Performer Magazine: December/January 2022

THE MUSICIAN ’S RESO URCE

DEC./JAN. ‘22 FREE

HOW TO

Harness Data Insights

Get Creative With Social Marketing Build a Business, Not a Following Set Up Interactive Fan Sessions

interviews

Satellite Citi * seeyousoon

RICKY DURAN Learns to find his voice

Artist: Chris Buck

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TABLE OF CONTENTS ANGELEA

RICKY DURAN

Cover

COVER STORY

2 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 PERFORMER MAGAZINE

by Benjamin Ricci

24

VOLUME 31, ISSUE 6

5.

Book Review: Battle of the Bands 6.

Chuck D’s Statement on Travis Scott

TABLE OF CONTENTS

contents

4.

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

8.

How to Find Your Digital Niche 10.

Surviving the Industry as a Working Mother 12.

Take Back Control of Your Career with Data Insights

by Benjamin Ricci

20

14.

Seven Out-of-theBox Marketing Ideas for Musicians

DEPARTMENTS

SATELLITE CITI

16.

How to Set up an Interactive Session with Fans

18.

Ten Ways to Tune Up Your Band’s Business in 2022 36.

GEAR TEST: KRK CLASSIC 7 Monitors with Seth Adam

SEEYOUSOON

by Michael St. James

30

38.

GEAR REVIEWS: Boss, Arturia, Apogee, RODE, ASM and more…

PERFORMER MAGAZINE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 3

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

LETTER A know?

s 2021 draws to a close, I am left with nothing profound left to say.

I mean, we’ve all experienced the “new times” so what else remains to be said that you don’t already

I suppose we’re all coping in our own way. Many of us are diving headfirst into our music…. while others are left without the inspiration to create.

I get that – there have certainly been times in the past two years when I’ve felt the block, as well.

I’m fortunate that with enough time, I’m able to regroup and feel that spark again.

One of the ideas that really excited me at the end of 2021 was our end-of-year mixtape (yes, an actual cassette!) which really helped me get through the last quarter, looking forward to each mile marker along the way as we lined up (very generous) sponsors to donate gear, secured artists to record new, exclusive tracks with all these products, and ultimately designed and duplicated a few hundred copies on tape to put some new music out into the world.

If you flip to the last page of this issue, you’ll see a full-page announcement with the artist lineup,

from the editor

as well as a list of all the awesome sponsors who helped make it all possible.

Click on over to performermag.com or our Bandcamp page to where you can learn more about the project, the artists involved, stream the tape before the limited-edition tape hits the street, and even watch a cool behind-the-scenes documentary where each artist involved gives a peek behind the curtain as they show how they recorded their songs using the gear our sponsors shipped out.

Anyway, here’s to a bright 2022, a year in which I hope the following three things happen: Tottenham Hotspur finally wins the Premier League The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel comes back for another season Lyrical hip-hop makes a comeback (!)

Until next time….

Benjamin Ricci

PS – In my heart I know Spurs won’t win anything, least of which the Europa Conference League, which no one really cares about anyway…but we’ve all gotta have hope, amirite?

ABOUT US / Performer Magazine, a nationally distributed musician’s trade publication, focuses on independent musicians, those unsigned and on small labels, and their success in a DIY environment. We’re dedicated to promoting lesser-known talent and being the first to introduce you to artists you should know about.

MUSIC SUBMISSIONS / We listen to everything that comes into the office. We prefer physical CDs, cassettes and vinyl over downloads. If you do not have a physical copy, send download links to editorial@performermag.com. No attachments, please.

Send CDs to: Performer Magazine, Attn: Reviews, PO BOX 348, Somerville, MA 02143 CORRECTIONS / Did we make a heinous blunder, factual error or just spell your name wrong? Contact editorial@ performermag.com and let us know, cuz we’re big enough to say, “Baby, I was wrong.”

EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS / In the words of our esteemed forefathers at CREEM: “NOBODY WHO WRITES FOR THIS RAG’S GOT ANYTHING YOU AIN’T GOT, at least in the way of credentials. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be sending us your stuff: reviews, features, photos, recording tips, DIY advice or whatever else you have in mind that might be interesting to our readers: independent and DIY musicians. Who else do ya know who’ll publish you? We really will...ask any of our dozens of satisfied customers. Just bop it along to us to editorial@performermag.com and see what comes back your way. If you have eyes to be in print, this just might be the place. Whaddya got to lose? Whaddya got?”

4 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 PERFORMER MAGAZINE

Volume 31, Issue 6 850 Post Rd Suite 8385 Warwick, RI 02888 CONTACT Phone: 617-627-9200 Fax: 617-627-9930 PUBLISHER William House Phone: 617-627-9919 bill@performermag.com EDITOR Benjamin Ricci ben@performermag.com DESIGN & ART DIRECTION Cristian Iancu EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Bob Dobalina editorial@performermag.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Benjamin Ricci, Charles Vallena, Chris Devine, Chuck D, Jason Peterson, Judah Wiedre, Michael St. James, Seth Adam, Tiff Randol, UMEK CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS ANGELEA, Eddie Kasparian, Patrick McPheron ADVERTISING SALES William House Phone: 617-627-9919 bill@performermag.com © 2022 by Performer Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any method whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher.

The magazine accepts no responsibility for unsolicited recordings, manuscripts, artwork or photographs and will not return such materials unless requested and accompanied by a SASE. Annual Subscription Rate is $30 in the U.S.; $45 outside the U.S.

REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEW

Battle of the Bands

Edited by Lauren Gibaldi and Eric Smith (Candlewick Press)

An all killer, no filler collection of short stories revolving around a high school battle of the bands that will make you want to grab an instrument and some friends and jam.

B

rian Eno’s comment that everyone who bought the first Velvet Underground record started their own band might just also apply to readers of Lauren Gibaldi and Eric Smith’s Battle of the Bands.

The book, which threads together sixteen stories from top young adult writers (as well as Motion City Soundtrack frontman Justin Courtney Pierre), captures the ups and downs of band life in exhilarating/ excruciating detail that any musician will recognize as being authentic and anyone not in a band will want to experience for themselves. From rehearsal squabbles to pre-show bonding to stage fright (and stage

Jason Peterson joy), each author gets the little details right in service of their stories.

While these stories play in both major and minor keys - first loves, breakups, friendships starting and ending, coming out, and crushes both unrequited and fulfilled - the overall vibe is that making music with other people and loving the music others make is life-changing.

In Brittany Cavallaro’s standout opener “Miss Somewhere,” a flailing transfer student finds herself again by donning her old Zildjian t-shirt and getting bombarded with drumming requests. Sarvenaz Taghavian’s clever “Battle of the Exes” details a group willing to get the plug

pulled on their set to colorfully spite an awful ex. Jenny Torres Sanchez’s beautiful “A Small Light” goes in an unexpected, darker direction but ultimately shows how important finding your people can be. Like these tales, each story in the collection is a gem that adds to the whole.

All the while, Gibaldi and Smith do stellar work interweaving the stories (and contributing two of their own) to make for a cohesive piece. It’s a piece that celebrates creativity and band life and may inspire more than a few to form their own. The battles - and the bliss - await.

For more info visit penguinrandomhouse.com PERFORMER MAGAZINE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 5

MUSIC BUSINESS

Chuck D Issues An Open Letter To Concert Promoters Rapper responds to Recent Astroworld Concert Tragedy “I cannot believe we’re at the point where I gotta say this out loud: Travis Scott is a performer, an act, not a concert promoter. He doesn’t run the sound or venues or festivals or their staff. He doesn’t build stages or coordinate logistics, he’s not an expert in crowd control or security or emergency medical services. But he does trust Live Nation and all the other concert promoters who are supposed to do all of this. And yet here we are, 10 deaths and counting. 10 broken families.

The world is mourning.

I’m tired of these corporations shucking their most crucial responsibility. These folks simply say Rest In Peace and move on. This negligence can’t continue. Folks want answers. I’m not buying the Young Black Man did it. He’s being blamed for a crime while the old white men running the corps that Travis and his fans trusted with their lives stay quiet in the shadows, counting their money and watching their stock prices go up and up.

The excuse of Scott’s irresponsible actions don’t wash - if his act had a history of that behavior why promote him to bigger venues, why partner with him in the first place and let him headline a bigger audience? Live Nation controlled this show. They control almost all of the concert venues. Artists ain’t speaking out because these same cats are already bought by these corporations. No one can say a word against them unless they want to be Blacklisted and hurt their careers.

So I am calling on Michael Rapino’s entire team at Live Nation and a consortium of all the major concert promoters out there to do the right thing. To step up and step out of the shadows to fix these situations and save lives. To stop letting one Young Black Man take the blame, the hate, the fall.

We don’t know everything that happened or exactly what failed. But concert promoters have all the power to make the changes to keep everyone safe and alive.

Live Nation, your stock is up. The White Corporate Music Biz keeps cashing in on Black Pain, Trauma and Death. This has to stop yesterday. You’re part of the problem. Grow the fuck up, fix this and let us all LIVE in PEACE.”

6 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 PERFORMER MAGAZINE

photo by Mika Väisänen used under a Creative Commons 2.0 license

MUSIC BUSINESS

Build a Business, Not a Following

by Airbit COO, Judah Wiedre If small business owners in other lines of work took the same advice that has regularly been doled out to musicians, they’d never get anything done.

The fact is artists, producers, and other music makers have been encouraged to emulate the 1% of music stars and celebrities, looking for scale and big numbers--whether it’s streams or subscriptions or follows--first and foremost. This is a predictable product of the platform-era of digital music, but it distracts from other, more practical and fulfilling ways to achieve a sustainable, satisfying career.

You need to be focusing on your business, not your following. You’ll need a firewall between your creative life and its demands and joys, and your business thinking, which requires a bit more distance and cold, hard clarity, when you look at your music as something you’re selling or promoting.

How you do this, how you cut through the noise, will be different for each creator out there.

However, everyone can take three things to heart as you traverse these waters. Building your business requires that you nurture your talent, find your community, and maximize your income from the work you do.

Nurture your talent Your creativity is your business. There is no separating the two, and these two aspects of your work are not in opposition. You can’t have a business without your talent driving things, and this means you need to take your creativity and talent seriously; they are the core and you can’t afford to neglect them.

What to do: Experiment with different approaches until you find one that builds the habits you need to get traction.

Remind yourself of what matters. It’s easy to get swept up in other conversations about business tactics or hacks, not to mention other measures of success. Remind yourself regularly that creativity is the heart of what you do, and that that creative urge needs room and time.

Look for inspiration, both within your style or scene, and outside it (and outside music in general). Seek out what gets ideas flowing and make it a habit to turn to these inspirations. Take time to listen to new music, go to a museum, daydream, take a walk, or play a game, whatever it is that works for you. It’s not just good for your soul, it’s good business.

Find your community So maybe you’ve got a regular practice down, or you’re making sure you’re shielding that creative spark from the storms of daily life. You also need to find a group of likeminded people to egg you on and support you, and that you can encourage and support. You need a community.

