a small town and most people around here don't play anything or not very well. I guess I'm pretty weird I like a little bit of a bunch of different things. Big fan of Bjork, a little bit of bluegrass I like Doc Watson, I hate new country but any oldies country I'll probably have a heart for especially Hank Williams and Cash.

Umm, I figure if anybody has any other questions for me let's hear am. Don't got much else to say besides that haha.

Here's a link to some of my stuff:

IG; https://www.instagram.com/pleasantlydisturbedofficial/

YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAcQ7_GTHkKyaIjO6sEpfdw

SC: https://soundcloud.com/pleasantlydisturbedmusic

 

Edited November 16, 2019 by Pleasantly Disturbed

[john]

Hey hey, welcome back. Do you want me to merge your old account with your new log in? Just confirm your old email address to me in PM and I can get it sorted.

[Pleasantly Disturbed]

I just logged into my old account, so this is it but thank you for asking, and yes it's nice to be here. I'm really looking forward to meeting some more people. How are you today? I know your in charge of running this place must be a full time job? This is a really cool site I'm glad that it's still up and running since it seems like everything's moving to social media recently. Don't really like that trend to be honest.

[Pleasantly Disturbed]

I really appreciate seeing forums like this alive and well where people can get together and try and help each other constructively, I think it's a real boon to society that little communities like this form anywhere they can.

[john]

6 minutes ago, Pleasantly Disturbed said:

I just logged into my old account, so this is it but thank you for asking, and yes it's nice to be here. I'm really looking forward to meeting some more people. How are you today? I know your in charge of running this place must be a full time job? This is a really cool site I'm glad that it's still up and running since it seems like everything's moving to social media recently. Don't really like that trend to be honest.

 

Ah ok...

 

Yeah, it a really bad move for artists to mix their music development conversations with their fan facing conversations. It completely ruins any magic, plus the entertainments industry heavily depends on making a big splash... when you drip drip drip every minuscule change in a desperate need to promote audience engagement, you barely get a ripple at release time. If your posts are low value, full of sketches/draft sub-optimal ideas, it doesn’t show you off at your best and your audience becomes post blind due to a load of uninspiring posts.

 

You might get a reasonable engagement with a few other artists doing the same as you, completely trashing it as a music promotion platform. Artists are not great social media followers, because they are more interested in what they have to say about their music than they are interested in what you have to say. As a result you find that posts that don’t mention them directly get ignored.

 

Far better to keep your interactions with other writers to places where you can get quality interactions.

 

Even on Facebook groups, you run into the same problems, though they are a little better than using general Twitter.

 

I’m glad you appreciate all the work we put in! We’ve been busy making changes, all focused on making Songstuff as big an asset to our members as it possibly can be.

[Pleasantly Disturbed]

Great ideas there! You have a very well formed opinion on that topic. I still think it's possible for creators to get engagement and a following over on social media but I do think it's better to be able to have people to bounce ideas off of who are also doing the same thing as you are which is why forums like this are really beneficial. In the case of groups on social media I think it's possible for groups of artists to sort of help each other out also it helps if you're interested in more than one thing on social media, for instance if you're an artist on social media who also enjoys looking at art and reading poetry you could follow other Instagrammers etc. who are doing that sort of thing and when you look through some of the music hashtags that have something to do with you I think it's important to leave genuine quality comments as a part of marketing as well as to help support musicians you like.

Not sure I totally agree with the drip, drip thing I do agree it's important to gauge momentum and not release every little change to a mix/track etc. but I think sometimes part of engaging an audience is showing them a little bit of behind the scenes action part of showing that you're more than just your brand you are also a person it's a way they can engage with you that goes beyond just liking your music and image it's sorta similar to YouTuber personas like Markiplier and Pewdiepie though I don't necessarily like that more personal change and I have a deeper appreciation for the old style of showing the artist only in their finished state and only finished works as way to make a big final but it is what it is.

But yes I agree I really value communities like this where songwriters, producers and musicians can help each other hone their craft.

