Kaiser Cartel recently stopped by the studio to record a few songs, discuss album funding with Pledge Music, and tell us a bit about the production elements of their forthcoming album. Join @tanacea and @KaiserCartel in this spazzcast as they discuss the ever-evolving music industry.

Oh… I almost forgot… the infamous Daniel of Daniel Records is also mentioned as they expose the carefully guarded secrets of his unique role as one of the founding owners of this budding indie label.

Support Kaiser Cartel’s new album by clicking here.
Big thank you/photo credit @graemepitman
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In the studio, we have a whiteboard with a bunch of great ideas for topics to cover in the podcast. Thing is, that’s not really happening. I don’t know what Tanacea’s talking about during the podcast, but it sure isn’t the topics on the big white board.

So I’m gonna steal ‘em!

First of all a topic that quickly became an issue of great importance to me when I was on the “Screw it! We’re going on tour!” world tour last summer. Sleeping arrangements was one of many issues that we didn’t bother to research or plan, so we quickly figured out a variety of options that worked with varying levels of success.

Obviously, if you are willing and able to rent a hotel room every night, none of this has to apply to you, Mr. Moneypants. Does the record label pay for your caviar and Champagne too?

Option 1: Sleep in the van.
Depending on the size of your band, the size of your vehicle, and how much equipment you carry, this becomes more or less feasible. When the tour started, it was just me (5’8″) and my brother (5’9″) in a mini-van (5’7″ wide). This worked ok.
Then we picked up our bassist, who was about 7’15″. Dave and I could sleep reasonably comfortable in the back seat, but there was no way to get Gene situated. Hence, sleeping in the van became a kind of last resort. And considering how many other options there are out there, it should probably be any touring musician’s last resort too.
A couple tips for how to do this:

• Park in residential areas. They tend to be quieter and have an abundance of shade trees and a lack of meters.
• Get used to smelling bad. Unless your van has plumbing you’re not likely to get a shower for days (or weeks) at a time.
• Take turns driving and sleeping. I don’t know about you, but I can sleep a lot better in a moving vehicle than a parked one.  Even 15′ tall Gene slept pretty well when we were driving (Well… except for that time he had a nightmare that I drove the van off a mountain and woke up screaming…)

Option 2: Camping.
This can wind up being much more comfortable, but does require you to bring more equipment and puts you at more at the mercy of the elements.
A good camping setup is as comfortable as you make it, and a lot more roomy. It also gives you more privacy since not just anyone can peek in through the windows.

Option 3: Have a friend in town.
This is probably the best option. If you know some people in any given town, call them up (the sooner, the better; most people prefer some kind of warning), and ask if you can crash for a night or two.
Most people will be happy to put you up.

Option 4: Make some friends in town.
This is quite possibly the most interesting option. Talk to people at the show and see what kind of sleeping arrangements you can line up. Often some complete stranger will be excited to have a band crash at his/her place.

• Talk to the other bands. Quite likely, they’ve already made arrangements or have a lead on place.
• Talk to people after the show. Not only is this a great way to find the parties, it’s a good way to find that shower you so desperately need.
• There are several online tools that can help you bum a couch from a complete stranger. Couchsurfing.org is a massive, worldwide network of travellers and people who are willing to put up travelers for the night. It’s very cool. betterthanthevan.com is a similar concept, but specifically for musicians. It’s a much smaller community, but it looks promising.

And of course, if you do convince someone to let you borrow their couch, there’s some ettiquite that it never hurts to observe:

• Don’t be a nuisance. Just because you don’t have a day job, doesn’t mean your host doesn’t. Don’t keep your host awake with your loud music and partying all night long.
• Clean up after yourself. This is definitely one of those cases where you want to leave a place cleaner than you found it. Do the dishes; pick up the living room; and obviously, clean up your own stuff.
• Cook a meal. If you have any special skills or services that you can offer your host, offer them. Our bassist Gene actually cooks for a living when he’s not rocking out. Being able to offer a nice, home-cooked meal did much to endear us to hosts and potential hosts.