These aren’t your fans or your customers.

These are your creative peers. Ideally, this community should be a mix of people just getting started and those further along in their careers.

The mix ensures you can both commiserate and trade tips, as well as find real mentorship opportunities from those who’ve learned what you’re still mastering.

This means both protecting your time and energy to make sure you create regularly and ensuring that you never stop learning, setting attainable goals, and improving your skills. Without an effort, life has a way of running roughshod over our creative impulses and hopes, even if we’re making a living as creators or music professionals.

Though this is rarely discussed in the context of a music business, feedback from the community is critical. A producer starting out, for example, may not have been exposed to certain things and may pick up a ton of new knowledge, ideas, and inspiration from more experienced beatmakers.

It’s really hard to grow in a vacuum; you need props and constructive feedback.

Everyone is going to approach this nurture differently, but everyone needs to make expansion, improvement, and room for inspiration on their own terms a life priority. Everything else is really secondary.

A lot of new producers who are judging their success in terms of beat sales, for example, often need guidance to discover the simple fixes in both marketing and production that could get them to that first beat sale. Without

8 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 PERFORMER MAGAZINE

this community input, they can flail around for months, get frustrated, and quit, when all they needed to do was tune something better or reduce compression. You can’t find customers until you’ve perfected what you have to offer, and you can do that faster and better in a supportive community.

What to do: Find where helpful communities gather.

It could be Reddit. It could be Discord. It could be at a local music venue or shop or studio.

Invest in that community. Lurking or simply striving to extract value from a community isn’t going to get you far if what you need is a twoway conversation. Invest by sharing what you know and supporting your fellow community members.

Be open to constructive feedback. This can be really hard, especially when we’re talking about your creative work. Stay open, work through your defensiveness, and listen to feedback that’s wellmeaning and well informed.

Maximize your income First, let’s talk about how to focus on creating more opportunities and more growth for your music business. When you’re looking to increase your revenues from your music or beats, the first, big-picture step comes when you put yourself in the shoes of consumers and imagine how they’d like your music to be presented. You may be proceeding from the assumption that people are actively seeking out your music, taking the time to listen, and quickly deciding to buy or lease your beats. That’s wishful thinking. You need to be intentional and reactive in your marketing efforts.

What to do: Explore your audience and target ads to excite them. You’ve met your community; where do they hang out? What music services do they listen to? Where do you see ads from producers similar to you, but maybe a bit further along on the journey? You can do what a lot of marketers do, and A/B test your ads. Try two approaches to the same call to action and see what resonates more. Then experiment. Keep track of your results and notice what people respond to. Don’t throw money into ads without committing to monitoring what they actually get you.

photo courtesy of Airbit

MUSIC BUSINESS

Choose your features and collaborators wisely. They need to speak to your creative side (a vocalist or MC who is just really damn good), or they need to speak to your business side. Don’t just connect with friends.

Price your music to make the decision to purchase easier. If you make beats and you’ve explored your audience effectively, you can decide whether a reasonably priced lease ($50, say) is more enticing than a $1,000 exclusive sale. Set your prices to fit the market niche you’re aiming for, and don’t feel you’re stuck. Though remember, it’s easier to lower your price via discounts, deals, or other means than raise them.

Create mystique around your releases.

While everyone feels the temptation to get that music out there the second it’s done, it’s okay to make your niche audience wait. Build in some time to let the excitement build, at least a week or two.

Surprise drops may work for household names, but probably not for you. You can hold onto that track for a bit and set things up right.

Along with these marketing decisions, you can track down as much of your potential revenue as possible. Many, many music creatives leave money on the table. It’s easy to note this fact, but it’s much harder, however, to give solid advice about how to remedy this problem. You may not want to become a world-class royalty administrator, so don’t be afraid to seek out and even pay for administrative help. The cost is low, and the potential gain is high.

What to do: Leverage tools like Content ID to capture revenue from your copyright usage. By registering with automated tools like YouTube’s Content ID, your work can be found wherever it pops up—and you can get a share of any money generated from the use of that work.

Create your own storefront and market to your niche. Marketplaces can be great, but if you’re a producer who’s thinking like a business, you should have your own landing page where people can buy direct. (For even more control, use an embeddable store like we offer at Airbit. Artists should look at something like Bandzoogle, where you sell music and subscriptions in one spot via your website.)

Distribute your music with a reputable independent distributor like CD Baby or TuneCore.

This is something that producers sometimes overlook. If you’re not already signed up to collect on publishing or mechanicals, check with your distributor to see if they can help.

Collaborate with creators who can increase your exposure and generate more streaming revenue. These creators may not even be in music but may share some passion or common theme with you. Why not team up, do something cool together, and share audiences?

To learn more, please visit www.airbit.com

PERFORMER MAGAZINE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 9

MUSIC BUSINESS

photos by Patrick McPheron

Shifting the Parad Mothers in the Mu

I

formed Mamas in Music (along with co-founder Mary Leay) to support and encourage other mums working in the music industry, while also raising little humans. The idea sprang to life about a month after giving birth. Those early days, even with all their magic, are so full of vulnerability and often birth trauma. For me, abandonment is one of my biggest triggers, so when my management dropped out shortly after I gave birth, it hit me hard. I had worked like crazy during my pregnancy to finalize my IAMEVE Archetype EP, so it could be released a few months after having my little one. But without a team, it felt impossible.

from other women. This connection gave me an immediate feeling of not being alone and it was so healing. I searched for an existing platform to join in supporting and advocating for moms in music but couldn’t find one.

Feeling quite emotional and needing to connect, I shared my experience with a women’s music group and received a flood of responses

Obviously, this is a giant issue that is societal and systemic. We know it’s too large of an issue to tackle on our own and one of our big learning

10 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 PERFORMER MAGAZINE

So in between sleepless nights and nursing advice, myself and Mary Leay began to develop Mamas In Music. There are so many stereotypes that moms experience in entertainment, along with a lack of equal opportunity, resources, and understanding for what it is to balance motherhood and work in a healthy, realistic way.

We really want to disrupt that.

curves as new moms has been to have patience and take things slowly. You have to let things grow and evolve at their own pace. These changes are a collective conversation that will require numbers, the support of larger organizations, and time.

Our growing community is a place to share advice, concerns, and tips to maintain creativity, scheduling, and consistency in an industry that is difficult on everyone - but especially on primary caregivers. We provide a nurturing community, discuss ways to smash the stigma surrounded by motherhood, and collectively create resources to help one another. Our grand goal is to make creative fields friendly environments for parents.

Entertainment doesn’t have an HR department - so we have to pool our efforts to advocate for ourselves if we want to make it work. We would

MUSIC BUSINESS

adigm for Working Music Industry Tiff Randol (IAMEVE)

like to see industry leaders creating inclusion practices and riders at major corporations and aligning with like-minded partners to create opportunities for our community.

Our first partnership is with Burnside Distribution/The Orchard, who have recently come on as the official distribution partner for Mamas in Music, providing members a direct line and the company’s marketing resources to release their music worldwide. This December, we will have our first kickoff event with Mom Film Fest to connect our communities together for collaborative opportunity and discussions on how our voices together can push for change for working moms in entertainment.

Sometimes it feels like I focus mostly on the “challenges” of being a mom, so I also just want

to take a moment to say that becoming a mom has been the best thing I have ever done. Every challenge has brought a new learning curve and an opportunity to do things differently. I find that because my time is more limited, I have to find ways to work smarter and focus on the big picture because I don’t have the luxury of being obsessed by perfection anymore. That’s been huge for me.

More than anything, I feel like I have so much more to offer creatively - which is something I hear over and over from other moms as well.

Artists have always driven important messages to unite people and in a world that seems extremely volatile for the future of our young ones, it strikes me that the becoming of mother is a much needed, potent perspective.

On a personal note, the EP that I put on

hold for release after giving birth is finally out! It’s called Archetype under the name IAMEVE and was also the very first release through our Mamas in Music distribution partnership. It’s an audio-visual release that explores Jungian archetypes like mother, queen, seeker, inner child, and the roles they play in our reactions to the world around us.

One of the songs on it most close to my heart is called “Unnerving,” which was recorded while pregnant and filmed after giving birth.

It really captures this vulnerable, fragile experience of bringing a child into a divided, volatile world - and my struggle to find some peace and understanding through it all.

For more info, please visit https:// www.iameveami.com and https://www. mamasinmusic.com PERFORMER MAGAZINE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 11

MUSIC BUSINESS images courtesy of Viberate

ARTISTS ARE TAKING BACK CONTROL WITH D 12 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 PERFORMER MAGAZINE

In the never-ending fight for attention, artists turn to data to break through.

Here’s a hard fact: around 95% of music artists cannot make a living from music alone. I know – I used to be one of them.

After 25 years in the business, I’ve probably seen every struggle there is. From pitching music to labels, to negotiating live gigs, to figuring out perfect timings for my next release. It’s not easy.

Secret weapons don’t exist, but fortunately, we have something very close to it - data analytics.

I was lucky enough to discover that quite early in my career, and found an amazing team to help me harness it. Since my DJ colleagues were also intrigued, we built an entire startup out of it.

Today, it’s a platform called Viberate.

Viberate is a music research and analytics platform I founded to help other artists use data the way it has helped my career. We monitor all

major social, streaming, and music channels (radio, Spotify, Beatport, Instagram, YouTube, etc.) in one place. Then, we use this data to determine how every artist, label, and festival in the world is performing online.

From the data gathered, we create insights that artists and their teams use to grow their streaming and radio numbers, engage their fanbase, understand music markets worldwide, and save money on promotional efforts.

MUSIC BUSINESS

[Ed. note — this guest article was penned by the world-renowned Techno producer & Viberate co-founder, UMEK]

Like I keep saying: data can’t replace your talent and creativity. But it has the power to help you get your music heard, and build your career on your own terms.

Where to start? I understand the majority of artists are totally new to the concept, so we’re giving everyone a 30-day free trial of our Premium plan with all the insights you’ll need.

Just follow the link and see what data can do for you.

LEARN MORE viberate.com

at

https://analytics.

DATA PERFORMER MAGAZINE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 13

MUSIC BUSINESS

photo by Aleksandr Neplokhov

7 Out-of-the-Box Ideas to Your Music Online Music marketing is difficult. It doesn’t matter how good your music is, without an audience it’s not going to go anywhere.

There are many ways to promote your music online, but there are also some unconventional strategies you can use too!

This article will discuss 7 out-of-the-box 14 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 PERFORMER MAGAZINE

ideas for promoting your music online.

1) Sign up for a Patreon account and offer exclusive content to fans who pledge.

Giving your fans an exclusive access to your content is a wonderful way to get them involved.

Patreon offers you the option of allowing your fans to pledge an amount that they are willing and able to in order for you to create exclusive content.

This could be something as simple as recording a cover song or launching an exclusive project.

Patreon has become extremely popular over the past couple of years and is now one of the most common platforms for musicians to use in order to get support from their fans.

2) Share links to new releases so fans can

3) Put together playlists that are themed around the season or genre of your choice, then share them with friends on Spotify and Apple Music.

