WeLoveYourSongs.com allows unsigned artists to display their talent in a competition open to the public! http://weloveyoursongs.com/ Copyright 2009-2013 WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/217/KHAOS+ONE No explanation for this rap artist. Thats that. Nothing to go off of so first piece of advice: make me care. Koolaid (yes, really) comes at us a little low (Im missing a lot of the words at the beginning). Its got a deeper feel to it than I think I would have expected from a rap artist. It revs up eventually though, but this is definitely less on the party side of rap. Its an interesting way to start things off. Yah know, I expected Sizzle Hot to play like a light, street smart, summer tune. Instead, it works farther down tone-wise and is more fit for the dark, late-night club than the sunshine-y day. Its okay. The beats deep and you feel it in your bones. Hustla has a rather familiar beat. As in I may have heard it just a few minutes ago. Youve got to get that personal explanation/anthem song in though. Tell em what youre all about. I think the chorus on this one comes across a little jumbled and hard to deal with, but he keeps it going, strong and assured. Does anyone else ever listen to these kind of tracks and imagine guys sitting around a studio listening back to them, nodding along with the beat? Just me? Cool. So this is Smooth which makes an attempt to create a chorus, but its a little fuzzy. I like the steadiness in the rap though its not abrasive, and maintains throughout without being awkward. Generally, its sort of a growth for the artist. Make It Tight has a lot of potential. The rap has a great rhythm to it, and the backing is simple enough but keeps things going. The gripe I think I have with this song is the chorus vocals. Theyre lazy and the harmonies hurt. Fix that though, and this song could be pretty dang good. Again, I went in to this with little to care about other than the music, since theres absolutely no introduction to the artist on the page. But you work with what you have I suppose and here, that tended to be slight glimpses of something good, masked by attempts that seemed half-hearted. Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/221 Wed, 05 Jun 2013 22:15:57 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/455/dePhaser This artist seems to use their bio as a little hype, but a nice balance of appeal to the audience. You get your general explanation of the band and their background. Its not the most articulate little explanation, but it does kind of make the band relatable. Maybe a little cleaning up to do, but Im willing to see whats next. Givin Up is first up, and its a little darker than expected, I have to say. The vocals are in a lower register, though the lyrics are hopeful. Hm we may be on to something here it this keeps up. They have a solid rock sound happening. We get hit harder and faster with Its Over Now, bringing just a little more of a mainstream rock sound to it. You know, these guys do have a sound to them that Im sure would play out very well on some rock stations. Its dark, but not so much that folks couldnt get into the sound and find lyrics that speak to them. Vs actually adds in this almost dance-ish beat in the background. I think itd have folks moving on the floor at a show for sure. Again, a deeper vocal gives a darker sound (I know Ive said that three times now), but I dont know these guys have something interesting going on that I think can reach out. Even at the start of this song, I was almost looking for a reason not to like something from them, but they keep coming at me with good music. Oh man, talk about hooked at the get-go. Glorious starts with a call out in the voice and the whole song rocks loud and fantastically. These guys just keep getting better and better and Im so excited to have stumbled upon them at this point. Forgotten Words ends us out on this one. Its got a rougher sound in the recording, which is slightly disappointing, but it comes in, more-or-less, like a rock ballad of the 80s. Im also a child of Jersey and lover of Bon Jovi, so maybe Im playing hopeful here. But this is definitely an attempt at an apology song. Its a tougher one compared to the rest, but the idea is right. Man, there is some seriously good music going on here. These guys are well on their way to an excellent sound. It needs to balance between a little more polished and no losing the rough edge, but I sincerely enjoyed starting to hear what they have to offer! Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/220 Wed, 22 May 2013 10:39:22 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/630/KB+the+Boo+Bonic WHOA is there a bio here. This is as long as my articles! This is a hip-hop/rap artist from Austin TX. She grew up on the old, true country music, giving her a really great appreciation for real songwriting. Meanwhile, her first CD was the Biggles Life After Death (edited) and got her hands on every bit of hip-hop and rap she could. The original Texans were her first favorites and influences, eventually leading her to release her own album in 2012, Scars Are Sexy. Oh, but thats only the intro. Next we get a background on her freestyling (which started at 16) where she watched the boys and knew she could tackle it just as well. She met producer Bad Boy Ben during college when she moved from Houston to Austin, and started cutting her first tracks and MCing for live shows. This paragraph Im pulling info from basically outlines that year or so of live shows, and the next talks about what radio stations and albums shes been featured on. Lots of credits here, folks. The closing paragraph is the best its on WHY she makes music and performs. Now THAT is whats going to pull me in to listening. Maybe re-arrange some things here to grab us earlier, and let us be impressed by the credentials after we start to care about you as an artist. Scars Are Sexy is the known track apparently, and the first one listed. Lead with your strengths I suppose. She definitely has a harder sound than I expected to hear. The beat is really great, though Id ditch the cutesy dropping glittery sound throughout. Maybe place it a bit more strategically. Otherwise, a really tight track and well done. Trying to figure out if theres a message at the start of Glitter Aint Gold, just because it sounds like shes trying to make a point off the bat. I think it just winds up being a self-understanding that it takes work to make it, but money isnt a success measurer. Loving the chorus beat on here it can get pretty catchy after a while. This is probably what should be the second single. Real and hard. 2 Plays seems to have a start story with gunshots. Seriously, I judged a book by its cover, and Im sorry. This girl is far more hardcore than I expected. Really love most of the beats she lays down though. This has a little less production involved, and sounds a bit more homemade, but respect for that either way. Not sure what the title means, as Ive never seen the second word before, but the next one up is So Throed. Lotsa autotune. I think, though apologies if Im wrong. This is a bit of a slower jam, not so much hard rapping, so you can concentrate in just a little bit more. Not a bad job here either, and lots of respect for her for experimenting with more and more sounds. Click Clack rounds things out with a shout out to get the beat up and people moving. Shes back to a faster rap, but this time shes calling people got to get dancing and enjoying the beat, which kind of winds up making for an awesome song. Shes also got this infectious little beat in the background that sounds really rooted in the middle east, bringing a new sound to an already fun song if youre even just listening to the lyrics. I dont know why, but this one is a great close out as we leave for the night on this act. Lots of respect for this lady. Shes doing what she wants, the way she wants, and its actually pretty ok on the ears. Hopefully someone else will hear that shes got a good ear for beats and what to do with them, and work with her to really make this music incredibly great. Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/219 Fri, 17 May 2013 16:11:01 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/746/So+Carto Music can change the world because music can change people. Bono Thats one of my favorite quotes, so when I see So Cartos bio page start with I want to change the world by changing Hip Hop culture, Im immediately intrigued. Theres a movement being attempted to change black culture, thus changing American culture, thus changing the world. Basically, the goal is complete freedom of expression, being attempted at with this first album. Admirable. Now, lets see how the music stacks up. F4 is first up. Think of an earthquake. Think of Brock Lesner. What, no one elses minds go there? Im weird. Whatever. Ill start by saying that the depth of the voice is unexpected, and the rhythm in the background is so simple I actually feel like I could make that happen. All that said, I guess you could call this song relatable. The rapping is understandable, even, and well done. Not what I was expecting given the titles supposed intensity, but not a bad thing. Turning up the volume a bit (as I turn down a little) we get Mass Appeal up next. Super computerized feel and an off-putting opening that would make me turn off the song if I werent devoted to hearing the whole thing. I can see this being not bad, though I think some of the production that went in may have been un-called for. Cosmophony almost sounds like a show tune at the start. There are then these computerized strings added in that I totally dont get right now. You normally only hear these kinds of things mixed in on an old electronic keyboard when youre messing around with buttons. Theres something strangely familiar about whatever you want to call the melody-type thing thats happening. Overall, a bit of an odd experience mixed in with the rest of the songs, especially when you hit the lowest register of notes in what I shudder to call the bridge. Usually, interludes are only found on full albums, but if its one of your best five tracks, you should include it on your WLYS page. Birth of Time (Interlude) is well, the sounds of a woman giving birth, set to some intergalactic sounds. Thank god this was just an interlude. And if this is some of the best from the artist, Im a little worried. Dark Star is the last song, and it sort of ties everything together. Theres a deepness to the vocals that we enjoyed in the first song and the odd spacey sounds that have been prevalent through the rest. I guess the rapping thing was just a phase, as I havent really heard it since. Its hard to keep track of the words throughout as they drone just a bit, but theres a finishing sound thats rot of nice. Kind of hit and miss with this artist, but I appreciate his effort. He didnt hold back in trying whatever he could with what he was given. Though this particular music might not be on the road to change the world, hes making the effort that so many would otherwise be too lazy to take on. Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/218 Tue, 07 May 2013 08:00:02 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/811/Han+Ho The bio on this one is legitimately a personal biography. We get this artists life story in a few paragraphs. This includes where they were born (Vietnam), the number of brothers and sisters they have (10), and when the love of guitar was sparked (at 13 or 14). And we seem to have a country traveler here whos seen and lived in so many great places, which Im hoping has had influence on what were about to hear. Life Belt starts things off in an unexpected easy nature. Think BNL just a little bit to get a general feel. Its nice, at least for the first minute or so, to not feel like the harmonies are completely computerized. Things feel sort of real for a change, like theres some heart behind what we hear. The next one up, Remarkable Machine, starts with a simple guitar strum, but one that certainly sounds like theres more meaning behind it. I think the songs about the world, or rather the machine, changing a person. But heres the problem with the song, and yes, there is a problem: there are so many words that its hard to grasp on to anything conceptually throughout. Youd have to hear it many times, and in a once-over of just trying to get to know a band, thats not in the cards. Cut With The Talk is a conversational piece, I suppose you could say. He sets up the piece simply by sharing their conversation. This has a very Leonard Cohen feel, though his voice is nowhere as deep, of course. Im not sure this is one to really get in to, but it does make for an interesting listen. Now Down the Line sounds a little more in tune with what I was enjoying before. This might be the most home-hitting, sweet song yet. Its a song about time, and you just need to take a few to hear it. Its inspirational and interesting and great. The final song is sort of a question, sort of a realization, but all of love. Love, Anyway is a gentle rocking to a great beat thatll keep you dancing on the floor. From what I got here, it serves as a great close out number as well, giving us the last bit of cool, lite rock from Han Ho. Now this was good music! There was that 90s sound that I know so many of us cant get enough of, combined with lyrics full of life and meaning that fills the mainstream airwaves today. This was really a good time all around, and I hope this artist reads this and knows that theyve gained a fan for sure. Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/217 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:20:32 BST Picture by Eva Rinaldi from Sydney Australia (Taylor Swift Speak Now Tour Uploaded by russavia) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons Highest selling digital artist of all time, Taylor Swift continues to make chart topping music and stay in the headlines. When its said and done, she might very well be considered the most successful artist of the 2010s. Its only recently that shes starting to attract negative reviews and tire out her youthful personality. But whether you love her or hate her, its undeniable that shes done well for herself from both a musical and public relations perspective. Heres a few takeaways of things up-and-coming artists can learn from the Reading, PA native. Write Your Own Music Artists in the Top 40 have always relied on others to do most of their writing. Even Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra recorded tunes that were written by others. Taylor Swift is in the minority for this genre. Its widely known that the then 18-year-old wrote all the music and lyrics to her debut album in 2006 and shes continued that trend throughout her career. Ive found that many music fans, even if they do not care for her style, still appreciate her talent because of this. Singer/songwriters are viewed in a special way since being able to create music and perform takes so much more skill. Its Okay to be Innocent Sex sells. Craziness sells. Being loud and abrasive sells. We know this. But as popular as Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Nicki Minaj are, Taylor Swift is just as popular without any of that. Instead, shes stayed true to herself and her values. Shes taken that innocent girl appeal and used it to build her personal brand by developing a look and writing music that is uplifting, wholesome and cute. It doesnt appeal to everyone but its obviously resonated with enough fans since she continues to sell records. You Must Musically Adapt But on the same note as above, Swift is now 23-years-old and her music still reflects storylines that appeal to young teens. Four albums deep, millions sold, people are beginning to tire and complain about her themes. Lyrics about high school dates do not work for her audience anymore since they are growing up too. She needs her music to change along with her age and her experiences. Your music should adapt too. Appeal to the Masses Weve often seen that the most successful artists are the ones that span genres. For instance, Outkast emerged in 1994 with a unique southern style with hardcore rhymes and a progressive and cunning sound. It was nearly ten years later though when they released Hey Ya, the first hip-hop song to top the adult contemporary charts. This opened the doors for a whole new audience to appreciate their music, launching them to mainstream status. Taylor Swift has played a similar card. Her soft rock style with catchy hooks attract attention from many different types of music lovers. Shes played on country, rock and top 40 stations because of this hybrid approach and has built a very diverse audience. Acoustic Never Gets Old Ive been to many heavy rock shows and even the most fierce and hardcore mosh pitters absolutely love when the lead singer turns the lights down and grabs his acoustic guitar. Acoustic guitar in rock is like the piano in orchestra. It can live on its own and fans will eat it up. Its a beautiful thing too when songs can be converted to acoustic to give it a whole new look and feel. Taylor Swift does this well. The acoustics have helped brand her with a unique style in the industry and she does it with finesse, which is a huge part of her success. Plus, during live performances she does acoustic covers which make her fans go wild. Being such a young age, be prepared to hear many more years of Taylor Swift music. Learn from both her successes and failures and capitalize to launch your own career to a new level. About the author Thomas J. Armitage is a marketing communications professional from Central NY. A music fanatic, he reviews songs/albums and follows industry news in a variety of genres. He has a special interest in hardcore rap and modern punk. In addition to DJing under the alias White Noyes, he manages a local hip hop artist and is a freelance blogger. Connect with him @thomasjarmitage or visit thomasjarmitage.com. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/216 Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:03:09 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/916/Mark+C+Stafford This is one of those bios youre not sure if there was a PR person involved with, or if the artist comes up with this stuff themselves. Mark C Stafford, according to the writer, is just a little bit different, but yet perfectly mainstream. Well really, what the hells mainstream anymore? And yet they say we cant place a label on Marks music. Basically the bio comes up with cute ways of saying hes a songwriter whos grown from being a drummer into an arranger. Oh, and we cant just hear one of his songs, or else were missing out now thats something I can get behind. Closing The Windows starts off with just a light beat, joined in by layers of strings. While I get the immediate feeling of the familiar Garage Band work probably at hand, I like the working musically. The vocals come in, however, a little too canned. There needs to be something natural happening to really embrace the music, and unfortunately were missing out on that here. The next one up is a little disorienting because is starts with the beeping of a machine, and Im watching Greys Anatomy right now. Actually, the song sounds like something right out of the show. We, again, get the over-produced nature that computer recordings bring, but theres heart to this song. December actually starts with the closest thing to a real instrument sound Ive heard yet a sad piano. Now, granted, deleting a few of those vocal tracks might help drive home the point of the quiet song just a little bit better. No need for so many layers of voices on something like this. But I appreciate the telling of a story and interesting lyrical approach. 90s MB20 sound? Lovely! Will Is Weak is an odd title that I cant wrap my head around, and the song is a little darker than I thought at the start. Hes right not one song meshes in with another, and this one in particular just is at the darkest end of his spectrum thus far. Merry-Go-Round is the final song, starting off with what else laughing kids at a carnival! Of course theres deeper meaning to the title, with the theme of a journey of twists and turns. The music is canned, but theres an interesting approach here for sure. Love the approach of songwriting, not in love with how its all pumped through a computer. A natural sound is whats going to grip your audience we cant connect when its all coming from machines. But I like that this guy goes deep and for it all in each and every song. He didnt lie you need to hear it all to get the full effect, and even now, after only five songs, I know Im missing out on a piece of this talented composer. Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/215 Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:25:08 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/1005/Far+and+Few No information has been added by this artist :( So heres the basics whoever this person or band is, theyre in the Pop/Rock genre, and is/art from Santa Barbara, California. And he/they have five songs for us to judge them on their music alone. Spark the Fire comes on first with a very old-school Blink feel in the opening, and Im automatically prone to love that. Actually I have to give credit where its due the sounds different enough to be its own. Now, as far as the vocals go, I wouldnt hate just a little added depth to this very airy sound thats hard to follow against an intense backing. They just dont mesh well. But the songs gold in itself. We get started on the next song with a strong guitar beat that can really get you feeling something. Now has that great lead in, and this time the voice is familiar and more appropriate. Thing the pop-punk bands of the early 2000s and youll probably realize the influences here. Invocation seems to sort of take the music a little harder, using more drums, particularly the symbols, and harsher chords. Then it all falls away to a voice and simple metal strum. Again, the pitch of the vocals takes me out of it, but the attempt to create a full song with some real meaning is very admirable. I think if I had been familiar with this music during high school, I wouldve loved it to this day. In a good mix of number presented, we get the slower one now: Confessions. The lighter guitar lends itself very nicely to that voice. Theres also this interesting fast picking happening thats 90s-esq, but the combo with this style is, again, all its own. Light Up Forever is the last song we get to hear, and in title alone it seems like an appropriate closer. Even the music, as it starts, sounds like one of those end-of-summer tracks at the final blow out party. Now, stronger vocals might help matters. So weve got an old sound in a new band, but they do manage to bring themselves into the tracks. I wish I knew more about them, but for now, based on the music alone, Im sort of neither here nor there on this one. The music was great, but the tone in the vocals needs a revamp. Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/214 Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:33:03 BST Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net . Social media channels are a great way to interact with fans and grant exposure to potential listeners. Unfortunately, too many artists haphazardly throw up their pages and have no routine when posting, resulting in a weak online presence with low interaction levels. Here are a few steps that artists can take when creating their channels to start off in the right direction: Photos High quality photos are very important. Not only do they appear more professional on your own sites, but they can be used in blogs and news stories if you have a chance for media opportunities. It doesnt cost much to have professional photos taken. Shop around and you can probably find a young photographer willing to do a few different shots and outfits for $125. Select a few of your best shots and upload them across your channels. Make sure to use the same profile pic on all sites to reinforce your image and help people more easily remember you. Consistent Bios Dont just type whatever comes to mind in the profile areas. Take time to prepare your bios. Youll need to write both a short and long one since some sites limit your characters and others dont. Too many artists use clich phrases and generic wording like rising star, the best rocker in town, up-and-coming artist, etc. Stay away from any wording youve heard before. Instead, develop a bio that stands out from other artist while still showcasing your style and personality. Use the same bios across your sites to maintain consistency. Be Active You cant just hop onto your Facebook page when you have a new song, post it and expect fans to pay attention. You need to make this a constant activity and cultivate a following. Start by building conversations. Interact with fans, share articles of things going on in the music industry. Share your friends music. Dont just focus on yourself. You will slowly build a network that respects you and your taste in music. Then, when you share your own material, they will be more likely to listen. Integration Matters Each social site has its own area of expertise. Twitter: short thoughts and links. Facebook: updates and longer threads. Instagram: photos. YouTube: videos. Integrating these channels will help users find you on your other sites and populate your profiles with more info and material. Share you videos on Twitter, share your Instagram photos on Facebook, etc. Youll obviously need an audio site to post your songs. Make sure to use one that can be shared seamlessly with your other sites. Its important to remember though to not automatically sync your channels. This comes across very automated and impersonal. Take time to provide a unique experience for community members on each site. Do Not Spam Its a lot of work to attract a following and get new people to preview your material. Word of mouth, sending out tailored emails and making connecting are all perfectly fine ways to spread the word about yourself and your social sites. However, many cross the line into spam. Refrain from posting your site URLs in the feeds of other musicians songs or videos. Take off auto DMs and do not send out mass invites or messages. Instead, build those networks and interact with the people who you know will enjoy your music. -- About the author Thomas J. Armitage is a marketing communications professional from Central NY. A music fanatic, he reviews songs/albums and followers industry news in a variety of genres. He has a special interest in hardcore rap and modern punk. In addition to DJing under the alias White Noyes, he manages a local hip hop artist and is a freelance blogger. Connect with him @thomasjarmitage or visit thomasjarmitage.com. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/213 Wed, 10 Apr 2013 07:34:14 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/1162/Answer+Back Interesting scenario on this page lots of information to read, and only one song offered to listen to. Hmm. This is a group of newer guys, trying to plan things out and on the brink of excitement in starting a career in music. Theyve got their first video made, and are planning a tour. Now, heres something interesting to read. I didnt think Id see a day when 90d punk-rock and 2000 pop were described as influences. Am I old enough for that statement to be valid? They also adapt based on the crowd, which is cool, but unnerving when youre hoping for young bands who stick to their own voices. One More Time is the only song sampling we get on this page. Annnddd yeah, this is exactly what it was advertised to be. Theres definitely some Blink/Green Day influences in there, along with that higher-pitched 90s male singer voice at the front. I wish I werent so tired, because this sounds like it could actually be pretty fun to get in to. The recording doesnt suck, and the chorus is pretty teen-movie catchy. Sorry yall, I wasnt given much to work with on this one, but hopefully there is more to come and hear! They seem like a cool group of guys who may have something there, if only theyd put more of it out there. Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/212 Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:16:04 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/1213/Non+Filtered Its been a while since Ive heard a good electro/house artist, or at least a new AND good one. This should be fun. Non Filtered started as a drummer and stage musician, as is working toward being a well known producer and performer of electro. His first full-length release is in production (Electronica Home Confinement) and is seeking a label but for now we have him on WLYS. Its a simple description, but the guys honest and seemingly easy to deal with. Now, hows the music? Amorsito starts things off, and I have to say, I almost sort of missed this sound. Its highly metallic, which I never love as it rises in pitch, but hes got some cool things going on beat-wise here. Granted, the song goes on for-flipping-ever, with no end sounds in sight, but it makes for good background music without being distracting. Dance party beat comes on in Get Off Ur I mean, the end of that sentence has to be ass and dance, right? I have to say, I am getting a little into it. Itll probably go on forever and be exhausting, but the songs got this cool combo of funk and electronic, which is rare and awesome. I could seriously be okay hearing a lot more from this artist. Hopefully the rest holds up. Never Go Away comes up next with this sort of entrancing beat and romantic undertone. I definitely have my foot tapping at the moment. You can almost feel the mood in the club of people completely shift into something more intoxicating. Nice little dance-y movement and old school recording sound for Cutlery. I love the funk infusion into this! You can sort of feel the natural rhythms throughout and the ideas forming as the song flows. Now, not loving the added speaking parts into it, as they hit just a little too hard and out of sorts, but musically, this is absolutely awesome. The World Is Music has me with the title because Im an obsessed dork like that. It definitely has an around-the-world sound, but then he repeats the title line over and over and over again. It gets to be a little much. Not the best of the bunch, though stands on its own well enough. Oh man, this was cool. Just some dang good music overall. Its been a while since Ive heard stuff like this that I felt like really getting in to. This guys got a great future ahead of him if we can get more folks in to this music! Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/211 Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:53:29 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/1299/debt+collector Huh? Sorry initial name reaction. Its an alter ego deal for Phil Russell. He started his musical odyssey in 2004, making a lot of noise from just one man, contrary to what it sounded like apparently. This was under an old alias though. Then he switched over to this new one. The rest of the bio goes on to cite some favorable reviews, listings of where you can find the music, and confusing language on the music and search for gigs. And on a continuous downbeat, were getting early 90s grunge with a singer swallowing the mic. Poor Box opens with everything has gone to hell. This is not the way to grab your audience right off the bat. I say that in hopes someone out there with learn a little something when building their own page! Loneliness comes in with a computerized backbeat thats pumped just a little too much on the recording end. My speakers sound blown out, and I have them at normal levels. The vocals well, I just cant say anything nice here, so Im not going to say anything at all. Except for the fact that this is a huge mess of noise and I need it off immediately. Now, Wrath of Ages sounds like something I could get into if it were a little cleaned up and I was a little more in to Dylan. I would probably also like this more if I didnt have a headache following the string of high pitched noise in the middle of the song. Bonfire Night starts off so low and slight I think I could get into the oddness just enough to enjoy. And you know what? If the vocals were anything other that mindless droning where I cant understand a damn important lyric throughout the whole thing, I might really love this mellow number. Final song time. Genes closes things out with a strumming guitar and straining voice. Yah know, Im starting to just plain ol wonder (and hope) that these songs would song better it someone else took over the instrumental arrangement and vocals. There are good ideas there, but they are just not coming out in any sort of good way for normal ears to enjoy. Musically, ouch. Artist Page well, confusing, but theres an attempt. Its going to take a bit more work, but theres an attempt here, and a strong one at that, which makes me have a bit of respect for the debt collector. Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/210 Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:53:04 BST As promised the second part of the Introducing Crowd funding article is out! And, as promised, the differences between the different crowdfunding platforms, i.e Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Pledge Music, Sellaband and Musicraiser, are pointed out. The thing is, I didnt want to bore you with a long descriptive article, so I created a table. I hope it can be useful and it can clear some of your doubts. Only one thing is missing, how those platforms differs in visibility for your project. Well, if I were you Id probably avoid Pledge Music and Sellaband. This is a personal opinion based on the fact that navigating their websites I just wanted to close the tab and not discover new music at all, and also because the project you can post is limited to a record. Although Pledge Music has also a type of campaign where you can advertise your album (already mastered) and try to pre-sell it. That is not bad for those who already have a release out. With all the remaining three you have global visibility and great assets, I dont see huge differences between them. A note: I left the currencies as founded on the websites on purpose, I didnt want to change them in numbers that might result incorrect. For more informations I advise you to carefully read the FAQ section of each of those websites. The table is available at this link - Enjoy! Article by Giulia Colli. You can follow her on Twitter at @Giulia_Colli. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/209 Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:31:52 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/1334/Keith+Fellows I went to college for Undergrad in Nashville the Music City section of Nashville to be exact. Everyone there, and many people outside of the city, know that the additional nickname of A Songwriters Town is completely relevant. There are so many people there that do not perform on a regular basis, but are the only reasons we know any songs sung by the likes of Carrie Underwood or Lady Antebellum. I open with pointing out folks like that because, from the sounds of his bio, Keith is one of those people in the background, writing the hits. He outright states, simply, that he wants someone out there to sing the songs he has to offer. Motel Rendezvous is first up, and right out of the gate sounds like something arranged on Garage Band. Its for sure a rough demo just trying to appeal to someone out there to take and make something out of. Its a sadder, possibly far too honest, track. Probably not the one to start off with, but as his page states if you dont like one, move on to the next one. I would love to pick this guys brain on who his influence are, because right now Im thinking a mix of mid-time Beatles and Elvis Costello. Tongue Tied Again has this cute little skip-a-long beat that would only really work between those two sides. Its adorable, and maybe even Broadway musical appropriate. The Girl On Page Three is wait, what is this? Is he talking about a girl in a Playboy? Maybe I missed something here, but I think the general gist is that he wants a girl he cant get who he only knows on paper. I want to like something on this list, mostly out of being a singer and always looking for new, good songs to get in to. Isnt It Wrong? is probably the closest Ive gotten so far. Get rid of the echo, maybe change the pacing and tone a little bit, and this could be a really interesting and cool piece. Now I Am A Soldier is one with potential for sure. Re-arrangement with a few different instruments could really make this something that people could get in to. We know Toby Keiths made the subject matter work, after all. All right Keith Fellows, there does seem to be something real here. Keep in mind, it takes a lot of loser songs to score the ones great one. Please dont stop working at it, because if you can get two decent potential songs out of these five samples, Im sure theres more there in you. Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/208 Tue, 05 Mar 2013 15:18:33 BST Crowdfunding is a method of raising small amounts of money from a large group of people using the Internet and social media. Since I dont know exactly when, but not long time ago, it popped up in musicians life as one of the possible ways to finance their dreams. As Bob Lefsetz (if you dont know him, subscribe to his newsletter, he gives a pretty interesting insight of the music industry) wrote, today a band, a solo artist, any one, has to release a pretty great, well mastered and amazingly presented album, before even thinking to present himself to the world, or record label. Long time ago release an album was the arrive point, nowadays, in my opinion, is the start, unless you are a very lucky b*****d. Crowd Funding is the answer for all those artists who dont have any money, but great passion and clear objectives, I talked about an album, but you can try to fund your tour or any other thing you might need. Start a crowd funding project gives you a real chance to sit down and really think about what do you need to achieve your goal, its extremely important to consider everything and to set a real and not exaggerated amount of money to raise. Sure, you can ask 100.000 but youll probably never get it for a number of reasons that is useless to point out here and now. Once you have decided how much, think about how. Most of the crowd funding platforms from Indiegogo to Kickstarter require a video where you have to explain your project. Well, you can be very simple and straight forward, just a camera, a sofa and you talking, if you do so, get the video reviewed by your worst enemy, or one of those friends of yours who wouldnt shut up about how much you look like a moron in that video if you do, they HAVE to be honest, so,dont ask your mum. The one man show video works more for the David Lettermans kind of guy, people with big personalities, sense of humor and tones of charisma. If you are not, you might want to do something a little more elaborated, find a way to communicate yourself through your music in an original way, there are thousands of project, you have to be unique in order to stand above others. (Successful examples here http://www.indiegogo.com/imwithselton and here http://www.indiegogo.com/cossbysweater). A big part that decides whether or not your project will be successful are rewards. Rewards are those recompenses you give back to your benefactor in exchange of his money. So guys try to think how much would YOU pay for the stuff you offer, try to have a wide variety of recompenses, so that any one can pledge, be creative, fun but be careful not to be ridiculous, and the more you ask the more valuable your offer has to be. Tip: look at those who were successful, and at those who arent having it so much, be inspired by the firsts, dont make the same mistakes of the seconds. Once you have set your fund raising campaign there is only one thing to do next: SPREAD THE WORD! Use everything in your power, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus, Blogs, screaming in the streets, ask your fans to help you with that, keep them always updated, make them feel that they are part of it. Below you can find a list of the most popular crowd funding platforms, plus a couple of blogs you might find useful if you want to undertake the crowd funding journey. Next time you will get a more detailed insight about crowd funding platforms and their differences. Stay tuned. CROWDFUNDING PLATFORMS http://www.kickstarter.com/ - https://www.sellaband.com/ http://www.indiegogo.com/ http://www.pledgemusic.com/ http://www.artisteconnect.com/ http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/ http://wefund.com/ http://www.musicraiser.com/ http://www.crowdvalley.com/ (this is if you want to create your own crowdfunding platform!) BLOGS http://www.crowdfundingformusicians.com/ http://theabundantartist.com/crowdfunding-for-artists-part-1/ Article by Giulia Colli. You can follow her on Twitter at @Giulia_Colli. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/207 Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:21:35 BST Meet Emma Perks, a very interesting polyhedral unsigned artist from Scotland! 1. Hi Emma! Can you tell us a little about you and why have you started to play music? I live in a remote part of Scotland with my husband, two beautiful daughters and 2 dogs. Music has always been my passion. I play the guitar and write my own songs. Whatever mood I am in there is always a song to go with it. I come from a family who feels the need to burst into song at every opportunity and has a song for every occasion! Music is my therapy, if I am feeling down or stressed I pick up the guitar and sing until I feel better. My songs reflect how I feel at the moment I write them. My children are inspiration for many of my songs and are always the first to listen and critique them.I have just had one of my songs put on a CD to raise money for the highland hospice, which is a charity that cares for people with terminal illnesses. It contains local artists from my area and will hopefully raise much needed money for them to carry on in their wonderful work. 2. How has the place you live influenced you and your music? Living in a remote and beautifully rugged area helps with my music a lot. I find the landscape and peacefulness is an amazing catalyst in song writing. The basics of my songs often come to me while out walking with the children and dogs. 3. What equipment do you use to produce your music? I dont have any fancy equipment for recording my music and most of them are recorded on my phone with me playing the guitar and singing. Though I Cry For You was recorded with a good friend who has some of the fancy stuff!! 4. Who are your influences? I love lots of different artists, though my playlists always feature Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and JJ Gilmour heavily. I love musical talent in any way it is expressed, whether it be playing an instrument, singing or writing. 5. How do you think you differ from other artists? I write souly based on how I feel and do not attempt to make my songs in any particular genre. I think this makes my music pure and interesting as it is not attempting (or succeeding) to fit into any particular category of music or listener. 6. What advice could you give to emerging artists wanting to do something in a similar style? I am by no means a successful artist yet, so I am not sure I am qualified to give any advice, but I would say that music should be passion and as long as you feel the passion while you write or play you should stick at it. Even if it never goes any further you should always enjoy the process. 7. How did you find out aboutweloveyoursongs.com? I found out about weloveyoursongs.com by doing Internet searches for song writing competitions. 8. Plans for the future? I would love to continue to write and play my songs. Obviously, being a successful singer/song writer would be amazing, but as long as I enjoy it and the people that hear it enjoy it too, then I am happy. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/206 Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:49:40 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/1479/ByItsRightName This USA-based acoustic rock back comes at us with a creative flair to their bio. They begin with an explanation of what a name is, and what it means to live up to one. They introduce themselves: Justin, Ricky, and Andrew, and give the meanings of strength behind each one of them. All right, very creative and lovely. But whats the deal with their music? Well, we start things off with Dignity Sky. Its obviously a pretty raw recording, which is respectable Im a little over production value anyway. Generally a good rock sound that keeps moving throughout. Think a little 90s, complete with lyrics to sink your teeth in to. Haste Makes Waste is a nice slow one, a guy singing of a girl. Its a little depressing, but sometime the most honest ones are. I like the easy-ness of this though. Its one you could turn on during a sad time and hear some hope offered up by one shy guy. Picking the pace back up, we get The Replay. A cool rock of guitar work and drums loosing control from time to time. Gotta love the quick breakdowns. Here weve got a good background band for a bar. Thered be some folks up front loosing their faces during the performance, and some by the bar, drinking and not talking because they can get away with it due to the volume. Inside is another slow smoky one. I love the guitar on this one, just falling over and over again like sweetness. Nothing comes on too strong here, making it a great backing track to the rest of life as it goes by. I already love the title for Wings Through The Fire. Something poetic and strong there all at once. The music itself fits right along with the rest good instrumental work with airy vocals on top, neither of which seems to dominate noticeably. Im making up the meaning as I go along, a lot like how some of these chords sound. So this was fun. I love discovering new bands, especially incredibly indie bands over the Internet. I mean, thats why I write for this website, isnt it? Yes, this is a band that completely fits a stereotypical mold, but sometimes thats exactly appropriate and needed. Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/205 Fri, 22 Feb 2013 11:20:57 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/1377/WeSs+B No picture = immediate sad face reaction. The description we get here is tiny, but actually, Ive seen worse. We get the basics: a New York songwriter whos devoted to the music. Okay, so its not much on this particular site, but theres a Facebook and a Twitter, both of which are regularly updated. Granted, the first picture you see screams F8ck The World at the top, which doesnt make me love this right away. But okay, well give this guy a shot. Oh, cool, a song that starts with gun shots. Thats clearly appealing. Why you up in here. Is DJ Who Kidd on this too? I remember that guy from a mix tape I helped film videos for it was awful. Anywhos, this whole song is a self-righteous hype. Nothing terribly catchy, let alone entertaining. Hands High must be a continuation from the last one. So goes some mix tapes. At least the sound doesnt completely the same. And this ones got a party element instead of being something that, lyrically, makes me feel like less of a woman. Its almost listenable. Well, aside from the little production notes throughout with dude talking over the track. Sounding like something off a radio, not a produced record, we get on in to Give it to ya. Can people at least have enough respect to capitalize titles appropriately? All right, so a slower rap about sex, joy. Too many effects used throughout. I guess theres an audience out there for this but not in this room. Lenny Kravits (and yes thats how its spelled) is next up. My music good, riiigghhhttt? Yup, direct quote. *Sigh* just remember Janelle, this is a site that really does allow everyone and anyone to have a voice. Final song! Kiesha to Tiesha starts off with a guy noticing the two girls on different sides of the room, and goes on to name so many more. Its no Mambo Number 5 but at least hes got an attempt at a story. Are people really like this though? Man I guess I dont get out enough. Wow, well that happened. Again, I respect the mentality of the site in that they allow anyone to put music up and get out there. But music like this is tough to catch on to. So musically, eh, not my style. As an artist, at lease this guy is taking the plunge and putting himself and his tunes out there. Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews, including full-album listen-thrus, on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/204 Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:59:31 BST The Winter edition of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest has started with prizes that are bigger than ever! Additionally to the cool stuff offered by our beloved long term partners, this time we have two new key additions: Since 1996, IK Multimedia has been a pioneer in the music software revolution. Today, they offer the most diverse and best sounding assortment of music creation tools for mobile and computer platforms, with a range spanning hardware accessories and software applications for guitar and bass players, keyboard players, vocalists, DJs and producers. All IK products share the same Musicians First design philosophy. For this edition of our competitions they kindly agreed to offer a T-RackS CS Grand mastering package (worth $470) and an AmpliTube 3 guitar amp and effects modeling package (worth $250). Great stuff! The second new partner is the LJ Gambone Agency, the go-to PR firm for Indie artists who are looking for an affordable and effective way to spread the word about their music. They specialize in press release writing and distribution, media kit creation, professional bio writing, social media marketing and more. Their clients have been featured on Dateline, The Tonight Show, KCAL9 Midday News, WGNs Steve Johnnie Show and Doug Stephans Good Day, as well as in Red Bull Flugtag commercials, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times, to name a few. For this contest they offer to the winner a Press Kit Creation package (worth $299), which includes a bio, one sheet, promotional postcard, testimonial page and brand statement creation. Big prizes confirmed also with our old partners. MobBase is awarding a free custom Android app for one year (worth $260) as well as a free Premium HTML5 Mobile Web App for life. MobBase is a platform that makes it free and easy for bands to create, launch and manage their own, custom mobile apps. With MobBase, artists share music, photos, videos, tweets, news, information about shows, merchandise and other content with fans on iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets. and other mobile devices. More than 500 artists and record labels have launched their own MobBase apps, including Tila Tequila, Pepper, Parkway Drive, 9:30 Club, Rebelution, Jump Smokers, John McLaughlin, Iration, the Jacka, Zion I, and Paul Thorn. Mondo Tunes will offer free distribution of 10 songs to the winner, as well as 6 songs distributed again for free for he 2nd and 3rd ranked of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest. Mondo Tunes supplies the largest music distribution in the world and provides upstream services for many major labels in search of breakout artists. While most independent distributors reach only 45-50 retailers despite charging needless monthly and yearly fees, Mondo Tunes reaches over 750 retailers and mobile partners in over 100 world regions without any monthly or yearly fees. Mondo Tunes has the resources and network infrastructure needed to seamlessly distribute music, video and mobile products. What makes JMD Distribution unique is their unmatched ability to provide the largest global digital distribution in conjunction with a comprehensive world-wide online marketing campaign to maximize artists hype and exposure. Again with us also the guys of Tweak Music Mixing, that will mix and master one song of the winner of the Best New Unsigned Artist competition for free. Tweak Music Mixing is an online music mixing and mastering company working with unsigned artists right through to people like Super Furry Animals, Paul McCartney, Radio 1, James Taylor Qt as well as many others. Their engineers have around 40 years experience between them and they are working mixing music and mastering in the studio and over the internet every day. Professional mixing and mastering is the key to getting your music sounding its very best and with their tools and extensive knowledge they can get your music sounding ready for release, radio play or to send out as a demo to record labels. Feel free to drop them a line to let them know about your project! Here some more details about the new competition: Starting Date: February 12, 2013 Deadline: March 20, 2013 Cost: Free (Direct link to register - http://weloveyoursongs.com/registration) Prizes: - A T-RackS CS Grand mastering package (worth $470) and an AmpliTube 3 guitar amp and effects modelling package (worth $250), offered by IK Multimedia. - A Press Kit Creation package (worth $299), which includes a bio, one sheet, promotional postcard, testimonial page and brand statement creation. - A free custom Android app for one year (worth $260) as well as a free Premium HTML5 Mobile Web App for life offered by MobBase. - The free distribution, by Mondo Tunes, of 10 songs for the winner of the Best New Unsigned Artist competition, as well as 6 songs distributed, again for free, for the 2nd and 3rd ranked. - And last but not least, for the first ranked one song mixed and mastered for free by Tweak Music Mixing. Other prizes will be added during the upcoming weeks! How to Win: Be an unsigned artist part of our community on WeLoveYourSongs.com Upload some of your best music Encourage your fans to go vote for you! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/203 Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:20:17 BST Meet Sarah Solovay, an unsigned artist from New York who has been playing guitar since she was 6 years old! Sarah told us all about her connecting with Music and how living in the Big Apple has been so inspirational to her. This is our new blog section were we want to put you all out there and give you the opportunity to tell your story. Stay tuned for more interviews following this one and enjoy! 1. Hi Sarah! Can you tell us a little about you and why have you started to play music? I started playing guitar when I was six and writing songs when I was nine. I was lucky because I grew up in New York, so music was all around me, and there were tons of opportunities for me to perform and meet other artists. I cant imagine life without music these days. 2. How has the place you live influenced you and your music? Growing up in New York, I got to meet so many incredible musicians and see so many incredible performances. Every last song I heard and concert I saw inspired me to improve my own writing and performing. 3. What equipment do you use to produce your music? Whenever I write a new song, I record a live take into Garageband using the microphone thats already installed in my computer. Thats just about as complex as my equipment gets. 4. Who are your influences? I grew up listening to Tom Petty, Jackson Browne and a lot of The Stones. I also listen to a lot of the more songwriter-y Top 40 (Ed Sheeran, Adele, etc.). Those are most of my music influences. 5. How do you think you differ from other artists? I like to think Im more of a blend of different styles than other artists are. Theres definitely a lot of pop in my sound, but I think theres also some rock, some singer-songwriter-y acoustic, and sometimes even a hint of hip hop. Ive definitely been trying to shake up my writing a little more these days, so hopefully that will make sense when you guys hear some of my newer stuff. 6. What advice could you give to emerging artists wanting to do something in a similar style? Write as much and as often as humanly possible, and enjoy the process. Im never happier than when Im writing. I wish there were more hours in the day for it! 7. How did you find out aboutweloveyoursongs.com? Actually, my mom stumbled on it while reading a tech blog and sent the link to me. She keeps me current. 8. Plans for the future? I want to finish up the next three years of college, and while I do that, I want to write, record, and perform as much as possible. I also want to meet a lot of other musicians. Luckily, theres no dearth of them where I am now. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/202 Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:05:27 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/1725/Dolla+Sign This is a hip-hop/rap, rap/rb, acoustic rock, other artist. Say that out loud and tell me just how ridiculous it sounds. I suppose if you want to reach out to more people though, you connect with more genres. Usually you show your face in the picture as well though. Kirshorn Gorson was born and raised in the Caribbean/Dominica, and tells us hes an Aries. Why, hello 90s. He mixes his born accent with the African to make it sound real. Michael Jackson is his role model so at least we know theres some good taste there. He points out some popular rap artists as well as influences, but says he listens to everything, though this is the genre he does, despite loving them all. So lets see how the site is connected throughout social media. The Facebook link goes to this guys personal page (Tha IslandBoy is what he goes by there), with a cover photo with pot. For Twitter, we get a does not exist page. The website leads to his YouTube page, which Im not terribly moved to take a look through. Break-Up Song is first. All right, all right, my co-worker and I are tapping our feet to the beat. Nice little throwback sound. Too much echo. Not the rap sound I expected is this guy like 12? Ooh, maybe that wasnt him it may have been a guest artist, Kid Wonder. An equally unknown artist named Colety joins in for Whats It Gonna Be. Lots of auto tune going on here have I mentioned how much I hate computers sometimes? Anywhos, hes trying to get the girl back and wants to know what he has to do to make that happen. Sweet sentiments, at least. Why (cuz dem ahterz blind) starts off with a little blurb about how guys who gets killed probably deserved it so dont be a snitch. Yeah, this makes me want to listen to the rest of this. Okay, okay, giving it a fair chance after all, I cant be biased on just music I like to hear gotta give everyone and everything a chance. Musically though, its not fantastic. I appreciate the attention to even beats, though the use of the same sounds the entire time, especially when off of a hard drive, not a mind for real, is tough to sit through. At least theres effort in this one though! Oh I should have seen the gun shots coming for G-Trigger Squeeze. At least there are fun accents to listen to in this one. However, hearing it all alone in my little NYC apartment is maybe freaking me out a little bit. Nuh fraid of dem is the last song and digs further into that island vocal sound, though I can understand less and less of the wording. Somehow, thats all right though. Clearly, Im not a big fan of the music itself. However, I always must give credit where credits due, and this young man has at least put up a page with material and a personal introduction. Regardless as to how his music actually sounds, I completely respect his effort to at least put it out there. Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews, including full-album listen-thrus, on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/201 Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:27:39 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/1885/The+Empty+Pockets Chicago-based The Empty Pockets come to us with a Brooklyn look, boasting of indie rock and rock/pop music. They call themselves quirky and charismatic, with music containing (and I just had to quote because the words chosen are so catchy): unrelenting hooks, honest lyrics, and carefully crafted songwriting. Its hard to wrap your head about a hipster-looking band putting in a lot of craft and honesty to their music, but here we are. Amazingly enough, they do have a list of accolades already under their belts: SXSW appearances, joining Jennifer Hudson at the House of Blues, and two singles on the Hot 100 chart. My confusion now lies in questions of my own ignorance where have these folks been and why havent we noticed them yet? The other links? Well, Facebook just takes us to Facebook. They do have a Twitter, which seems to be up to date and very personable with whomever out there may be reading it. MySpace works, but the bands name is Josh And The Empty Pockets instead of just the back half. And you can only get on their site by entering your email address (they ask you to confirm your newsletter signup via email so I guess its not that bad). Also, it looks like they opened for George Lopez on tour! Fall Right Now is the first song offered. This is stuff I would have totally fallen for in high school. Not that I dont like it now but the sound is just juvenile enough (probably due to recording style completely stripped back) for a 15-year-old me to be rocking out to while getting ready for school. Can I just put this out there that, based on the picture, I wasnt expecting a male lead voice? Sort of a cool style though. This one, I Dont Wanna Know, is very cute in a cool way. It starts with a 20s piano-bar style sound, and moves on to a sweet jazz-like sound throughout. The themes pretty great too, and the use of saxophone is for sure something I havent heard since a big band album I reviews months ago. Stylish! Beautiful to Me is shy boy admitting thoughts on pretty girl, and I dont care if thats incredibly grammatically incorrect. He seems to get a little more confident, as he should, throughout. Also, the piano backing brings something totally unique and lovely to this sound. All right, theres the female voice and the moment the crowd goes whoa, she can sing! Let Go plays to me like a back-and-forth duet and the story is sweet. The music is gentle enough to loose your emotions in and appreciate whats going on. I dont have too many words for this one, just that its enjoyable in a totally different way than the rest. Baby Its Cold Outside/Baby Please Come Home is, indeed, a Christmas mash-up. Its a cute little jazz-pop approach to the two songs and needs to be on more compilation CDs/playlists for the month of December. What an awesome approach to these two classics! While I still dont know who these folks are at all let alone the songs that were hits on the charts I really loved this! They live up to every description theyve given themselves and then some. Really, an enjoyable experience that I may just come back for more of! Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews, including full-album listen-thrus, on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/199 Mon, 28 Jan 2013 11:29:58 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/2042/The+New+Root Today were getting back into things for the new year with alternative Bristol-based band, The New Root. Their debut album, Talk is Ending, came out in 2010 and as of the writing of their bio for WLYS, a new two-track single was released and available as a few download on their site. Granted, their latest event posted on this site was in 2011. They also include a couple of positive critical quotes and a general described as exciting and distinctive. Good news though: the band is still at work. They last posted on both Twitter and Facebook on Christmas, They have a fairly decent amount of listeners on LastFM. MySpace is a little bit of everything. And their website huh. Its really cool! I think theyve seriously done everything right here: its simple enough on the mind, but has all the information we need. Also, their pictures are great natural and live. Good looking group of rockers here! So, the music. Here we go. Same/Different is up first. The music is fantastic right off the bat, just classic fantastic rock. The vocals come in as just a little twisted and awkward sounding, but somehow its a sound that grows on you. Ive heard a voice like this at some point, probably in the 90s, but never to this sort of background sound. When You Wake Up is, I think, letting me pin down the sound: a mellow Maroon 5 meets Evanescence. This ones a slower number with more depth within the sound to draw you in. Theres a sadness on top of the steady beat each instrument seems to give. Again, the music starts off sounding so familiar and typical in the best way possible, then in comes that voice for American Tale. As I said, it grows on you, but I do have to admit this voice makes it hard to get a song stuck in your head or really fall for one as a new favorite. Breathe Slow does that right at the beginning in every way, and then strays away from it the rest of the song with a picking dance beat provided by the guitars. This song is so completely disorienting, and I think its my favorite by far. The final song we get here is In A Wave (Somethings Coming). After four songs with a complete alto range, this is weird as shes much more in the middle of the spectrum. I dont hate it though! In fact, by the end, its easy to find yourself caught up in the sound and ready for more. So strange, but sort of right and good at the same time. This is certainly everything the critics say, and then some. This band is certainly deserving of your time and attention if youve got it to spare, so give The New Root a shot! Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews, including full-album listen-thrus, on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/198 Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:26:48 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/2225/Don+Haddock Its been quite some time since Ive come across a country artist on this site, and Don Haddock is amongst the most active in any genre. This is an American songwriter from San Diego, California whos been playing since the age of 15. Though he took some time off to pursue a professional baseball career, he came back to music through bluegrass. Eventually, he wound up in Orange County for work and raised his family there. This is about when he transferred over to straight-up country music, playing Honky Tonks around Southern California for eight years. After many accolades, a first album was finally released (Heartaches and Honky Tonks), then a second (Time Will Tell). While the music is from 2011 and before, Im still excited to see what Don has to offer up here on WLYS! The Heartaches On You is first up. The recording is super simple and old school, right down to the up-close microphone technique. The music is the old school country I hear a lot of folks say that they miss in the genre, so theres certainly an audience out there for it. Next up is Tulleys On A Plane. Talk about Honky Tonk. I have to say, in todays Nashville, itd be pretty hard to see any of this, but obviously hes been able to make a somewhat career out of playing these things. Certainly cant complain. You know a songs going to be entertaining somehow when its titled Yodeling Old Hobo. Now, I dont love the I cant tell if its an echo reverb effect or harmonies, but Im pretty sure thats just one voice. Either way, the vocals dont need all that extra stuff. Music like this can stay raw and stand on its own. Rain, Keep Coming Down slows things down just a bit. This could be really good if its done right. Lyrically, its just a simple song from the heart, seemingly thought up almost on the fly. It feels like he really is just sitting on the porch thinking this out to himself. I cant say that the string section in the background (which I think it straight off of a computer) is entirely fitting, but somehow its not bothersome enough to hate. Id even venture to say theres more heart brought into the song. Final song we get here is Stand Back, which has a player piano as the primary instrument at the get-go. Pretty sweet rockin little beat to get the crowd into it, and I can almost taste the line dance going on out there on the floor. Overall, great good times. All right Don, not a bad job at all. I mean, you certainly know how to show the crowd a good time, and keep at that music. Hopefully, if I ever make it back out west, I can catch this music live with a good dance leader seems like you can make the whole bar into country fans! Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/197 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 12:17:01 BST WeLoveYourSongsPage: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/214/cigarRATS No info in the bio section! LastFM link goes to a page with ooh, pictures and a quick blurb about them being a Russian quartet of slobs, combining brit-pop with American garage rock. Hm. MySpace gives a more cleaned-up version of about the same general bio. Guys, wheres your WLYS info?? Different Lands has an awesome guitar lead-in. Crossing fingers for good voices as well Oh sweet lord, its actually a decent sounding guy! The songs pretty good and at the very least has me sticking around for more (even if I, yah know, didnt always stick around for more). Oh theres the garage rock they spoke of. When My Dogs Can Fly is an interesting enough title to walk in to. Theres harmonies and echoes involved throughout, and a kind of cool song structure overall. Im hoping it was just my volume level, but I couldnt pick up very many of the words. Not bad though, at least this had a beat to get into just a bit. While I, of course, have no idea whats going on in In Your Bag, or the actual point of the song itself, I like it. Theres a hint of Nirvana in there thats totally great to hear. I guess this is the combo sound they were talking about on their other sites. Good stuff! Yeah, a short and sweet one. This is what happens with no info a few songs, but I feel hope in the case. These guy may even be worth a post-review track down for more info and music, and that extra thought of effort is saying a lot. Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews, including full-album listen-thrus, on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/196 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:42:10 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/2277/Eklecktic+Storm EKS, as her bio calls her, is listed as (deep breath): singer/songwriter, pop, acoustic rock, alternative. Shes from Brisbane, and has the vocal echoes of Suzanne Vega. I honestly cant say I know what that means though. Anywhos, her music is described simply as refreshing and powerful and apparently well be impacted. Good to know, and just intriguing enough to prompt a listen. Facebook works, and seems relatively new but up-to-date. Twitter works and is used once every few weeks, mostly to advertise music liked, but a few new songs posted as well. MySpace is up and working, and I think I caught a start date of just this year. Her primary website listed is her Reverb Nation page. Musically, we start with Love To Hate. Very computerized piano sound, but joined in quickly by a simple Jewel/Robyn voice. Theres some interesting effort in there. While the voice is sort of flat and tough to hear (as are most that are laid in with computerized music), the effort in songwriting it there. Choices starts off with a guitar instead, sounding much more like an in-studio recording. Again, vocally, there could be some training done to make it so much better. Lyrically though, EKS seems to have something special to share with us. She does, as her bio describes, seem to have the ability to connect with the listener through generally real-life situations and words. There are few moments I wish I could work with an artist from a producers standpoint, but Hold Me Back has me itching for it just a little bit. I feel like with some heavier instruments and better pacing, along with good in-studio work, this song could be really incredible. Shes got the makings of some greatness going for her here. Trouble is where things finally pick up, and I really enjoy it until things start to drag out in what I can only imagine is meant to be some dramatic attempt at a bridge or ending of the song. Eh, it was a bridge. Again, more instruments might make this, but and Im trying to just take it for what it is the songs got chops. Think Alanis without quite so much anger. Its just enough of an empowerment and reality-filled sentiment to be quite a good chick song. Final song time! Take A Look At Me Now isnt just a Mariah Carey song its also an EKS (man thats easier to type than the full name) basement recording! So, she plays a little with echoes, and does a little rhythm change throughout. I can appreciate the fun in that. I just dont appreciate the final product enough to be left with a good taste for the artist. Strange feeling too, because the sentiment of the song seems to be one that should really stick onto my heart. I feel at odds with EKS. I dont want to like her music, but I have a desire to enjoy it. Theres potential, which I dont hear very often since I spend so much time listening to more polished work. I like that shes trying, and hope she keeps going. Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews, including full-album listen-thrus, on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/195 Thu, 27 Dec 2012 13:57:23 BST We at WeLoveYourSongs wish you all unsigned artists and music supporters a Merry Christmas and a very happy new year. Enjoy the time with your family and friends to get inspired to start 2013 with new lyrics and chords. We are looking forward to start hearing more from all of you and cant wait to share with you some surprises we are working on for the new year! Also, because it is Christmas and because you guys are our cause, we would like to ask you 2 minutes to answer our survey regarding WeLoveYourSongs. It will surely help us to help you. Have a great time everyone. Share love, peace and music with the world The WeLoveYourSongs Crew http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/194 Mon, 24 Dec 2012 12:09:02 BST We Love Your Songs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/782/LAST+HARVEST Well, this wont take long. Last Harvest has no info on their page, and no additional links to try to find out more. Maybe their approach is the just get one song out there that folks will love. Maybe thats all they want. Well, well listen to the one then. You Left Me is the one song we get. Slow guitar lead in, steady pace to start. Vocals take a while to come in (I assumed this was just a jam band after a while), and theyre a little reminiscent of the Phish sound. This does seem like it was recorded in a basement, which I can appreciate for an indie band. Its almost refreshing to not hear an over-produced piece. While the vocals are off tone-wise, theyve got the steady starts of something here. Okay, so that one song doesnt have me hooked. In fact, Ill probably forget about this band entirely once I save and send this review. So I suppose this is one for the what not to do column of examples. While I admire them for getting a page up, if they are still trying to do something with their band, some effort should be paid to all outlets. You never know when some random little blogger may try to help you out with some exposure! Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/193 Fri, 21 Dec 2012 16:01:47 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/2671/Akcay+Karaazmak Akcay Karaazmak calls himself alternative / alternrock, and hails from Istanbul a place I believe we have yet to travel in these posts! He is 33 years old, and figured out that he liked music at an early age. As a teenager, he picked up a guitar and knew it was for him, eventually also adding drums to his repertoire. He even had a band in his early twenties called Asaradel. The first album Akcay put out (it does not specify if this was the whole band or just him) was sold in more than ten countries, and four albums later he started also going after his masters in computer engineering in London. Ah, and here is where the electronics come in to play he began using these technological skills to experiment with trance music as well. After England, he moved on to Russia, making sure to make stops throughout Europe along the way. Now back in his native Turkey, hes finally reaching [his] peak musically. Based on his extensive bio on his WLYS page (kudos there friend) he basically does what he wants, when he wants now. He also runs a game development studio and directs his own animation VFX studio on the side. Whew, thats a lot of background. So much so that I, for once, feel no need to see if his other page links work! (This is a good thing.) Hey You is first up, song-wise. From the opening chords, I might be in love with this song and style. Its pop with the touch of rock that makes my favorite artists so good. The vocals come in and they are shakey. The whole songs also not well balanced. The next one starts off much like a Lifehouse song. Fake Smile is weird. Im all for Tim Burton weird and twisted, but this is just too much. This is like creepy clown in a haunted hour weird. Bent metal never made an appealing sound to my ears, and Im sure nobody out there disagrees. Smiling Lights, Black Kisses shows some minor potential, I think I hope. Theres almost something worthwhile there. Again, balancing issues, which could have probably been fixed in production, but werent. Three down, two to go. Deep breaths. Damn it, this all seemed to be going so well. Fall Of The Drama Queen at least provides one of the more interesting titles Ive heard as of late. I like the edge of the voice, just not the style for some reason. Its like theres a mistake in tuning somewhere down the line. Paranoid Star is the final song, and apparently the title track of the album these all came from. It was okay. Its all just okay. So, great set up, not a fantastic finale music-wise. I dont want to listen to this guy again, but I like his story and respect his interests. Maybe hes spread too thin and into too many things, or maybe my ears are off. Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/192 Tue, 18 Dec 2012 14:49:36 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/5773/SEN In the electronic category this week, we get pop/rock, pop, electro artist SEN. Whats up with the all-caps names lately? Anywhos. SEN is from Venezuela. Ooh, exotic. Hes apparently been played all over Latin-American media, and has even reached #1 on various charts. Were in for a pop romantic style with a blend influenced by rock, flamenco, electronic, and ethnic world beats. I believe that was the first, and this is the second, time in my life Ive ever typed flamenco. His background in singing goes back to seven years old with piano and singing, and adding guitar at 15 with a high school rack band. AND his bio comes in Spanish as well. All right folks, we officially, finally, have an example of a good artist page bio! Only issue may be that hes signed, but thats why hes a grab bag artist. Okay, so Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LastFM all work! And he has his own fully running site too! This is excited. Theres even a uniform look to each site he has. Someones working on this marketing for sure. Imagen is the first song we get on this page, though Im hesitant to say song. Sadly, we only get to here a few brief seconds of great guitar pop sounds and Spanish lyrics. Its got a melt-your-heart way about it somehow though. The next is also just a snippet. This time its Si Tu Supieras which is a far more rockin little sound. For a nice change, I cant tell if a single bit of this is from a computer. It sounds extremely clean, which screams production added, but at least it doesnt seem to completely say apple loop. Morena has that flamenco (three times!) sound I was waiting to hear. This ones more along the lines of Spanish dance music that I would have expected, really holding the ability to get those hips moving. Finally, theres Si Tu Supieras Remix. I guess this is where the electronic side of things come in? Oddly enough though, it all still works in what comes across to me as a completely different song. The sound is great, and the blend is fantastic. I want to hear more of this! All right, so another really great one in SEN. Im loving this streak of good music were on here, folks. Sadly, there are no full songs which would be my one bit of advice. At least give us one to hear all the way through, then the other three snippets to keep drawing us in. Im already loosing the amazing, colorful SEN sounds in my head because the lack of playing time! Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/191 Fri, 14 Dec 2012 14:48:35 BST WeLoveYourSongs Page: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/3698/PUNCH Today we have Punch, three guys hailing from Pasadena (California). Theyve been playing for over thirty years and have just released their first album, Punch 2.0. John, Raul, and new-comer Andrew make up the line-up. And, well, thats about all were going to get from this page! Funny thing is that this is one of WLYSs most active artists. The other links? Twitter doesnt work. MySpace is very plain and typical. TuneCore (?) is their main site base with about the same artist profile as we get on WLYS. So, the music. First is So Glad, a pretty hard rockin, slower side jam. It drags on a bit, sitting at a higher number of minutes than I think Im prone to handle for unknown music, but its not bad. Hard to keep track of whats happening throughout. Why has me wishing I could pump the speakers up a lot louder. While I dont know what is going on in the words, I could seriously care less. This is just a good loud rock song and thats about all I require in some moments. Ah, okay, finally catching some of the lyrics, which are pretty damn simple about love. Overall, an effortless song to hear, perfect for awesome highway driving. Nice hard drum opening for If I Were You. Solid, classic rock sound here. Continuing the standard set by the first two songs. Again, nothing stand-out-ish, but a decent addition to any old rock list. Itd blend in well. Bluebird isnt what I expected. By this, I mean I thought we were about to get the rock ballad amidst the harder songs. Instead, this is a slightly softer song I can hear all of the words. Its more Bush than the metal-esq songs provided before, making it a much more marketable song in mainstream. Final song seems to make for a nice closer. The tones a little lighter in the vocals for Hurry Up and the theme seems to be about living it up. Same general rock beat as before, making this a band that knows where it does well and stays in its bubble. Overall, I like Punch. Theyve got a decent sound and some will to work. Id probably consider them again sometime, if for nothing more than to extend a rock playlist a little longer in timing. Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews, on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/190 Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:22:03 BST Heatherlyn is amongst the top active artists on WLYS. She keeps up her profile with new songs and tour dates, realizing there are fans out there who want to know whats up! This girl gives us a one paragraph bio introduction. Shes got a Soul ~ Roots ~ Rock vibe and hails from Minneapolis, MN. Shes one a few awards, notably (in my mind) a 2012 Midwest Peoples Choice of NPRs Mountain Stage New Song Performance Contest. Her bio boasts of honesty and soulfulness and promises that folks can relate and understand her, no matter where they come from in life. In concert, shes said to take us on a journey, really connecting with the audience on many different levels. This is the beautiful story of a truly musical hippie chick. The Facebook and website links dont work, but you can follow her on twitter like I did, @heatherlynmusic. The event on there is from 2011, so Im curious as to how active Heatherlyn really is, but well ignore that over-site for the moment. Music time! Shes got five songs up, which is sort of the most exciting part of the page. The first one is When I Dream, a light acoustic number. Shes got this awesome soulful, just-deep-enough voice to accompany the rest. The songs so simple, and reminds me of Marthe Bryne, who could use music to say more with so little. This is really very well done and enjoyable. Wayfaring Stranger has a little effect on the guitar, some reverb, to make it just slightly like a California beach guitar wail. That idea at least works in my head as a way to connect to the title of the song itself. As the song picks up, you can feel the sway of it rocking on down the road. Shes got rhythm as well as soul, not only relying on deep belts to make her point musically. This one shows a new, cool side to Heatherlyn, and I dig her choices here so far. Next one up takes the effect off the guitar. Home With You Continues is like something directly out of Dawsons Creek (thats a compliment). And aw, its a love song. Its sweet, beautiful, and meaningful. This is probably my favorite type of song ever. Jack Riddle kicks off with a little fun strumming, and I think were getting a story about this guy Jack, sitting and watching. At the get-go, I dont know how this onell play out, but I like the idea in observation. I like the simplicity that these lyrics sort of boil down to layers make it all seem so nuts, but this is life at the end of the day, and its what weve got going for us. Final song on the page is Put On Your Climbing Shoes. Rocking little intro for this one, just giving a little more grit and roll to the song. I dont know if I zoned, or if Im just tired, but I dont get this one for some reason. I mean, I could make up my own reasoning behind the lyrics, but lets be happy with a good beat to round out the set. I really like Heatherlyn! She keeps up a good page with a great offering of music for us, and this is the first time in a while Ive really considered coming back to a page after a review to see if they have more to offer down the line. For sure, a really good time. Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/189 Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:09:35 BST To start, a Writers Note: So Im taking a bit of a new way about this whole artist review thing were doing together on We Love Your Songs. See, the point of the site is to give exposure to unsigned bands and artists out there in a really fantastic way. The contests are amazing, and some of yall work incredibly hard to get us good material. You work has totally been noticed, and therefore, the site and writers like me want to give those who work hard for it some exposure. That being said, there are also bands out there that may be struggling to get anything up at all, and use this site as just the smallest platform to get something started. I have the utmost respect for both sides of this spectrum, and therefore will now be covering TWO artists a week from here on out. The first artist selection will be from a list of the top 500 active artists out there on WLYS, giving further exposure and serving as a reward for keeping up the tremendous work and contributions to independent music. The second artist selection (the Grab Bag Artist Reviews) will still come from my random searches through the genres, going with whoever may pop up first. I want to keep doing this as well as an encouragement for artists to put something up on their pages and keep working at their music. Ive already heard from a couple of bands that Ive written about in this manner, who realize there is someone out there listening, and wants them to keep going. ALL RIGHT! Now, back to the music! Kenny Ward is what Im going to call a grab bag artist, because hes not on the top 500 list, and it was by chance that his page came up at the top of the list under other this week. He doesnt have anything on the bio portion of the page, and little else to speak of. Love the picture though, right off the bat. Intense, black and white, and seems to be a good looking guy from this looking-away shot. Okay, not a bad start, despite the fact that were going to know absolutely nothing about him. The basics tell us hes a pop artist from all over CT, which I can only guess is Connecticut, but Im slightly ethnocentric. In an exciting note, his Facebook is much more up-to-date, with a posting about upcoming shows just a few days ago! Thats exciting! Kenny, get back on WLYS and get us updated!! I mostly say this because I am trying to review mainly off the WLYS page, but Facebook is terribly tempting and up-to-date. The MySpace is the same way, having new music up just earlier this month! Oh man, it hurts to hit that x. Oh, and I was right about the Connecticut thing. The twitter link doesnt work. Neither does the website button. Boo. The song we get on the page is Alone. Its very raw, very clearly done in a simple way. Sounds like theres just a drum set, maybe a shaker, and a little bit of bass. The vocals are interesting, with a computerized effect laid into them hear and there. I have to give credit to this site they really accept anyone with anything to offer. What Kenny brings up is a stripped down, yet computer generated pop song, utilizing elements that are pretty typical to everything big hits are about right now. Best thing I get here is the feeling that hes fun live. And if he updated this page with shows, I would know where I could see if hes as fun as I think! Comments, questions, suggestions? EMAIL ME! I will reply! jh@weloveyoursongs.com Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebley.com. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/188 Tue, 04 Dec 2012 11:38:40 BST Taking a ride into Christina Hip-Hop/Rap with Wayne this week! So lets start by checking out his page, of course. Wayne has a very simple paragraph talking about how he strayed from Christ and has come back to him now praising through music. Granted, Id love to know more details right then and there, but he gives a reason for his music, which is actually pretty rare to read. And he looks like a nice guy, eh? Theres also an old gig date, which would have been awesome to see before it happened, since its nearby, and Wayne was in his home state of Jersey! Yeah Jersey boy!! See, now I like you. The other links on the page are polar opposites. The Twitter page doesnt work. The website, however, brings you to his ministries site, chock full of info on the guy and the mission they are on. Id love to spend more time there getting to know him, but these write-ups are on what an artist can bring to their promotional package on WeLoveYourSongs.com. Reach is our one song on this page, sadly. Please artists, give a variety and a few songs. When you only post one, you lessen the chance of someone finding their new favorite song, or at least something that gets stuck in their head. I guess you risk in hopes of the reward though. This particular song is good, though I could do without the high-pitched ringing throughout. A lot of the story here is just about his need for God in his life. Its not a hard concept to grasp, and Waynes got a steady, clear way about his rap. Thought I dont feel like I know any more about Wayne than when I started, and he hasnt left too much of an impact, theres something about him that leaves me just saying all right man, youre okay. Hed make a good buddy, maybe even the kind youd be cool with hanging out at the church picnic with after his set that morning. Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebley.com. here. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/187 Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:15:54 BST This week we head back into indie music with the alternative London-based band, The Fraziers. This is the first page on this site in quite a while where it looks like someone actually took the time to write a biography up, so well actually know something about this band. They are a four-piece set, enfusing sexy power vocals with catchy guitar riffs, groovy bass, and punchy drum beats. To top it all off, this will apparently show us a mix of avant-garde and retro, something I wasnt entirely sure was possible. Theyve got one EP under their belts, and another one already in the making. With a background in the industry that seems to really cover every aspect along the recorded and live streams, they have an understanding of things it seems, that some other acts here have been lacking. Theres a link to an event on their page from months back, but Im at least left with hope that something else may pop up on there eventually. Their Facebook page is a little more up to date, with a few hundred followers and a gig as recently as August. The MySpace is much more polished, more songs to listen to. Twitter, sadly, hasnt been posted to since January. Their website link goes right to the Facebook page again. Now, the important this: the music. One song is there. ONE. Ugh, come on. Whatever is the only song were going to get to hear on this site. Pretty normal, great rockin beat to start. Oh sick, a female lead voice always a fan of a chick that can bring it to the mic. Theres some border-line whining moments, but overall the songs pretty great. Its reminiscent of some good punk stuff, but polished and oddly that works. I dig the little bit Im hearing. This bands got some great chops to be playing the London music scene, and I do hope theyre making it work out there. If I ever manage to make it across the pond, I think this is on the must-see list of shows (provided I can find an updated gig list) This article was written by Janelle Hawkes. Read more reviews on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebly.com. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/186 Wed, 21 Nov 2012 21:08:08 BST Rally in Stockholm, Sweden, in support of file sharing and software piracy. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Many a decade ago, scholars would claim that true freedom of speech, especially on controversial subjects, is difficult or impossible unless individuals can speak anonymously. In June of 1999, Napster was released and It is generally credited as being the first peer-to-peer file sharing system. The digital pirate had come of age and would only get better as technology allowed the scope of what was possible to venture beyond the wildest of imaginations. So we all think of pirates as roughly groomed individuals who parade across the unchartered seas in search of treasure, or, as we found out last week; binary-data pilfering, thick glass wearing, sunshine deprived, zit having mortals. WeLoveYourSongs are on a quest to help you see both sides of the dark arts of piracy and in this issue we explore how they can be a useful arsenal in your strategy to dominate the world with your sound. It is easy to misunderstand file-sharing as theft but the belief is that sharing music is what music is made for. Some major artists have released their music on these channels and the results have been tremendous. It is now a little known fact that with the right amount of planning, good results can be had and recognition not to mention credibility, increased. Below, I will look at 5 steps that ought to be at the heart of a pirate who wants to take over the world using their music. 1) Must use p2p / I2p networks and our favorites just to name a few are Freenet - GNUnet - I2P - StealthNet - Onewarm StegoShare. They have very big ecosystems which account for a large proportion of online traffic, ergo a very healthy target. The Pirate Bay, Torrent Freak, Demonoid, IsoHunt and very many others are dependent on these networks for the survival of their communities. By releasing your music through official channels on these networks you are seen as contributing to their survival and could become a cult hit with a record. 2) Social networking sites are a necessity to connect with and grow a fan base and this article makes the assumption that you have established your act on the various websites available. Always remember to keep things interesting by sharing hidden treasures like behind the scene material, undercover photos of band mates and some kind of exclusive content for example. You can use these platforms to tell your fans how they can get your music and videos for free. WeLoveYourSongs.com, official Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, Youtube channels, Google plus profiles and Myspace.com come highly recommended. Remember that every pirate needs their own ship so all of this effort would be useless if it was not supplemented by your own band name branded website. 3) As a novice pirate it is very possible that the budget for your band is such that you are broke and cannot afford as much as you would like to afford to progress. The beauty of piracy is that things like advertising and marketing come almost free. Take time to contact the p2p networks and forums asking for a plug and if your music is convincing to the ear of the right person most are more than willing to parade you in front of their audiences. You might just be the front page of The Pirate Bay for a day. Most of these forums are frequented by writers and bloggers who are looking for positive minded acts with the talent to match, the perfect stage to show your enthusiasm. Create Press Releases that target the underground curators. Show an active support for ideals like freedom of speech and stand for something, become a pirate, sign or host a petition on your own website. 4) Struggling with your budget is a common miscarriage of justice in the music industry and as a result a number of artists have turned to spreading their music with pleas of support in terms of finance. This trend is certainly not unique to music but the online technocrats refer to it as crowd funding and there are a number of resources that can help you multiply the harvest you reap from the good music you make and our favourites include Sellaband, Pledge Music, Artistshare and Kickstarter. The idea that drives these websites is how fans or even investors who wish your band well can collectively pool money together to get you touring an otherwise inaccessible place like Russia or Kazakhstan. They can also pull together funds to help meet a number of other costs such as music videos and marketing. 5) Apart from having your own website which is the single greatest online presence of your band, remember to give away your music for free. In other issues we will explore how you can get your music on platforms such as Spotify, Rhapsody, Rdio and Pure Music. Show on your website how users can find your music on these services but understandably it is not so easy to have your catalog on all these services, and where this is the case then you must try services such as Last.Fm, Soundcloud and Bandcamp. Always be on the lookout for growing communities around the niches of your music which allow you to stream your music to the ears of the unknown. Now good luck and remember the rum is not going to drink itself. Article written by Shingirai Kaserera. You can follow him at @sugaspott http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/185 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 07:23:07 BST After not having electricity all of last week, every time I see anything remotely close to this, I have to go: Its electric! Boogie woogie woogie. Thats right folks, were heading back in to electronic music this week. Taking a look at the WLYS page first, we learn that this is a DJ and Producer from Russia, though one whos in the Russian and European scenes. His picture is also more like a Facebook profile pic than a promo pic, or even an album cover, but maybe Im wrong. This artist is all about experimentation and being different. Theres not necessarily going to be a direction with this music, so I shouldnt be hoping for some consistency I suppose. Other sites listed: Facebook works! But is called Oleg Karpov. Twitter: broken link. Website: odd, but works, and includes MUCH more music. MySpace: just takes you to the MySpace homepage. Last FM: about the same as WLYS. One song to judge them all here we go with Lets Go To Night. Of course the moment that I actually want to listen, my computer goes glitch-y and completely in and out throughout the song. When it does finally buffer, we get something with a touch of trance, and just enough of a beat to feel within. There are clicks and weird clatters throughout, but its not bad at all. Actually, I could see this as awesome backing music to a commercial, or maybe even an odd enough movie. Ill have to keep this in mind for future supervision projects. Overall, I am left wanting more. But what we got was a quick glimpse into someone who seems to have his own mind and, thus, sound. Id like to hear more, and thats saying a lot for a 15-minute quick glimpse into an artist. First impressions matter folks! Article written by Janelle Hawkes. Check out other album reviews at Janelles site, http://hawkeears.weebly.com . http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/184 Fri, 16 Nov 2012 07:17:57 BST Gone are the days of swashbuckling, buccaneering, bloodthirsty, plundering and nonsensical looting. It is instead, the dawn of the day of 4G networks and superfast here and now internets webbed together not by venomous arachnids but the assembly of devices that tout data and information seamlessly from our fingertips to the doorstep of the global village, gangnam style. Pirates have quite clearly evolved over the years and if you are a budding talented creat-a-thing then look away now because you will soon realise how easy it is for your hard work to quite literally walk the plank. The folks here at WeLoveYourSongs have not been venturing across the seven seas in search of shiny nuggets but we have perused the www to find out whether you should really fear the threat of a pirate or embrace it. My first stop is the infamous and notorious, The Pirate Bay and Im greeted by the skull and bones insignia. Is it too late to turn back, well here goes; I am a big fan of that Batman fellow and frankly believe that as far as cinema is concerned The Dark Knight is the greatest film of our generation. It turns out that so do 20 million other unknowns. I am immediately cast in smug as my point feels made but now keen to find out how many people exactly paid to watch it in the cinema (three times I coughed up for me) and buy the dvd/blue-ray disc. A whooping 1 billion dollars at the box office, sold almost 18 million discs and punters have spent nearly 300 million dollars on those discs. That is a staggering statistic but I cant help but feel that the same sales may not have been achieved if the pirates did not have a hand in getting the word around as to how brilliant the film was. In short this is a true example of how sharing and giving out your music can make people aware of a genuinely good product. Why cant the product be your next EP or album. The nature of illegal downloading makes it extremely difficult to track its full extent, but the studys findings are fully conclusive in at least one regard; piracy remains a massive issue. It is an issue for business models and affects session musicians, accountants, executives, clerks, PR reps, lawyers and many other non-performing roles in the music industry. Surely you dont want to be responsible for job losses do you? But artists like Nelly Furtado, Ed Sheeran, Lady Gaga, Neil Young, Norah Jones and Shakira argue that gigging out and touring more than makes up for the losses that would have come from piracy. Now if such musical heavyweights who are at the core of the business models burdened with lawyers, accountants and so forth take such an approach it maybe lending common to sense that a budding musician understands this dynamic and makes it a part and parcel of their overall strategy to dominate the world with their new sound. But arent there other ways to give out free stuff and how exactly is this different. The interesting point on all piracy discussions and debates is; when, with the throng of the digital age now upon us in full measure, does one separate the difference between for arguments sake, youtube and filesharing websites. A spokesman for Google said: We continue to work closely with the industry to protect rights holders and their material. Sites with high numbers of removal notices are now more likely to appear lower in our results, weve made it easier to report pirated material and now take down more than seven million infringing links per month. It seems that Google Inc, the parent company of free video sharing site, Youtube is trying to hint that it really is not their problem what people do with their digital content available on their fingertips. After further investigation I found out that the enforcement of copyright is the responsibility of the copyright holder. If that is how the law feels then it is obvious that those with the most to lose, the lawyers accountants and so forth, have decided to share a bed with those who have the power to turn things around. Those who hold the power to revolve things. Those in whose hands lie an impending revolution. I will look at how you can use piracy to springboard your own music career in next weeks part 2. Article written by Shingirai Kaserera. You can follow him at @sugaspott http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/183 Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:43:05 BST After a few weeks off to take care of some personal stuff, I am back and ready to hear some good music! Were kicking things back off in the ROCK category, a personal favorite, with a band from right here in the good old USA. Lets start off by getting to know the band. Just from their WLYS page, they boast of touring with Hinder, Trapt, and Rev Theory all notable and really great modern rockers. Theyve got a few reviews and quotes, though its not really well organized on the screen but still, this seems like a band thats been heard. Looking at their other sites the Facebook either doesnt work or doesnt exist. Same deal with the Twitter. The MySpace does though! (See, I keep telling people that site is still useful for new music.) Theyve got four songs up on this site though, and only one on WLYS. Yeah, it awesome that theres more here, but I wish it were accessible more places. The bios also a lot more quotes from reviewers. Very cool to read good stuff, but who are you guys? This MySpace page also serves as the bands primary website. So turning to the music, we get exactly one song here: Magic Woman. Its heavy and rocking, and very much in the same vein of the bands theyve toured with. The overlapping of vocals is nothing short of trippy. The tone remains intense the entire time, never letting us have a breath of air to process whats going on, as the breathy vocals continue into the chorus. Its tough, listening to someone whisper/growl their words out. The bands one of those middle-of-the-road acts for me. They have all right music, with mediocre pages displaying it. They dont leave me wanting more, but they dont leave me regretting the experience either. Article written by Janelle Hawkes. Read more reviews, including full-album listen-thrus, on Janelles site: Ears Like A Hawke: hawkeears.weebley.com. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/182 Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:07:40 BST After last review, new personal rule: Im only writing about artists that give a darn about their pages and actually give me something to work with. I want to bring yall new artists that are really working at this thing we call music. That said, it took me six different pages to finally find BOA. This band took time to put in a bio that emphasized who they actually are and why we should care, as well as posted two songs that seem to have curried some favor. This is a pop group (in the Other category) from Gothenburg, Sweden. Things started to come together when brothers Botond and Attila Bokor grabbed guitars ona night their cousin Orsi Toro came to visit. Between the fun and good creativity flowing, it seems a band came about. Along with William Seidl on drums and Olof Gadd on bass, they are said to have their very of flair. Push is the first of the two songs, and its quite current pop. Yah know, that pop we get with a little electronic sound mixed in during production. Despite the intense picture, the music seems light and pretty sweet sounding. The way the words are wrapped throughout are interesting to an American ear, as pronunciation is a little different. As Im trying to interpret a little, it sort of sounds like a raunchy song, but maybe Im just not hearing things right. Regardless, thing 90s Natalie Imbruglia meets Foster the People, and you might get it. The other song option we get on here is Vegabond. I sort of zoned out a little because the beat was so steady and pumping. In a louder place, this would have been an incredible listen. The bass has got some intense energy and the lyrics are simple and primed for the dance floor. I really love where this is going, and am wishing I was somewhere else with far more energy for it. This band kept their page relatively simple, but gave just enough info and just a little sampling to get the idea. Theyve done what they needed to - made me want to come back for more. Article written by Janelle Hawkes. You can check out other album reviews at Janelles site, http://hawkeears.weebly.com . http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/181 Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:23:13 BST The Autumn edition of the Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist contests will start next Thursday 25th of October! The top prize will be offered this time byMobBase, awarding a free custom Android app for one year (worth $260) as well as a free Premium HTML5 Mobile WebApp for life. MobBase is a platform that makes it free and easy for bands to create, launch and manage their own, custom mobile apps. With MobBase, artists share music, photos, videos, tweets, news, information about shows, merchandise and other content with fans on iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets. and other mobile devices. More than 500 artists and record labels have launched their own MobBase apps, including Tila Tequila, Pepper, Parkway Drive, 9:30 Club, Rebelution, Jump Smokers, John McLaughlin, Iration, the Jacka, Zion I, and Paul Thorn. Mondo Tunes will offer freedistribution of 10 songs to the winners of both competitions, as well as 1 song distributed again for free forhe 2nd and 3rd ranked of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest. Mondo Tunes supplies the largest music distribution in the world and provides upstream services for many major labels in search of breakout artists. While most independent distributors reach only 45-50 retailers despite charging needless monthly and yearly fees, Mondo Tunes reaches over 750 retailers and mobile partners in over 100 world regions without any monthly or yearly fees. Mondo Tunes has the resources and network infrastructure needed to seamlessly distribute music, video and mobile products. What makes JMD Distribution unique is their unmatched ability to provide the largest global digital distribution in conjunction with a comprehensive world-wide online marketing campaign to maximize artists hype and exposure. Again with us also the guys of Tweak Music Mixing, that will mix and master one song of the winner of the Best New Unsigned Artist competition for free. Tweak Music Mixing is an online music mixing and mastering company working with unsigned artists right through to people like Super Furry Animals, Paul McCartney, Radio 1, James Taylor Qt as well as many others. Their engineers have around 40 years experience between them and they are working mixing music and mastering in the studio and over the internet every day. Professional mixing and mastering is the key to getting your music sounding its very best and with their tools and extensive knowledge they can get your music sounding ready for release, radio play or to send out as a demo to record labels. Feel free to drop them a line to let them know about your project! Here some more details about the new competitions: Starting Date: October 25, 2012 Deadline: December 18, 2012 Cost: Free (Direct link to register - http://weloveyoursongs.com/registration) Prizes: A free custom Android app for one year (worth $260) as well as a free Premium HTML5 Mobile Web App for life offered by MobBase. The free distribution of 10 songs to the winners of both competitions, as well as 1 song distributed, again for free, for the 2nd and 3rd ranked of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest, offered by Mondo Tunes. One song mixed and mastered for free for the winner of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest by Tweak Music Mixing. Other prizes will be added during the upcoming weeks! How to Win: Be an unsigned artist part of our community on WeLoveYourSongs.com Upload some of your best music Encourage your fans to go vote for you! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/180 Mon, 22 Oct 2012 15:14:37 BST Elephant 12 is a London based three piece band consist of Jerome (vocals), Robbie (guitar) and Miles (programming). We have interviewed Robbie here to better understand what there is behind their unapologetic punk rock laced with a magnetic punchy electro. Enjoy! Piotr (WLYS): First of all Id like to thanks for EP you sent me. I found it interesting, especially song called Money Talks. Its kind of a song with a message... Robbie (Elephant 12): Yeah, It got a message, this song features the singer from Asian Dub Foundation, its a guy called Lord Kimo. It has a true message and lot of power. Money and power slave people. I personally never been in this situation because I dont have much money. Money can change you. Its funny how money can dictate and change situations around. Your best friends change the attitude towards you, they are not your best friend anymore (laughter). P: But you also have lighter songs, about having fun... R: We can cover everything. We can write a song about fun like Holiday and wrote a song about Diet Coke. Some people say: Oh, you wrote a song about Diet Coke! But we are like: Are you stupid?. They ask: Its not about Coca Cola?. And our answer is: No, its not for Coca Cola, bro (Laughter). Every song got a different vibe. More less we just make people dance, were not too serious, we are like not Rage Against The Machine, we are not politically involved in anything in particular. Elephant 12 is all about fun. P: But your songs has second bottoms. As Dont Wanna Dance... R: It talks about daily reality, especially that song youve picked. So many people they waste some much time about chasing a girl and do the effort like Do you wanna do this? Do you wanna do that?. Dont Wanna Dance is a song about Lets get straight to the point (laughter) P: Its funny, but on the other hand is sad, actually... R: Even when you have a laugh, you can tell the truth at the same time. In subconscious way its always a little bit truth involved. Its like a stereotyping people. You cant stereotype everyone or a nation, but theres always a little bit of truth in a stereotype. Anyway, its all good, we all humans, its all about humanity (laughter). P: I was listening to EP and I realised that nobody before you played in this way. R: We try to create something new, we try to mix different styles and make everybody happy, play to put together different styles. Its like some of the people who like rock music may like Elephant 12, and some of the poeple who like dance music or electronic music, or rap, or pop, might like us as well. We do incorporate mainly freestyle electronic pop and rock guitars. It could also go against you, because we get a little bit music industry attention, but they say: We understand what youre doing, but they are scared to put our music out there on a big scale. They are like We cant market it! What is it? What genre is this? And our answer is: Theres no genres. Its the Ipod generation. Its not like back in the days when you had blues, or jazz, hip-hop, etc. Today people are allowed to listen whatever they like to. I am the person myself who one day want to play some reggae, and day after Im pissed off and I wanna play some Marylin Manson. And the other day Im romantic and I play Chopin. Who cares? Every day has a different soul. P: You said you like Chopin? R: Chopin is always being romantic. In my family I grow up with my sister she was a classical music teacher. When I was like 12 I was bombarded from my brother was playing rock, Santana, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and all this stuff. In the other room was my sister playing classical music, so I was bombarded by the two different worlds of music. I became like a sponge, I absorbed it. Ive approached both schools of music - both worlds. And I always like Chopin, lot of classical music, and also contemporary one. P: In Elephant 12 you do similar thing: you mix music worlds... R: Everything is mixed, the mainstream and music industry does invest only in kind of music they can make lot of money quickly out of. It does invest a little tiny percentage in something interesting, risky, something not everybody gonna understand. Nowadays so many people they are not into music much. They just want to be a part of phenomenal, part of something. So Lady Gaga is a new phenomenal. Theyve been brainwashed into that. To me Lady Gaga is not an artist, she is an entertainer. Although she might be very good in whatever she does - Im not saying shes not good or anything. In fact she can play piano very well and she is good at using the media. But they are so many artists that are like just a package, a thing, a sandwich to be eaten before the date, otherwise it goes off. The audience, listeners have been brainwashed into that. P: In Elephant 12 you want to do opposite and avoid this brainwashing mainstream? R: No. We are not trying to do anything really, we just wanna to do whatever it comes, naturally. We dont really wanna compromise, although its hard to survive. Thats why so many bands changed completely the sound on the second album, for example. Because theyve been told: If you wanna be part of this, you have to change that and that, do this and that. And your soul has been robbed. Its almost gone. Its very hard to survive. They treat you like blank paper, like a blank canvas. You cant paint whatever you want. Thats why people like Van Gogh, ended up and died poor. P: Sometime changes kill bands. R: Yeah that happens sometimes, when band tries to accommodate the industry. But they are some bands that never change in decades, they never followed any trends. Bands like Iron Maiden or AC DC they never changed their style, since day one. They are still playing the same bloody thing. Imagine when grunge came out, AC DC would sound grunge. It would kill them. Or Iron Maiden sounded like Nirvana. Same. You cant pretend to be someone that you are not. You cant bluff, because the next year is gonna be another trend or fashion youre gonna have to chase. Its good to reinvent yourself, like David Bowie did, but he still managed to be himself. He is a clever artist. He is in a position to do whatever he wants. Tomorrow he can do trade music and still be successful. He doesnt need to compromise. He is himself in any time. P: Does Elephant 12 want to do same? R: We not really the usual indie band. Lot of indie bands sound like Baby Shambles or The Libertines. So everytime people come and see us say: What the fuck! But people do react very well, dance around, they have a good time. We communicate a lot with a crowd, we like to put in a show. On our gigs people dont clap their hands just because they have to. P: I have a problem with your music. I cant compare it nothing what was before... Its like new rhythm, different timing... R: Weve been told we sound a little bit like a Rage Against The Machine. Which is true. My guitar sound is a pretty much like one of my hero - Tom Morellos. But I put my playing into a different contest. If I wanted to make a band like RATM, I could have done it, but it is pointless, because its caricature of your idol. We see lot of bands they copy of other bands. Its a big mistake that lot of artists sound like that band or the other band. You should try to take the influence, steal the sound and make it yours. Thats what artist is supposed to do. Even back in 70s lot of hard rock bands stole lots of blues, but they still make it sound fresh, they pushed it forward. Like Led Zeppelin for example. Thats the tricky part of being an artist, you can take style from Picasso, but you cant paint like Picasso. Take that and make your original stuff. P: Its about personality, not only style. R: Yeah, exactly. We dont wanna see you copying his madness. We wanna see your madness. P: I got your EP but Im in treat to get to know more music. R: We got single Turn Me Up, its a free download. We got two more singles coming up. Also we are working with two PR companies in the States, where we gonna be playing gigs/showcase next year. Were gonna re-realise our EP, do an American special edition with 3 bonus tracks. It takes lot of effort, because were financially supporting it and the money comes out of our pockets. We are pushing ourselves to breakthrough and see what happens. P: The thing I cant get out of my mind is the elephant icon. R: (Laughter) I designed that! You know its kind of influence from the 80s Space Invaders, its a spaceship upside down, and it looks like an elephant. Yeah, its our trademark. People can clock it, see the symbol and say: Oh, its Elephant 12. P: Thank you for nice conversation and maybe it will be a chance to talk on the other occasion, when your album comes out... R: Yeah, would be nice to have a full length album realised. Though we are completely independent. You never know, we might have our lucky break. We just do what we can. Maybe we gonna do an album, when we got some money to got into studio, we got lot of ideas... P: Im looking forward to that. Interview by Piotr Balkus (@PiotrBalkus). http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/179 Tue, 16 Oct 2012 14:56:01 BST This week were heading back into hip hop with an artist billed from the United States, but hailed (according to her bio) from St. Mary, Jamaica. This young ladys name is Cleo. Not too much on her artist page to speak of. The bio is only a paragraph long, bragging on her ability to represent every genre there is. I have to say, from listening experience, this is very, very difficult to both do and survive on. Unfortunately, niches are there for a reason. Theres only one song on this page. That song is Fallen High. It starts off with an eerie set of Halloween-esq notes. Seriously, the whole first 30 seconds to a minute sound like something from a Halloween/Video Game Disney Channel movie. Lines are repeated in different ways (I guess this is where we get the different genres). The rap attempt here drags and is tough to grasp onto as the rhythm and approaches change just as you start to settle into the song somehow. Eventually, things sort of start to find some sort of regularity and familiarity throughout sections, and its... well, I guess its sort of enjoyable. Its odd, but I have to say I dont entirely hate it by the time were closing out the track. Her Facebook link doesnt work. Her Twitter hasnt been updated since March. Why did I continue with this review? Well, for one, one song on a page makes for an easy, quick review, and I just got out of a 14 hour work day and really want to go to sleep, but want to make my deadline. Also though, I think its important, sometimes, to highlight pages with examples of what not to do here. This site gives an opportunity to showcase some very good artists, and their listing method is fantastic - those shown are randomly generated every time you visit the Browse Artists page, which is how I find my review artists. The best way to take advantage of this site is to make your page worth spending some time on. While I am so happy to hit the hay right now, Im not going to remember the artist that I tried to enjoy this evening. Or maybe, the real lesson here is that WLYS should take down pages that havent been updated in 6 months or so. Regardless, this was a quick, sad little review that I will try to avoid next week. Cleo, wherever you are, please update your page so I can hear and (hopefully) enjoy more!! Article written by Janelle Hawkes. You can check out other album reviews at Janelles site, http://hawkeears.weebly.com . http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/178 Mon, 08 Oct 2012 08:45:44 BST Romano, a great unsigned musician from Ukraine won the Summer edition of both Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist contests with a song called Just Fine. For those interested to know more about him you can check our his artist page here on WLYS! This is what he told us once asked if there was something he wanted to say to the people that supported him here: Dear brothers and sisters, I just wanted to express my deepest appreciation for what you did for me voting in this competition! Primarily from Ukraine, but I know that there were some close friends/fans from other amazing spots of our incredible planet! This victory gave me additional boost and motivation to continue doing what I love creating what I love and sharing it with you! Thanks to weloveyoursongs.com team for the amazing opportunity! Stay tuned for more good music! C-ya! Second position of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest was taken by Marko Maric, a very young and talented musician from Belgrade, Serbia. While Tim Byrd (recently interviewed on this blog) got the third position, arriving on the podium for the second time. Many thanks again to all the participants and the sponsors to make it happen. More details about the new competition will be announced next week! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/177 Thu, 04 Oct 2012 17:36:47 BST T.Byrd introduces us to his music and his band, The Straightjackets. Does the place where you live (California) has any influence on the music you play? I am referring to weather, people, particular mood in city where you live, etc. If so, how can you describe this influence? Not as much as the places Ive lived and people I grew up with. My uncles, aunts, radio were more of influence on the music I listened and still listen to. I was four years old when I got totally hooked on music. My Grandpa Byrd brought me Meet the Beatles. He was in the Navy, also very in Love with his music. He,being in the service, was aware of the impact the Beatles were making across the world before they 1st appeared on Ed Sullivan. Well, I wore that record out... Id listen to it almost every day, my head close to the record player speaker, singing along with it. So California is influence-less? No influence from there for you? Well, it has been too..Growing up near San Francisco, my uncle was old enough to see Hendrix, Joplin, the Doors and all that as it was happening. He played piano and I lived with him for a while at my Grandparents home in CA where I learned a lot from him. But my Mom would buy me the Beatles, Stones and other albums as they came out What is your biggest influence? Sarah Jean. She is a real person, her She inspires me. Its crazy. In the last 3 years Ive come up with 70 to 80 songs, mostly inspired by her. She lives in Florida, but I met her years ago.I should say biggest inspiration, not influence. Your music is very melodic, but in the same time very experimental. Experiments on styles, genres, jazz, pop, rock, etc. It seems like you are looking for something, crossing paths of genres. What are you looking for? It didnt hit me till I had to download my stuff to WeLoveYourSongs.com contest, when I had to pick a genre for Sarah Jean song. I never thought about it till I was asked. What would you call it? I chose rock at first, but after listening to some songs in the rock genre I had to really think about it. The first thing that came to mind was Classic Rock because that covers a wide range of different musical influences, Blues, Southern Rock, Ballads, Jazz, Funk..etc. How would you categorise Sweet City Woman by the Stampeders if youd never heard it before? But I thought to myself, How can I call it Classic rock when no ones even heard it yet? Its not classic by any means. You know what I mean. And UnClassic Rock wasnt an option! Then I got to the next song, then the next, and I had to really think about it. When I come up with an idea, the last thing Im thinking of is the genre, I just want to make sure I record it, because I know Ill forget it! I learned that from Keith Richards, in an interview he mentioned how he always keeps cheap little tape recorders/dictaphones all over the place like antennas to capture ideas, or hed forget! I started using my webcam on my laptop for that purpose.With cassettes Kurt Derita (from The Straightjackers, bass player on my submitted songs) and myself have hundreds of original ideas scattered about too many cassette tapes, it gets to be too difficult finding anything after a while... Back to the question.. I like your questions! And I was worried I wouldnt have enough to talk about for an interview... Blah, blah, blah! I love a variety of music, but If I have to pick one genre Id choose Rock and Roll .. or Classic Rock maybe. Why do you create music? Another good question! I remember listening to the Beatles as a kid and being amazed that they made up the songs and played them. It seemed like magic to me! I wondered how they did it. I wished I could learn to do it. I wrote my first songThe Brown Blue Bird. Lol, it was lousy! But I learned to play guitar and got into bands but never found satisfaction in learning other peoples songs. Keith Richards shared the greatest tip for songwriting.. He said in an interview that he keeps a tape recorder in every room to capture his inspiration! I use a webcam. If I dont record it right away, it gets lost, even if I remember the chords n arrangement. It just loses the initialfeel if It isnt captured as the inspiration hits. I write song because I love it. My goal is to write songs or just song that will be remembered forever, like the songs that never grow old to me and never will. You said: My goal is to write songs or just song that will be remembered forever. Forever like Strawberry Fields? Wow! Thats beyond remembered! (Laughter). Im thinking more of something that can be heard in years to come and still be pleasing to the ear. But, my song: Sarah Jean Blvd. would be nice too, bnow that you mention it. OK so tell me please about your band - The Straightjackets... The Straightjackets started off when I was first uploading song ideas to youtube, as a joke. YouTube was new to me and there I was uploading videos of composition recordings, which I still do. But the songs started getting some attention after taking the songs to the studio.. Ive known The Streetjackers them for years! Kurt [from the Streetjackers] and I started writing songs together in 1989. Where you record your songs? My friend Stan has a home studio. Its top of the line equipment in a room upstairs. Well, the drums and snake is all downstairs. I love it, Its four hours drive so we dont get together as often as wed like to. Where you will be in 5 years and where you music will be? Well, as people on the net started following, the name stuck. But were just doing what we can in the studio and just going from there. Still trying to find out along the way. Were lucky to get what we get done in the short amount of time. Weve actually been in the studio 5 years from now. Well have a lot more music completed. Im hoping we keep getting the new followers and get some albums out. Were getting together soon to record some new stuff. Im thankful I have these guys to work with, and how it always seems to come alive when we get together. Were just getting started and looking forward to getting our music out there to more people. Thanks for conversation. Thank you. Interview by Piotr Balkus (@PiotrBalkus). http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/176 Thu, 27 Sep 2012 21:07:46 BST One of the things, if not the thing I love most about WeLoveYourSongs is that it appreciates the changing industry. People because stars, or at least release their music, directly from their bedrooms, through their computer screens. Theres a whole new meaning brought to Independent when youre literally doing things independently. M Zelle most definitely has the at-home look to her picture, so Im interested to hear how her songs measure up. While her bio tells us she mostly does instrumental tracks, the first track available, Catch Me Down appears to be one of the exceptions, and includes lyrics. Theres parts of this that are amazing (mostly instrumentally), and parts that grind just oddly enough on the nerves. I think its just the way the vocals are mixed - the chords dont hit in any sort of pleasing way for a moment here and there. For the most part though, I sort of like this crazy mix of styles shes got going on. Change is next up, and this time we even get a note that there will be lyrics! The pano playing in is actually really nice - this sounds like something I would have created in my music tech class in college. Sure, everything sounds entirely pumped through a computer, but were all about making it work for ourselves right now, right? Oh man, this one is rough though. Its just lacking some sort of dynamic to draw us in to what does sound like a very thought-provoking song. A sweet rock riff gets us excited for Dark Horse Run. This is an awesome track in that it doesnt rely on some canned, clearly electronic sound - it takes risks with very classic rock sounds in a less-than-classic setting for them. This one also lacks lyrics, so theres something drawing us to pay attention closer here. The song still tells a story, but the forced idea of making it up yourself and really feeling the music changes the whole experience. Azure Sea starts off with this weird basement guitar-picking sound, like shes just playing around. When it goes into the real song, this has the makings of great film background music, at least for a commercial or entrance to a scene. Its different compared to the others, and just creates its own atmosphere. The last song available for listen here is Change again, but I believe this time without lyrics (hence the lack of note with the title). Its a bit better without the lyrics, but so much still seems canned and stale coming through a computer generated sound. Think a poor karaoke track. Its not the best note to end on, but is an easy reminder that there were some really great moments here. I have to say, the things this girl pulls off instrumentally and through what I would imagine is a home system are really cool. She definitely puts a ton of work in, and Id love to see what other sort of magic she can make happen with so little! Article written by Janelle Hawkes. You can check out more track-by-track album reviews at Janelles site, http://hawkeears.weebly.com . http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/175 Mon, 24 Sep 2012 15:45:25 BST Were back into Electronic this week! I started listening to Spurt before I knew who she was - mostly because its easier to get other things done while listening than researching. *sigh* I need more hours in the day, please. The quick intro is that shes a female rapper who does all of this crazy music biz on her own. Shes from... Botswana? Wow. And her genre list includes: Hip-Hop, Rap, Electronica/Dance. Crossing genres in one swoop is difficult, but always interesting. Lets see how she handles it. Life is sort of interesting at the start. It sounds like Spurt probably recorded herself once and layered herself at some different pitches to make this happen - but this is electronic after all. The rappings pretty impressive, though the chorus is a little harder to get through. Melodies are tough to get just right in rap songs, but this is a good attempt. Its a more personal song, which can only help a rapper (or at least so Ive seen). The second song is Up, complete with a very old-school beatbox. Something will always remain cool about that sound. The message itself is very clear: you either go up in life or stay down. A simple message makes for a simple to comprehend chorus - key to so many rap songs. The verses hold the story that inspired it, and the chorus is the lesson. Everyone get it? Spurt sure does. My Gift touches on that electronic side just a little bit more than the others at the start, though that just provides a backing for the rest. Note: using a computer to record doesnt make a song electronica. Just saying. These songs are rap. Thats not a bad thing mind you - shes sure as hell talented both vocally as well as in production. Anyone who can seemingly keep up with Jay-Z is pretty impressive in my mind. The only turn off here is the slightly brag about how good she is, but I also support believing in yourself, so... sure. Fourth song is up - Confusion. Yeah, its a good description. The mix is sort of weird to the ears. The noises used are a little harsh and dont meld entirely well. She keeps at it though, and oddly, I have to say that the melody of the rap is better than the rest of the support in the track. Its so odd to look forward to the verses so much throughout the chorus. Alone is the last song. Joy - distorted at the start. Come on. Okay, okay, it picks up and she gets back to doing what she does best again. If you havent seen/heard K-Flay, check out the white version of Spurt with an awesome drum backing. Spurts got some great stuff going on here though! She moves through those words like butter. Im a little over listening to every song about her (makes it hard to relate), but at least she sounds good doing it. Overall, really a cool listen. I havent heard a new female rap artist in a while, and this was a great re-intro. Spurts music is something to be proud of, and Id be interested in seeing her branch out and do more and different stuff as she develops her debut album. Article written by Janelle Hawkes. You can check out a track-by-track breakdown of this and other albums at Janelles site, http://hawkeears.weebly.com . http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/174 Fri, 14 Sep 2012 08:14:53 BST Its been approximately 15 years since I first used the world wide web, and it has been roughly the same amount of time that Ive been into music. As someone who was born in the 80s, I was at that age when the web took off and when I was just beginning to understand what music meant to me, as well as what the web might do for me. Since then, both music and the internet have changed, almost beyond recognition in many respects. Music and the internet are a big part of my life now (as they are to many millions), but creating my own music and putting it online is something that fewer have had the pleasure of doing (still, many millions have done this mind!). When I first started producing electronic sounds out of my old PC and uploaded them to the interweb, getting feedback from interested musicians all over the world inspired me to create more. I think this is one of the great things the internet has done for music. It inspires confidence to create, even for the more shy among us, as feedback and praise go a long way to encouraging the writing of your next track/song. As a musician, it has never been easier to put something together, throw it online and hussle the forums/fans for a response. In theory, this leads to the collapse of the top labels. We make our own music, our fans find it through us and buy it off our website. This is great, this is what the net is about, right? Not exactly One (obvious) thing I have noticed over the years is this: the less barriers there are to getting your music made and put online, the more independent music there is online. This, I love, but for the practicalities of it. With countless myspace and soundcloud pages filled with pretty shoddy attempts at music, we find ourselves bogged down, suffocated, strangled by a mass of poor quality tracks! Now, there are many who believe that music is generally getting worse and that the commercial tripe of today isnt going away in its current form any time soon, and that the money-centric record labels are to blame. I wont name names, we all have our favourite s**t artists, but why? I thought that music was in the hands of the people now? Well, as youve seen above, put music in the hands of enough people and you start to hear the quality lowering. So, the conclusion of this piece is a thought for the future. How do we strike a balance, using the internet and record labels to provide the quality music we all want to hear? Throw too much money at the problem and you lose the soul and emotion of music. Not good! Allow anyone with an internet connection to upload their latest awful noise and you dont end up in any better a place The article was written and kindly shared with us by Francis Gane, Founder of ChartBurst, a new service that connects unsigned musicians with record labels. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/173 Tue, 11 Sep 2012 17:26:37 BST Were back to Rock this week, and this was the first artist that popped up for me in the category. Low-and-behold, they have music, info, and appearances (all be them listed for 2011) on their page. This is how to do it right people!! Theres lots of descriptive words here, including phrases like soulful voice, inspired melodies, and cadenced flow. Their music is further described as having head bobbing beats and being a synergistic dance of melody and rhythm. Description-wise alone, theyre already someone I want to listen to. Whoa, but wait - they are no longer Nobody Gets Killed. If you click on their Facebook page, were alerted that they are now In Air. Well, In Air, you dont have a WLYS page, so Ill be focusing on your (I suppose) earlier music to get a sense of you as a whole. Did I is the first song available for listen, and its definitely got those pop melodies with a rock feel, much like many of my favorite bands. The beat is steady, but has a great feel to rock to in a crowd. Wasted is the following song, which is a little more raw, slightly with a more basement-recording feel. The scene is definitely darker and more introspective for this one, even if the band is feeling the song just as much. The blend of steady hitting and the scratching guitar are really intriguing. We move on to the song Blind Naked. These three songs are all from the album/EP titled Demo, so naturally Im assuming this was for a demo. This particular one sounds highly computer-mixed, by which I mean that the instruments sound canned, not like they are even being played in a room. On a positive note though, it gives the song a cleaner sound than the rest, and for an un-prone-to-details ear like mine, itd be an easily enjoyable, deep song. Shortwave starts the two track from Just A Seed. Radio scratch leading in, and a piano and acoustic guitar take up the lead. The song is much cleaner sounding, without the canned feeling, than the previous ones. The lyrics remain thoughtful, and the music displays some angst that provides much more connection to a track. The last song on here, Another Day Late, slows things down with a western/country sounding guitar leading in, seemingly for an acoustic song. Its a great album ender, forcing the listener to hunker down for one more effective track for their ears. Like I said, the band goes under another name now, so I had to go out and listen to that too. While the new stuff is a bit more polished, the sound and connection is still the same. All-in-all? Id say follow them on over. These guys certainly have something to share with the musical world, no matter the moniker! Article written by Janelle Hawkes. You can check out a track-by-track breakdown of this and other albums at Janelles site, http://hawkeears.weebly.com . http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/172 Fri, 07 Sep 2012 14:04:27 BST So, why would you decide to spend some time and money in a professional recording studio? Because the process of recording and mixing music is highly skilled. Anyone can do it, but to do it well requires much practice and talent: audio engineers and producers usually work a ten-hour day. Here are some ideas, based on managing a studio for 15 years: 1. All pro engineers will be able to do a good job with any kind of music, but will have their particular enthusiasms and tricks, so try to find a studio who can supply someone who has a track record with your style of music. 2. Send the guy a couple of tracks (no matter how badly recorded) ahead of the session and get any feedback you can about how much time you will need to book and how you plan to record - live? Click-track? Overdub? Etc. 3. Check out the studio drum kit - hopefully it will be properly tuned and will save time. (Your drummer can take his snare and cymbals along). 4. Tape is nice for some kinds of music, but its expensive and slow. Forget it until you have more studio experience. 5. The engineer will record your music as YOU want it to sound (not as he might like you to sound) so make sure the band members are in general agreement before you enter the studio. If you are not agreed on this you will waste a lot of studio time. 6. Steve Albini was not the first person to do this! 7. If you are on a tight budget (who isnt?) then try to mix each track when you record it. This will save time. If you can afford a separate session for mixing, your ears will be fresh,but it will take longer. 8. FORGET DEMOCRACY WHEN MIXING - you will end up with something that everyone accepts but no one really loves. The engineer plus one is usually the best team. 9. The singer is king/queen. If the voice is not in good shape, postpone the session, even if a fee is payable. Auto-tune cannot perform miracles... 10. Provide your own external hard drive for recording (usually FireWire) and make sure the studio keeps a backup copy of the session on their system until the final mixes are agreed. There are two kinds of computer user: those who have lost data, and those who will lose data! ?Have fun, but go easy on the fluids/substances: you will regret it later. Photo Credit: Wikipedia. The article was written and kindly shared with us by ChartBurst, a new service that connects unsigned musicians with record labels. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/171 Sat, 01 Sep 2012 19:15:12 BST Im on week 5 of my adventures with WeLoveYourSongs artists, and that means Ive made it to the last category on the page - OTHER! As a first, Im taking on an American artist. This one, King Loverr (growl that r) is from South Carolina (one of the lovely states I have yet to venture to) and is an RB artist. His bio claims that if you type his name into Google, he?s everywhere - and thats actually pretty damn correct. Hes got himself connected in all forms of social media and takes up the entire first page of search results, as any good artist should. His description continues on to tout his many page views (dont waste time on this - tell me why I should view your pages - not who already has). Apparently hes made for romantic ballads, so lets see how he appeals to a single girl, shall we? Baby Come To Me shows, immediately, his deep voice. It?s definitely a smooth jam, with a slight chorus in the background, and a sax slightly carrying its own melody. It only plays for a brief bit off of the site though, and just when you think you could get into it, things come to a screeching halt. Onto the next one, I suppose. That next one is Somebody Loves You. The beat is just slightly picked up from comatose, and I get what the music is meant for. I have to say though, the vocals are not on pitch. The voice is too deep in too many spots, thought the potential is clearly there. The higher echo voice out in the back that sounds like its through a computer is out of place, and once again, it\s cut off. I guess these are literally Sexy Snippets as the album name implies. Im What You Need takes another really nice attempt at seduction. Again, somethings slightly off. It sounds like this voice has been distorted a bit through some filters. Before I can figure it out though, the snippet is over. Ribbon In The Sky takes the tone even farther down, making me feel like we?re being dragged through a warped album. Change the pitch, and we?ve got some great sexy slow jams going, but right now, this is just lost on. Article written by Janelle Hawkes. You can check out a track-by-track breakdown of this and other albums at Janelles site, http://hawkeears.weebly.com . http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/170 Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:10:35 BST These days, it doesnt take a lot of specialized knowledge to build and maintain a great looking website. You need to know how to use Wordpress and some basic HTML code, which you can learn by reading a book or two. A well-maintained, professional website has kind of become a necessity these days. Its almost unprofessional to not have one, and if it doesnt look professional, people are going to draw conclusions even before they hear your music. There are a number of ways you can measure your return on investment (ROI). If you dont have a website, or the one you have is not quite satisfactory, you can measure ROI by how much new work and publicity it generates for you. If you already have a professional website, measure ROI by how much money you saved in comparison to hiring a web designer. Photo credit: Wikipedia. Article by Isaku Kageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/169 Fri, 24 Aug 2012 08:36:06 BST I love going international with these things. This week, were traveling to Latvia with Hip-Hop/Rap artist Kristjan. The bio on his page gives a description of a philosophical rapper/producer. Hes got two albums under his belt, recorded in Latvian, and has been a part of the countrys local scene for about five years. Particularly, he has been a part of the Latvian hip hop movement, Intelligent Recordings. The next sentence sort of has me thrown off: His musical career started in his childhood in 2001. In 2001, I was in middle school.. what does he consider a childhood? And we dont really get the good stay in school message here, because at 16, he left school and appears under his stage name Kristians as a hardcore rapper. The rest of the bio reads as someone who basically could not make a break in any way shape or form, but kept on recording. Most recently I guess, he switched to rapping in English. I apologize ahead of time if this winds up being a short one, but lets see what we get out of a listen, eh? Enough of This is one of the three tracks offered up on Kristjans WLYS page, and I have to say - Im surprised, pleasantly, by the production work that went into this. Its definitely done through a computer, but what isnt these days? Theres a loop in the background that doesnt hurt the song at all. The rapping sounds much more mature, vocally, than I expected. The message is even pretty good - focusing on the good instead of the bad. Okay, well, we may be on to something here after all. In a weird Evanescence-meets-Eminem move, we get Mystic. The female vocals being sung in what I guess should be labeled the chorus, is straight out of a horror house (and not in the cool Amy Lee way). The overall approach to the song is pretty simple and straight-forward, its jus not altogether appealing. At least its a little different from the first song - varietys always nice. De Ja Vu is the last song on the WLYS page, and this leans more toward the RB side of rap than the others have. Its also the first time that Kristjans accent is a little more prevalent. The songs pretty steady from start to end, though nothing terribly striking here to make me say wow. Okay, wait, I take that part back - the speed at which hes rapping, allowing us to still understand what hes saying - that makes this a little better than others Ive heard. So, Kristjan, it was real. I didnt hate the music itself, but am not quite sure what to thing. Id say, give this guy a chance at least once. Youll either enjoy and want to hear more, or youll be content, as I am, and glad to know something new for a few minutes. Article written by Janelle Hawkes. You can check out a track-by-track breakdown of this and other albums at Janelles site, http://hawkeears.weebly.com . http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/168 Mon, 20 Aug 2012 13:27:17 BST The first featured artist to kick-off this new column is: Sounds of the Empire. I spent a lot of time moving from genre to genre within WeLoveYourSongs. I was looking specifically for that opening sound. That transcendent fusion when all of the single elements of a song fit perfectly together; greater than the sum of their parts. A sound that has you hooked from the moment you hear it. It was exactly that sound that I discovered when I listened to Sounds of the Empire. Their profile explains that the band was formed in mid-2010. Though they are all residents of Great Britain it is interestingly noted that all of the members of the band originally hail from South Africa. I feel compelled to break this brilliant four-piece down and explain their individual roles. The vocals delivered by Stuart Dooley are sharp, soulful and unique. Dooleys vocals are delivered with the sort of rock panache that conveys confidence and experience. Dooleys voice is expertly supported by mercurial sound of guitarist Matthew Alston. Alstons thundering and intoxicating riff leaves the melody playing in your head long after the song has finished. These two elements combine perfectly on track Swallow Up The Stars. The song with its pounding bass-line; courtesy of Clark Buys, is marshalled by the fantastic sense of urgency created in the rhythm by drummer Paul Dettman. The stand-out performer on this track however is Alston, who creates and instantly recognizable guitar hook that is punctured mid-way with a blisteringly gorgeous solo. I urge every reader to check this track out; it is pure gold. The tracks following; Love To Love and Delilah Lie, continue in a different style than their opener. Love To Love sees Dooleys lyrics supported to a greater extent by Buys rolling bass line. This technique offers a greater change of pace as Alstons stunning guitar hooks are held until the chorus and again it is a sheer delight to hear him open the song up. Dooleys voice is again perfectly balanced for the higher-tempo of this track; it is Buys funk-style bass line that gives this track such a strong musical identity. The production and set-up here, holding back Alstons guitar licks until the chorus and letting Buys bass line draw you in, shows that the band have a very good understanding of how to craft a very driven and satisfying sound. Delilah Lie returns to a slow burning guitar riff and is carried effortlessly by Dooleys vocals. Im not sure which member of the band writes the lyrics but they are more than simply competent, the lyrics are clever, well-executed and genuinely soulfully crafted. There isnt one song that just straddles along without ever really getting going; each and every track is created with a view to holding the listener and you get the impression that this is a band that genuinely enjoys creating their music. I have certainly enjoyed listening to them and reviewing them. I strongly urge you to check out their Facebook page and the songs featured on their WLYS profile. You will not be disappointed. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/soundsoftheempire WLYS Profile: http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/1252/Sounds+Of+The+Empire Tracks: Swallow up the Stars, Love to Love, Delilah Lie, Velvet Day and This is US SoundTrap Favourites: Swallow up the Stars, Love to Love and This is Us Review made by Ross Jones. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/167 Wed, 08 Aug 2012 13:26:14 BST Last week we talked about writing a personalized letter to music writers, and how its more effective than sending out an e-mail blast. This week well be talking about how to approach writers for local news. Here is a sample: Dear Mr. or Ms. WRITER NAME, Hello, I read your article in PUBLICATION about SOCIAL CAUSE A. SOCIAL CAUSE A has been a personal concern for me, and I am dedicating my next show to raise awareness of it. This is why I am interested in SOCIAL CAUSE A. Id like to talk to you more about the event at your earliest convenience. EVENT TITLE: DATE AND TIME: PLACE: DESCRIPTION: Best regards, YOUR NAME Photo credit: Wikipedia. Article by Isaku Kageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/166 Mon, 06 Aug 2012 18:34:29 BST Right off the bat, I love that this band has taken the time to complete a page for this site. Theyve linked all of their other social media outlets to make my job even easier, and Im really looking forward to getting to know them better tonight. Starting off with the general bio, The Credins are a band from Norway made up of three guys (wait... there are four in the picture...): Peter (vocalist/guitarist), Magnus (vocalist/bassist), and Stian (drummer). The picture makes them automatically look like The Beatles to me, but Momma just raised me that way I suppose. My favorite line here though is: ...their target was clear: To become the greatest rocknroll band of all time. And so far, on the way to achieving that goal, theyve appeared on British and Norwegian radio, along with winning several competitions throughout the region. Theyve go an EP out (that Id love to hear), but in the meantime, lets peruse what theyve got up for us on WLYS. From Beyond was a single released by the band in 2010, and right away its got a great California/Weezer-esq beat, without the echo that I almost anticipated cringing at. The song is very simple in a way, keeping things raw and moving throughout the song. Theres harmonies in the chorus, which I have to admit, you dont always hear these days. The guitar, I think, is what makes it. Theres a total beach sound in the way it plays, but the vocals drag it back in-land. This could be a great dance-at-the-concert number. The other song posted from this single release is Just Keep Looking Up. Its clearly optimistic, but I have to say that the lyrics are sort of interesting in the verses. Theyre not just your run-of-the-mill happy pop lyrics - theres more there. This is what people used to refer to as how those kids from Dawsons Creek spoke. Theres an elegant story woven throughout actually, despite it being young and empathize-able. God this would have fit in so perfectly with 90s-WB programming. All Ive Ever Known was the 2009 single, and the description of a fresh rock n roll sound is definitely on the mark. This one has more edge, and Id even venture to say a bit more grit to it. The recording is a little rougher, with the drums really taking so much of the front sound, despite the vocals. Later though, there is this really great classicsounding guitar solo that I feel like isnt as much on mainstream as it used to be. The contrast between the songs is sort of along the lines of the evolution of the Goo Goo Dolls - from Jed to Gutterflower. The Secret end of the Poetry, the EP released in 2009, gives us the final two songs available for listen on the site. Escapeshows that this 2009 sound was pretty much dominant as one thing, and there was some change into 2010 toward a more pop sound. This particular song is produced for sure, complete with echos for emphasis of certain lines and another drum-heavy beat. Unfortunately, the site cuts off song titles sometimes, so this last one, to me, is Nothing is left to... Chance? The piano that starts it sounds like something straight off a karaoke track, and the lead vocals are definitely better suited for the more up-beat songs. Unfortunately, this was not the strongest song to end the listening session on. Additionally disappointing toward the end was that the Facebook page was in another language and the website didnt work. This was one we started out on a much higher note, and ended in a hard way. However, lets remember - the beginning songs were the more recent work, so technically, were going uphill!! Article written by Janelle Hawkes. You can check out a track-by-track breakdown of this and other albums at Janelles site, http://hawkeears.weebly.com . http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/165 Fri, 03 Aug 2012 15:48:01 BST The most common mistake people make is to write a generic invitation and blast it to everyone on a list. The problem with this is that you havent set yourself apart from the hundreds of other people that are doing the exact same thing. You might get some media coverage using this approach, but you will be a lot more effective if you personalize the invitation. Personalizing has been a lot more effective for me and Ive been able to land some great articles, whereas e-mail blasts have usually gotten me a small listing in the Events section at best. Here is a list of steps I use: 1. Write down the basic information of the event. Date, Time, Place, Price, and a Description 2. Find writers and link your event to what theyve written about in the past 3. Write a template with the basic information 4. Write a personalized header Here is a sample: -- Dear Mr. or Ms. WRITER NAME, Hello, I read your article in PUBLICATION about BAND A and BAND B. Since you are interested in GENRE OF MUSIC, we thought you might be interested in coming to our event on DATE AND TIME. This is how we are similar to BAND A and BAND B, and this is how we are different. If youre able to come, let me know and Ill put you on our guest list. EVENT TITLE: DATE AND TIME: PLACE: DESCRIPTION: Best regards, YOUR NAME -- Next week Ill have different examples of letters and talk about the situations in which you might use them. Photo credit: Wikipedia. Article by Isaku Kageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/164 Wed, 01 Aug 2012 10:08:45 BST For the first time in quite a while, Im having trouble finding an artist on Spotify. Granted, this is a site that specializes in Indie artists (which i love), and given the mainstream growth of Spotify, its hard to find the unsigned on the program. Nonetheless, we will push through and learn what we can about an Electro band, Leaving Richmond. A 2007 New York Creation, Leaving Richmond now calls Los Angeles home instead. The description speaks of rich ambient soundscapes, emotional melodies, and intricate acoustic and electric guitar work. As well as informing us that everything written is underscored by electronic production and grooves. Any Swim Fans out there may have heard this sound throughout the programming as well. I can tell you, Im almost positive Ive heard What Were We Waiting For during an Adult Swim bumper. The sounds very regularly paced and light-hearted - perfect for those spots. This sound is incredible actually, especially as this particular song builds. The description is absolutely accurate, and the use of guitars like this is something I never would have expected in an electronic composition. A little further research on the web gives us the names involved: Jordan Pier on guitar, keyboards, and production, and Adam Sanborne on beats and production. The only band Ive heard of off of any sounds like list is Explosions in the Sky, and with good reason - this sound is very different. Its like a jam band finally learned how to use a computer program properly. Slow to Exhale is a little more electronically focused with the guitar treatments, utilizing layering in a really cool way. Theres enough ambiance in the background to still fit the chill vibe theyre looking for, but maintain this sweet sound. The last song available on the bands page is And Now We Stand Up, and if I hadnt known any better I would have thought we were entering into a soft rock song instead of something every produced by machine. This is definitely the kind of thing that doesnt require active listening, but is enjoyable nonetheless. Its those moments when you suddenly realize youre lost in listening that actually make some music even more amazing. To my readers: youve got to get to their page and let some of these songs play while you surf the net. I havent heard much non-lyrical music ever that makes me feel nearly as much as this does. My heart strings are tugged, my minds invested, and my soul feels sort of freed by this music. To the band: I would love to get my hands on more music of yours!! Please keep this going! Article written by Janelle Hawkes. You can check out a track-by-track breakdown of this and other albums at Janelles site, http://hawkeears.weebly.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/163 Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:42:10 BST If you have a website, try searching for words and phrases in Google, and see where your website ends up in the search results. For example, if youre a rock band, try searching for rock band and see what number your website shows up in the search results. This is depending on your website Page Rank, and the higher up, the more traffic you will be getting. There are ways to get you a higher Page Rank, and this is called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. Ive personally tried a few DIY methods but it hasnt really improved my Page Rank all that much, and Im thinking of hiring a professional. In order to get the maximum results without spending an arm and a leg, I need to focus on a few key phrases. I can use Google Adsense to find out which phrases have large search volumes and low competition. I would hire a SEO expert to get me the no.1 Page Rank for something like rock band LA as opposed to just rock band. Article by Isaku Kageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/162 Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:57:13 BST When I was asked to write my first WeLoveYourSongs article, I was lost as to where to start. There are so many bands on this site, and surely if I picked one I would somehow be missing out on something possibly even better. But since you have to start somewhere, I went the to rock genre section and clicked on the first band I saw - in enter to my life Bad Jokes. What brought me to this band? Possibly fate - I was raised by a pure-blooded Italian family. The names also intriguing. And hey, that bright orange in the background of the album cover does sort of draw you in. Whatever it was, Claudio, Dino, and Marco drew me in and kept me interested throughout the album, in one way or another. Research on a few sites compares the groups sound to Coldplay, Maroon 5, and Paul McCartney. I?m going to go ahead and give them that, for the most part, and throw in a little Backstreet Boys and Daughtry as well. The songs vary from track-to-track as to where exactly in the genre spectrum they lie. We start things off with a great pop rock song in World Keep Tumblin Down, which got me completely excited for the rest of the album. This sound was not maintained right away, or at least not throughout each and every track. I was so grateful to hear it come back in other tracks, including Stay Tonight, The End, and the final track, Belinda - Reprise. There is a good band in there, really knowing how to hit it hard with the music and the lyrics, certainly tugging on this girls heart. There were other songs that confused me as to their place though. The band takes a very 90s-boy-band-esq sound for tracks like One More Chance and Beautiful Girl. the group definitely shows off their unique harmonies, but after that initial journey into such a great rock mode, I was confused. Then there were moments that threw me off completely, both in good and bad ways. The bad? Well, there was this odd blues rhythm that started up for Call Your Name, which was exciting at first, but went way off-base once the vocals came in. The music and the vocals just did not mesh, even for a moment. The good, well, that came with what I can only describe as the sleeper hit of the album - a song with the great old standard sound, almost like a younger Michael Buble, in Deep In Your Soul. While I didnt hear a single thing like it on the rest of the album, this one stood out as an incredible piece. Its beyond difficult for a band to really break-out, so any chance to be heard is a good one. These guys present a variety of listening options throughout this album, and while its not all for some people, they do sort of touch on what everyone would want to hear at one point or another. Sure, itd be nice to be able to niche them in somewhere in particular, but for one go-around, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Overall, Im thankful for the chance to hear this whole thing, and could really see some incredible shining moments that could prove to give this band a really bright future. Article written by Janelle Hawkes. You can check out a track-by-track breakdown of this and other albums at Janelles site, http://hawkeears.weebly.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/161 Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:03:29 BST We all know that some big musical artists dont write their own songs. But sometimes the lyrics sound so personal and specific you think they had to come from the singer. Often the real author of the song is either an unknown artist or someone famous for a totally different musical style. For instance Puff Daddy didnt write his famous song Ill Be Missing You to Notorious B.I.G. The lyrics of Sean Puffy Combss rap sound like theyre from personal memory. However, they were actually penned by an unknown rapper Todd Gaither, whose stage name is Sauce Money. Not only was it not written by Puff Daddy, but it wasnt written with Notorious B.I.G. in mind. Gaithers mother had just passed away and he thought of her while writing it. Getting Jiggy Wit It is a classic 90song and sure to bring a smile on anyone old enough to remember its face. Silly lines and an even sillier music video kept Will Smith in the public eye, albeit for being pretty corny. Whats surprising to most people is that Will Smith didnt write the song alone- rapper Nas penned many of the lyrics. Nas is one of the most respected, hard core rappers of our era. He brought back New York style rapping to America and has constantly been censored and protested against for his edgy lyrics. Its no wonder most people dont guess him as the co-writer of Gettin Jiggy Wit It! There are many more stories just like this. Busta Rhymes and Cee-Lo Green helped write a song for the Pussycat Dolls. Prince has written many songs performed by others. Can you think of anymore? Comment below! Article by Chelsey Fox. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/160 Wed, 18 Jul 2012 11:10:52 BST Jeff Liberty introduces us to his brand new EP. Describe your style of music! Its always hard to describe your music, but by categorizing it people have a better understanding of who you are. I certainly am influenced by pop music and music on the fringe... Id describe it as Outsider Pop. What inspired you to sing the way that you do? Well my voice and its colour and tone is what a higher power has given me.. It is what it is.. I guess inspiring vocalist for me have been Johnny Cash, Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields and Roland Orzabal of Tears For Fears. What equipment do you use? Most of the songs I record at my friends Grant Heckmans studio we affectionately call The Bunker in beautiful Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The Bunker has an English Allen and Heath soundboard. Grant also co-produced the Bastard Town EP with me.. Babette Hayward who co-wrote the original Bastard Town with me also has a producer credit for what we recorded in her basement. For demos at home I have a Tascam 4 track portastudio! What has it been like to be on WeLoveYourSongs? I am new to the WeLoveYourSongs community, but I am loving it! Its home to some wonderfully talented unsigned artists and fans committed to promoting some of the best independent music today! What advice could you give to other aspiring musicians? Allthough I make a living in the music business I do it as a artist manager and music columnist. Check out www.jlartists.com . My own music is all about self expression and therapy. My advise to any aspiring musicians would be to do what you love with passion, honesty and knowledge. Others will follow if what you do is REALl! Build a team around you of true believers and be pro-active! Its not just going to fall in your lap! What is your new song about? My new song Madeleine off the Bastard Town EP was written by myself and good friend Dann Downes. Im adopted and I began a search for my birth Mother Madeleine Dugas a couple years ago. I found out her name and other important info through the Childrens Aid Society in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The song is the story of what I learned about who she was and my journey to find her. I actually found her not to long ago and met her for the first time after over 40 years. It was and continues to be an overwhelming Life experince.. The story is still unfolding. You can listen and vote for the song on the We Love Your Songs website. Its also on Itunes.. Who would you most like to gig with? Well I dont really like to gig! Although I have dreamed about this very question often.. My tastes are really eclectic to say the least. My Top three would be George Michael, Prefab Sprout and Daniel Johnston. Interview by Tim Knight. You can find the original version of the article on the Amaze Magazine of July - http://issuu.com/5ways/docs/julyedition http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/159 Sun, 15 Jul 2012 16:51:00 BST If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that... I believe in what I do, and Ill say it. John Lennon I wont waste time explaining who John Lennon is, after all youre already on a music website! It goes without saying that he was a fantastic talent. Any ego John Lennon had was well deserved. But what about you? Is it okay, even beneficial, for your ego to inflate as your music gets recognized? In short, Yes! There are numerous advantages to having a healthy self-esteem. Self- confidence helps you manage lifes challenges, maintain a positive inner monologue, and bask in the glory of your accomplishments. A lack of self- esteem can hold you back from success, even if you have tons of talent. Happier and more satisfied people take bigger chances, like the kind of chances that pay off in the music industry. Youll never have the nerve to move to a new city, send out demo tapes, or walk right up to a music executive if you dont believe in yourself. With self-confidence comes more ease in social situations. Youll need this skill to meet new people who can further your career. If you want to be more productive, more assertive, and more successful, allow yourself to be really proud of what youve already done. Dare yourself to dream of huge success, and most importantly, believe that you have what it takes to get there. No musician has ever made it big by thinking they werent good enough. The fears of growing an inflated ego are always out there and weve all heard the horror stories. Let go of that worry and let yourself be a proud as possible! Article by Chelsey Fox. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/158 Fri, 13 Jul 2012 07:57:04 BST Today we are announcing the come back of our contests, with the Summer edition of the Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist competitions that will start next Monday 16th of July. Great prizes have been secured also this time for you with some amazing partners! Once again the biggest prize will be offered by the guys of Tracks Fields (www.tracksandfields.com)! For those of you that dont know them yet, Tracks Fields is an international platform where musicians can pitch their music to projects in advertising, film and games. They strive to make the synch licensing process as easy as possible. As a musician, label or publisher you just need to screen the project briefings and decide if and which of your tracks to submit. Some of the projects they found music for include Final Destination 5, eBay, Porsche and Google. For our Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist competitions they offer us two annual Advanced and one PRO subscription, worth approximately $760 (600) in total, with which you will get full of premium features. You can find all details here: http://www.tracksandfields.com/page/premium_features . A free custom Android app for one year (worth $260) as well as a free Premium HTML5 Mobile Web App for life offered by MobBase. MobBase is a platform that makes it free and easy for bands to create, launch and manage their own, custom mobile apps. With MobBase, artists share music, photos, videos, tweets, news, information about shows, merchandise and other content with fans on iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets. and other mobile devices. More than 500 artists and record labels have launched their own MobBase apps, including Tila Tequila, Pepper, Parkway Drive, 9:30 Club, Rebelution, Jump Smokers, John McLaughlin, Iration, the Jacka, Zion I, and Paul Thorn. Thanks to our collaboration with Mondo Tunes, we are able to offer the free distribution of 10 songs to the winners of both competitions, as well as 1 song distributed again for free for the 2nd and 3rd ranked of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest. Mondo Tunes supplies the largest music distribution in the world and provides upstream services for many major labels in search of breakout artists. While most independent distributors reach only 45-50 retailers despite charging needless monthly and yearly fees, Mondo Tunes reaches over 750 retailers and mobile partners in over 100 world regions without any monthly or yearly fees. Mondo Tunes has the resources and network infrastructure needed to seamlessly distribute music, video and mobile products. What makes JMD Distribution unique is their unmatched ability to provide the largest global digital distribution in conjunction with a comprehensive world-wide online marketing campaign to maximize artists hype and exposure. In addition to that, also for this edition, the cool guys from Manchester of Tweak Music Mixing will mix and master one song of the winner of the Best New Unsigned Artist competition for free! Tweak Music Mixing is an online music mixing and mastering company working with unsigned artists right through to people like Super Furry Animals, Paul McCartney, Radio 1, James Taylor Qt as well as many others. Their engineers have around 40 years experience between them and they are working mixing music and mastering in the studio and over the internet every day. Professional mixing and mastering is the key to getting your music sounding its very best and with their tools and extensive knowledge they can get your music sounding ready for release, radio play or to send out as a demo to record labels. Feel free to drop them a line to let them know about your project! Here some more details about the new competitions: Starting Date: July 16, 2012 Deadline: September 20, 2012 Cost: Free (Direct link to register - http://weloveyoursongs.com/registration) Prizes: - 1 x PRO membership plus 2 X Advanced membership worth $760 in total, offered by Tracks Fields. - A free custom Android app for one year (worth $260) as well as a free Premium HTML5 Mobile Web App for life offered by MobBase. - The free distribution of 10 songs to the winners of both competitions, as well as 1 song distributed, again for free, for the 2nd and 3rd ranked of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest, offered by Mondo Tunes. - One song mixed and mastered for free for the winner of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest by Tweak Music Mixing. How to Win: 1. Be an unsigned artist part of our community on WeLoveYourSongs.com 2. Upload some of your best music 3. Encourage your fans to go vote for you! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/157 Mon, 09 Jul 2012 15:13:04 BST Here is an exercise you can do to see if your website is working for you. You will need to know: 1. How much does your website cost? Designer fees, server fees, etc. 2. How much traffic does your website generate per month? Visits and page views 3. How many albums did you sell per month on the internet? 4. How many gigs did you get as a result of people finding your website? The first question you might ask yourself is Does more traffic mean more album sales? Compare your monthly website traffic with your monthly album sales and see if more traffic leads to more album sales. Another question you might ask is Is my website generating gigs? This is a little harder to answer but if youre getting e-mails asking about your availability, or if clients tell you they saw your website, thats a pretty good indication that your website is working for you. If the answers to both these question is yes, great. Your website is obviously working for you, so work on driving more traffic, and that will generate more album sales and gigs. But what if the answer is no? In that case, you can look at how much your website costs, and adjust the budget so that you only spend as much as it generates. It doesnt make sense to spend $500 per year on a website if it only generates $200. You should only be spending $200, so maybe you should design the website yourself. Another possibility is that your website isnt working because its not generating enough traffic. You might look into building an internet marketing strategy or even advertising and see if this helps. Or, maybe its not working because the site isnt very user-friendly. Perhaps investing in a professional designer would help. These are some of the things you can do to visualize whether or not your website is working. That way you can make the necessary adjustments to move your career forward. Article by Isaku Kageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/156 Fri, 06 Jul 2012 13:24:33 BST Regardless of your musical taste and background, certain songs played at just the right time can give you the inspiration you need to get through the daily grind. Countless studies have proven the affect of music on relieving stress and helping boost moods. In the music industry in particular, its extra important to keep your spirits lifted and your eye on the prize. Ive listed ten of my favorite songs that keep me focused on my goals here, do they match yours? 10. Lose Yourself- Eminem if you had one shot, or one opportunity. To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment. Would you capture it or just let it slip? 9. Billionaire Travie Mccoy Oh every time I close my eyes. I see my name in shinning lights I swear the world better prepare. For when Im a billionaire. 8. You Get What You Give New Radicals Youve got the music in you. Dont let go.Youve got a reason to live. Cant forget. We only get what we give. 7. If Youre Going Through Hell Rodney Atkins If youre going through hell. Keep on going, dont slow down. If youre scared, dont show it. You might make it out before the devil even knows youre there. 6. Man in the Mirror Michael Jackson If you want to make the world a better place. Take a look at yourself, and then make a change. 5. Its My Life Bon Jovi Its my life its now or never 4. Mean Taylor Swift Someday Ill be living in a big old city and all youre ever gonna be is mean. 3. Fighter Christina Auguilera Made me learn a little bit faster. Made my skin a little bit thicker. Makes me that much smarter. SO thanks for making me a fighter. 2. Stronger Kanye West Now that that dont kill me, can only make me stronger. 1. Baby Girl- Sugarland I know that Im on my way An I know its worth all the dues I pay, when I can write to you and say : Dear Mom and Dad, Ill send money. Im so rich that it aint funny. I chose mostly recent songs, but there are many, many older songs that apply as well. List yours and feel free to share some stories as well! Article written by Chelsey Fox. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/155 Tue, 03 Jul 2012 07:32:06 BST The Sherlocks Dead, a fresh unsigned indie rock band from Hackney, London, won the Spring edition of both Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist competitions with a song called The End of Tomorrow. For those interested to know more about them, is possible to read a great interview on our blog and listen to some good music on their WeLoveYourSongs band page. Once asked if there was something they would like to say to comment their victory this is what they told us: At first glance we never thought we could win a competition like this, but with all the hard work of our fans we have and for that wed like to thank them. Wed also like to thank WeLoveYourSongs and all the companies involved for supporting unsigned artists such as ourselves. The experience has been immense In the second place of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest, we have for the second time in a row, Milos Vukomanovic, with his acoustic rock music from Belgrade, Serbia, followed by Kane, a talented rapper from Ottawa, US! Thanks very much once again to all the fantastic people that have participated and our amazing partners for the great support to make this possible. Keep this blog checked to stay updated with the news from our community, to have more details about the new competitions and to discover our plans for the future. Exciting news will be announced sometime soon! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/154 Sat, 23 Jun 2012 15:50:54 BST Summer is finally here and music lovers know what that means- summer music festivals! Check out this quick list of music events this summer and add more of your own in comment section. Vans Warped Tour June 16- August 5 The Used, Rise Against, Lost Prophets, and Of Mice and Men headline this years tour that starts in Salt Lake City UT and travels throughout the United States. Over 90 bands are scheduled to appear and if past summers are any indication, this event is sure to rock. Lollapalooza August 3-5 We all knew this one would make the list, right? This years headliners are Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Black Keys, and Black Sabbath. But dont miss out on the rest of the bill including Florence The Machine, Jack White and tons of midlevel bands. The concert event is held in Chicago, Illinois. Rock Werchter June 28-July 1 This festival, held in Werchter, Belgium, is one of the five biggest European music festivals. This year it boasts Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Cure, Dropkick Murphys and way more. Can we start drooling now? Fuji Rock July 27-29 Japans biggest festival has amazing bands, expect The Stone Roses and Radiohead to headline this year, and a mystifying location in the mountains of Naeba, Japan. Some stages are only available after a trek through a forest or a gondola ride. Theres also a stoned circle where you can play drums and other instruments. Splendour in the Grass July 27-29 If youre going to be in New South Wales, Australia this summer (their winter), this is the place to be. Hidden in the sleepy surfer town of Bryon Bay, its headliners include Jack White, The Smashing Pumpkins, and other top Aussie rock bands. This is by no means a comprehensive list. So get out there, get creative, and enjoy some summer music! Article by Chelsey Fox. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/153 Sat, 16 Jun 2012 15:31:40 BST (Photo credit: Wikipedia) A promoter calls you to play a music festival. How much do you ask for in fees? Youre about to release a new CD. How much do you price it at? These are some of the questions you should be able to accurately answer if youve been keeping good data. A lot of musicians live under the false hope that someday they will get their big break. Someday Dr. Dre will hear their demo, and turn them into the next Eminem. Well, that might happen, but your chances will be a lot better if you keep good data that supports your claim to being a good investment. If you were an agent or a manager, wouldnt you want to work with the artist that is going to make you the most money? If you can tell agents and managers, who are your potential investors, that youre going somewhere (YouTube views, Facebook Likes, Website hits, CD sales) and that you have good business acumen (how youre going to grow revenue) you have a much better chance of getting them on board. Article by Isaku Kageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/152 Wed, 13 Jun 2012 08:18:47 BST There are now just 10 days left from the end of the Spring edition of our Best New Unsigned Artist and Best New Song competitions! The top prize is offered this time by the Berlin based guys of Tracks Fields. They will give out two annual Advanced and one PRO subscription, worth approximately $760 in total, with which you will get full of premium features. Other great stuff is offered by MobBase, with a free custom Android app for one year (worth $260) as well as a free Premium HTML5 Mobile Web App for life, JMD Distribution, with more than 20 songs globally distributed for free, and Tweak Music Mixing, which is going to professionally mix and master one song of the winning artist. You can check out the full list of prizes here. How to Win: - Visit WeLoveYourSongs and create an artist profile (if you dont already have one). - Submit some of your best songs - Encourage fans to vote for you Right now Milos Vukomanovic is the on top of the artists ranking while The End of Tomorrow by Sherlocks Dead is for now the most loved song. The first few artists are very close to each other and we think that there is still space for surprises. Shout out to your fans now, its time for them to give you back some Love! The voting deadline is Wednesday 20th of June. As always best of luck from the WLYS crew! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/151 Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:54:24 BST Its paramount to feed your creative side before attempting to write any new music. But sometimes youre on a deadline. Whether it be pressure from band mates, an upcoming show you want to debut new music or (hopefully soon!) requests from a record company after you sign a contract, sometimes you have to create new music quicker than would come naturally to you. So how do you do it? The first response of most writers is to focus on relationships. Whether its a crush from afar, full blown love, or an emotional breakup, most songs are about some form of romantic relationships. But get creative and take it one step further. Some musicians have written successful songs about the love they feel for their children, for instance When Im Sixty-Four by the Beatles or Isnt she Lovely by Stevie Wonder. RB legends Boy II Men had a hit with a song written for their mom A Song for Mama. Also, try to write a song about a particular place that brings strong feelings. Carolina in My Mind by James Taylor is a great example. And imagine how stoked the home crowd will be when you sing about their favorite place! Dont feel obligated to write about a big city like New York or San Francisco to get audience relation. Adele wrote Hometown Glory about West Norwood, but has received a lot of praise for it outside of her local British fans. Nature can also be a great inspiration. Inspiration comes from all around us and sitting in a park or on the beach might the perfect place to not only rouse your inspiration, but recognize it when it comes. Consider the classic John Denver song Rocky Mountain High. Even if being in nature doesnt bring you to think of a song about the natural world, it will probably clear your thoughts enough to write a song about something else. Lastly, consider writing about a certain event. In recent years, songs that can be played at graduations or commencement ceremonies like Green Days Time of Your Life and Vitamin Cs Friends Forever have met huge success. These songs have a guaranteed following by people experiencing similar life changes, or people putting together video montages. Most importantly, stay true to yourself and your music. Exhaust all your resources and ideas to produce music youre proud of. If you do that, a great song is sure to follow. Article written by Chelsey Fox. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/150 Thu, 07 Jun 2012 19:20:41 BST Sherlocks Dead debut EP Indigo Sea is a bold attempt at trying to create a sound that is different to the current crop of manufactured bands churning out the usual drippy pop rubbish. The vocals are catchy and the singer has her own unique style that makes me think she will be set for big things, whilst the musical arrangement is quirky and when it all comes together you have a very promising band that people should look out for, best of all the EP is free to download, so dont just take my word for it, go download it for yourself and make your own mind up. Can you tell us a little about the band, who are you, why have you become a band? Jake: I remember our first jam. Me and Henry on the upper deck of a bus with a stylophone were feeling incredibly cool because we had learnt 12:51 by The Strokes, and we had just got exactly the right sound. We even managed to get our first fans on that journey. It was from that point on we realised how much we loved playing music together and so formed Sherlocks Dead, albeit with a different line-up. Henry: It took us a while to realise that we couldnt play all the instruments and realise that we needed to have other people, and a while longer after that to realise that they needed to be the right people Alex: yeah, I wasnt in the band from the start, and wasnt even a bassist when I joined the band. I play a lot of jazz guitar and also saxophone in various bands. Id played in crappy rock band for a competition, but it was nothing compared to when I joined Sherlocks dead. The sound that we made when we first jammed was awesome. I just wanted to share that awesome sound with the world. Maisie: I think I had sort of the same sort of entrance into the band as Alex, Id been in a band in the U.S before here which helped What equipment do you use to produce your music? Jake: its...um...highly sophisticated. Henry: Oh, yeah, were strong believers of using what weve got instead of going out and buying the newest expensive devices and gizmos so we went through Jakes attic and dragged out this 80s mixing board, bought a few cheap mics and set up with a mac and logic in the living room. Alex: For the whole thing I used my 40 bass Maisie: ...and I throw in some other instruments sometimes Listening to your music it seems to be very alternative, not what I was expecting, but it fits your image, why did you choose this direction? Alex: Its the music we want to play. It isnt any exact style of music, it is just music that we enjoy and we hope that other people will enjoy it too. Henry: Yeah, i mean our songs didnt really get made with any template in mind; they were all created around whatever we were listening to at the time and whatever mood we were in. I also think that London played a big part in the writing process; people always think that cities cant be beautiful, but theyre wrong, Ive drawn much inspiration from London. Who are your influences? Henry: Thats still a difficult one, we love so much music. Maisie: I love the 80s stuff like the smiths, acdc and led zep. Jake: Were all so different with our influences. Mitch Mitchell is my main influence on drums for his almost jazz-like influence on Jimi Hendrix, showing you can take components from completely different genres, and not only will they work, but they will add a whole new dimension to the music. Alex: Yeah, Im also influenced by jazz. Bands like the brecker brothers and the average white band are a big inspiration. With a lot of new bands which are similar to us, you find most bass lines tend to be straight and continuous, but adding some funk in with the shoegaze feel of some of our songs gives them a much more interesting rhythm. Henry: I would be committing a crime if I didnt mention either Joshua Hayward (The Horrors) or Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine) somewhere here for the guitar influence. I mean theres other more unlikely ones too such as Jim Root (Slipknot) but thats more for technical stuff. What advice could you give to aspiring musicians wanting to do something in a similar style? Jake: I know this sounds monumentally clichd, but enjoying it is the key component to making great music. Find people you like to play with, and eventually something will click. I feel like giving advice beyond here would be meaningless, as we have barely reached this stage, but if you have fun playing music, then even if you never hit the big time, it will always be worth it. Henry: Dont force anything. If you force yourself to write music it comes out like someone elses music whereas if you just wait until you have a brilliant idea then although it might have been inspired by someone else its completely you. Maisie: oh and play at every chance you get, try things out and dont rely on covers How have you found the process of market- ing yourselves? Alex: Quite easy, since Henry and Jake do most of it. Jake: Yeah, without putting people off, it is a bit of a bore. Im the one in the band lumbered with the task of emailing record companies, venues, anywhere that will get some attention. It can be tedious, but it is worth it! Maisie: Well its not all us, we have great fans as well. We were recently shared by Alex Turner and that wasnt us, that was the fans. Henry: At least it looks like whatever were doing is working Have you ever thought about using platforms like Kickstarter.com to pay for recording your eps? Henry: Not as yet but maybe we will. Jake: Although, there is something cool about recording in Henrys living room. The xx used a bathtub to create reverb, proving you dont need to be high-tech to be successful. Maisie: We feel like weve achieved something quite big by doing this all on our own. What is the song The End of Tomorrow all about? Can you explain it to us? Maisie: This song was actually the first song I recorded with the band and so far loads of people have watched and liked it. Henry: Aaah yes, that one. The meaning of that song has been the centre of many questions. Well the lyrics were written at 4 in the morning and just came to me pretty quickly and easily. To me they really represent what I felt at that particular time because I was just not feeling in touch with anything at all. I mean I dont like to give too much away about any of the lyrics really because to everyone they could have a complete different meaning and I dont want to spoil their angle by telling them what I think it should mean. Jake: The song in my head is about losing hope, perhaps with society. The character is frustrated, and at first calmly questions the world around it. However, frustration builds and the song reaches a climax, before dying again, showing the loss of hope. I find that is too much analysis for a song, though, and should be interpreted however one feels is right in their heads. Henry: ...Well thats taken an emotional turn What would be your dream gig? Alex: Glastonbury! Henry: Glastonbury! Jake: The Glastonbury of the 90s. Henry: You had to be different. Jake: What? Since it is a dream, I am allowed to go back in time, right? Maisie: Well mines Madison Square Gardens Its big! and cool, and really represents the successful people out there, I mean right now even a funky festival or a support slot for a known band is good for me Henry: Fine, Im changing mine then Reading, crowding surfing in a rubber dingy with a guitar as a paddle and a tent made of the people on each others shoulders, thats good enough for me. Interview by Tim Knight. You can find the full version of the article with a review of the EP on the Amaze Magazine of May - http://issuu.com/5ways/docs/mayedition http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/149 Tue, 05 Jun 2012 15:13:31 BST (Photo credit: Greater Tacoma Community Foundation) The people that you associate yourself with are the people you become. If you want to be successful, you want to surround yourself with people that are successful. Its different from being a follower or sucking up. You can find plenty of successful people, so find ones that you respect and show these people you like and respect them. If you meet someone that you like and respect, chances are the feeling will be mutual. People talk about the importance of networking, but your real network consists of a core group of maybe a dozen people. You want to make sure these people are the ones you want to become. Article by Isaku Kageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/148 Fri, 01 Jun 2012 15:14:14 BST When did you know music was what you were going to do with your life? Did you grow up singing songs in front of your family? Maybe as you got older, you were particularly touched by a certain music genre. For some, an especially traumatic or life changing event leaves them wanting an emotional outlet. Singer/songwriting legend Stevie Knicks has said her parents gave her a classical guitar for her 16th birthday and she began writing songs afterwards. That experience led her to the realization writing songs and singing them to people was her calling. Adele has said that around the age of four she became obsessed with voices and starting singing in different tunes. Singing eventually became a creative expression for numerous family and relationship heartbreaks for her. Kurt Cobain, Nirvanas lead singer-songwriter, was born into a musical family. Several of his aunts and uncles were also in bands and singers. He began singing when he was two years old, and by four he started playing piano and was singing songs he had written about their trips to the park. Not everyone knows as a child that music is for them. Maybe youre still waiting for your true musical calling. Or maybe music isnt your lifes work, just a hobby. For many, music doesnt pay the bills its just a passion for their free time. All of that is okay! People fall anywhere from enjoying certain musical styles to devoting their entire life to their singing, song writing, and instrument playing. As long as it brings joy to your life, allow music into your life as little or as much as you want. Article written by Chelsey Fox. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/147 Mon, 28 May 2012 21:19:25 BST The Phoenix performing at Coachella 2010 (Photo credit: sta.helena) Where were you three years ago? Would you have been able to imagine being where you are today? Perhaps the answer is yes, and perhaps the answer is no. An important question you may want to ask yourself moving forward is, Where do I want to be in three years? And most importantly How do I get there? Having a general idea of where youre headed and how youre going to do it clears up a number of things. What skills do I need, and what can I do to fix the situation? What resources do I need, and what can I do to get them? Having a road map of what you want to do in the future makes what you need to be doing today so much clearer. Its your career, so I hope you have fun thinking about it! By Isaku Kageyama. You can follow him on Twitter at @isakukageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/146 Sun, 27 May 2012 17:01:48 BST Photo: Dinner Social at StackMob (www.stackmob.com) in San Francisco after HTML5DevConf. WLYS joined the hundreds of technology innovators at HTML5Dev conference (http://html5devconf.com/) in San Francisco. While we all wanted to learn about the latest and greatest tools and best practices of HTML5, the excitement throughout the day was simply startup-buzz. Really! Almost everyone I met were either founders, developers, designers or marketing functions from startups around the world. There were speakers from Microsoft, Adobe, Google, and a few big guys. But the thrill was to tell the world about what we created, see what our peers were working on, figuring out how were different and how to partner, finding new potential users/customersand be inspired or inspire others. For WLYS, were on that ride, too, to inspire future artists with the opportunity to reach out to the world with their music. Rock on, San Francisco and the world of startups! By Hoa Tran http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/145 Wed, 23 May 2012 08:32:29 BST The Starkers are a fresh indie rock trio of musicians joined together to bring a new sharp edge to music. The band is from Swindon and is preparing for their first gig on June 9th in their hometown. 1. Hello The Starkers, tell us all about yourselves and how you got together. Toryn: Well weve all been in different various bands before and known each other for a while through friends of friends. I contacted Callum (drums) about starting a little project and he was keen and up for it so we started throwing ideas at each other.. well not literally throwing but emailing each other song ideas n that!. We found it was working really well and toyed with the idea of gigging the material and writing more.... I knew Darren (bass) for about 3 years prior The Starkers as he was a sound engineer at most of the venues round Swindon. I knew he was a good musician and a good bloke so I contacted him asking him if he was up for a jam and see what happens... So we had a jam together and it really worked, things really clicked! So then The Starkers were born. 2. You guys have been together for a relatively short period of time and you are set for your debut gig on the 9th of June this year, tell us why people should be at that gig? Toryn: Yeah we havent been together long at all. Well Since February and recruited Darren in March... But things have come along sooo well! Things are flowing nicely and we have gradually got a full 30min set together. If I was to tempt people to come to our debut gig id say . Come and have a laugh with us, we play music with balls and we will make this gig one to NOT forget.. So dont miss it... 3.What artists influences the band? Toryn: Well individually we are inspired by loads of different bands which I think its good because it creates a better contrast. We are mainly inspired by bands like Nirvana, The Cribs, The Jam, The Clash, The Libertines... we get inspired by the attitude of those kind of bands... bands with a lot of passion and aggression and all contain the same punk ethic in my opinion.. all at points had a D.I.Y element to them. Something I think is missing BIGTIME in guitar music these days. 4.You have all been in different bands before, what made yous decide to come together and form The Starkers and do you think you brought any of your old bands style with you? Callum: I have played with many bands, from jazz to metal. this means i could bring lots of different ties of drumming to the table of The Starkers. Toryn: Been playing in different bands for the past 6 years.. previous band I was in was a punk band... I dont like to pigeon hole our music.. I like to think of our music as a big mixture of what we are all into. Id be silly to say our music is unique because it isnt... What music is unique any more? BUT we put passion into our tunes and they have balls unlike most bands out there. 5. How are you finding weloveyoursongs.com so far? Toryn: I have found it really useful so far and easy to use!! Its great to see people helping unsigned, underground bands!! 6. Future plans for The Starkers? Toryn: WELL we are booking a lot of gigs right now for the summertime and hopefully plan to record our first 4 track EP in August, we plan to record it by ourselves which is by our choice because we think it would be a cool idea to record it together and make a raw first EP. Callum: Gig,record, practice 7. What do you think of the music industry these days? With so many manufactured acts around do you think there is a chance for unsigned musicians to succeed without changing things about their music style and other aspects of their image? Callum: I think some bands are so mainstream theses days in what they do and are very similar to others in the respect in what they play and what they wear. its very hard to find a band now which are different, yet enjoyable to the public and record labels. Toryn: I totally agree with what Callum says.. Also I think bands these days take stuff far too serious... I went to a gig the other night and one of the members looked more into the way he was dancing rather than what he was playing on guitar. . . I do think though there is still a chance for unsigned bands.. they just need to be more REAL and have more fun and dont be soo serious. 8. What does being a musician, really mean for you guys? Music works in the same way as art does.. It gives us freedom to express ourselves AND on top of that to have a good laugh and enjoy everything we do. Interview by Cooki C. You can follow her on Twitter at @CookyChipMusic http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/144 Mon, 21 May 2012 12:16:31 BST Weve all been there. Youre working, creating a musical masterpiece no doubt, but the clock is ticking. The solution is simple, down an energy drink and keep going. Nothing could be worse than breaking your creative flow, right? Fortunately for you sleep lovers, its pure illusion that decreasing the hours of sleep will increase your productivity. Sleep is important to your mental and physical health for a number of reasons. For one, your attention span shortens. Trying to go on a lack of sleep also attributes to the inability to accumulate knowledge, compromising your imagination and memory in the process. Your band mates and friends probably wont appreciate your irritability and difficulty concentrating either! But its more than the negative aspect of missing sleep, theres been numerous studies proving that REM sleep actually improves creativity. Even an afternoon nap can improve your cognitive skills by up to 40%! If youre trying to write new lyrics, learn chords, or memorize a new set list, that boost can be exactly what you need. This information is far from ground-breaking. In fact, many famous musicians have used this trick. Paul McCartney is quoted as saying the melody for the Beatles famous song Yesterday came to him in a dream. Taking it a step further, Billy Joel has said the same for EVERY song hes ever written. Not unique to music, famous authors like Stephen King and Marry Shelley literally dreamed up some of their most famous characters this way. If youre anything like me, you cant sleep all day and night waiting for an epiphany in your sleep. However, the mental state right before falling asleep is when all the clutter of the day washes away and youre alone with your creativity. If you wrote a great song but cant quite nail down the perfect title, try going over the lyrics in your head right before you drift to sleep. Youll be amazed at the artistic gems waiting just below your conscious level. By Chelsey Fox. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/143 Fri, 18 May 2012 14:51:23 BST Learning how to play a new instrument could really broaden your range, and help you becoming a better musician. For example, if you sing and play guitar, you might try learning percussion. You dont have to become a great percussionist, just take a few lessons or workshops. Youll notice how you begin to feel rhythm differently, and how it helps you groove a little better. But the biggest advantage is being able to articulate what you want from the other musicians more clearly. If you know what its like to play percussion, and you know some of the techniques, you can tell your drummer or percussionist what to do a little more clearly. By Isaku Kageyama. You can follow him on Twitter at @isakukageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/142 Wed, 16 May 2012 15:52:24 BST Home recording studio (Photo credit: wstryder) To record music on your computer you dont necessarily need an expensive music software program to do it. There are a number of music software programs available on the Internet for Mac, PC and Linux, which allow you to record and edit your music tracks for free. 1. Audacity Audacity runs on Mac, PC and Linux and has many of the features of the higher end audio programs, including effects, multi tracks and VST support. If you have never used an audio editing program before, it can serve as a great introduction to the potential possible when recording your music on a computer. Audacity is generally favoured by podcasters and DJs due to its ease of editing. It is also a fairly stable program, and is viewed as being one of the best free audio editing programs on the Internet. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ 2. Ardour Ardour is available for Mac and Linux. It is fully-fledged multi track recorder. The program is free, but has certain limitations - if you decide not to donate. http://ardour.org/ 3. Rosegarden A Linux only DAW, that has full multi-track capabilities with audio and midi recording. http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/ 4. Traverso Traverso is a simple and straightforward multi-track recorder available on Mac, PC Linux. It is well equipped for recording bands or multi tracking vocals. http://traverso-daw.org/ By Chris Haines http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/141 Sun, 13 May 2012 13:20:20 BST Three-piece acoustic groove rock never sounded better as The Milkmen deliver powerful melodies and captivating lyrics, along with the occasional electric guitar. They have been called a musical fusion of different styles, with influences ranging from Dave Matthews to Kings of Leon. They have Conor Mcloughlin fronting the band with his highly original style of guitar playing and amazing unique voice, The Milkmen have something special going on that you would have never heard before. They won Battle of the Bands at Rockingham Hotel in 2009 and walked away with $15 000 in cash and prizes funding their latest album The Man with the Plan which is now available for download on iTunes worldwide. 1. The Milkmen are returning to the UK in June, after spending the past 16 years in Australia, tell us what have you been up to there musically and why you decided to move there. Frontman Conor Mcloughlin and bassist Elliot Careswell emigrated to Australia in 1998 and 1996 with their families. Drummer Jonathan Riviere traveled to Australia on a 5 year working visa in 2006. We formed the band as a project at music college in 2006. Since then we have recorded 2 albums, 2 Eps and have been featured on 3 compilation albums. We have also placed first in 2 Battle of the Bands competitions. 2. In 2009 The Milkmen won the The Rockingham Hotels Battle of the Bands and walked away with $15,000 in cash and prizes, did winning this competition and the money help you with your music career? Winning the Rockingham Hotel Battle of the Bands competition funded our latest album The Man with the Plan. As well as the media exposure we received, the title of Battle of the Bands winners helped raise our profile. 3. You are doing quite well in Australia so far why have The Milkmen decided to come to the UK instead of pursuing your fan base in Australia? There are a few reasons for coming to the UK. To reunite with our drummer Jonathan as his visa expired and had to return to France. It was always in our plans as kids, even before the music started, that we would return home to England. We feel that there are more opportunities for our music in UK, as Perth is a very isolated city. 4. How would you describe your music and what makes it different to all the other acts around nowadays? Our music is for everyone, from young to old. Each of our songs has a different feel and mood. It is difficult to fit into one genre, although it has been best described as acoustic, groove, rock. What makes us stand out from other bands is the energy, emotion and uniqueness of frontman Conor Mcloughlins vocals/songwriting as well as the rhythms and chord voicing of the acoustic guitar. 5. What do you love most about Weloveyoursongs.com and what new features would you like to see on the site? We love the voting system, and the chat applications that weloveyourmusic.com have incorporated into their site making it an all round perfect music promotion tool for any band or artist. Connecting with fans is very important, feedback and constructive criticism can only improve an artist. The chat system is unlike any other musicians site we have seen. It really helps to know your audience. The voting system is a great idea, this will help the artist know which of their songs are most popular, but also automatically places the artist into a chart system and competition for each season, with great prizes to be won. And its FREE! Weloveyoursongs.com have thought of everything, they are very user friendly with an easy to use interface, the only thing we would like to see is more users. 6. You released your album The Man with the Plan in 2010, what was the inspiration for that album? We didnt write the album in a studio. The Man with the Plan is a collection of songs chosen from our repertoire that were inspired by our personal life experiences. 7. Most memorable event while gigging? Winning the Battle of the Bands final. The buzz and the atmosphere of that night was MAD! 8. What do you think The Milkmen have to offer the UK music wise? We offer original and honest music with captivating lyrics that anybody can relate to. 9. What are the future plans for The Milkmen? We plan to establish a UK fan base and make a living do what we love. Interview by Cooki C. You can follow her on Twitter at @CookychipMusic http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/140 Thu, 10 May 2012 14:47:55 BST If your objective is to play high quality music, make sure youre learning something new every day that will help you in that direction. If your objective is to sell 5,000 copies of your CD, make sure youre learning something new every day about how to do that. Knowledge is the tool that will get you where you want to be, and having more of it in better quality will only help you get there faster. If you need suggestions for things to learn, try looking on the websites of any major music school and see what kinds of courses interest you. You might try learning a thing or two about sequencing or recording. That kind of knowledge could really come in handy when it comes to producing an demo track or even an album. The other advantage of continuous learning, at least for me, is that it keeps me down to earth. I may think I know a lot about music, but there are so many things I dont know that might really help me if I did. I need to keep an open, receptive mind to all that is out there, and always being on the lookout for new knowledge is a great way for me to do that. By Isaku Kageyama. You can follow him on Twitter at @isakukageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/139 Tue, 08 May 2012 11:07:43 BST The creator of the internet Sir Tim Berners-Lee has criticised the music industry for stiffening musical creativity, and preventing openness. Berners-Lee who created the World Wide Web in 1989 was quoted in Wired Magazine saying that people stealing music from the internet is not a as big a deal as record labels have implied claiming laws have been created which makes out as if the only problem on the internet is teenagers stealing music he continued the internet is bigger than the music industry . Berners-Lees comments are a reaction to three recent pieces of legislation designed to protect privacy on the web. The US Government has recently passed three bills, the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA), Protect IP Act (PIPA) and Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), all of which protect individual rights and creativity on the Internet. Berners-Lee has called for the music industry to keep up with the changing times by coming up with a better system to generate revenue from music. The internet has transformed the music industry which has been battling illegal downloads for over a decade. The introduction of file sharing site Napster in 1999 allowed people to obtain music for free. Downloads have became a vital part of life with the rise of MP3 Players epitomised with the launch of Apples iTunes in 2005. Internet downloads have been given further credibility with their incorporation into official music charts from 2004. With its potentially infinite audience the web could be the perfect marketing tool for budding artists, and getting on to established sites like We Love Your Songs can be a perfect marketing tool. Berners-Lees comments are a reflection of the changing time of the music industry with social networking becoming vital in the rise of new stars. It seems that the debate over file sharing and illegal downloads for those trying to break through into music is a battle between getting played and the value of exposure itself. Article written by Toni Phillips. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/138 Wed, 02 May 2012 11:14:03 BST The 3-4-3 Principle states that out of 100 workers, 30 will perform well, 40 around average, and 30 below average. Lets say you have 3 teams of 100 workers each, and you take the top members of each team to create a dream team of 100 workers. Theoretically, you should get a great team that performs impeccably. But the 3-4-3 principle states that you will still end up with the same ratio of top, average, and poor performers regardless. There are various applications to this principle. First, it means that you really dont know how a person will perform until actually put the person in the situation. Someone could be a great musician, but if its not the right band or the right kind of music, the result could be very bad. It also tells you something about your audience. If you are going to play for a room of 100 people, the 3-4-3 Principle tells you that 30 will like you, 40 will be undecided, and 30 will not like you. Its up to you to decide whom you want to play for. Is it the 30 who like you, the 40 who are undecided, or the 30 who dont like you? By Isaku Kageyama. You can follow him on Twitter at @isakukageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/137 Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:11:06 BST I had the pleasure of speaking to Jonathan Fastborg recently. Mr. Fastborg is a 23 year old musician, from Umea, Sweden. He is a one man band and self-produced musician. From guitar to piano spreads an ongoing search for musical balance. For his own creative process Jonathan makes music that cant be written or played out of thin air. 1. Mr. Jonathan Fastborg; interesting music; interesting name, tell us about both. My birth name is Jonathan Fastborg so it was easy to put a name on something that I made from scratch. When youre a part of the music and the music is a part of you then to labeling it something else would only create a distance between the two. 2. How long has your one man band been going on for now and how did you start out? The process of creating songs has been going on for some five years. Initially I started with drums at age 17 and short after the interest for writing and composing songs grew. 3. There are millions of unsigned bands and artists trying to make it in the music business every day, how do you think you differ from these other artists? Ive questioned myself if I wanted to run my music like a company (with a lot of focus on making product that differ from others, in this case musicians). And Id like to think that if the main focus lies on making the music you want the demand for it comes naturally. I think the best way of being different now days is to dont give a shit about being different. 4. Name some musicians or people that have influenced you musically. One person comes to mind. I have tremendous amount of respect for Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails. Both musically and the way he gets the changes in the music industry. And then the list goes on for every musician making his or her own music (band or artist). 5. How did you find out about weloveyoursongs.com? Ive been a member for a couple of weeks. And just like a lot of things on the internet, good or bad, I just stumbled upon your site. 6. Tell us about your first gig, did you go solo or did you have someone to accompany you on stage? Solo performance just before Christmas break on my school at the time. Scared shitless and with my guitar I sang some songs. 7. Tell us what you hope the future will hold in store for Jonathan Fastborg? On the 30th of April my single Drug will come out on Itunes, Spotify, wimp and Pirate Bay. In the beginning of the summer I will start the recordings of my debut EP. In between gigs and video shooting hopefully I will get some time to listen to new music and host my radio show. Interview by Cooki C. You can follow her on Twitter at @CookychipMusic http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/136 Sat, 28 Apr 2012 09:04:37 BST Chords are a fundamental element of music. Without them, music would be very boring. Chords often set the mood or feeling of the music, while the melody of the music is the bit you will often end up whistling on your way back home. There are four basic triads that you should really be aware of: Major, minor, augmented and diminished. These are written above in traditional notation. Dont worry if you cant read music notation. All you need to understand is the basic principles. Even if you know nothing about chords or music notation you can still create them easily. For this you will need a computer with a music program that has a MIDI Piano Roll section. The Piano Roll allows you to draw in notes one by one. If you are not a virtuoso MIDI keyboard player and lets face it, not many of us are these days! This is going to be your go to section of your music software program (DAW) for creating chords and melodies. If you scribble in a few notes in this section and then play them back with a MIDI instrument assigned to the channel, you will find that some sections sound good, but most of it will probably sound pretty bad. This is because when you scribble the notes in there will be harmonically clashing notes. If you now try and copy the chord below, which is a C Major chord in root position held for one bar, you will find that this should produce a cheery sounding C Chord. If you wanted to make this a minor chord all you have to do is move the middle red bar down one space. Now that same chord is C Minor. For an augmented chord, all you have to do is move the middle bar back to where it was originally, and move the top bar, (G), up one space. Now the chord is augmented. After you understand the basic principles of creating chords, the next stage is to start making chord patterns and chord inversions. By Chris Haines http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/135 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:15:16 BST Building a brand is important because its what separates you from the rest of the musicians out there. People dont want to just hear any guitarist, we want to hear a specific musician, such as Eric Clapton, Santana, Joe Satriani, John Scofield. The ultimate brand building goal for musicians is to have people hear you playing in their head when they hear your name. You can do this, even if youre not world famous, by describing your sound in context. Start by asking yourself the following questions: What genre of music do you play? What other bands do you sound like? What makes you so special? Incorporate your answers into 1-2 sentences that will intrigue people, start a conversation, and get them to listen to your music. And finally, dont forget a call to action. What do you want people to do once they are interested? Do you want them to visit your website? Check out your album on iTunes? Come to your show? Working out all this is not easy. Approach it like writing a new song, and take your time, try different things out, and see what works best. By Isaku Kageyama. You can follow him on Twitter at @isakukageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/134 Sat, 21 Apr 2012 18:10:08 BST I made the stupidest mistake the other day, when I was at a huge show and I ran out of merchandise to sell. Who knows how many CDs I might have sold? When youre on tour, merchandise sales can be the difference between making a profit and falling into the red. And over time, this can really add up. How do you decide how much stuff to bring? If you end up hauling a lot of stuff that you dont sell, it can be a hassle, as well as a potential risk. If youre travelling by plane, for example, too much merch can lead to baggage fees. If youre in a situation where you can bring as much merch as you can pack, my advise is to ask yourself the following question: How many sales would I be satisfied with? Try and think of a dollar amount, and pack accordingly. This way, you will only run out after a satisfactory sales figure has been achieved. By Isaku Kageyama. You can follow him on Twitter at @isakukageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/133 Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:18:58 BST Hey guys we are here today to announce the come back of our contest with the Spring edition of the Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist competitions that will start next Monday 23rd of April. Also this time we have secured great prizes with new partnerships that are on their way and will be announced in the coming weeks! The biggest prize will be offered this time by the Berlin based guys of Tracks Fields (www.tracksandfields.com)! For those of you that dont know them yet, Tracks Fields is an international platform where musicians can pitch their music to projects in advertising, film and games. They strive to make the synch licensing process as easy as possible. As a musician, label or publisher you just need to screen the project briefings and decide if and which of your tracks to submit. Some of the projects they found music for include Final Destination 5, eBay, Porsche and Google. For our Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist competitions they offer us two annual Advanced and one PRO subscription, worth approximately $760 (600) in total, with which you will get full of premium features. You can find all details here: http://www.tracksandfields.com/page/premium_features . Thanks to our collaboration with JMD Music Distribution, we are able to offer the free distribution of 10 songs to the winners of both competitions, as well as 1 song distributed again for free for the 2nd and 3rd ranked of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest. JMD Distribution supplies the largest music distribution in the world and provides upstream services for many major labels in search of breakout artists. While most independent distributors reach only 45-50 retailers despite charging needless monthly and yearly fees, JMD Distribution reaches over 750 retailers and mobile partners in over 100 world regions without any monthly or yearly fees. JMD Distribution has the resources and network infrastructure needed to seamlessly distribute music, video and mobile products. What makes JMD Distribution unique is their unmatched ability to provide the largest global digital distribution in conjunction with a comprehensive world-wide online marketing campaign to maximize artists hype and exposure. In addition to that, also for this edition, the cool guys from Manchester of Tweak Music Mixing will mix and master one song of the winner of the Best New Unsigned Artist competition for free! Tweak Music Mixing is an online music mixing and mastering company working with unsigned artists right through to people like Super Furry Animals, Paul McCartney, Radio 1, James Taylor Qt as well as many others. Their engineers have around 40 years experience between them and they are working mixing music and mastering in the studio and over the internet every day. Professional mixing and mastering is the key to getting your music sounding its very best and with their tools and extensive knowledge they can get your music sounding ready for release, radio play or to send out as a demo to record labels. Feel free to drop them a line to let them know about your project! Here some more details about the new competitions: Starting Date: April 23, 2012 Deadline: June 20, 2012 Cost: Free (Direct link to register - http://weloveyoursongs.com/registration) Prizes: - 1 x PRO membership plus 2 X Advanced membership worth $760 in total, offered by Tracks Fields. - The free distribution of 10 songs to the winners of both competitions, as well as 1 song distributed, again for free, for the 2nd and 3rd ranked of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest, offered by JMD Distribution. - One song mixed and mastered for free for the winner of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest by Tweak Music Mixing. How to Win: 1. Be an unsigned artist part of our community on WeLoveYourSongs.com 2. Upload some of your best music 3. Encourage your fans to go vote for you! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/132 Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:38:40 BST New York based indie rockers, Stone Cold Fox, talk about their nostalgia inspired tracks from their debut release The Young EP. 1. I heard you play a take-away shows. Can you explain me what is this? Take away shows are just little spontaneous shows in odd spaces. Usually they are filmed. Its a once in a while thing. 2. Your music has got a hint of nostalgia. Is it because you live in New York? Is New York nostalgic city? Our music has a lot of nostalgia in it. I dont think its because of New York. I am actually from Maine, so if anything its more about leaving home in Maine, and less about being in New York. 3. Arent you personally too young to be nostalgic and to play nostalgic music? Haha. No I really dont thing anyone is too young to be nostalgic. There are always times to look back on your life. This album deals with that specific time for young adult when they have left home and are gearing up to find a new place to call home. Its about being in limbo between home and home. As a man in my early 20s I am in this limbo and I have nostalgia for what once was my home. So I write about it. 4. You try to incorporate pop music and rock music. But I think incorporating pop and rock music is one of the hardest thing in the music world. Do you agree? Honestly I feel like Pop is a constant revolving door. One decade its Classic Rock, the next its Disco. Where we stand now we have a whole melting pot of genres that we call pop. And I feel it has actually become easier to combine genres and place it under a Rock Pop category because there is now so much to draw from and be inspired by. Because we have become saturated with all these genres Ive found it easier to write with them in mind because these combination are everywhere. At the end of the day we try and create honest, catchy, accessible music. 5. Of course its hard to avoid comparisons Stone Cold Fox to The Strokes. They are also from New York. Are you the children of New Rock Revolution in any way? No revolution for us. Nor do I think those titles are really applicable these days. The Strokes are certainly a part of our inspiration pool, but they by no means make up all of it. We are both from New York, we both make music. However they are field and fields more successful than us, they make very different music, and tell very different stories than us. 6. Your EP is called The Young. Is this title also kind of nostalgia for something what already passed? The Young embodied all of the nostalgia we wrote about in the album. It felt like an appropriate title. Most of the songs on the album are about coming of age. 7. I love almost all your songs. But Id like to talk about song called American. I think its your the most important song. Because of this line: They wont tell me what I am to be an American / I am here but my hearts at sea, they wont speak of me... THEY - you mean who? The line They wont tell me what I am to be an American, Im here but my hearts at sea, they wont speak for me is about not letting others speak for you. 8. Is your music only music or something more than that? How much your music is about describing the world and how much about trying to change the world? In my lyrics I try to write about my own philosophies and combine them with music. Sometimes I write the heartbreak song but overall I much prefer to describe certain mind sets and the conclusions I draw from them. In this way a lot of my songs end up being more about philosophy than story telling. Some songs are just comprised of a series of one liners that make up the whole song with a steady theme. But at the end of the day the output is music, and that is all it is. If people care to read into it, agree with it, or disagree with it, than it is in their hands to change the world with it. Music to me is more about inspiration. 