Interview with local singer/songwriter Alex Grantham

Alex Grantham was born in Toronto to two former actors turned writers and moved to Paris, ON when he was five. His introduction to rock music arose out of visits to the Ben-Mar family fun centre with his dad. “After playing mini-putt or rocking the go carts, we'd stop into the Johnny B Good restaurant for some food before leaving. The restaurant was supposed to be this mock 50s retro thing, so they had a great jukebox with old Elvis and Chuck Berry singles on it. I used to get off my chair and start dancing in front of total strangers,” says Alex. He also tells me that his dad used to play Beatles and Paul Simon records in the house. Which he loved, “but I didn't take a serious interest into rock music until around the age of 11, when my best friend at the time introduced me to Nirvana,” he says. “Everything changed after that,” he continues “culminating with me asking for a guitar on my 11th birthday,” He started taking lessons soon after. Alex is always eager to cite his teacher, Nick Bastian, as playing a pivotal role in not just the development of his guitar playing skills, but his continued appreciation and understanding of pop music in general. “After dealing with years of intense performance anxiety,” he admits. Alex finally started performing his own original material around 2007.

Alex believes that his style of music is informed by all the artists he’s taken a liking to over the years, which is many. “If I had to define my style, I'd say it's firmly grounded in the tradition of classic singer/songwriting similar to Lennon/McCartney, Dylan, Paul Simon, but stranger, and steered by a fiercely independent, punk-rock mentality,” says Alex. “I think based on the current state of the music industry, including the trivialization of the all-consuming record label and the rise of the do-it-yourself approach, it’s important to grab onto a niche and exploit it,” he says. Alex thinks this is the result of an over-saturation of bands in general. “Anybody with a rudimentary home-recording setup and an internet connection can now start a band and ask people to listen, like me!” he says excitedly. Alex is concerned with separating himself from the majority and he believes he does this through his recording style and the emphasis he places on strong lyric-writing.

When he became disenchanted with his current state of affairs back home, Alex decided to go to school. “After much deliberation, I decided to forgo a course that might have generated more fruitful returns financially in order to pursue my passion,” says Alex. He stumbled across a one-year program called Independent Music Production through the Seneca college website, and after submitting his application package, Alex was accepted into the May 2009 class. Overall, Alex found the course to be inspiring and extremely helpful in terms of carving a meaningful route for his music and himself. “Before I essentially lacked the confidence and tools to progress my art beyond the realms of my parent's basement,” he admits. “I now feel like I possess a much clearer understanding of what it takes to succeed and endure in the new music industry, which should probably be re-named the entrepreneurial or small-business arts,” he says playfully. The most important lesson he learned is that “many of the old adages remain true. The most driven artists with the strongest work ethics are far more likely to succeed than the rest,” says Alex. He attributes this to the enormous amount of work inherent in the do-it-yourself method of operation. In addition to creating the art, independent artists may be responsible for marketing, promotion, manufacturing, distribution, merchandising, accounting, legalities and tour booking, to name some. They are also expected to maintain a strong, active and personal relationship with fans, which Alex says “may sit in stark contrast to the old idea of the artist being a reclusive and introverted personality type,”

Alex has chosen to forego walking down the big label road. He says it’s “because I know the history of labels and big music is rife with injustice, the relinquishing of creative control, extreme highs, extreme lows and more. Being independent was about retaining real control, and that attracted me immensely,”
Alex told me about how he has embraced social media to increase his audience. “The new wave of cost-efficient tools and resources brought on by the internet increased the ease of being an independent artist tenfold. I, like many others, use social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter to establish and maintain my online presence,” he says.
“The greatest advantage of these sites is that they essentially provide me with a way of promoting my music for free. Otherwise I'd be forced to spend hundreds of dollars on buying ad space in magazine and newspapers, or printing flyers and posters. Online promotion would be useless if no one was ever exposed to it, but the massive popularity of the internet has made online marketing at least equally as effective as the traditional models of advertising – and it's free,”
Beyond the promotional advantages, Alex also uses social networking as a way of keeping in direct contact with fans and providing them with fresh material as often as possible. This may include sharing new demos, photos, blogs, show information etc. He says “it's basically a way to remain in the collective conscious and keep fans updated,” While Alex appreciates the benefits of social media and the integral role it is playing in his career as an artist, he admits it's not without its drawbacks. “To be perfectly honest, I dislike the task of promoting myself, and sometimes cringe when having to face it, which is often. Much of the ample amount of time I spend with social media used to go towards writing, and I miss the frequency with which I'm able to do so,”

Overall, Alex says he’s happy with the path he’s on and will continue venturing down it for the foreseeable future. “It's unpredictable and often exciting, and that's more than I can say for a lot of things. I deal with the occasional annoyances by reminding myself that no one ever gets something they truly want without having to accept compromise. It's sort of like growing up – within reason,”

Check out Alex’s website for more info and upcoming shows

Engaging Your Audience

Social media and the internet have completely changed the way we discover, listen to, interact with and purchase music.