Creating a themed playlist that highlights the best music of a particular season or genre is a great way to introduce people to the music you love. In fact, Spotify published a blog post in which they shared playlists meant for every season of the year - from summer BBQ songs to wintery tunes perfect for curling up with a hot drink and a book by the fire.

In addition to creating themed playlists that highlight your favorite tracks, be sure to share these playlists with friends and followers on various popular streaming services. This will not only help your music gain exposure, but you’ll also impress others by sharing a curated list of songs that have been handpicked just for them.

4) Upload pictures from the studio sessions onto Instagram with captions that tease what is coming up next in your catalog of music.

Uploading behind the scenes studio sessions give your fans a close up look into your life, which can be intriguing to them. This is a great way to get them excited about what you’re working on and connect on a personal level.

Additionally, you can tease your upcoming work by uploading pictures with captions that hint at what is to come in the future. This could be something as simple as “Working on a new song!

Can’t wait for everyone to hear it :)” or “Mixing today has been fun - love this one!”

These kinds of posts are a wonderful way of getting your potential fans excited about what you’re working on behind closed doors.

to Market listen immediately while they browse their feed.

Share links to new releases on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter but also platforms like TikTok and even Snapchat so fans can listen immediately while they browse their feed and get access to quick, exclusive clips that they can’t get on the ‘big sites.’

This will give them a chance to preview your

5) Give a song away for free on SoundCloud with a donation button that allows fans to contribute.

Soundcloud is the number one platform for electronic music and has become the go-to place to both discover new artists while also supporting your favorite producers.

As listeners continue to migrate away from traditional methods of purchasing songs (iTunes, Amazon, brick-and-mortar, etc.), this is a great way to attract new fans who are willing to contribute if they like what you’re doing.

Additionally, you can post the free track on your Facebook page or website with a donation button so fans who don’t use SoundCloud will still have an easy way to contribute. This is also beneficial for artists because it’s not only giving away music at no cost, but allows them to

generate income through their work.

6) Create an online event or concert series around your music and invite fans who like the same artists to participate.

Having an online streaming event is a great way to create excitement around your music and drive traffic back to it. You can have Q&A sessions, live streams of concerts or collaboarions with other artists in the community, giveaways for attendee, etc.

MUSIC BUSINESS

music, which may spark interest in the full album or EP. It’s also an effective way of getting potential listeners excited for upcoming work.

The possibilities are endless when creating an event around your music. There’s no reason why you can’t include a live element to it and allow people who enjoy the same artists as yourself to come together and contribute.

This is beneficial for both fans of your work because they get an opportunity to see their favorite musicians up close and personal, and to you to keep your performance skills sharp when you’re not on tour.

7) Create a YouTube channel and share videos of covers.

YouTube is a great platform to gain exposure through sharing videos of your music. Whether it’s covers or original songs, musicians have the option to create their own channel and upload as many cover songs as they want for free on YouTube.

To help attract more viewers, consider promoting your YouTube channel on social media whenever you put a cover out – it’s a great way to introduce fans of the original track to your work and online presence.

The great thing about uploading videos of covers is that they can still give you exposure while also allowing others who cover songs an opportunity for their work to be showcased as well. It’s a win-win! You can also include behind the scenes videos of your recording sessions, live performances and more.

Additionally, you can upload original songs to build hype for whatever it is that’s coming up next in your career. This will help give fans a preview before they get the full thing.

FINAL THOUGHTS Overall, there are a number of ways to market your music online, and it’s definitely an exciting time to be doing so. With many platforms available for musicians today, it’s important to take advantage of what they have to offer in order to gain fans from all over the world who can support you through your work.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR This article was written by Charles Vallena, music expert at www.theguitarjunky.com PERFORMER MAGAZINE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 15

MUSIC BUSINESS

L

ivestreams were a lifesaver for musicians and fans alike during the pandemic, approximating the live concert experience and allowing everyone to feel slightly more normal in an abnormal time. That said, livestreaming is only the beginning of the conversation when it comes to connecting with your biggest fans.

While a good stopgap, livestreams are a passive experience. They’re inherently less exciting than live shows and offer virtually zero opportunities for meaningful interaction and connection. When big artists with bigger budgets jumped into livestreaming, the landscape became more challenging for independent artists. And, when you consider that promoting livestream events can be a heavy lift in itself, it’s obvious that while livestreaming solves some problems, it also creates others.

Thankfully, there is a better option that lets you skirt these issues.

Interactive sessions offer the same basic premise — a virtual event with your fans — while being relatively easy to execute and immersive

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for everyone. Interactive sessions like the ones we help artists offer let fans click a link, join a session, and start engaging with you regardless of their system or setup. Interactive sessions allow artists to offer unique opportunities to superfans and followers, unlocking new revenue streams in the process.

Here’s how to make your first interactive session successful: PLAN Before you do anything else, figure out how you’re going to structure your session. Let yourself be guided by what you really excel at or love doing, and by what your fans have the most interest in.

We’ve seen two types of interactive sessions as the most exciting and interesting: master classes and creative review sessions.

Master classes are sessions focused on sharing tips, tricks, and skill-building approaches for fans who also make music, produce tracks, and write songs. The great thing about these sessions is fans will know unambiguously what they are paying for; if your session is titled “EQ

Master class” or “Ableton master class,” fans will understand the goal of the session.

A creative review session is a way to give your fans feedback on their work. Review sessions are very easy to set up and run and could even follow master classes that tackle a specific skill. In a review session, you are giving fans constructive criticism of their work, whether we’re talking beats, verses, or full songs.

If you aren’t sure or need more information about what your fans actually want, ask them on your social media channels or via an email newsletter (if you have one), giving them a few options to choose from. Then dive into the most popular options.

Once you’ve nailed your structure and approach, plot it all out. Hosts should have a mental or written outline or roadmap of how a session will be paced to give the audience the best chance to get involved. It’s probably a good idea to have a few extra activities on hand to pull out of your back pocket just in case something doesn’t quite connect or takes less time than you anticipated.

MUSIC BUSINESS

How to Set Up a Killer Interactive Session With Your Fans

By Dave Jx, CMO of BeatConnect

photo by Thomas Minnich is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0 SET CLEAR EXPECTATIONS You’ve got it all planned. Now it’s time to let the world know what you’re offering.

To do this well, you need to describe what the session will be about so people come prepared and ready to engage. Go into detail about what fans can expect to learn, what kinds of equipment or software they will need to have, and what skills (if applicable) they will need to bring to the session to make the most of it.

The clearer you make your description and expectations, the better fans will be able to engage and gain something from the experience.

PREPARE Once you have your session planned and announced, it’s time to get ready for the session itself.

Get your space/studio ready. Prep all of your instruments, samples, and tools beforehand, and make sure that anything that has a battery is charged.

Have an outline of the session prepared at the outset so you can move through the activities you’ve planned and focus on interacting with your fans.

Make sure your lighting works. A welllit set adds a level of professionalism to your session, so an inexpensive ring light might be the difference between good and great. Good lighting also allows your fans to see exactly what you’re doing, which is important in teaching moments or if you’re showing fans around your setup.

Check your connection. Lagging is a streamer’s worst enemy. A poor internet connection can stand in the way of a great session with your fans. Make sure that your internet is stable and can support your session. Do test runs before your first sessions to make sure everything’s running smoothly.

BE A PRO Being a professional is about being on time, looking the part, and delivering what is expected of you. Your audience took the time out of their day and paid money to watch and learn from you, so show them you care by being ready to go from the jump. Arrive early, start on time, end on time, and treat the session like the paid gig it is. Stay focused on what you’re giving fans and you’ll be sure to succeed.

BE SENSITIVE Be aware of how you speak and what you say. Not all commentary, humor, and language is appropriate for all audiences. If you’re not sure a joke will be understood, skip it. If your session makes anyone feel uncomfortable, it’s a failure.

Remember, your fans are there for a reason; as opposed to a performance in front of hundreds or thousands, this is a smaller and more intimate experience, which presents its own challenges.

About BeatConnect Since BeatConnect launched in 2020, the Montreal-based audio creation and collaboration platform has paved the way for musicians anywhere in the world to come together in shared virtual spaces. Seamlessly integrating into all major DAWs, BeatConnect allows users to collaborate in real time from their respective home studios. Once BeatConnect is installed, musicians and producers can start playing and editing together with no extra setup required.

Select fans can join the party, unlocking new possibilities for creators and makers to engage with fans. BeatConnect’s Lite version is free and its Premium version costs a one-time flat fee of $29.95.

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MUSIC BUSINESS

10 Ways to Tune Up Your M Here are 10 ways to tune up your music business for the coming year. Make a commitment to focus on these every few weeks. No need to overwhelm yourself, just make progress.

10. Refresh Your Profiles You finally nailed a bio section and put it up years ago. It’s time to revisit it, especially on Spotify. It sounds simple, but I see this all the time. An artist with older accomplishments listed, or even old band lineups (“we’re a 3 piece,” when it turns out you added a fourth last year).

Do the same for your socials. Sometimes you can do this through your distributor (Distrokid) or artist page on Spotify. On your social sites, make sure to include newly released music or accomplishments so that new fans can connect quickly. It’s a good idea to do a linktree which lists your website, merch shop, music streamer profiles, and video channel, as well.

9. Refresh Your EPK Make sure your song lists are correct, include some new photos or get some new artists shots done. It’s a good time to include new venues and accomplishments, including any recent press. You most likely need to update streaming numbers, video views, and social follow numbers. Above all, any booker or PR person wants to see newer video content.

8. Song Catalog This is an ongoing task, but you gotta start now. You are going to need all of this information in the future for your PRO, for HFA, MLC, and SoundExchange. You simply make a spreadsheet (xls or Google Sheets) which catalogs all of your songs.

Simply open a spreadsheet and here are your columns: Artist name, Song name, Track recording length, Writer 1, Writer 2 (add as many co-writers as the song has), CAE/IPI for Writer 1, CAE/IPI for Writer 2, Publisher 1, Publisher 2, CAE/IPI Pub 1 and Pub 2, ISRC, ISWC, Song UPC (if single), Album title, Album UPC, Label Name, Distributor, Credits.

Here’s a template for you to make it easy: h tt p s : //m i c h a e l s t j a m e s. g u m ro a d .c o m / l / songcatalog

photo by watts_ photos is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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7. Split Sheets By far, the biggest issue in music licensing is often split sheets, or lack thereof. Do not wait until I am on the phone with you to ask your producer or co-writers for this, because you will have lost

the deal at that very second. For every song, you need a split sheet detailing what date the song was finished, who (if anyone) was a co-writer, their percentage of writing credit, their name and contact info, and PRO IPI/CAE information (as a songwriter and publisher) and it needs to be signed. Keep in mind, the percentage of writing credit is simply what you all agree on.

The most important thing is that everyone agrees and is comfortable signing this agreement, no lawyer needed. You also need a split sheet for the recording. This should include what date the recording was finished, the list of songs recorded, the price paid and to whom, producer and mixer, whether or not the producer has any % in the master ownership/royalties (points), as well as any side musicians involved, and the amount paid to them.

