M Magazine Issue 52

NORTHERN ECHOES

Mining for new music

FAN FUNDING

Getting a slice of the pie

Members Music Magazine Members Music Magazine Issue Issue 45 52 June 2014 September 2012

NILE

sly & RODGERS robbie The Hitmaker talks exclusively to M

Jamaica’s otherVIDEOS golden duo Subheader PLUS: DIY MUSIC JEFF BECK

THE IVORS

ELECTRONIC PIONEERS

S P I T F I R E P R E S E N T S

COMING SOON...

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FEATURES 14

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14 electric heroines Past and present

MEMO Welcome to the summer edition of M. This issue brings you a dizzying array of musical talent, spanning all generations and from far flung cities around the world.

Buoyed by an extra-special Ivor Novello Awards in May and the continued PRS for Music centenary celebrations, we’re thrilled to share some intimate profiles, genreexpanding features and candid calendar highlights.

ANATOMY PROJECTS / ROSS HALFIN / JUSTIN SUTCLIFFE

Our lead feature celebrates the life and work of the unmistakeable, unforgettable, hit-making genius Nile Rodgers. We learn about his journey from the seventies’ disco scene to the mainstream, and glean insightful nuggets about his songwriting experiences and definitive production style.

We also embrace some of the female pioneers of electronic music who have shaped its evolution from the fifties to the present day. We talk to Cosey Fanni Tutti, Nik Void, Planningtorock and many others about their work on the fringes of convention, and learn how they’ve overcome stereotyping, pigeonholing and marginalisation to further their art.

18 nile rodgers

From disco to Daft Punk

Later we chat to legendary guitarist and rock ‘n’ roll icon Jeff Beck about his fifty year commitment to the cause and an obsessive nature that led him to become one of the greatest musicians of his generation. His wisdom and experience are almost as great as his humility.

22 jeff beck

Rock 'n' roll virtuoso

26 lights, camera, action!

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As ever, we’re keen to offer practical careers advice, so this issue we take a look at the world of video. Thought you needed a stash of cash and a professional team to create a decent-looking video? Well, think again – we show you how to produce some great visual art on a shoestring.

Doing it for yourself

REGULARS 5 members and music

Also in this issue you’ll hear about the music that has shaped the world of composer Ella Spira and get the inside track on how Charlie Dore wrote Pilot of the Airwaves – the last song ever to be played on Radio Caroline.

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8

8 money and business 30 i wrote that 32 sound effect 34 picture this

So kick back, dig in and find out what’s been happening in your world this quarter.

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Happy festival season! m-magazine.co.uk magazine@prsformusic @m_magazinePRS

Members Music Magazine Issue 52 June 2014

EDITORIAL

PRODUCTION

Editor Paul Nichols

Production & Design Carl English

Associate Editor Anita Awbi Staff Writer Jim Ottewill

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26

RODGERS The Hitmaker talks exclusively to M

Subheader PLUS: DIY MUSIC VIDEOS JEFF BECK M52.indd 1

THE IVORS

ELECTRONIC PIONEERS

cover: nile rodgers

Membership Adviser Myles Keller

CONTRIBUTORS Naomi Belshaw, Rosie Blanchard, Olivia Chapman, KaKei Cheng, Samantha Ferguson, Eileen Fitches, Alex Sharman, Cerian Squire.

PRS for Music, 29-33 Berners Street, London W1T 3AB T 020 7580 5544 E magazine@prsformusic.com W www.prsformusic.com The printing of M Magazine is managed on behalf of PRS for Music

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The British composer – announced in May as the winner of this year’s prestigious Classical Ivor Novello Award – returned to composition in his late teens. He would go on to work with classical greats including John Barbirolli, Charles Dutoit, Bernard Haitink and Georg Solti, receive premieres by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, as well as record the still-definitive version of Haydn’s piano sonatas in his other role as a concert pianist.

Now 75, John may be battling serious illness, but he’s still fired by that same urgent musical instinct that made him realise at just five years old that he was going to be a composer.

interview: john mccabe John McCabe retired at the age of 11. By this time, the young composer had already written 13 symphonies and part of an opera. What more was there to achieve? Quite a lot, as it turns out.

‘I just really wanted to write music,’ he remembers.

‘There was a lot of music in the house as I was growing up. My mother was a very good amateur violinist and there were records and printed music everywhere. I thought that if all these guys – Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert – can do it, then so can I!’ Read the full interview by Alexandra Coghlan at m-magazine.co.uk/interviews

live session: hannah peel Hannah Peel has never been one to rest on her laurels. As an acclaimed singer and songwriter, she is always looking for the right buttons to press that will render her audiences defenceless. As a composer, she has designed her own music boxes and scales with sound sculptor Henry Dagg and has written expansive scores for theatre and film.

Not content with creating music in her home studio, Hannah ran away to the Orkney Isles in 2012 to create a magical album with The Magnetic North – a loose group she formed with Simon Tong (The Verve, Gorillaz, The Good, The Bad & The Queen) and Erland Cooper (Erland & The Carnival).

JUSTIN SUTCLIFFE / MARK ALLAN

Following her debut album and a collection of EPs, she released Fabricstate EP in February – an effervescent collection of songs that ripple with psychedelic restraint and a deep understanding of melody.

Last year Hannah became one of the first wave of Momentum Music Fund recipients, and to celebrate, PRS for Music Foundation invited her to perform at its Great Escape showcase in May. We were lucky enough to witness her arresting performance of Cars in the Garden – watch it now. m-magazine.co.uk/newmusic/sessions

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how to build your fanbase One of the biggest music industry revolutions of recent times has been the explosion of tools allowing artists to connect directly with fans.

We’re all familiar with the social media platforms that have fuelled this trend, including Facebook and Twitter, but there are new services such as Music Glue and State 51 that allow songwriters to reach their fans directly too.

So which ones work best and is there a knack to creating engaging content that will encourage people to listen to your music and buy your records? At the TGE-DIY: Building & Capturing Fanbase panel, held on the final day of The Great Escape 2014, Adam Cardew (Head of Digital, Absolute Marketing & Distribution), Joe Porn (Squadron Leader, Music Glue) and moderator Andy Malt (CMU’s News Editor) unpicked the key threads of this new DIY trend.

We gleaned their top tips on how to successfully communicate with fans and mobilise them to buy your music, gig tickets or merchandise directly from you. The experts also recommended popular content you should post across your social media channels to attract fans and explained why email addresses are the holy grail of fan engagement…

Andy: As a new and developing artist, at what point should you try to develop an online fan base?

Joe: The very first thing we tell people to do is start capturing their fan data. It’s incredibly important from day one that somehow, someone can find you online, download something from you, and then you can know who they are.

Adam: I back this up. You should start capturing your fans' email addresses from the off. The main reason is that when you come to have music to sell further down the line, nothing beats email to get fans engaged.

Andy: What services should artists use to create those touch points and build that fan base?

Adam: You’ve got your traditional social networking sites – Twitter, YouTube, Instagram – but one thing we tell our artists is that not every social network comes naturally to every artist.

Some artists are really good at Twitter and some aren’t. You don’t need to be across every platform.

It’s much better for artists to focus on a few key ones and really engage in a positive way with fans on those.

This is an excerpt from the full article, which is available now on m-magazine.co.uk

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dracula legs Whether any members of this brilliant new garage rock band have ‘Dracula Legs’ is up for debate.

What isn’t is the greatness of their name and the devilish stomp of their songs.

Now based in London, the group hail from various points around the globe - the great lakes of Canada, the mountains of Wales, the Black Country, even Essex, but these seemingly disparate backgrounds all feed into their ramshackle rockabilly.

clean bandit ‘So you think electronic music is boring? You think it's stupid?’ asks chart-topping British group Clean Bandit on their track Mozart’s House. Well, not in the capable hands of this fresh-faced foursome.

While the sound and title of the band’s second single perfectly captures their blend of classical strings and electronic beats, it’s their January release – Rather Be, featuring the vocals of fellow newcomer Jess Glynne – which has dominated 2014.

How? Well it’s the fastest selling single of the year after spending four consecutive weeks at number one in January. It’s also the first song by a British artist to hold the top spot for this length of time since Adele’s 2011 Someone Like You, selling in excess of 750,000 copies.

The song’s unstoppable success means that while the likes of Disclosure and Rudimental owned 2013, the so-called ‘Dostoyevskys of disco’, due to their Cambridge University

education and classical approach to club music, are at the forefront of chart-friendly dance in 2014.

Brothers Jack (bass, keyboards) and Luke Patterson (drums), alongside Grace Chatto (cello) and Neil AminSmith (violin) make up the group who all connected musically at university back in 2008. The band’s rise through dance music’s underground began after Mozart’s House was picked up by Black Butter Records, an imprint which helped launch the success of fellow electronic students Rudimental and Gorgon City.

But the success of Rather Be and subsequent single Extraordinary has propelled them even further, meaning that anticipation is at fever pitch for debut album New Eyes. If the LP is anywhere near as popular as previous releases, their work combining the dancefloor with the classical concert hall will be complete.

Debut seven inch – Heartburn Destination and Cold Licks – was released via the Too Pure Singles Club back in April and conjures up images of the Handsome Family and Nick Cave duelling with banjos in the wilderness.

Unofficial cassette-only demo releases, including Songs To Slack To (which carries the strapline, ‘Fuck school and fuck iTunes’), have helped raise their outsider, slacker credentials even more.

Despite their sinister name, Dracula Legs are completely warm blooded. On their releases to date, these musical monsters deal in brilliantly ragged blues rock, which sounds not only alive but packs plenty of bite. draculalegs.bandcamp.com

cleanbandit.co.uk EMI Music Publishing

richard birchall Cellist, composer, arranger and lyricist – no wonder Richard Birchall is seen by many as one of the UK's most versatile young classical musicians. As a member of the Philharmonia Orchestra, Richard is a regular performer in many of the world’s greatest concert halls, while his solo and chamber work have adorned venues ranging from Wigmore Hall to the catwalks of London Fashion Week.

Richard also works regularly with the English Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and his own group of eight cellists, Cellophony. The octet is one of the UK’s leading cello ensembles and regularly performs. His future projects include a concerto for cello and chamber orchestra to be performed by Philharmonia Orchestra principal cello Timothy Walden. richardbirchall.co.uk

Find out about more of our newest members

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members & music

celebrating great songwriting

The UK’s largest and most prestigious songwriting awards took place on 22 May at Grosvenor House, London, in front of a packed house of songwriters, composers, publishers and their guests.

