NORTHERN ECHOES
Mining for new music
BRITISH BRASS FAN FUNDING
Getting a Blowing slice of the up pie
VASHTI BUNYAN Escape artist
Members Music Magazine Members Music Magazine Issue Issue 45 53 September 2014 September 2012
sly & METRONOMY robbie ROBERT WYATT
Subheader FOREIGNER
GOLDIE
US SYNC
HANS ZIMMER P E R C U S S I O N
LOS ANGELES F E A T U R I N G
JASON BONHAM SPITFIRE W W W. S P I T F I R E A U D I O . C O M
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FEATURES
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MEMO Welcome to your September issue of M. We hope you’ve enjoyed a great summer of music and are looking forward to the upcoming awards season with the Mercury Prize, MOBOs, British Composer Awards and Gold Badge Awards now nearly upon us.
GREGOIREALEXANDRE / LLOYD WILLACY
This issue we’re celebrating the extraordinary success of South Coast synth wonders Metronomy. Main man Joseph Mount chats to us about his journey from the grimy pubs and clubs of south and east London to some of the biggest festival stages in Europe. We delve into his unique production ethic, discover his dream collaborations and learn what life’s like with the world at your feet. Later, you’ll find us hanging out with the UK’s lively brass band community to learn how far it’s come since its 19th century origins. We talk to some of the stalwarts and innovators of the movement to discover where it’s headed in the 21st century. Elsewhere, we’re exploring the US sync market to uncover the opportunities
Also in this issue we dig deep in the business news section to bring you some of the latest stats, facts and analysis from PRS for Music and the wider industry. We also bring you a comment from Arts Council England’s Craig Monk on the organisation’s latest round of music funding. We hope you enjoy the read. As ever, you can let us know what you think through all the usual channels:
Ear candy
22 brass bands
Pride and prejudice
26 vashti bunyan Freak-folk fable
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REGULARS 5 members and music
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8 money and business 30 i wrote that 33 60 seconds 34 picture this 33
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for British songwriters, composers and publishers. You’ll find leading music supervisors, artists and industry insiders candidly revealing the nitty-gritty about cash and connections across the pond. We also spend some time with legendary singer songwriter Vashti Bunyan, who, on the cusp of releasing just her third album in 40 years, assures us it’ll be her last. With an interesting tale to tell and a unique approach to music, we’re sure you’ll find her as entertaining and endearing as we did.
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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 by Cyan Group Ltd, Twickenham. www.cyan-group.com
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Naomi Belshaw, Rosie Blanchard, Olivia Chapman, KaKei Cheng, Samantha Ferguson, Eileen Fitches, Liam McMahon, Alex Sharman, Cerian Squire.
ISSN 0309-0019© PRS for Music 2014. All rights reserved. The views expressed in M are not necessarily those of PRS for Music, nor of the editorial team. PRS for Music accepts no responsibility for the views expressed by contributors to M, nor for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations, nor for errors in contributed articles or advertisements. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. M is printed on paper manufactured using chlorine-free pulps and the raw materials are from fully managed and sustainable forests.
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us visa advice Every year we hear horror stories from UK acts that are turned away from the US for having insufficient visa cover. Many are booked to perform and record Stateside, while others have received UK funding to perform at industry showcases. Although many musicians travel to the US every year without the correct papers and get away with it, some are not so lucky and, if caught, the penalties are severe. So, how do you overcome the obstacles so you can play and record across the pond? Paul Samartin, partner at immigration law firm Laura Devine Solicitors, gives us the lowdown…
aim high The Association of Independent Music (AIM) celebrated another triumphant year for the thriving indie sector at its fourth annual AIM Independent Music Awards on 2 September. Electro-pop three-piece London Grammar were the night’s biggest winners, taking two gongs for Independent Breakthrough of the Year and the PPL Most Played New Independent Act. Pioneering label Hyperdub, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, received the Best Small Label accolade. Hyperdub founder and recording artist Kode9, aka Steve Goodman, later received the well deserved Innovator Award.
The ceremony closed with Beggars Group chief Martin Mills presenting AIM Chairman Alison Wenham with a surprise Special Recognition Award for her services to independent music. Martin was also honoured, receiving the Pioneer Award. We were on hand to interview some of the night’s winning acts, including Twin Atlantic (above), Dan le Sac and Scroobius Pip, Kode9, Ghetts, Ben Watt and Richie Hawtin. Get yourself along to m-magazine. co.uk/interviews to learn who Twin Atlantic are tipping for success and hear the lowdown from Dan and Scroob on what’s next now their fêted musical partnership has come to an end.
CARL ENGLISH / TANYA UDDIN
celebrating 100 years live sessions
From Sir Edward Elgar to Adele, great composers and songwriters have been at the heart of the musical landscape for the last century. Now, 100 Years of British Music, a book specially commissioned by PRS for Music to mark its centenary year, will commemorate these important creators. Showcased within its pages are the finest composers of film music, opera, symphonies and stage shows, as well as the writers behind the greatest hits of rock and pop. The hardback contains superb new photographs by Lucy Sewill together with rare and unseen pictures from the archives. It’s available to pre-order now at prsformusic.com/100years 4_september 2014_m53
Callum Burrows, aka Saint Raymond, is a fastrising songwriter brimming with jingle-jangle melodies and pop nous. His debut EP Escapade rooted itself firmly into the iTunes chart Top 30, while follow-up, Young Blood, rose to number three. Helped by a remix by Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke, and boosted by the Zane Lowe Hottest Record in the World treatment, the EP shone a light on Callum’s rare talent. He’s now signed to Asylum, home to Rudimental and Ed Sheeran, and has released another acclaimed EP, Ghosts. We recently caught him performing an acoustic version of his song Everything She Wants. Check it out at m-magazine.co.uk/sessions
How can you get covered to work in the US? If you need to travel to the US to perform or record, broadly speaking there are two ways to (legally) do it: by obtaining an Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) and travelling under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), or by applying for and obtaining a work authorised visa, such as an O or P visa. The hard truth is that, as a member of the entertainment profession – which includes musicians, DJs, singers and other personnel such as technicians – the VWP is unlikely to be an option for you. Instead, you will need to apply for a temporary work authorised visa. Are there other visa options for performers? If you are not eligible for travel on the VWP, you will need a work authorised visa to perform in the US. The appropriate visa type depends on several factors, but most entertainment professionals will fit into the O (non-US nationals with extraordinary abilities in the arts) or P (performing artist/ entertainment groups) work authorised visa classifications. What if you are recording, not performing? Professional musicians may enter the US on the VWP to record, but only if the recording will not be distributed or sold within the US and no public performances are given during the visit. For the full article vist m-magazine.co.uk
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we were evergreen Michael, Fabienne and William are We Were Evergreen, a trio of friends who made good on a New Year’s resolution to form a band and start making beautiful music together. Based around their guitars and playful machines, the trio quickly learned how to weave innovative songwriting together with gorgeous harmonies and deft electronic idiosyncracies. Now settled in London from Paris, after training at the French capital’s prestigious Conservatoire de Musique, the threesome have spent some time steadily intoxicating more switched on music fans with their sound. Word has spread via their increasing profile of live outings, with support slots for Ed Sheeran, Michael Kiwanuka and Goldfrapp. They’ve also become a firm festival favourite with crowds at Lovebox, Wilderness and Green Man over the last few summers.
auntie flo 2014 has seen the culmination of We Were Evergreen’s endeavours with the release of debut album, Towards. The record sees them expanding the standard indie pop template, employing ukuleles, banjos, toy pianos and kazoos to weave a lovely net of electronic indie sounds.
Auntie Flo is Brian d’Souza, an electronic producer looking far further afield than the usual circuit board of beats and bleeps for inspiration. Hailing from Goa, by way of Glasgow, Brian blends a love for classic house, techno and disco with the afrobeat, kwaito and world music rhythms of his heritage.
Produced in cahoots with Mercury Prize winning alt-J collaborator Charlie Andrew, the record is a collection of 12 smart pop moments and signposts a big musical leap forward for the group. Metronomy, Björk and Elliot Smith are all reference points with Best Thing and Daughters just some of the highlights from an album that exudes its own distinct colours and charm. Despite all the hard work, they still make sounding and looking chic seem so effortless. If they haven’t already been the soundtrack to your summer, then catch them live later this year and look out for more new material soon.
It’s this innovative style which has informed his Goan Highlife and Oh My Days EPs for dance imprint Huntleys and Palmers, and has seen him establish himself as the resident for the label’s highlife parties.
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Brian has since released a much loved debut mini album Future Rhythm Machine showcasing his ‘afro-futurist’ sound. He’s currently working on a debut album proper after recently being named as a recipient of backing from the PRS for Music Foundation’s Momentum Music Fund.
black state highway Brighton Institute of Modern Music alumni Black State Highway may have met while studying, but this five-piece play hard, their feedback filled rock more in keeping with nocturnal pacts made at crossroads than higher education. Whether or not they have sold their souls to the devil isn’t certain. But what is apparent on first listen is their potent combination of blues, grooves and raw riffs. Latvian singer Liva Steinberga leads the motley crew, aided and abetted by guitarist Olie Trethewey, bassist Gordon Duncan, Jon Crampton and drummer Harry Bland.