Templates: https://michaelstjames. gumroad.com/l/SplitSheet-Writers and https:// michaelstjames.gumroad.com/l/SplitSheetproducers 6. Get Your PRO Straight Make sure your PRO (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) reflects all of the songs you have with the correct percentages of splits. You should include any songs that are finished, whether they are released or not.

5. Sign up for SoundExchange SX is a separate performing rights organization which collects digital royalties for non-interactive streaming such as Pandora, Sirius XM, and webcasters, as well as neighboring rights if you choose to have that collected. Money goes to the featured performer– the artist– directly (45%), non-featured artists such as hired players on recordings (5%) and to the Master Recording rights owner (50%). So, if you are a band with four members all four need to sign up to be paid directly as featured performers.

And let’s say you have your own label because you paid for your recordings, this is where you get paid for that as well as a master right owner.

4. Learn How to Design And Launch Ads At some point you will need to learn how to advertise your own releases. Yes, you can hire people, but it’s not too difficult to learn and there are tons of resources to help you. Two main areas: Facebook and Instagram ads are done through the business suite on Facebook or Instagram using your artist profile. Another area you need to dive into is Google Ads in order to promote your music videos on YouTube.

3. Catalog Your Equipment Every band member should do this with their respective gear. If you’re the one with the Mac running Pro Tools, include this as well. Whatever gear is shared by the band like a PA or van, do this as well. You’ll want to make a list of the gear, brand, model, make, year, and serial numbers.

Pictures are great if you have the time, but not required.

The real reason to do this is insurance. You should have your gear insured personally anyway, and the band’s equipment insured through the LLC. If you want to do it personally, ask about apartment or homeowner’s insurance and include your gear in your possessions, it’s really not that expensive. Don’t be THAT band which can’t make the next gig because they got their PA ripped off or it blew up in Tallahassee and have no money to buy a new one. If you get on to a big tour, insurance is going to be mandatory. Don’t wait and then scramble and make mistakes. Do it now.

2. Get Your Money Right Look, we all go into this music game to NOT deal with boring things like this, I get it.

But, really going through what you’ve made and what you’ve spent as a band, you will be able to understand that this is a business, and ultimately, where you can improve. Hopefully, you have an LLC which files taxes and that should make this easier. But even if you don’t, here is a simple way to get some good numbers. Break everything up into 3 categories: LIVE (shows), RECORDINGS (streaming, physical, downloads), OPERATING (rehearsal space, merch, Dropbox, etc.).

For instance, on the LIVE sheet, list what the band made for each gig and then what the band paid in drinks, gas for the van, late night food, and the difference is your net profit for the gig.

Same with RECORDINGS. How much did the album cost (recording, packaging, distro), and how much has your band made in royalties from streaming or physical sales? You don’t have to share all of this detail with anyone, but just get your monthly or yearly numbers in order. At some point, if you get an opportunity for investment or a licensing deal, this will at least provide you leverage to know what to ask for.

1. Build Your Email/Text List Don’t rely on social media platforms alone to promote what you are doing. The way algorithms work means that maybe 1/3rd to half (at most) of your followers will see most of your posts.

Promoted posts aren’t much better.

Even if you do not have a good solid email/text list right now, it’s time to start building it. If you already do have one, start really engaging. Here are some ways to do that. Do a giveaway. Not of your album, but something fun, like a silly prize or hang out session. Come to rehearsal, have a drink with the band, we’ll write you a song, pick a cover song for us to do - get creative. Just sign up here with email/text. Start a monthly newsletter to refresh those connections. Let everyone know that their favorite artist is working on something new, include a private link to a snippet on YouTube. And don’t make it always about music. Include what you’re watching on Netflix, maybe a stupid story about the band after a show one night. Let the fans in and see you as the cool creative people you are.

MUSIC BUSINESS

r Music Business for 2022

Bonus: What Are You Selling?

Lastly, reevaluate what you are doing. Are you selling the same old tired logo shirts? Maybe it’s time you design a new one, maybe add a new item like a fanny pack or coffee mug. Maybe use a lyric line or a catch phrase, or even a new logo.

Fans aren’t going to tell you they already bought the shirt and want something new, you have to do it. Maybe your fans want more video content on YouTube? Maybe they just want new music from you more frequently.

It’s also time to answer this question: Hey, I would like to buy everything your band has done, how do I do that?

This sounds simple, and we do this with a lot of artists who are about to be signed or blowing up and it is very useful. The theory is, if an investment angel or a (superfan) walked in and asked this, can you accept their money today? Do you have it all together and available? This will get you thinking about a store or shop website, which you should have anyway.

Go one step further, what if they wanted to buy your recording catalog or your music publishing?

Do you have any idea how to do that? Would you sell? How much would you sell for? It’s not about whether you would or would not, could you?

Do these ten things and by this time next year and I guarantee you will be in a completely different position as an artist. Good luck!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR -Michael St. James is the founder and creative director of St. James Media, specializing in music licensing, publishing, production and artist development.

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Satellite C Eddie Kasparian

Benjamin Ricci

Guitarist Shaunt Sulahian on Rocking as a Two-Piece, Armenian Heritage and Sounding HUGE with a Strat

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e Citi PERFORMER MAGAZINE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 21

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T

he hard-rocking LA duo Satellite Citi first came on our radar through Instagram, where we noticed a lot more volume coming from our speakers than the two-some would lead you to believe themselves capable of.

Drummer/vocalist Anna Gevorkian and her partner, guitarist/vocalist, Shaunt Sulahian have made quite a name for themselves in their native LA stomping grounds, and their latest LP Fear Tactics is a fantastic representation of their aggressive sound on record.

We recently caught up with Sulahian to discuss the band’s origins, their Armenian heritage, and how they get such a massive sound with just two band members.

Let’s take it back to the beginning for folks who maybe aren’t familiar with the band. Can you give us a sense of where you came from, where you grew up and how you first got involved in playing music?

Yeah man, definitely. I grew up in Los Angeles and I went to Cal State Northridge, and I met Anna while I was in college where we 22 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 PERFORMER MAGAZINE

kind of started like this little acoustic project.

We were just kind of having fun; I was in and out of a bunch of metal bands and I realized she has an incredible voice. And she also plays drums.

So, I said, ‘hey, have you ever tried singing and drumming?’ and she said, ‘no, that’s a little crazy.’ [laughs] But she started drumming and singing and we were quickly writing full-fledged rock songs instead of the more singer-songwriter stuff that we used to do. And yeah, then we just kind of went off from there. We put out our first EP in 2018 and we did a [small] California tour and then we just released our debut full-length record in September.

Awesome, so quite the transition from a more acoustic duo to what you guys are doing now.

I would say we were both on board with kind of making the move to a harder edge [sound]. I think that I come from a metal background and Anna comes from more like a funk, alternative rock place and so we kind of thought, ‘Let’s just combine our influences and see what happens’ and [Satellite Citi] just kind of came out.

We just realized the songs we were

writing were getting heavier, darker lyrically. And I just missed writing riffs, I guess. So, we combined it all and Satellite Citi was formed.

You’ve also got kind of two…mysterious figures? Shall we call them…

Well, uhm, right now it’s going to be three ‘space walkers,’ we call them. We got one on keyboards now and yeah, we don’t reveal their identity. They’re just incredibly talented people that we choose to work with and at first it was kind of like a joke. Like, ‘imagine our friends dressed up in astronaut costumes and putting them on stage -- it’ll give more of a theatrical experience to the audience’ and so far, people have been loving it.

And for the past year, we’ve been writing a graphic novel that kind of focuses on the spacewalkers. It’s kind of like a sci-fi fantasy novel, and then we’re going to release a concept EP to go along with it.

Wow, very cool. So, the spacewalkers are a part of the group now; do they record with you?

No, just the two of us [in the studio]. I think having the two-person band, it can kind of sound

I know I want to be challenged. And I think same with Anna, you know? And then the more we’re challenged, the more creative we can get.

Awesome, so let’s talk about the record.

Can you elaborate a little bit on what your songwriting process looks like?

As far as recording guitars, it’s just straight through my head down through the cab and then a few different pedals. Maybe Brad will go in there and mess with the plugins and mess with the reverbs through the DAW, but I just did the whole record through a Peavey 3120 head and a Mesa cab.

Every single song on the record and every single song we write in general is written collaboratively with me and Anna. She usually writes the lyrics and melodies, and I’ll write the guitar [parts] and then she’ll add some drums to that. There have been instances where she starts with the lyrics, and then I’ll try to write guitars to her lyrics.

But yeah, it’s mainly just me and her.

Sometimes we just jam for a few hours and see what riffs and cool stuff we can come up with and then we sit later on and add onto that without the drums…try to write melodies

And what guitars are you using?

Just my Strat for the whole record. It’s an American 2014 Strat. Yeah, I’ve literally had that thing for like 6 years now – stock pickups, single coil pickups. It’s got a great big sound for single coils.

I would like to touch upon one last thing here -- I’ve noticed on your Twitter and some of your merch you’ve got the colors

“The more we’re challenged, the more creative we can get…” to [what we’ve come up with]. I think the key there is just changing it up and not staying stagnant with one songwriting strategy, so that things can stay interesting.

How have you released the new record?

Digital? Vinyl? CD? We’ve done it all except vinyl, but we’re working on [that] right now.

How did you two record it? Because you know, I’ve seen some of the names involved in the production, and these folks have worked on Smashing Pumpkins records, Pixies records…

So, we worked with Brad Wood for this record, and he also did our first EP Negative Space. e’s just an incredibly talented human – we did a lot of pre/pro with him, and he came to our place, our rehearsal studio, and he kind of broke down some songs [with us].

We’ve been working with him for so long now that our chemistry is pretty great.

We write a lot and sometimes it gets too repetitive. He’ll call us out on that and then we’ll go back and we’ll kind of workshop it a bit more. That’s a good person to have working with you.

Committee of America at www.anca.org. OK, they keep you updated in regards to news, current events and what’s happening with Armenia [today] and any updates with Azerbaijan that’s in conflict with them still.

That’s the main source that I’d go to [for a start].

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flat on stage sometimes. I kind of just wanted a thicker sound [live], honestly, like a bigger landscape that goes down and on top.

Sadly, most of my own knowledge on the subject comes from a TV special that Conan O’Brien did where he traveled to Armenia with his assistant, Sona Movsesian.

Oh no, I love that, man. No need to apologize.

When he did that, you know, that was a whole event for our families, by the way. Like really, Armenian families sat around their TV’s and watched that episode of Conan, OK? Because it was a huge deal – this American celebrity of that caliber going and bringing awareness to Armenia and the [issues]…That was pretty emotional for all of us. It’s a huge deal still that he and Sona [did that].

And with that, we said our goodbyes to Shaunt – but you can catch more of the band on our YouTube channel, as well as their website at www.satelliteciti.com

of the Armenian flag. Do you want to touch upon your shared heritage and what that means to you as a band?