This year’s winners included an exciting assortment of newcomers and established acts working across the musical spectrum. They were judged by their songwriting peers, in conjunction with the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA), and awarded a total of 14 statuettes between them.

Chic songwriter and producer Nile Rodgers (see interview, page 18) took the PRS for Music Special International accolade while Jeff Beck (page 22) received the PRS for Music Outstanding Contribution to British Music prize. New electronic-pop trio London Grammar won the gong for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and elusive singer songwriter Passenger (aka Mike Rosenberg) received the PRS for Music Most Performed Work prize for his hit single Let Her Go. Later in the ceremony, the Academy celebrated John McCabe’s long and illustrious composing career with The Ivors Classical Award, while the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award went to Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie. Both Tom Odell’s and Mumford & Sons’ momentous year were also acknowledged, and they took home the Songwriter of the Year and International Success gongs respectively. James Blake, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Dominik Scherrer, Simon Fisher Turner, Jerry Dammers and Chemical Brothers were also honoured on the day.

Simon Darlow, BASCA Chairman, said: ‘BASCA is delighted that in their 59th year The Ivors continue to recognise the best young and emerging talent that the UK has to offer whilst celebrating the enduring catalogues of some of our outstanding songwriters and composers. I congratulate everyone who has received an Ivor Novello Award today.’

Clockwise from centre: Christine McVie; Chemical Brothers with BBC R1’s Zane Lowe; Dominik Scherrer with Barbara Windsor; Inspiration Award winner Jerry Dammers; London Grammar with Florence Welch; Lily

MARK ALLAN / ALISTAIR REDDING

Allen with Songwriter of the Year Tom Odell.

Check out our video interviews from The Ivors

m-magazine.co.uk/interviews

The Ivor Novello Awards are presented annually by the British Academy of Songwriters & Composers and sponsored by PRS for Music

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gala dinner

songs by the sea

PRS for Music’s Grand Gala Dinner, in celebration of the society’s centenary year, went off with a bang on 5 June at the Honourable Artillery Company in London. Among the songwriters gathered were Laura Mvula, Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos, Pete Waterman, Guy Chambers and Debbie Wiseman. Other guests included members of international collecting societies such as SACEM and ASCAP, MPs, members of the Intellectual Property Office plus delegates from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

In May, we went down to The Great Escape – the UK’s biggest new music festival and industry convention – to catch PRS for Music’s In Conversation interview with BBC Sound of 2014 poll winner Chlöe Howl. Hosted in front of a live audience, Rinse FM breakfast show DJ Carly Wilford quizzed the rising pop star about her career so far. Chlöe spoke candidly about her experiences of joining the music industry as a teenager and also revealed her biggest songwriting inspirations.

Live music came from international a capella group Swingle Singers, classical guitarist Christoph Denoth, upcoming talent Fiona Bevan and renowned sarod player Soumik Dattam with his band, Circle of Sound.

Elsewhere at the festival, we caught Hannah Peel, Brolin, JAWS and Night Engine perform live at the Momentum Music Fund showcase and sat in on a day of PRS for Music organised DIY advice panels for emerging artists.

Clockwise from top: Swingle Singers; Fiona Bevan and Soumik Dattam; Christoph Denoth; Chuka Umunna MP Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Visit m-magazine.co.uk for all the coverage.

brass, biennials and bands Acclaimed indie-rock outfit British Sea Power (BSP) are embarking on a PRS for Music Foundation funded tour in collaboration with brass bands from around the UK. The Cumbrian stalwarts worked with musical arranger Peter Wraight (Matthew Herbert’s Big Band) on the project, dubbed Sea of Brass, and have called on six historic brass collectives to get involved.

They will launch the project with a live show at Brass: Durham International Festival on 17 July, with a further five dates planned later in the year. The concerts will feature a pastoral take on BSP’s 10 year back catalogue, alongside the evocative strains of a brass orchestra. The opening show will feature the NASUWT Riverside Band, with future dates seeing Cory, Fodens, Flowers, Redbridge and Derwent Brass collectives taking part.

In other Foundation news, the latest wave of acts to receive Momentum Music Fund support has just been announced. Among the eight artists chosen this time are electronic indie band Women’s Hour and Manchester ‘supergroup’ Menace Beach, a C86-styled indie outfit consisting of members of Hookworms, Sky Larkin and Pulled Apart By Horses. The next deadline to apply for Momentum Music funding, worth between £5,000 and £15,000, is 12 August 2014.

Lastly, the Foundation’s New Music Biennial is now in full swing.

Make sure you don’t miss out on the mind boggling range of new music performances happening up and down the country this summer, including two weekend showcases at London’s Southbank Centre (4 to 6 July) and Glasgow Concert Halls (1 to 2 August).

To find out more about all these exciting initiatives visit prsformusicfoundation.com m52_june 2014_7

money & business 2013 a record year for members

The popularity of PRS for Music‘s songwriters and composers overseas helped deliver record royalty revenues of £665.7m in 2013. This translated into a 3.7 percent increase on 2012’s £641.8m, and saw net distributable revenue – payable to members – rise to a record £596m.

In its recently published financial results, the society reported that international income broke the £200m barrier for the first time, rising 11.7 percent in 2013 to £201.1m, up from £180.1m in 2012. This was fuelled by the popularity of British songwriters overseas such as Mumford & Sons, Arctic Monkeys and Ellie Goulding.

£ million

TV and radio revenues continued to provide significant income to PRS for Music songwriters and composers during 2013. New licensing deals for services such as BT Sport, renewal of key licences such as Sky and strong sales for TV productions using PRS for Music repertoire saw revenues rise by 4.8 percent last year to £160.4m, up from £153m in 2012.

In 2013, the challenging retail landscape and the closure of HMV branches contributed to a 21 percent decline in the recorded media market.

But, despite this fall, the recorded media market still provided £80.7m in income for members.

Robert Ashcroft, Chief Executive of PRS for Music, said: ‘As one of only three net exporters of music, these financial results underline the strength of our repertoire. By securing a series of new licensing deals at home, online and abroad, we’re successfully growing the market for our members.

‘PRS for Music’s vital role at the heart of the music industry ensures that the popularity of music translates into earnings for our members – so that they can continue to create the music that enriches all our lives. Copyright remains fundamental to our members’ success. It’s the lifeblood that keeps the wheels of creative production turning and that underpins the global creative economy.’

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2012

Broadcast Online International Public performance Recorded media Revenue - royalties Interest and other income Total revenue Costs Charitable donations

160.4 61.2 201.1 162.3 80.7 665.7 5.0 670.7 73.2 1.5

153.0 51.7 180.1 154.7 102.3 641.8 4.6 646.4 72.6 1.5

Net distributable revenue

596.0

572.3

North America delivered strong growth (10.7 percent) due to the growing cable TV market and internet streaming services. Elsewhere, Australia also delivered strong growth (18 percent), thanks to improved deals with local television. And, despite an ongoing challenging climate in Europe, revenue rose by 15 percent across the region.

PRS for Music reported that online revenues continued their upward trajectory to reach £61.2m in 2013, an increase of 18.3 percent on 2012. New licences and key licence renewals with the likes of Deezer and YouTube helped the sector to grow.

2013

market per se,’ he continued. ‘There is a danger in the near future that the decline in download revenues could outpace the increase in revenues from streaming.’

Decline in downloads warrants caution Robert Ashcroft used his address at the society’s 2014 Annual General Meeting (AGM) to discuss the current digital music climate in the UK. Referring to the society’s online business, he warned against over-optimism in the download market.

Although digital music revenues crossed the £60m barrier for the first time in 2013, he said: ‘Over the past few years the need to replace the revenues from declining physical sales has dominated the agenda, but even as we are proud to have grown our online royalties by another 18 percent to just over £60m last year, we have to admit that this headline growth does not provide a true picture of what is happening in the market. 2013 saw the first decline in downloads – relatively small, it must be said, but one that might be quite pronounced in the years to come, and downloads, as you know, represent a significant proportion of our online income.’

He added that while streaming services represented a growing part of the digital market, they had not yet become mainstream and were competing with free ad-supported services, which have not yet demonstrated their revenue potential.

‘Together these licensed services accounted for a third of last year’s growth, or about six percent, with the balance coming from mandates for additional repertoire and global licensing initiatives, rather than underlying growth in the

Ashcroft revealed that the society was increasing efforts to license user-generated content, apps and gaming, to counterbalance the slowing in download sales. But he highlighted that PRS for Music was doing so in an increasingly global market, with more direct and split-copyright licensing against a background of EU copyright law re-evaluation.

New PRS Directors Publisher Paulette Long (Westbury Music) has been newly elected to the PRS Board, alongside re-elected directors Richard Manners (Warner/Chappell), Stuart Hornall (Hornall Brothers) and Molly Nyman (songwriter). The appointments were made at the society’s Annual General Meeting (AGM).

The meeting was hosted by PRS Chairman Guy Fletcher, who welcomed members and guests to the society’s hundredth AGM, in this, its centenary year. He congratulated members and staff for an outstanding year of royalty collections in 2013, adding: ‘It goes without saying that I feel honoured to be standing here as your Chairman in our centenary year… You know, in our first year of business, back in 1914, we collected £1,572 for our 199 members. Fast forward to today and we’re collecting almost £666m for over 100,000 members.

That should make us all feel very proud.’

He went on to pay homage to the society’s songwriter and composer members who have passed away over the last year, including Philip Chevron (The Pogues), Steve Martland, Larry Ashmore, Kenny Ball, Derek Watkins and, most recently, Sir John Tavener and PRS Director Peter Callander.

news

industry insight

the great escape: business focus The M team were down at The Great Escape in Brighton this year to catch all the key stories emerging from the packed programme of industry panels and keynote speeches. Here are the business highlights: Publisher action Music publishers need to be proactive in embracing new income streams to ensure songwriters get the most from their music, Bruce New from Sony/ATV said during the Music Publishers Association (MPA) panel.

The session, entitled How To Get More From Lyrics and Scores, included Sue Hantsch (MPA), Sarah Hopkins (Music Sales) and Michael Gottlieb (Sunny Side Up), who discussed ways in which publishers can license music to make more money for songwriters and rightsholders.