While technically great players, they have plenty of dirt in the grooves of their music as evidenced by their belligerent self titled debut. The eightsong LP wears their love for AC/DC and Deep Purple firmly on its denim sleeves. It’s rough and ready rock ’n’ roll with rips in its jeans but fuelled by 21st century production techniques as much as Jack Daniels. You won’t need to look out for these guys - you’ll be able to hear them coming… blackstatehighway.co.uk m53_september 2014_5
members & music
100 years of british song
gold badges
music via early torch and folk songs, through two World Wars and on to the swing, pop, soul, glam, protest and urban music that followed. Ian has gathered a multi-generational team of renowned singers and players to create an unforgettable evening that mirrors 10 decades of the UK’s rich cultural heritage. The concert takes place on 20 November at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London. This year, the festival runs from 14 to 23 November at venues around the capital. It will celebrate 75 years of the iconic Blue Note Records by bringing together a clutch of artists who are living proof of the label’s continuing quest for fresh sounds. American pianists Jason Moran and Robert Glasper will duet, while Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis will bring their lively blend of boogie-woogie to the Royal Festival Hall.
Multi-award winning jazz singer, songwriter and pianist Ian Shaw will present a 100 year journey of British song at the London Jazz Festival in November.
Other highlights include Movers and Shakers: the Art of the British Jazz Group, featuring Jason Yarde, Laura Noble and Mark Lockheart, on 20 November, and a rare live show from upcoming London talent Zara McFarlane on 21 November.
Over its 41 years, the Gold Badge Awards has celebrated the achievements of a broad range of individuals working across all areas of public life, from legendary producer Sir George Martin and jazz luminary Robert Wyatt (see page 33 to Michael Eavis and Ronnie Scott.
The concert, which has been sponsored by PRS for Music and celebrates the centenary of the Performing Right Society, will tell the story of UK
For more info on all these events, visit efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk. Go online to read our interview with Ian Shaw m-magazine.co.uk
The Gold Badge Awards are presented by BASCA in association with PRS for Music. For more information visit basca.org
spandau ballet award Seminal eighties pop act Spandau Ballet have become the latest recipients of a PRS for Music Heritage Award. The plaque was presented by PRS Chairman Guy Fletcher at the site of their first ever gig at the Blitz Club, now Red Rooms, in the heart of London’s Covent Garden.
JOHN HAXBY / GETTY IMAGES
Composer Anne Dudley (above), broadcaster Jo Whiley, Bob Geldof KBE, Alison Moyet and music publisher Peter Cornish are among the recipients at this year’s Gold Badge Awards. The ceremony, which takes place on 14 October at The Savoy Hotel, London, will honour a further eight individuals for their services to British music, including songwriter Nicky Graham, composer John McLeod and conductor Tim Reynish.
Brothers Gary and Martin Kemp, Steve Norman, Tony Hadley and John Keeble formed the band in the late seventies, experimenting with various sounds and styles before falling into the Blitz Club and the capital’s new club scene. They went on to cement their trademark electro-tinged pop sound after the encounter, and performed their first gig there on 5 December 1979. Now, after 25 million record sales, six multi-platinum albums, 23 hit singles and an infamous split, the band are back together, have a new 6_september 2014_m53
Find out more about PRS for Music’s Heritage Awards
m-magazine.co.uk
album under their belts and are performing new material alongside some of their biggest anthems, including Gold, True and To Cut a Long Story Short. PRS for Music honoured the band’s success on 10 September 2014, in front of fans and members of the press. The organisation established its Heritage Award scheme in 2009 to recognise important live music venues where iconic bands and songwriters performed. Previous awardees include Blur, Elton John, Soul II Soul, UB40, Snow Patrol, Faithless and Queen.
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gaining momentum ‘From Glastonbury to Green Man, this summer’s festivals have been a great platform for Momentum funded artists,’ says Vanessa Reed, Executive Director of PRS for Music Foundation, as she announces the latest acts
to receive backing from the organisation’s innovative Momentum Music Fund. This time round, recipients include Amplify Dot, FEMME, Public Service Broadcasting and Dems. Here we chat to two of them to learn more…
The next Momentum Music Fund deadline is 28 Oct 2014. Find out more at:
prsformusicfoundation.com
amplify dot South London rapper Ashley Charles, aka Amplify Dot, has been bothering bass bins since the tender age of 13, when she first caught the rhyming bug and began freestyling over the top of her favourite records. After graduating from an ‘embarrassing’ (her words) teenage grime crew called Ill Cartel, she released a string of spiky mixtapes and signed to Sony/ATV Publishing.
dems Dems are Dan Moss, Duncan Mann and David Gardener – three London-based musicians dealing in lo-fi electronic jams. Originating from Edinburgh, Dan brought the band together through a mutual love of synth-pop, eighties no-wave and sparse film scores. Their resultant sound effortlessly blends elements of all three. Having already built up a reputation around the capital for their captivating live shows, which include 3D installations, Dems spread their wings earlier this year to make the pilgrimage to Texas for the South by South West showcase. Needless to say, their uniquely British sound went down a storm. What’s the first music you remember hearing? David: Chattanooga Choo Choo by Glenn Miller. My parents had it on a 12-inch record and my brother and I used to have them put it on as kids and dance round the living room for hours!
How would you describe your sound? David: Our sound is very much rooted in live instrumentation. It lies somewhere in the realm of electronica fused with R&B. What are you going to spend your grant on? David: The release of our first album. It’s been recorded over the last six months in our South London studio and we’re so happy with it. Thanks to the grant we just got the album masters back on Friday and they sound so huge! If you were a musical instrument, what would it be and why? David: That’s a hard question because I love them all. Erm, not a brass or woodwind instrument because people blow you all day and then you get full of saliva! Not percussion because people beat you all day. I think some member of the strings family, maybe a cello. It was my first instrument. d-e-m-s.com
How did you get into making music yourself? David: I was always surrounded by music as a kid. My dad played the cello, Spanish guitar and lute, while my mum played the piano really well among other instruments. I remember playing the drums on my first kit made up of boxes and saucepans. My neighbours must have hated it!
She’s since worked with everyone from Busta Rhymes and Kano to Emeli Sande and Ms Dynamite, honing her razor sharp delivery along the way. Aside from working on her debut album, she also hosts The Dotty Show, on BBC 1Xtra. What’s the first music you remember hearing? This would have been the sound of reggae echoing around the family household. Revival and Lovers Rock music were the soundtrack to my early years. One of my earliest memories was a song called Substitute Lover by Half Pint. How did you get into making music yourself? I started off learning the words to all my favourite rap songs and replaying them over and over until I could recite the verses word for word. Then I bought a single called Breathe and Stop by Q-Tip and the CD included the instrumental to the song. That’s where it started; I would write my own lyrics and rap them over that beat. How would you describe your sound? Eclectically infused rap. What are you going to spend your grant on? The independent release of my debut album. If you were a musical instrument, what would it be and why? I’d be a drum. Drums are music’s heartbeat. amplifydot.co.uk m53_september 2014_7
money & business legal shift allows private copying of music
The government introduces a new copyright exception on 1 October 2014 to allow the public to make copies of their music legally for their private and personal use. Previously, it has been illegal to make copies of copyright content, even in the home, without the permission of the rightsholders. But, following the publication of the government’s Modernising Copyright document in 2012, this law was deemed to be at odds with the rise of personal computers, MP3 players and smartphones - which many consumers now use to store and play their music. From October, the Copyright and Rights in Performances (Personal Copies for Private Use) Regulations 2014 grants consumers the legal right to copy CDs and DVDs on to personal computers, mobile devices and internet based cloud locker services. While the music industry, including PRS for Music, has welcomed the government’s attempts to modernise the law, it opposes the way in which this is being done for two reasons. Firstly, the European Copyright Directive states that where a private copying exception is introduced, the law must also
provide fair compensation to rightsholders, which this new piece of legislation does not. Secondly, the government is not, in the view of the music industry, making it sufficiently clear to consumers what they may and may not do legally with copies made to cloud locker services. These services allow people to store their personal files on servers ‘in the cloud’, but they also generally allow such files to be shared with others. There are fears, therefore, that extending the private copying exception into this area could cause confusion among consumers as to which cloud services and types of copies are legal and which are not. Robert Ashcroft, Chief Executive at PRS for Music, said: ‘While we understand and support the government’s aims, this is a bad piece of legislation for users, consumers and rightsholders alike. This is why we are engaged with others in the music industry, via UK Music, in challenging it, potentially in the courts if necessary’. Other organisations have also voiced their concerns, with Musicians’ Union and the Trade Union Congress both lobbying for fair compensation for musicians following the legal shift. Trade body UK Music and the British Academy of Songwriters and Composers (BASCA) have also called for a fairer deal for rightsholders. For more information on the new exemptions, visit ipo.gov.uk/hargreaves-copyright-techreview. To keep up to date on copyright developments and debates, visit m-magazine.co.uk/news.
new home for british music
DAN CURWIN / LLOYD WILLACY
PRS for Music will leave its Berners Street headquarters in November for a new central London location and expanded premises at its Streatham office. The new address at 2 Pancras Square will see the organisation become part of a rapidly developing creative hub of organisations in the King’s Cross area. Situated next to King’s Cross and St Pancras International stations will also mean PRS for Music is better connected to the rest of the UK and Europe than ever before. Meanwhile, an ambitious programme of refurbishment in the Streatham office will 8_september 2014_m53
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see PRS for Music become one of the largest employers in the area. The collecting society said it is placing music at the very heart of office life in the new premises. Both locations will have specially designed communal areas which can be used for live gigs and performances from members and staff. These new high quality office environments will help PRS for Music retain the best people while an ambitious technology investment programme is aimed at transforming the way the organisation works.