Yeah man, for sure. It’s definitely a big deal for us. Last year, this time Armenia was at war with Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan was kind of committing war crimes against Armenia and we were trying to bring attention and awareness to that, so we released our song and music video “Antibody” that features BrandonYeagley from Crobot. And there was a ton of symbolism and meaning thrown into that video -- it was directed

by Rosie Geozalian.

And yeah, we kind of had coinciding merch to go along with. That was just our little way, our campaign to bring awareness to [the situation].

But yeah, man, always trying to bring more awareness to the Armenian genocide that started in 1915 against Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish Empire. That’s just something that still hasn’t been resolved for us yet…Turkey continues to deny it, and it’s just the generational trauma that lingers in all Armenians.

Are there any sort of resources or websites for people to check out to learn about the issue?

Follow on Instagram: @satelliteciti

SATELLITE CITI FEAR TACTICS STANDOUT TRACK: “EMPATH”

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DU

SPOTLIGHT Benjamin Ricci

ANGELEA

‘The Voice’ Runner-Up Opens Up About Musical Inspirations and Future Career Path

DURAN RICKY

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W

e recently worked with Ricky Duran on a series of videos with Elixir Strings, and in the process got to know the talented young singer/ songwriter who most of the country came to fall in love with during his recent stint on The Voice.

While the show may have put him in America’s homes, it’s his talent and humble personality that’ll carry him through to the next level. We caught up with him this winter to learn more about his background, his songwriting process and where the musician is headed next.

OK, where did music first enter your life and when?

Sure, yeah, music was always in my family.

My dad was a musician. He moved here from Guatemala to Boston, and he was a performer as

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SPOTLIGHT well. So, he was just doing that until he had my three older sisters, and he gave me [a] guitar. It was kind of always around, but I think as soon as I could really hold it, I was trying to play, I think I was about six years old. My first instrument is actually piano, though.

But yeah, when I learned my first chords on the guitar at about six, I kind of just took it from

me, you know? The Beatles, Santana, he showed me Jimi Hendrix. I kind of went through a punk rock phase in middle school, but as soon as that was over, I was back to Blues guitar, and I really dived into that. Guys like Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan. And then I went further into the Blues, like Albert King, Freddie King, B.B. King, Lightning Hopkins, Howlin’ Wolf, stuff like that and yeah, something about the Blues really

performing, or was that just kind of the stuff that you were listening to at the time?

My dad was performing more like 60’s pop music. The Beatles Cat Stevens, Elton John, stuff like that and he listened to some blue stuff, too, but I really kind of took it a step further and became more of a soloist with my instrument; my dad wasn’t really necessarily a soloist.

On writing: “I’d never force anything, even lyrically.” there and my first performance was for my 4th grade talent show. I did a song by Green Day. [laughs] What about your earliest influences?

I guess that would be whatever my dad gave

speaks to me…I don’t know why.

I don’t really know how to describe it, but it’s definitely what I always fall back on, and it’s prevalent in in any style of music that I’m playing.

Was that the sort of stuff your dad was

So, did you keep up with piano or was a kind of guitar-only thing from there on out?

You know, I always play some piano, but I never got into it like the guitar. I can hold my own if I sit down at a piano and I can write on the piano. I actually really like doing that. But guitar PERFORMER MAGAZINE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 27

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is definitely my forte.

Gotcha, so at some point singing does enter the mix and I think for a lot of people that’s probably what they most associate you with.

I always kind of sang, at first to accompany myself. But I really didn’t find my voice honestly until I was 20, even more until after I graduated college, and I don’t really know why that is. I always sang, but for some reason something just clicked [then].

When you went to school, you weren’t you weren’t there for vocals, because I know you went to Berklee, correct?

I graduated with a music business degree in 2011, but my principal instrument was guitar. I was singing in my spare time; I had a band during my time in college.

What was the plan after Berklee?

So, I really wanted to be a performer and I wanted to travel and play music. That was the goal.

That scared the hell out of my parents. [laughs] Sure, it’s not an unfamiliar story, especially when we interview children of first-generation immigrants who turn into musicians.

Yeah, it definitely frightened my parents, but my dad really pushed me and encouraged me to go [to Berklee].

So, you graduate through the business program…

I discovered right after I graduated that I really didn’t want to be anything other than the musician, artist, the performer.

So, after college I just started playing out at all these small venues. Really all these bars, private parties, that kind of set up, you know?

Did you move to Austin at some point after doing the New England circuit for a while?

Yeah, I had traveled here, I lived here for three months about five or six years ago and I was actually with my ex-girlfriend who was a travel nurse. We kind of just stopped in different cities for a few months and I fell in love with this place.

It’s just a totally different scene up [in New England] and I realized as soon as I touched down here that I had to move through to either, you know, Nashville or Austin, some sort of Music City.

28 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 PERFORMER MAGAZINE

and I have a two- or three-hour writing session.

You know, everyone is really welcoming. I walked into a bar, it was called Chuggin Monkey on 6th St. I walked in on a Saturday and it’s like, ‘hey, I’d like to play here,’ and this really manager came up to me and she said, ‘what are you doing tomorrow?’ She had someone call out, so I was like, ‘yeah, I’m there.’

Yeah, and I’ve done that before and I just kind of end up not really liking the song or not thinking that it’s authentic to me, you know?

Let’s address the elephant in the room and talk about ‘The Voice’ because that’s where a lot of people probably first got introduced to you. What was the process

On the BLUES: “I don’t really know how to describe it, but it’s definitely what I always fall back on, and it’s prevalent in in any style of music that I’m playing.”

So, I bring my stuff the next day and I play, and she loved me, so she took me up and down the street and recommended me to all these different bars.

I know Austin is a big scene for covers, but you eventually started writing more originals down there. Can you explain a little bit how you approach the writing process?

I never sit down and say I need to write a song and try to figure something out. I usually go off an idea that just kind of comes out.

Or maybe it comes out while I’m practicing something else and I do my best to keep it, to not force it. I think that’s really important about my writing.

reach out to you and…I don’t know, something about them seeing you on TV puts you in a different level in their book.

It got me a whole bunch more work, a whole bunch of fans…and it’s crazy being recognized in different states just walking around. It really blew my mind right off the show. But yeah, it definitely launched my career, and you know, I’m still kind of riding that wave to this day.

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Did you find it hard to adjust musically to the scene or was it welcoming?

Let’s talk about what’s coming up -- you mentioned a new song [before we started the interview] that you wrote with your co-writer and naturally that is going to be on your new record…

Yeah, the new record is called ‘Space and Time.’ My [publicist] has told me not to give too much away, but it’s gonna be [released] early next year [hopefully].

Do you plan to tour behind it?

I would love to -- that’s the plan. That was the plan right after ‘The Voice’ and unfortunately, I haven’t really been able to do that. I’ve just kind of been taking shows here and there. But hopefully by next year if the state of the world is a little better [I’ll be able to].

Follow on Instagram: @rickyduran

like for you to actually get on the show?

First, it was an audition. Someone turned me onto it, so I wasn’t seeking that out at all. I played a show here in Austin and the guy who hired me mentioned, ‘Oh my friend’s a producer on The Voice and coming here to do private auditions. If you’d like me to put your name out there…’ -- I said, sure, why not? And I got a call for a time slot to go audition here in Austin. I didn’t have to wait in the cattle call… then they interviewed me and flew me out to LA for the executive producer auditions. So, there were basically two auditions before the blinds.

I’d never force anything, even lyrically.

As someone who’s been through the process and kind of got well, I mean, as far as you can get in in a program like that, are there certain opportunities that open up after that?

Everybody has their own way of working and some people are like, yeah, I sit down every morning I make my coffee

It was insane -- like I would be, and it still happens to this day, but right after the show I was traveling a lot. You know, all these people

RICKY DURAN “STAR” NEW SINGLE

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seeyous Hip-Hop Collective Explores Sonic Territory for a New Generation

30 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 PERFORMER MAGAZINE

SPOTLIGHT

usoon Michael St. James

courtesy of the artist

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SPOTLIGHT

I

n a world where most hip-hop is featuring one star and maybe a hype man, seeyousoon is bringing back that timeless co-op feel of a group. It’s a band of diverse styles, flows, looks and hooks, all combined with a triumvirate of in-house producers who are also part of the group.

Proving that not everything from Florida is a train wreck, seeyousoon is on the rise and one to watch out for. It’s almost a supergroup of locals who just click together. Featuring vocalists Mitch, Maddie, Josh, Luke, Dre, and Drex, plus producers Ignacio (Iggy), Kenny, and Denny.

Following up on the success of their 2020 album Vidé, the 9-piece band just dropped its sophomore release HZLIKEHELL, and after a few scares with that nasty COVID, I got a chance to chop it up with some members of the band early in the morning about their process, the new songs, and what’s ahead.

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PM: What do you call yourselves, a band? A group? A collective?

yo, like you’re rolling up to Popeye’s for a 9-piece and our manager, Dylan, is the biscuit.

Iggy: We’re a band. I think that’s just what it is to me, you know? I just think of it as a group of musicians. Like what do you call that? You call it a band.

PM: So all your photos are always like eight people. Is it Denny? Is that who’s missing all the time.

PM: So, let’s hit this 9-piece thing real quick.

Nine members.

Luke: Yeah, he’s the ghost, man. He’s the ghost producer. You know what I mean? He’s the honorary member of seeyousoon.

“We’re not fazed by that label shit, man. We know they do a lot of talking.

Money talks, bullshit walks...”

Luke: That “nine piece” is what gets us Mitch: Yeah, we immediately think about,

Mitch: That’s the crazy thing. You gotta just look real hard at every picture, ‘cause Denny’s in every picture somewhere.

SPOTLIGHT PM: I’ve been in bands with four or five people. I can’t even imagine rehearsal schedules for nine. Do you all live together? Do you have an HQ, like a clubhouse where you go? Is there one person that controls the calendar?

Luke: I mean, shit, having an HQ - that shit would be fire! In the future for sure. We live within 30 minutes of each other, for the most part, some closer than others, but we just make it work, man. We just really just work around each other’s schedules and like, yo, we gotta be here.

We know the importance of it, you know? We’re all in. So, we don’t play when it comes to that.

PM: The tour’s coming up? How’s that going to look for you guys with so many members? Are you doing like multi vans?

Iggy: Realistically, what I think is gonna happen because the tour is kind of split up into like these two legs, where there’s like a west coast leg and then there’s like an east coast kind of situation. With one Chicago show kind of like in the middle in between.

So, what I think is going to happen is we’re going to fly into every major point. And then we’re just going to drive, like for all of the ones that happen, within each time zone, I guess.

And then when we go do New York, we’ll do all of the east coast ones…in one shot.

PM: So, fly in and then rent Teslas?

Iggy: Do they have Tesla Sprinters?

Luke: The ones with big ass butterfly doors!

Iggy: 325 miles an hour in autonomous mode.

We’d get there hours before soundcheck each and every time for sure.

PM: Congrats on the new album, HZLIKEHELL. Is there a specific theme to it, or is it just where you have fallen with these singles right now? Is there a concept behind it?

