Category: News

News

Add You Sing, I Write On MySpace!

Post author By admin
Post date August 31, 2008

My summer goal was to create a MySpace for my blog. I still can’t believe it’s Labor Day weekend, marking the end of the summer! I feel like over the past few years each summer flies by faster and faster. I’m currently in the process of merging my MySpace into one for my blog, hoping to get more readers and fans of music interested in reading. Feel free to check it out and add me as a friend! Definitely leave me comments or suggestions on making my MySpace better because I’m still a bit new at it. Feel free to check out You Sing, I Write on MySpace here.

Tags MySpace, You Sing I Write

News

You Sing, I Write Hits 10,000 Views!

Post author By admin
Post date July 2, 2008

A few months ago I set up something called Google AdSense which basically calculates how many page views I get per day, giving me a certain amount of money per click on the ads on top of the blog. It seemed like a good idea at the time, just to get an idea of how many viewers I get and make a little money in the meantime. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought this blog would have become so successful!

I originally started “You Sing, I Write” back in October as a writing outlet, since my current job wasn’t writing related. I just assumed my family and friends would read it and leave comments and that was good enough for me at the time. It all began with my Switchfoot concert coverage and interviews which were eventually posted on the band’s homepage. Other blogs and websites linked to my blog and I began setting up interviews with more bands, practically covering a show every week or two. Eventually, that led to living my own version of Almost Famous when I spent a few days on tour with Army of Me.

I’ve come a long way over the past few months, but there’s definitely a lot more I want to do with my blog — set up a MySpace, branch out to more genres of music and update it more often. I’m always welcome to suggestions, so feel free to leave comments or e-mail me bands you’d like to see featured! It means the world that I can actually do what I love and you all enjoy reading it so much! Now on to finding a full-time job doing what I do now with my blog for a living…

Tags You Sing I Write

News

Help An Unsigned Band Land A Record Deal

Post author By admin
Post date June 25, 2008

Music lovers can vote for their favorite unsigned artist, ultimately picking who will land a record deal with Original Signal/Epic as well as gear from Gibson Guitar and the chance to perform at Spin Magazine’s Year In Music Party in December. Not a bad deal for the struggling musician, eh?

So here’s where you and I come in. Check out this website. Two artists are shown on the screen in which they call the “head-to-head player.” A simple hover of a mouse plays a song (sometimes a live video!) from whichever artist you choose to listen to first. Listen to both tunes for as long as you wish and select which artist you prefer. If you can’t make a decision and they both sound the same to you, click the equal button in between the player. For four weeks music fans can vote for these 500 artists and then the top 20 artists will be sent to the judges who ultimately decide the winner. Either way, you win . . . check out some new, relatively undiscovered bands and if you like what you hear, visit their artist page for more info. The winner will be announced July 31st, so keep voting!

Tags Record Deal

Features News

GigMaven: An Easier Way to Book Shows

Post author By admin
Post date June 19, 2008
1 Comment on GigMaven: An Easier Way to Book Shows

I’m always interested in what’s going on in the constantly changing music industry. I originally started this blog to feature interviews with musicians, but there are so many aspects of the music industry to cover. I think I’m going to try to branch out on things that I find interesting that might intrigue others as well. GigMaven is just one example that is helping with the rapidly changing industry. Below is my interview with Howard Han, founder of GigMaven, a new website dedicated to helping musicians find and book gigs online. Check it out for yourself at http://www.gigmaven.com. As always, feel free to leave comments or E-mail Me! on suggestions, artist features or ways you’d like me to improve the blog!

Tell me a little bit about GigMaven. How did you come up with the concept?
One of my friends, Richard Pan, was a musician for three years out of college. He was working at Abercrombie and Fitch in Ohio while driving out to NYC every couple of weeks to play gigs. He was doing pretty well, consistently booking gigs in NYC. He played at the Knitting Factory and at CMJ ’08 and got signed to an indie label, but he was having a bit of trouble getting gigs outside of NYC. Ultimately, he ran out of money and decided to go to law school.

At the time, I was helping him out while working in finance, and I started thinking about ways to help him get exposure and book gigs outside of NYC. After doing some research, we realized that booking is still very much an old-school process where people walk around and try to get their press kits to bookers at clubs. We felt like there had to be a better, more efficient way to do this. Out of Richard’s struggle and decision to forgo his music dreams, came our idea for GigMaven.

How are you working to get this project off the ground?
Currently, we have close to 300 musicians and 15 live music venues in NYC helping us beta test the website. We are slowly looking to expand to Boston, Philly and DC over the next couple of months and then expand to the rest of the nation in 2009.

What stage do you think you’re at right now?
We’re at the very beginning of something that will change the way the live music industry operates. We want to make everyone’s lives easier and allow them to book gigs online, lowering the average cost and time to book a gig.

Are you planning on eventually helping out with merchandise and releasing these artist’s albums, or just gear it towards finding venues?
We’ve definitely thought about the opportunities around helping musicians sell merchandise or mp3s and we have some interesting ideas around how we can make that process easier. That being said, we are 100% focused on our core business right now, which is booking gigs for musicians and venues.

