Companero Jack here with another interview that I didn’t do. Emma and Shawn sat down with Roguesix, a Toronto pop/rock band. The audio interview is, as always posted below.
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So you guys have recorded? What do you have out there? Joe: Well, right now we just have a 4 song demo EP that we recorded last year at Wellesley Sound Studio that we give out for free at shows It’s kind of hard to sell, and I think it’s better just to get the promotion out there and get people listening to our music. I’ve done a little survey myself and I’ve noticed that if I say, “Hey do you want to check out this CD?” people would say “Ah, I dunno…” But once I say, “I’m giving it away for free,” they love it. We took those 4 songs and a friend of ours had approached us last year about recording a song, because he went to the Metalworks Studio for Recording and Producing, and his T.A. happened to hear the song we were recording and he loved it, and he asked for our demo and goes, “Anytime you guys need to record again, come to me.” So we went to him and we did our 8 song album that we should have done. We started recording it in January, and then we went back and decided that we wanted to put 8 songs together, with the first 4 that we did previously, so we’re remixing those and then we’re repackaging everything.
What do you guys sound like? How would you define your sound? Ashley: We’ve been compared a lot to Paramore, and in our writing, our new writing especially, we’re trying to get away from that. Not that it’s a bad thing, but we just want to come up with something more original. Joe: Exactly. I think it’s hard to have a female-fronted band and not be compared to either Paramore or Metric, and it’s kind of hard to capture your own sound. The first 4 songs, we were just kind of being genre-specific, like “This is what we are.” But the stuff that we’re writing now is kind of more like you’ll hear our songwriting and our actual influences.
Upcoming “Victory, Sweet Victory” Album Release Party
August 13, 2010 @ The Poor Alex Theatre
772 Dundas Street Weas
The album will be available on iTunes on August 10.
For more info about Roguesix, and to check out some of their music, check out their Facebook and MySpace pages.
Companero Jack here. You guess it [collective groan] with another mini-interview. Three of the four members of The Cosimc Eye came in to chill for a bit.
How are you guys finding the indie scene in Toronto, both from the perspective of a being a part of is as well as from the perspective of a fan? Mark: It’s cool, Steve and I were talking about it earlier today, it’s like the music industry right now is kind of at this state where it’s not failing, it’s just not as big as it was and it’s kind of changing. So bands are being able to do it themselves. They’ve got the luxury of doing that. Bands can now just record and put out albums, make their own merch and run their own show.
In terms of being an indie band, what sort of do-it-yourself or guerrilla style production have you guys done? Mark: The way we’re doing our record, we’re really lucky. There’s this studio in London called The OIART which is a recording school. They needed bands to record, so we went down there, and we were able to get a bunch of free sessions. So our rhythm tracks are all being done at this studio, and the rest of it is going to be done in a barn. We’re not paying much money to do it, we we’re lucky enough to stumble upon this. We’re kind of throwing our record together. Kevin: We’re producing it too. I’ve done other recordings in other bands, this guy Greg Dawson sort of produces all the stuff he records. It’s a different sort of thing because producers always have this kind of stamp. They know what works and that’s what they want it to sound like. I’ve found that by doing it ourselves, it’s a different thing because we can kind of just be as weird and quirky as we want.
As far as events go, The Cosmic Eye is playing with two of other bands, Sound One and Glory Glory Man United, at Rancho Relaxo on June 30th. Click here for the Facebook event page.
Companero Jack here. With my newfound role as an investigative journalist I have been tasked by our fearless leader, James Pew, to shed a little bit of light on a terrifying aspect of music and pop culture. By writing this article and exposing the shadowy powers that be, I’m putting myself in grave danger. You, faithful reader, might find your own life in peril as well just for reading this.
Who am I kidding? Nobody’s coming to get you.
We had a workshop last week, the purpose of which was to try and familiarize ourselves with approaching prospective talent to try and bring into the studio. Fairly straightforward. We broke into two groups, one of which was productive, and one of which devolved into a discussion of secret societies, occult symbolism and Jay-Z.
The song that was brought up in the discussion was ‘Run This Town’ by Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kanye West.
I’m going to preface this by saying that I’m a skeptic and a believer of the idea that if a person is looking for patterns or symbolism, they will see them. That said, on we go.
The song and video are apparently loaded with occult symbolism and messages from the Illuminati, the secret order of powerful people that supposedly run the world. Just for the sake of simplicity, pretend I threw the words “supposedly” or “apparently” in each of the following points.
The lit torch handed to Rihanna can be associated with Satan and the idea of illumination. The Illuminati are dedicated to the “coming forth of the conquering light.”
The lyrics, specifically those of the chorus refer to a coming of a New Order that will rule the world or “run this town.”
The rioting mob, dressed in guerilla-style clothes, seems to be set to overthrow the current order and “run this town,” which contrasts with the glamourous lyrics of the song. It could be implied that they are set to overthrow something more philosophical.
Jay-Z asks the listener to “pledge their allegiance” to a new leader and wear black in his honour.
Jay-Z states “I gave Doug a grip,” which could refer to a secret Freemason handshake, called a grip.
I’ll skip going through all of the lyrics of the song, because they could all potentially have some insane hidden meaning. Something else of note that is recurring in Jay-Z’s videos is the Rocafella hand sign, the diamond.
The diamond often takes on more of a triangular shape, which can be interpreted as a reference to the All Seeing Eye, a traditional Masonic symbol.