Iggy: I don’t know, I don’t think it will be super apparent to most people. But if you ask us, the concept of it is that it’s like a fictional story

about a near dystopian kind of near future or like a parallel world that we live in where information technology has sort of advanced past the point where anyone can do anything about it. And certain elements of the human experience or the human condition have been eroded down and mutated into the things that are just generally awful about people when they become too wrapped up in the internet.

And it’s just sort of a tale of consequences of what can happen or what would happen, I guess, in a world where that shit was just left totally unchecked.

PM: Yeah. So it’s basically the “comments section”?

Iggy: It’s like the Comments Section - The Album: When Shit Goes Wrong!

PM: That actually makes sense. Especially with the last few singles, “No Daylight” and “Fix Your Face.” Compared to some previous ones like, “Everytime I Die” or “Ben Affleck” which PERFORMER MAGAZINE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 33

SPOTLIGHT you know, is like hanging out kind of street music, the latest stuff seems more tech oriented. I do get that vibe

elements. Do you get into that conversation about what this should be called? I mean, every band struggles with that whole labelling thing.

Iggy: The fact that Kenny and I (the other main producer) well, Kenny and Denny and I are all very much into electronic music and hip-hop.

But when we started seeyousoon, there wasn’t really a way to blatantly mesh those. Like, how can we do like really good rap music and really good electronica together? Because I think when you think of electronica music, you think House, you know? But we’re into so many different subgenres where we really want to break open that admiration that we have for all of these different genres and all these different subcultures of dance music and hip-hop together.

Mitch: To me, personally, I don’t think that’s as important as us just coming together and making the shit. Just make it hot.

PM: So, the project is hip-hop, but you are genre bending here. There are just so many

PM: Just do it. Let somebody else call it something.

Luke: Yeah, facts!

PM: Seems like you’ve grown with the creative process of everything - not just the music, the beats, the live work. But really, in everything, and how you’re presenting the band, especially with video.

Luke: Yeah, because I would say that with

Vidé, it was kind of half and half.

For “Steamy” and “Ben Affleck” where we were giving treatments and we were like, all right, we like this, we don’t like this, let’s try this. You know? And then, for “Shut Up,” I mean, we shot that whole shit ourselves. Like, we basically came up with the whole idea for that video.

PM: Plus, you were delayed and had challenges with COVID, and still got videos done, right?

Luke: Yep. You know that was the deal with “Blue Chord.” At the time COVID was going crazy, so we had to, you know, figure out what we wanted to do with that. We came together and rocked that. And then for the videos on the singles from HZLIKEHELL, like Mitch was saying, Maddie has been going crazy with it. Like just her like

‘‘We are asking for everything we want and nothing we don’t.’’”

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Iggy: Yeah, Maddie, she’s been killin’ it.

PM: How do you guys go about crafting the tracks?

Iggy: I would say most of the time it’s something that Kenny, Denny, and I have started.

And usually, we’ll do kind of like a round robin thing with the beats where it’s like, if I start something, I send it to Kenny, and then it gets sent to Denny and then it gets sent back to me.

We’ll sort of get it to a place where it’s cool and good for everybody to record on. Making sure it’s not too much. And then after things are recorded, there’s an editing pass where we really make the vocals and the beat a unified kind of thing. And then if we need to record more –which honestly happens like over 50% of the time– we’ll start working on expanding the track and adding a new section, a verse, or there’s doubling or ad libbing to do from other members who have ideas for that kind of stuff.

PM: How do you decide who gets a verse, is that plotted out? Some of the hip-hop groups I’ve worked with are competitive AF, right? The whole point is like, “who’s gonna get that verse”?

Do you battle each other out for the best line or hook, or do you kind of know who’s going to be dropping this line or that verse? Not everyone can get a line on every track.

Luke: Yeah, I think whoever has an idea first can kind of go ahead and flesh it out and then we’ll figure out if it works in that part - like could it be the beginning, or if that could be a second verse, or if that can be a hook. Then we start to figure it out from there. You know what I mean?

It’s like, yo, present this idea that you have and then we’ll figure out if it fits here or there.

And if it doesn’t fit, then you gotta go back to the drawing board.

PM: That’s like a stank face test. If you get a stank face, it’s sticking.

Dre: Hell yeah, man. That’s it. That’s how you know.

PM: As a producer, you’ve got to make choices when you’re mixing and arranging, right? How do you balance the amount of takes or verses with such big group while you are tracking?

Iggy: I think a big part of how I’ve come to work, primarily as a recording engineer, is that I have an idea of what this track is supposed to be in the artist’s mind. And I’m like a maniac when it comes to getting takes right. I’ll just be like, that was great. Do it again. That was great. Do it again. That was great. Do it again. That’s me in the studio. So, I do everything I can to make sure that I’m prepared to even attempt to put the idea together. And then from there, I do my best to make sure that it’s put together in a way that properly represents them as individuals and also plays into the greater scheme of the band.

Then if it’s not, if I don’t really like it, I’ll say let’s just strip it. We’ll go back to the basics. What do we need to fix? Is it a you thing? Is it a me thing? Is it an us together thing? And then we’ll go from there. I try to be as flexible as possible, man. We’ve had verses that will be on tracks for months, maybe even like over a year, and we’ll go back and change them. As a producer, engineer, and mixer, I’ll be really tied to how something sounds, because I’ve worked on it for months.

We’ll come in and be like, I want to retract. And I’m like, damn. I mean, all right. It’s never done.

PM: How are you handling the business side? I’m sure you got people coming around with paper and promises and bullshit. Is that something you’re interested in?

much and people that we trust very much and you know, their experiences. Having what looked like a promising situation in front of them and then it just turns sour like so quickly.

PM: So, the tour is happening with 99 Neighbors - both coasts, Canada, and Chicago.

HZLIKEHELL, the album, is dropping. New singles, new videos. Is there something else I’m missing? Are you dropping sneakers?

SPOTLIGHT

visual ideas. She’s just been going off. So, we’ll basically tap into that as much as we can and then give our ideas to someone that’s, you know, an actual videographer, like Colin (CULT CLASSIC), and they’ll take our ideas and just enhance them because that’s their profession. None of us come from a videographer background, you know what I mean? Maybe Maddie does, she’s not telling us cause she’s going nuts.

Mitch: Yo! I can design some sneakers. If you want to send this clip to your friends at Nike!

Let’s do it.

Iggy: New single for sure. Videos coming.

Hitting the road.

Mitch: Come and pop out if you see us in your city.

I love this band. The music is hype for a Friday night and yet chill enough for a long drive.

The production is on point. Warm beats with an EDM grind feel. And the vocals are just dripping with talent.

It’s different and that’s why I love it.

Iggy: I think it’s boiled down to like a very simple equation: which is that we are asking for everything we want and nothing we don’t. And if the situation is right then it’s right. If it’s not, then it isn’t, and it’s not personal.

Iggy: You know something that I’ve realized too, it’s like signing to a label has become almost like a prerequisite in people’s minds. It’s like people think the only way is I need to blow up and I need to get signed. It’s not, you don’t. There’s all this imagery attached to being a rapper. It’s like, I need a chain or I need that car. A deal is attached to that fantasy image that people have of rappers in their minds. You could get signed and it’s like, dude, you don’t need to do that anymore.

Follow on Instagram: @videtemox

PM: Right. There are a lot of ways to make it now without selling out your soul (or Masters). I always tell young musicians to stop shooting for a mansion. What you need is a condo, so you can go on the road!

Luke: I mean, to be honest, man, we’re not fazed by that label shit, man. We know they do a lot of talking. Money talks, bullshit walks, man.

It’s gotta make sense. We’re young, but we’re not that young, you know? We know better, you know what I mean?

SEEYOUSOON “FIX YOUR FACE” NEW SINGLE + VIDEO

Iggy: We’ve heard too many crazy stories from people that are close to us that we love very PERFORMER MAGAZINE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 35

GEAR REVIEWS

Seth Adam Takes on the KRK CLASSIC 7 Studio Monitors [Ed. note – we recently sent Seth Adam a pair of KRK CLASSIC 7 monitors to test out in his home studio. You can watch a 4-part video series he put together for us on our YouTube channel, and read his final thoughts on the speakers below…]

I recently acquired the KRK Classic 7’s, and I have to say that these are great sounding near-field monitors. Recording at home is a relatively recent endeavor for me, so I must admit that I don’t have a whole lot of experience using other monitors in comparison to these Classic 7’s. As a matter of fact, the only other near-fields I’ve used in my home studio have been the KRK Rokit 5’s (which have also been terrific). Nonetheless, these Classic 7’s have been tremendous, 36 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 PERFORMER MAGAZINE

reliable workhorses.

The Classic 7’s have robust, clear lows, crisp, detailed highs, and the ability to represent midrange frequencies with terrific accuracy, without coloring the frequency range. I’ve listened to recorded, mastered music off streaming sites, and the monitors sound magnificent. I am also in the middle of a recording project and the representation of recorded sound is quite detailed. I’ve taken rough mixes to the car, phone, headphones, Bluetooth speakers, etc., and I haven’t had to make too many changes to those mixes because the Classic 7’s represent the sounds so accurately.

Another nice feature on these monitors is

the ability to tune them to your room by cutting and/or boosting high and low frequencies, as well as cutting or boosting the overall volume. For my space, I’ve left the monitors flat, making no boosts or cuts, and the sounds translate very well.

You can spend a lot of money on near-field monitors. You can certainly spend less. I’ve heard higher-end monitors in expensive studios, and lower end-monitors in other home studios and I must say, these Classic 7’s are an excellent value for the price point. They’re superior so some cheaper monitors I’ve heard and hold up very well against pricier near-fields. If you can get your hands on these, you won’t be disappointed!

Seth Adam, Artist, New Haven CT

GEAR REVIEWS WEB http://www.SethAdam.com FB http://www.facebook.com/ sethadammusic RN http://www.reverbnation.com/ sethadam TW http://www.Twitter.com/ sethadam YT http://www.YouTube.com/ sethadammusic MUSIC http://www.sethadam. bandcamp.com

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GEAR REVIEWS

SINGULAR SOUND Aeros Loop Studio Stereo Looper Pedal

T

o say that there is an art to looping is an understatement; it’s like doing a live multitrack recording session. Singular Sound has expanded the concept, and made a looper that acts like DAW, allowing pre-recorded parts to be played back with ease.

The Aeros is a decent sized unit, with large, big button footswitches, three of which do a lot of the function of the recording aspects, along with a global “play/stop” footswitch. A roller switch can allow for controlling levels of the loops.

With stereo input and outputs, and an external expression control connection, along with full size MIDI in and out’s, all your connectivity is pretty much covered. There are also aux ins and outs for extra instrument connection, and output to another source, USB as well as a SD card slot allows for importing and exporting songs/loops.

The touchscreen is multipurpose, and easy to navigate. It’s also wi-fi enabled for ease of firmware updates. The audio quality is 24-bit at 32-bit floating point processing, so the audio quality is on par with a DAW, and we didn’t run into any latency issues. Users can work in a 2x2 loop situation with two song parts each with two parallel tracks, with a 6x6 version of six song parts and six parallel tracks, making up to 36 loops an option.