New said: ‘Ten years ago the sync licensing area was aimed towards the advertising, TV and film industries. Nowadays internet streaming and apps offer other opportunities. Publishers need to be more proactive in embracing new ideas in maintaining rights and getting best value for creators. Everything that comes to us… we have to have an open mind to it so we can get value for our songwriters.’

He added that the music industry is continuing to align itself with tech start-ups and more opportunities are being created as a result.

Gottlieb went on to discuss some of the diverse ways publishers have previously made money from licensing music to physical product, including lyrics used on baby clothes and kitchenware. Hantsch opened the panel by discussing UK music publishing revenues for 2012. The stats, which accounted for 70 percent of the music publishing market, showed total revenues of £904m, with £247m coming from collecting societies, £48m from synchronisation and £76m from sheet music.

Combating piracy Combating piracy is a ‘never-ending challenge’ for the music business, the BPI’s John Hodge said during the How Rights Owners Can Stop The File-sharers: Anti-piracy panel. The session also featured Andy Chatterley (Muso), Lesley Bleakley (Beggars Group), Gee Davy (Cooking Vinyl) and moderator Chris Cooke (CMU) (pictured above).

Discussing recent anti-piracy activity, Cooke said that over the last few years, the number of takedown notices issued to Google over the removal of copyright infringing content had risen to an ‘industrial level’. Earlier in the year, Google was issued with its millionth take down notice while the BPI sent its 50 millionth notice to the search engine to remove illegal content last November.

Hodge added: ‘The music industry has embraced the take-down system but it’s a never ending challenge.

People are constantly uploading and relinking illegal content as fast as we can take it down.’

Bleakley said she believes that the ‘true music fan’ does not access copyright-infringing content: ‘While we have to work on the release, anti-piracy is not about making a return on investment, it’s what we owe to the creators. As a service provider to the artist, we owe it to them to ensure that their content is where it should be.’

The panel agreed that while illegal content is still easy to access, consumers prefer to find copyright-approved music. According to the BPI, there are now more than 70 licensed music providers currently operating in the UK. Blurred Lines The final day’s conference brought together artists, journalists, campaigners and leading music industry execs to debate the issue of misogyny in pop, in a strand hosted by BBC Radio 1 DJ Jen Long (below). In the opening session, Does Pop Have a Misogyny Problem?, Sammy Andrews, from Cooking Vinyl, acknowledged the fact that sex sells, but said the music industry should encourage and support women who don’t rely on sex to sell their music.

She added: ‘I think there are a lot of female popstars who do genuinely believe that they’re empowering themselves. But there’s a – dare I say it – blurred line between whether you are empowering yourself or you are just exploiting yourself. I don’t think you should censor any artist. It’s up to her if she wants to put that content out, and it’s up to us as an industry to decide if there are blocks in place to stop children and young girls from accessing this, but that’s a much wider debate about the internet.’

Discussing how the industry supports this, Long said: ‘Everyone in the music industry wants to quantify success in some way, whether that’s the number of streams on Soundcloud or number of likes on YouTube. Because record sales aren’t what they used to be, that’s the way you say something’s successful - and obviously you’re going to get way more views if you do something that’s causing controversy.’

‘I think there must be some correlation between this trend and record companies struggling to sell records’, agreed panellist Stephanie Clive (Coda Agency). ‘I think a lot of things have become safe – these images are shocking, but in some ways they’re a no brainer.’

The panel went on to highlight that certain positions within the wider music industry are still male-dominated, including the area of A&R and sound engineering. However, the panel said that other parts of the business – particularly booking agents, management and live promotion – have changed to include a more even gender split in recent years.

See all our news coverage from The Great Escape at m-magazine,co.uk For more on women in music, see our feature on page 14. m52_june 2014_9

money & business sync review

news

the big numbers

£1,572

Amount collected for 199 members in 1914

2,999

New members joined PRS between 1 Jan – 1 June 2014 Who? Five Missions More What? Breakdown by Alice Russell. Written by Alice Russell and Alex Cowan Where? Mad Men Season Seven trailer

Abla El-Sharnouby from Five Missions More tells M how Alice Russell’s To Dust album has yielded 15 music placements to date, including a lucrative sync in the trailer for Mad Men Season Seven...

How did the Mad Men sync happen?

We’ve worked with an agent in the US called David Steel, from a company called Steel Feet, for about 10 years. He handled all the licensing for Moby’s Play, which was a watershed moment for sync. David has really strong relationships with US music supervisors including at [entertainment giant] AMC. An AMC supervisor was arranging music for the Mad Men trailer and he hooked it up.

Have other syncs come from that record?

That song has been placed in Magic Mike, the Black List, the Client List and The Inbetweeners. Mad Men is probably the most high-profile. Alice’s latest album To Dust is her most commercial to date and has done incredibly well sync-wise.

What was it about Breakdown that appealed to the Mad Men producers?

The song’s dramatic edge works well in this context. Alice’s music is rooted in fifties, sixties, seventies soul. While the album has a contemporary edge production-wise, the songs hark back to the era of the series. Aesthetically, it’s a great fit.

Were there any challenges you had to overcome?

In this case, there weren’t. But there can be many where US syncs are concerned. You can sometimes be looking for stems and trying to call producers at two in the morning so they can make changes. But not this time.

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How does this sort of placement help an artist?

The US is a huge territory so artists can feel like a needle in a haystack and find it hard to get traction. The great thing about a high profile US TV show, particularly one as popular as Mad Men, is that there’s a lot of hype about the music.

The song lists are hosted and discussed online.

People are genuinely interested in the music and tend to check these lists for inspiration to find new artists. For example, Breakdown was used in Black List, another successful US show, and there was a tangible spike in sales after that. Alice is very hard working, has been touring the US for years but once the light is shone on an artist this way, it can generate much more interest.

Why have the songs from Alice’s To Dust gained so many placements?

It’s a combination of all the pieces in the jigsaw coming together at the same time. ‘The work her label Tru Thoughts does, our efforts as publishers, in addition to the hard work Alice and her producer Alex Cowan (TM Juke) put in, in the studio and on the road.

Her music is very heartfelt and honest. She has such an amazing voice – anyone who sees her live will know she has this goosebump effect and this album is her best work. It’s the hard work from all her camps plus a great LP that has facilitated the placements. fivemissionsmore.com

50%

Proportion of writer members who have indicated they create pop/rock music

136 billion

Music plays tracked and processed in 2013

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Billy Bragg is a political singer and songwriter. He’s best known for songs such as Sexuality and New England , and his campaign work for a range of organisations including the Featured Artist Coalition.

He released his 12th studio album Tooth and Nai l in 2013.

I’m a Spotify subscriber as well as an artist so streaming is of great interest to me, particularly when recent figures from Merlin over the last 12 months show the income it’s distributed to rightsholders has doubled.

The public are obviously warming to streaming as a way of consuming music, so artists need to be more involved in the debate surrounding it. Particularly as Spotify is a platform willing to pay us. It seems interested in working with artists as well as rightsholders. By attacking streaming services, we’re shooting the messenger rather than those making the weather.

So where is the problem? The key to fair remuneration is in our recording contracts. It’s not with the platforms. Clearly artists feel they aren’t getting a fair bite out of the cherry so we need to have a conversation about the digital royalty process as well as the type of contracts we expect young artists to sign. The great thing about Spotify is it has put all this on the agenda just by existing.

The outcome of this debate needs to be a service that consumers can trust to reward those making the music that touches them. In my experience, listeners want you to make more of this music. They don’t care if you’re on Universal, Domino or selling it off the back of a wagon. They just want you to continue doing it. I trust consumers to want to support artists. They want the industry to reform itself in a way that means artists get fair remuneration.

Almost all artists’ contracts, even in our 20th century contracts, have a clause saying licensing money can be split 50:50. You could argue that streaming is a licence rather than ownership - tracks are licensed to Spotify, then Spotify makes them available in the way tracks are made available for a film or TV programme. If the labels accept this and offer a 50:50 split, then we would start to see a fair deal for artists.

Consumers are spooked by artists complaining about services. They would prefer to use a service which treats artists fairly. It’s a very simple reform and doesn’t impact contracts for many songwriters. If it doesn’t happen, then I think it may come to lawsuits. That’ll be a shame because many people will waste a lot of money giving it to lawyers. The industry needs to accept that streaming is a licence and royalties can be paid in those terms. We can then look at physical and digital and work out different rights for them.

The discovery of new artists is another area needing definition. In the old days it was relatively simple - you listened to John Peel. He played oldies, music from all around the world and many new artists too.

You’d hear things that would change your musical outlook. We still need those kind of filters and I don’t think there are enough places online. The whole industry needs to work to help the dissemination of new music as this is the holy grail of the digital industry – how we work out a path to new artists. How an outsider like myself or David Byrne can receive public recognition without selling our souls to one of the major labels. That’s what I worry is lacking. Where do the outsiders go now? In the past the NME would support you when it was in their interests to keep finding new, exciting music. But that seems to have broken down.

12_june 2014_m52

By attacking streaming services, we’re shooting the messenger rather than those making the weather The more artists speak out about both these situations, talk to their labels and stir up debate the better. It’s in all of our interests to get fair remuneration and to support new artists. I want the situation to be like when Jerry Dammers walked in off the streets with an idea, and six months later was a national figure. I remember that happening and I don’t see that now. That concerns me the most. Our ability to find art which resonates with us in an emotional sense is still with us and there will always be a market for creativity. I don’t worry about that. I do worry about the ability of someone with a particular vision being able to cut through the bullshit in the way we did during punk.

We are in danger of being swamped by the mainstream and that needs to change. We need to encourage discovery. As much as I like Spotify, it just tells me to listen to my old record collection. It even recommended I listen to Billy Bragg the other day. We need to find a John Peel algorithm that makes us go the opposite way. billybragg.co.uk

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young knives launch railway inn’s music makeover

cd buyers are forgotten generation The music industry is leaving a ‘forgotten generation’ of CD buyers behind, an analyst has warned.

At a recent PRS for Music briefing session, Mark Mulligan said that the industry need to work harder to attract mainstream consumers into digital music, or would risk ‘sleepwalking into a post-CD collapse’.

‘The majority of the people still buying CDs now are not really engaging with digital music and we have to start asking why,’ he said.

