Internet, newsletters, design, music, etc.
I always love seeing talented friends post their art and magic.
This is from Joce Aucoin (“Choppy waters today I guess” from Twitter), whom I met like way back in 2002 or 2003 when she was doing LUJO Records and sending me albums in padded mailers when I was doing my music blog. Here we are 20 years later, still at it.
She’s been making a lot of collage work, which I just love seeing as she keeps growing it.
I have an email address (several of them, actually), a few websites, and a phone number.
I make sleepy time metal mixes called Goodnight, Metal Friend.
I make sleepy drone music called HUNTERTHEN.
I run Metal Bandcamp Gift Club.
I write HEAVY METAL EMAIL.
I barely touch LinkedIn, Facebook, and my days are numbered with Instagram and Twitter.
Had to get out for a mental health walk, which I think was just more about getting away from my laptop, but regardess, landed on some Don Caballero.
Don Caballero was a band a few friends talked about in the scene growing up. There was a buzz around their live show, probably some zine interviews and such.
They’re one of the few bands that make me wanna close my eyes and pretend like I’m in the band.
I never spent much time on SoundCloud, but then I read this interview with Tracy P. Chan, SVP of Creators at SoundCloud, from Mia’s Queue on Substack.
“We have an algorithmic discovery playlist called ‘Daily Drops.’ Every day we drop what’s new to you. SoundCloud’s catalog is about 320 million tracks. We have three times the number of tracks that the other DSPs [Digital Service Providers] have. You’ll find all this content that just doesn’t exist anywhere else.”
That’s how I found this live recording from Spring Rolls from Paris, France, and I love it so much. Perfectly minimal and soothing. I listened to it on a recent evening run.
Then I found his work on Bandcamp, a new release titled ‘Le Commencement [SPRNGRLLS001].’
I don’t know… I’ve been listening to BANDS since the mid 80s man. I still love them, of course. But I’ve also been loving electronic music, too. I don’t know… just something that sort of blends into the background and isn’t… guitars, you know?
For some reason I just love the energy in this area. It’s maybe not the most sceneic, but I love it. There’s a four mile loop up along the side of the mountain here, and it’s a crusher, but I love it so much. Only a few hundred feet of single track, but it’s worth it to me.
From the @tittybats account on Instagram, and pretty much how I feel lately with everything.
These are so wonderful.
“If we don’t support old shops, they’ll be gone forever,” Shin says. “I tried to ‘preserve’ the old shops through this series […] I hope when people see it, it will remind them to go and support their small local businesses.”
From ‘Shin Oh “preserves” traditional Malaysian spaces and places with her 3D pixel room building,’ via Kottke.
How do I get more subscribers? More listens? More sales? More fans?
Are you kidding me?
The entire world of knowledge is in our pockets and you can’t figure out 10% of the answer?
Look at the top 100 marketing books on Amazon.
Search “marketing” on YouTube. There were probably 10,000 hours worth of wisdom upload in the last minute.
You could listen to one podcast every day about marketing for the rest of your life and never get caught up.
I’m paraphrasing Rick Rubin here, but “make cool things, show it to your friends.” Over and over again.
Complaining about social media is about as effective as complaining about the weather – it ain’t gonna change.
Make your art, write your novel, post your videos, play in front of four people… if there’s a shortcut, everyone already knows about it, which means you’re the nine billionth person in line with a tune and a poem.
This is a horrible sales pitch, but I’m offering coaching on this sort of thing now. Hire me for real, honest advice and ponderings from 20+ years of experience in the music world.
From today’s HEAVY METAL EMAIL, “FACTS ARE EASY AND BORING AND NO ONE CARES.”
Promoting your creative work should be art. It should spark curiosity, wonder, and delight.
That doesn’t mean spend 3 hours a week “engaging” on social media, or editing videos for TikTok.
Make stuff, then tell your friends.
Keep in touch with the creative, energetic, artistic people in your life.
Stop shouting it to “all” of your social media followers, especially when 80% of them won’t even see it.
Share the things you make directly with people who will appreciate it.
Since I’m done promoting things on social media, I should probably post about my new things here, right? Makes sense.
One of those things is a new HUNTERTHEN release, ‘ASCENDING TO THE DECOMPOSITIONAL TIMESCAPE.’
‘ASCENDING TO THE DECOMPOSITIONAL TIMESCAPE’ is a transport vessel to unknown, desolate worlds, destined for the monotonous hum of cold, futuristic data work lit by the glow of computer screens and datapads.
Since I’m spending less time on social media, I’ve put out a release in February, March, and April of this year (you can see them all here).
My last two sales on Bandcamp came from my Goodnight, Metal Friend mixes, not social media.
By putting out a mix every week this year, and also uploading them to YouTube, I’m getting more listens, all just because I’m putting things out consistently, and not spending so much time on social media.
And what about growing my HEAVY METAL EMAIL subscribers? How can I do that without social media? Well, that video interview I did with Laura Kidd led to my biggest rush of new subscribers ever.
While I did post that video a few times on socials, I wasn’t pushing for newsletter subscribers – I was sharing something big I did, without really asking for anything.
Do the big cool things, and maybe the subscribers and sales will come, maybe?