[john]

Social media is a vital lifeline to fans, but the content has to be focused. I think most indies struggle with separating different audiences and knowing what is relevant for each. To talk to musicians you don't need strategy. It's easy to build a following, but they are a following of largely disinterested people. If anything it is a transactional relationship for most artists. It shouldn't be, but it is. Fans are interested in some of the same things but mostly different and with a different perspective. Artists need to know how and where to find them, and how to get them engaged. There are plenty on Twitter, for example, but if your look at the followers of any artist, upwards of 95% of their follower list will be other artists or writers. So even a retweet is of very limited benefit. To build a follower list of fans takes a lot of effort. You need to talk about things that interest general people for a start, because to begin with they are not fans. You need to buid towards something, sensitively. Addiotionally, most artists are "me, me, me". Their feeds are often quite spammy from the perspective of non-fans.To find potential fans you need a strategy. You need to entice and inform in unspammy ways.

 

Showing behind the scenes can be done entirely without showing development tracks. As for Pewdiepie etc, are primarily known as personalities, not musicians. Yes personal opinions and personality are important, but you still need an edit button.

 

I see people arguing online all the time about no line between them and their fans because somewhere they read about letting fans see a bit behind the scenes. yet they know enough not to post themselves in the crapper, or shouting at an old lady who walked in front of them because they know that is not a good look. Sure it would get noticed, but it isn't a good look. So artists do do some editing. They just don't stop to think how it portrays them. Fans are interested in making a connection, but also that the person they connect to is interesting, cool etc. Anyone can grab attention by being shocking... so it comes down to what do you want to be known for?

 

The answer is simple, what do mainstream artists do? Sure they post vids in the studio etc, but mostly that is a honed performance, or such a small musical snippet that it gives nothing away, or it is them meeting and chatting to other artists etc. ite is ALL stage managed. Even the more candid moments. They are presenting a crafted view of themselves. They do not blow the BIG SPLASH. Just like that bold fll caps text stands out in the middle of a bunch of standard text, where few other words in this post will.

 

There is loads to post about that gets engagement without blowing development tracks. For example, your last single. Remixes. Acoustic versions of established songs. Performing with another artist on their song, or your song. Standing in the studio getting ready for a take. Ducking the audio on a studio take and overlaying interview audio etc. The list of stuff you could do to engage, 10-15 tweets a days is really easy if you just apply some creativity.

 

Artists may be doing it, but that doesn't mean its a good idea. Most of them don't think stuff through. They just follow someone else. Meanwhile mainstream artists don't make these mistakes. You have to ask why? Because if that was the route to more fans and better sales you can be sure the labels would be all over it like flies! Same goes for albums. If there was no value in albums, labels would have completely dropped them by now.

 

So all in I don't disagree about the need for engagement. I just disagree about what you use to engage

[Pleasantly Disturbed]

Ah! I see, you're saying that will interest other musicians/artists in your work is going to be much different then things that general people are interested of course yes I agree with this. And you're saying that getting general people interested takes a different approach then getting other artists interested in your music. Okay, yes that is very true. I like what you said here, thank you for all the good advice and feedback.

What your saying is very true. It is very important to grow a connection between you and your fanbase but you have to have something TO connect over and that takes a degree of tentativeness and gentility.

I love your advice on thoughts on this. Thank you for having this conversation with me!

I don't know. I feel like I relate to a lot of the artists whose music I like, I came from sort of a hard situation as a young person so I sort of gravitate toward people with working class backgrounds, but I also enjoy some forms of music because it helps me feel a connection to nature and my emotions so to speak. I feel like that's the sort of thing I want to offer to my audience. A chance to engage deeper with their feelings and their true selves on a deeper level emotionally. I like introspection in songs, I believe it's quite a healthy thing to have, and songs that engage the mind's creative aspects help people to imagine things or see them in a different light.

This was a great conversation exactly the sort of thing I was looking forward to.

[Pleasantly Disturbed]

In that case then what's your advice? What approach do you follow when seeking to build a following?

[john]

I’m glad it’s being useful for you. It’s late and a huge topic, especially if you get beyond general points. So probably bette4 for me to get into tomorrow. It’s also maybe worth moving the discussion to the music marketing discussion board or the music marketing and promotion club. Perhaps we can get other staff (& others) involved more easily as I am sure they would have some useful points to contribute. We talk about this sort of stuff all the time!

[AnikaShea]

Yowza. Lots of words in this thread. And hi.