Radiohead created shockwaves when they released In Rainbows as a digital download, for a pay-what-you-can price. They also invited fans to pick any song from the album and create a video to go along with it. Fans from all over the world participated, and in the end, four winners were announced. This is a brilliant way to engage fans and boost band loyalty. Allowing fans to showcase interpretations, and have other fans vote on them, is a great way to drive traffic to the band’s site. It’s also a good way to get songs played over and over. My favourite video was from a semi-finalist. I listened to “Reckoner” four times before settling on my favourite entry.



Trent Reznor followed in Radiohead’s footsteps soon after, but took it one step further. When Reznor released Ghosts I-IV, he split each song into four tracks, allowing fans to create remixes. The response was so overwhelming that extra servers had to be added to handle the demand for download. Instead of handing over tons of cash to a producer to remix a track, artists can invite their fans to create remixes for them. This is an excellent way to encourage fan interaction, increase website traffic and raise brand awareness.

The French duo Justice became popular by winning a remix contest for a Paris college radio station. They remixed “Never Be Alone” by Simian. The track became so popular that Justice was soon signed to Ed Banger. Their remix of “Electric Feel” by MGMT has also received international acclaim.

Since March 16th, Beatport users have been able to download the separate parts of Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon Of Choice”, and then remix it, before uploading it to Beatportal for the voting round. The prize for the winning track is a two hundred-dollar gift certificate to Beatport, and an Open Lab drum machine (worth over $4,000). Beatport has offered similar contests featuring many artists since 2008.

As more and more artists leave big-name labels, it will be interesting to see what happens in the digital-release trend next.

Talk is Cheap!

Last Thursday, I attended an un-conference hosted by the students in my class at Centennial College. Talk is Cheap 3.0, was the third annual social media un-conference put on by the PR and Corp Com class of 2010.
One of the sessions I attended was called Music Blogging, and it was led by Parker Mason, an employee at Maverick PR agency. Although the title was slightly misleading, as the session did not focus solely on music blogs, the presentation was about blogging and pitching in general. During his presentation, Mason advocated blogging for interest’s sake, and gave general tips on making pitches to journalists, writers and bloggers.
As a new artist, inviting bloggers to check out your material is a great way to get a conversation started. If a blogger writes a review of your work, your name will go out to all of that blog’s subscribers. This will increase your brand awareness, as well as, create new and potential fans. Putting samples (songs, artwork, photography, writing etc) of your work up for critique is a great way to get your name out there. Word of mouth is powerful.
As for pitching an idea or story, Mason made it very clear that targeting the right person is key. Sending out random email blasts will never be as successful as sending your pitches to the appropriate source(s). Figure out what the best channel for your message would be (journalist, editor, blogger etc). Then, send your pitch to one or two targeted sources. Make sure you send your material to someone who is interested in, or currently writes about your style of art. If you send pitches to the wrong people, they just end up in the trash. So do your research!
Essential tips for making a pitch:
- Make info easy to access
- Don’t send html emails (not easy to read on mobile devices)
- Don’t follow up (it’s annoying)
I learned from the presentation that if you’re going to start a blog, make sure you write about something you’re interested. If you don’t, creating posts will seem arduous and you may lose interest. Writing about an interest will make for a much more enjoyable experience. Mason writes two blogs, one is called blogcampaigning.com and the other is 199x.org The first blog is about issues in PR, and the second is about electronic music and science fiction. Mason openly admitted that he does not enjoy writing for the PR blog. He felt he had to create this blog in order to stay relevant in the PR field. He much prefers to write on the other blog, that he started for fun. One of the greatest perks of creating such a blog is that people send him stuff to check out all the time.

Viral Videos are Fun!

The best viral videos appeal to the emotions of a wide audience. They are usually humorous, and contain content that many people can relate to, or identify with. A good viral video is easily accessible on the web and can be found in more than one location.