ELLIE DEAN

Mercury-nominated act Young Knives helped launch PRS for Music’s Music Makeover of a new live space at the Railway Inn pub in Oakham.

‘It’s an honour to be here as the Railway Inn opens its doors to local songwriters and bands.’

Landlord Shaun Jackson won £10,000 to transform his pub into a vibrant live music venue with locals Young Knives performing at the space’s unveiling.

Previous research published by PRS for Music showed that music can help boost sales by nearly £100,000 every year. See prsformusic.com/uplifting for more information.

Henry Dartnall from the band said: ‘The grassroots scene is where everyone starts out and these venues are a crucial stepping stone in any artist’s career.

For videos and interviews from the event, visit m-magazine.co.uk

persuasion and education Business Secretary Vince Cable has called for a more sophisticated approach to tackling piracy and Intellectual Property (IP) theft, which involves effective persuasion and education alongside enforcement.

Speaking at the first International IP Enforcement Summit in London, he said that a variety of interventions are needed to tackle piracy, ranging from orthodox policing, court action and sentencing to ‘more subtle forms of persuasion’.

While legislation is already in place in the UK to allow law enforcement agencies to obtain search warrants and seize counterfeit goods, Cable said that online payment service providers and advertisers need to boycott ‘dodgy websites’.

He added that attractive and viable alternatives need to be developed to encourage consumers to see the merit in using legal routes. ‘It isn’t just about law enforcement, it’s about attitudes. There have been surveys across Europe showing that one in 10 Europeans actively infringes on IP rights and doesn’t see a problem with it. One in three regards this as a victimless crime,’ he said.

He went on to illustrate the problem of illegal

downloading and IP theft among young people, explaining that many 16 to 24 year olds now regard piracy ‘as part of their culture’.

‘There is a great need to educate young people.

Industry needs a more sophisticated approach that isn’t just lecturing people but that thinks through the difficulties it has in reaching out to young people who don’t have an instinctive aversion to IP theft.

This is wrapped up in the development of alternatives which guide people to avoid illegal channels.’

Cable acknowledged that the UK music industry has made strides in developing ways to help people access and download legal content, to encourage them away from piracy. But he added: ‘I think we have to recognise that this is not just a British problem, it’s an international problem. Cross-border leakages are now enormous, and there is recognition of the potential losses as a result of cross-border piracy.’

He also pointed to UK research that estimated every one percent increase in intellectual property crime costs the economy one percent of GDP – or £1.7bn.

On the other hand, around 2.5 million are employed in the IP area, accounting for eight percent of the labour force.

Pointing to IFPI 2012 sales figures, which showed physical product still made up three quarters of global recorded music revenues, Mulligan asserted that CDs remain ‘the beating heart of the industry’.

‘It’s easy to look through the Anglo Saxon lens and see digital as bigger than it is. We hear the great stories from the Nordic markets, and of course we will all be digital one day, but we’ve got a long way to go before we get there,’ he said.

Mulligan identified a number of reasons holding CD buyers back from the digital market. ‘The headline ones are, unless you have an Apple device, downloads don’t really make sense. Look at Amazon – they haven’t been able to make a dent in Apple’s download business. That’s because they only make sense within that Apple device experience.’

Meanwhile, subscription services such as Spotify and Deezer currently have a penetration rate of around five percent in the UK, and Mulligan said it was likely they’d already reached a ceiling of opportunity.

‘That’s not because streaming services are not a great proposition and not because £9.99 doesn’t represent fantastic value for all the music in the world. It all makes perfect sense to the music industry - but not to mainstream consumers. What would your average music listener do with access to 30 million songs?’

As high street retailers continue to close and CD players become obsolete, the proportion of the population that still engage with CDs have nowhere else to go.

‘The one biggest challenge, which no one is taking seriously enough, is – what is the exit strategy for CD buyers who haven’t gone digital yet?’ Mulligan continued. ‘For a start, you have to accelerate the demise of the CD business to give digital the best possible start. But the CD is the habit that record companies can’t kick.’ m52_june 2014_13

WOMEN & MACHINES Anita Awbi tunes in to electronic music’s great female pioneers to discover an exhilarating network of influence and innovation.

‘We didn’t set out to create a new genre of music, we just made sounds that we couldn’t hear anywhere else,’ shrugs creative powerhouse and Throbbing Gristle co-founder Cosey Fanni Tutti. ‘When you’re looking for something and can’t find it – that’s when you create something new.

There’s nothing you can do to contrive that situation, it just happens.’

Cosey and her partner Chris Carter, giving rise to the Carter Tutti Void project. ‘With electronics you can strip away any humanity or gender,’ Nik says. ‘It’s not about turning female into male gender but actually turning female into non-gender. That’s where the parallels lie when me and Cosey work together.’

It all seems perfectly natural for Cosey, a British musician who’s been dispensing confrontational performances, edgy new genres and Dadaist mayhem since the early seventies. Her musical output exists in a futurist electronic dream, where gender lines are blurred and traditional roles are mutated. From the proto-industrial blueprint of Throbbing Gristle to the early techno and acid house of Carter Tutti and Chris & Cosey, she always tests the waters in outrageously provocative ways.

‘We don’t want to be subjected as females particularly but we don’t want to become overly masculine in order to be taken seriously. In fact, the person behind the music has nothing to do with it – it’s more about the sound. But it’s difficult to displace yourself from that, because of the way music has been perceived for years.’

Over the years, electronic music has afforded Cosey an anarchist’s safe harbour – a creative space with no rules, no structure and endless possibility. And it’s this tolerant, abstract environment that seems to have led many other women into the genre too.

Cosey crash-landed into it through a fascination with technology and art, influenced from a young age by her dad, who built radios and other gadgets around the house. He picked up on her enthusiasm and bought her a tape recorder so she could capture her own sounds. ‘My introduction to music, and the use and playback of it, was hands-on right from the beginning,’ Cosey remembers. ‘That had a huge effect on me.’

CREDIT

Through dozens of albums, primeval live shows and overtly sexual visual statements, Cosey has gone on to influence scores of female artists and revolutionise the notion of women in electronic music. She’s revered for toying with convention by juxtaposing her progressive music with an active interest in pornography and striptease. And it was this confrontational approach, in theory at least, that has encouraged so many others.

Cosey’s comrades Leftfield producer Nik Void cites Cosey as a leading inspiration for both her solo project and her work in experimental noise trio Factory Floor.

In a pop-will-eat-itself moment back in 2012, Nik began working with

So does electronic music really offer a tolerant space for creators wishing to escape from the over-genderisation of culture? Estonian artist Maria Minerva, who began her career in London and is now signed to Amanda Brown’s Californian label Not Not Fun, says that you can cut a straight line from Cosey’s work to present day female experimentalists.

But she still acknowledges the issues surrounding women in music.

‘When I first started out there was an article in the New York Times about me and a bunch of other women who were making electronic music. There was a huge backlash against it, and people questioned why gender should even be mentioned in the context of us as musicians. So now, it’s almost become taboo to talk about it,’ she says.

‘But you’re talking to me now and I’m referring to Cosey – there is a lineage there. I feel she’s more progressive than me, even though I’ve grown up in a time of possibility and accessibility. She’s already crossed all the limits and used all the technologies out there.’

Before Cosey Since the advent of electronically-produced music in the post war years, there have been countless female pioneers. Some have been forgotten, while others are enjoying posthumous recognition. With their lab coats and white gloves, they may seem like an altogether different breed from Cosey and her post-modern disciples, but they too have gone on to shape the genre in immeasurable ways, providing today’s producers with another thread to follow.

FOCUS

Main image: Planningtorock

M52_JUNE 2014_15

From left: Little Boots; Naomi Kashiwagi; Delia Derbyshire; Nik Void; Cosey Fanni Tutti and Maria Minerva.

Opposite: Gazelle Twin

‘People forget that these women made music in the most incredible, inventive ways’ When Cosey was tentatively beginning her musical career in early seventies’ Hull, a little known BBC Radiophonic Workshop technician called Delia Derbyshire had already been making history for a decade or more, albeit in a controlled laboratory well within the M25. She seems a million miles away from Cosey’s radical edge, but her techniques and signature sounds formed the basis of modern electronic music.

The pair worked together for a long time, sharing techniques and swapping sounds. ‘She was a musical genius,’ Pete continues. ‘She spent hundreds of hours teaching me. We’d trade: I would teach her about sampling. She thought it was a mechanism to steal other people’s sounds. But I told her she’d invented sampling - except when she did it, she had to keep copying tape and piecing it together.’

Delia joined the workshop in 1960 and, since her sad passing in 2001, has become the most iconic of all its characters. She’s most famous for realising Ron Grainer’s original Dr Who theme in 1963, but she also produced an astonishing body of revolutionary music and sound effects for radio, TV and theatre.

Naomi Kashiwagi, a sound artist who helped organise the PRS for Music Foundation funded Delia Derbyshire Day, is also indebted to the great electronic innovator. She has written commissions inspired by her work and often co-opts obsolete music technologies to create unexpected audio outcomes. ‘I first became aware of the Delia Derbyshire archive in 2010. Often with electronic music you just encounter the sounds not the scores, so it was fascinating to see how she notated things and see her graphic scores.’

True pioneers Commanding two record decks, fashioning loops, sampling sounds, adding effects – this all sounds pretty straight forward for a modern producer. But Delia was dabbling well before the invention of sequencers, samplers and software. Through her work, which was beamed into British homes on a nightly basis, the trained mathematician was unknowingly priming a whole generation of kids to embrace the alien concept of electronic music. Together with fellow workshop innovators Daphne Oram and Maddalena Fagandini, she was at the cutting edge of music technology and recording technique.

BBC PICTURES

‘People forget that these women made music in the most incredible, inventive ways. Today you can make music with very little skill,’ explains music retrograde, label boss and producer Jonny Trunk. He knows Delia, Daphne and Maddalena’s work intimately, having released several BBC archive recordings of theirs.

But for Delia, recognition came too late. ‘There were politics involved at the BBC,’ explains Pete Kember (aka Sonic Boom), a close friend of Delia and himself a musical auteur. ‘As a woman working at the BBC at that time she fell really foul of the culture. She didn’t get any recompense at all for [her contribution to] the Dr Who theme. Yet Brian Hodgson, who made the sound of the Tardis door opening, gets a royalty every time that happens.’

