Month: November 2021

GOODNIGHT, METAL FRIEND #16

It’s been a few months, but finally a new sleepy time metal mix, perfect for long walks in graveyards, or disappearing into the fog.

These mixes take awhile for me to make. I started this one about a week or two ago. Lots of work and work-related stuff gets in the way, and I usually go for a run or a bike ride to shake off that work stress, but tonight I wasn’t feeling either of those, so I set off to finish this mix.

Something about sitting here in front of the same machine that I use for work, and instead of fretting over incoming emails, or managing tabs, I get to just watch tracks run for seven straight minutes, and I force myself to stay present and watch the second tick by. The exact opposite of the normal work day.

Track list:

BURN AWAY THE BURN OUT

I’ve been reading a lot about burn out, probably because everyone is fucking burnt out. The thing that makes me the most sad is burning out from things that we control.

Like, I talk weekly with a friend that I made from the Akimbo Freelancer Workshop. We bounce stuff off each other constantly, and one of the big focuses is outsourcing. Getting things off our plate. Giving ourselves the permission to be the boss who takes two hour lunches.

Obviously the various stresses and demands of freelance work can make it hard to take that two hour lunch, but… if you don’t design your ideal work situation, others will. It will be ideal for them.

Emails at all hours. Phone calls. Ridiculous deadlines.

The best busy work is no busy work at all.

Sure, that sounds hippy dippy dream talk, but fuuuuuck it – a person has to dream, right?

It’s the whole “saying no,” thing, which I’m sure you’ve seen all over the internet. The act of saying no is basically saying yes to other things – yes to free time, yes to other work, yes to not working at all!

A while back I said “no more transcribing.” I had done 100s of hours of audio transcribing for writers. It was okay money, but the work required absolute focus. If you lose focus, it’s hard to get back on track. Toss in bad audio, and other work on your plate, and it just got to be too much.

So I said no. Could I have used the money? Of course! I could still use that money!

But saying no to that work gives room for the work I want to be doing (and it’s working).

Saying no to clients with ridiculous deadlines, unreasonable availability, low pay, high stress – that’s the shit you say no to.

Stripping away of the stuff that depletes you that makes space for the time to go outside for a walk, or take a two hour lunch.

So don’t manage your thing – your business, your blog, your music – with what everyone else is doing – make it fit how you want to live.

FANS AND THE LONG GAME

The allure of social media is the quick like. The RT from a mid-size account that gets you 10+ follows. You can post anything, at any time, and within 10 seconds you’ll get immediate feedback.

But building something of substance, and not just flash, requires time. Years. Being a hot item of the month is one thing, but to sustain it? To keep it going? That’s the long game.

WRITE ME OR FIGHT ME

No one signs up for a social media account and says, “don’t worry, I’ll only post once a month, I don’t wanna be too spammy!”

So why do we act like that with email newsletters?

Maybe because when you donate to a political campaign they start emailing you twice a day?

Or when you buy from an online retailer they bombard you with emails a few times a week?

Well, you’re not them.

The stuff you post on socials – the photos from shows, the work-in-progress videos, the rants, the albums that you love – could all go into an email.

Remember these two facts:

  1. Not everyone follows you on social media.
  2. Even if they do, algorithms will prevent them from seeing your posts.

So your live-action shots and clips from the studio go unseen – mostly (probably) by your biggest fans.

The ones who buy your albums, your prints, you shirts, your art.

Yes, if you email once a week with just PURCHASE NOW or BUY TICKETS messages, people are going to unsubscribe.

So don’t do that.

Your fans subscribed because they love you, and want more of you. Give them more of you.

You can literally scroll back through your socials from each week, see what resonated, and copy and paste that into your email.

Write more about some of your thoughts from the week.

Post some photos from your art opening on your site, then mention them in your newsletter. “Hey, click here to see more.”

That’s not a hard sell. That’s not trying to get anyone to pull out their wallet when they’re in line at Dunkin Donuts.

It’s a passive ask, friend to friend:
Here’s the lyrics to our next single.
Sneak peek at our next shirt design.
This is the inspiration for our next album.

Yes, include your album art and a pre-order link. Below the fold. Think of it like an ad in a magazine. You read the interview, then notice the full page ad on the next page.

Your fans aren’t ATMs, they’re your friends, followers, people who gave you their email address and said, “yes, I want more from you.”

Give more of you.

PUBLISH TO YOUR WEBSITE

It happened again. Another person was suspended from Facebook, and then they couldn’t reach their fans.