More than one billion YouTube viewers are now watching six billion hours of video content each month, with around 40 percent watched on mobile devices, according to new data published by web TV blog Tubefilter and online analytics specialist OpenSlate. The statistics, published in August, showed that the top 100 YouTube channels’ views have increased by more than 80 percent in the last year, from 5.24 billion in July 2013 to 9.46 billion in July 2014. Overall, the data indicates that games, comedy and music are the most watched categories on the streaming site. The channel that enjoyed the biggest gains in the year belongs to Swedish gamer Felix Kjellberg, who operates under the PewDiePie moniker. His monthly views went from 221.6 million to 438.9 million from July 2013 to July 2014. Meanwhile DisneyCollector was the second most-watched channel by July 2014, with 268 million views in that month alone. In terms of music, Shakira’s channel featured highest at number three, with 226 million views in July 2014, followed by Enrique Iglesias at number six (185.2 million views), Katy Perry (seventh with 175.1 million) and Pitbull (ninth with 155.6 million). Closer to home, singer songwriter Ed Sheeran (above) continued to enjoy phenomenal success on the platform, with his channel now boasting more than 3.1 million subscribers. His number one single Sing, with Pharrell Williams, has been viewed more than 42.6 million times since it was posted in May 2014.
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songs for manchester PRS for Music has launched Songs for Manchester, a new initiative aimed at encouraging local businesses to become licensed and highlight the contribution their licence fees make to the creation of new music. Up and coming local songwriters including Baxter Rhodes, Matt Fryer and Liam Blake are helping the collecting society recognise those licensed businesses by writing a song for them. Those businesses will also receive a street chalking outside their shop front. This acknowledges they are investing in the future of music by buying a PRS for Music licence and playing music legally. The initiative kicked off in Greater Manchester this summer
Find out more about PRS for Music’s Songs for Manchester
before moving to the city centre in September.
Facebook.com/PRSforMusic In total, five singer songwriters have performed live across the city to support the campaign. You can watch videos of their performances on YouTube.com/PRSforMusic. Get involved You can also take part in the Songs for Manchester competition and win live music tickets. If you hear a favourite song in a business, then tweet (using the hashtag #songsformanchester) or post the name of both song and artist on the PRS for Music Facebook page wall to enter. A winner will be announced on 15 December 2014. Facebook.com/PRSforMusic
PRS for Music Songs for Manchester singer-songwriters (l-r): Liam Blake; Seamus McKenna; Matt Fryers; Tom Metcalfe; Baxter Rhodes
sound makeover for salons Do you know a beauty salon or hairdresser that could do with a music makeover? If so, let them know about PRS for Music’s new competition, dubbed Sound Makeover, which is aimed at helping salon managers and owners improve their on-site music facilities. Prize money of £5,000 and an expert consultation will enable the winning salon to kit out their establishment with sound and music equipment, while two runners up will receive £1,000 each towards their own sound system. The judging panel includes PRS for Music director of Public Performance Sales, Paul Clements, record producer and sound expert, Steve Levine and David Morris, who is MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, a PRS for Music songwriter and also a member of the Hairdressing Council.
Clements said: ‘Many salons compete in an environment where distinguishing their service can be a tricky task. Making music a feature in your salon can have excellent benefits and help you to stand out from the rest. This competition also gives something back to our important licensees and helps them to support an important British music ecosystem.’ Levine added: ‘There are many very cheap and simple ways in which salon owners can enhance their music quality. Sometimes the issues lie with the equipment and other times the quality of music being played or the way the room is decorated and furnished can affect the way it sounds. Small tweaks can potentially make a huge impact on the popularity of a salon - through music.’ Get involved Visit prsformusic.com/soundmakeover to learn more about the competition and the entry requirements. Submissions need to be made by 31 October 2014. The Sound Makeover initiative also includes handy hints for salons on playing music in their premises and details recent PRS for Music research which found that 83 percent of people feel that silence makes a place feel unfriendly and unwelcoming.
game on PRS for Music has agreed a brand new licensing deal with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for the use of copyright music within games downloaded across Europe, including titles in the Grand Theft Auto, Fallout and FIFA series. The licence is the first of its kind and covers the performing rights exploited when the music featured in games is delivered online through the Sony Playstation Store. Covering the period from February 2007 to December 2013, the licence will provide those PRS for Music members who have written or published music used in the games with a new royalty stream. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has provided a list of the games downloaded during this period and the collecting society said it was planning to distribute the royalties in December. Members are now being urged to ensure they have registered all their works used in computer games by the beginning of November 2014. For more information on PRS for Music’s online works registration system, and to add or amend your music, please visit prsformusic.com and log in to your online account. m53_september 2014_9
money & business
the sync insider Advertisers prefer pop music, with the genre accounting for nearly a quarter (24.7 percent) of all songs appearing in UK TV adverts from January to July 2014. Alternative, orchestral and electronic music were next in line, making up 13 percent, 9.8 percent and six percent shares respectively, figures from Ad Break Anthems have revealed. Elsewhere, rock, easy listening and folk music each contributed to around five percent, while R&B made up just 3.5 percent of music used. Nearly a third (32 percent) of all music was contemporary, with deep catalogue works, such as Jefferson Starship’s version of We Built This City (Three mobile network campaign), accounting for 24 percent. Speciallycommissioned works made up 16.8 percent of all music used, while re-records contributed 11 percent and library music made up just five percent. Some of the period’s biggest campaigns also helped the careers of emerging acts including the Imagem-signed psych-pop outfit Temples, who scored a placement on Strongbow Cider’s
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summer campaign with their track Keep in the Dark. Other up-and-coming winners included Dan Croll, whose song Home appeared on the Cathedral City cheese advert. The biggest master rightsholder winners included Universal, which took a 15.6 percent share of the overall TV sync advertising market from January to July. It was closely followed by Sony on 14.2 percent and Warner Music on 8.9 percent. Indie companies, deep catalogue rightsholders and sound agencies including Audio Network, made up the rest. The research also found that the most lucrative sync sector for songwriters was food and food retail (63 percent), followed by motoring (34 percent) and telecoms (7.6 percent). Ad Break Anthems is edited by music journalist Chas de Whalley, who tracked 314 syncs from January to July 2014. He produces a monthly Sync Survey, with up-to-date statistics and editorial covering the UK’s TV sync advertising market. For more information and to sign up, visit adbreakanthems.com or email c.dewhalley@adbreakanthems.com
INFORMATION
PRS for Music does a great job collecting money and distributing it to you in the form of your royalties. But who looks solely after the interests and rights of songwriters and composers?
That’s where BASCA steps in. BASCA is a single, powerful voice for all songwriters and composers, across all genres. We’re an independent, professional, not-for-profit association driven to ensure that our members’ needs are always taken into account when it really matters.
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BASCA membership benefits include: PROFESSIONAL SERVICES Free insurance: Professional and Standard members are automatically insured for £1m Public Liability plus equipment insurance Discounts, offers and more: Specially negotiated discounts from our partners, including magazine and media subscription offers from Music Week and Record of The Day Free legal service & tax helpline CELEBRATION BASCA owns and organises the Ivor Novello Awards, the British Composer Awards and the Gold Badge Awards. As a BASCA member, you can take advantage of special industry ticket prices TRAINING Acquire new skills, improve your knowledge and make new contacts through our range of development seminars
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Total number of acts to receive PRS for Music Foundation Momentum Fund support since the scheme launched in 2013
1960
Year the Performing Right Society moved to its Berners Street HQ Who? Warp Records What? Velcro by Rustie. Written by Russell Whyte Where? Adidas – Leo Messi - Back in Barcelona online campaign
Adidas’ latest online advertising campaign welcomes footballer Leo Messi back to his home city of Barcelona after this year’s World Cup. Warp Records’ electronic act Rustie provides the soundtrack with his song Velcro. Will Theakston, Head of Licensing at Warp, gives us the inside story on how this placement was a great teaser for Rustie’s second album Green Language. How did the placement happen? Record Play were the music supervisors on the project. We’re always in touch with new ideas and make sure we send music to them nice and early. Likewise, they keep us in mind for projects that might fit. The placement came about through collaboration - we informed them about the Rustie record and when the music would be available. Velcro was one of the tracks and it grew from there. So, you worked closely with them for this particular record? Yes, we’re always sending ideas to music supervisors, either because we think the tracks would work well or we think they’re a fan of that style of music. With this, it was a mixture of us sending songs from the Rustie album and them just getting excited. Traditionally, we’ve also had some success with Rustie and Adidas before. We organised an advert around the time of the London 2012 Olympics on his previous record so there’s a bit of history. What are the benefits of getting an online advert sync? Connecting with a global audience is one of the most exciting things. It’s fascinating to watch how people pick up on a placement like this. Many music publications reviewed it while people got pretty excited about it on social media. You see people commenting on placements on TV via Twitter, but with this form of advert, it’s eye
opening to see just how quickly it gets shared. You can also include pre-order links to the album next to the vid too. Are you looking for other placements for Rustie? We’re always looking at opportunities for artists. We’re thrilled that this one happened but will be doing our utmost to find more interesting opportunities. The timing with Adidas for this one was fantastic. It’s always great to have something underway at the same time as the record’s release. It maximises attention for both artist and album. What is it that makes Rustie’s music so attractive to brands and advertisers? Velcro is a dynamic track. It had the energy, build and development they were looking for. There’s only a short amount of time to grab attention, and the mood and music help to do that. It’s great that these brands make interesting choices on their music. We were very happy they thought it was a good fit. Rustie is a phenomenal artist with many fans in the sync world and beyond. However, if the music isn’t great it doesn’t get used. While we work hard to get opportunities, the real work is done by the artists in writing these songs. Ultimately, it’s the quality of their music which shines through.