Naomi spent months immersed in the Delia archive at Manchester University’s library, but she remembers one piece in particular that was way ahead of its time: ‘It was called Dance For Noah, it was made for a children’s programme, and it was incredible. It just sounds like techno.

You would not believe it was made in the early seventies.’

What legacy?

Alongside Delia, Daphne and Maddalena, Stateside luminaries like Pauline Oliveros, Clara Rockmore, Wendy Carlos, Bebe Barron and countless others, were also pushing the electronic envelope. These women didn’t lurk on the fringes of electronic music, they pioneered it. They built the machines, wrote the notes, recorded the sounds and sculpted the music into shapes that no one had ever heard before.

Into the seventies, musicians and visual artists such as Laurie Anderson and Laurie Spiegel began moving into the electronic world, carving a niche for themselves while drawing on the pioneers’ early developments.

And today, there are countless women shaping the genre - as DJs, artists, sound engineers, label bosses and more.

FOCUS

Funny that it should take a machine to level our prejudices rather than our own logic… but then, synthesisers and computers don’t have hormones or wage wars What’s certainly clear is that women who make electronic music are not a new phenomenon. There’s a long and rich heritage of female sound manipulators, and their methods are still influencing a generation of electronic musicians today.

‘But with the last record I discovered how fantastic dance music is as a carrier of ideas. I was dealing with issues that people might find difficult, and to sandwich that in among dance music felt like a really cool recipe that would make my ideas easier to swallow.’

But, unfortunately, the statistics tell a different story. It’s well documented that women make up just 13 percent of PRS for Music’s membership. But a survey last year by electronic music initiative Female:Pressure found that women represented, at best, 10 percent of artists working within the genre. The initiative surveyed record labels, festival line-ups and Top 100 lists, to find that female representation was often around five to eight percent. While the survey was more of a finger in the wind than a broad-based scientific study, it does highlight some issues surrounding the genre.

So what about life in the more populist reaches of electronic music? I talk to Little Boots, an artist who overnight went from bedroom geek to major label material. She explains how she found it hard to maintain control of her sound once joining the ‘pop circuit’ but has since learned how and when to say no, and still revels in the comfort of her home studio.

For Planningtorock, the alter-ego of Bolton-born, Berlin-based electronic artist Jam Rostron, this comes as no surprise. Her last album, All Love’s Legal, was a riotous affair of deep grooves and heady basslines, with tracks carrying provocative titles like Misogyny Drop Dead and Patriarchy Over & Out. Aside from her solo work, she’s challenging the status quo through her Human Level record label, a project she’s dedicated to addressing the gender imbalance. When we talk, I ask her if she sees electronic music as a tolerant and accepting genre.

‘I share a studio with two producer friends – one is rRoxymore and the other is Olof Dreijer, who’s known for his work in The Knife. Together, we’re always talking about the discrimination you experience in the music business. I think it’s a complete fantasy that in the so-called more leftfield side of music production the gender politics are better, because they’re not. They’re just different.

‘I think it’s great there are some female producers coming through at last like Maya Jane Coles, who is really talented and has such a fresh sound,’ she says. ‘I just wish there were a few more - apart from Maya I’m still yet to work with a female producer!’

So, with the electronic sphere increasingly influencing the mainstream, surely dance music is becoming the great technological leveller of our times? As pioneering electronic producer Gazelle Twin, aka Elizabeth Walling, told me, ‘Funny that it should take a machine to level our prejudices rather than our own logic... But then, synthesisers and computers don’t have hormones or wage wars.’

Read the full interviews with Cosey Fanni Tutti, Nik Void, Planningtorock, Little Boots and more female pioneers

m-magazine.co.uk/interviews

M52_JUNE 2014_17

Don’t ever assume that your taste defines what the world likes.

Just try and hope that it does.’ Watch our video interview with Nile from The Ivors

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From disco to Daft Punk, Chic super producer Nile Rodgers has been sprinkling his songwriting stardust over the charts for more than 30 years. Jim Ottewill gets to the heart of the hitmaker…

‘We’re just a bar band who happen to be playing songs in the world’s biggest bar,’ chuckles Chic’s songwriter and producer Nile Rodgers.

We’re talking about how it feels for his group to be back out on the road and playing their hits to thousands of fans after more than 30 years in the business.

‘Chic are like the Grateful Dead of dance music,’ he explains. ‘You’re never going to see me with a hundred dancers on the stage or playing suspended from the ceiling. What we’re all about is the songs - and playing them with a sense of expertise, humility and fun.’

The hitmaker If songs are what you’re looking for, then you need go no further than bona fide musical legend Nile Rodgers. ‘The hitmaker’ may be the name of his favourite Fender Stratocaster, but it’s just as fitting a title for the man himself. From his work with Chic at the forefront of the disco movement to producing, writing and arranging with the likes of Madonna, David Bowie and Duran Duran, he’s a hugely influential figure in the pop landscape.

Without Nile there would have been no disco, no hip-hop (the Sugarhill Gang’s legendary Rapper’s Delight wouldn’t have happened without sampling the bass line to Chic’s Good Times), while many mega-selling pop careers wouldn’t have scaled the same dizzy heights without his midas touch.

Skyscraping success His most recent output has continued this run of skyscraping success. Last year’s Get Lucky with Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams, the other man of the moment, was the defining song of 2013. It’s an achievement made even more impressive considering Nile was battling prostate cancer during the recording (he’s since been given the all clear).

This activity has thrust the spotlight back on Nile and his music, and means 2014 is already shaping up to be another huge year. Not only does he have a new album in the works and a headline slot at Bestival to look forward to, but he’s the winner of the PRS for Music Special International Award at the Ivor Novello Awards. For a man whose songwriting career includes collaborations with some of pop’s greats, it’s richly deserved. But he still sounds humble despite the prize and stardust covering his songs and contact book.

‘Winning the Ivor Novello Award is pretty amazing. As a composer, all you think about is your songs as they’re the voice you use to communicate with people. The louder this voice, the more people can hear you and the happier you are,’ he explains.

‘The Ivors are so prestigious, particularly for a person like me. I’m a student of the game, a real music fan, so receiving this award has really blown me away.’

Shaping the future Collaboration has always been at the heart of Nile’s music, ever since he struck up a partnership with the late, great Bernard Edwards and formed Chic. Alongside the bassist, Nile wrote many of the group’s biggest hits, but when the band fell apart, he transported this sense of teamwork into his production. Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Grace Jones, Hall & Oates, Diana Ross are not only some of pop’s biggest acts but also Nile’s most grateful ‘clients’. How does he approach each new partnership?

‘I look at it like a classroom discussion,’ he explains. ‘With Madonna, I asked myself how she got to the point where her life intersected with mine. I then figured out where the next step of her life should be.’

Nile continues: ‘That’s why almost all of my hits have been somewhat adversarial with the record companies. It’s this whole romantic process which goes into the way I think about my work. I have to imagine a future for the artist that doesn’t exist, based on what’s happened to get us to where we were.’

The one constant But why does he think his music has so often hit the spot?

According to Nile, trying to find the DNA of each song is essential if it is going to work. ‘The meaning of each song has to be clear to me,’ he says. ‘If I can’t explain it, then how can you understand it?’

The other unifying thread between his music is Nile himself. He’s in the unique position of not only being writer and producer, but having played on almost every hit he’s ever had too.

‘Even with bands like INXS and Duran Duran - bands that already have one or two guitar players - I’ll still play. It’s almost like being Burt Bacharach and playing piano on every song. I get to be the studio musician, as well as the composer, the producer – that’s an extraordinary situation to be in.’

M52_JUNE 2014_19

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Myself and Bowie were two guys out in a life boat who rescued each other Bernard and Bowie Chic originally began with the songwriting partnership of Bernard and Nile. Despite the former’s passing, it’s clear that his old friend’s influence still inspires Nile and his music.

‘He was a true band leader - do this, do that, don’t do this, don’t do that – but he kept an open mind. In a strange way I’ve taken on a lot of his personality because, after he passed away, I was out there by myself.’

Nile is known for his glorious songwriting success and a production style as sharp as the white suits he wears when performing. But it hasn’t always been this way. The Disco Sucks movement cut short Chic’s career after a run of gold, platinum and multi-platinum selling records. So when he entered the studio with David Bowie in 1982 to record what would become Let’s Dance, it was one of the most important moments in his career.

‘The album came at a time when most people would have folded up their tent and gone home,’ he explains. ‘At that point, I had already earned plenty of money. I’d written so many hit records that I’d never have to work again. Bowie didn’t have a record deal. I didn’t have a record deal. We were two guys out in a life boat who rescued each other. “Hey man, you row while I rest. I’ll row while you sleep”.

It was the perfect collaboration at the perfect time.’

The record buying public and critics alike agreed. Let’s Dance and its hybrid of rock and funk went on to be one of the most defining songs of the eighties. The single topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, sparking off another run of success.

MARK ALLAN / GETTY

Production credit Nile’s role as producer goes beyond merely pressing play on the record button. He has always had an integral role in the songwriting process, meaning he’s listed as co-composer for many hits such as Get Lucky.

Without him, the songs wouldn’t have realised their full potential.

‘What David Bowie brought to me that morning in my bedroom when he first played Let’s Dance - if we had put that out, it would not have been a hit. It was my job as the producer, orchestrator or whatever we would call it in those days – to re-write. What I do is actual composition.’

For onlookers, Nile’s relationship with Bowie may have been seen as disparate but the reality was a rich creative coupling for them both.

For Nile it’s another line that joins the dots between his best work.

‘With both Bowie and Daft Punk, everything was just perfect. From the moment the latter walked into my apartment, to the moment that record came out. Even with all the drama back stage. I had to be like a big brother and say, “Guys - it’s okay - at the end of the day, the only thing that counts is the song.”’

Left: Nile with Johnny Marr at The Ivors.

Above: With Bernard Edwards and Bowie.

New heights So what’s next for Nile following last year’s return to chart glory?

2013’s success is currently pointing towards a new album that to describe as hotly anticipated would be an understatement.

Collaborations with Avicii, David Guetta, Tensnake and Disclosure show that he’s still keen to seek out new musical minds to spar with.

The live show, billed as Chic ft Nile Rodgers, has speared on this revival in his music - from Bestival to Ibiza and beyond, they’ve brought smiles to thousands of music lovers. Nile remembers that their now relentless gigging schedule of performing his hits started out as a joke.

