A few months ago I didn’t really know that “dark ambient” was a thing, but I’m really enjoying this new season of discovery. This only started during the pandemic, but also because I deal with heavy metal everyday, and have since 2008 or so. I’m not quitting metal by any means, but it’s my day job, I need to give me ears a rest.
It’s been fun learning a new piece of software, too; Serato DJ Lite.
I didn’t really know how to make a mix – I tried just stacking the tracks in Abelton Live, then ScreenFlow, but neither was very fun, since they’re not really made for that. Not a huge fan of Serato aesthetically, but it does the job.
The process of making these mixes is fun, too. Finding the music on Bandcamp, keeping track of stuff I find, downloading, managing those tracks, arranging each song, then the fade in and out, while recording the mix in real time to Audio Hijack Pro.
I can close my eyes, count my breaths, and then I’m in a dark room filled with strangers and speakers stacked to the ceiling. The only light is from a few bulbs on stage, the air thick with reverb and feedback, a low rumbling hum wraps around my rib cage.
Since live shows aren’t a thing anytime soon, I like to go here when making these mixes. Count the minutes before the next track, stay present, feel the music in bones and my thighs like we used to.
Remember your links when posting engaging content!
Metal Bandcamp Gift Club, where we gift people we don’t know from their Bandcamp wishlist on their birthday.
Got a Patreon? Link to it. Got a piece of press? Paste a pull quote and link to your Bandcamp. New video? New song? Link. To. It.
Worried you’ll come off looking spammy? Hah! Social medial algorithms ain’t letting 70% of your fans see your content without “boosting” anyways!
People unfollow all the time. Sometimes even by accident. Oh well. Link to your stuff. Make sure your links are in your bio. Set up a website with links to everything. Start an email list.
“But what would I even put in my email list?” Start with the 1000 pieces of content you post everyday on socials. Pick the three “most engaging” items. Boom (and include a link to your Bandcamp).
If you do all these 100% right does that mean you’ll be a star?
NOPE. But don’t take yourself out of the game without even taking a shot (horrible sports analogy).
I’ve been in and around this online music jam since 2001, I’ve seen a LOT. I remember mp3 DOT com and Rdio and Napster and Best Buy end caps and street teams. Put your links where fans can click them. Start there.
I didn’t watch any football on Thanksgiving this year. Not a single play. This year, while prepping dinner with my roomie, I propped up my iPad and streamed over two hours of Marc Ribellet’s ‘Stanksgiving’ performance.
Live, unfiltered, spontaneous, dangerous, sexy – you name it.
Marc had all his year stolen a month or so ago, so he was working his way through some new sounds, new equipment. It wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t always “100% funk jams,” it was raw and real, and we loved it.
During the pandemic I came across HOR Berlin, which is a bunch of live streamed DJ sets from Berlin, in what looks like a tiled-bathroom, but it’s seriously been so good for my soul.
I mean, I kind of didn’t even know I liked techno, but I guess I do now! Dark wave is a thing too, I guess? There’s just so many fun jams, which partially inspired me to start my ‘Goodnight, Metal Friend‘ mix project.
For me part of the appeal of all these sorts of entertainment is just being a part of something live, as it’s happening. Without being able to go to live shows, or take a bus into NYC and walk around and be surprised, these live streams are just doing it for me at the moment.
It’s weird in a sense, though, as these aren’t really recorded works. Well, they are, as you see from the videos embedded above, but there’s just so many good mixes coming out all the time, and this doesn’t even factor in NTS streaming radio, or what’s on SoundCloud.
Perhaps it’s that each of these moments is hand-curated in the moment, by real humans. It’s a performance, but it’s also something that can happen in the background. Music as a utility, as a backdrop, a live person performing in real time, on my computer, adding a bit of humanity to an otherwise repetitive and boring life at the moment!
My 4th Goodnight, Metal Friend mix, featuring Killanova, GubbiAnn, Oranssi Pazuzu, and more.
Not quite ambient, but a little darker, a little more spooky. The ambient stuff can be a little airy, I just want something with a little bit more weight.
This means lots of digging on Bandcamp to find tracks without drums, without screams, without too much high end. It’s some work, but I enjoy it.
When I was a teenager, I wanted to be a mega star in a rock band. I mean, the B-roll of the members of Guns N’ Roses walking in midtown Manhattan and going to Manny’s Music, all loose and carefree – that’s the life for me!
Some of my earliest memories are watching my dad play guitar in a country-rock band at the ski-resorts in the summer time, the smell of Genesee cream-ale in the air.
I played my first show when I was about 17, and told the sound-man “fuck you” at one point (lesson learned). I’ve played shows in several states, alongside young riff-raff like me who went on to be just a handful of notable names in music.
If you would have told me in those teen years that someday I’d have the ability to record digitally, in pristine CD-quality sound, with nearly an unlimited number of tracks, midi-instruments, and effects, I would have fainted.
Here I am now, in the year 2020, in my 44th year on this planet, and that spirit, the craving for music making just comes and goes.
I know I’m supposed to respect the muse (see Steve Pressfield’s ‘Turning Pro‘), which is what I did today. The bass line in the clip above came to me as I was making coffee, as they do every morning I make coffee, or do the dishes, take out the compost, or whatever. Little droplets of music fall into my dumb head, I sing them to myself a little bit, laugh at myself, and then go on with my day.
Today, though, I was like, “what if I just do something with this?”
It’s not a complete song. It’s not a master piece. There’s no hook, chorus, or bridge. It’s a loop, some drums, some midi notes arranged to be a passable piano “ditty.” Nothing more.
But nothing is complete.
I had a few phone calls this week, and most were unplanned. They came, magic filled the void, and then on with the day. None were complete, there was no agenda, no planning, just… riffing.
So I don’t want to ever discount those random bits of magic, so I need to stop discounting random bits of music I make, too. We all do, even if your thing isn’t music, but maybe it’s photography, yoga, or whatever else that brings you joy.
Just because something isn’t complete, or a full-fledged album roll out, doesn’t mean it should stay hidden on my hard drive, never to be heard from.
Our ideas don’t need to be final, our blog posts don’t need to be perfect, our videos can be rough, our audio low quality, and our conversations all over the place, and that’s what makes us human. We don’t exist to be perfect, we imperfectly exist, make it through today and hope tomorrow is tolerable.
This from ‘The Death of the Artist,’ (via @SorayaRoberts)
Anyone can easily market their own music, books, or films online, drum up a thousand true fans, and enjoy a decent living. We see proof of this, time and again, in profiles of bold creators who got tired of waiting to be chosen, took to the web, and saw their work go viral.
The artists tell another tale. Yes, you can produce and post your work more easily, but so can everyone else.
From the early 2000s until now, there has been no shortage of music, which is why there is no shortcut to getting your stuff out there. Unfortunately everything is stacked against the artist – rent, time, space, COVID-19. For every Marc Rebillet, there’s probably 1,000 artists who got two plays on YouTube today.
This is not some moral failing of the artist with two plays. The entire system is broken, art is de-valued, and oh yeah, almost 250,000 Americans are dead from a runaway virus.
Using TikTok videos to promote your thing across social media can be tough given the format of the video. The Toktok video is great for sharing as an IG or FB story, but what about everywhere else?
For this clip, I took the raw TikTok video, and put it in the middle of a 1280×720 video (I use ScreenFlow), then took the client’s existing Instagram Story assets and put them on either side.
The result is a shareable video clip that shows off a cool make-up sequence, and reinforces the brand and the actual release we’re trying to promote.