69.7 million
Total number of unique music performances accounted for in PRS’ July 2014 distribution
2.65
Average number of commissions composers received in 2013, according to Sound and Music’s latest Composer Commissioning Survey
your next paydays Performing
Mechanicals
(PRS):
(MCPS):
15 October
30 September
15 December
31 October
Rustie is published by Warp Music Publishing
15 April 2015
28 November
warpmusic.com
15 July 2015
31 December m53_september 2014_11
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Sister publication to SongLink which details upcoming Film & TV productions in need of music, songs, full scores, cues etc. Sent twice a month by e-mail, our listings include leads from some of the industry’s top music supervisors and commissioners based in the UK/Ireland and USA/Canada. Covers all types of productions including major & indie feature films, TV drama & documentaries, plus the occasional advert, video games, web tv, etc. Contact us for a free sample issue today. Special combo-discounts available if you subscribe to both services. Please note that unpub lished writers need subscription approval - send 2 sample works by MP3, web Links or CD.
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26/08/2014 11:38
money & business focus on funding
Craig Monk, Music Relationship Manager at Arts Council England, explains the organisation’s new focus on music education and reveals the thinking behind its latest National Investment Portfolio (NPO) funding, which runs from 2015 to 2018. The starting point for Arts Council England (ACE) is matching the number and quality of applications we receive against our budgets. In a happier world, where we hadn’t seen such decreases in public spending, we’d be able to fund a lot more of the applications we receive. But this is the reality of recession/post-recession era Britain. In this round, we received far more good applications than we were able to fund. I know it’s a cliché but we had tough decisions to take. However, in all areas of music, we’re looking to achieve what we might call a balanced portfolio. We consider art form, representation across a wide area of genre and geography as we’re also mindful of the need to achieve a national spread. Also, new organisations were able to apply for NPO funding and there are quite a few newcomers we were able to bring in. It’s been tough but the feedback we’ve had from funding organisations shows that they do broadly understand our position. It’s also important to remember that there will be a general election in the midst of the investment plan. We’ve been able to confirm funding for the first year of this new period but the next two years are subject to
ACE has also taken on additional responsibilities during this current funding period. Significantly for the music team, we have taken on responsibility for music education hubs and administering its funding. This is a great opportunity as we have much more involvement around cultural education than we’ve ever had. The future of all these art forms is about young people taking them up, having the tools to be critical as audiences and be involved as both audiences and participants. We know that from audience surveying, the best signifier of whether someone engages with the arts is whether they were involved as a young person. It also acts as a good indicator of the likelihood of someone volunteering or voting. So it’s certainly an exciting development that ACE has become more involved. It means our work as Music Relationship Managers is broader than ever, but it feels like the right place to be because of the great importance of the work.
0.8% Chamber 0.6% Choral/gospel 24.8% Classical/orchestral Community music
3.0%
Contemporary classical
3.2%
Contemporary popular (incl. rock/pop/hip hop etc)
0.3%
Early music
0.5%
Experimental & electronic music
2.0%
Jazz/improvised music
Other music
2.2%
Roots/folk
1.2%
World music
Almost three quarters of the 466 respondents received the same number or more commissions in 2013 compared with 2012. However, only 15 percent found that they earned more income. Fortynine percent of those questioned said that they had less time to rehearse or prepare when putting new works together.
When asked about expectations for 2014, 74 percent expect to have the same or more commissions than 2013. Fourteen percent of composers said they expect to earn less from commissions this year than they did in 2013. Although this number is lower than 2013, this indicates that expected income per commission is in decline.
57.9% Opera/music theatre 1.0%
An estimated two thirds of composers do not make a ‘significant’ amount of income from commissioned pieces, a new report has revealed. The study, by Sound and Music, showed composers received an average of 2.65 commissions in 2013 with an average fee per piece of £1,392.
Further findings also showed the pay scale for commissions had huge variance with 2013’s annual commissioning income ranging from £1 to over £100,000, including the single highest paying commission at £60,000. Meanwhile, 20 percent of composers said they turned down a commission opportunity in 2013. The most common reason cited was lack of time, followed by lack of interest or faith in the project, then inadequate compensation.
Brass and silver bands
1.3%
commission fees decline
the election results and the policies of either the incumbent or incoming government. Even with the decisions we’ve announced, we still have to wait and see because of the political scenario.
National Portfolio Organisations funding 2015-18 0.3%
news
0.9% Youth music
88%
percentage increase for contemporary popular music funding from 2012-15 to 2015-2018
22.5%
percentage increase for opera/music theatre funding from 2012-15 to 2015-2018
The Sound and Music Composer Commissioning Survey ran from 23 June until 16 July 2014. Visit soundandmusic.org to learn more. m53_september 2014_13
CREDIT
SYNC
SYNC
Main image: Psapp
The US sync market holds a wealth of opportunities for UK music. Emily Syed discovers how artists, labels and publishers can get involved. When electronic duo Psapp first made their foray into the music industry, they were fully aware that their manager’s ambition and excitement didn’t necessarily mean guaranteed success. In a world that can be mired by broken promises, they rolled their eyes at his suggestion that a track they’d recorded for a new US TV show was ever ‘going to be big’. However, their skepticism was misplaced. That show is the now multi-award winning medical drama Grey’s Anatomy and Psapp’s Cosy in the Rocket has provided the theme tune throughout its entire 11 series. ‘We were writing our first album - we’d only recently met and were still experimenting with our sound and getting to know each other,’ says one half of the band Galia Durant. ‘Through a strange and rather convoluted set of events, a demo with a few tracks on it had found its way to [US music supervisor] Alexandra Patsavas who was looking for a theme tune for a big new show. When it suddenly really happened, we soon realised it was a much bigger deal than we had initially thought.’ As well as enabling the band to sustain a career, the exposure has brought more mainstream coverage (‘I seem to remember awkwardly playing a plastic snake on Fox News whilst covered in bright orange foundation,’ says Galia), put them in ‘a great bargaining position’ when signing their publishing and label deals and won them 10 (10!) BMI Awards. ‘All we wanted to do was make good records and it had certainly never occurred to me that we would ever make a living from writing music. The [Grey’s Anatomy] sync has meant we have been able to do so many things which otherwise wouldn’t have been possible. I don’t really want to get into the money side of things, but of course it has been lucrative particularly in PRS payments,’ adds Galia. ‘It’s a primetime show that is aired on one of the largest channels in the US and is now shown in many other countries - you get the picture!’
adverts and videogames has become an increasingly important revenue stream for artists, publishers and record labels over the past few years, thanks to the decrease in recorded music revenue. For London-based indie label B-Unique, sync has been the biggest growth area over the last decade. Artists on its roster are regularly sent to the US for showcases where one deal could make between $5,000 and $15,000. ‘We’re proactive and go to the source rather than just playing CDs to people,’ says the company’s co-founder Mark Lewis. ‘We sent Benjamin Francis Leftwich out there; Luke Sital-Singh and Kodaline have all been out twice.’ Luke has had two syncs on Grey’s Anatomy, a track in network drama Suits, TV series Beauty & the Beast and historical drama Reign. As well as helping build a foundation for launching his artist career overseas, the cash earned tides him over until his next record label advance. ‘Having syncs is really cool, I used to be a bit of an emo kid so watched programmes like The OC to find new bands rather than listen to the standard Radio 1 stuff,’ he explains. ‘My music is so made for montages - it seems to be wedding scenes. I signed a relatively small publishing deal so hopefully when I start getting more syncs that advance will recoup quite quickly.’ Touch Tones is another company to have fast become prolific in the US sync market. Recent deals include the track It’s Up To You by songwriter Matt Harding, which was placed in drama series Nurse Jackie, while jazzfunk band Melt Yourself Down’s We Are Enough soundtracked an advert for department store Kohl’s dorm sale campaign this summer.
Elsewhere, Brixton band Alabama 3 boast one of the best known syncs around – their 1997 track Woke Up This Morning (Chosen One Mix) is the opening music for HBO’s much loved crime drama The Sopranos. The deep vocals and steady beat is lauded for perfectly setting the scene for the show’s gritty gangster theme. Elsewhere, Pete Townshend of The Who has earned 17 BMI Awards for placing songs in CSI. The band’s single Who Are You, released in 1978, accompanies each episode’s title sequence and Pete has since penned original music for the TV series.
Cash upfront Upfront fees are generally the norm, but can range hugely depending on the notoriety of the artist or how much the supervisor wants the track. Nathalie Du Bois is Head of North America for music administration firm Conexion. She has placed over a thousand pieces of music in network shows including The Good Wife, CSI and films such as Dallas Buyers Club and Bridget Jones’s Diary. ‘If network shows want an independent artist - someone who hasn’t had a hit song - depending on the budget of the show, upfront fees can be as low as $750 and can go up to $2,500. The studios that pay $2,500 do so because they traditionally have paid more money. That same artist could get a fee of $1,000 with another studio for the same exact song,’ she explains.
Slice of the American pie The US sync market is worth over $178m (, and, as of 2013, represents a four percent slice of the country’s annual revenue from recorded music, according to IFPI figures. Getting music placed in films, TV series,
Adverts tend to use music written on spec, so will command higher fees, and for independent or low budget movies, payment starts at around $2,500. The upfront fee is only a small part of the story, however, and performance royalties will be paid for as long as the TV series, advert
‘There’s an enormous amount of talent in the UK and there are a lot of opportunities for them here in the US.’