What type of artists are you working with?
We primarily work with indie rock musicians, some unsigned and some signed to indie labels. Although our core is indie rock, we don’t focus on one genre or specific type of music or club.

What type of venues? Is it just based in New York for now?
Currently, we are only booking gigs in NYC, but we plan on expanding to Boston, Philly and DC in the next couple of months. In 2009, we aim to expand to the rest of the country.

How do you decide what venue to book these artists at?
We do not make any decisions regarding the actual booking. GigMaven is a platform for musicians and venues to find each other. Venues ultimately make the decision who they want to perform and musicians ultimately make the decision where they want to play.

Do you think what you’re doing is the future of the music industry?
We believe that it will be the future of the booking aspect of the live music industry. The music industry is going through a period of turmoil, which I believe will result in a tremendous amount of innovation and opportunity. We believe that booking gigs online is a natural solution to the inefficiency in the live music booking process.

For more on GigMaven listen to the guys explain their concept in more depth on a previous radio interview here.

Tags GigMaven, Live

Benefit News

Compassionart Article Featured on inReview.net

Post author By admin
Post date April 29, 2008

Earlier this year I posted a Q&A; with Martin Smith of U.K. band Delirious? about his upcoming project, Compassionart, where songs written by him and many of his fellow singer/songwriter friends will be donated to various charities throughout the world. You can read a more recent article about it here.

Also, I’ve been getting a lot of emails from friends wanting to know more details about my life on tour, the guys I interviewed and any craziness I encountered that I may not have posted on my blog for the whole world to see. Do I have you intrigued yet? I promise to come up with a more detailed tour diary soon. Still working on editing all the interviews to post in MP3 format as well as fully transcribed, so check back soon! Thanks for reading!

Tags Compassionart

News

MTV News Featured Member

Guess what! I’m featured on MTV’s concert blog, You R Here, as a featured member for this week! I tried to take a screen shot to paste it in my blog for you all to see, but it wasn’t working for some reason. See for yourself at http://www.mtv.com/news. If you scroll down to the right hand side you’ll see a picture of me and my friend Wendy (she takes all the pictures for my blog). Feel free to peruse previous posts I’ve uploaded on MTV and leave comments!

Be sure to check back later this week for an interview with Kris Roe of the Ataris!

Tags MTV

Benefit News

Update: Switchfoot Raises Over $100,000 on Tour Benefiting Habitat for Humanity

Post author By admin
Post date December 18, 2007

“We felt we were helping in the best way we could – in light of the fact that this tour was about rebuilding and working in Habitat for Humanity,” Switchfoot drummer Chad Butler says of being on tour while the fires were raging in hometown San Diego.

The “Appetite for Construction Tour” means a lot more to San Diego natives Switchfoot taking the unfortunate fires in California into account.

“It’s surreal to look at the streets where you grew up on CNN from the back of a tour bus . . . I really feel for the people who lost so much,” drummer Chad Butler said. “I’m sure Habitat will be helpful in aiding those families. It’s a reminder that you’re not guaranteed tomorrow.”

Having just wrapped up their tour, “Appetite for Construction” has been very different from past Switchfoot tours, Butler explained. With $1 from every concert ticket going to benefit Habitat for Humanity, over $100,000 has been raised for the organization. All three bands on tour have been helping out at Habitat builds throughout the country while Jon Foreman of Switchfoot and Matt Thiessen of Relient K have written a song, “Rebuild,” which fans can purchase at switchfoot.com, donating the money directly to Habitat. Possibly the highlight of every show, each night of the tour all three bands come out on stage and perform this song together.

“Our goal is to encourage people to donate time locally in their own city. One of the most amazing things about Habitat is you don’t need to have any prior experience or expertise . . . they’ll put you to work and you make a difference. I’ve been really excited to see our audience come down to the sites and help out,” Butler said.

Matt Thiessen of Relient K agrees. “One of the best things of this tour is the meaning behind it,” he told the audience at the Nov. 17 NYC show at Hammerstein Ballroom. “One dollar of every ticket goes to Habitat for Humanity. We want to encourage everyone to check out their local chapters and go to some sites. It’s a lot easier than you think. We’re never completely content with where we are in life. We need to be compassionate. Being compassionate is what makes us feel alive.”

Habitat builds aren’t the only thing keeping Switchfoot busy. Their seventh album is already in the works and is expected out late next year. Singer/songwriter Jon Foreman is also working on four solo EP’s, the first entitled Fall just released last month. He’s also collaborating with Sean Watkins from Nickel Creek, calling themselves The Real SeanJon. Foreman explained the EP’s are six songs each and can be purchased on his Website, jonforeman.com.

“A lot of these songs are the more personal songs that don’t really belong on a band record,” Foreman said. “I’ll be doing four EP’s. They’re going to be called Fall, Winter, Summer and Spring. I’m working on Winter now. I haven’t even thought about Spring yet. I’ll think about Spring when it starts getting warmer out.”

Foreman explained the inspiration behind his music as “the specific place where I’m at in life. For me, most of my songs come from the problems in my life. When I’m happy I hang out with my friends and go surfing. That’s not when you write a song. You write a song when you’re depressed, angry and bitter and you’re trying to figure out the world.”