Obviously, the more you can prepare ahead of time, the better your odds with any of these strategies will be. Let your friends and family know your tour schedule as far ahead of time as possible. Build a positive reputation on couchsurfing.org by hosting a few people before your tour starts. Practice setting up, tearing down, and packing up your tents. Etc.
Whatever strategy you end up using, bring a sleeping bag along. Just because someone has a couch for you doesn’t mean that they’ll have sheets and blankets. I shouldn’t even need to mention towels, toothbrushes, and soap, but you probably don’t want to forget those either.

So now you have some ideas as to how to find places to sleep on the road. Obviously, experience is the best teacher. Hop in the van and figure this stuff out first hand. Have any other clever ideas for finding couches? Post them in the comments.

Next time: Feeding yourself while on tour OR “Pizza Hut is free after 3 AM.”

Vomit Hat Steve is a Music Spazz and tops the charts in the “different” category. You can follow him @vomithatsteve.

This session was all about automation. There are tons of pan, EQ, volume, and aux buss automation to create the spacial variations heard in the remix. The opening sequence was created by automating three frequencies in a four band EQ thereby making a filter effect. This filter transitions into a loop that has a buss automation that fades up quickly at the end of the loop which sends the Ahhhs to a mono delay. The mono delay is tempo synched to the session and then pan automated to create the stereo sweeping Ahhh stutters. I hope you enjoy the remix. Please leave a comment below.

01 Two Weeks (Remix)
Buy the original track here.

Software:
Pro Tools 8
Reason 4
Virtual Instruments:
Hybrid
Boom
NN19
Malstrom synth
Thor
Dr. Rex

Tanacea is The Music Spazz and you can follow him @tanacea.
Original Grizzly Bear Photo Taken by Tom Hines.
Original Picture of me taken by Graeme Pitman

Some bands only play cover tunes, others record them, and still others play, record, and remix them! I recently finished producing a band know as The Ineloquent who did exactly that. They wrote a new arrangement of a popular theme song and thereby created a remix.

The greatest advantage of creating this type of remix for the indie artist can be boiled down to one thing – exposure. Record a cover version (and preferably a remix (a version with your own flair added) of a popular tune and publish it in places that are highly indexible by search engines.

Here is a link to the download.
Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire Theme Song

Tanacea is The Music Spazz and you can follow him @tanacea.

If you happen to be one of the select few bands that I let grace the front of my camera, here are some of the things you should expect/should bring/should think about.

// Great locations.

When consulting with a photographer I would be very keen on making sure he at least has a few locations scouted out and isn’t just going to bring you into the studio with a cheesy backdrop or take you out to the alley to shoot you against the cliché red brink wall. I like to get my clients out into some pre-scouted locations that are as unique as possible. Input on the part of the band is especially helpful – since I don’t want to scout a bunch of urban locations if they want their photos in front of a barn. Scouting takes a great deal of time, but the end product is worth the extra effort. If you are hiring a good photographer, expect to go to some pre-scouted, pre-visualized places.

// Passion.

I know ‘passion’ can be a very pretentious buzzword, but honesty, if your photog is not passionate about your band and about his ideas then the photos will show it. Find someone who loves and specializes in band photography. This will translate into the energy and creativity that you need.

// Coordination.

Make sure Tom the bass-player doesn’t come dressed in jnco’s and a fuzzy top hat if the rest of you are going to are going to be wearing girl jeans and combat caps. I’ve seen way too many band photos that miss the mark simply because their was no consideration to the fact that these aren’t just snapshots – this is your brand. This is what you are going to be selling yourself as. Also, make sure and sit down AS A BAND with the photographer and coordinate expectations. You don’t want certain members of the group to have doubts or different expectations of the photoshoot while it’s going on.

// Quality.

I would go farther than just ‘expect’ – I would say that you need to demand quality from your photog. You are paying him a good chunk of money to get images that you’re going to be putting out there as a representation of your brand. Make sure and know the photographers work beforehand, have consultations with him/her and dialogue until you feel comfortable that they are not going to under-deliver for you. For my clients this means I’m taking my studio lights on location with an assistant, I’m pre-visualizing my shots, I’m making sure the shoot is going to be fun and not overly formal, and I have locations in the queue so that they can see that I really do know what I’m doing.