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SYNC Clockwise from left: Alabama 3; Melt Yourself Down; Luke Sital-Singh; Kodaline; Matt Harding;
‘Being able to clear the rights to a track quickly is vital, as companies can sometimes have as little as 10 minutes to make a decision on a song.’ or film that uses the particular track is being shown. ‘For TV shows it’s about $600-$700 per use for a vocal song that’s 42 seconds or longer,’ adds Nathalie. It’s a different story to Europe, where larger production companies and broadcasters typically get their music from broadcast blanket licence agreements that allows them to use any PRS for Musicmanaged works for a yearly fee. Companies like Conexion act as a middleman between artists, publishers and the key players in the sync industry. Conexion places around two to four tracks a day and clients include Comcast (NBC/Universal), Warner Bros, Viacom (Paramount, MTV), Disney (ABC/Touchstone), 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures. The UK is a market they are currently looking to for fresh talent. Says Nathalie: ‘I want to develop more relationships with UK artists and UK catalogues because that’s an untapped market for us. There’s an enormous amount of talent in the UK and there are a lot of opportunities for them here [in the US].’ TV shows typically look for independent artists that have a similar sound to the kind of music that’s being played on the radio (by commercial artists that they can’t afford) and, these days, supervisors are also interested in what the artist is doing and what kind of following they have, says Nathalie. ‘It’s got much more vocal and artist driven, rather than instrumental.’ Forging links While using companies like Conexion – which has already built trusted relationships with music supervisors – can be useful, there are more direct ways of pitching music. Every year, the BPI takes a group of independent music companies to LA to learn about the sync licensing market and to meet and network with music supervisors and placement executives in the TV, film, advertising and computer games markets. Head of Sync at Cooking Vinyl Verity Griffiths went along this year and has done ‘several deals as a result of following up with contacts’ made while in LA – people met either after panels, at networking events, or by initiating her own meetings. ‘I made sure I asked how they liked to work and be contacted so I could tailor my follow up appropriately and make us as easy as possible for the supervisors to work with,’ she says.
If that LA plane fare is a bit too steep, the National Association of Record Industry Professionals (NARIP) flies over top US supervisors for pitching workshops around every six weeks. NARIP’s Music Supervisor Sessions have yielded over 150 music placements and take place in Berlin, Paris and London as well as LA, New York and San Francisco. Participants get a brief before the session explaining the kind of music the supervisors might be looking for, play the suggestion during the meeting and get feedback on each track. The secret to pitching directly is research, advises Sharon Dean, Director of NARIP in London. ‘Do your homework. If you are going to pitch your music to a supervisor make sure that you try and find out as much about them as you can through IMDb. You’ll get more respect from them if you actually can say, “I understand you’re going into pre-production with this movie, can I send you some music?” If you send an email don’t ramble, and send three or four good songs, rather than a catalogue of 150.’ Also, being able to clear the rights to a track quickly is vital, as companies can sometimes have as little as 10 minutes to make a decision on whether to use a song. ‘They don’t really have time to be faffing about with clearance and licensing,’ adds Nathalie. While Psapp have since had tracks on Orange, Volkswagen, Absolut Vodka and Powerade adverts, together with music played on The OC, CSI and Nip/Tuck, getting a sync deal isn’t an easy win, and can take months of relationship building, trial and error, or, that one chance meeting. Concludes Galia: ‘There’s a lottery element to it. A demo can become a theme tune, a long forgotten track with a Hoover solo can be snapped up for an ad and there can be long quiet times. I know it’s a cliché and may sound like false modesty but it’s not: we were just really bloody lucky.’
Keep up to date with the latest trends in sync
m-magazine.co.uk m53_september 2014_17
POP PERFECTION
Main image: Metronomy
Metronomy’s Joseph Mount chats to Anita Awbi about his shift from pop outsider to household name, his love of the album format and the art of pop production.
profile
‘In secret, I’d always put on a girl’s voice and sing into an old recorder in my bedroom,’ sniggers pop auteur Joseph Mount. He’s recalling his early music-making years in Devon and Brighton, a time before Metronomy became a fully fledged band and an all conquering class act. ‘I’d imagine that the song I was writing was for someone else - I just hadn’t met her yet. So I’d sing these little high-pitched ideas that were actually quite elaborate and expressive because I didn’t think anyone else would ever hear them!’ Things are different now. The world has tuned in. Over eight eventful years Joseph has somehow morphed his Metronomy moniker from klezmer-addled electronic misfit into full-scale pop juggernaut – without losing any edge. Now lynchpin to a gang of four, with a Mercury Prize nomination under his belt and a Top 10 album on the slate, he’s taking stock of the ride. We’re basking in a warm slice of late summer sun that’s streaming across a quiet plaza behind Kings Cross Station. Talk turns from his early years as a nerdy bedroom producer and Warp Records enthusiast to his new-found status as festival-headlining pop act. Is this what songwriting success feels like? ‘For the first time we’re out of the generic font on the festival line-up listings,’ Joseph acknowledges, tongue firmly in cheek. ‘As soon as you break out of the regular font and are allowed to use your own, you know you’ve made it!’
Joking aside, he’s not far wrong. This year, Metronomy have headlined some of Europe’s most prestigious stages, and their latest album, Love Letters, has become their highest charting yet. Listening back to the wonky techno-inflected instrumentals of 2006’s debut Pip Paine (Pay the £5,000 You Owe), through the nervy pop songs of its follow-up Nights Out (2008) and the suave sophistication of third LP The English Riviera (2011), it’s easy to see where Love Letters’ perfect poise started life. Although the skills and know-how were evidently already there, this new retro-dappled set seems to have caught the public unawares - mainly because it’s revealed yet another weapon in Joseph’s well-stocked musical arsenal. Back to basics ‘At a pub quiz, do you have any specialist subjects?’ Joseph enquires, taking a left turn in our conversation. ‘I don’t. I’ve never felt like I know anything about anything. But, over a period of a few records, I’ve started to feel like I’m an authority on how to make one,’ he says without pause. And that’s where, on Love Letters, the songwriting skill and production prowess have come together to create something more palpably pop. The album was recorded, engineered and produced entirely at Toe Rag - London’s last completely analogue studio. Its production demanded a different level of care to previous records: songwriting and pre-production trouncing the post-production possibilities previously available to Joseph in the digital space.
m53_september 2014_19
‘I’m just trying to live my dream and forget about all these sinister things that you have to do!’
Above: Metronomy live. Right: Joseph Mount.
As a result, Love Letters carries more intent and certainty than his earlier albums. ‘I’m really happy with it,’ he confesses. ‘I guess the process of making it was a big part of the idea - and that was a really exciting way to work. It was quite an unusual thing for a band like Metronomy to do in 2014.’ In Joseph’s world, production is clearly as important, if not more so, than songwriting. Take any Metronomy song from any album, he argues, and the only real difference is its atmosphere. For him, making music is about sculpting an overall aesthetic to entice the ear. Mercury Prize-nominated album The English Riviera - a lush, stylised ode to the beautiful south coast, with its samples of lapping waves and seagull calls - is a case in point. Where its predecessor Pip Paine nervously fizzed its way around the grubby aftertaste left by the electroclash movement, and Nights Out carried a tangible air of mania, The English Riviera marked a significant change in gear. ‘For each one, I decide to do them in a very different way because I want to learn how to work in a different way,’ he explains. ‘For musicians nowadays, because of the way you can work with a computer, it’s much harder to say where an idea begins. Before, it would have been, “Oh, I just sat down with my guitar and I was thinking about this”. Now when you ask someone, they might say they were mucking about on their iPad or whatever - it’s a much harder thing to trace back to the germ of the idea.’ Urban influence While we chew the fat, talk frequently turns to the producers Joseph rates and the worlds they create. From Wild Beasts’ latest record Present Tense (co-produced by Lexxx), to Pharrell Williams’ N.E.R.D project or David Bowie’s self-produced album Diamond Dogs, it’s always the wider aural context that draws Joseph’s ear.
TIM EVE / GREGOIRE ALEXANDRE
Outside Metronomy, he’s enjoyed extending his influence over a range of productions from the likes of Roots Manuva to Sophie Ellis Bextor and Kate Nash. And, as a go-to remixer, he’s retouched classic tracks by Air, Joakim, Lady Gaga, Lykke Li, Gorillaz, Diplo and Goldfrapp, to name a few. ‘Good production makes an atmosphere that you like or you don’t like; an interesting place that you’d like to visit again and again,’ he explains. ‘For me, the people who do that mainly seem to come from an R&B or urban background. Even that new Ed Sheeran song with Pharrell - I had no idea it was him but when it started it was like a Neptunes song so I thought, “I like this world. I’m happy here.” And then I realised it was Ed Sheeran and I thought, “Ooof, there you go”,’ he laughs.
Changing places I ask him where he sees his place in the music business these days. It’s all changed so much since he first got his leg-up through MySpace. Metronomy have become a solid album band in the old fashioned sense, and can easily shift a quarter of a million copies on release. They have a healthy touring schedule and a tight, indemand live set. But Joseph’s never all over the music blogs with his latest mixtape or re-edit, and he doesn’t DJ out that often anymore. The band’s mandatory social media presence is also pretty low key by 2014’s standards. Instead, he puts all his efforts into the traditional LP format. So, is he happy with his lot? ‘The problem is,’ he says, ‘when I was a teenager and getting really excited about the idea of being in a band, you could still buy CD singles and tape albums. It was pre-internet, so the world I was obsessed with, and wanted to be part of, involved things like proper music videos and physical albums. Everything that I ever dreamed of happening has now dissolved!’ he laughs. ‘You arrive in this modern music industry and all the things you were really excited about aren’t quite the same anymore. It’s sad but at the same time I think that if enough people cling on to albums then maybe they will take on a new life of their own.’ It seems as though the nostalgic lounge-pop vibe of Love Letters, with its heart-on-sleeve lyrics, whimsical melodies and archaic production, is paying homage to this bygone era. When pushed,
profile
‘I’ve definitely destroyed people to get to the top.’