Advantages

• They are viewed by many people which can increase brand awareness
  
• They can be used as teaching or instructing aids to reinforce products and inform audiences
  
• Viral videos can be used as free advertising, since there is
  no cost to post them on the internet
  

Disadvantages

• Individuals can create viral videos that can negatively impact products, brands, companies or other individuals
  
• Sometimes viral videos feature copyrighted material which can create legal implications
  
• Posting a video with the intent that it will go viral is a gamble and doesn't always happen unless there is a strategic plan in place
  

Because viral videos are viewed millions of times they can be used to increase brand awareness. Many viral videos contain no overt branding so viewers don't realize they are being sold anything. They are meant to appeal to a target audience with certain values. Viral videos are effective PR tools because they focus less on selling a product, and more on promoting an idea, concept, atmosphere or lifestyle related to the product or brand. The main point of a viral video is to directly relate to the public, and that is what makes them so effective.

I really love T Mobile's Dance video because there are so many different genres of music; it has the potential to appeal to many people. It's also funny because the bystanders seem shocked and confused when the dancers break out. Eventually everyone gets involved and has a great time.

This video was successful because it was probably shared by bystanders the moment the music and dancers started. The use of multiple music genres add to the mass appeal and help to create a flash mob.

In order for a video to go "viral" it must be kept short. If the video is too long, no one will watch the whole thing. Staying away from overt branding is also important to help a video go viral. Most people find commercials/ads annoying so they won't want to share it. The last tactic I would use to make a video go viral is having more than one video to release. If viewers enjoyed the first video, they will want to see more. Having more than one video to release is a way to keep people interested.

Here is a list of the best viral videos of 2009, I dare you to watch them and not laugh or cry!

Interview with Toronto Artist Paul Zulauf

"No one can instill art talents into you without your full participation and awareness," says artist, Paul Zulauf, who hopes to one day, soon, turn his artistic talents into a full-time career.

 

"I hope that being an artist will keep me vital and happy and connected, even past the time when most people have retired. It is also a vehicle and self-validating career that allows me to explore myself psychologically and spiritually, to learn and research all matters that I find interesting." he says. "Then I will talk to others about the subjects that are or can be involved in my art."

 

Zulauf works with an impressive number of media including digital media, digital compositing, animation, graphic art, digital painting, digital photography and photo-retouching. He can also draw, paint, scratchboard, arrange mixed media and spray paint. "My favourite is body painting and henna because it is relatively effortless, has a high level of interaction with people and, brings great feelings. It involves spontaneity, symbolism and reading people," he says, adding playfully, "and it attracts babes." he says. Zulauf also makes jewelry, bronze sculptures and ceramic sculptures. "At any given time I am just doing like four media at most in a week."

 

This is Zulauf's seven-point plan for turning his art into his career:

 

1 Represent my existing digital work by getting high quality, large-scale printing done.

2. Get a website with an online store to generate sales.

3. Make more jewelry because everyone wants it, and looking ahead to summer, I would like to merge the jewelry crafting with body art and sales of other art items. This I can bring to festivals and events.
4. Push my painting into the visionary artist level of symbolism, rendering, and sophistication. I need to be comparable to my favorite artists if I want to live a lifestyle like theirs.
5. Develop a designer series of paintings that are large, all made simultaneously in a step-by-step process so I have a cohesive, sellable series of paintings that don't take too much time and effort but can sell for decent money.
6. Keep my art circulating in galleries and restaurants
7. Stay and become even more connected with art lovers and people in general because most things in life come directly through some kind of relationship.

 

Although largely self-taught, Zulauf attended The Ontario College for Art and Design for bronze sculpting, printmaking, animation, video, projections, clay sculpture and installation. "All my digital painting, painting and drawing I did myself. I learn a lot reading, researching, seeing other people's art and understanding symbols, archaeology, new age spirituality and hermeticism," he says. "It's all about focus, dedication and practice." Ever since public school, Zulauf was recognized for doing art. "I drew a lot growing up, and as early as I can remember the main thing teachers noted is my creativity and conscientiousness," he says.

 

Where does this inspiration to make art come from? Zulauf explains "the ongoing development of my practice, the progression of my skills, encouragement from others, the belief that I deserve to be financially successful through my art, one day hopefully soon, and the opportunities and lifestyle that is available through having high quality art; particularly in the visionary arts community."

 

Zulauf's favourite piece is his "Tree of Life" bronze sculpture. "It embodies nature and sun worship, sex/genetics, astrotheology, archaic revival, an excellent marriage of material to meaning; and it looks fantastic," he says. "It is still a universal symbol, with a slant to my own Western culture, and it's scientific/modern while spiritual and transcendent at the same time. That's the balance I try to live in my life, and so I like that reflected in my art as well."