Next post: Step by step through a shoot.

Graeme is the owner of Pitman Photography. You can contact him @graemepitman.

One of my favorite forms of music expression exists as a mashup. Also know as the remix, music mashups allow one creative expression to be interpreted and then merged with another.
Three examples of my favorite remixes are:

Bob Marley: Dreams of Freedom: Ambient Translations of Bob Marley in Dub
The Cure: Mixed Up
Jaydiohead: The Encore

What I love most about these particular albums is the cross genre appeal and creative exploration. All three albums leave their original genre to be merged with another, thereby opening previously released music to a whole new market of listeners and diving into new forms of expression. This is great for the musician, especially indie artist, as it broaden their fan/listener base.

While mixing and mastering Andy Zipf’s Cowards Choir, I fell in love with the track Should Have Told You. I kept hearing a remix that had to be made or it would have burned in me for the rest of my life every time I heard the song. Using Pro Tools and Reason, I went to work.

The song is written with an AABAB form, which I was careful not to build too aggressivly. In order to accomplish this, I only used subtle variation in the A section of the song which allowed his story to take precedence over the remix. Because Andy’s poetry and voice commands the attention of the listener, this particular remix also required that I leave the whole of the vocal track in tact. My goal for this remix was not to change the core message, but to add the piece of expression the song led me every time I heard it.

Below you will find both the original mix and the remix my soul demanded.
02 Should Have Told You
01 Should Have Told You – Tanacea Remix

Tanacea is The Music Spazz and you can follow him @tanacea.

Enjoy this track titled Pummel from Doby’s latest album 22. Pummel

You can download the full album here.
Photo by Graeme Pitman.
Tanacea is The Music Spazz and you can follow him @tanacea.

Bad photography can destroy someone’s perception of your brand.  Period.  Whether you’re a band, a bank or a bakery.  You can have the slickest flash website with the coolest logo out there, but if your photos are under par people’s perception of what you’re offering WILL suffer.  I’m saying this not only as a photographer, but as a consumer.  I’m a sucker for good packaging.  Heck, I think I’m using the daintiest lilac-honeysuckle-meadow breeze soap on the market right now, because I was a sucker for the design.  This is especially true for packaging involving photographs.

Photos draw the viewing in a very personal, relatable way.  They can convey a variety of emotions – cool and dramatic, peaceful and serene.  But in order for them to communicate what you want them to…they have to be GOOD.

Since this series is primarily geared towards bands that’s where we’ll be focusing.  Below are three steps you can take to achieve quality photographs for your band.

// Hire a professional

Your friend Jimmy may own a digital camera, but that does not qualify him as a good picture-maker.  Look for a photographer with a good portfolio in the genre and a good report with their past clients -someone whose work really impresses you.  Spend the extra few bucks to get a great photographer instead of a mediocre one.  Remember, this is your IMAGE that’s beyond portrayed through these photos.  Do you want them to say ‘mediocre’?    If you have a bad feeling about the photographer – find someone else!

// Let the photographer know what you’re thinking.

The process for getting great photos is usually a collaborative one.  Although I like when a client gives me total control, it’s usually best to get at least some ideas of what they want.  After discussing I can usually take it the rest of the way and come up with the finished idea.  Don’t be too domineering with the photographer either.  He’s a professional (see point above) and you’ve hired him because you trust his vision.  Don’t try to map out every shot and run the show.   Good input might look like this: ‘We’re a punk band.  We are a bit grittier.  We would prefer an urban setting.  I liked these photos of band X.’

// Be consistent with the photos.

Don’t get your shots taken every month by different photographers with different styles.  Remember, this is part of your branding. People will get confused if you change too often. Use the same professional photos for a year or so before getting new ones.  If they are great photos they will easily stand up that long.  Another time to have a new photos session would be when your next album is being developed.  We aren’t talking about candid fan photos – feel free to plaster those all over your myspace etc.

Next week I’ll be discussing what to expect at a band photoshoot if you hire a professional.
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Graeme is the owner of Pitman Photography. You can contact him @graemepitman.