Out of the box, we were able to easily plug in and navigate to start looping; the large 38 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 PERFORMER MAGAZINE

touchscreen was a godsend, with a display that allows the user to see the waveform (as you would in a DAW type platform). Once that loop was complete, moving on to the next layer was just as easy, and then doing a complementary part to sweeten the sound. Switching between the two tracks was a breeze. For users who require the visual cue, this can’t be beat. Some players get tangled up with simple mini loopers, just because it takes some thought into mapping all the layers and parts in your head, but here it’s all laid out like a recording session. Loops can also be quantized to a specific BPM and time signatures. With three hours of internal recording time, there’s plenty of space to work with using just the internal storage.

around on the fly for unique arrangements or extending parts for solos and the like really opens things up beyond a canned backing track.

It’s a serious piece of kit, for the serious looper, but it’s not something to have to rearrange your life to figure out how to incorporate into a live setting. We love the creativity it affords today’s artists, the ease of use, and the way it fits the modern workflow. Highly recommended.

Chris Devine

PROS For experienced loop fanatics, this is a big leap into a user-friendly system with the large display and overall features and looping range.

For novices or intermediate users who like the idea of looping but have a hard time figuring out where they are, this could be your gateway to a better experience (and more creative sessions).

A great application would be to load in individual tracks and parts from an actual DAW session and use the Aeros as a playback device. For EDM users this could easily be THE playback game changer, for solo artists, importing their own backing tracks from their latest EP could mean touring without a full band, or rhythm section but maintaining a true-toform performance, and the ability to swap parts

large display area, plenty of loops to layer, SD card slot CONS

None STREET PRICE

$699

GEAR REVIEWS

BOWIE STYLOPHONE

A

s much as we love David Bowie, and Bowie collectables, you could imagine our excitement when the Bowie Stylophone was sent to us for review.

Bowie famously used one of these kitschy synths on his 1969 record ‘Space Oddity,’ and to date, that’s really been the only claim to fame the Stylophone has had. Perhaps for good reason.

Truth be told, it’s really just a cheap plastic toy, not a serious synthesizer. Yes, it does make sounds, technically, but they aren’t pleasant or even easy to trigger. You’re forced to use a stylus to press down on a conductive membrane in order to play notes, all of which only generate the same style of sustained beep, and most of the time when you press down it either buzzes or doesn’t sound at all unless you apply just the perfect amount of pressure. Trying to jump between notes hardly ever has the desired effect, so you’re forced to do clunky glissandos in order to move intervals.

In short, it just doesn’t work all that well (or sound all that good).

And it’s not just limited to the Bowie-branded version. They’ve never really worked that well or produced any sounds that would inspire a new song part. Perhaps that’s why they don’t show up on many records. Honestly, we can’t imagine any scenario where a musician would write a part for a song using one of these without giving up due to frustration. It’s a gimmicky collectable, when you get down to it.

As far as features go, you do get some pitch adjustment, vibrato, and octave select switches.

But if you really, truly, must have that Stylophone sound, you might be better off programming an emulator using a MIDI controller.

Sorry, we wanted to like this, but we’ve gotta be honest. We can’t give it our full recommendation, unfortunately.

Benjamin Ricci

PROS

low-cost collectable for Bowie fans CONS

doesn’t sound great, difficult to trigger notes without buzz, limited functionality STREET PRICE

$39.99

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GEAR REVIEWS

ASHUN SOUND MACHINES (ASM) Hydrasynth Deluxe & Hydrasynth Explorer Models

W

e reviewed the original Hydrasynth from ASM when it debuted in “the before times,” and now we’ve had the pleasure of going hands-on with two new iterations of the HS engine in the Deluxe and Explorer versions.

So, what’s new? Let’s start with the Deluxe model. For starters, it’s clear this is meant to be ASM’s flagship entry in the lineup. We’re treated to a well-constructed and solid chassis, and a deluxe 73-key layout with poly-aftertouch and two wheels (mod/pitch) with great travel and movement. The most striking feature is the increased polyphony, now basically packing in two Hydrasynths in one case for a 16-voice powerhouse that’s not your grandpa’s old subtractive synth machine.

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While the Hydrasynth line can certainly do old-school Moog sounds, its genius lies in its unique engine, combining wave shaping capabilities, modulation routing and filter controls that mix analog and digital in a delightful, engaging, and surprising way. This is all easy to understand, even for those new to the ASM architecture, because the UI is so intuitive that you’ll never be scratching your head wondering which parameters you’re affecting.

The ribbon controller is a great touch and feels smooth, adding even more expressive capabilities than the already impressive mod matrix, and the ability to split and layer are welcome here, as well. All in all, at this price point, the Hydrasynth Deluxe’s competition is likely to

be the Korg Prologue series, or one of the entrylevel Sequential models. And for our money, this competes incredibly well against either. It even puts up a good fight against the Novation Summit, which was out pick for best flagship synth the last time we did a big shootout.

If big, 6-octave beasts aren’t your bag, there’s the Explorer model. Now, we did enjoy this littlesibling version. But the move to include tiny keys may didn’t sit well with us, as anyone wishing to play with keys will undoubtedly be using a better MIDI controller, or would wish for real, fullsized keys (hence ASM’s other offerings in the HS range). Perhaps this would have been better served in a Eurorack format, or desktop module at the same price, sans keys?

GEAR REVIEWS That quibble aside, this is a helluva bargain, almost too much so. Many users may simply opt for the $599 Explorer is they just want access to the Hydrasynth sound engine without extra polyphony or bells and whistles, especially if space is at a premium. If anything, it might be priced a bit too low for all you get in this package.

We had to double check the price twice to ensure we were reading it correctly.

At the end of the day, you can’t go wrong with either one depending on your needs. The sound-design capabilities inherent to both are simply outstanding. ASM have clearly thought through not only the sound design aspect, but the physical, tactile control aspects as well, to make a lineup of killer synth machines that fit just about any budget.

PROS

CONS

STREET PRICE

excellent soundshaping capabilities, unique and intuitive control interface, well-priced

mini keys on Explorer aren’t great

$599 (Explorer) and $1799 (Deluxe)

Kudos for doing something new, offering it as a reasonable price, and putting it all in attractive housing. Totally recommended.

Benjamin Ricci PERFORMER MAGAZINE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 41

GEAR REVIEWS

BOSS IR-200 Amp and IR Cabinet Pedal

I

mpulse Responses (IRs) usually resided in the studio world of plug-ins, but they quickly moved over to practical live rigs, bringing really great sounding amp and cabinet emulations to a whole new world. Boss has made their IR-200 a dedicated IR unit, and on its own it’s quite impressive, and as part of an existing rig it is amazing.

What the IR-200 does is emulate amp and speaker cabinets -- there’s no effects, per se, other than an ambience function. This isn’t a stompbox, so don’t go connecting it to your Fender Hot Rod Deluxe.

It shares the same size as the other Boss 200 series, with two footswitches, and it’s not that much bigger than some single function stomp boxes. The large display screen is easy to navigate, and there are eight familiar amps available, along with eight cabinets. Each of the cabs has the option of six different microphone types, and two distance options on the mics. Boss designed 144 of the IRs, but it also includes versions from Celestion, as well. There’s also the ability to add in your own IRs, too.

In the stock mode, the footswitches work in a scroll up/scroll down method, going through the presets, however as it’s digital, these footswitches can be assigned for other functions, such as

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engaging a solo/boost function, or EQ. Connecting an additional footswitch like Boss’s FS-5U, FS-6 or FS-7, and assigning functions to those accessories is also an option. For players who want more in between options, connecting an expression pedal can give the player full foot control.

Right out of the box, it’s shockingly good, even before parameter diving and tweaking. Our tester loves the sound of a Vox paired with a closedback 4x12 cabinet -- and dialing that combination was super easy, plus the result was perfect with the beloved top-end chime and a defined bass response. Bass-wise, it’s the Perfect DI, with classic and modern options, like the SVT running into a 2x15 model, which was big and rich.

As this is a stereo unit, you can pair two separate kinds of cabs, perfect for blending the benefits of open and closed back models, and for additional tweaking there are EQs after the cabinets for really nailing down the perfect sounds.

The methods of incorporating the IR-200 should cover pretty much every kind of player.

Simply plug a guitar (or bass) into it, get a sound, and run it into a DAW or mixer with full-range speakers. The headphone connection can provide a simple “on its’ own” setup, as well. Put this on a pedalboard, use it as an amp, and run your time-

based effects (reverbs, delays, modulations) in the effects loop.

The IR-200 stands out with great amp and cab sounds, making this a practical way of going ampless while playing nicely with an existing pedalboard. As a dedicated guitar or bass DI unit, it’s an excellent piece of kit for a studio. So, for players who have a couple of “amp in the box” type pedals, why not get all the amps in THIS box, and make your life a heck of a lot easier?

Chris Devine

PROS

Great, amp and cabinet sounds, Celestion IRs, effects loop.

CONS

None STREET PRICE

$399

GEAR REVIEWS

ARTURIA MiniFuse 1 USB-C Audio Interface

S

ingle-input interfaces sometimes feel like they’re cutdown, pared down, minimized, and limited versions of their larger siblings. We spent some time with Arturia’s Minifuse1, and there’s nothing about this unit that’s lacking.

With a single channel, it’s quite streamlined; a single combo 1/4” and XLR input, along with its gain level and instrument or line level input. Phantom power is also available for microphones that require it. The 1/4” stereo outputs are controlled by the large monitor control knob and a 1/4” headphone connection, with its own level knob rounding out the front.

The knobs themselves are illuminated, which is quite nice, and the LED level indicator is also very well lit. USB connectivity is done by USB-C or USB-A. The little white casing is quite striking overall, and certainly looks more like it’s an upscale accessory, compared to other comparable units, but for traditionalists, it’s also available in black.

Plug and play is the name of the game, and it does come with a control application that also provides updates for firmware. Included in the software bundle are Ableton Live Lite, Analog Lab

Intro, plus Guitar Rig 6 LE. Splice and Auto-Tune are also in there, but on a 3-month subscription option. We had no problem using the MiniFuse1 with other recording platforms such as Studio One, and Apple’s Garageband and Logic. It also has loopback functionality, for porting in audio from the computer, excellent for doing interviews and podcasts.

Using this for some home sessions and mixing was super easy, and while it’s minimal, it’s not diminished in any way. The preamps sounded nice and clear and using the interface for recording direct guitars from Boss’ IR-200, it sounded great. No issues connecting some of our fave higher-end vocal mics either with +48v power.

It’s really meant as a portable device; it can easily fit in a gig bag, or backpack, and allow for recording pretty much anywhere. Content creators who are getting back to being mobile should take a look at this. It’s Mac and PC compatible, so it’s one of those “no brainer” decisions. Small desk space, or need to record on the go, it’s hard to beat such a powerful little device at this price point.