Zuck deactivated me for a few days (was mildly mortifying) but it sparked some thoughts on what I feel insta is doing to our creativity / individuality

I’m also in the process of backing up every post, story, caption I’ve ever written and publishing it on a WEBSITE. It’s very 2010, would recommend 

@shopedelano on Instagram

Another app or service is not going to come along and magically replace Twitter or Instagram or whatever. The open web is here, as it’s always been. No lock in, no “walled gardens,” no algorithms.

But we’ll miss the likes and the RTs, the acknowledgment when we can post just a few words about a movie or a sports event and then at least 5 or 7 people will hit the like button, and we’ll feel like we’re not alone, or just shouting into the void.

I know this, because I’ve been writing on this blog since early 2018. It can feel pointless just writing all these words over the years, and not seeing some sort of acknowledgement.

Though I liken it to a conversation with an old friend. There’s no ROI. There’s no hack for a good phone call. No algorithm to crack with a best friend.

You just write, in public, for everyone to see. If it resonates, great. If it doesn’t, well, you have an excellent online journal that won’t suddenly disappear when Facebook’s server short circuit.

HEAVY METAL EMAIL IS CHUGGING ALONG

From my newest project, HEAVY METAL EMAIL:

Every interaction with a fan on the internet could be the last – so do what you can to make it memorable. Use your “thanks for signing up” page to drive fans to your latest single or video, your upcoming tour dates, or offer a discount to your online store.

From ‘EMAIL AUTOPSY: GUS G, SHE SHREDS, AND MASTODON‘

Today was the fourth email I sent, since switching from a community site focus to the newsletter format just a few weeks ago. Feed back has been great, and folks are subscribing, and it’s led to a few fun conversations online.

I’ve done two interviews already, one with Jeff Gretz of Zao, and then one with Professor Pizza of Axeslasher. It’s sort of wild that here I am in 2021 talking to band dudes about… email marketing, but here we are! Got three new interviews lined up, too. So the next three Mondays are set with some pretty cool features.

SELF-PROMOTION CAN BE SANE

Oh my goodness, this from Delon Om, in an interview with Authority Magazine, talking about the ‘5 things I wish someone told me when I first started.”

Meritocracy is a myth. I always believed that my art would speak for itself- that its merit would earn recognition and validation. Unfortunately, I have learned that is not the case.

It really does feel like the loudest people, or those who devote the most time to social media, are the winners. Like @DonnaMissal said:

“Color me bitter but im tired from yrs of begging for money to pay other artists like directors even half their rate while teens with ring lights are signed for millions.”

Yes, “putting yourself out there,” or doing “self-promotion” is needed, but it doesn’t have to look like what everybody else is doing.

Sure, in the short-term you can build an audience like that, but as Professor Pizza said in a recent interview with me at HEAVY METAL EMAIL:

“The mental math equation went from ‘What do I think our fans would like?’ to ‘What do I think will break through the algo that our fans will tolerate?’ The short answer is you have to start looking at and leveraging trends, which by-in-large, are fucking lame. We’re a thrash band comprised of ghosts of vengeance. We shouldn’t be doing funny hand dances, or the running man.”

I fully believe you don’t need to get on TikTok. Why? Because you’ve already got fans that you’re not reaching on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram. Not because your content sucks, but because of algorithms!

Now you have a choice – play the algorithm game, or don’t play the algorithm game.

Make your thing so good that people will type your domain name into a browser to see what you’re up to. Have an email list, so you can send an email to those people every now and again.

This is how we did it pre-2006, before Twitter came on the scene. And the internet is still here. People still go to websites to buy things.

They can go to your website and buy things. It’s possible.

GOOD SONGS DIE WITHOUT GOOD PLANS

“Write good songs.”

This is the advice one of my close friends (whom I work for) gives to bands asking how to “make it.”

Of course, this is leads to further discussion.

“Great songs with a bad plan fail,” says Amber Horsburgh.

How do write good songs? Write bad ones. And you write bad ones by writing a lot of songs.

Yes, inspiration may come from the heavens and bless you with a hit.

But even then, you still need to know how to craft and mold that idea into an actual song.

So you gotta work.

That doesn’t even mean posting something everyday. You can do this quietly, without sharing with the world.

Write as often as you can. Do your thing as often as you can.

As I wrote about a year ago:

So don’t look too far into the distance. Make your mistakes now, get your bad stuff out of the way this year. Your work today is to keep piling up your art, your work, your magic.

Learn Your Lessons Each Step of the Way