Below: Pop auteur Joseph Mount. Right: Recording at Toe Rag studios.
Joseph’s the first to admit he hopes teenagers will take an interest in its aesthetic and seek out similar stuff. But the album’s old fashioned stance might also be a little kick against some of the wider trends engulfing the music industry. It’s now the norm for band websites and tour posters to display icons and logos for online media platforms like YouTube and Twitter, forcing acts to ‘constantly advertise these huge companies who are really not helping out the music industry at all’, sighs Joseph. ‘I’m just trying to live my dream and forget about all these sinister things that you have to do!’ Underneath all the musical clarity and daydreaming, I suggest there’s an agenda, a measured ambition. ‘Am I ambitious? Er, yes I am!’ Joseph says. ‘To decide from a young age what you want to do, and then make it happen, is quite ambitious. But for me, that wasn’t to be famous or be a millionaire, it was to do music and nothing else, really. So yeah, I think I’ve been ambitious. I’ve definitely destroyed people to get to the top!’ he adds, before breaking out in a cackle. He glances around the sun dappled square, which backs onto Europe’s biggest building site. ‘I remember doing a gig round here about eight years ago. Before they built all this stuff, there was a weird, ravey warehouse that we performed in. So to go from that to Alexandra Palace [where Metronomy will headline in December], you can’t deny it - it’s become a career. I can’t really do anything else now!’ To read the full interview with Joseph, visit m-magazine.co.uk
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LINDA BROWN LEE
The sound of a brass band is one of the UK’s most recognisable but not the most loved. Jim Ottewill explores the changing face of British brass to find tubas and trombones pointing to the future… ‘I thought we could work with brass after having a funny dream about a giant trumpet’, reveals British Sea Power’s Jan Scott Wilkinson. The band’s frontman is explaining the roots of the indie rocker’s Sea of Brass project, a re-imagining of their catalogue for traditional brass. ‘Brass bands may seem old fashioned to some,’ he continues, ‘but they were and still are a very powerful force.’
Behind these musical strands is the UK’s network of traditional, community bands. With an estimated 4,000 bands and 100,000 musicians, this has arguably never been stronger. However, the stereotype of the traditional colliery groups, as depicted in nineties comedy drama Brassed Off, is still hard to shake.
Sea of Brass is just one of a number of recent, critically acclaimed projects to utilise brass instrumentation. Alongside British Sea Power, chamber folk artist Jo Hamilton, contemporary composer Gavin Higgins and post rockers Lanterns on the Lake have all called on the sound to blow extra life into their musical endeavours.
As composer, conductor and founder of the Brass Band Heritage Trust Paul Hindmarsh says: ‘Whenever someone listens to brass, there is an association. Flat caps and Hovis are the clichés. It’s not like that anymore but they persist.’
Contemporary groups such as the Hackney Colliery Band and Youngblood Brass Band in the US doff their cap to the UK’s community outfits and New Orleans ensembles, while adding touches of hip-hop, funk and electronica.
Community roots Part of the association is the length of time brass bands have been blowing their horns. Born almost 150 years ago, it is a long standing, amateur tradition which grew out of the Salvation Army and UK industry.
BRASS
BOLD AS BRASS Philip Biggs is editor of the Brass Herald and organiser of the Great Northern Brass Arts Festival, an event taking place at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester this September. He describes the first brass banding forays as ‘the working man’s artistic and cultural pursuit’. ‘In those days many had tough manual jobs so this was a way of relieving the hard work. It was a gift for those who wanted to pursue an artistic ideal,’ he explains. His festival will mark 100 years since the first brass band composition and features many of the movement’s most loved ensembles. Black Dyke Mills, Foden’s and the Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band will all be raising the roof as part of the programme. The History of the World Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller’s Acid Brass and The History of the World pieces have helped bring brass bands to new audiences. The former sees rave classics including A Guy Called Gerald’s Voodoo
Ray and the KLF’s What Time is Love? reimagined for brass while the latter traces the links between brass and acid house. As Jeremy comments, ‘brass acts are clearly a big part of our musical make up ... [with their] traditional elements and industrial history.’ Acid Brass, performed live with the Fairey Brass Band, almost literally blew the roof off the Tate Britain in December last year when Warp Records chose to showcase the work. The pits While brass has its roots in past industrial strongholds, composer Gavin Higgins is using the instrumentation to mark 30 years since the pit closures. He grew up in a mining community and his forthcoming commission Pride is inspired by the miners’ strike of 1984-1985. It will be the first ever ballet to be accompanied by a brass band. ‘It’s a sense of community, focus and drive which these bands provide,’ he believes. ‘As those ex-mining towns have dissolved into m53_september 2014_23
Above: Edward Gregson Right: British Sea Power
what they are now, brass bands are a rock. They provide a sense of community people can’t get anywhere else.’ Music education Alongside binding communities together, the amateur banding tradition has also played a key role in music education. Teaching of music in schools after the Second World War played an important role in boosting the number of players and raising skill levels to new highs. Edward Gregson, classical composer and PRS Board member, is one of the most high profile to have recently worked with brass. Connotations, Of Men and Mountains and Of Distant Memories have all become key touchstones in brass repertoire. He says: ‘From the fifties onwards the government introduced music in schools. They started to teach brass and those kids who went into conservatoires and music colleges studied the instruments, then formed brass bands. That’s significant.’ At the same time, the bands themselves are helping renew players through youth groups, while brass band competitions ensure that the standard of playing is pushed higher than ever. Gavin says that the brass bands are a key training ground. ‘The focus on up and coming brass players is much more than in schools. Bands put all their energies into them and players learn by doing concerts every weekend. That’s a really strong and positive thing.’
‘From traditional banding to the brass sound, we get a sense that there’s potential for so much more.’
Classical composers While it’s hard to claim brass isn’t a minority sport, Edward argues that just like jazz, it’s still very much a valid form of artistic impression. It’s something validated by some of the great classical composers who have turned to the sound. Edward Elgar, Harrison Birtwistle and Gregson himself are just some to have composed brass works and expanded the repertoire. Edward says: ‘Some of the most important classical composers of the last 100 years have worked with the sound. Names you’ll know, even if you’re not into classical, like Elgar, Gustav Holst and Vaughan Williams.’ Philip Biggs, who also works as the administrator of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, agrees. ‘The brass band world is really blessed that there are great composers working with brass the world over. What started in its current form at The Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851 has gone global.’ Arts Council support British brass banding could be entering a new phase thanks in part to Arts Council England (ACE). In the latest round of 2015-18 funding for National Portfolio Organisations, Brass Band England was bestowed an annual budget of £142,000 an increase of 142.3 percent on its existing amount of around £62,000 per year. Craig Monk, Music Relationship Manager from ACE, says this heralds an exciting time for brass, particularly as new artists are investing in the sound. ‘We’d like to see more bands themselves taking the initiative on these commissions,’ he states. ‘From traditional banding to the brass sound, we get a sense that there’s potential for so much more.’ Brass appeal So why are new composers using brass? At the recent Brass: Durham International Festival, a range of artists premiered new commissions tangling with the sound. These included folk singer songwriter Jo Hamilton, who debuted Fractal Sparks
BRASS
as a multimedia performance in the Durham Cathedral with musicians from the Corps of Army Music. ‘It’s such a dynamic instrument when played with a band,’ says Jo. ‘To have them enhancing moments was such a treat. They can do beautiful, desperately sad whispers to tremendously joyous sounds. It was awesome.’ With Sea of Brass, British Sea Power collaborated with composer Peter Wraight, best known for his work with the Matthew Herbert Big Band, on new arrangements of their songs. Jan says: ‘The brass orchestra as a whole is very versatile. I could imagine the traditional set up continuing incorporating modern ideas and technologies. Our own cornet player uses amps and effects. This approach could be taken a lot further by a full orchestral outfit.’
The future So where does this leave the future of brass bands? With a thriving network and a whole world of competitive banding, with international rankings and brass acts active across Europe and in North America, it’s a tradition which only appears to be getting stronger. At the same time, new commissions are increasing brass repertoire and finding new audiences. Gavin Higgins says: ‘It’s got to come kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Of course it is still relevant. It’s just many people in the UK haven’t heard or seen a brass a band. When I take people to see them, they sit there open mouthed and amazed. No one can believe the sound that comes from them.’
Top: Jo Hamilton, Above: Gavin Higgins Below: Acid Brass.