Nile says: ‘We played Like a Virgin for the first time for our own fun but the audience loved it so much we thought we should do more of those songs. We started adding more tunes I played a very distinctive role in. It wound up being the perfect catalyst to where we are now.’

It’s grown to the group being headliners at this year’s Bestival on the Isle of Wight. But fun is still key for Nile.

‘That’s why we get everyone up on stage, so they can look at the world the way we see it. We get to see 70,000 people – it’s pretty fun! Just a few years ago I was writing, “We are family, I’ve got all my sisters with me”. Now the whole audience is singing it with me.

Careers advice So has Nile any advice for aspiring hitmakers? Although he’s slightly wary of giving tips, he thinks learning to accept failure is almost as important as enjoying the success.

‘That’s why I always try and remain humble and remember a lesson that one of my music teachers taught me,’ he explains. ‘Don’t ever assume that your taste defines what the world likes. Just try and hope that it does.’

Whatever Nile says through the modesty, more often that not, it’s the rest of the world dancing to his tune. And with more new music on the way, it looks set to continue for some time.

M52_JUNE 2014_21

Main image: Jeff Beck

CRAZY FINGERS Mark Paytress chats to the amp-trashing guitar legend about his 50 year dedication to the rock ‘n’ roll cause.

‘I think people can see I’m still trying,’ says Jeff Beck, playing down the achievements of a remarkable 50-year-plus career. He’s the guitarist’s guitarist whose innovative style helped pioneer blues rock, heavy metal and jazz fusion, whose extraordinary adaptability has seen him collaborate with artists as diverse as Kate Bush, Mick Jagger, Morrissey and Malcolm McLaren, whose biggest hit is standard fare at parties, and who created the Superstition drumbeat for Stevie Wonder. Now he’s just picked up this year’s PRS for Music’s Outstanding Contribution to British Music Award at The Ivors.

‘Somebody up there’s looking after me!’ he says, shrugging off any notion that he might be a legend. It’s all merely the happy outcome of an obsession, he insists, in a conversational style that’s as enthusiastically boyish as his appearance is youthful. ‘I think all musicians have OCD,’ he elaborates, ‘We’re obsessed with sound of some sort or another. Once I got drawn to it, I couldn’t care less about anything else. All I dreamed about was holding a guitar and making sounds.’

That obsession - let’s call it dedication to his craft - shows little sign of waning. Seventy this June, Jeff’s currently on yet another world tour. Between trips, he’s still meddling with the follow-up to his successful 2010 album, Emotion & Commotion.

‘I’m letting it mature on the backburner,’ he says. Perfectionism?

‘There’s an element of that, yeah. But I’m fanatical about the drum sound more than anything. I like it to be crisp and exciting. After all, that’s what drives the songs.’

Jeff Beck, who famously builds hot rods in his spare time, is nothing if not driven.

LANCE WOOD

‘Listening at the door to my sister’s room and hearing Elvis and Gene Vincent as a kid was spellbinding,’ he says, explaining how he was first ‘carried away. Rather than play soldiers, I got a guitar and tried to emulate what I was hearing,’ he adds.

A self-starter from the Surrey Delta, Jeff worked out the chords to Buddy Holly’s That’ll Be the Day, and copied lead lines from Eddie Cochran and Ricky Nelson’s guitarist James Burton. But he didn’t stop at rock ’n’ roll, venturing into country via Chet Atkins (‘I was amazed how he could play the bassline, harmony and melody all at the same time’) and jazz through Barney Kessel (‘those unusual chords and his high-speed chops’).

Blowing up The first fruits of his early eclecticism exploded onto the pop mainstream in the mid-sixties after Jeff replaced Eric Clapton as lead guitarist with The Yardbirds. ‘There was a huge nuclear explosion of music,’ he says, and until his acrimonious departure from the band in November 1966, he was immersed in beat-era madness. The experience shaped his career.

‘Pop music’s a very dangerous arena for me,’ he says. So too was being the virtuoso in a group over which he had little control.

‘Proud?’ he snapped during The Yardbirds’ induction into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. ‘I’m not, because they kicked me out.’

That 20-month stint nevertheless established Jeff as pop’s most inventive, artful guitarist on a run of 45s that included the eradefining Shapes of Things, the raga rock of Happenings Ten Years Time Ago and Jeff’s amp-trashing appearance in the 1966 film, Blow-Up, as the group blasted out an electrifying Train Kept A-Rollin’.

Everyone - from The Yardbirds bassist/second guitarist and future Led Zeppelin man Jimmy Page to a generation of US garage band hopefuls - tuned in. But Jeff has long since zoned out. ‘I’ve done other music after The Yardbirds,’ he harrumphed to the Hall of Fame audience. After his departure, it was months before he picked up a guitar again.

Beck’s Bolero A surprise solo hit followed in spring 1967 with a throwaway cover of a US bubblegum song, Hi Ho Silver Lining. It’s the one song of Jeff’s that the whole world knows. He’s now ‘friendly with it these days,’ he says, after decades of denial. Typically, for a man who does things his way, it was the flipside, the powerful, emotionally charged instrumental Beck’s Bolero, that signposted his true direction.

Jimmy Page, future Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and The Who’s Keith Moon sat in on that one, the first of numerous big name musicians who’ve worked with Jeff in the studio or on stage. It’s possible that the song lit the torch for heavy metal.

Certainly his next project, The Jeff Beck Group, fronted by the then little known Rod Stewart and featuring future Faces and Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, released two late sixties albums that heralded the new rock era.

PROFILE

‘What’s better than playing well and having people go nuts?’

Watch our video interview with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page at The Ivors

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PROFILE

‘Pop music is a very dangerous arena for me’ After successful tours of the States, where The Jeff Beck Group were feted and both albums charted, the fractious five-piece imploded on the eve of Woodstock. Led Zeppelin stepped in to finish off the job, leaving Jeff – now seemingly as unpredictable as his playing – to rethink his career.

His saviour, as so often, was music itself - on this occasion Miles Davis’ 1971 LP, Jack Johnson, featuring the English guitarist John McLaughlin. ‘I thought, if this guy has got the nerve to play one side of an album as a shuffle [Right Off], then there’s hope for me!

‘John’s been my guide, really,’ he acknowledges. ‘Such a rich explosion of music came from [his] Mahavishnu Orchestra.’

Crossroads A second album hastened Jeff’s journey towards the place where jazz, rock and funk would meet. ‘I was there for [1973’s] Talking Book,’ he says. After lunch one day, Stevie Wonder walked in to find Jeff playing drums.

‘I said, “Let’s make an album that’s gonna sell, so they put me with [producer] Nile Rodgers, which wasn’t a great idea, and tried to make me something I wasn’t. That was a clueless album – and a dangerous time.’

Later that decade, Jeff’s career was further destabilised after he was diagnosed with tinnitus. ‘And I’d fallen out of love with the guitar,’ he adds. ‘I was having some cranial osteopathy, and as I walked out the door, the woman who was treating me said, “Go back and make friends with the guitar. You’ll be glad you did.”’

‘He said, “Keep playing”, went into the control room and minutes later had [Superstition] worked out. I had a big hand in that song.’

Though Superstition was initially offered to him, he says his version was blocked until Stevie had the hit with it.

Still listening He’s not looked back. ‘It was like we were hanging on the coat tails of a bygone era,’ Jeff says, but then came grunge and Britpop to revive the fortunes of the rock guitar - and the masters who played them. Since then, his eternally ‘itchy feet’ have found him paying tribute to old masters (Gene Vincent, Les Paul), exploring techno and electronica (on 1999’s Who Else! and subsequent titles), working with fellow rock legends (Roger Waters, Kate Bush and Brian Wilson for starters) and teaming up with 21st century talents (Joss Stone, Imogen Heap).

‘Business can be cruel,’ he says, ‘but to be associated with Stevie and playing on Talking Book was payment enough, really.’

‘Creative people like Kate Bush keep me on my toes,’ he says. ‘They want more from you than a 10-minute overdub.’

Everything came good for Jeff in 1975 with Blow By Blow, an elegant virtuoso set produced by George Martin, which transformed his career both commercially and creatively.

In 2007, the man famous for turning his back on pop performed in front of 30 million television viewers, joining Kelly Clarkson for the Idol Gives Back episode of American Idol. ‘A sweet moment,’ he says, ‘walking on with all those girls screaming. Just like the old days!’

‘Heavy metal was big at the time,’ he says. ‘All the Zepps rocking the big stadiums, but nobody was doing anything more subtle. Blow

By Blow brought a lot to aspiring guitarists.’ It also unleashed a slick, driving, instrumental sound that was still providing the template for composers of games soundtracks years later.

MARK ALLAN / ROSS HALFIN

for a response, he made what he calls ‘a mercy album [1985’s Flash] for the record company.

Punk pariah Though the follow-up, the jazzier, tricksier Wired, confirmed Jeff’s stature, his ability to soak up changes in music took a battering with the arrival of punk. ‘Here’s me trying to make this exquisite jazz fusion with orchestras and a high degree of musicianship,’ he says, ‘and down the road there’s a bunch of guys trashing guitars and spitting at each other. Comical!’

A bigger threat came at the start of the eighties with what he calls ‘the one-finger synthesizer guys. It did look a bit grim then…’ Lost

But there’s nothing backward looking about Jeff Beck. He’s still driven, still listening. ‘I hear people that play far better than me and it frightens me,’ he says. ‘I think, “Okay, I’ll not do what they’re doing. I’ll go between the cracks.”’ And that, he says, is how his style – and career - has evolved.

He might make guitar-playing look deceptively easy, but he warns that the industry can be hard. ‘Read a book on protecting yourself,’ he says to those starting out, ‘because somebody will rip you off within a heartbeat. After that, don’t try to make a quick buck, write from your heart. Then you’re on your way.’

For all the difficulties he’s faced, it’s still the best job in the world, he says. ‘What’s better than playing well, having people go nuts, then buzzing on the tour bus for hours saying, “Oh man, that’s why we do this!” I’ve been very blessed.’

M52_JUNE 2014_25

LINDA BROWN LEE

AUDIO VISUAL

DIY

Think you need to spend silly money to make a decent music video? Think again. Rhian Jones discovers how musicians can create a quality visual experience on a modest budget.