Chris Devine

PROS

inexpensive, small, well designed, great sounding preamp, loopback function CONS

None STREET PRICE

$99

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GEAR REVIEWS

APOGEE HypeMic

T

he term “all in one” usually means you get a lot, but there’s going to be some compromises, especially when it comes to USB mics. Apogee’s HypeMic covers a lot of bases, without falling short.

It’s a pretty fully stocked kit in the carry case; a desktop tripod, mic stand adapter, pop filter and USB cables for pretty much every kind of device. The microphone itself is quite small, just under five inches, with headphone and USB connections on the bottom, and the front sporting an input gain that can also add in on-board compression at three different levels. A blend control covers latency between the headphones and the mic. Three mini colored LEDs can display compression levels, or act as a signal level, with green, yellow and red being a visual cue. It’s a condenser capsule with a cardioid pattern, which means it needs to be in front of the sound source for optimum pickup.

We connected the HypeMic up to a session in Studio One and put it through its paces by recording an acoustic guitar track. It’s quite sensitive, even at lower gain levels, and it was very present, with the capsule pointed directly at the 12th fret. The on-board compression was a nice touch, and each added in a stepped level of “punch” with ease.

44 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 PERFORMER MAGAZINE

Using it as a vocal mic with the included pop filter made it a perfect, out of the box, configuration. There’s no need to have to “get on” the mic to really find its sweet spot; in many cases we found it was hot enough for whatever we stuck it in front of. The onboard compression options were quite valuable, especially at this price point.

Your mileage may vary depending on what works best for the application, at one point we found we were looking for something in between the 2nd and 3rd options, and backing off the mic made the better selection a lot more noticeable.

Podcasters and voiceover users who work solo (and/or remotely) will certainly appreciate the clarity and definition the compression brings to the equation on this mic, without needed additional plug-ins. We connected the HypeMic to our iPad and iPhone with no issues, and were able to use the standard voice recorder app and Garageband with ease. This really is a great “on the go” mic for any remote or streaming work as well. The only downside is the single pattern; if this had an omni or bipolar pattern, this would be killer for doing interviews in a dual person setup.

It’s really hard to find any fault in this little wonder. The price is reasonable, there are USB mics with more pattern options, but the added compression ability and the overall fidelity was

really nice to have in such a small form factor. The complete accessory kit included is a nice plus, as well. It’s a serious sounding mic that really can be an “all in one” solution for any kind of solo work.

Chris Devine

PROS

Great sounding, small form factor, excellent compression CONS

Single pickup pattern means best used for single sound source STREET PRICE

$349

GEAR REVIEWS

RODE PSA1+ Broadcast Microphone Boom Arm

A

vailable floor space can really become an issue, especially in studios, and multiple mic stands can even be a hazard. There are simple desktop stands, which are great set dressing if you’re a latenight talk show host, but a functional desktop stand gives practical mic placement: enter the new RODE PSA1+.

For broadcasting/podcasting this is a nice piece of equipment to have, a pair of these for interviews are an excellent application. As it can easily be adjusted with no tools or any complicated catches or releases, any guest should be able to get the microphone to the desired position easily. Live streaming and Twitch users will also appreciate the quiet action on-camera.

This is a pro-level boom mic arm and stand, with 37” of reach horizontally, and 34” vertically.

It comes with two mounts; one is a clamp-on design, and the other is an insert that fits into a pre-cut hole in a desk. As our tester’s desk has a nice stainless-steel finish, the clamp on version was our preferred choice.

For creators who might also need a unit for doing recordings or vocals, there’s plenty of adjustment to use it in place of a typical mic stand. We found it easier to do vocal overdubs near our desk to control our DAW via a keyboard.

Neoprene sleeves emblazoned with the RODE logo cover the internal spring mechanism, and when making adjustments you don’t hear the usual spring “twang” while moving the arms.

There are cable clamps on the edge for holding mic cables securely, however we did have a couple of heavy-duty cables that were just too big for these clips.

As it can handle some fairly heavy weight, a unique application was really a no-brainer -- camera mounting. A small Go-Pro or even an iPhone can be mounted, with the appropriate adapter, and makes for very easy placement. Our tester used his iPad with an IK Multimedia iKlip to do his YouTube videos and had no issue with weight or placement. Having it mounted on a desk also keeps the inevitable cable clutter that covers the typical floor-mounted mic stands to a minimum.

The boom can support up to 2.4 lbs, which means it can use any of Rode’s broadcast level microphones easily, or any other large style microphone. Included is a 3/8” to 5/8” adapter for handling just about any microphone mounting clips.

Overall, it’s a really great piece of workflow enhancement for a variety of media applications, and at $129, it’s not going to break the budget. It offers up the to the creator a lot of adjustment, regardless of their use case.

Chris Devine

PROS

Great for mic placement or small cameras, quiet, excellent reach and adjustment CONS

cable clips are a bit too small for heavy duty cables STREET PRICE

$129 PERFORMER MAGAZINE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 45

GEAR REVIEWS

BOSS EV-30 Dual Expression Pedal

B

oss offers up a lot of features on a variety of their effect devices, from their compact pedals to their multi-effects units. With more and more items having expression control, their EV-30 Dual expression pedal is a perfect complement.

What is an expression pedal, you might ask? Well, it works like a foot-based control knob, on the same concept as a volume pedal or a wah. Depending upon what kind of device it’s connected to, it can add real time control of certain effects parameters of the device.

Connecting an EV-30 to a Boss Harmonist PS-6 pedal , or example, now allows the player to control the pitch shift function on the pedal, allowing for more interaction of the effect.

Boss’s compact pedals are pretty much bulletproof, and the EV-30 is just as durable, with a cast metal casing, and a super smooth and robust travel response. The size is also very pedalboard friendly, as it’s smaller than the standard size wah or volume pedals. It is a dual expression pedal, meaning the EV-30 can be connected to two devices and run them simultaneously. Let’s say one of Boss’s PH-3 phase shifters and Boss’s DD-8. Controlling Rate on the phaser at the same time as the Delay’s feedback gives plenty of options, or just having two separate devices, that may not be on at the same time, controlled by one 46 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 PERFORMER MAGAZINE

expression pedal, frees up space on a pedalboard as well. The only adjustability is the response of the pedal, with each connection having a small pot to adjust how much the selected parameter gets controlled by the pedal’s travel.

We’ve gotten a lot of great Boss products in for review, and we’ve found that having an expression pedal really unlocks a lot more practical functionality, from their loopers and effects units like their GT-1000 Core. Our tester connected an EV-30 to his Boss MS-3 multi effects switcher, and assigned it to a variety of patches, getting the pedal to act like a wah on one patch, and on another control the delay levels.

Expression functionality isn’t only Boss’ game. We also connected an EV-30 to an Earthquaker Devices, the Astral Destiny, controlling the rate function of our shimmer delay nicely.

Boss’ manual states that they can’t guarantee the functionality of the EV-30 with all non-Boss devices. This could be considered a “your mileage may vary’’ situation -- we had more than a few pedals and devices connected to an EV-30, made by a variety of manufacturers, and we found no issues on our end.

Overall, considering the durability and

the universal compatibility we experienced, using this pedal with Boss and non-Boss products alike, it’s well worth adding to your pedalboard. The somewhat compact size won’t take up a lot of space and it gives the player a lot more functionality for whatever device it’s connected to.

Chris Devine

PROS

Well-made, simple, dual control, pretty much universal.

CONS

None STREET PRICE

$109

GEAR REVIEWS

FOCAL Alpha 50 Evo 5-inch Powered Studio Monitors

F

setup.

ocal’s Alpha 50’s have professional grade features, with a price that makes them a serious upgrade to a smaller home studio

Our tester’s studio desk is cramped already, so when new monitors come in for review, there was a bit of nail biting on space concerns, but these fit in nicely. The five-inch low frequency driver is made of a material called Slatefiber, a composite made of recycled non-woven carbon fibers, along with a thermoplastic polymer. The result is lightweight and provides dampening and rigidity. A one-inch aluminum tweeter with an inverted dome covers the high-end responses.

With a 5/8” MDF cabinet sporting a font port, a textured finish and molded side pieces, the overall construction feels top-notch. Protective speaker grilles are also provided.

The business-end is on the back though; balanced XLR, TRS, and unbalanced RCA inputs can allow for a variety of gear to be connected.

There’s also an automatic standby mode that engages after 15 minutes of inactivity, saving power. However, some people apparently don’t like their speakers to go to sleep, so this function is now selectable to the user. To allow for optimum tuning of these to your space and application, there are HF and LF shelving controls located on the rear panel, along with two threaded inserts, allowing these to be wall mounted, as well. What you don’t see are the internal dual amplifiers,

25w for the high frequency side, and 35w for the low frequency end. The max SPL is 101dB, with a frequency response of 45Hz–22kHz (+/- 3dB) Calling up a mix, we were quite impressed with the very present low frequency availability.

To be clear, these aren’t one-trick-ponies meant for mixing tunes for your Honda’s subwoofer; it’s present where you want it, along with clarity and definition in the top-end as you’d expect. For midfocused instruments like guitars, there’s a nice musical presence there that’s really helpful in isolating that area, which between vocals, snare and guitar can tend to get cluttered or muddied.

The high-end tweeter, even though it’s an aluminum driver, sat nicely with plenty of clear top end that isn’t harsh. Smaller speakers like these have come a long way, but this was a noticeable jump. Even at lower output volumes we retained a good balance of low to high frequencies -- this is a great practice to see what’s “jumping” frequency wise. And getting a full effect of a mix at varying volumes really makes a difference in the final results.

While we didn’t wall mount these, just the option of doing so is a great feature. Our tester got thinking about clearing off his desk space for a set of these considering the tunability and positioning in his small-ish recording space.

tunability to a room, and the size to response ratio being quite impressive for mixing, a set of these might be a bit of a jump to some entrylevel home level systems, but might be worth it, considering the quality, sound integrity and the wall mounting option.

Chris Devine

PROS

great low-end response, wall mounting option, tunable to a space CONS

None STREET PRICE

$349 (each)

With a great overall sound, practical PERFORMER MAGAZINE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 47

CLASS OF ’21

MIXTAPE LINEUP

For more information visit: www.performermag.com

Artist 1.

Aaron Kellim

Instagram

Sponsor

Product

@aaronkellim

Cloudlifter CL1 + CL-z

2. Sub-Radio

@subradioband

Evolution Wireless Digital

3.

@s.o.u.l.a.s.p.h.e.r.e

Scarlett 18i8

4. TRISHES

@trishesmusic

Circuit Rhythm

5.

@fortunes_folly

CLASSIC 5 Monitors

6. Foxanne

@foxannemusic

Bobcat V90 Guitar

7.

Hawks Do Not Share

@hawksdonotshare

DrumBrute Impact + Microfreak

8.

Jon Manness

@jonmanness

Nautilus Workstation

@akfierce

UE LIVE In-Ears

S.O.U.L.A.S.P.H.E.R.E

Fortune’s Folly

9. Abigail Fierce

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AT2020USB+ Cardioid Condenser USB Microphone

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