London Olympics 2012 Brass is such a part of the British musical psyche that the sound featured in the London 2012 Olympics closing ceremony. The Hackney Colliery Band performed a set to a global audience of hundreds of millions. ‘It’s unlikely that a brass band is going to be playing a stadium any time soon,’ jokes trumpeter and Hackney Colliery Band member Steve Pretty. The group perform a riotious mix of hip-hop and yacht rock classics plus their own material. It’s a winning formula which has seen them become a firm festival favourite. ‘I like messing with people’s expectations,’ explains Steve. ‘When people hear the name, they think it’s going to be traditional sound. But then we really go to town when playing. Crowds are surprised by the sound you can make with people blowing through bits of tubing and hitting sticks on drum skins.’ At the same time, the band offer a contemporary take on traditional banding. ‘Obviously our name is an homage, which started off slightly tongue in cheek. But increasingly we really see ourselves as a modern update of it,’ he adds. m53_september 2014_25
VANISHING ACT Anita Awbi chats to freak-folk legend Vashti Bunyan to learn about one of the most curious songwriting stories in British music. When Vashti Bunyan insists that her new album Heartleap will be her last, who are we to argue? Here is a cult songwriter who’s given us just three albums in 44 years, her craft tightly bound in uncertainty, each performance wrought with trepidation. Vashti’s unique approach to life and music may have limited her creative output and kept her on the cultural fringes for decades, but that’s where she seems happiest. ‘This album, especially the last song, says everything I want it to,’ she states from her Edinburgh home. ‘If I do any more, it will seem unnecessary. I don’t need or want to write another album. You always need to give them your all, and I don’t want to be selfish anymore.’
While on the road with her acoustic guitar, she began to formulate the songs that became her debut album. Those fourteen tunes, thanks in no small part to the studio work of the Incredible String Band and Fairport Convention, became a twinkling collection of otherworldy folk. Her timeless pastoral vision and vocal purity had created a lasting acoustic beacon. But soon after, the record inexplicably sank without a trace and Vashti vanished. The process left her deflated and insecure. Refusing to pick up an instrument for another three decades, Vashti was blissfully unaware that the album was slowly becoming a cult classic, and original copies were being exchanged for handsome sums.
Bad news for her legions of fans, who number folk experimentalists Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom, psych-pop trio Animal Collective, and Brit trailblazers Four Tet, Max Richter and Adem. Once a forgotten songsmith with a lone LP under her belt - 1970’s lost masterpiece Just Another Diamond Day - Vashti has slowly blossomed into one of Britain’s most essential, yet least prolific artists.
‘For many, many years I could not listen to Just Another Diamond Day,’ she remembers, almost as though she still hasn’t come to terms with it, even now. ‘It just didn’t sound like me. I didn’t let my children listen to it, I abandoned it completely. Nobody ever said anything good about it - ever! Nobody ever gave me any idea that they had ever listened to it. Or, if they had, they thought it was just nursery rhymes or whatever.’
In recent years, the world has finally switched on to her sound with her music appearing in advertising campaigns for the likes of T Mobile, Reebok and NFL. She has since been invited to perform at the Massive Attack-curated Meltdown Festival, shared the stage with many of her contemporary psych-folk peers and been the subject of a candid BFI documentary, Vashti Bunyan: From Here to Before.
While many songwriters can draw a little inner confidence from their work, or muster enough conviction to carry on, this lack of acknowledgment was crippling for the introverted artist. It put paid to her musical endeavours for 30 years.
Over the last four decades, her songwriting and production techniques have gently developed, but her tender charm and musical dexterity have remained in tact. Whimsical wordplay and honest warmth always shines through her songs, culminating in a humble body of work devoid of pretension and fakery. But where did it all begin for this timid, Newcastle-born artist? Vashti’s back story reads like a modern folk fable, complete with a horse, cart and remote windswept island. In the late sixties, after two fruitless years under the tutelage of Rolling Stones’ svengali Andrew ‘Loog’ Oldham, she became disillusioned with London’s music scene and took off in a wagon loosely headed for Donovan’s new artist enclave on the Isle of Skye.
Luckily, the story didn’t end there. She’s since enjoyed a slow songwriting rehabilitation that has delivered two more seminal albums, 2005’s Lookaftering and the forthcoming Heartleap. In 2000, after an impossibly long silence, she finally stepped into the limelight to oversee the reissue of Just Another Diamond Day, encouraged by its new found cult status. She also undertook a series of collaborations with the likes of Animal Collective, Vetiver, Adem and Joanna Newsom. This work finally culminated in sophomore album Lookaftering – 35 years after her debut LP was released. ‘I know it’s not great to admit, but having positive feedback about that old album back in 2000 was what got me going again,’ she says, sounding a little embarrassed. ‘When I picked up my guitar again it sounded okay rather than terrible - and it didn’t make me upset anymore. I found music quite difficult … it wasn’t until the reissue that I stopped feeling like a failure.’
PROFILE
Main image: Vashti Bunyan
Read the full interview with Vashti
m-magazine.co.uk/interviews
m53_september 2014_27
PROFILE
Clockwise from left: Vashti now; in 1966; at Piccadilly Circus, 1965 and outside The McQuarries house, late sixties.
‘A lot of people said I should have real instruments and musicians on my new album because I’m a folk artist – but I’m not!’ Vashti’s work is now rightly venerated among her younger peers which has helped propel her recent burst of creativity. ‘What they did, especially Joanna and Devendra, was to make a place for me and I owe them so much. They opened things up for me to be able to have a place in that. I don’t believe I was the influence on them, I believe they were the acceptance of what I had done all those years ago, which was totally misunderstood in its day.’ When Heartleap is released in October, it will end her musical journey and act as a catalyst for another adventure – an autobiography of her younger, wayfaring years. Surprisingly, she doesn’t seem to have any regrets about her awkward relationship with music, and instead delights in all she’s learned along the way. For starters, she’s proud of the fact that she made this album almost entirely alone, incorporating sequencers, synthesised instruments and self-taught production techniques to free her from the restrictions of the professional studio.
MARK ALLAN / ROSS HALFIN
‘When I started understanding how to record myself I got more interested in it, and possibly more able,’ she says. ‘I did try with other musicians and producers, but I just felt I had to do it for myself. It might not have worked or come to anything but I just had to keep doing it.’ Even though Vashti has mastered her home studio, she’s still selfdeprecating about her motivation to create - and it’s this uncertainty that has marred her whole musical career. Although she’s obviously delighted she’s been able to take the production reins herself, she quickly adds: ‘It seems like a very selfish thing to do, very ego-driven, but it was as if everyone I worked with before had looked after me so well, I was cocooned from the realities of recording. This time I wanted to come out from the shelter of others and try it for myself.’
Vashti began to notice how her voice changed when she recorded herself alone compared to when there were others present. This awareness has brought an audible depth to her timbre and a new freedom to her melodies. And then there’s the music… Both Just Another Diamond Day and the Max Richter-produced Lookaftering used only acoustic instruments. But this time she’s opted to keep many of the electronic sounds from her original, computer-based arrangements. ‘I can’t write music so to get an idea across to a violinist or a flute player is quite difficult for me. But, if I’m sitting at the keyboard - even though I can only play it with one finger - I can make an arrangement, I can double track or triple track, I can make an arrangement for myself and sometimes when I take that to a real musician it doesn’t sound the same,’ she explains. ‘A lot of people said I should have real instruments and musicians on my new album because I’m a folk artist – but I’m not! I love what I was able to do by manipulating some of the sounds in my computer.’ Herein lies yet another contentious area for Vashti. Disillusioned with the folk music of her teens and twenties, she firmly maintains that she’s not a folk singer songwriter and takes offence when referred to in that way. When pushed, she prefers to be labelled under freak-folk, or, as she says laughing, ‘control freak-folk!’ Looking back on her strange musical path, she acknowledges: ‘I’ve been very lucky. I don’t know about being able to switch on the songwriting craft at will, but it has definitely switched itself on just enough over the years. For that I am very grateful.’ Heartleap is out on 6 October through FatCat Records. Vashti Bunyan is published by Spinney Songs. m53_september 2014_29
i wrote that
song writing
British-American rock band Foreigner hit the big time in 1984 with their power ballad I Want to Know What Love Is. Written by the band’s chief songwriter Mick Jones, it topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and remains an enduring hit around the world to this day. I remember there was a fair amount of pressure on us to deliver the goods back then and it was a huge responsibility for me as the leader and songwriter of the band. I was almost possessed with trying to dig deep inside me to bring up experiences, ideas, memories anything that sounded convincing in a song. The night the song came about, I was thinking about the basic human emotions we all feel. Once I started to open up to what was moving me, it all happened very quickly. It was quite late, about 2am, and my mind was just starting to close down. As soon as I played the first three chords, which ended up being the intro, I had a feeling something special was happening. The song almost wrote itself and I just tried to steer it in a way that felt right.
BILL BERNSTEIN
A couple of hours after I’d found the chords, I came up with the song title. I like to have a title because it can help me navigate through the song. I know where I am going and what I am building up to – and can approach it in sections. I was trying to keep the emotion in the intro so I used a very simple organ sound. From there it was almost like I was being directed to write the pre-chorus. That section took about 10 minutes to complete. At that point I didn’t have the end section but I did have the big, major chorus. Afterwards I spent a couple of days piecing the story together. I wanted to recreate the feeling in the song from a lyrical standpoint. Its formula is intro, verse, verse again, pre chorus, chorus - the old, hackneyed pattern - but somehow, something lifts it out of being cheesy. You think to yourself, ‘How many times have these chords been used?’ But there 30_september 2014_m53
is something about the pattern I used them in that makes it unique. I remember thinking, ‘Where the hell did this come from? Why is this having such a big effect on me?’ Sometimes you need to be open and in the right frame of mind for the musical messages to come to you. You need to take the emotions the song is giving you and translate them into something that moves people. When you feel that you’ve reached that point, you want it to be heard.