Music videos cost loads of money to make, right? Equipment, props, lighting, costumes, special effects, dancers… the list goes on, and it all adds up. Well, while record labels might splash out big bucks to make a perfectly produced all-singing-all-dancing shoot, the truth is, you don’t need all that jazz. These days, a decent music video can be made for very little. Artists can spend a couple of hundred quid to make something pretty good. All you really need is authenticity, planning and a bit of imagination.

And thanks to the internet, a simple video could launch a career.

Case in point: Conor Maynard. The singer was getting around ‘300 views and two comments a month’ on YouTube for his stripped back covers of urban tracks sung into a microphone from his bedroom.

Suddenly, ‘a surge’ of people rushed to his videos - among them NeYo, who Skyped the teen star to sing his praises. ‘He was a skinny white guy doing these amazing covers of tracks by people like Drake, and they were quickly shared throughout the urban community,’ says Sarah Stennett, Chief Executive of his management company Turn First Artists. ‘It was the speed at which it was shared that caught everyone’s attention.’

Other notable names to have launched their careers on YouTube include Carly Rae Jepsen and Justin Bieber, while Mø, Rizzle Kicks and Everything Everything all got record deals on the strength of their homemade videos. Meanwhile, Damon Albarn shows that the DIY approach works at any stage in your career. The video for his latest track Lonely Press Play was filmed on his iPad. Shots of scenery captured on his travels around the world offer a candid glimpse into Damon’s world and sit perfectly with the track’s melancholy mood.

And it’s not just music videos that today’s online audience wants to see.

SB.TV’s YouTube channel is about to hit 250 million views for its range of music-based content. Launched in 2006 by Jamal Edwards, it has risen to prominence by featuring videos of acoustic and live performances, interviews and behind the scenes documentaries of underground rappers and producers. Jamal has since produced videos for the likes of Cher Lloyd, Lou Robinson, Dappy and Meridian Dan. ‘When I started putting videos online it was the only place people could really see that sort of content so it started gaining traction,’ says Jamal. ‘I was just trying to film something that I wanted to see on the internet and that happened to feed a lot of other people’s hunger as well.’

It was around the time SB.TV really started to gain a following in 2010 that A&Rs started using YouTube as a platform for discovery. Island Records director of A&R Nick Huggett says he now spends around 50 to 75 percent of his weekly pitching discussions on YouTube. ‘That’s probably the first time we hear or see something’, he explains. ‘YouTube is very useful because you get a sense of the artists visually as well as musically.’ Brighton singer songwriter Elli Ingram is an act Nick signed after getting ‘a big picture of what she was about’ from her self-made video for track Poetic Justice online. ‘You’re able to gauge interest from the amount of views too, which is useful,’ he explains.

With over one billion unique visitors every month, YouTube is one of the most vital platforms for any musician looking to build a fanbase.

However, smaller tastemaker websites and blogs are just as important for sifting through the wealth of content that’s out there. The Mahogany Blog films its favourite bands performing in scenic locations around the UK. Four years since launching, it’s had over 25 million total views on YouTube. And independent magazines like DIY offer a platform for new music via its website. Others to note are minimalist blog Abeano, the website for new music festival The Great Escape that has a ‘band of the day’ feature, and female-only tastemaker websites and magazines like Wears The Trousers and The Girls Are. So how do you go about making a quality video that connects with an audience and compliments your music? For Jamal, it’s all about originality and simplicity. ‘Think outside of the box as much as possible because that’s what’s going to get traction. But it doesn’t have to be complicated - even really simple videos can create a buzz,’ he explains.

Jamal produced the video for Meridian Dan’s German Whip track for ‘a couple of hundred quid’. With over three million views, it’s proof of the impact something simple can achieve.

Featuring the rapper driving around in a German Whip car, it’s as obvious as it gets. Other times it’s a concept that makes something A-star. Take Ok Go’s treadmill dance routine for Here It Goes Again for example, or Sia’s Polaroid picture-flipping creation for Breathe Me. But ultimately, you have to ‘make sure the content is exceptional,’ says Sarah. ‘It’s about great content - great visual, great songs, great vocals.

You have to have something that’s not average. It’s very easy for anyone to hear and see within 30 seconds whether something is average - and average won’t survive.’

M52_JUNE 2014_27

DIY

Read more top tips and careers advice

m-magazine.co.uk

Clockwise from top left: Everything Everything, Jamal Edwards, Meridian Dan, Elli Ingram.

Leicestershire band Young Knives have been making their own music videos ever since the band formed. Now releasing music through their own Gadzook label, inventive budgeting is essential. The accompanying video for their latest track White Sands was filmed at popular beauty spot Haytor Rock in Dartmoor and, after roping in a filmmaker friend for a favour, the only costs were props and costumes – mostly gleaned from eBay or borrowed from friends. The most cash was spent on a giant millipede, some crickets and a couple of live crabs (they also got some African land snails for free on Gumtree).

RANKIN

‘White Sands was a very cheap video to make. When we were on a major label there were disgusting figures being spent on fairly average videos. But since starting our own label we have reverted back to our early methods of video-making. It is not important how much you spend on it, just how interesting and engaging the idea is,’ says band member Tom Dartnall. After discussing a few concepts, the band decided on a set of images and some specific themes, and then planned all the shots in advance. It took two days to film plus a longer editing process.

Equipment consisted of a camera and its gear, a generator which ran a smoke machine and garage work lights.

Oly Ralfe of Ralfe Band is another notable DIY video-maker.

‘The challenge is to always make something different and surprising when compared to the previous videos,’ he says. ‘It’s hard work but feels great to be involved in both the song and the video, and it feels like a complete creation.’ The band’s latest video for Cold Chicago Morning cost around £200 to £300, and was filmed in Ralfe’s house over three days. ‘I’d just

moved into an old house, it was empty and white and this seemed like a good setting to make use of. You have to work with what’s around you,’ he adds. Working with the simple idea of filming the band performing the song, Ralfe developed an accompanying narrative of a ghostlike character being stirred by the music that was ‘loosely related to the gothic mood of the song.’

‘The aim was to add a layer of intrigue that went beyond the performance but connected with the location. I did some planning with the cinematographer that involved listening to the song and looking at other films and photographs that evoked the right feeling. This was followed by walking through the location and thinking of different of shots, which is really useful as it gets you thinking ahead of the shoot day. You still improvise on the day, but from a more confident place,’ he says.

Using the resources and talent you have at your fingertips is what Kiesza did for the music video of her huge breakthrough track Hideaway. The video was shot in one take and filmed by the singer’s older brother Blayre Ellestad. Featuring Kiesza dancing through the streets of Brooklyn with a cast of friends, it’s had well over four million views on YouTube. Meanwhile, Dean Blunt, who rose to fame as one half of enigmatic experimental pop duo Hype Williams, has carved a career from his lackadaisical approach to production. The video for his latest track Mersh, described by Vice as ‘brilliantly half-assed’, features a sofa, a flashing red strobe, Dean, a girl in sunglasses and that’s it. See? Easy peasy.

M52_JUNE 2014_29

i wrote that

song writing

When Pilot of the Airwaves was released in 1979 it was an instant hit on both sides of the Atlantic, earning singer songwriter Charlie Dore an ASCAP Award. Then, in November 1990, it had the honour of being the final track played on the iconic pirate station Radio Caroline before it ceased transmission.

Here, Charlie remembers how the song came about…

Pilot of the Airwaves wasn’t written about a specific person, it was more about the relationship that exists between a DJ and a late night listener. People think I wrote it with an eye to flattering radio people, but I didn’t - it was about a shy girl who felt a connection with this man she’d probably never meet, but who was important in her life.

I often have a title and keep it in my back pocket for a while before I use it. I’d had this one for a couple of years and didn’t do anything with it. I thought the play on words was so obvious that someone else must have thought of it before me. Finally, I figured that actually no one else had, so I’d better get on and write it before they did.

After the title arrived, once I finally sat down to write the rest, the lyrics flowed quite easily. The chorus seemed to come out more or less fully formed, which is unusual for me. Normally it’s a difficult birth. The verses took a little longer. I wrote it at the kitchen table in my £14 per week flat in West Hampstead. Luxury!

I came up with the chords on acoustic guitar. The pivotal chord change for me was the B to the E minor under the line, ‘Listening to your show on the radio’.

Check out our full interview with Charlie Dore

m-magazine.co.uk

30_june 2014_m52

I’m a sucker for harmonies, so there are a lot in Pilot of the Airwaves. We used to do the track in the live set with my band. At that time the band consisted of Julian Littman, Gus York, Keith Nelson, Garrick Dewar and Pick Withers on drums. They all sang. On the record it’s me, lots of Alan Tarney tracked up, plus Gary Taylor singing the bass part.

The song has got a real country feel, and I think that’s because the band line-up at that time included pedal steel, banjo and mandolin. But the version that was actually released had none of those on it because Alan and Bruce Welch, who produced the released version, were much more pop-oriented. I guess the chord structure was still pretty country. I was listening to The McGarrigles, Guy Clark and Emmylou Harris around the time I wrote it, plus a whole lot of bluegrass.

So, it was recorded twice - once in Nashville at JJ Cale’s studio with Audie Ashworth on production duties in summer 1978. Then it was rerecorded in London at RG Jones in early 1979 – that was the version with Alan and Bruce. It was a difficult time for me because I’d been signed to Island as a sort of British Emmylou Harris and we’d been shipped out to Nashville to make (I thought) a fairly rootsy album. I was completely green, so I wasn’t thinking about how it was going to be marketed or whatever.

When Island said it was too country for them and suggested we rerecord it, I was completely thrown.

Suddenly I didn’t know what was expected of me. Alan and Bruce did a great job and produced the version that became the big hit, so it all worked out, but I won’t pretend it was easy.

It probably took me about 20 years to discover that you have to do what is true for you. I’m very grateful for

130 KM

When Island Records said it was too country for them and suggested we rerecord it, I was completely thrown the success of that song, but I’ve also spent years trying to convince people that Pilot only represents a tiny snapshot of one time in my career. After six albums of rootsy acoustic music I think I’m just about getting my point across.

Pilot of the Airwaves Written by Charlie Dore UK publishers: Hillwark, Warner Chappell.