To go with that idea, notice that Lady Gaga tends to have one eye hidden, or highlighted with makeup or a gesture. The the hidden eye and the ‘A-Ok” gesture are supposedly used by Illuminati-connected artists to signify 666. This is stupid and as far as I’m aware, incorrect. I was under the impression that the Satanic number 666 was mistranslated, and therefore meaningless. I digress…
I think that with an industry worth so many billions of dollars, and with so many people out to get our money, there’s bound to be rumours of various levels of insanity.
James had a decent point about how rappers have all this money, yet rarely give back to their communities. There’s an Illuminati idea of becoming a “god: through your own means. To me, this is a metaphor for the accumulation of wealth and power, which also signifies some greed. Therefore, they’re too greedy to give back to their stuggling communities.
On the other hand, as Shawn so cleverly observed, if these shadowy figures are running the music industry, why is it doing so poorly?
Or do they just want us to think the industry is suffering?
Companero Jack the Interview Master here, with a sort-of-new segment for you.
I know you all love the interviews that I’ve been doing. In addition to them, I’m going to occasionally be doing short interviews with whatever indie artists happen to come into the studio. I have three of them recorded already, its just a matter of getting them posted. The first three are likely going to be a little rough because they were pretty much sprung on me as I walking into the studio. “You’re interviewing [band name].” So after a couple, I’ll have some set questions and they’ll likely flow a little bit better,
As always, I’ll be posing the full audio, which, by the way, is now all available on iTunes (I’m so legit now).
This first interview, which is actually the second that I did, was with two members of Hibou, Tracey and Sergio.
What is Music Business 4 Artists? MB4A is an organization featuring a music business course and digital music events dedicated to empowering artists with the knowledge to succeed in the industry.
Can you tell us more about yourself and what inspired you to create Music Business 4 Artists? I started off as a musician playing the live music scene in Toronto in various bands. Got into live event promotion in the rave scene in the 90s and was fortunate to be discovered by Bob Ezrin who became my mentor. I’ve managed artists, engineered, programmed and produced music, worked in A&R and music publishing and have lectured extensively on the ever changing music industry.
In 2006 I was recording a record at Metalworks studio and inquired about the recording arts Institute they had recently founded which led to designing and teaching several courses for their EBM (entertainment business management) program while I continued to work in the industry.
I recognized a need to educate artists and bands who couldn’t afford 20K plus in tuition but who would benefit immensely from an education in copyright, publishing, social media, marketing, digital distribution, etc. So I created the MB4A course specifically for them. It’s a crash course in music business and will save artists the trial and error process which is costly both in time and money.
How has your combined background as both music business teacher and music industry player helped you in structuring the MB4A seminars?
As a young artist trying to make sense of the business side of music I encountered a lot of misinformation about copyright, publishing, marketing, promotion, etc. I’ve structured the MB4A course to dispel the common myths and provide a foundation of knowledge upon which artists can build their careers.
Often times what you learn in the class room and what applies IRL (in real life) are worlds apart. I always made a concerted effort to provide my students with the IRL knowledge that would enable them to gain ground and create success in the market. In doing so I was able to recognize the concepts, materials and information that would take them to the next level.
The socialization of media has afforded artists unprecedented methods of marketing, promotion and distribution and allows for a Direct 2 Fan approach that when executed with empathy and respect enables artists to create a market for their music. In decades past this required massive investments of time and money, today the gates are wide open.
Can you tell us more about the people on the panels at the premier Music Business 4 Artists event this July 7th & 8th at the Gibson Showroom in Toronto?
The Digital Music Panel will be on July 8th and features really great people doing some amazing stuff in the industry.
Greg Nisbet founder of Mediazoic is an entrepreneur who has created a digital music streaming service that is quite revolutionary allowing people to embed the Mediazoic application in their social networking profiles and then broadcast what they’re listening to at any given time. The potential for this technology is unlimited and presents a new model for artists to get paid because they make public performance royalties from each broadcaster. Very innovative.
Justin Erdeman is the Digital Marketing Strategist for Universal Music Group whom I had the pleasure of working with on the Young Artists for Haiti – ‘Wavin’ Flag’ session. He handles the digital strategy for Universal’s talent and is at the forefront of mobile, social media, fan engagement and cost effective strategies that yield results.
Simon Plashkes is a digital strategist for Isobar and is absolutely brilliant. He manages Daniel Lanois’ digital presence and has a talent for simplifying/enhancing complex strategies to maximize results. He cuts through the noise and easily identifies the truth which is a rare and valuable gift.
James Pew is the president of Euphonics Sound and has created an innovative business model for musicians by completely ignoring the status quo and giving artists what they need to launch their careers. He is progressive and prolific and driven to create positive change in the industry.
Brad Powell is the founder and Chief Inspiration Officer of Microfundo and is pioneering the latest mashup, music + microfinance. “Microfundo’s inspiration comes in part from the highly successful online microfinancing organization Kiva which lets ordinary people microfinance entrepreneurs from developing countries. Kiva has loaned over $100 million in it’s first three years and currently is financing $1.5 million each week. As Microfundo grows our musicians will be able to fund their music projects enabling them to sustain themselves as artists.”
What’s next for MB4A? MB4A will launch its course later in the year while hosting Digital Music Events in Toronto, Vancouver, Nashville and Los Angeles.
For your viewing pleasure, here’s the first part of a video interview between James and Terry. All seven parts are available on the Euphonic Sound YouTube Channel.
MB4A is another great resource for up-and-coming and indie musicians. For more info about MB4A you can check out their website, Facebook page or Twitter feed. If you’re interested in attending any of the seminars or events, take a look at the Events page of the website.
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