'The song almost wrote itself and I just tried to steer it in a way that felt right.' I took it to the rest of the band and everyone thought it was a powerful, beautiful song. I worked with Lou Gramm on it, and he delivered such an amazing vocal. We cut it at Right Track Studio, which was on 48th Street in New York, right by the old music store, Manny’s. I was co-producer and we were determined to keep it as simple as possible. Tom Bailey from The Thompson Twins played the synth parts using a Jupiter 8. He really got into it. Around the same time, I was having lunch with Jerry Wexler, co-founder of Atlantic Records, and a friend of his. I mentioned that I was thinking of approaching Aretha Franklin to sing on the track,
almost as a duet with Lou, to enhance its soulful vibe. Jerry’s friend said he had an entire catalogue of choirs and played me some. The New Jersey Mass Choir was the best one I heard and I thought it would be a great idea to work with them. It was the first time the choir had ever been recorded in a proper studio so it took us about an hour to get them comfortable. I had never conducted a gospel choir before. It was new for all of us. We did a couple of run-throughs, but I felt we could get a bit more feeling out of their performance. At their suggestion, we stood in a circle holding hands and recited The Lord’s Prayer together. I was shivering with goose bumps. It was a moment I will never forget. We started rolling tape and they came in on the chorus. Wow. It was unbelievable. Everyone we played the finished song to had some sort of physical emotion, tears of joy or happiness. I told Ahmet Ertegun [co-founder and former President of Atlantic Records] that I had something to play him, so I took him into a room, just the two of us, with the lights down low. As I moved over to him after the first chorus, there were tears rolling down his cheeks. This was the guy who had a big part in the success of artists like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and many others. It was an incredible moment for me at the time and still to this day. I’ll never forget it for the rest of my life. I Want to Know What Love Is Written by: Mick Jones Published by: Somerset Songs Publishing
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PERSONAL SERVICE GLOBAL REACH With A
Listen to Kim Frankiewicz’s selection
m-magazine.co.uk
Kim Frankiewicz is Managing Director of Imagem Music UK, leading the independent publisher’s A&R and business development activity. Recent signings include urban songwriter Professor Green, psych-pop outfit Temples and brash indie quartet Circa Waves. Australian born Kim began her career at MMA Management, one of the country’s largest artist management companies. She then headed up the iconic indie label RooArt Records before moving to New York to join Universal Music Publishing in 1997. After a long stint at the global publishing giant, she took up her post at Imagem in 2012 and is now based in London. the first music i remember hearing was… Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and Elvis. My father was a huge fan of theirs and was always playing their records. He had quite good taste, thank god. the first record i ever bought was… Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf. I think every teenager on the street I grew up on had this album. We would all blast it from our houses to see who could play it the loudest. the last great record i listened to was… I have recently rediscovered Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life and cannot stop playing it. the song i wish i’d written is… White Christmas by Bing Crosby. Can you imagine the money that song has
earned over the years?! It’s always on at my family home when I go home for Christmas. the song that makes me want to dance is… Oh there are so many, even though I can’t dance. Beyonce’s Single Ladies is always a dancefloor winner. the song that makes me cry is… Hurt by Johnny Cash. the song that i know all the words to is… There are so many but my memory is so bad so I can’t think of any right now. Oh, I just thought of one Purple Rain by Prince. the song i want played at my funeral is… Hmmm, I don’t really want to think about it to be honest. imagem.com
32_september 2014_m53
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making music
sixty seconds ROBERT WYATT To describe Robert Wyatt as a national treasure is no glib overstatement. He’s easily one of the most influential songwriters working in Britain today and, over a long and fruitful career, has continually redefined our notion of popular music. From his early years in psychedelic jazz-rock trio Soft Machine with Kevin Ayres and Mike Ratledge, to fruitful collaborations with the likes of Björk, Pink Floyd, Mike Oldfield and Ultramarine, Robert has been a truly unique and eccentric voice across many genres and decades. Alongside his collaborative work, Robert has pursued a successful solo career since the seventies. His music has been underlined by idiosyncratic vocals, a weird and wonderful command of melody and an unwavering commitment to socialism. When and how did you first discover music? Records - 78s in those days - played by the family. Things like Benjamin Britten by the grown-ups, while my big brother Julian played Danny Kaye. I also remember singing Christmas carols with family and friends. You’ve been making music since the sixties. How do you think your musical processes have changed over the years? Not a lot really. But I’ve been continually learning more about rhythm since I was a drummer in 1963 to 1973, and harmonically, ever since then too, especially while recording layers of chords. I look for harmonic effects that might suggest useful tunes. It took me a while to come up with lyrics that matched my tunes in an organic way. I also learn from other peoples’ songs that most impress me, from songwriters such as Cole Porter, the Gershwins and John Lennon. The words and their music are one. Or at least they feel like that to me. How do your songs start life? They usually start as fragments of tunes, but I have found no reliable devices for coming up with them. I just turn on the tap and hope something I can work with emerges. Then, with any luck, words are already implied by the tunes. If not, my wife Alfie makes suggestions. Or the tunes stay as instrumentals. How did you first come to find your voice? I don’t remember as it’s at least half a century ago! But as a musician, I wasn’t particularly interested in the voice, except that it was the cheapest and most portable instrument available. The music I listened to most during my school years, which spanned the 1950s, was instrumental jazz. I started off like many British singers of popular music trying to sing like an African American. The only odd thing in my case was that I was more comfortable learning from women such as Billie Holiday, Nina
Listen to our Robert Wyatt playlist
m-magazine.co.uk
Simone and Dionne Warwick. But when writing my own songs, the voice started to sound like the way I talk, for better or worse. Your music flits between rock, pop, folk, jazz and more … where do you feel most affinity? Oddly enough, mostly with the visual artists of the first half of the 20th century: colour, form, use of space, evoking a certain atmosphere. I am, however, appropriately respectful of the uniquely geometric frameworks on which the music I like is based. There’s a lot of arithmetic in music, both harmonically and rhythmically. Maths is far too hard for me, but it’s clear that, for example, Bach clarifies the relationship between notes in a methodically numbers-based system. What would you describe yourself as? I couldn’t possibly describe myself. I’m not introspective enough! Some of your lyrics are very politically aware - do you think it’s important to communicate these messages through your music? Not really. It just comes out that way because I think about these things. As I write by instinct, my sense of the wider world seems to, on occasion, rise to the surface. If the powers that be were more honest and responsible, I’d be happy to just play in my imaginary garden.
Your solo work always sounds really intimate - has that been intentional or more down to circumstance? Well, nothing I do is consciously intentional, except to make music that feels real and authentic in some way. My only aim is to make records I could like listening to myself. You’ve made so many records - how do you feel about them all now and is there one you are most attached to? I’m most relieved hearing back the records I’ve made this century; Cuckooland and Comicopera. What’s been the biggest high of your career so far? Recently singing on stage with double bassist Charlie Haden. We did a couple of old Cuban songs. What do you remember most about the Soft Machine tour with Jimi Hendrix? His shy but friendly kindness. You’ve collaborated with so many brilliant musicians – what do you enjoy most about working with others? The company – the style or instrument is not as important to me. That’s the great difference from, say, painting or writing texts. It’s the animated buzz of friendship. Robert appears in conversation with his biographer Marcus O’Dair at The Wire’s Off the Page Festival in Bristol on 28 September. m53_september 2014_33
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Goldie in the Bronx, New York, June 1986
Drum ’n’ bass icon Goldie recounts his time painting and hanging out with graffiti legend Tracy 168… I was living in Wolverhampton at the time. Can you believe it? Straight out of Wolverhampton to the Bronx. That trip lasted for three months. Then I went back and spent a couple of years there, before moving to Miami. I just loved it. ‘Wolverhampton, New York, Miami, London’ - it would make a great t-shirt. The photo was a piss take. I’d hooked up with Tracy 168 [famous graffiti writer and originator of the ‘Wildstyle’ graffiti style] who had most of the New York policemen in his pocket. This guy was posing as one of them. We thought it’d be a funny thing to do as seeing a policeman standing next to someone doing graffiti was unheard of back then. It was Tracy’s cousin – he came round the corner while we were painting and was like, ‘Wooahhh I’m gonna arrest you motherfuckers!’ It reminds me of great times. I see that picture and I can fucking smell [spray paint] Krylon. It’s like remembering smoking your first cigarette round the back of the bike shed at school. I can smell New York when I look at that picture. At the time, the Bronx was edgy, so edgy. You’d be walking over rubble as tenement yards had been levelled. Don’t forget, we came there after the blue collar workers from Puerto Rico and Cuba had built all this shit. Then there was an economic explosion and it all collapsed. 34_september 2014_m53
Out of the rubble rose a phoenix. Hip-hop, block parties and Afrika Bambaataa. I think that society can be at its most creative and willing to change when it gets really bad. It just kind of works itself out. I spoke to Afrika Bambaataa about it. He was one of my massive heroes and influences and still is. He was part of these savage fucking schools. He decided to put on parties and play music; let’s dance about it. That’s what happens. The same can be said of Dudamel and the El Sistema Orchestra coming out of Venezuela. It’s known for gang killings, then they start giving kids violas. We’re heading the same way in this country. We had Arthur Scargill and the miners’ riots in the eighties. Things are going to start changing again and at these times we always turn to music. Goldie is a producer and DJ best known as one of the originators of drum ’n’ bass. His current projects include reimagining his seminal album Timeless with the Heritage Orchestra 20 years after its original release. He’s also recently released his contribution to the Masterpiece series, a three CD mix showing off his influences and inspirations.
Read the full interview with Goldie
m-magazine.co.uk
The Truth About TAXI… An Unedited Forum Post from TAXI Member James Kocian http://forums.taxi.com/post353820.html#p353820
H
i 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.
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