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Read our full interview with Ella Spira

m-magazine.co.uk

Ella Spira is a London based composer who was mentored by David Arnold, composer of the recent James Bond movies and musical director of the London 2012 Olympics closing ceremony.

Ella has created acclaimed film scores, written dance compositions for The Royal Ballet and arranged remixes for artists including Bruno Mars and Nelly. She recently collaborated with Grammy-winning South African choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo on the music for Inala, a cross-cultural ballet which receives its premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August. the first music i remember hearing was…

There were two tapes that contained the first music I really remember listening.

One was a cassette of classical works including things like Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Arrival of the Queen of Sheeba

by Handel. The other was a Buena Vista Social Club tape that I accidentally recorded on top of a bit. Clearly I wanted to be involved.

the first record i ever bought was…

It was a Now That’s What I call Music compilation tape but I have to admit I don’t remember which number it was.

the last great record i listened to was…

Peter Gabriel’s album Hit. I particularly love More Than This – it’s just brilliant!

the song i wish i’d written is…

Feed the Birds by the Sherman Brothers from Mary Poppins. I’ve always been attached to quite a lot of Disney music. I’m fairly regularly reminded that, aged about three, I used to sing and dance around to the Disney version of Once Upon a Dream from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty.

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the song that makes me want to dance is…

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Paul Simon’s You Can Call Me Al from Graceland. I absolutely love this - I listened to it a lot as a teenager and it means even more to me now.

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the song that makes me cry is…

Eric Clapton’s Tears In Heaven. The combination of such an incredibly beautiful but sad song and the heartbreaking background to it has always made me cry.

the song that i know all the words to is…

Nik Kershaw’s The Riddle. I’ve always admired the production, melodies and, in some cases, the messages in his music. We used to listen to this on family holidays driving through France.

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the song i want played at my funeral is…

Irving Berlin’s Anything You Can Do - the version from the High Society original soundtrack. This song always gets me laughing.

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making music

sixty seconds THE SLITS Singer and songwriter Viv Albertine is best known as the guitarist in female post-punk band The Slits. The group – also featuring Ari Up, Palmolive and Tessa Pollitt - released the seminal Cut album in 1979 and are widely credited as one of the most influential acts of the time. Viv released her debut solo album The Vermillion Border in 2012 and has just published her autobiography Clothes, Clothes, Clothes... Music, Music, Music... Boys, Boys, Boys via Faber.

How did The Slits get together?

I was in a band called Flowers of Romance. We rehearsed at Joe Strummer’s basement in Westbourne Grove with Palmolive on drums. Bit by bit the band collapsed and Olive joined The Slits. I went to go and see them play thinking I wasn’t going to like them but I was bowled over. She was great and Ari was a brilliant frontwoman. I hassled them until they let me join.

Where did The Slits find musical inspiration?

The Slits were very conscious of not following male role models. We didn’t want to fall into that trap either musically or in how we dressed – which is what we thought had happened to [ Joan Jett’s band] The Runaways. So we pulled everything we did apart and looked at things we really loved for inspiration, from musicals like Mary Poppins or West Life Story to Burt Bacharach and dub reggae. We were very much into good songwriting regardless of genre.

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How important was producer Dennis Bovell to the making of Cut? Dennis was incredibly important. He did what every great producer does – he listened to what we were trying to do and made it happen without judging. If we wanted to put a toy instrument on a track, then Dennis would be up for it. Now everyone is like, ‘Oh let’s dub it up, let’s play plastic instruments over the top’. No one was back then but Dennis had the widest love for music. Like us, he was non-judgemental and into all sort of sounds. He also had the technical know how and was very strict about it being in time. He was instrumental as a conduit for recording but he didn’t play anything. All he did was a rhythm track for Newtown. We played it all but we weren’t tight enough at the beginning. We sure as hell were by the end.

How did you feel when making Cut? Very excited but terrified. We all wanted to make a great record. There were no egos in The Slits and we had this very pure mission. The glass control room in the studio was up above, with everyone looking down on you. You had to fight the lions down there. It felt like an amphitheatre with everyone watching and

Read the full interview with Viv

m-magazine.co.uk

listening. But it taught us so much. We were also lucky to have Dennis. It’s almost like having a first love as your best lover. To follow Dennis Bovell as a producer – his lively mind and open attitude - it just spoilt me.

Did perceptions of the band change after Cut was released?

It’s now considered the first post-punk record but we didn’t really fit in. Initially we were seen as these wild girls and everyone was terrified of us. They couldn’t label us. Looking back now people can understand our contribution. But I don’t think the album did make a huge difference to how people saw us at the time. We were shocked as we thought we’d made a classic.

What are your best memories of that time?

I don’t have any best memories. We were all very harsh on everything we did - how you conducted yourself with a boyfriend to what you wore. But we had to be.

We were trying to re-write things and say you didn’t have to be a guitar hero to be in the industry. The Eric Claptons and Peter Greens were all trying to show off their virtuosity. That’s what it was like before punk.

But the legacy is you don’t have to be a great player or be born into the upper middle class to be in the music industry. You can do it yourself without fitting in.

What was the motivation behind writing the book?

The Slits and punk were the least interesting parts for me but I knew I had to include them as that’s how people know me. Really the book is just a woman’s life.

I think I’ve had quite an eventful life - illness, divorce, miscarriage, being in a band – all these things will resonate with so many different types of people. Punk is only a small part of it.

Do you think the music industry has changed?

No. The industry and the people all seem horribly familiar. But the internet means that you don’t have to go through the same channels as we did. If you do, and I’ve seen it happen to younger women, then you still get made into something the male managers and labels want you to be. Thank god now there is the internet.

Have you any advice for songwriters?

Be truthful and honest and eventually you’ll hopefully transcend your background to become an artist. But I’d hardly recommend it. It’s not something I’d want my daughter to do.

vivalbertine.com m52_june 2014_33

picture this

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Jake Gosling with Ed Sheeran

This picture was taken at Nellee Hooper’s studio in Queens Park, London, about five years ago. Ed was around 18 years old and we were in the thick of working on his debut album +.

I’d first been introduced to Ed by my publisher Sarah Liversedge from BDi Music. She’s really proactive and always sends me loads of artists to look at. She showed me Ed’s Myspace page and played me some demos. I really liked what I saw in him so I made him a priority to work with. Sarah fixed up our first session in early 2009 and we wrote The City, which made it onto the debut album.

Once we got started, the album came together pretty quickly. When you really gel with someone, things usually go fast. I remember it was a really good time and there didn’t feel like there was much pressure on us. We were just left to get on with what we wanted.

Atlantic Records’ A&Rs Ed Howard and Ben Cook were great at understanding what was important and knew that the album had to be organic, which really helped the process.

When recording + we used quite a lot of different equipment, but mainly Cubase SX3, plus ReWired with Ableton. I’ve used Cubase for years and know how to get the best out of it - it wasn’t by any means a so-called ‘top end set-up’ but it worked. I also used the Se Electronics Gemini microphone. It’s a really great mic, especially for the price, and really captured Ed’s vocal tones. Guitars were

34_june 2014_m52

recorded through Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig, which worked really well too.

Most of the album was recorded at my own Sticky Studios in Surrey, although we did some work at Sarm Studios in London for strings and overdubs. The atmosphere at Sticky was no different to how it’s always been; laid back, fun but at the same time hardworking. I think that if you have a good mix of these elements, you get a great end result.

I think it’d be presumptuous to assume you have a hit record on your hands at any point. I knew what we had created together was special, but I had no idea it would be as successful as it has become. We both had a feeling it would connect with people, and I’m so happy it’s connected to so many.

Jake Gosling, a multi-platinum-selling producer, songwriter and manager, is best known for his work with artists including Wiley, Paloma Faith, One Direction and Ed Sheeran. He is signed to BDi Music, alongside his co-venture publishing company, The Movement.

Ivor Novello Award-winning singer songwriter Ed Sheeran released his sophomore album x on 23 June. His debut, +, is certified sixtimes platinum in the UK and has topped charts around the world. themovement.uk.com / edsheeran.com

The Truth About TAXI… An Unedited Forum Post from TAXI Member James Kocian http://forums.taxi.com/post353820.html#p353820

Hi Friends,

It's been awhile, but I'm still here!!

TAXI has been the singular catalyst for me in the past 2 years. I am closing in on 2 years of membership and my experience has been overwhelming. I will be at the Road Rally this year, as I've recently been invited to speak at the 'Successful Members' panel.

This is all beyond humbling to me, and I feel indebted to Michael and his incredibly talented staff.

Taking Risks…

In a nutshell, TAXI has motivated me and allowed me to take creative risks; to dabble in genres I didn't even know existed, and to develop relationships with high-level music professionals I otherwise would NEVER have had access to.

Major Publishers

So far this year I've signed 13 songs with major publishers. I'm writing with people all over the USA, and have made regular trips to Nashville a part of my routine.

I've been co-writing with a guy who has had multiple (recent) #1's.

It boggles my mind actually.

Once in a Lifetime Opportunity!

I'm writing Hip Hop tracks for a well known rapper's next project, and I'm connected to a MultiPlatinum, Grammy-Winning Producer who allows/asks me to regularly send him material to pitch to the biggest artists in music. That in and of itself is enough is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and it's been ongoing for nearly a year.

There's more, but this isn't about me. It's about: T-A-X-I Have I mentioned that I live in GREEN BAY, WI? I mean, sure, we have the Packers — but it isn't exactly a music hub for anything more than Journey tribute bar bands.

I really can't stress how invaluable TAXI is to people who are willing to put the CRAFT into the ART of songwriting and music production. The "Forwards" section of the [TAXI] forum itself is worth the membership fee. Why?

Figured Out What Elements I Missed…

It's not to brag about Forwards.

What I did was hit the [TAXI] Forums after I got “Returns” and found members who received “Forwards” for the same listings.

Then I went and LISTENED. I analyzed the differences in our songs.

Lyrics. Vocals. Arrangements.

Instrumentations. Productions. I re-read the listings, and figured out what elements I missed. And I adjusted accordingly.

Where else can you get that?

The success of members (at least this member) is a TEAM effort. And I am honored to consider TAXI part of my team. It is possible to succeed.

To “make it.” To realize our dreams.

Don't quit. Don't settle. Don't lose hope. And stick with TAXI.

The World’s Leading Independent A&R Company

1-800-458-2111 • TAXI.com

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