9. Are you gonna come to Europe? We would absolutely love to come to Europe. We just started this project so I think it will be at least a year, but that would certainly be our goal. Questions prepared by Piotr Balkus (@PiotrBalkus). Interview edited by Bryne Hetznecker. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/131 Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:03:31 BST The phrase: Stereo microphone techniques, refers to the use of two or more microphones to create a stereo image. Recording stereo sound is generally favoured because it sounds more natural to the human ears than a mono recording. There are several common stereo microphone techniques: 1. Spaced Pair Source: http://www.deltamedia.com/resource/stereo_microphone_techniques.html This technique generally uses two matched microphones placed a few feet apart in front of the performer(s). It is one of the most popular stereo microphone techniques. If positioned right, the spaced pair, or AB technique, can create a beautiful natural sounding stereo image. However, if the position of the microphones is not quite right, then you may risk getting a hole in the stereo image. 2. X/Y Source: Wikipedia The XY technique uses two identical microphones pointing at an angle (90 to 135) against each other in front of the sound source. The XY technique is generally considered to give a narrower, but more focussed stereo image 3. M/S Source: http://www.uaudio.com/blog/mid-side-mic-recording/ The M/S (Mid-Side) technique uses two closely spaced matched pickups. In the classic M/S stereo microphone technique, one of the microphones is designated to be the M (mid) and faces the sound source. The other is chosen to be the S (Side). The S, or side, is generally a figure of eight microphone and picks up the ambient and reverberant sound. The outputs of these microphones are then combined through a decoder. (There are many computer plugins that can do this automatically these days). One of the big advantages of the M/S technique is that it allows you to alter the stereo width and depth at a later time. 4. Decca Tree This is a less popular and more classical microphone technique, which was attributed to Decca engineers Roy Wallace and Arthur Haddy in 1954. The Decca tree uses three omnidirectional microphones. The left and right microphones are placed 3 feet apart, while a third microphone is placed 1.5 feet in front and panned to the centre of the stereo field. This technique is often used in orchestral situations. These are the most popular tried and tested stereo microphone techniques, but they are by no means set in stone. It is always worth experimenting with different microphones in different positions to see what works best for your particular needs. By Chris Haines http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/130 Tue, 10 Apr 2012 08:07:21 BST If youre an independent artist, expenses are a big concern, and getting CDs manufactured is definitely a significant expense. If you just sold downloads, you could cut that expense out of your budget and save yourself some money. A lot of artists choose this route, but Im going to argue that in the long run, you would be better off investing the money to manufacture hard copy CDs. 1 - Raise your profile A physical CD is evidence that you take your work seriously. There are a lot of artists out there who dont have CDs out, and having one is a great way to separate yourself from the pack. 2 - Learn about music business Producing a CD is a great way to learn about copyright, rights management, and distribution. Not only do you gain essential knowledge from first hand experience, it will be a great way to build a foundation for branching out into producing or owning a record label if you choose. 3 - Sell them at shows You cant sell downloads at your show, but you can sell physical CDs. It may take a while, but eventually youll be able to cover all your expenses and make a profit. Speaking from my own experience, I invested about $3000 in recording equipment, studio time, hired an engineer, and manufactured hard copy CDs. I can use the recording equipment not only for myself, but to produce albums for other artists as well. If I sell 300 CDs at $10 each, Ive essentially gained all that for free. I say hard copy CDs are still a worthy investment. Article written by Isaku Kageyama. You can follow him on Twitter at @isakukageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/129 Fri, 06 Apr 2012 09:35:30 BST With a minefield of new artists appearing everyday it is hard to know how to get yourself discovered by the general public, a great way to be heard is to get onto the radio. Getting on the airwaves may just be one of the best things that you could do to publicize yourself, with 85% of the population of the UK listening to the radio every day. Not only will you people get to hear your work, hopefully if you are played on the right show people will get to know something about you, and often if listeners like your music they will take the time to search for you. There is no dispute that being played on the radio is great for publicity, but with so much radio out there getting featured is a potential minefield. You will need to research where the best place to send samples of your music, target places that are either promoting new artists, or play your style of music. Radio stations have a limited number spots, and there is a lot of competition you are not only up against other emerging acts, but songs from established artists and old favorites for airtime. A good place to start is with a university radio, they are non-commercial so they have a greater opportunity to experiment with new artists. Once you have decided which radio stations to approach, you need to know the best way to get them to notice you. Its no good just sending a sample to the station in general. You should find out who the music programmer is, it is their job to pick the content of the station. Send any samples either directly to the music programmers or to the head of music. When sending samples it is important to be professional. Make sure that anything you want played is clearly labelled and includes some brief information about yourself in a press kit. Success in the music industry works like a snowball effect, so keep you press kit updated with all of the places that you have been played. Dont limit yourself. The more places that you send your work to the more chance you will have of being heard. Article written by Toni Phillips. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/128 Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:09:49 BST Dither is a small amount of low level noise added to a recording. The purpose of dither is to improve the accuracy with which the system can deal with amplitude. In other words, it deals with digital distortion when converting from 24 bit to 16 bit. Most music software these days will encourage you to record in 24bit. This is higher quality than the 16bit (CD quality). So if you are planning to put your music on to a CD, you will need to apply dither. Some music software packages will have a special dither plug-in which will you insert on the track. Other packages will allow you apply dither when you bounce down your recording. Article written by Chris Haines. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/127 Sun, 01 Apr 2012 07:20:51 BST How many times have you found yourself scrambling around before a gig or rehearsal, packing your car, trying to find things, only to arrive at the gig and find that youve forgotten something. If that sounds like an all too familiar episode, you might want to remedy it by making a Gig Day List. Your List consists of all the equipment you usually bring with you on gig days. If youre a guitar player, you might include -inch cables, picks, strings, sheet music, pencils, and an extension cable for your pedals. Drummers like myself bring dampening gels, tuning keys, an extra hi-hat clutch, and shakers or other small percussion. When you go overseas, youll definitely need your passport and some cash. I also bring vitamins with me so I dont get sick on the road. The better prepared you are, the better chance you have of playing well, and thus the better chance you have of getting called again. Article written by Isaku Kageyama. You can follow him on Twitter at @isakukageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/126 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:23:50 BST This is your chance to win a 130 worth ticket to attend for free to the Future Music Forum Barcelonas Social Music Jam: April 27th 2012 @ Estrella Damm Factory ! Here a description of the event from their official press release: The Future Music Forum Barcelona will be hosting a one day Social Music Jam focusing entirely on the Spanish Digital Music Scene. This One Day Event will be taking place the 27th April. We will be inviting special guests who are at the forefront of the Spanish Music Industry. We are delighted to announce special guest speakers from Spotify, Jamendo, Neilsen Online, Mixcloud, The Orchard and many more. The Social Music Jam will focus on The State Of The Digital Music Industry in Spain, Music On Demand, Digital Distribution in Spain, Music Synchronization, The Live Music Scene in Barcelona, New Social Media Platforms The Social Music Jam provides a professional yet relaxed platform to explore, engage and discuss these topics with a carefully selected group of music futurists, label owners, managers, music and technology entrepreneurs and digital music consumption analysts. If you are already involved in the industry and would like to extend your knowledge of current trends network with your peers then the Social Music Jam is the event for you. The Future Is Already Here: The Social Music Jam, please visit our website for more information ?book your seat @ http://www.futuremusicforum.com/social-music-jam-2 The Social Music Jam follows the successful launch of The Future Music Forum in 2010 which is becoming one of Europes leading Music Social Media events. Over the last 2 years has seen an impressive array of music technology companies, entrepreneurs, musicians music industry related executives descend on Barcelona. If you want a free ticket to attend this great event, you have just to chose one of the methods listed below to participate in the giveaway: 1) Re-tweet this post on Twitter OR 2) Leave us a comment below here OR 3) Send us an email at submit@weloveyoursongs.com The contest starts now and ends next Friday 6th of April, at 1PM PST. We will choose at random and contact the winner of the ticket with more details. Please kindly note that we are offering 1 ticket only, while accommodation and airfare are not included. Good luck everyone! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/125 Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:36:19 BST Sometimes the indirect route is the best way to achieve a goal. If music is your passion and you have a talent for writing why not utilize your skills and write songs for others. This approach is one that has been incredibly successful for up and coming soul and RB artist Emeli Sand who recently won the Critics Choice Award at this years Brits. Sand, who released her debut album Our Version of Events in February, first appeared on the music scene when she featured on Chipmunks top ten hit Diamond Rings. Sand though has been working behind the scenes as a songwriter creating songs for many artists including UK X Factor contestants Leona Lewis and Cher Lloyd. So the unconventional route that Sand took to get into the music industry may be an ideal way to get into the business. Not only will you get credit for being a songwriter, you will also get the opportunity to get a sense of what the current trends in music are, which could influence your choices about how to style yourself as a performing artist. To get into writing music the most important thing that you will need is to find a publisher whose job it is to promote and collect the revenue from your songs, which could support your own aspirations to perform. Songs can earn money in a number of ways so it is important that if you want to generate revenue from your work then it is vital you know what entitles you to get paid. First up is mechanical, this is when you earn money because somebody records your song. Once your song has been recorded you can then collect money from performance rights, when your music has been played or sung in public. Finally if your work has been used as a backing track in a film or on TV then you are entitled to performance rights. Before signing a contract it is important to do some research so that you have found the deal that suits you. You can choose to sell a single song, a wider collection of work or you could decide to limit the sale of your copy write on a case to case basis. When looking for a publisher it is best to do as much research as possible, dont take the first deal. When you do decide which company to approach, you should indentify the most suitable contact, if you target an individual there is more chance that your work will get noticed. So be smart and do your homework, make sure that you know what you want from your deal before you sign anything, and get any contract checked by someone legal! Do not sign your life away cheaply! Article written Toni Phillips. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/124 Thu, 22 Mar 2012 08:05:11 BST As previously announced through our social networks pages, the cool Mexican guys of the Excellion band won the Winter edition of the Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist contests! The amazing prizes they will be awarded with are: a $1,200 package, kindly offered by Mobile Roadie, to build their own Android or iPhone App, an annual PRO membership worth $380 offered by Tracks and Fields, up to 20 of their songs distributed for free all over the world by JMD Distribution and one of their songs professionally mixed and mastered by Tweak Music Mixing. For those interested to listen to a bit of their music you can check out their WeLoveYourSongs band page. Some great tracks there! When asked if there was something they would like to say to comment their victory this is what they told us: Its been a blast and an honor for us to be able to participate and win over the winter competition from weloveyoursongs.com. We really appreciate your support for unsigned acts all over the world and the opportunity to take our music a step further; youre a great team! Wed like to thank all of the sponsors as well for their contribution to the contest and for believing in all the WLYS community talent. Thank you guys!. And at last but not least, we want to thank all the people out there for believing in us, our music and always be there supporting us; there are really no words to express our gratitude to all you guys. As we already said, you are simply the best! and were in debt for all the love (pun intended) you gave us to win this competition; we hope we can compensate that soon, THANKS! In the second place of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest we find Milos Vukomanovic, with his acoustic rock music from Belgrade, Serbia. After him we have T.Byrd / RoxxHoffner, from Shingletown, California, followed by two Canadians artists - the hard rock of Cal Jon from Saskatoon, and the rap music of Kane from Ottawa. WLYS is an international community and once again the people arrived in the first positions are from many different places around the globe! Thanks very much again everyone who participated and supported us during this edition of our contests. More details about the new competitions will be revealed shortly. Stay tuned! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/123 Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:45:43 BST MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It is the standard communication language for musical equipment, that enables two or more MIDI equipped devices to communicate with each other. In times gone by, MIDI compatible equipment was easy to identify as it had a MIDI DIN socket on the back panel. These days MIDI compatible equipment will often have a USB port instead of a traditional DIN socket. This is due to the fact that the computer is now the main focus of the recording studio. The difference between MIDI and audio is best explained by looking at a screenshot from some music software. There are two types of track that you can create on music software: An audio track, or a MIDI track. An audio track will record the actual sounds visually as a waveform, whereas the MIDI track will only record the data from a compatible MIDI device. The data it receives is usually recorded visually as a series of dashes. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Protools9screen.png These dashes will occur when a key is pressed on a MIDI instrument, such as a MIDI enabled keyboard. When the key is released, a note off message is then sent, which determines the length of the dash. Other messages can also be sent to and from MIDI equipment. On a computer sequencer such as Pro Tools, (as shown above), you can then assign a particular sound to the MIDI data, for example, a Harp or a Grand Piano. If you are not fortunate enough to own a Steinway Grand Piano or a Harp, MIDI will allow you to assign your data to an instrument from a sound bank on your music software. Even if you are lucky enough to own a Steinway Grand Piano, the chances are you wont be able to record it at the airport or on the train. Whereas with a laptop computer and a MIDI keyboard you can access and sequence those sounds. Article written by Chris Haines. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/122 Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:31:32 BST Known for her captivatingly swirling atmospheric tones, French ambient artist, Xelomen, speaks about her experiences and inspirations for composing music. 1. You describe your music as downtempo ambient. But you tend to mix downtempo with uptempo - that in my opinion is very interesting. How do you create music? To be honest, I dont really think about the style of music I compose. To me, downtempo music is not a specific style but a grouping or genre, like trip-hop, chillout or electronica. However, its true, I use tend to use slower tempos in much of my music. Maybe it comes from the fact that Ive listened to breakbeat or drum and bass in the past. How do I create music? First of all, my guideline is to try to mix my melancholic ambient side with the energy of my beats My point of departure is always my background atmospheric musical lines. However, as I never formally learned music theory, Im working on instinct and by ear. For instance for melody lines I have to embroider them note-by-note. I also often make different versions of the same track and choose the closest to my personality. 2. You recorded a cover version of Mylne Farmer Light It Up. But it sounds like your own song. And I really like that tune. Its very uptempo. Why did you decide to do this remix? Of course this remix sounds like my own, I made it how I heard the song in my genre, btw I kept the melody of the original track. In my opinion this is the most interesting part of making a remix, and one of the reasons why I decided to make this remix? However, I originally got the idea because there are a group of fans called ReMyxes that wanted to release a compilation by choosing the best remixes of titles from the new album of Mylene Farmer. So I thought why not. I took Light me Up because I felt closer to this song than the others. What was interesting for me was working with no stems and having to transcribe all the melodies line from the original by ear. Unfortunately I never sent the remix to this group because by the time I finished they had already chosen one. But you can download it for free here: http://soundcloud.com/soniamusic/myl_ne-farmer-light-me-up 3. Is ambient music popular in France? I dont think so, people are more interested in dance, techno and pop rock. In the early XXth century, we had the grand French composer Erik Satie who created an early form of ambient music that could be played in the background during dinner as he described it. He may be unknown nowadays. By the way, we can find the influence of ambient music in many tracks of French artists like Cascadeur or Saycet. And who does not know Boards of Canada, Sigur Ros or the great Telefon Tel Aviv... Since Im on Facebook, Ive had the chance to meet some amazing ambient musicians and I really encourage them, especially my compatriot Romain from Adeona, but also The Liquid Sky and State Azure. 4. British music and US music is so much more directed towards a pop and rock sound and the mainstream market. They dont seem to accept electronic ambient stuff in the mainstream market. What do you think your music can offer them? Hard question. I think that all over the world there are people searching for this kind of music, so why not in UK or US. I dont pretend that my music is for everyone, but if someone is interested in it, it means that my music touched them, which makes me very happy. My point of view is that electronic ambient music is still part of an underground music movement. As you can hear on commercial radio most of the tracks played are, like you said pop, rock, dance or rap music. The music industry is very compartmentalized and if you dont fit the mold then you have much less of a chance of having a career. However, although Ive never contacted any labels or radio stations, Ive recently had people asking to use my tracks for radio and to be released on compilations. Im still working on offers Ive had and I also will have some new tunes out soon, among them, a remix for the great Californian indie electronic band The Swerve. 5. I hear in your music the same atmosphere as in Roman Polanskys movies. Especially in Beyond My Control. Have you ever thought about your songs as a soundtrack to a movie? What do you think about this idea? Your words are kind, same atmosphere as in Roman Polanskys movie, what an honor for me to hear that! But sure, I thought about it many times. People around me are always telling me that my music has some cinematic atmospheres that would fit perfectly with some movies. I should maybe consider this point of view and create a side project. 6. How has the place you live (Bordeaux, France) influenced you and your music? Well, the place in itself did not influence me. What influences me are more things in life, behaviors, passions, emotions, love, and how I interpret them with my own vision. Im also drawing my inspiration in music. I have three main sources: Brian Eno, which is for me the best ambient artist, Arovane, an incredible composer of electronic ambient music, and of course the famous electronic and film composer, Craig Armstrong. 7. Is it easy to be musician/artists in France? If you want to be well known, indeed it is difficult, as it is, I guess, in other countries. My goal is not to be known, but to share my music with those that can appreciate it. I think the most important thing is to stay true to yourself and the feelings you paint in your music. Thats the only way to catch the attention of people who are interested in this kind of music. 8. Where words fail, music speaks (its Hans Christian Andersen motto from your Facebook page). Is music the language you use to communicate with the world? Of course, for me when the words fail, the only way to express what you have to say is music. It perfectly fits with the person I am. Its hard for me sometimes to express myself with words so it was a need for me to find a way out. Im communicating feelings through my music. 9. Id like to ask you about German dj Andre Tannenberg aka ATB and French dj David Guetta. What do you think about them? Is their music an inspiration or challenge for you? Well, they both have great careers, which shows that if we work hard we can succeed. But their style of music is so commercial, that it bores me to listen to it. Im not inspired by their music at all, in fact its rather a challenge for me. I mean, composing music for singers or bands is a challenge for any composer. I would like to have this challenge and Im still looking to meet the right people to help me realize this dream. Questions prepared by Piotr Balkus (@PiotrBalkus). Interview edited by Bryne Hetznecker. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/121 Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:28:21 BST And just as few weeks ago we were looking at summer festivals in the warmest lands of the old Europe now we are moving up, to northern countries, but not necessarily colder, as we are sure these festivals will rise up the temperatures wherever they are held! First of all lets go to Scandinavian territories to discover one of the oldest and biggest European festivals, created by to students in 1971, Roskilde Festival has been directed since 1972 by a non profit foundation for the development of humanism, culture and MUSIC! So a part of enjoying good music you can also feel good about yourself paying this ticket festival! This year Roskilde will be held between the 5th and the 8th of July and the line up includes musicians like Bruce Springsteen The E Street Band, Bjork, Bon Iver, Friendly Fires, tUnE-yArDs, The Roots, Jonathan Johansson, Wiz Khalifa, Refused, Cerebral Ballzy, Warbringer, Devildriver, Nasum, AraabMuzik, Yelawolf, Terakaft, Boubacar Traore, Causa Sui, Cold Specks, Royce Da 59, El Paraiso Ensemble, I Got You On Tape, Larsen Furious Jane, and Papir. This year weekend ticket will be around 210. http://roskilde-festival.dk Moving down from Vikings territory we arrive to Sziget Festival in Hungary, which could be called a total festival as we can find all type of activities a part from music, from Sports, to Films, cabaret performances and special programmes for kids are among the activities this festival has to offer. Sziget is held in an island on the Danube which Im sure can be as warm as any in the Mediterranean! This year the festival will run from the 8th of August till the 13th and will include people like The Stone Roses (it seems those guys are really gonna enjoy a summer full of festival) Placebo, The Horrors, Hurts, Noah and the Whale, Crystal Fighters, Mando Diao, The Subways, or the Friendly Fires.. Although those are just a few names! The prices will be around 165 for a week pass with camping! So good news for us with low budgets! http://www.sziget.hu And before going back home to the great Britain islands lets stop in Belgium (and not for chocolate!). Pukkelpop Festival goes back after the tragic events of 2011 when an accident killed several people, as the best way to honour the victims. This a small festival, different from the ones presented above but that gives you the opportunity to get closer to the stage and have more intimacy with the groups which range from electronic music to heavy metal. This year festival, which will take place between the 16th and 18th of August is supposed to have a line up very similar to the one of last year as many artists couldnt make it to the stage due to the circumstances, so as you can have an idea, the last year musicians include names as Wiz Khalifa, The Wombats, Twin Atlantic, Skunk Anansie, Noah And The Whale, Netsky, The Naked And Famous, Modestep, Glasvegas, Eliza Doolittle, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and The Black Pacific. The prices will go from 76 - 145. http://www.pukkelpop.be Finally back home! We know guys that there is a million (well maybe not that much but almost!) cool festivals happening every summer in the UK, and that we are gonna probably miss out your favourite one, but thats what the comment section is for! to illuminate this poor Spanish Blogger, so I can follow the path of the true festivals. Meanwhile though let me point to other readers who may be as uncultured as me two of my favourite (and maybe also two of the most popular) festivals in the Uk!. First lets go up to the beautiful Scotland, because comon, who doesnt like Scotland??!! And I can tell you know that these Scots now how to have fun! T in the Park will take place between the 6th and the 8th of July and has many activities like stalls, food markets and even a SILENT DISCO! (just loving the idea of Scots in kilts dancing in a silent discook I may have a Scottish fetishism..) The confirmed line up includes people likeguess! The Stones Roses! A part from them theres rumours for Florence + the Machine, Snow Patrol, The Killers and oh dear! Even Katy Perry. The price is gonna be around 200 full weekend with Thursday camping. http://www.tinthepark.com/content/ And finally our last stop takes us to the Island of Wight Festival a real core festival that started in the 60s and has seen people like Bob Dylan, the Doors or Jimmy Hendrix performing in its stages. The festival which is now held near Newport will take place from the 22nd till the 24th of June, prices will go around 175 with camping and a line up that includes people like Tom Petty The Heartbreakers Elbow, Example, Noah and The Whale, Feeder, Pearl Jam, Biffy Clyro, Tinie Tempah, Jessie J, Madness, Labrinth, Bruce Springsteen The E Street Band, Noel Gallaghers High Flying Birds, The Vaccines, Band of Skulls and Joan Armatrading. http://www.isleofwightfestival.com/ Article written by Cristina Torres. You can follow her on Twitter at @cristorresfer. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/120 Sun, 11 Mar 2012 07:55:37 BST Singer, songwriter and pianist, Jennifer Lee Nickersons music may only consist of just her voice and her keys, but that is enough for her to produce simply stunning music. The singer was born and raised in Central Arkansas, right outside of Little Rock. It was here that she discovered her love for music at an early age. Her mother plays the piano and Jennifer took interest in it the moment she could reach the keys. In 2010 her track, I Cant Fix You featured on the album, Between the Deep, a compilation of unsigned artists released by Deep South Digital. The track showcases her talents as a songwriter as the lyrics are deeply moving which is enhanced by the melodic playing that accompanies it. The singer sites her influences as The Beatles, Van Morrison, Foreigner and Led Zeppelin, although her music differs greatly from them. Her other tracks, such as Dont Be Ashamed and Love Me are a million miles away from her rock influences with their soulful and soothing sounds. Jennifer Lee Nickersons music is the perfect example of how when its done right a single instrument can be as powerful as an entire orchestra. The mixture of her soulful voice and the elegantly simplistic nature of the tracks create truly beautiful songs that are likely to lead her to success. Review made by Kate Laura Teasdale. You can follow her on Twitter at @Kate_Laura . http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/119 Sat, 10 Mar 2012 07:50:13 BST What is creativity and how can we stay creative at any age? In an interview, Jonah Lehrer cites the work of Dean Simonton of UC Davis, who studied creativity in a variety of fields and found that a decline in creativity over time can be attributed to acculturation. If youre a painter you fall into a style, you develop your clichs your shtick. If youre a scientist, you know how to apply for certain grants from the NIH, and if youre an entrepreneur, you know how certain ideas work and you stick with them, says Lehrer. As musicians, its really easy to fall into this trap because we have a live audience right in front of us that expects us to play certain songs. How many times have you found yourself writing a song for similar instrumentation, using a similar chord progression, or similar lyrics, as your other songs? Trying something new is definitely taking a chance, but its an essential part of staying vital professionally. You dont have to go overboard, just try a few new things and see how people react. It will go a long way towards maintaining your creativity. Article written by Isaku Kageyama. You can follow him on Twitter at @isakukageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/118 Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:00:53 BST We are now just 10 days away from the Winter edition of our Best New Unsigned Artist and Best New Song contests! The top prize is an annual package offered by Mobile Roadie to the winners of both competitions to build an Android or iPhone App for your band (worth $1200 each). Other great stuff offered by Tracks and Fields, JMD Distribution and Tweak Music Mixing. Check out the full list of prizes here. How to Win: - Visit WeLoveYourSongs and create an artist profile (if you dont already have one). - Submit some of your best songs - Encourage fans to vote for you Right now Milos Vukomanovic is leading both rankings, with Cal Jon and Kane right on his heels. Its not too late to get your fans to Love your songs. The deadline is Thursday 15th of March. Best of luck from everyone here at WLYS! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/117 Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:56:56 BST After spending much of his life in Athens, Greece; Milos Vukomanovic is back in his native country, Serbia. The multi lingual singer-songwriter opens up about his family life, musical inspiration and much more. 1. You were born in Serbia, you live in Greece, but you were so close to becoming Italian. I read a story about it. Do you regret not being in Italy now? First of all I would like to thank you for the interview. It really means a lot for me. On your site www.weloveyoursong.com, I heard very good songs and I met some good artists. I am really glad that I belong in that group and I thank you again. Yes I was born in Serbia, Belgrade in 1987. In 1994 my parents decided to go to Italy via Greece, but when we arrived to Corfu we had financial and other problems so we didnt manage to get on board for Italy. After that we decided to go to Athens. I dont regret anything that I have done in my life, and I am really happy for all. I am very proud that I spent 19 years in Athens. I miss Athens and my friends very much. 2. You live in Serbia now, place where you were born. Is it your home? Yes, I live in Belgrade right now and that is pretty good question is this my home. I am Serbian and I will always be, the point is, I never lived here and I do not know the lifestyle. Many people ask me do you love Greece or Serbia? I believe that this kind of question should not be asked to a person who cannot answer it. I love Serbia because I was born there and I love Greece because I was raised there. This time it is true that I really miss Athens, but this doesnt mean that I dont love Belgrade; I love both the same. 3. But you sing in Italian. Why? I dont sing only in Italian hahahaha. I try to sing in many languages and to learn many as I can. I love Italian language because its very beautiful and I love Italian music too. I am a huge fan of many artists who inspire me ,thats why I am singing in Italian. 4. There is also a song in English. Is it because you want to be famous in the United Kingdom, or just because English is good language to express your emotions? I think that the English language is the most popular and known to the world. I dont think about the publicity right now, I was just trying to do a good job. Sometimes I write my own lyrics and sometimes I get help from a very good friend of mine, Angelina. Shes been writing poems and lyrics and when I need something quickly, and I know that I can find it from her. I think that (English) is a language to express your emotions, but more importantly many people will understand you. 5. I really like this English songs. Lets Get Down is very good. Thank you very much. The song Lets Get Down was written 11 months ago by myself when I was disappointed about some things in my life. Lets Get Down talks about the problems that we have, but it is also dynamic and tries to tell you everything is gonna be alright, lets move on. Also the song Lets Get Down is included on my second English album, named Mountains Heart. 6. Is music your biggest love? Music is one of my biggest loves, I couldnt think of my life without music and Football. I have spent so much time with them and really my heart would be broken without them; and thats the truth. Besides (music and Football), I found another love and it is literature. I started writing two books named 680 miles and One Minute Man. I also write training books for football for kids between 9 to 15 years old. 7. Tell me more please about your second love - football. Football is health, dynamism, and passion. Football makes you think and act quickly, it teaches you to be disciplined. Through football you know other people and unite with them because of the good and bad times you have spent with them. I just love it! I started playing when I was 7 years old. I have changed many teams, and had many experiences. I play like an amateur, I favor my left foot, and play many positions. My favorite teams are Red Star Belgrade, Olympiakos, Manchester United, and Juventus. My favorite players are Savicevic, Stojkovic, Mihajlovic, Giggs, Beckham, Tsiartas, Cantona, Best, Raul, Rivaldo, Del Piero, Totti and many more. 8. Is it easy to be an artist in Serbia? I dont know, I just think that if you want to be famous and popular you have to work hard, and that means for all countries, not only for Serbia. 9. Your music is very popular on our site www.weloveyoursongs.com. Do you know why? What do people like in your music? How do you feel? I am very proud about that and I just thank my friends because they really support me and they like my staff. I dont know what people love about my songs and my music. When I was playing guitar at a park, some people came and stopped to listen and some others didnt. Everyone has their own taste about music, if someone loves it or someone doesnt I can agree with that. I am happy when I play guitar and sing, it makes me to forget my problems, relaxes my soul and lets me think clearly. 10. On your photo you have a guitar in your hands. What do you feel when you have your guitar in your hands? Are you happy in this moment? Hahaha my sister took that photo was on the train traveling from Belgrade to Athens. That guitar is my fathers. It is 45-50 years old, when you hold something in your hands and you make other people dance or sing, the feeling is indescribable and of course Im the happiest man in the world... Questions prepared by Piotr Balkus (@PiotrBalkus). Interview edited by Bryne Hetznecker. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/116 Sun, 04 Mar 2012 14:18:32 BST Diversify you hear this a lot when talking about investing, and simply put, its the same as saying, Dont put all your eggs in one basket. For independent musicians, this means to work in a wide variety of fields so that youre not relying on a single income source. In order to work in different fields, you need a wide variety of skills, and you can only obtain these by putting your mind to it and working hard. Its a lot of work, but I can tell you from experience that this will pay off, and its one of the few ways musicians can begin to have a stable income. For example, if youre primarily a performer, try working on composition or production so that you can work as a songwriter or producer. If youre doing a lot of wedding gigs, you might start teaching on the side. Even if its not a lot of money in the beginning, when you combine several trickles, it becomes a stream, and thats what youre trying to build. Try setting aside some time to analyze where youre income is coming from, and if there are any untapped opportunities. This will really go a long way. Article written by Isaku Kageyama. You can follow him on Twitter at @isakukageyama . http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/115 Fri, 02 Mar 2012 15:28:39 BST If you have ever bought a new microphone, you may have noticed some strange looking circular diagrams on the side of the box or in the instructions. These diagrams are known as polar graphs. The polar pattern of a microphone indicates how sensitive a microphone is to sounds coming from different directions. This is sometimes referred to as its directionality. The polar pattern of a microphone is represented in a polar graph, as shown below. An Omnidirectional polar pattern, as the name suggests, is great at picking up sound from all directions. A Cardioid polar pattern has a heart shaped pickup pattern. Sound from these mics is mainly picked up from the front and to a lesser extent the sides. A Bidirectional polar pattern looks like a figure of eight. It is good at picking up sound from the front and back. Many ribbon mics have a figure of eight polar graph. Some microphones will also allow you to change the directionality of a microphone through a simple switch. It is worth taking some time to experiment with different mics to get a feel for what will suit your particular recording situation. Article written by Chris Haines. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/114 Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:27:42 BST The Dirty Words are a fresh British group offering a contemporary take on the Indie Rock genre mixed with a distinct punk influence and not afraid to slow it all down at times. This punk influence is most discernible in the track entitled Ride. This is initiated first by the drums (Brendan Walsh) and joined by a power-chord based riff, utilising the simple yet effective technique of the genre. A brief halt from the instruments filled by the line theres always someone better delivered Pete Doherty-style by James Manning adequately kicks off the song. Some backing vocals from Andy Clayton help establish the catchy chorus; I envisage this would sound great at festival (or the downstairs of a manky pub!) Beat is much more of an indie track. Some trendy licks from the rhythm guitar generate a rough texture here, especially in the chorus, which again stands out as a real sing-along. Think The Fratellis or The Kooks on this one, though without disingenuous emulating. A breakdown between the second and final chorus, carried by Tom Nightingales stylish bass, adds another dimension to the song, taking the tone right down and seizing listeners. Some tasteful lead guitar here also. If it came to releasing a single, this would be my recommendation for the Northampton lads. Another indie number is Nine Months, though more intimate than Beat. The continuous riff becomes slightly hypnotic underneath Mannings vocals, which embody more feeling than previously mentioned tracks. This riff, with a little distortion is also the chorus, with nothing more than some uh-uh-uh-ohs for lyrics. This simplicity and repetition works well and is interrupted only at the end by a melodic guitar solo followed by a heavier outro. Not a sad song, but one for a solo, late night train journey. The Dirty Words understanding of their genre is clearly conveyed in their well-crafted songs, as is their attitude which seems to be authentic towards music. Review by Davey Woods. [Twitter - @DaveyWoods89] http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/113 Sat, 25 Feb 2012 09:38:18 BST Do you have business cards that you can readily pass out to new contacts? If not, I definitely recommend getting some printed. Business cards not only make it easier for people to contact you when they want you to come and perform, they also boost your credibility. The minimum information you need on your business card is your name, your website, phone number, and e-mail address. I also recommend printing a postal address, mobile phone number, and fax number if you have one. Dont just pass out business cards to people you meet. Leave them out when youre busking or post them on notice boards. Business cards dont cost a lot, and you can really get a lot of mileage out of them! Article written by Isaku Kageyama. You can follow him on Twitter at @isakukageyama http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/112 Fri, 24 Feb 2012 11:19:52 BST WeLoveYourSongs attended the 10th SF MusicTech Summit (www.sfmusictech.com) held in San Francisco. There could not have been a better time for music innovators to get together. These innovators came from all over world, including musicians, developers, entrepreneurs and some major music labels. (Yes, Google, Yahoo, and Pandora were there as well.) Very similar to ours, their mission is to help musicians connect better with fans, empower peoples discovery of new music, and change the ways musicians and innovators grow their fanbase and bottom-line. What are some highlights that musicians can do to grow their fanbase? Lets check some of them out: OneSheet -- allows musicians to set up a web presence in minutes by bringing in content they already have on other websites. Think of this as a one-stop website full of content already posted across the web: music, videos, photos, concert dates, blogs, social streams, mailing list signups, online stores and more. Bounce Mobile -- creates interactive music-focussed applications accessed via mobile devices. They offer a more fun way to interact with music as the user listens. The Social Radio -- allows users to listen to their tweets while playing music. (In private beta) Mobbase -- allows artists to create, manage, and update their custom mobile app (Android, iPhone) and desktop app. CrowdStream -- helps connect artists with their fans at events, with social media sharing functions. Is there one best technology or platform for artists to maximize their fan-base? Even the biggest labels, like EMI, and marketing/media experts say NO. They all try out new strategies, tools, and techniques depending on who the targeted fans for an artist may be. Writer: Hoa Tran Email: ht@weloveyoursongs.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/111 Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:46:56 BST Christa Vi is a talented Australian / German singer/songwriter, based in East London. Her debut EP is produced by George Shilling (Coldcut, Yazz, Teenage Fanclub, Primal Scream etc), and is due for release on March 26. Visit her page on WLYS and her website for previews and remixes. 1. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your musical background? I grew up in Australia but have also spent a fair bit of my childhood in Germany as my mum comes from there. I am bilingual and definitely was brought up with a lot of German culture as most of my family live there. Music - especially classical music - is simply part of German life and everyone seems to learn to play an instrument growing up. All of my family play classical instruments. I learnt classical piano from the age of 7, went on to learn some jazz piano, jazz vocal training and learned acoustic guitar from about the age of 10. Ive always liked to write my own songs and have been in original bands since about 2000 including a live electronica group in Australia called Casper. My writing for this solo project is a bit more folky but also includes an electronic element as I love electronic music. I like to collaborate with electronic producers to see how the sound of my songs can be translated into something new. At the end of the day a good song is the most important element though. I try to write accessible pop/folk music that I hope will stick in peoples minds a little bit! 2. Music is a big part of your life, when did you know this was your way to go? Well since highschool and in church as a teenager I started singing in bands and just loved it. I guess being brought up in churches does encourage you to sing and perform music from a young age. But when you have the desire to sing, play or write music its something you simply have to do so you just do it. Ive always had other day jobs, so have not yet really tried to make a living from music. With this project Im hoping that by doing it all myself without a label etc, Ill produce an end result I really love and one where havent had to compromise too much. I do want to eventually release a full length album on a label though - probably an independent label - but well see what happens.... 3. You moved from Australia to London in 2003; what would you say is the biggest differences between the music scene in Australia and London? Well the sheer population of the UK, especially London, provides so many more possibilities to play to a good audience who might be interested in the music you are making. There are so many more opportunities and creative people here but it is also a more intense and competitive life - thus it has taken me many years to get to the point where I can afford the time and money to record and release my music again. The music scene in my home town of Adelaide in Australia is small but supportive and you kind of know everyone. Coming to London was a challenge as it is so huge and nobody knows or cares who you are, so you have to kind of start from the bottom again - not the easiest road but character building! It been nice recently as a few musicians friends from home have now moved to London and were playing gigs together over here. The band The Dark Lights have even remixed my song Your Heart so its great working with old friends from the Adelaide music scene again. 4. Whats the story behind Long Way Home? Its kind of a collection of thoughts and images I experienced when I worked in a job that required me to travel outside London on trains a fair bit. Although it was a nice change from the hectic pace of London, I was often alone and felt foreign and isolated in those small English towns I went to. I spent a lot of time daydreaming, reminiscing and thinking while looking out of train windows into the rainy countryside and sometimes would only talk to one or two people in a day. I made the song into something more wistful and included the bit about the boy who was travelling on trains hungover after a night out - something else I have done a fair bit of myself! Its more a metaphor for life than a tangible story. Take the long way home is about your approach to life - do you stay in your safe zone or experience new things, and risk feeling out of place and alone I guess Ive tried to push myself to live in new places, try new things and sometimes find myself feeling a bit lost, but wouldnt change this about my life. Its the dreams I have and the memories Ive made that make up my experience of life and I think Ill probably keep living this way until I die. I often dont really know what my songs are about until after Ive written them, so that is my meaning at least for now. Hopefully it sense to other people too - although Im very happy for others to derive their own meanings from my lyrics as well.... 5. Your debut EP is going to be released early 2012, what can you tell us about it? Well I have a few releases planned actually. The first single EP Your Heart comes out on 26th March 2012 including three exciting and really contrasting remixes of the track. Im launching it with my band at a gig on the 23rd March in London at the Lock Tavern. Long Way Home is the next single due for release around May/June - also with some remixes. I hope to release a four track EP of new songs sometime around October. After that, Ill see about a full length album release, but thats a way off yet! 6. Whats the best advice youve been given and who was it from? I met the UK band Clock Opera recently as I was interviewing them for Rooms Magazine who I do some freelance writing for. The lead singer, Guy Connelly, said that whenever they perform they are trying to win over the audience - like a new kid in the class making friends. I agree that you should never assume that people will like your music, rather you should try to win them over - its important keep this kind of respect for your audience. 7. Apart from your EP release, whats up for you in 2012? There are a few collaborations with electronic producers in the pipeline, which is exciting, including a Brooklyn/NYC based producer called Wealth and an electronic duo from Sydney called Coupons. Its also been exciting to work with other electronic producers on the remixes of my songs including NuDisco producer Show Your Shoe from Switzerland, UKBass producer Reggie Pepper from South London and Southampton based dubstep producer Asa. Id love to do more electronic collaborations in future, so will see what happens! Interview made by Acuvi, a music blog focusing on new and unsigned music, and the people behind. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/110 Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:03:13 BST The choice of microphone is definitely a personal preference. There is no definitive answer to this question! Great records have been created with some of the cheapest microphones and also some of the most expensive microphones. If you are looking to spend under a 100 on a microphone to record vocals then the most popular option is the Shure SM58. This microphone has been used in countless recordings and is seen as a good all rounder. The mid range of this microphone is emphasised, making it excellent choice for rock and rap vocals. In order to understand which other microphones might suit your needs, its necessary to understand a little bit about the different types available. 1. Dynamic A dynamic microphone has a moving coil and uses electromagnetic conduction to capture sound. Dynamic microphones are commonly used in live music because they are rugged and relatively cheap to replace or repair. Examples include: Shure SM58 / 57. 2. Ribbon A ribbon mic is similar to a dynamic mic, but the diaphragm is a ribbon of conductive material, which is usually aluminium. Ribbon mics are often considered to be the most smooth and natural sounding mics, but they have gained a reputation for being quite fragile. Ribbon mics also dont require a power supply or batteries in operation. Examples include: Beyer M130 M160. 3. Condenser (capacitor) Condenser microphones are often more fragile and expensive than dynamic microphones. They are generally more sensitive than other mics, which means they are good at picking up soft or distant sounds. Condenser mics require additional power to operate. Examples include: AKG C3000, Octava MK-219 4. Electret Electret microphones are another type of capacitor microphone and require a pre amplifier. Examples include: AKG C1000. Conclusion Even if you are lucky enough to find a mic that suits the vocals you are recording, that same mic may not be quite right for recording drums or other instruments. If you have the opportunity, it is always worth trying as many microphones as you can to find a couple that suit your purposes. The most important thing is to trust your instincts and find a microphone that works for you. Article written by Chris Haines. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/109 Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:47:38 BST Whats better to survive this cold (really really cold weather for us folks living in London) than to think about summer...long dayswarm nightscold beerssandy beachesand music festivals! Because yeah, summer is coming guys and its time to start preparing your agendas, planning your holidays, buying tickets!..so you dont miss your favorite festivals this season. To help you decide here is a list of some of the best European festivals and what they have lined up for us this summer 2012! And to start with lets go south to the beautiful, sunny, passionate, tasty and also my home country Spain! Every summer you can enjoy a lot of festivals, but Ive chosen 3 to start. Fiberfib - Benicassim 2012: One week to enjoy alternative rock and electronic music besides the beach in the Spanish Costa Azahar. It started being local but now FIB is getting bigger and bigger every year.The tickets cost around 155 pounds and include the camping in the site and many activities. According to the official website this year line up goes with The Stone Roses, New Order, Florence + The Machine, Noel Gallaghers High Flying Birds, Dizzee Rascal, David Guetta, Bombay Bicycle Club, Cooper, Crystal Castles, De La Soul, Example, The Horrors, Joe Crepsculo, Katy B, Kurt Vile The Violators, Miles Kane, The Vaccines, Thee Brandy Hips, Department S, Disappears, Howler, Maverick Sabre, Spector, Los Tiki Phantoms, Todd Terje and many other groups. http://www.fiberfib.com/ Sonar 2012 : one of the most important events for Electronic music lovers worldwide this festival will take place in the heart of the charismatic Barcelona onthe 14, 15andJune 16. The tickets are around 155 euros and the line up for this year includes The Roots, deadmau5, Hot Chip, Modeselektor, James Blake dj, Fatboy Slim, Richie Hawtin, Amon Tobins ISAM, Squarepusher, Nicolas Jaar, Luciano, Azari III, Jacques Lus Cont, Friendly Fires, Metronomy, John Talabot, Mouse On Mars. http://www.sonar.es/ Primavera sound: another big festival in Barcelona but this time for those who love independent music (whatever this means nowadays!) in six different spaces around the city from the 30th of May till the 3rd of June. The price is around 190 euros and the insane line up that keeps on growing and growing include names like the following: A$AP Rocky, AraabMUZIK, Archers Of Loaf, Atlas Sound, Beach House, Beirut, Bjrk, Black Lips, Codeine, Danny Brown, Death Cab For Cutie, Death Grips, Death In Vegas, Dirty Beaches, Field Music, Franz Ferdinand, Girls, Grimes, Hanni El Khatib, Hype Williams, I Break Horses, Japandroids, Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel), Justice, Kings Of Convenience, Liturgy, Mazzy Star, Melvins, Napalm Death, Neon Indian, OFF!, Real Estate, Refused, SBTRKT, Sharon Van Etten, Spiritualized, St. Etienne, The Cure, The Drums, The Rapture, The War On Drugs, The xx, Thee Oh Sees, Trash Talk, Veronica Falls, Washed Out, Wavves, Wilco, Yo La Tengo... http://www.primaverasound.com/index But if you had enough of Spain (although I dont know how that can be possible!) and want to discover another festivals in the Mediterranean here are two of the most popular in the beautiful coasts of Croatia. Garden Festival: It takes place both in the mainland coast of Croatia and in numerous boats were parties are organized, its the definitive place for Electronic and dance music lovers. It will last from the 4th till the 11th of July 2012 and the tickets will be around 80 euros. Live Acts include: Nicolas Jaar + Tiger + Woods + 2020 Soundsystem + Yesking + No Fakin Feat Kwasi.?Djs include: Ben Ufo + Metro Area(Darshan Jesrani)+ Kenny Dope + Greg Wilson ** Tim Sweeney + Space Dimension Controller + 6th Borough Project + Laura Jones + Eats Everything + Appleblim + Gavin Herlihy + Justin Vandervolgen + Midland + Crazy P Soundsystem + Pbr Streetgang + Solomun + David August + Maxxi Soundsystem + Session Victim + Nick The Record + Felix Dickinson + Funkineven + Fatima + James Holroyd + Alexander Nutt + Waifs Strays + Christophe Lukas + Bobby Beige + Dean sunshine Smith + Adam Regan + Ole Smokey + Stu Patterson + Dave Jarvis + Terry Farley + Jogarde + William Collins + Gatto Fritto + Phil South + Ian Blevins + Mr Doris + Greymatter + Matty J Ben Terry + Phat Phil Cooper + Ste Hodge + Futureboogie Djs + Steve Cobby(Fila Brasilia) http://www.thegardenfestival.eu/ Inmusic festival: Set in a idyllic location in an island inside lake Jarun, iNmusic festival is the biggest open-air festival in Croatia and one of the top in Europe. A part from sun, beaches and scenery those who have been there say that it has all the good features of a big festival without the crowds of one. The line up of the 2012 is yet to be published but so you can have an idea here is the 2011 one: Jamiroquai, Arcade Fire, Cypress Hill, Grinderman, The Streets, TV on the Radio, Mastodon, Jello Biafra, Buraka Som Sistema, Gentleman, THE D, Elementa http://www.inmusicfestival.com/en In the next article will take a look at festivals in, lets says, chillier places in Europe, in the UK..and also in lands far far away.. Article written by Cristina Torres. You can follow her on Twitter at @cristorresfer. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/108 Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:16:37 BST Hey guys, we are currently looking for a fresh and modern composition to be used as soundtrack for the new video of Grow VC (http://www.growvc.com), the first global, transparent, community-based platform dedicated to entrepreneurs and their needs. Grow VC enables great ideas and great teams to get visibility with the right investing audience, funding and support earlier with less effort. Grow VC is more than crowd funding, its a nurturing ecosystem where entrepreneurs can connect with experts, funders, team members, new customers and partners to realize their ideas. With a community of over 12,000 users, the homepage of their website, where the video with your music will be placed, receives ten of thousands of visualizations every month. The selected artist will be also featured on our blog and track reviewed by someone of the WLYS team. Here the video you have to submit your music for: All what you have to do is to send us a stunning track of 1 minute and 23 seconds, by email to submit@weloveyoursongs.com . The best track will be selected by a committee composed of members of both Grow VC and WeLoveYourSongs. This is definitely a great opportunity for you to get great exposure through a truly international audience! Here some more details: - Music genre: All genres are welcome - Duration of the track: 1:23 - One minute and twenty three seconds. - Submission deadline: March 31, 2012 - Track format: MP3 - Media distribution: Internet - Territory: World How to participate: 1. Be an artist part of our community on WeLoveYourSongs.com 2. Compose a tailor made track for the Grow VC video 3. Send it to us by email at submit@weloveyoursongs.com SUBMIT YOUR MUSIC NOW ! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/107 Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:59:32 BST The 80/20 principle states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. The 80/20 principle is often applied in business as a guideline to say for example, 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers, or that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your products. For musicians, this means that you will be doing yourself a huge favor by taking care of the core 20% of fans that really support you. If you havent already, you might consider making a fan club, and offer these core fans special benefits like opportunities to meet the band or visit a recording session. Even if you dont take it to that extent, you might create an additional mailing list of people who have bought your products, and give them special benefits. In my own case, the 80/20 principle acts as a reminder for me to review how Im using my time to make sure I havent fallen into a rabbit hole. Sometimes I find myself working on things that really arent worth the time and effort, and I have to decrease their priority or cut them out entirely so that I can be more efficient. Article written by Isaku Kageyama. You can follow him on Twitter at @isakukageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/106 Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:18:42 BST If we turn to books to define what the concept of Indie is, they tell us that Indie music or Indie rock is a genre of music that originated in the UK and USA in the 80s. Even though Indie is traced back to the 80s the term Indie itself was used since the 1950s to identify music produced by independent labels who looked for artists unsigned by major companies. Most people, specially the younger ones, identify Indie rock as a style or genre of music, rather than as a way and philosophy of producing it. These two different ideas blur the concept of Indie music today. If we go back to the 80s inside the indie music etiquette we could include musicians from many genres like rock, pop, grunge, and punk that although diverse, had something in common --- the low budget with which they produced their music. Although This was a disadvantage for most musicians Indie musicians and the small labels that stood behind them took it as an opportunity to explore sounds, lyrics and aesthetics without the pressure of having to please the mainstream audiences. Nonetheless the explosion of Indie music as a recognized genre happened in the 90s paradoxically when it started to lose its essence. During this decade, groups like Nirvana started to have a huge backup by major labels. For example, although we can categorize their first album, Bleach as independent, their second album Nevermind doesnt lie inside the strict meaning of this term. The so called Indie groups in this decade continued to produce the music style borne in the 80s but now they had all the resources and money of the big music companies. As mentioned before, the concept of Indie may be a little bit confusing, often related with alternative and non-commercial music. The truth is that the sales of the groups identified as Indies continued growing during the first decade of this century. Many detractors argument that Indie musicians and fans only care about going against the commercial and pop culture, leaving in a second place the quality of their music but not the sales they produce waving the alternative or Indie etiquette. Here, on welveyoursongs.com we think that although some of this criticism may have a little bit of truth, the rising of internet and of new technologies has given a new meaning to independent music and a new opportunity for musicians who are not even signed by any label to experiment, produce and distribute their music worldwide. We see how this happens every day. Here. Now. The only thing left is to proclaim the death of Indie and to wish long live to the new Indie. This article is only a really short summary of the genre called indie, with a lot of gaps to fill. Thats why we ask to the members of the WLYS community for your collaboration and comments on the topic. What do you think about the evolution of Indie music? What is the situation of Indie music today? Is there a real Indie genre? WE CANT WAIT to read your comments guys! Article written by Cristina Torres, a new London based contributor to our blog. You can follow her on Twitter at @cristorresfer. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/105 Sun, 12 Feb 2012 11:51:17 BST The UK hip/hop scene has never been more illuminated by mainstream lights than it is today. Whether its the steady-paced poetry of hip-hop or the accelerated energy of grime, the UK charts will host singles from its own artists every week; some of which have began to spread over the pond to the US. Utilising both genres, is West-London rapper WKB. Listening to Paradox, which appears on Noel Clarkes feature film 4:3:2:1, its clear that he can spit at a grime tempo and his voice matches the style. The same applies to Daily Medicine, although I think this track does more to emphasise WKBs voice with a darker beat behind it. Perhaps more beguiling to a wider audience are tracks such as Trust Is A Gamble and Fallen Soldiers. These exhibit more hip-hop elements, although there is still a discernible grime tone. Trust Is A Gamble allows WKB to offer listeners some urban poetry: F**k love, I put the cuffs on Cupid, cos out in these streets, man, trust is useless. I see a dark face, Im in a dark place, I make dark movements so I leave a dark trace. Lyrics are a strong part of WKBs material; I detect aspects of Taskforce and Orifice Vulgatron (Foreign Beggars) on this. Moving even closer to the mainstream are Your World and Touch Me, which are both complete with a sung chorus from a female artist with interjections from our MC. In both tracks the theme seems to be love and heartache: If a shank dont tear your heart then love will, so then I guess that means Im in trouble. I been through it all, from street fights to bar brawls but Im facing the toughest fight above all. (Touch Me). These verses, again of a more hip-hop nature, work very well in setting a poignant, street-life scene which is ever relevant in WKBs music. For new listeners I would recommend Trust Is A Gamble and Touch Me as I feel these are where WKB is at his best. Although the grime works well (and its important to vary from one style) a slower tempo gives him time to express his thoughts and us a chance to listen. Review by Davey Woods. [Twitter - @DaveyWoods89] http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/104 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:15:37 BST Used gear is cheaper than buying brand new gear, but you also run the risk of it breaking or malfunctioning after using it only a few times. With new gear, you can usually get a replacement for free or just a fraction of the original price, but thats not always the situation with used gear. So what are some of the things that you can buy used? Hardware If youre a drummer, this means cymbal stands and drum thrones. For vocalists and guitar players, this means mic stands, guitar stands, and cases. You can usually tell if something is in good condition, and getting parts repaired is usually not that big of a deal. Software Run a trial version on your computer to see if a piece of software works in your environment. Then go purchase it used. You dont get support, but who calls support just to wait on hold for an hour anyway? Acoustic instruments If you have a chance to play the instrument beforehand, this could be a good way to save some money. I generally tend to shy away from electronic equipment such as mixing boards, mics, and amps but if you know what youre doing, these could be good purchases too! Article written by Isaku Kageyama. You can follow him on Twitter at @isakukageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/103 Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:18:02 BST Allowing your fans to download your music for free may not seem like one of the smartest ideas if you are a struggling artist; but its certainly one of the best ways to promote yourself, or your band. The idea of giving your music away for free is one that Trent Reznor has talked rather candidly about on his blog: Forget thinking you are going to make any real money from record sales. Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY. As an artist you want as many people as possible to hear your work. Word of mouth is the only true marketing that matters. Source: NIN Forum When putting the download on your website, make sure it is clearly visible on the front page. Dont hide it away in another page. Imagine you are in the position of your fans: You came to the website to get the free download - it needs to be in front of you, otherwise youll just go back to what you were doing before. If you are intending to give away multiple free downloads consider letting your fans know when they can download each new track. For example: Every Monday evening at 7PM. This will help to bring regular traffic to your website, and help build your fan base. Of course you dont have to give all your music away for free, but as Mr Reznor rightly points out above, it is crucial to get as much exposure as you can. Article written by Chris Haines, a new London based contributor to our blog. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/102 Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:08:55 BST I had the pleasure of speaking to Henric from Heart Sick Groans. Heart Sick Groans are like the cheerful surf hums and the sandy bleak streak hair that beach boys have, with the playful electronic vibes of three gentlemen from the misty Swedish forests. Violins! Vocal harmonies! Killer melodies! FUN! 1. Tell us all about Heart Sick Groans and how you guys started out. Weve been friends since role playing days in our early teens, then our group of friends started making short films, then music. Then everyone left our hometown Sundsvall, and were the only ones left. Thats when we started boiling and frying up these little pop gems. That was back in 2007, we got a sound early on, Johans enigmatic folk voice, Martins epic drumming and Henrics philantropic productions made way for our indie pop folk surf tropic style. Were also often blissed with the guest work of bass player Gunnar Carln and Marcus Brnnstrm. 2. There is obviously some Beach Boys style in your songs what artists inspire yous? We always read a lot so, on the writer side, Sture Dahlstrm, Ivar Lo Johansson, Simon Grdenfors, Jan Fridegrd and the likes. Musically, we as a group, basically only agree on the greatness of Edmundo Ros and Lou Christie. Christie used to open up for Rolling Stones in the mid 60s and had some kind of fling with Diana Ross. Martins favorite band is the Swedish techno group Antiloop, Johan loves Roland Cedermark and Henric is a long time fan club member of the defunct Swedish space opera band Big Money. 3. You guys have a new single coming out soon, tell us about it YES WE DO! Were back to our folk roots with a poignant electronic production, atmospheric, and brilliant pop, our best song so far! Its number 2 out of 6 in a new batch of singles well be releaseing about every fifth week during the spring. It has Johan on vocals, Marcus Brnnstrm on angelic backing vocals and ingenius guitar work. He also wrote the mid-8 with us. Its called If The Canary Stops Singing, its a tale we dug up from an old mine legend in our home municipality Medelpad, Sweden. 4. Tell us about your first gig ever and the best gig you have performed?so far. The first gig we did was August 2008 at Green Field Festival! We played only old Swedish folk songs and Johan was wearing a suit sewn out of the Finnish flag (no disrespect). The best gig we played was at an afterparty Evolet in Sundsvall 4 am after some clubbing. Someone had let four white rabbits out and there was lots of carrots for everyone. 5. What is your favourite thing about weloveyoursongs.com Chrissy 3 6. What do you hope to achieve with your music in 2012? Release our new batch of glimmering 60s flirting, composing songs like its 2020! We aim to arrange a beach blanket bingo in the summer. Meet you there, stranger! Interview made by Cooki C, a new London based contributor to our blog. You can follow her on Twitter @CookichipMusic . http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/101 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:27:47 BST The only way to move your career forward is to take action and make something happen. Unfortunately, when a lot of musicians decide they are going to take action, they end up overworking themselves for 2-3 days, before falling back to their normal routines. In order to avoid falling into this trap, you need to first realize that success in music does not happen overnight, the same way you didnt learn how to sing or play overnight. You practiced a little at a time for a long timeframe. Think of your marketing in the same way. Only do what you can handle on a long term basis. In the end, this makes a lot more sense and will get you better results than pushing yourself to the max for a limited timeframe. Article written by Isaku Kageyama. You can follow him on Twitter at @isakukageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/100 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:51:13 BST Listening to Premedicated, the EP from English four-piece Dekota, I recall exactly how I became such an advocate of rock music. Here is a band that have seemingly resisted any urge to carelessly thrash out some distortion and scream throughout every song, but produced a raw, moody sound still exhibiting some hard-rock moments. First track, Dirty Secret is the optimal way to introduce the band to new listeners. Within the first minute one can identify how tastefully the musicians play together and cannot fail to acknowledge how suitably Rob Leeks voice rides the steady groove of the verse. From Dekotas list of influences, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden are, for me, the foremost discernible (I would also include Black Stone Cherry). The vocals undoubtedly reflect those of Chris Cornell (Soundgarden) and also Scott Stapp (Creed); their harsh finish fundamental to the bands torn-jeans grunge sound. Much of the same can be said for the song Rain. From intro, to verse and into chorus, there is a fluid change from heavy riff to acoustic again Leeks vocals inextricably appropriate. There is an effective play with structure in this track, as with others on the EP, emphasising the last chorus and instrumental finish, where Brian Gore offers some stylish lead guitar. Dekota demonstrate some versatility with softer, more mellow tune Show You. This is a superb addition to the EP; in the guitar parts and overall tone I am reminded unmistakably of Incubus. A mature, acoustic-based track that succeeds in avoiding clichs. I must however highlight the enervating inclusion of out-of-tune backing vocals in the mid-section. Songs Save You and Shattered are more akin to the first two songs, although both host more sing-along, melodic choruses. Especially with Shattered, these are the kind of choruses that linger in ones head for days after hearing. Premedicated is a great EP from a band who are credibly producing some grunge/rock material free from novelty and falseness. Review by Davey Woods. [Twitter - @DaveyWoods89] http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/99 Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:42:55 BST SOPA and PIPA were put to rest early this week after the fall of MEGAUPLOAD and the extreme opposition of sites like Google, Facebook and Wikipedia. Nonetheless, its shadow remains present, and likely to come back at any time to disturb internets main nature-, freedom of speech, a context in which todays generation has been born and raised. There were many videos circulating trying to explain what lies beyond this act and why it is a direct threat to our freedom. One of the best examples is this one: http://gu.com/p/34aqv. But why are SOPA and PIPA so dangerous for us? Well, first of all because they change the liability rules around copyright infringement. Before, under 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act websites that allowed their users to upload content were protected of any charges regarding piracy as long as they kept their eyes open against infringing content, removing it from their site. But now, SOPA substantially alters this system, and the companies can be held responsible for whatever is in their domains. Somehow that measure will seem logical for many people, but if we think on how we deal with the Internet nowadays, this is plain and simple a back step for us. Users couldnt be anymore the creators of websites like Wikipedia, or Youtube as those companies would have to return to a model of editing everything before publishing to protect themselves from any legal action. Webs like us, at weloveyoursongs.com may be obligated to change all the process that makes us who we are, since the worth of our site lies on the will of our users to share their work through us. With SOPA we would have to be the main character in a process in which we dont want to have any protagonism, because as long as we can be proud of ourselves, YOU, and not us, are the artists who create this site. Along with us, if SOPA revives, there is many small business, NGOS, and even educational sites that would be obligated to review its mechanisms, something that can be very expensive for sites with limited resources. Finally, I would like to throw out an open question to the United States Congress (even if Im pretty sure they will never hear about it). Do you, ladies and gentlemen really believe that someone can stop free share in Internet? Because you can win a battle, but in my modest opinion you cannot win a war in a virtual territory that no one can conquer, as its ways and possibilities are beyond anyone can imagine (you can ask the Vietnamese government about how his population takes the piss at his boycott of websites like Facebook changing their DNS). The human race has always survived history adapting themselves to the new realities, those in favor of SOPA may want to take a serious look to the world we live in, where internet changes and expands every second, then they may find that the best way is not to fight future or the inevitable, but to learn how to live and deal with it. Article written by Cristina Torres, a new London based contributor to our blog. You can follow her on Twitter at @cristorresfer. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/98 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:31:40 BST From YouTube to the BRITs: how one self made singer/songwriter shot to fame Ed Sheeran, at only 20, has become an example of how hard work and perseverance can lead to success in the music industry. With his debut album having sold 100,000 copies in its first week, it has recently been announced that Sheeran leads the board at this years Brits with nominations for best male solo act, best break through act, best British album, and best British single for The A-Team. Although having burst on to the music scene in 2011 Sheerans success is not a reflection of a quick ride but a reward of years of hard work. Ed Sheerans accomplishment is a uniquely Twenty-First Century story as it was his appearance on the YouTube channel SB.TV which showcases new talent that propelled him to fame and leading to him being signed by Atlantic Records. With the release the number one album + last year Sheeran rocketed onto the music scene, but + was the result of years of hard work as he had previously released five E.Ps in 2010, each being inspired by a different genre, before being signed by Atlantic Records. The E.Ps caught the attention of the public and Sheeran was able sell 7,000 copies on iTunes of his No.5 collaboration without promotion or a record label. One of the forthcoming singles on the new Album +, You Need Me, I Dont Need You is a critique on the music industry itself and Sheerans journey to establish himself on the music scene. You Need Me, I Dont Need You, is a turning point on the album as with its influences from rap music, the single seems to be a departure from the tone of the rest of the album. Sheeran describes himself in the lyrics as an individual going up against the vast might of the music industry, trying to become successful whilst retaining his own musical identity. With his first three singles all reaching the top five in the UK this approach may have been the best option for the budding musician. Sheeran has said that the song You Need Me, I Dont Need You shows the importance he places on his own composed work saying that the song is about his own artistic integrity if you dont write your own tunes and your names not on the credit then it would be about you, I guess. Its not really pointed at anyone its just a general vibe he told Sixty-Nine Degrees magazine. Music being personal is a theme that runs throughout +, which tackles issues from Sheerans own life. The album itself doesnt feel far from the home made videos posted on YouTube and it seems that Sheeran, despite his success, has kept the values that lead him to music. + consists of simple topics sung often acoustically, Sheeran has shown that hard work and singing from the heart, about topics with which people will empathise, could be the recipe for success. Article written by Toni Phillips, a new London based contributor to our blog. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/97 Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:48:20 BST The first step to finding a manager is to figure out what exactly you need help doing. Is it booking gigs, taking care of logistics, managing press and SNS, or something else? The second step is to let people know you are looking for a manager. Start with your friends, and ask them if anyone would be willing to help. But be careful when you delegate work. I feel a lot of musicians delegate tedious work they dont want to do, and expect people to do it for them for free. Dont make this mistake or you will end up losing both a friend and a fan. Make sure the exchange is mutually beneficial. Let your friends take risks, try new things, and mess up every now and then. Let them gain experience they otherwise wouldnt be able to get in a professional working environment. And be sure to thank them. Give them free lessons or tickets to your shows and merchandise. Make them feel like part of the family. Article written by Isaku Kageyama. You can follow him on Twitter at @isakukageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/96 Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:25:06 BST Remixing a famous artist is one of the most powerful ways to gain new fans. Even if you are not a producer or a studio whiz, you can still create your own unique interpretation of a track with a little bit of imagination. There are lots of remix competitions on the Internet. Unfortunately, most of the contests require you to pay for the different tracks (stems) of the song. Entering a lot of these competitions has therefore become an expensive process. Even if you arent completely keen on remixing or covering someone elses work it is still worth entering local competitions or ones on the Internet. If you have some original tracks, a great way to start could be to enter our competitions! More details here! Article written by Chris Haines, a new London based contributor to our blog. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/95 Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:09:28 BST To be totally honest, when most of us give someone a tip, we want them to see us doing so, and we want to be acknowledged for making a contribution. As musicians that mean we can improve merchandise sales by placing merchandise booths near the stage, and stopping by after a show. In most cases, the stage is the most visible place in the venue, so if you put the merchandise booth near the stage, people will see that youre there after a show. They will be more inclined to stop by and purchase your products if they know you will be there to thank them in person and see that they made a contribution. You can also try thanking people who pre-order your CDs on your blog or on Twitter. When people pre-order your CD, send them an e-mail with a link to the blog article or Twitter post with a short thank you message. Isaku Kageyama - @isakukageyama http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/94 Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:40:07 BST Here we go, a new year, a new season, and new WLYS competitions are starting! We are here today to announce new partnerships with three great music companies and the come back of our contests with the Winter Edition of the Best New Unsigned Artist and Best New Song that will start next Monday 16th of January. First things first, Mobile Roadie is still with us, offering an annual package worth $1,200 (950) to both the competitions winners. For the winning artists it will be possible to create and manage either an Android or an iPhone App with industry-leading quality, customization, and flexibility. Please note that if you choose the iPhone App you will be required to set up an Apple iOs Developer Account and make a $99 payment directly to Apple. Mobile Roadie allows anyone to create and manage their own iPhone and Android apps. Founded by Brock Batten (Creative Director) and Michael Schneider (CEO) in 2009, they have created over 1500 apps for musicians, sports teams, athletes, venues and businesses. Mobile Roadie is headquartered in Los Angeles and has operations in the UK, Spain, Japan, Turkey, Australia and Brazil. In addition of Mobile Roadie this time will have with us also the cool, Berlin based guys of the Tracks Fields (www.tracksandfields.com)! The Tracks Fields is an international platform where musicians can pitch their music to projects in advertising, film and games. They strive to make the synch licensing process as easy as possible. As a musician, label or publisher you just need to screen the project briefings and decide if and which of your tracks to submit. Some of the projects they found music for include Final Destination 5, eBay, Porsche and Google. For our Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist competitions they offer us two annual Advanced and one PRO subscription, worth approximately $760 (600) in total, with which you will get full of premium features. You can find all details here: http://www.tracksandfields.com/page/premium_features . Another partner, another prize. This is thanks to our new collaboration with JMD Music Distribution, which will kindly offer the free distribution of 10 songs to the winners of both competitions, as well as 1 song distributed again for free for the 2nd and 3rd ranked of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest. JMD Distribution supplies the largest music distribution in the world and provides upstream services for many major labels in search of breakout artists. While most independent distributors reach only 45-50 retailers despite charging needless monthly and yearly fees, JMD Distribution reaches over 750 retailers and mobile partners in over 100 world regions without any monthly or yearly fees. JMD Distribution has the resources and network infrastructure needed to seamlessly distribute music, video and mobile products. What makes JMD Distribution unique is their unmatched ability to provide the largest global digital distribution in conjunction with a comprehensive world-wide online marketing campaign to maximize artists hype and exposure. You think we are done but we arent, here another great news for you. We have signed a new partnership with the guys from Manchester of Tweak Music Mixing, that will mix and master one song of the winner of the Best New Unsigned Artist competition for free! Tweak Music Mixing is an online music mixing and mastering company working with unsigned artists right through to people like Super Furry Animals, Paul McCartney, Radio 1, James Taylor Qt as well as many others. Their engineers have around 40 years experience between them and they are working mixing music and mastering in the studio and over the internet every day. Professional mixing and mastering is the key to getting your music sounding its very best and with their tools and extensive knowledge they can get your music sounding ready for release, radio play or to send out as a demo to record labels. Feel free to drop them a line to let them know about your project! At WeLoveYourSongs we have worked hard in the past months, but we are super happy because the prizes we are offering for the Winter edition of our contests are bigger and greater than ever! Here some more details about the new competitions: Starting Date: January 16, 2012 Deadline: March 15, 2012 Cost: Free Prizes: - 2 X $1,200 packages from Mobile Roadie to build your own iPhone App. - 1 x PRO membership plus 2 X Advanced membership worth $760 in total, offered by Tracks Fields. - The free distribution of 10 songs to the winners of both competitions, as well as 1 song distributed, again for free, for the 2nd and 3rd ranked of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest, offered by JMD Distribution. - One song mixed and mastered for free for the winner of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest by Tweak Music Mixing. How to Win: 1. Be an unsigned artist part of our community on WeLoveYourSongs.com 2. Upload some of your best music 3. Encourage your fans to go vote for you! GOOD LUCK! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/93 Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:55:00 BST To me, the greatest thing about a podcast is the networking opportunity it presents. Other people or bands that hear about your show will ask to be on it. Thats a great way to make a new connection, which might lead to you doing a show together. In order to keep the show interesting, you might choose to have guests. This is also a great networking opportunity because it allows you to offer publicity to the people you are reaching out to. Someone you thought was out of your league may come on your show, and I find its so much easier to ask them to jam after a 30 minute chat. If you produce great content, your podcast will help establish you as a leader or expert in your particular genre. This might not lead to any immediate opportunities, but it will pay off in the long run. And finally, producing new content keeps the blood pumping through your system, both artistically and from a marketing perspective. Youre not always going to be coming out with new songs and CDs, but you cant afford to drop off peoples radars either. A podcast is a great way to stay on the radar, but in a low-pressure, low-stress way. Isaku Kageyama-@Isakukageyama http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/92 Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:50:22 BST Matthew Meyer: I promised myself that I would always play music for the pleasure of it regardless of whether I was the only one who was listening Cristina Torres. London Born in North Carolina to a teacher and a university professor, raised in Connecticut and now an adopted Brooklinite, Matthew Meyer is a simple and easy approach guy. As many artist he has a secret life, one that allows him to make a living and another one dedicated to his major passion, music. Although simple for him the way he creates music remains, somehow, a mystery for us. Nevertheless, his songs have managed to reach the weloveyoursongs.com users. Here we present you an interview to Meyer so you can get to know better this synasthesic artist. What was the soundtrack of your childhood, the music you remember when you think about your early years? The soundtrack of my early childhood was, without question, ABBA and Neil Diamond, as they were the two cassette tapes my parents had in the car. We would go on these incredibly long car trips for vacations where we would drive 12 hours to get somewhere and those would be the tapes we listened to over and over again. When I hear Forever in Blue Jeans I can still feel the hot vinyl seat in our 1979 VW Bug sticking to my skin. Later on, when I first started to buy music of my own, it tended to be bands like The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, Psychedelic Furs. When did you start writing? Was your first song a heartbroken song or a love song? When I was nine I began taking trumpet lessons and played in the school concert and jazz bands. Three years later, a friend and I wanted to start a band so I started to learn bass guitar by borrowing a neighbors ancient acoustic guitar and learning scales. That Christmas I got my first electric bass guitar and we started to play both in the jazz band and on our own. Our first songs were typically long and instrumental as I was too self-conscious to sing. What is music/songwriter for you, the love of your life or the mistress with whom you have a love/hate relationship? The love of my life, without question - playing and writing music is cathartic and something that I always look forward to doing. Several friends of mine tried pursuing music professionally and approached it like a DIY book. They focused so much on following a formula to become popular that they completely lost sight of what inspired them to play music in the first place. Not surprisingly, they no longer play. I promised myself early on that I would always play music for the pleasure of it regardless of whether I was the only one who was listening. This has meant that it continues to be something that I run to do when I wake up in the morning and it is usually the last thing I do before I going to bed. What In your personal page you describe your creating process as part of a whole image/music/word experience. You say that you often know how you want a song to look before knowing how u wanted it to sound. So what does start your creation process? An image? A feeling? There is no single approach I have to writing music. It could be a reaction to a particular experience, a feeling I have, or even just come out of playing around on an instrument. Sometimes I write a song around a title that struck me as interesting, such as with Finding Infinity, and at other times its based on a completely fleshed out idea, such as The Test Results. With regard to the syneasthesia, when I hear a sound it produces a very distinct image in my head if the sound is the same it will always be the same image. So Ill often know with individual parts how I want them to look before Ive recorded them. For example, I recently wanted to record an acoustic song and had a good rough sketch of how it would look in my head before I had written it. A big part of the experience is the shape of the sound of each instrument and their distance from each other in the picture in my head. So while its not that I am able to trace a melody beforehand simply by what something looks like, I will have a really good idea of what I want the song to look (ie sound) like. For example, if I want to make a song where the acoustic guitar is a series of gold lines book ended by green lines very isolated from the other instrument images, I will work the recording as best I can to match that picture. Sometimes the equipment I have doesnt allow me to get there, but I can usually get pretty close. It does make it frustrating working with other people since I cant simply say could you make the bass drum have more of an opaque center with square edges and significant distance from the other instruments. Sometimes, when people describe their trips with drugs like LSD they make reference to synaesthesic experiences, for those ones who are not familiar with acids or with creation process, how would you describe the experience? How does it make you feel? The experience is really no different than someone with normal sight or hearing seeing an image or listening to a sound - Ive always had it, so it doesnt seem odd or novel except when people ask me about it. So with regard to how it feels, it really doesnt produce any particular feeling any different than the regular five senses. With that said, I will sometimes focus on the visual part of my hearing at times if I really like or dislike what Im seeing/hearing. Certain sounds are incredibly distracting and irritating to me - repetitious electronic beeps, coffee brewing in a drip machine, computer keyboards being typed on, the clicky noise some Blackberrys make when you scroll all drive me bananas. The images they produce overtake all the other sounds and are a bit like having a light flashed in your face each time the sound is produced. On the other hand, some sounds are absolutely wonderful to look at certain peoples voices, thunder showers, the snare drum in U2s Zoo Station. I could spend ages just watching them. When I lived in Hawaii and used to drive I realized I had to be careful about what I was listening to in the car. If I heard something that caught my attention while driving I would sometimes find myself focusing on that instead of the road very dangerous. Fortunately nothing ever happened other than a couple of dramatic swerves. You specifically point in your twitter profile that you create your music in Brooklyn. Does it makes a difference where the song is born? What is like to live and create in a city like New York? I firmly believe that environment has a huge influence on the music one writes. I lived in Hawaii for about five years and the music I was wrote then, for the most part, was quite different than the music Im writing now. Most of this comes down to climate. By that I dont just mean meteorological climate; I also mean the musical/artistic climate of a place. Hawaii is obviously incredibly beautiful, but the seasons dont vary much and its pretty much always nice outside. Moreover, because of its isolation, which happens to be one of its greatest assets, the music/art scene was fairly small. New York on the other hand is, well, New York. It is constantly changing both in terms of the arts and city, as well as the actual weather. This constant change is incredibly invigorating and reminds me that time is actually passing. Without the change it can feel a little bit like limbo, albeit a pleasant limbo, but a limbo nonetheless. What would you list as your major influences? Without question, my first favorite band was The Cure. I followed them with the intensity that only teenagers have, wondering what Robert Smith was doing at any moment, whether he would approve I what I thought about any given topic, religiously listening to studio and live recordings and collecting every poster and t-shirt I could get my hands on. After that, when I began learning how to play bass as a teenage, I was really into the punk/ska scene and started listening to bands like Primus, Fugazi, Janes Addiction, The Pixies, and Mr. Bungle. The University of Connecticut, near where I lived, had a really vibrant live music scene when I was growing up, and my friends and I would often go to shows on weekends where we got to see some amazing bands, both well-known and never to be discovered. I think that they taught me how much joy music can bring. Once I got past the I can play a lot of notes really fast phase that I think everyone has to go through when they learn guitar, I began to listen to a lot of old REM. Particularly with their earlier records, there is something so quintessentially American about their music, it was a great mix of southern rock with what they were defining as alternative music at the time, which I deeply appreciate. Later, in terms of big names, U2, Coldplay and Radiohead certainly had big impacts on me. Name a guilty pleasure (musically speaking). I dont really ever feel guilty about listening to music I like, but I suppose Lady Gaga could fall into that category since shes so popular. On the other hand, if you listen to interviews with, its pretty clear that shes incredibly bright and thoughtful. She also has a remarkable voice. I just recently heard her duet with Tony Bennett and was impressed. Do you think indie/rock is necessarily opposite to commercial music? Im not really sure what indie rock means anymore it seems to be moving away from actual independent artists and/or labels (ie not signed to big name labels) and more toward a style of music and even fashion. Similarly, Im also not sure what commercial music means is that simply when someone is paid for their art? I would argue that traditionally, yes, indie rock is antithetical to commercial music, but today, as both are understood, absolutely not. I see no issue with making money on the art you create, though for me that is not the driving impetus. What do social networks and webs like weloveyoursongs.com represent for independent artist like you? Is iTunes like a godfather for artists or an unfair trader? They are incredible gifts, especially for somebody like myself. First, it allows me to reach an enormous audience spread over the entire earth. I recently checked my song blog demographics on Google Analytics and saw that there were visits from more than a dozen different countries on three continents. Amazing! Social networks, although often abused and vacuous, when used well can be an effective way to introduce people with similar interests to each other, even when they may be introverted and you would have never met them at a party. I think iTunes, in particular, has had a very interesting affect on music, which has been to make the single, rather than the album, king. For me, personally, that is fantastic since I write a lot of different types of music and am less interested in being locked into one style. Interview made by Cristina Torres, a new London based contributor to our blog. You can follow her on Twitter @cristorresfer http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/91 Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:08:48 BST This is your chance to win a $799 worth ticket and attend for free to one of the most prestigious music and tech conference in the world. TheSF MusicTech Summitwill take place next Monday 13th of February in San Francisco, California. Here a short blurb for you to learn about what this event is about in case you dont know it yet. The Summit brings together over 1000 visionaries in the music/technology space, along with the best and brightest developers, entrepreneurs, investors, service providers, journalists, musicians and organizations who work with them at the convergence of culture and commerce. We meet to discuss the evolving music/business/technology ecosystem in a proactive, conducive to dealmaking environment. Some of our fantastic speakers include Jack Conte Nataly Dawn from Pomplamoose, Jeff Price from TuneCore, Bram Cohen from BitTorrent, Ian Rogers from Topspin Media, Kristin Thomson from Future of Music Coalition, Brian Zisk from SF MusicTech Summit, and many more! For more information, check out http://sfmusictech.com If you want a free ticket to attend this great event, all you have to do is follow the steps below: 1)Like our Facebook Page: 2) Then do one of the following: - Retweet this post, including the #WeLoveYourSongs hashtag - Or leave us a comment below here The contest starts now and ends next Thursday 12th of February, at 1PM PST. We will choose at random and contact the winner of the ticket next Thursday with more details. Please kindly note that we are offering 1 ticket only, while accommodation and airfare are not included. Good luck everyone! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/90 Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:14:43 BST Use your blog, Twitter, Facebook, and website to promote your podcast. If you have an e-mail list, this would be a good time to send out an announcement about a freebie that your fans can enjoy. Dont just limit your promotion to the online world post flyers, print your podcast URL on the back of your business card, and tell your friends about it! When you promote your podcast, dont just focus on getting people to listen to your podcast. Think of how the podcast fits in with all the other stuff you have going on, primarily your other promotions. Try to create a never-ending flow of traffic from one media to another. For example, fans come to a live show, where they find out about your website. On your website, direct them to your podcast, where one listener will win a free T-shirt. In order to win the free T-shirt, fans need to Retweet a Twitter post about your next show. Isaku Kageyama - @Isakukageyama http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/89 Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:45:39 BST Meet No Stars in the Perimeter. The quirky indie/alt rock duo Tiffany and Chris are from Miami and ready to rock you into 2012. 1. No Stars in the Perimeter formed in 2010. Can you tell us how that happened and what made you choose to form a band with 2 members? Well, I (Chris) have been trying to put a band together for many years, but theres always a bad egg in the group that spoils the rest. You might have the drummer hook up with a new girlfriend and dont show up for practice, the bass player refusing to learn the songs and show up to rehearsal unprepared or having to argue with the one person who doesnt like what the rest are doing. With a two piece band you eliminate all the unnecessary stress and weve been able to churn out more songs this way than with the so called musicians Ive dealt with in the past. 2. What inspires you to create your music? Different things. One day we might be inspired by something we might have read about extraterrestrial life, another day it might be some asshole we ran across that pissed us off. Inspiration is everywhere you look. 3. I like your song Strangers from a Distant Land very much. How would you describe your music to say a stranger from a distant land who has never heard your music before? We would describe our music as being hard hitting and stimulating. We make music that gets you moving without it being happy. If people are not bobbing their heads, then we havent done our job. At the same time we dont mind throwing in some songs with a psychedelic feel to them. 4. Name some of your favourite Artists? I (Tiffany) have to say Mary J. Blige and The White Stripes. Chris is a huge fan of The Doors, The White Stripes, Frank Sinatra, Elvis and Tupac, to name a few. 5. What do you hope for No Stars in the Perimeter to achieve in 5 years time? First, we really hope the world doesnt end on December 2012 otherwise this would be the shortest musical career in history. If were still here by then, we would like to play enough gigs to make a decent living out of it. We really dont want to be famous or millionaires, but it would sure be nice to be able to quit the day job to be able to focus more on honing our craft. 6. What does No Stars in the Perimeter hope for in 2012? We hope that we stay healthy and that we are able to finish our full album. We hope that someone likes it enough to record it and distribute it and we hope to play more gigs than last year. 7. Tell us about your past gigs and any upcoming gigs for 2012? So far, we havent schedule any gigs for 2012 since weve been working on some new material. Well start gigging sometime mid or late January. We would definitely keep you posted. Our first gig was a disaster. It was a benefit concert at my job (Chris) There were several acts and apparently the sound man didnt know what he was doing and completely messed up our sound. My guitar was making the P.A speakers crackle and he didnt have the tenacity to fix it on the fly...We were shell shocked after that to say the least. Its been good after that though. 8. What do you think of the WeLoveYourSongs community? We think the weloveyoursongs.comcommunity is AWESOME. You guys are really taking things to a different level, giving virtually unknown and unsigned acts, like ourselves, the opportunity to showcase their work on your website and spread the word throughout the community. And for that, we thank you. Interview made by Cooki C, a new London based contributor to our blog. You can follow her on Twitter @CookichipMusic http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/88 Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:03:09 BST Once youve edited your podcast, save it as an MP3 file and upload it to your blog. Most blogging platforms have a way to automatically embed an MP3 to your article. If your blog doesnt have one, you need to upload the audio file and manually embed it to your blog. If that sounds too technical, you might consider signing up for a free Blogger account. Another problem you may run into is the type of feed your blog generates. If your blog doesnt have an RSS feed, you can use FeedBurner to create one. Again, if that sounds too technical, you may consider signing up for a free account on blogging platform. The next step is to submit your podcast to the iTunes Music Store: http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html#submitting Generally speaking, your podcast will be available within a week, and people can start downloading and listening to your show from the iTunes Music Store. If your listeners subscribe, they can get new episodes downloaded automatically. How cool is that! Isaku Kageyama - @Isakukageyama http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/87 Tue, 27 Dec 2011 21:54:40 BST Hey guys, all the crew of WeLoveYourSongs would like to wish you and your family a merry Christmas and a fantastic 2012! As we have done last year, in the spirit of the season, we wanted to renew our invitation to join our lending team on Kiva, a micro-lending non-profit organisation with a simple but very smart idea to enable people to lend money to low-income entrepreneurs across the globe. You choose who to lend to whether a baker in Lebanon, a farmer in Latin America, a restaurateur in Ghana, or a tailor in India - and as they repay their loan, you get your money back. Its a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone to lift themselves out of poverty. You choose who you lend to, see the progress they make and once the moneys been repaid you can re-lend it to others. At the link below you can find our lending team. Wed love if you decide to join us: http://www.kiva.org/team/weloveyoursongs In the meantime, we hope to see you soon, in 2012. Our warmest regards, The WLYS Team http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/86 Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:58:24 BST Once youve planned out your show, go ahead and record yourself. If this is your first time doing a talk show, youre probably going to sound uneasy or like youre reading from a script. Thats OK the only way to get better is to keep doing it. It might help if you imagine yourself addressing your audience at a live show. You can record as many times as you like, so take your time. When your recording is ready, use an audio editing program to make sure the volume is stable, and to edit out any awkward pauses or ums and ahs that you want to get rid of. Many podcasters use Audacity because its free and easy to use. The two main functions you will be using are Normalize which makes sure the volume is stable throughout the show, and Edit which will get rid of the pauses and unwanted segments. If youre having trouble using Audacity, check on YouTube for a variety of tutorials on how to edit podcasts. If you want to get real fancy, you can add tracks so that you can have music playing in the background as you speak, or jingles when you switch segments on the show. Isaku Kageyama - @Isakukageyama http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/85 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 08:41:23 BST The Roller Genoa a cool unsigned indie rock band from Ukraine, with a song called Freak Show, won the Autumn edition of both Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist contests! As a prize they will be awarded with a $1,200 package, kindly offered by Mobile Roadie, to build their own Android or iPhone App. For those interested to know more about them, is possible to read their interview on our blog and listen to some good music on their WeLoveYourSongs band page. Wed like to say thank you to every single person who voted for us, we couldnt win without your support. Thank you for appreciating our music, spreading a word about us, you all are an integral part of this win. You showed us that everything we do now is not in vain and thats the most exciting part of it said Bohdan, the lead member of the Roller Genoa, when asked if there was something he would like to say to his fans. Since this competition is opened for musicians and fans from all around the globe wed like to say our special thank you to WeLoveYourSongs team for creating such a fantastic opportunity for undiscovered starting bands like ours to reach more fans worldwide. This win is extremely important for us as its the very first contest we were participating in since weve started the band and it made us being confident now that we have a promising future. Its an amazing feeling, as we are very excited at the moment and striving to impress all you with more good music. Thank you! In the second place of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest, we have Matthew Meyer, an extremely talented songwriter from Brooklyn, New York. doing some great indie electro rock. After them, the Floor from Indonesia, the Otherness from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Alin from Italy, are arrived in the third, fourth and fifth positions respectively. What a joy to be a truly international community! Thanks very much to all the fantastic people that have participated in the Autumn edition of our contests on WeLoveYourSongs. More details about new competitions, news about our community and plan for the 2012 will be revealed shortly. Keep our blog checked :) http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/84 Sun, 18 Dec 2011 09:57:37 BST The first thing you want to do before you start recording, is to create a rough plan of your show. Think of a good title for your show, as well as the kind of topics you will be talking about. You also definitely want to think about a co-host. If possible, I recommend co-hosting the show with at least one other person, so that your shows dont start sounding like speeches. The idea is similar to writing a blog - try to create content that other people will benefit from. That means you dont want to limit the subject to you and your own career. But you definitely want to keep the focus on yourself. You can do this by thinking of the people around you and the music community that you are a part of. Who are these people, and what are they interested in? How do you fit into the picture? My recommendation is to find something you are an expert at. For example, you might be really into new gear. Create a segment on the show that talks about new products. Another thing you can do is use the time you spend on YouTube to your advantage and create a segment about interesting videos your listeners might be interested in. Isaku Kageyama- @Isakukageyama. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/83 Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:07:02 BST We are now just 5 days away from the end of the Autumn edition of our Best New Unsigned Artist and Best New Song contestswhere you could win a $1,200 package from Mobile Roadie to build your own Android or iPhone App. The deadline to upload your songs and get voted is Thursday 15th of December 2011 (10PM GMT). Both competitions are free to enter but open only to unsigned artists. By registering on Weloveyoursongs.com you will automatically enter both contests. Roller Genoa are leading both contests, with Matthew Meyer and the Floor respectively in second and third position, but there is still space for an outsider coming from the back. How to Win: - Visit WeLoveYourSongs.com and create an artist profile - Submit some of your best music - Encourage your fans to go vote for you Best of luck from all the WeLoveYourSongs crew! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/82 Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:35:35 BST Whats a podcast? If you think of a blog as a self-produced newspaper, a podcast is a self-produced radio show. Radio and music make a great combination, which make podcasting an extremely effective way to promote your music. Creating a podcast is quite easy. To get started, all you need is a computer, internet connection, and a mic. Since youre reading this, you probably already have the first two now all you need is a mic. In order to create your very first podcast, you really dont need a high quality mic. A lot of computers have built-in mics which you can use, and you can even use your mobile phones voice memo function if you like. Once you have all your hardware in place, lets move on to actually producing a show. Isaku Kageyama - @Isakukageyama Thanks for the support to our friends atFoxy Bingo. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/81 Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:54:41 BST This time our interview is with Otherness,a young electro rock pop collective from La Patagonia, Argentina, now on 4th position of our Best New Unsigned Artist contest. 1. Tell us about the story of Otherness; how and when did you get together and decided to start a band? Martin (vocals and guitar), Gonzalo (vocals and bass) and Adrian (music synth) met each other at school, when they were in their early teens. They were born in Comodoro Rivadavia, La Patagonia (Argentina). OTHERNESS hometown is almost 13.000 km far away from London. After a brief project called Bizarre, Martin moved to Buenos Aires and 2 years later he was joined by Gonzalo and Adrian and the boys started to play music together again. In 2009, Pablo (drums) entered the band and they finally become what OTHERNESS is now. Music is the universal language. It means freedom of expression and doing what you are. OTHERNESS think GLOBAL CONCIOUSNESS is the main element of rock and pop culture, so being in a band its awesome cause it gives you the chance to keep on learning and exchanging new experiences with people from all over the world. It improves your communication skills and its such a thrill itself. 2. What is your musical background? Well, its really diverse. Each member of the band listens to different stuff but at the same time they share lots of music in common. The Clash, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Daniel Johnston, Nirvana, Indian Music, Motown, some electronic music and old pioneers such as Leadbelly, Ray Charles and Johnny Cash. All mixed up by 4 boys from La Patagonia and used to wake up every day with a gust of dry wind punching their faces. 3. How would you describe your music? Who or what are your inspirations? All the things you could be by now if your mother in law was pregnant by electro rock pop young fans in the middle of a Patagonian wild wind area. Inspiration surrounds you. You may call it love, you may call it street then you shall call it REALITY. 4. What can you tell us about your music making progress? Martin and Gonzalo write the songs together and sometimes they do it on their own. It works like a songwriting team regarding many times they help each other to polish the final product. Thats how the music and words skeleton is built. After that process, the boys work the arrangement with Adrian and Pablo in the rehearse room. Once the song is finished, they record it. 5. What are your thoughts about the music year 2011? Any favourite album or discoveries youd like to share? It seems that nothing REALLY exciting happened this year, right? At least nothing really exciting is going on with the mainstream music scene. Theres tons of money invested in nostalgia and old glorious bands reunite and blah blah blah. The most amazing stuff weve discovered this year is Leadbelly Last Sessions. Songs like Im Alone Because I Love You and Dancing with tears in my eyes. Thats really really old stuff. Its so inspiring. No auto-tune, no dehumanized music. Thats the real thing. Rock Pop music and culture is about integrity and being genuine. 6. What do you do when youre not making and playing music? OTHERNESS is a 100% independent and DIY band at this very moment. When the band is not making music and playing music the boys work on-line and with their mobiles in order to arrange gigs and tours and every little thing that may help them to improve their music career. The music biz is going thru a crisis and crisis means opportunities for people like OTHERNESS. Anyway, they are not happy at dealing with the management duties. 7. How did you hear about WeLoveYourSong? Twitter. Someone RT @WeLoveYourSongs (follow em young indie folks off the tw universe!). We clicked on We Love Your Songs site and we found an interesting way of both sharing and discovering new music. The competition is also a wicked tool for promotion and its genuine motivation to encourage your fans to participate and share music. 8. Have you start planning you next tour? Where would you like to go next? OTHERNESS is touring La Patagonia and some other Argentinean regions in order to raise money and get ready for the upcoming UK tour. Next? OTHERNESS boys would love to play as many European cities as possible. Anyway, the MAIN GOAL of OTHERNESS is be able to travel the world and play music and interact with many cultures as possible thats Europe, America, Asia, Africa, etc. 9. What are your plans for 2012? Weve already arranged like 6 gigs in London for April 2012 and we are working with James Hawkins from Oh Inverted World on fixing a professional Tour. Weve played 23 gigs in London between Dec 2010 and Feb 2011. This time, the main goal of the band and the tour is getting exposure not only in London but also in cities such as Manchester, Sheffield and Liverpool. And of course, the rest of Europe: Germany, Holland, France. We are deep into music and we are working hard on make these goals real soon. If you want to help, follow us on TW: www.twitter.com/otherness and FB: www.facebook.com/othernessrock Every single contact regarding PR, promoters, booking agents, record labels, etc, its very helpful for OTHERNESS project. Thanks, mates! ;) The interview has been prepared by Eira of Acuvi, a music blog focusing on new and unsigned music, and the people behind. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/80 Fri, 02 Dec 2011 23:59:13 BST The other method of broadcasting is e-mail, which can be extremely effective and dangerous at the same time. Its effective because you can make a compelling call to action, but dangerous because you could also be labeled a spammer. Thats why I only send out a mass e-mail when I have some kind of freebie like a free download to offer. How often, and what you should put in a mass e-mail is going to depend on your mailing list. If youre sending to a group of people who have agreed to receive updates from you, theres no problem, but you risk dropping off of peoples radars and missing out on opportunities that might arise from simply being on someones mind. My e-mail list consists of people I exchanged business cards with, so I will not send out a mass e-mail more than once a month, and I always try to enclose some kind of benefit such a discount or freebie. Isaku Kageyama - @Isakukageyama http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/79 Tue, 29 Nov 2011 23:32:35 BST By broadcast Im referring to ways you can speak to multiple people at the same time. The most common way musicians do this is when they talk to the audience between songs. When you say to the audience, We have a new CD out and its on sale along with T-shirts at the entrance, that is a form of broadcasting. Its the same thing if you appear on TV, radio, or get an article printed in a newspaper or magazine. Youre doing the talking while many people listen. Social media has opened up a lot of ways we can broadcast. We now have websites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and a lot of musicians use audio sites like SoundCloud and WeLoveYourSongs. The first caveat Id like to share is to use all these sites as one social media conglomerate, rather than trying to do everything on each individual site. You can do this by designating certain tasks to each piece of social media. For example, rather than uploading videos to both YouTube and Facebook, upload only to YouTube and post the links on Facebook. In my case, I use YouTube strictly for video, SoundCloud for audio, I post videos and music on my blog, and I use Facebook and Twitter to drive traffic there. Designating roles to your social media will make their purposes a lot clearer, save you time, and make you more effective. Isaku Kageyama- @Isakukageyama http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/78 Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:12:34 BST One way you can generate interest in your music is by building a strong following on Twitter. A larger number of followers mean a larger audience, and hopefully more CD sales. Your Twitter following can also be used to generate ideas, facilitate contests, and drive traffic to your website and blog. For example, run a contest where everyone who Retweets a post about your new CD gets a link to download a free track. Or, ask your followers which one of your songs they like most, and do a remix of it. Twitter is a great way to make the creative process more interactive and involve your fans. The best way to generate a strong Twitter following is to follow people who have similar interests. If you sound like Bob Dylan, search for people who are tweeting about Bob Dylan and follow them. Check back every once in a while to see if these people followed you back, and if they didnt unfollow them and follow new users. You can automate this process by using services such as Followernow. Isaku Kageyama - @Isakukageyama http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/77 Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:26:30 BST The Roller Genoa are a polyhedric indie rock band from Ukraine, at the moment ranked in the first position of both Best New Unsigned Artist and Best New Song contests on Weloveyoursongs.com . If you want to discover a little more about them here there is an interesting reading for you guys! 1. Tell us about yourself! How did you all get together and formed Roller Genoa? Theres nothing special in the way we get together, Im afraid, its just a story of three close friends who wanted to play music, thats it. The best thing inRoller Genoa is that from the very beginning we were different. I mean in our town they play heavy music, you know, metal-, hard-core, but we were definitelythe first ones who started to play garage rock, post-punk stuff. Though everyone of us have played in various bands before, I consider those bands to be nothing morethan a joke really. We all are very proud of what were doing now and thats an amazing feeling, you know. 2. Which acts have shaped and inspired you? These are definitely The Strokes, most of all, The Rascals and Twisted Wheel. Id really like to say thank you to these bands as they formed our vision on the way how good music should be written. 3. How would you describe your music? Well, I consider Roller Genoa to be a rocknroll band. Im afraid people forgot what is rocknroll nowadays. I dont mean sex, drugs ...,I mean music that will make you dance even if its the worse damned day of your live, your dogs dead, youve been fired, yknow what I mean.I dont wanna change the world with my music. Im tired of all those idiots who say such things. I just wanna make people danceyou know, and thats it. We are a rocknroll band, nothing more and nothing less. 4. What can you tell about your music making process? Today we dont really have regular rehearsals, theres no need to have ones cause we usually rehears if some new material appear. When I have 2-3 themes we gather round and think what we can do with that. When the music is ready I write lyrics. Thats how Roller Genoa works. 5. What are your best moments as musicians? Oh, playing live is definitely the best thing ever, because of the people who come to your show. Its damn exciting to see how they act and react to your music, you know. I dont like when some bands say this gig was bad, shitty crowd, shitty sound, every single show is something special to everyone of us. Its like a little discovery every single time. Well, it so probably cause were young now, but it is definitely true. 6. What is the best and worst thing about the music scene in Ukraine? Well, a big amount of quality bands start to appear today in Ukraine and the level of our underground music is growing up and really fast. Im very pleased cause of this fact. BUT the problem is that the majority of all these bands probably dont have a future, because major labels dont wanna have record deals with such bands. And that is the main difference probably between our music scene and yours, cause your bands very often can be successful (commercially I mean) without being signed to major labels, then you call it indie. But in our country you HAVE to be signed by majors if you wanna succeed, I mean REALLY succeed. And thats why indie in traditional sense is an utopia in Ukraine. 7. What was the last record you bought? It was a Bob Dylans Slow Train Coming vinyl LP, I had a feeling Id bought a treasure cause I really love Dylan. The bassist bought something ofLimp Bizkit, probably something that was missing in his collection, and I know definitely that the last record our drummer bought was Hide From The Sun of The Rasmus. 8. What do you like more about WeLoveYourSongs and what you would like to see improved? I like the whole idea of WeLoveYourSongs, I mean to help hundreds of bands from all over the world to be heard. Every musician wants and deserves to be heard,you know. And the only thing that Id like to see improved its a fan base, but I guess its only a matter of time. 9. What are your plans for the rest of 2011 and 2012? Gigs, gigs and gigs again. We are striving to play live as often as we can and at as many places as we can. If well manage to have a gig abroad - it would be fantastic.And some new songs will be definitely recorded, as an EP probably, well see. 10. Is there anything you want to say to your fans out there? It would be a usual but sincere thank you. The only reason why music is written and played - is its listeners. Without fans even The Fab Four wouldnt reach anything.Thank you again, lads. The interview has been prepared by Eira of Acuvi, a music blog focusing on new and unsigned music, and the people behind. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/76 Sun, 13 Nov 2011 10:36:05 BST Submit articles to e-zines or online forums, and link back to your website. When you write an article, make sure its something the community youre involved in will benefit from. For example, choose an artist you sound like and write an article about the artist. Add a short note saying, If you enjoy the music of this artist, you may also enjoy my band. The following website describes the process in detail: http://www.wikihow.com/Create-One-Way-Backlinks-to-Your-Website Isaku Kageyama - @Isakukageyama http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/75 Mon, 07 Nov 2011 23:24:50 BST SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a process that makes sure your website comes up as high as possible in search results. This is actually a very technical process, and you may consider hiring a company to handle this, but here are two basic things you can try. 1. Incorporate your blog into your website Seach engines such as Google like pages that are updated frequently. Making your blog part of your website ensures your site is updated frequently. 2. Generate quality backlinks When related pages link to your site, this improves your search results. You can search for sites to add your link on Webconfs (http://www.webconfs.com/backlink-builder.php) Isaku Kageyama - @isakukageyama http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/74 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 08:50:16 BST If youre building a career in music, one of the things youll need is your own website. You can use your website to promote upcoming shows, sell CDs and merchandise, post videos and music, and tell your audience more about yourself. If you dont already have one, try services like Wix.com (http://www.wix.com) that offer free templates for building a website. If you like, you can also connect your website to a domain name such as yourname.com. It looks a lot more professional, and its also much easier for people to access your website. Isaku Kageyama - @isakukageyama http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/73 Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:28:09 BST One of the wonders of the modern world is that were all so connected, and yet also not. To illustrate the point: here I sit, typing this blog post on my Blackberry, in a cafe full of people. Go on. Judge me. But this is the world we live in. However, I have wondered about John Mayor deleting his Twitter profile. I have wondered about how effective this whole thing really is. Lets face it: social networking and the Internet are great tools, but theres something to be said for taking time out to think and speak with your contemporaries about what kind of business youre actually doing. Such is the great benefit of the second annual Future Music Forum, in which this year, around 70 delegates gathered to chat through models of the music industry, ideas going forward and where the future of successful music making, management and publishing lies. The irony is that the FMF is a meeting of minds about social media to fulfill a function which, I would argue, social media cannot. The keynote address by U.S. entrepreneur Angela Gambino addressed two key issues in business success: velocity and scale. In other words, the capacity of a business to grow quickly and grow large. How easy is your business to contemplate? How easy is your business to copy? she asked delegates. Food for thought. One of the highlights for me of the FMF was the collaboration of Marc Marot and Ian Neil on two different panels. The first panel was How To Get Your Music in TV and Film and the second was a broader focus on Music Synchronisation which is the association of music with different brands (TV adverts, clothing, etc). Both Marc and Ian have worked in the industry over the past three decades and their casual approach at the FMF and anecdotal reflections were a real treat. But beyond that, through the discussion with other panellists, they were able to give a perspective that innovation is still key to the future of the music industry, and the area of synchronisation is one which Ian maintains has continued to give a reasonable return in profits and other benefits. I was wondering when it would happen, and Marc brought it up: the case of Adele an independent artist who has become a global sensation, and will have sold 20 million albums by the end of this year. That tells us something, he said, shes an interesting case. It was comforting for me to hear that there is still a sense (be it romanticized or otherwise) that there is still a market for unique, quality music. Finding a compatible fit with a brand and an artist is fundamental, but it was interesting to hear from professionals that being in the personal collections of writers or directors is sometimes more fundamental. When youre in their minds, things happen For example, the wife of the CEO of a major film company in the U.S. will step out the shower and say You know that band that sings [insert tune]? I really like them! Next thing you know, that band is on the soundtrack of the latest Hollywood blockbuster. Its not all about who you know it also depends on who knows you. FMF director Niall Doorley also highlighted synchronisation. Im really interested in how gaming music progress together, he said. Not many people are aware, but they have a long history together stretching back to the late 80s where in Japan video games music was being sold on cassette. Fast forward to 2011 and with the hugely popular games on Facebook now converting in to a serious channel for pop stars to reach their audience. The other interest for me was the area of AR, something which many independents nowadays take for granted with the advent of social media, but someone who seems to understand the nuances and psychology of it all is Music X-Ray CEO Mike McCready. The website describes the company as 21st century AR, and profiles and offers opportunities to artists with industry professionals across the board. Worth checking out if you havent already. One thing that really stands out: get to know people. It helps. Other notes: Make awesome music. It helps. Think out the box. Then demonstrate your ability to do so. It definitely helps! * The article has been written by Ryan, frontman of the Ryan Calder Band, who won the FMF in Barcelona as a prize to have won the Spring editions of our Best New Unsigned Artist competition on WeLoveYourSongs. Visit www.ryancalder.co.za or facebook.com/ryancalderband for more on the five-piece South African band. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/72 Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:02:36 BST I recently stumbled upon an article on BMI.com about 5 things songwriters can do for their careers. The five things are: 1. Do One Business Thing Every Day 2. Join or Start A Songwriting Group 3. Dont Wait For A Publishing Deal To Act Like You Have One 4. Make One Song Pitch Every Week 5. Reply Promptly To Any Opportunity, No Matter How Small. There are 5 separate bits of advice in the article, but they can really be summed up into Take Small Steps Every Day. Try to build a schedule for yourself where you have 1 hour every day aside from practice to work on your career as a musician. Its better to do a little bit of consistent marketing every day, than to do a lot of marketing once every six months. @isakukageyama -- Isaku Kageyama http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/71 Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:09:18 BST Many people think they need a manager before anything, but the truth is, you need an attorney before you need a manager. Why? An attorney can and may open doors for you just like a manager, but will not be working with you day to day; scheduling sessions and helping you build records. An attorney will protect your interests, and try to get you the best deal, everytime. A prominent entertainment attorney will also represent artists, songwriters and producers that you would not normally gain access to, or just may have not connected with yet. Some of the biggest deals have been created through attorneys. If you are able to gain their representation, you take a huge step in gaining access to people who seem unreachable. If your goal is to get management AND youve been with an attorney for some time, your attorney will point you in the direction of managers that they trust and do business with. To start this process I would suggest researching or asking other music creators who their attorney is. Even if you want to start feeling a couple people out, it is never too early to start. Hopefully you have a couple things in the works that may require his/her advice, if youre a producer it is never too early to have an attorney draw up some independent production agreements! @nickvelo -- Nicholas Velo http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/70 Fri, 14 Oct 2011 08:50:13 BST Why do certain bands sell more tickets than others? In what ways are they better than the bands that dont sell as well and most importantly what can you do to emulate their success? Well, one difference is that the bands that sell a lot of tickets tend to be well known. When you stop by a club and see a myriad of flyers strewn on a table, you tend to pick up the one of a band you already know. Its the same thing at a CD store. What can you do to become better known? This is going to sound counter-intuitive, but start by eliminating people. Only go after the people who are going to be interested in your music. How do you know who is going to be interested in your music? Talk to the people who come to your shows. Find out who these people are and where they hang out. Go there and reach out to that community. Become well known in a niche market and that will begin to set you apart. Article written by Isaku Kageyama, music professional at Berklee College of Music, traditional Japanese drummer and WeLoveYourSongs collaborator. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/69 Tue, 11 Oct 2011 09:43:19 BST Ill make this simple, an ARs main goal is to find a hit song that can (hopefully) change the landscape and direction of music for the next 6-8 months. If you want break into the Music Industry, you must create something that is unique and different. Do not attempt to copy Dr. Lukes sound or whatever songs are currently on the radio. There are already enough established people attempting to emulate others. As a newcomer, you will not succeed in the long run. Every once in a while a producer/songwriter lands a Top 40 single out of nowhere and is never heard from again. Remember Womanizer? With the decline of albums being released, the harder and harder it gets to have your song(s) officially released. The truth is, A-List B-List producers are going to get a majority of the cuts. Not solely because of their name, relationships, and track record (although these things have a lot to do with it). But also because they are in working with the BEST songwriters, and typically have direct access to an artist, manager, AR, etc. If you are new producer, you MUST create something that is unique and GREAT to get the attention of others. If an AR wants a record that sounds like Dr. Luke produced it, they will get a record from Dr. Luke. By creating something unique, you increase your chances of being heard. There is nothing better than creating a new sound Want an example? Look at what Nothin On You did for Bruno Mars. It opened the door for HIS sound. He then capitalized on it, and went from just being known as a talented songwriter to one of the most widely known artists in the world. Article written by Nick Velo, experienced music industry professional from Los Angeles, California. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/68 Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:38:03 BST The Autumn edition of the Best New Unsigned Artist and Best New Song competitions have started and the voting is now open! We are pleased to have such great prizes for you guys also this time, with2 annual packages worth $1,200 each, offered byMobile Roadie, with which we have strengthen up our partnership, to create and manage either an Android or an iPhone App for your band. Look at the prize list on WeLoveYourSongs to have more info about that! Here some more details about the Autumn edition of the Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist contests: Starting Date:Today - October 5, 2011 Deadline:December 15, 2011 Cost:Free Prize:2 X $1,200 packages from Mobile Roadie to get your own Android or iPhone App (more prizes to be announced later on) How to Win: 1. VisitWeLoveYourSongs.comand create an artist profile. 2. Upload some of your best music 3. Encourage your fans to go vote for you! BEST OF LUCK! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/67 Wed, 05 Oct 2011 08:38:36 BST What do you do when someone asks you to play for free? Try asking some of your friends they dont all have to be musicians just people who do freelance work. Ask them why they choose to do or not do unpaid work. Be sure you ask people who actually do a lot of work because those are the people you want to emulate. The most important thing is to develop your own policy about unpaid gigs. Should you do all work, paid or unpaid, simply because its better than sitting at home? Or do you protect your brand by doing only paid work? Still another option is to do unpaid work only in certain situations, such as a cause you believe in, or large amounts of exposure. There is no correct answer to this question just make sure you develop your own policy on how you want to handle it. If youre a musician, youre going to get asked to do free shows. Save yourself a headache and think it through beforehand. Article written by Isaku Kageyama, music professional at Berklee College of Music, traditional Japanese drummer and WeLoveYourSongs collaborator. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/66 Tue, 04 Oct 2011 07:48:13 BST Hello music creators, Im Nick Velo - Every week I will be contributing to the blog section here at WeLoveYourSongs.com. I currently work in the music industry in AR, Management, Publishing Social Marketing. Since entering the music business in 2005 I have worked with a number of top labels, publishers, producers, artists, songwriters, etc etc. There are a number of books out on the music business that arent relevant and/or realistic. Because they dont answer the one question Im asked most, which is How do I get INTO the music business. There is no right answer. The rules are broken daily. In this climate it is all about creating unique, hit songs if youre an artist, its about building a real fan base, one fan at a time. What I want to do is tell you what I believe to be the best ways to get into the music business as a creative person, give you advice based on my personal experiences in the daily grind of the music business, and help you take creating music from a hobby, to something real. Respectfully, Nick twitter.com/nickvelo - Nicholas Velo http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/65 Thu, 29 Sep 2011 09:11:14 BST Black Vendetta is Nathan Virica, a singer and songwriter originally from Harrogate, now living in London. He has so far released one EP Cigarettes, Alcohol, love and Injustice Firstly who is Black Vendetta? Black Vendetta is my good self. It used to be the name of my band up north (which, incidentally I came up with!) and then when I went solo I just thought it would make a cracking alias and, to some extent an alter ego. Glad you havent asked me what it actually MEANS though because I havent got a fucking clue! Whats your musical background? Are you self taught or academic trained? Well I suppose for pigeonholing purposes you would say Im self taught but I never really learned the guitar to a very high standard. I just wanted to get to the stage where I could write good songs and now I can. I regard myself much more a songwriter than a musician per say. I had a few guitar lessons when I was at school but that was mainly on classical guitar and the teacher wasnt exactly up to much. Put it this way, after 7 months of weekly lessons all I could play was Happy birthday to you. Felt it might be an idea to teach myself after that! What were your first musical memories? My first musical memories were kinda based on trips we used to take to Italy every summer. My grandad has an olive farm there and an old house so we always used to go there during the school holidays and we used to drive down there. My first musical memories were basically of whatever cassettes my grandma put on during said journeys. There was a weird mix of all kinds of suff! Bowie, Queen, Lennon and even Cher! But yeah I used to love that cos I would just stare out of the window for hours on end with the music feeding into my imagination and it kept me really entertained. Its bizarre too cos at that age I used to think How the fuck do you write a song? little knowing that over a decade later it would be what I consider my craft. You moved to London to try out as a solo artist, how is it going so far? Very well thank you! Better than it ever worked in Harrogate anyway. If you think of the musical legacy of London measured against a Yorkshire town that, to my knowledge has only spawned one artist that had one single in the top twenty once I think Id have had to have let my guard down pretty bloody badly for London to be working out worse for me! What can you tell about your live performances? Theyre great, plenty of energy but I would like to have a band behind me instead of backing tracks. Sadly though (as anyone will tell you) bands are a bitch to keep together and were I to go down that route again I wont have advanced one inch further in my career in 3 years time. But yeah Im nearly always happy with my performances. The only problem that gets on my tits is the musical snobbery of some who look down their noses at backing track users. I mean for a start I fail to see how someone who plays great, self penned but backing tracked songs deserves less respect than someone who plays covers (or worse, shit original songs) just because they have a full band behind them. Ah well. Fuck em! Whats the inspiration behind your music? Well the title of my 4 track EP is Cigarettes, Alcohol, love and Injusticethats about it. Its pretty self explanatory and user friendly in a number of ways really. What kind of music do you listen when youre not playing your own? Well my favourite bands of all time are Oasis, U2, Guns N Roses, Stereophonics and Supergrass so thats what I tend to listen to on car journeys etc but to be honest I mainly listen to music when Im drunk and have access to youtube. Under such circumstances Ill listen to all manner of crazy shit! Its like Ill be sat there supping gin and all of a sudden Ill think, Oooooh, I REALLY fancy listening to Welcome Home by Peters and Lee or Jackie Wilson Sweetest Feeling! Though whether thats a testimony to my musical taste or borderline alcoholism Ive no idea! I dont even have an Ipod. What TV show would you like to see your music be featured on? Oh anything and everything really. I dont think one can be too fussy at this stage in their career. MTV and a 4am slot on the shopping channel are virtually one and the same at this point! What new project(s) are you working on? What can we expect from you in the future? Well Im currently working on a new song which is my best recorded work yet (although I do think that about all my songs when I first record them!). That should be completed as soon as my mate gets his arse in gear and replaces his recently deceased computer which we were recording on so I can get the job done. In terms of what to expect from me in the future? The World! (hopefully!) Follow Black Vendetta on Twitter, Facebook, and WeLoveYourSongs. Black Vendetta has been interviewed by Eira of Acuvi, a music blog focusing on new and unsigned music, and the people behind. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/64 Wed, 28 Sep 2011 10:58:01 BST What kind of device are you using to record your rehearsals? And what kind of headphones do you use when you listen to music? A lot of musicians I know are comfortable recording rehearsals on their cell phones and listening to music on their iPod headphones but somewhere down the line youre going to want to invest in some kind of recording device and some headphones. Why? Listening to yourself will make you a better player, and so will listening to music in finer detail. No need to go overboard a lot of good recording devices are available in the $100-150 range, and good headphones are available for less than $100. Youll be surprised to hear things you didnt notice before, and that will be sure to change your playing as well. Article written by Isaku Kageyama, music professional at Berklee College of Music, traditional Japanese drummer and WeLoveYourSongs collaborator. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/63 Tue, 27 Sep 2011 08:40:27 BST Becoming a musician and starting a business have a lot in common. If youre an independent musician, youre in business for yourself, and the product youre selling is your music. Its a lot of work and responsibility, and sometimes the task can seem daunting so daunting that it prevents musicians from taking the necessary steps to get work done. In an article titled Start Now. No funding needed, CD Baby founder Derek Sivers, says starting small is the first step to creating something big. Its important to turn your ideas into reality by actually doing something even if its something small. If you dont have a record deal, produce a CD on your own. If you dont have expensive equipment, find cheaper alternatives. Regardless of what your ultimate goal is playing at a prestigious venue, or with musicians you idolize it starts with you going out and doing something today. Article written by Isaku Kageyama, music professional at Berklee College of Music, traditional Japanese drummer and WeLoveYourSongs collaborator. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/62 Thu, 22 Sep 2011 09:22:08 BST For the second times in a row the winner of our competitions is coming from Africa! Balanov, with his Take it Hard, won the Summer edition of both Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist competitions! As prizes he will be awarded with a $1,200 package, kindly offered by Mobile Roadie, to build his own Android or iPhone App, and some cool merchandise offered by CMO. For those interested to discover more about him, is possible to read his interview on our blog, listen to some good tracks on his WeLoveYourSongs artist page and check his Facebook fan page! I would like to thank every one votes for me, its an amazing feeling to know that i have some wonderful people behind me said Balanov when asked if there was something he would love to say to his fans and followers. Im honored to have won the WeLoveYourSongs competitions, I pour my heart soul into my music. This award has provided me with a confidence boost in my career and has encouraged me to go releasing my next first professional album. I want to expand my international fan base, so i believe winning this UK based contest is going to be a vital part of that growth.I encourage any and all artists to participate in the WeLoveYourSongs competitions next time around! In the second place of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest, we have a cool unsigned band called Perry Acker, with some fresh pop rock music from Gig Harbor, Washington. We have to going down few thousands kilometres, in the beautiful city of Bogot in Colombia, to find Claudia Valencia, another very promising unsigned singer songwriter, who got the third the position in the competition! Thanks very much to all the unsigned musicians, bands and fans that have participated directly or indirectly in the Summer edition of our contests on WeLoveYourSongs. More details about our new contests will be revealed shortly. Stay tuned! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/61 Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:45:03 BST The last 36 hours before the winners will be announced for the Summer edition of our Best New Unsigned Artist and Best New Song competitions where you could get a $1,200 package from Mobile Roadie to get your own iPhone App and some great merchandise from CheckMineOut! Once again the deadline to upload your songs and get voted is tomorrow, Thursday 15th of September 2011 (10PM GMT). Both contests are free to enter, but open only to unsigned musicians and bands. By registering on Weloveyoursongs.comyou will automatically enter both contests. Balanov is leading both competitions, with Perry Acker pushing hard in the second position, but there is still space for an outsider coming from the back. Just another day and we will have the name of the winners! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/60 Wed, 14 Sep 2011 09:13:03 BST In the September 25, 2010 edition of The Business Side of Music podcast, hosts Tob Sabella and Traci Snowe talk about how to Get Booked a Year in Advance. While theres no easy way to get booked a year in advance, it begins with planning. Take the number of shows you want to do in a year and divide that by 52 weeks. This will tell you how many bookings you need per week. Making as many connections as possible is the most effective way to get booked so if your schedule allows, take the time to visit some clubs the next time youre making a trip out of town. It helps to develop a relationship with club owners so that you can book periodical shows. If youre playing at a club every other Friday, you no longer have to worry about trying to book those dates. Make friends with musicians who will call you to play with them another day you dont have to book on your own! Article written by Isaku Kageyama, music professional at Berklee College of Music, traditional Japanese drummer and WeLoveYourSongs collaborator. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/59 Mon, 12 Sep 2011 10:34:28 BST An accurate stage plot makes it easier for the venue managers, club owners, lighting and sound engineers, and other people youre working with, because it makes it easy to see your how all the players and equipment need to be set up. Your stage plot should include the following: Where each musician will be positioned What instruments will be used and where they will be positioned List of necessary equipment Positions of equipment such as mics and amps An ordered list of songs and their approximate length Transitions if any equipment is going to be moved during the performance A lot of musicians use software like Adobe Illustrator or Stage Plot Pro to create their stage plots. You can also use FreeStagePlots.com. Once you get used to it, creating a stage plot only take 15-30 minutes and it saves a lot of time and energy. Make it easy for your staff and theyre going to want to work with you again. Article written by Isaku Kageyama, music professional at Berklee College of Music, traditional Japanese drummer and WeLoveYourSongs collaborator. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/58 Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:14:40 BST We are now just 2 weeks away from the end of the Summer edition of our Best New Unsigned Artist and Best New Song contests where you could win a $1,200 package from Mobile Roadie to get your own iPhone App and some great merchandise offered by CheckMineOut worth few hundreds Dollars! The deadline to upload your songs and get voted is Thursday 15th of September 2011 (10PM GMT). Both competitions are free to enter but open only to unsigned artists. By registering on Weloveyoursongs.com you will automatically enter both contests. The winners of the last competitions were the cool South African guys of the Ryan Calder Band, to which goes once again our sincere congratulations! At the moment Balanov is leading the ranks, but the competitions are still completely open and because of so many great musicians on our community its really unpredictable to forecast who will be named as the Best New Unsigned Artist! How to Win: Visit WeLoveYourSongs.com and create an artist profile Submit some of your best music Encourage your fans to go vote for you Best of luck from all the WeLoveYourSongs crew! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/57 Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:02:17 BST As musicians, we know we should be networking but what is the best way to network? According to Harvard Business Review, top executives have diverse but select networks made up of high-quality relationships with people who come from several different spheres and from up and down the corporate hierarchy. In other words, its not the size of your network, nor is it making connections to corporate and industry leaders that matters. The effective core networks range in size from 12-18 people from diverse hierarchical, organizational, functional, and geographic spheres. The people in your inner circle should be positive, enthusiastic, authentic, and generous. The article specifically says to avoid being: 1. The Superficial Networker, who engages only in surface-level interaction with as many people as possible, mistakenly believing that a bigger network is better. 2. The Chameleon, who changes interests, values, and personality to match his audience and ends up being disconnected from every group. Use your network to grow as a musician and individual not just to get what you want. Article written by Isaku Kageyama, music professional at Berklee College of Music, traditional Japanese drummer and WeLoveYourSongs collaborator. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/56 Tue, 30 Aug 2011 10:11:06 BST The following videos show you how to make a music video using free software such as iMovie or Windows Movie Maker When youre done making your video, you can upload it to YouTube and promote your music. If youre not good at shooting video, just use photos! The important thing is that by adding a visual aspect, you can now tell the songs story visually, as well as through the music. It also opens up additional channels for promoting your music such as YouTube and Vimeo (maybe in the future it will be possible on WeLoveYourSongs too). Dont limit yourself to just audio outlets use video too! Article written by Isaku Kageyama, music professional at Berklee College of Music, traditional Japanese drummer and WeLoveYourSongs collaborator. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/55 Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:06:55 BST Ranked in the second position of the past edition of our competitions, Balanov, with his great electronica music, is now on top of both Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist contests on Weloveyoursongs.com . 1.Balanov, Whats your real name Balanov? Mahmoud Zak. Balanov is my nickname. I am a young music arranger producer [unsigned artist]. 2.What is the best contact email address for you / your band? Triplem_77@yahoo.com 3.What are your band websites / profile links? - http://weloveyoursongs.com/artist/1945/Balanov - http://www.facebook.com/balanovmusic - http://www.reverbnation.com/balanov 4.When and where did you start playing? I started producing my music in October 2010.In Cairo, Egypt. 5.Describe the moment that you knew you would become a musician or form a band. Initially, I was afraid and I feel I will not be able to do something because I didnt study music but was just a hobby. Then, I found that music is just a sense of the heart translated to sounds and melodies. I started arranging, and by trial and error, I started to learn from my mistakes every time. My favorite genre was House/Dance Music, so I produced my first music album Kick Off in January 2011. It was just an experiment, and people liked it, hence, I found that I must continue in this field, develop my band heading toward professionalism. 6.How did you come up with your band/performance name? How has it evolved? Im known as Balanov, and I chose this name to become the name of the band as Balanov music, and especially that I am still the only member of the band until now, but Im looking forward to teaming up with some of my friends as songwriters, vocalists, guitarists etc , to develop my band. 7.What would you say your band/performance is best known for? I am still in the beginning of my way in music, I love the House music and I am trying to get it in a distinctive form. 8. Tell us about the last song you wrote. My last track was Take it Hard original house mix with oriental taste mixed by me and my friend Omar El Metany. 9. Describe one of your most recent performances. Where and what did you play? What was the experience like? Any interesting stories? I didnt play live yet, but I entered contests and competitions like: - The best independent production contest by Yallafan, and I won 2nd place in this contest for track Guitreasure in Electronic music. - WeLoveYourSongs - Best New Unsigned Artist competition spring edition , and I won also the 2nd place . - from my projects The Golden California project , I was really amused in this project when I remixed the Classical song Hotel California in two different remixes [house remix oriental remix]. 10. What words of wisdom do you have for other musicians who are just getting started? Be patient to get your dream. 11. What new project(s) are you working on? What can we expect in the future? The coming period will witness a great development in my future music. I am about to finishing my next album, it will be the first professional House music album in Egypt, and it will include many great mixes. It will release coming soon. Its name is Bazooka, I will put a new track from this album on my WeLoveYourSongs profile, and this news is exclusive for you. 12. What else would you like to share with fans? I just want people to listen my music and for this they can visit my WeLoveYourSongs or Facebook page where they will find my tracks to listen and download for free. 13. What is it about WeLoveYourSongs that you love? How has WeLoveYourSongs helped you? I love WeLoveYourSongs enthusiasm in helping and supporting the new talented unsigned artists and the facility of interaction between artists. This QAs has been partly made by our friends of uPlaya. A big thanks to them from the WLYS team! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/54 Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:30:33 BST Early adopters of a movement are usually the ones that profit the most. Dieselboy was one of the early adopters of the rave movement in the 90s and he describes how he did it: Id see the post on alt.rave about a party five, six, seven hours away, explains Higgins. Itd say, Plus more DJs to be announced. Thats when hed make his move: Id call the info line and be like, Hi, Im Dieselboy from Pittsburgh. I will play for gas money if you book me at your party. I was so small-time at the time that no one was going to fly me. So I drove around all over the place. I remember I drove 11 hours to play in Rhode Island. You dont always have to be the first person to be a leader or pioneer. CD Baby Founder Derek Sivers describes how a movement is made in his First Follower speech. Its a risk to stand out, but its worth it to become the leader of a movement. Article written by Isaku Kageyama, music professional at Berklee College of Music, traditional Japanese drummer and new WeLoveYourSongs collaborator. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/53 Tue, 16 Aug 2011 09:34:21 BST Twitter search results will now return photos and video, which means more ways to improve your internet presence. When you share an image on Twitter, be sure to include related hashtags. For example, if youre a rock band in Detroit, use the hashtag #detroitmusic and your photos will pop up in search results. Another way to use Twitter more effectively is to Tweet when your followers will be near their computer and have time to read what youre saying. The best time of the day to Tweet is 9:00 AM PST because youre hitting three major break times. And according to Fast Company, the best time to get re-tweeted is at 4:00 PM EST on Friday. But if you want to cover all the bases, use an application like TweetDeck to post tweets 8-12 hours apart. Do it sparingly so it doesnt become spam. In most cases, since the volume of tweets is so high most people check in about the same time every day and wont notice repeat tweets. Article written by Isaku Kageyama, music professional at Berklee College of Music, traditional Japanese drummer and new WeLoveYourSongs collaborator. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/52 Tue, 09 Aug 2011 09:24:25 BST Hello All, Hi - Im Isaku Kageyama and I will be writing a weekly column here on Weloveyoursongs.com focusing on ways to promote yourself as a musician. If you want to book better paying gigs, sell more CDs, and establish yourself as an artist, my column will help you do all that and more. If you have any particular areas where you need help, feel free to shoot me an e-mail at isaku@isakukageyama.com and Ill be sure to answer your questions. Best regards, Isaku Kageyama http://www.isakukageyama.com http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/51 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 09:06:50 BST The Summer edition of the Best New Unsigned Artist and Best New Song competitions have started and the voting is now open! We are pleased to have such great prizes for you guys also this time, with 2 annual packages worth $1,200 each, offered by Mobile Roadie, to create and manage either an Android or an iPhone App for your band, as well as some great merchandise from the cool guys of CheckMineOut.co.uk (CMO), which have just confirmed they will be in for the next two editions of our competitions. Here the prize list with all the details of what you can win! In case you have missed our previous blog post please find below the details about the new contests: Starting Date: Today - July 11, 2011 Deadline: September 15, 2011 Cost: Free Prize: 2 X $1,200 packages from Mobile Roadie to get your own iPhone App and some great merch offered by CheckMineOut worth few hundreds Dollars! (additional prizes will be announced in the coming weeks) How to Win: 1. Visit WeLoveYourSongs.com and create an artist profile. 2. Upload some of your best music 3. Encourage your fans to go vote for you! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/50 Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:09:33 BST We are here today to announce the come back of our competitions with the Summer Edition of the Best New Unsigned Artist and Best New Song kicking off next Monday 11th of July! We told you last week of some new exciting prizes and here we are! This time we are partnering with Mobile Roadie, the most innovative startup in the development of mobile applications. Mobile Roadie allows anyone to create and manage their own iPhone and Android apps. Founded by Brock Batten (Creative Director) and Michael Schneider (CEO) in 2009, they have created over 1500 apps for musicians, sports teams, athletes, venues and businesses. Mobile Roadie is headquartered in Los Angeles and has operations in the UK, Spain, Japan, Turkey, Australia and Brazil. The winning artists will get a Mobile Roadie annual package worth $1,200, with which it will be possible to create and manage either an Android or an iPhone App with industry-leading quality, customization, and flexibility. Please note that if you choose the iPhone App you will be required to set up an Apple iOs Developer Account and make a $99 payment directly to Apple. You can find out more about this such a fantastic prizes on the MoRo website! Pretty amazing, isnt it?? Here some more details about the new competitions: Starting Date: July 11, 2011 Deadline: September 15, 2011 Cost: Free Prize: 2 X $1,200 packages from Mobile Roadie to get your own iPhone App (additional prizes will be announced in the coming weeks) How to Win: 1. Visit WeLoveYourSongs.com and create an artist profile. 2. Upload some of your best music 3. Encourage your fans to go vote for you! GOOD LUCK! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/49 Tue, 05 Jul 2011 11:07:09 BST With this being the second of five essentials for a successful career as an artist, it is definitely an important one. It can be easy to think, especially when you are first starting out, that a manager is unnecessary. The opposite is definitely true. Having some type of management can be key in a multitude of ways, one of the most obvious ones being that it allows you as the artist to put more of your time and energy into writing and playing music. Management is also the tool that sets an artist up for promotion. It gives you someone to take care of setting up gigs and putting together press/promo kits. As well, this person can walk you through any business or career decisions that may come up. That being said, it is important that you stay in touch with the business side of your music career so that you are still in the drivers seat and can stay in control of which direction you would like things to go. It is not impossible to act as your own manager but it will come to a point where anyone in the know would advise you to have a second party do it for you. The more people looking out for the best interest of advancing your music career the better! A great way to get linked up with industry management companies is thru the Music Industry portion of Weloveyoursongs.com. From this page it is easy to browse many different types of useful companies including; management, labels, venues, promoters, and much more! Article written by Kaelan MacNeill, Audio Professional, Event Coordinator and WeLoveYourSongs collaborator. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/48 Mon, 27 Jun 2011 12:20:27 BST The nice guys of the Ryan Calder Band finally made it! The RCB is a 5 piece band playing a positive, upbeat South African acoustic rock. They have spent the last five years touring around South Africa, released the second album On the Edge in 2010 and have now won the Spring edition of our Best New Unsigned Artist and Best New Song competitions with a great song called Loving Every Day! For those interested to know more about these cool guys is possible to listen to their songs on the band page they have on WeLoveYourSongs, read their interview on our blog and take a look to the RCB official website! Contacted immediately after the end of the competitions to let them know they were the winners, here it is what they wanted to say: Were very pleased to have gained so much momentum in this competition. We like the concept behind the WLYS website and we are very thankful to everyone who voted for our songs, as well as anyone who just listened to our music! We hope that anyone reading this is inspired by the message in our music, and the RCB is looking forward to getting around to different continents in the near future. After them, in the second place of the Best New Unsigned Artist and the Best New Song, we have a very talented unsigned artist, again from Africa, Egypt to be specific, called Balanov, that with his Electro music has been in the first position for long time, duelling with the RCB until the very last day of the contests. The third place of the Best New Unsigned Artist contest has been taken by Chris Raw, from the Philadelphia Area in the US, with his underground indie hip hop music. A big hug is for every unsigned artists and bands that have participated in the Spring edition of our contests on WeLoveYourSongs.com and to all the music fans that have voted for the tracks they loved more! A huge thanks goes as well to our partners, that have kindly offered some fantastic prizes for the winners. A ticket worth 250 to attend the Future Music Forum in Barcelona, some cool merchandise from CheckMineOut and two promotion packages from uPlaya! At WeLoveYourSongs we are now already working on the Summer editions of our contests, for which we have already secured some new big prizes and about which more details will be revealed next week! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/46 Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:45:40 BST As artists we all have a couple things in common: a passion for music and a dreamof building a life long career doing what it is that we love. Eventhe most talentedmusician cannot stay above water without putting these 5 elements into practice. Stay tuned in the upcoming weeks for each of these fantastic tips! Lets start with our first tip- CREATE BUZZ People have to be aware of you and your music. A great way to do this is to promote yourself both with online and offline promotions. Uploading your best music, making it easy and free to be listened by anyone on Weloveyoursongs.comand spreading the word through your favorite socialnetworks is a great start no doubt, but its essential that you go out playing gigs as well! Play live gigs until your voice is hoarse and your frets are worn. By doing so, you let fans do the promoting for you. Word of mouth becomes your friend. Even if a few people see you play and enjoy it, they tell their friends who then check out your site and send a link to their friends, that will check you out on Weloveyoursongs.com, and all of a sudden you have alarger fan baseto whom you can promote your future shows!Remember you can now list your upcoming gigs onWeloveyoursongs.com to do so youhave to login to your account, click on My Events on the top right corner of the page and insert from there your list of upcoming concerts. A box with your list of future events will then appear on your artist page. Article written by Kaelan MacNeill,Audio Professional, Event Coordinator and WeLoveYourSongs collaborator. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/45 Fri, 17 Jun 2011 18:46:36 BST A recent article on Hypebot.com by Michael Brandvold, a music industry marketing veteran, made it clear that the most important things to keep in mind when creating your bands website is for it to be user friendly. FAN FRIENDLY. The use of Flash and great-looking-over-the-top graphics are good but should come secondary to ensuring your site is easy for fans to navigate. The website makes it easy for me to find what I want, was the answer given by 76% of consumers when asked what really matters when is comes to a website. This holds true for an artists site; you want it to be easy for a fan to find your bio, stream and listen to a song off your newest album, be able to sign up for your email list, find out when your next show is, and the list goes on. As well, it is key to make sure fans know of your site and can get to it equally as effortlessly. Put a link on your WeLoveYourSongs profile page could give you a bit of help for obtaining that. This way, for all the traffic of fans and industry people that comes through WeLoveYourSongs, they can be directed to your website if they would like to find out more. Article written by Kaelan MacNeill, Audio Professional, Event Coordinator and WeLoveYourSongs collaborator. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/44 Wed, 15 Jun 2011 11:59:42 BST We are just 1 week away from the end of the Spring edition of our Best New Unsigned Artist and Best New Song competitions where you could win a ticket worth 250 for the Future Music Forum in Barcelona, some great merchandise from CheckMineOut and a uPlaya promotion package! The deadline to enter your songs and get voted is Tuesday 21th of June (10PM GMT). Both contests are free to enter but open only to unsigned artists. By registering on Weloveyoursongs.com you will be automatically part of both competitions. The winners of the last competitions were the Roman Holiday, an alternative pop rock band from Seattle, followed at short distance by the Tyrannosaurus Grace with their exhuberant synth pop music! At the moment Balanov is leading the ranks, followed by the cool South African guys of the Ryan Calder Band and by Chris Raw with his underground hip hop music. Tons of other artists are just few votes away. It looks extremely difficult to make a bet on the winners, everything is still completely open! How to Win: Visit WeLoveYourSongs.com and create an artist profile. Upload some of your best music Encourage your fans to go vote for you Good luck buddies and keep rock on! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/43 Mon, 13 Jun 2011 15:29:52 BST Chris Raw is an underground, indie, hip-hop artist from the Philadelphia Area. He began writing in 2002 and started recording in 2005 and has been experimenting and expanding his mind to the world of music ever since. As of now, he is unsigned and plans on staying that way for a while. Chris Raw lyrical abilities mixed with his own style of raw flows with a different variety of beats makes for great music that any underground hip-hop head can enjoy. Chris Raw describes his music as Underground digging its way to the top and with more and more listeners every day, he is definitely on his way up Anyone who makes or produces music is going to find motivation in music itself, and Chris Raw is no exception. Music is his life, or, at least a huge part of it. Chris influences in music spands across various different generes; whether its hip-hop or heavy metal, acoustic rock or country, dubstep or techno, Chris finds inspiration in it all. Like he says, If its good music, its good music! Other influences on Chris and his music includes: current events that shape our world, his family, friends, and supporters and his own life and the daily experiences he encounters (positive or negative). Chris tries to incorporate all of these things in his music while also being laid back, being random, using clever punchlines, and just having fun showing off his lyrical talent. If you listen to Chris Raws music you can tell how diverse and lyrical his songs can be. In 2009 he released his fan-appointed single Drink Ya Haterade which featured Australian superstar Skyo alongside Bostons up and coming hip-hop aritst J.Lye. It was an instant classic with underground rap fans and will be featured on Chris Raws up and coming mixtape Raw Uncut: The Mixtape. Another song that you will find on the mixtape is the raw and rugged song Ima Monsta which features Chris best friend Neek Da Demon (West Chester, PA), Blacc (Trenton, NJ), and Jema (Detroit, MI) who creates a memorable hook that everyone can identify with. Chris Raw has also released a number of other songs in the past few years such as the somber I Sold My Soul and the street anthem Click Click among others, as well as a few freestyles he has recorded. In addition to making records Chris, like any serious artist, has performed live. Although Chris hates performing live, he says that he is slowly overcoming his stage fright for the fans. He has only had 2 shows in his short career but plans on doing more in the near future as he continues to release more and more music. And with more and more music being released the more loyal the fanbase will be. Speaking about fans, Chris has gotten quite a buzz over the internet with a fanbase of around 1,000+, more than 100,000 listens worldwide, and more than 500+ downloads. With this little taste of success Chris admits he still has much more to improve on and says there is always room for progression and always time to experiment with new and better things. With that being said, the only way to move forward is to have the motivation and dedication to do soAnd those elements are as strong as ever in Chris Raw lately Raw Uncut: The Mixtape is the first mixtape ever by Chris Raw and he hopes everyone enjoys listening to it as much as he enjoyed working on it. Chris looks at this mixtape as the first stepping stone on his journey of success. He hopes the feedback is positive as well as negative, because like he said before, there is always something to improve on. But his main goal is to just get people to listen and respect underground hip-hop as it should be respected. Raw Uncut: The Mixtape is set for June 28th and can be downloaded for free! Although its more hip-hop/rap oriented it will still include a wide range of songs with different types of beats, styles, and lyrics that anyone can enjoy and appreciate! Chris Raw is also working on Raw Uncut: The EP which will be a lyrical masterpeice with a more broad journey through hip-hop. It will be released in early 2012 and will feature many great artists with a few big name artists as well. Chris says he is also expanding his abilities to the world of electronica, techno, and dubstep and will also start collaborating with more RB and acoustic rock artists as well. Chris is excited about everything coming up with his music and hopes his fans are as well. He will continue to work on his music, network and collaborate with different people in the music business, and will also move forward with his skills in web design. His main goal? To make people listen, understand, and love. Oh, and also to have people never forget the name Chris Raw http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/42 Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:26:07 BST A brief note for you guys with the updated prize list for our Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist competitons, which are now just 3 weeks from the end! Best New Unsigned Artist competition: 1st Place 1. A ticket worth 250 to attend the Future Music Forum, taking place next September in Barcelona, Spain 2. A great merchandise package from CheckMineOut comprehensive of: - 100 free T-shirts with your design to sell at your merch table. (3 colour screen print) - Design help from their CMO T-shirt designer - Insider tips and hints booklet on how to make the most of your T-shirt merch. - CMO Premier account. (Some extra perks including your T-shirts promoted on their homepage, personal Url and QR code to make it easy for your fans to buy your merch) 3. A Suite of uPlaya Premium Services comprehensive of: - Hit Song Science Analysis/Score for 17 uploads - uPlayas global digital marketing widgets for those 17 songs uploads. Marketing tools can be efficiently distributed to nearly 300 sharing sites and contain lots of useful information about the artists music. - uPlaya Press Kit, which is fully-customizable with biographies, photographs, album information, press clippings, music videos, show dates and more. - Premium functionality of the uPlaya marketing tools. This includes the ability to feature four songs in a Featured Song Player on the uPlaya Press Kit. - Access to newsletter features that enable the artist to more easily build and maintain relationships with fans. - 15 Contest tickets good for use in any uPlaya Contest or Talent Search. - Ability to place music in uPlayas Hit Song Game, a music discovery application on Facebook. - Because the artist is able to enter more music in uPlayas Music Universe, you will increase your chances of being considered for special promotions and offers. - Increased statistical feedback from the marketing tools, which will enable artist to study consumer behavior as it relates to their music. - Guaranteed exposure on the uPlaya Blog and Social Networks as the winner of the WeLoveYourSongs contests. 2nd Place 1. A great merchandise package from CheckMineOut comprehensive of: - 60 free T-shirts with your design to sell at your merch table. (2 colour screen print) - Design help from our CMO T-shirt designer - Insider tips and hints booklet on how to make the most of your T-shirt merch. - CMO Premier account. 3rd Place 1. A great merchandise package from CheckMineOut comprehensive of: - 30 free T-shirts with your design to sell at your merch table. (1 colour screen print) - Design help from our CMO T-shirt designer - Insider tips and hints booklet on how to make the most of your T-shirt merch. - CMO Premier account. Best New Song competition: 1st Place A Suite of uPlaya Premium Services comprehensive of: - Hit Song Science Analysis/Score for 17 uploads - uPlayas global digital marketing widgets for those 17 songs uploads. Marketing tools can be efficiently distributed to nearly 300 sharing sites and contain lots of useful information about the artists music. - uPlaya Press Kit, which is fully-customizable with biographies, photographs, album information, press clippings, music videos, show dates and more. - Premium functionality of the uPlaya marketing tools. This includes the ability to feature four songs in a Featured Song Player on the uPlaya Press Kit. - Access to newsletter features that enable the artist to more easily build and maintain relationships with fans. - 15 Contest tickets good for use in any uPlaya Contest or Talent Search. - Ability to place music in uPlayas Hit Song Game, a music discovery application on Facebook. - Because the artist is able to enter more music in uPlayas Music Universe, you will increase your chances of being considered for special promotions and offers. - Increased statistical feedback from the marketing tools, which will enable artist to study consumer behavior as it relates to their music. - Guaranteed exposure on the uPlaya Blog and Social Networks as the winner of the WeLoveYourSongs contests. The prize list is available also on our website at this link here ! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/40 Wed, 01 Jun 2011 16:43:48 BST Today we are honored to interview Stuart Epps, with no doubts one of the most influential producers of the last 50 years of the music industry. He started is musical career in 1967 as a 15-year old office junior at Dick James Music. He quickly moved up the industry ladder to become Chief Engineer at DJM Studios, and later toured the USA with Elton John as personal assistant. Epps was involved from the start when Eltons producer, the late Gus Dudgeon, built The Mill Studios on the banks of the Thames, near Maidenhead. It was not long before Dudgeon asked Epps to become Chief Engineer, Studio Manager and Producer. He worked on many projects with artists including Elton John and Chris Rea. Later, Jimmy Page bought the studio in the early 80s and Stuart became the Studio Manager and began to work with Heavy Metal artists like Led Zeppelin. After gathering enough experience, he took over Alvin Lees private studio Wheeler End in 1994 and turned it into a comfortable commercial studio. Among his customers were John Leckie (Beatles, Stone Roses, Muse) and Craig Leon (The Ramones, Blondie). Oasis, Robbie Williams and Paul Weller are just few other names on the list of artists he has worked with. In the last few years Stuart is actively involved in the music business, working with big name artists as well as helping a host ofpromising newand up-and-coming artists to sound their best, both on demo recordings and in full studio productions. He is also doing lectures through Skype and instructs students at the SAE in Oxford, UK. You have worked with some of the most influencing artists of the last century, what are the ones you have enjoyed more to work with ? Any funny stories you want to share with our community ? Ive been lucky to work with some of the greats. Jimmy Page, Paul Rodgers, Bill Wyman, Robbie Williams, Oasis When Liam Gallagher came to my studio Wheeler End he said it looked like Jimi Hendrix Bedroom and loved it. When I was recording Elton Johns big hit, Song For Guy, to begin with it was only supposed to be a quick piano and voice so I just put some spare tape on the machine. He kept making mistakes and after a couple of hours was getting very angry. He was in the middle of his best take, when I realised I didnt have a lot of tape left. I just prayed I wouldnt run out but the song went on and on. I was now sweating and panicking, as I knew Elton would go mad if, on the one time he got the song right, I hadnt recorded all of it. Looking at the machine it seemed like there was no tape left. Literally as his last chord played, the tape ran out and the whole song was safely recorded. Whew !!!! Do you see around any outstanding and truly innovative artists that could change the contemporary music scene ? Ive been working recently with some very young singer/songwriters. One aged 12 !!! The standard is much Higher today, especially amongst young girls and Im sure some of these will go on to be the stars of the future. What your typical daily schedule looks like ? That depends on the current project. The best thing about my work is that every day is different. Every artist I work with is different and that is reflected in my working methods. A normal workday may mean working in my studio at home, recording a 100-piece orchestra in a concert hall or producing a heavy metal band in Brazil. Even though I have been recording and producing for 40 years, I still continuously discover new ways to achieve the best results. How do you think the music industry will change in the next decade ? Right now, every one is saying that the music industry is finished and will never again be what it once was. I dont agree. I think that the future looks better han ever for young, upcoming musicians, producers and audio technicians. The changes in the industry need to be accepted. Today it is literally possible to record your song in your bedroom, publish it worldwide on the Internet and sell it at the same time. It was always difficult, if not impossible to get large record stores to buy albums from new artists and put them on their shelves. These stores are relics of the past and have been replaced by online downloads, so instead of sending demos to major record companies, where they go under in a sea of thousands, today one can take the whole thing into ones own hands. Samples can be sent to online radio stations all over the world and there are masses of them. In addition, live music is more popular than ever another possibility to promote ones music. What do you think about Weloveyoursongs.com ? And generally speaking whats your social media aptitude ? Weloveyoursongs.com gives the up and coming artists the great opportunity to have their work seen, not only by other artists, which could help for collaborations, but also by industry professionals like myself, who can help with our experience. I get great satisfaction these days helping, where needed, in the creative process in putting songs together for young singers/songwriters and bands. Using the Internet its now possible to collaborate on a global scale and Im very excited for the future. With the aid of Skype is possible to carry out recording sessions with musicians in different countries, the only barrier being the time difference. I am also one of the first to be exploring Skype lectures, which I see as the future for education, especially in some of the more remote areas of the world. So in answer to the second part of your question, I think and hope Im keeping pretty up to date with the social media of today. What do you suggest to the unsigned artists part of our community on Weloveyoursongs.com ? The important thing to succeed is to stay focused and to do your work with passion. There is a lot more competition than ever before, so it is very important, in my opinion, to have professional training before jumping into this business. Still, I consider this to be the most exciting, challenging, and fulfilling industry there is! What plans Does Stuart Epps for the future? Right now, I am working on several projects at once and I am amazed at how much fun I still have working on new songs. I used to think that I would grow out of recording and producing at some point when I got older and that it wouldnt interest me so much. Its just the contrary! You will be hearing quite a bit more from me! Fell free to check out my web site www.stuartepps.com ! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/38 Fri, 27 May 2011 14:50:33 BST Hey folks just to let you know we have been featured on a cool website called KillerStartups.com - if you want to give us a bit of help please follow this link and vote for Weloveyoursongs.com! Its free and the registrations to the website is not required. Below you can find the nice words they have used to describe us: WeLoveYourSongs is a new community site for young and unsigned musicians. It has the aim of letting them promote their art, and make fans much easier than they would by any other means. The moment an artist signs up for a profile on the site, he is enabled to upload as many songs as he wants. He can also add notes, images and (once he has them) promo clips, and videos of live performances. Fans (who also have to sign up for their accounts, by the way) will be able to start commenting on all that media, and (hopefully) start spreading the word around. And the site actually encourages bands and artists to do their best by hosting regular competitions where those who play the same kind of music can go against each other, and battle for supremacy on the provided charts. In any case, both the newest artists and fans are highlighted on the site, along with these songs that have been more popular as of late. Finding someone or something to listen to will be anything but difficult. It makes for discovering bands and songs in a way that is as exciting as it is easy. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/37 Tue, 24 May 2011 10:05:49 BST Were excited to announce a new collaboration with our friends of CheckMineOut.co.uk (CMO), which have agreed to offer some great prizes for the winners of the Best New Unsigned Artist competition on Weloveyoursongs.com ! The additional prizes offered by CMO are: 1st Prize - 100 free T-shirts with your design to sell at your merch table. (3 colour screen print) - Design help from their CMO T-shirt designer - Insider tips and hints booklet on how to make the most of your T-shirt merch. - CMO Premier account. (Some extra perks including your T-shirts promoted on their homepage, personal Url and QR code to make it easy for your fans to buy your merch) 2nd Prize - 60 free T-shirts with your design to sell at your merch table. (2 colour screen print) - Design help from our CMO T-shirt designer - Insider tips and hints booklet on how to make the most of your T-shirt merch. - CMO Premier account. 3rd Prize - 30 free T-shirts with your design to sell at your merch table. (1 colour screen print) - Design help from our CMO T-shirt designer - Insider tips and hints booklet on how to make the most of your T-shirt merch. - CMO Premier account. Below here you can find out more about what CMO is about! CheckMineOut.co.uk is here to offer help in a crucial area for bands, T-shirt merchandise, which is a vital thing to get right. Anyone can make money with their merchandise, without worrying about handling shirts, by creating a free virtual shop on checkmineout.co.uk. It costs nothing. You choose the price and share your t-shirt and song or story behind it, to all of your fans easily through your social network and even download your own merch store widget for your website or blogspot. When an order is placed, we handle all production and delivery. And as soon as your designs sell like hotcakes, you can move on to screen-printing in bulk making your band even more money for your tour, new guitar or that extra studio time you need. The right merch campaign can bring in the much-needed revenue to keep your band rock and rolling. Were also here to give advice and to inspire - your creativity doesnt have to end where the music does, at checkmineout we like combining different t-shirt printing techniques to remove creative boundaries - the possibilities for different merchandise campaigns are endless. Your band has done the hardest bit already by creating awesome music that connects with your fans. Now let your t-shirts do the talking. No Fees To Pay No Minimum Orders Print On Demand Full Colour Designs Printed Different Shirts Loads of Colours As Many Designs As You Want Freedom To Change Your Design Whenever You Want Share Directly To Your Fan base. Checkmineout.co.uk - Bringing T-shirts to Life! In addition to the great prizes CMO is offering you should also remember the 2 Marketing Suites of uPlaya Premium Services and a 250 ticket to attend the Future Music Forum (FMF) in Barcelona, Spain, next September. The full list of prizes will be added soon on our the website, keep it monitored! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/36 Thu, 19 May 2011 10:36:36 BST Ryan Calder Band is a five piece acoustic rock band based in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. The band has spent the last five years touring around the country, has released the second album On the Edge in 2010 and is now leading both competitions on Weloveyoursongs.com! Whats the story of Ryan Calder Band? How did you all find each other? We started performing together at a local music festival about five years ago. Since then I havent been able to get rid of them. Whats your musical background? And how did you get involved with create/playing music? Most of the band self-started into music... for me, it began in school where I started as a drummer, and then moved to singing and playing guitar in theatre productions and cabaret shows during my varsity years and paid my way through university by gigging in pubs. Your latest album On the Edge was released last year. What can you tell us about it? The album is the first weve delivered as a band. It was recorded it over a month, and I had it mastered professionally. There are some very big ideas in the lyrics, and there are a range of different styles and influences on the album. I think this album is just the start of a career of different sounds and genres. I like the diversity of rhythm - its the starting point of my songwriting. Youve spent the past five years touring and playing around in South Africa; whats the best thing about performing live? Any good stories youd like to share? Its where the magic happens - where we get to witness first-hand peoples response. Weve worked hard on our live shows and have had a really good reponse to every show weve played... so good in fact, you would confuse us with mainstream artists. You know - screaming grannies, fainting women, wild crowds... it must count for something, even if they are just our immediate families. Your music has been described as positive, upbeat South African acoustic rock - where and how do you find your inspiration to your lyrics? I find that inspiration usually comes at the most inconvenient times, when youre not near a pen and paper. For me its usually sitting in traffic, looking at other people in their cars and thinking about life in general. I find thats the place I generate the most ideas and melodies and lyrics. The trick is to have a dictaphone or cellphone (with a built-in sound recorder) nearby, so the idea doesnt get lost. Hows the music scene in South Africa? Exciting, nerve-wracking and ever-growing. What do you like and what you would like to change on Weloveyoursongs.com? We love that the music is immediately available upfront, that theres a growing international community. Well done to WLYS for this web platform for indie bands! One thing wed like to see is a single page where bands can see who has voted for them. What are your plans for the rest of 2011? To visit the UK and Weloveyoursongs.com - if we can find a sponsor. The Ryan Calder Band has been interviewed by Eira of Acuvi, a music blog focusing on new and unsigned music, and the people behind. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/35 Thu, 12 May 2011 09:51:07 BST We are happy to announce a new great prize for ourBest New Unsigned Artist competition, made possible by a new collaboration with the cool guys of theFuture Music Forum (FMF). In addition to the 2 Marketing Suites ofuPlayaPremium Services, the winner of the contest will now get also a 250 ticket to attend this fantastic international music conference! Below here a piece of their press release that will let you better understand how great this event could be for you to attend to! The2nd Annual Future Music ForumBarcelona will be taking place this September 22nd 23rd in Barcelona. This year the FMF are inviting Dave Kusek from Berklee College of Music Boston as our Keynote Angel Gambino, WIRED top 100 executive serial entrepreneurs as a special guest speaker. The 2nd FMF will focus on Entrepreneurs in Music, The Music Cloud, Music Synchronization, Brands Music, How to get your music in TV Film, Music Social Gaming and Music Mobile. This year speakers include: Rootmusic, Sony Music, Domino Records and Compost Records amongst many others. FMF provides a professional yet relaxed platform to explore, engage and discuss these topics with a carefully selected group of music futurists, label owners, managers, music and technology entrepreneurs and digital music consumption analysts. The 2nd Edition follows the successful launch in 2010 which saw an impressive array of music technology companies, entrepreneurs, musicians music industry related executives descend on Barcelona for 2 days of lively discussion on where the music industry is heading. Participants included Shazam, Mixcloud, LastFM, Forrester Research, Soundcloud. Such exciting times for the WeLoveYourSongs community, we really hope you are enjoying it! Good luck for the competitions and stay tuned for new announcements and articles as well as intereviews to our talented unsigned artists! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/33 Tue, 10 May 2011 12:04:35 BST We are here again withanother chance to win a ticket worth $600 for the SF MusicTech Summit that will take place next Monday 9th of May in San Francisco. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px} The SF MusicTech Summit brings together 800+ visionaries in the music/technology space, along with the best and brightest developers, entrepreneurs, investors, service providers, journalists, musicians and organizations who work with them at the convergence of culture and commerce. We meet to discuss the evolving music/business/technology ecosystem in a proactive, conducive to dealmaking environment. Topics being covered at the event include: The Future of Publishing, Artist Revenue Streams, Tools for your Band, Music in the Cloud, Digital Sheet Music, New Musical Instruments, Whats Your Stack, and many more! If you want a free ticket to attend this great event, all you have to do is follow the steps below: 1) Like our Facebook Page: 2) Then do one of the following: - Retweet this post, including the #WeLoveYourSongs hashtag - Or leave us a comment below here The contest starts now and ends next Wednesday 4th of May, at 8PM GMT. We will choose at random and contact the winner of the ticket next Thursday 5th of May with more details. Please kindly that we are offering 1 ticket only, while accommodation and airfare are not included. Good luck to all you folks! Update: The winner has been chosen - congratulations to N.Sputnik ! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/31 Fri, 29 Apr 2011 10:21:02 BST Alin joined our community from the very beginning and is currently in the first position in both the Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist competitions. Shes an Italian Hungarian artist that creates inventive computer based electronic dance music! Whats your story? How did you get into producing music? Since my childhood Ive loved music. When I was 8 years old I learned to play guitar, that let me know people with the same passion. During high school, I had experiences in some band and years later those experiences moved on a stage. After that, I decided to dive completely in music and try to compose what really felt without come into conflict with someone else. So, since 3 years, Katalin/Kati become Alin, and still now I continue believing in my feelings. Whats your musical background? Ive grown up with every kind of music: thanks to my parents, Ive known old hits of 60-70 years and classical music; thanks to my brothers, Ive known memorable rock and grunge bands; thanks to Hungary, Ive known the folk music and 80s hits; thanks to friends, Ive known pop-rock-disco and electronic music. What instruments do you play? I play guitar, piano andcomputer! How would you describe your music in one or two sentences? I consider my music as a soundtrack: in front of you theres a landscape or a picture and automatically your mind makes you think to a melody. If you could cover any song which would it be, and why? If I couldId like to play and cover Little Eye by Elisa. Why? Maybe because its a beautiful, unknown and misunderstood song. What was the first song you learned to play? La canzone del sole by Lucio Battisti: every italian who wants to be a guitarist learns this song for first, because its composed by simple chords: A E D E. What artist(s) has inspired you the most? I can just say that a lot of artists inspire me: who is in my musical background is my muse. What kind of music are you listening to at the moment? Im listening to 80s 90s hits! How did you hear about Weloveyoursongs.com? And how do you promote your music? WeLoveYourSongs contacted me through MySpace Music, inviting me to the first competition that began in Winter. At the moment, I promote my music with the power of networks, so MySpace and Facebook. The article has been written by Eira of Acuvi, a music blog focusing on new and unsigned music, and the people behind. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/30 Thu, 28 Apr 2011 08:41:33 BST After have gifted last week 5 tickets forthe MusicConnex conference in London, worth 199 each, to Lauren Housley, WKB, Lorena Cueva, C.T.G. (Change The Game) and Neutral Nomad, winners of a contest hosted on our blog, we are now here to announce that the Spring edition of our Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist competitions have now started! We have now also implemented somenew featureson the site for you, such as the possibility to add your next gigs/concerts in your page. To add an event you have just tologinon your account and once logged go on My Events, in the top right corner of the page. For the happiness of most of you in this edition you will be able to listen and vote for the songs you love for free, just by clicking on the LOVE button! The competitions will finish Monday 21 June 2011, when the winners will be announced. The Bew New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist contests are open only to unsigned artists, free to join, with great prizes such as 2 Marketing Suites of uPlaya Premium Services, online promotion and lot of exposures from WeLoveYourSongs.com through our media contacts and a community, that counting the people following us on our Twitter, Facebook and Myspace pages, is now composed by more than 50,000 persons. Other prizes will be announced later! Now its time to call your fans to action! Rock On! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/28 Wed, 20 Apr 2011 09:31:02 BST WeLoveYourSongs has teamed up with an exciting new music industry conference for independent artists called Music Connex. The event is a perfect opportunity for independent artists to network with over 100 different music industry executives on Tuesday 19th to Thursday 21st of April 2011 at Kings Place in London. Music Connex will be attended by record label ARs, music journalists, music managers, artists, social networking sites, stylists and many more. Throughout the three days there will be a range of different seminars on a range of different topics related to the new music industry landscape and also listening sessions giving artists the chance to play their music to a panel of record label reps, journalists and radio producers. Among the panel of over 100 distinguished speakers are: Keith Harris, manager to Stevie Wonder, Mark Wood manager to Imogen Heap, artist and producer Labrinth, Twin B from BBC 1Xtra and representatives of YouTube, Facebook and Spotify (to name a few). Were going to be giving away five free tickets to the event (worth 199.00 each), all you have to do to be there is simply get as many of your fans as possible to comment on this blog post, on our Facebook page with your name or band name and possibly the link to the artist page on Weloveyoursongs.com (to participate you have to be registered on weloveyoursongs.com). If you prefer in alternative you can send us an email at info@weloveyoursongs.com. The five artists, bands or music fans with most votes will win a ticket and get to attend this fantastic event! Youve only got two weeks, until Friday 15 April, so get voting! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/25 Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:20:04 BST After have concluded our first competitions and discovered what was the best unsigned artist and the best new song last week, we have now also reached 10,000 fans on our Facebook page, another goal that make us feel very happy to have started this site a couple of months ago! But we are now writing this post to announce that a new section dedicated to the Music Industry is now live on the site. As explained before we aim to build the globally most comprehensive and complete Music Industry database, a sort of Bible for unsigned artists, full of resources, key contacts, and addresses. Tons of companies offering cool services for artists have already registered and are there just to be discovered. In this section of weloveyoursongs.com we list Record Labels, Press / Magazines / Blogs, Radios, Venues, Music Distribution, Promoters, Instrument Shops / Repair, Lawyers / Legal Advice, Training / Tuition services, Recording Studios, Industry Conventions, Festivals etc. If you have a company and want to have that listed please fill the form - you can do that for FREE! Once submitted your entry will be reviewed by an administrator and once approved your services will appear on our Music Industry directory. Other not less important changes have happened on the design of the artist pages and on the homepage of the site that we have tried to organize a bit better. We are really looking forward to hear if you like these changes! More additional features and some news about the new competitions will be announced in the next days. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/24 Wed, 23 Feb 2011 09:11:20 BST The first edition of our Best Unsigned Artist and Best New Song competitions is finally over, with the Roman Holiday, a cool new band from Seattle, Washington, composed by Shane Lance (lead vocals, guitar), Emerson Shotwell (drums, percussion), Daniel Collins (lead guitar, backing vocals), and Nick Howard (bass guitar, backing vocals), winning both contests with a great song called The Long Way Home. If you are interested to know a little bit more about the Roman Holiday you can take a read to their interview we have made a couple of weeks ago that you can find here. We have been in contact with them in these last days asking what they were feeling to be the winners of the first edition of the WeLoveYourSongs awards and if they wanted to say something to their fans. Here a quote from their reply: Were honored to have won the WeLoveYourSongs competitions. We greatly appreciate all of our fans for voting so passionately in support of us. We pour our hearts and souls into the songs that we write, so your support means the world to us. We feel that having won this competition is a stride forward in our career, and we look forward to seeing what comes from it. One of our main goals this year is to expand our international fan base, so we believe winning this U.K. based contest is going to be a vital part of that growth. We encourage any and all artists to participate in the WeLoveYourSongs competitions next time around! After the Roman Holiday, in the second position of the Best Unsigned Artist competition, and with 3 songs in the top 5 of Best New Song competition, we have another great band from Washington called the Tyrannosaurus Grace. In the first ten positions after them we have Alfia Yussupova, Mark Marshall, Kigity K, Saints of a New Age, Sertari, Dream Reaper, Alin and Rooster. All unsigned musicians of a very high artistic level! A huge thanks go to them but also to all the other unsigned artists that have registered on WeLoveYourSongs.com and to the music fans which have voted for their favorite songs. And also to Acuvi.org, a music blog focusing on new and unsigned music, which has helped us a lot with interviews and other things, to uPlaya which has offered some great prizes for our competitions, and to all the cool guys at Buckle Consulting for the great work on the technical side of the contests. There are many things going on here at WeLoveYourSongs now and more details will be revealed in the next few days about some changes on the website and about the new competitions we are organizing! STAY TUNED! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/23 Wed, 16 Feb 2011 13:38:41 BST Sertari is a UK based singer and songwriter, known for her comprehensive musical style, which includes RnB, electronica, hip hop and pop. She has already worked with some of the most talented and influenced people in the industry and had several nominations, including; best live act, best song and a nomination in the International Independent Artist Awards. Who is Sertari? I am a singer/songwriter and producer, I love writing and being in the studio and not forgetting performing on stage, I get a huge buzz when on stage and love to entertain people, I come from a very musical Greek Cypriot family, I guess this is where i developed my passion for music. Youve been involved with music since you were young, how did you know this was your way to go? From a young age I was introduced to all kinds of music from, Classical, world music, jazz, pop, rock RnB. My Dad played the accordion and traveled on cruise ships playing and singing the Greek classics and the chart hits, My dad would always play the accordion at home and we would always grab the mic for a good ol sing song! Mum on the other hand was very operatic, there was always some sort of music being played or someone singing so it was for me my natural path and a desire of what i wanted to do. Whats a typical day like? I wake up thinking of music, i go to work humming music and come home recording music : ) Do you write your own songs? Whats your inspiration? I write all my own music, I also work with a great producer Benjaming K, when we get together we bounce ideas off each other, it is so great to be in the same room where you can be open and creative. I use to write about personal experience but now im am having a lot more fun and write about anything i want, my latest single Platform 22 was written about catching a train simple, but it was written with many metaphors and references about life etc.. I love building a story in my songs and to be very visual when writing. What kind of music are you listening to at the moment? Many things, I try to keep up to date with whats happening in the charts but i also love listening to some of my fav artist and bands, just to name a few Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Audio Slave, Michael Jackson, No Doubt, Nightwish, madonna, Andrea Bocelli, DNA and the list goes on.. However i do like to listen out for those jems either through youtube or a random search on Ituens that you would not normally hear on the radio for example Carl Sagan A Glorious Dawn i think this is a beautiful mix and very clever. You are soon releasing a new EP what can you tell us about it? My New EP is out on Itunes and most online stores on the 1st February called Pandoras Box I have given the EP this title because I like the idea behind Pandoras Box, in life no matter what happens there is still Hope. How much do you use internet and social media to promote your music, and why did you decide to join WeLoveYourSongs? I use most social sites to promote my music, i guess since the internet, it has been a great tool to find new music and also to promote music. I was recommended to sign up to WeLoveYourSongs It is a great way to introduce your self and meet new people, also i have checked out other bands/artist it is good to hear new things and connects you to another social community. What is the biggest challenge you have faced along the way to your musical success? I guess as an unsigned artist this would have to be that you need to manage your time well and allow yourself to create music as these days you cannot forget to do your own promoting, marketing, websites etc also not forgetting having to find funds for recording, videos, mixing, mastering and artwork. The key is to think of your self and your own business and take it as far as you can, saying that, i find it fun and exciting to have a passion in life and more then happy to work my musical behind off to achieve this. A great quote i have heard is this: Many of Lifes failures are people who had not realised how close they where to success when they gave up And lastly, whats the plan for 2011? Well first up the EP Pandoras box is out on Feb 1st and very excited about it, you can also get it though www.sertari.com I get involved in lots of charity work and will be releasing a single in March where all donations will be going to the Great Ormond street Childrens Hospital a great charity close to my heart. My Producer Ben is also running the London Marathon for this charity so all donations are welcome through this link http://www.justgiving.com/Benjamin-Knight0 I am also working with a few US artists including J Ivy who featured on Kanye Wests album and is known by many in the USA http://j-ivy.com/ this track will be on my next Album release. I am in talks with media in the US including the FOX network TV station for show in the US so very excited. Shows/gigs in UK which i really cant wait to do, really looking forward to getting back on stage, all dates will be up on all my social sites including Myspace, facebook, twitter, youtube etc.. I am also currently writing songs for other artist and projects which i do enjoy too. Oh yes , i cant forget the 5-9 job and training Kamon Wing Chun : ) The article has been written by Eira of Acuvi, a music blog focusing on new and unsigned music, and the people behind. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/22 Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:55:58 BST Three months after the launch of website, weloveyoursongs.com is now overflowing of great unsigned artists and sure hits right there to be listened and voted. We will discover now in 10 days which are the most loved artists of our community of the first edition of the Best New Unsigned Artist and the Best New Song competitions. The Tyrannosaurus Grace are actually leading both contests, with Roman Holiday, Alfia Yussupova, Sertari and Mark Marshall just few votes away from them. Just reminds that the voting, and the subscriptions, will be open until the 10th of February at midnight Pacific Standard Time - 8AM GMT of 11th of February, British Time. Its now time to call your fans to support you in this final 10 days rush that is going to be extremely hot! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/21 Mon, 31 Jan 2011 08:12:54 BST Roman Holiday is an alternative rock band from Seattle, Washington. Formed in September 2008, the band consists of Shane Lance (lead vocals, guitar), Emerson Shotwell (drums, percussion), Daniel Collins (lead guitar, backing vocals), and Nick Howard (bass guitar, backing vocals). They released debut album Paint This Town last year. The band is known for their outstanding live shows (see them if you can!) and their next big thing sound! So, whats the story of Roman Holiday? How did you come up with your band name? When it came time to name the band, we knew we wanted a name that would be classic, timeless, and worldwide. We were brainstorming name ideas and somehow got on the topic of Rome. So late one night, our producer and hidden 5th member Mark was watching the movie Roman Holiday, and sent a text to Shane, our front-man and said How about Roman Holiday?!. At first we were hesitant; we wanted to make sure it represented our music well. But were all big Audrey Hepburn fans, so eventually we grew to love it. It feels like a perfect fit now. Youve been described as a mix of Kings of Leon, Muse and Coldplay how does this make your feel? Is this how would you describe your sound? Were totally fine with those comparisons. Those are all great bands. We work hard to write good songs that people can feel and connect with, and as people get to know our music, they find that our sound is very unique. But, we feel that being compared to those bands is a compliment. Weve been told our sound is as melodic as Coldplay and U2, and as rocknroll as The Strokes and Kings of Leon. We like to agree. Whats the best piece of praise youve received so far? Were often complimented on our songwriting, and our ability to put so much emotion into our music. Thats the greatest compliment we could ever receive. Its all about good songs. Anyone can play fast, loud, and jump around on stage. But good songs are what people connect with. Good songs are what change the world. What music/artists do you listen to when you are not playing your own? We all listen to and enjoy different kinds of music. To list just a few of our favorites: The Beatles, Band of Skulls, M. Ward, The Strokes, Radiohead, Johnny Cash, Arcade Fire, The Black Keys, Kathleen Edwards, Coldplay, Bob Dylan, David Bazan, AC/DC, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Bon Iver, and Jay-Z Do you prefer performing live or recording? Live. Hands down. Theres nothing quite like the energy of playing a live show and seeing people sing along to your songs. Thats when all of the hard work feels worth it. What is the biggest challenge you have faced along the way to your musical success? Weve been blessed with a lot of support. From our close friends and families believing in us and standing with us, to our producer and his studio. And weve been fortunate to build a solid fan base too. The toughest part about the music industry is reaching the masses. There is so much noise in the world today. Rising above that noise and letting the whole world see and hear you can be tough. But we feel were on the right track. People are listening. Why did you sign up on WeLoveYourSongs? What part of the music industry do you believe sites like this will have in the future? We signed up for WeLoveYouSongs because we feel the site can help us reach more people, and gain more music-loving fans. In the future, sites like this will help musicians who are creating good music find their way into the ears of new listeners. What can you tell us about your album Paint This Town? Paint This Town is our first and only full length record. We released it in early 2010. Its very raw and honest. We love the songs that are on it, and poured our hearts and souls into them. People can find the songs on iTunes and a lot of other online media sources, and they can also hear some of them live if they come find us. Weve also written quite a few songs since the release of that record. We recently released a single titled The Long Way Home. People can also find it on iTunes, and we released a music video for it as well. Check it out HERE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGiYa9J6MtE What are the top-3 things to do one day in Seattle? Top 3 things to do in one day in Seattle? Hmm Go to Pikes Place Market. Eat at Beths Cafe. And see a Roman Holiday show! What are your plans for 2011? To take over the world! Figuratively speaking, of course. The article has been written by Eira of Acuvi, a music blog focusing on new and unsigned music, and the people behind. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/20 Mon, 24 Jan 2011 09:35:40 BST Since we have received a couple of emails from you guys asking what was exactly included in the prizes we are offering for the Best New Unsigned Artist and Best New Song competitions on WeLoveYourSongs, we have decided to put here all the details for everyone. In case of any doubts please feel free do drop us an email ! The total amount of the prize is 1000 (approx. $1600, 1200) to be divided between the 2 winners. In addition, a Suite of uPlayas Premium Services will be awarded to the winners of both the competitions. 500 will be awarded to the most voted artist and another 500 to the most voted songs during the period of the competitions. This prize, have to be claimed from the winner within 21 days by the end of the competition, and it will be then paid within seven days from the claiming date. The Suite of uPlayas Premium Services, offered by Music Intelligent Solutions Inc (uPLaya.com), is comprehensive of: Hit Song Science Analysis/Score for 17 uploads uPlayas global digital marketing widgets for those 17 songs uploads. Marketing tools can be efficiently distributed to nearly 300 sharing sites and contain lots of useful information about the artists music. uPlaya Press Kit, which is fully-customizable with biographies, photographs, album information, press clippings, music videos, show dates and more. Premium functionality of the uPlaya marketing tools. This includes the ability to feature four songs in a Featured Song Player on the uPlaya Press Kit. Access to newsletter features that enable the artist to more easily build and maintain relationships with fans. 15 Contest tickes good for use in any uPlaya Contest or Talent Search. Ability to place music in uPlayas Hit Song Game, a music discovery application on Facebook. Because artist is able to enter more music in uPlayas Music Universe, you will increase your chances of being considered for special promotions and offers. Increased statistical feedback from the marketing tools, which will enable artist to study consumer behavior as it relates to their music. Guaranteed exposure on the uPlaya Blog and Social Networks as the winner of the We Love Your Songs contests. Remember that the contests will end the 10th February 2011, if you have not already registered you can do that now! Its free and it takes just few seconds. Good luck to you all guys! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/18 Thu, 20 Jan 2011 16:50:54 BST One month from the end of both the competitions on WeLoveYourSongs and we are really excited to see who will be at the top at the end! Whats your take?Who will be named as Best Unsigned Artist the 10th of February at the end of the contest? Will the winner be the pop rock of the Tyrannosaurus Grace or the folk music of Rooster? Is Mark Marshall with his Let it Go your pick? Or maybe you prefer the pop music ofBiba Coritsa? The acoustic rock of Paul Ferland or the Seattles rock of the Roman Holiday? There is still a month of voting and there is room for some big changes in the ranking. The winner at the end could be someone that now is not even in the first 100 artists. Below here the Top 10 most voted artists for the Best Unsigned Artists competition: 1st Tyrannosaurus Grace 2nd Roman Holiday 3rd Alin 4th Mark Marshall 5th Rooster 6th Paul Ferland 7th Adel 8th The Higharts 9th Biba Coritsa 10th Dream Reaper Take a look around on weloveyoursongs.com and vote your favorite ones! The site is now really full of talented unsigned artists that are just there to be discovered, listened and voted! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/16 Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:19:28 BST We are going to build the globally most comprehensive and complete Music Industry database. Our aim is to create a sort of Bible for Unsigned Artists, full of resources, key contacts, and addresses. This will give a great exposure to your company and to the services you offer and will means a lot more opportunities for our artists as well! In the Music Industry page on weloveyoursongs.com we will list Record Labels, Press/Magazines/Blogs, Radios, Venues, Music Distribution, Promoters, Instrument Shops/Repair, Lawyers/Legal Advice, Training/Tuition, Music/Media Students, Recording Studios, Industry Conventions etc. Please fill the form at this link if you want to have your organisation and your services listed, you can do that for FREE. This will be reviewed by an administrator and once approved the entry will appear on the Music Industry listings. ADD YOUR SERVICES NOW! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/15 Wed, 05 Jan 2011 11:25:52 BST uPlaya and WeLoveYourSongs are partnering up to provide some great prizes to talented indie artists! Let your music earn you great prizes! uPlaya is partnering with WeLoveYourSongs, which is offering two compelling competitions for rising artists, to help out with prizing packages for WeLoveYourSongs competitions using its award-winning technologies, Hit Song Science and the Music Universe, which offer unique digital promotion and discovery capabilities to music professionals and fans across the globe. WeLoveYourSongs, created to allow unsigned artists to share music and compete with other artists, offers two avenues for artists to make a name for themselves in the Best New Song and Best New Artist competitions. The winner of each contest, which will be determined by fan voting, will receive 500 (US $800) as well as a package of Premium uPlaya services that includes scientific music analysis of the musics commercial potential, globally-reaching marketing widgets to increase exposure on the Web, attractive and professional press kits to showcase important information, and also promotion through uPlayas other unique promotion applications such as interactive music discovery games for Facebook. The winners will also be marketed through uPlayas music community, including the uPlaya Blog as well as a week-long spot in uPlayas spotlight feature, the Up and Coming Artist of the Week on the uPlaya Facebook. uPlaya is excited to partner with innovative music companies like WeLoveYourSongs to do what we can to help indie artists across the globe. Enter the competitions today! To read the full post please visit the uPlaya Blog . http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/14 Thu, 23 Dec 2010 18:14:25 BST WeLoveYourSongs would like to wish you and your family a merry Christmas and our best wishes for 2011. In the spirit of the season, we have decided to set a lending team on Kiva, a micro-lending non-profit organisation, the concept of which we love. The idea is simple - Kiva enable you to lend money to low-income entrepreneurs across the globe. You choose who to lend to whether a baker in Lebanon, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Colombia, a restaurateur in Ghana, or a tailor in India - and as they repay their loan, you get your money back. Its a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone to lift themselves out of poverty. You choose who you lend to, see the progress they make and once the moneys been repaid you can re-lend it to others. At the link below you can find our lending team and wed love if you decide to join us: http://www.kiva.org/team/weloveyoursongs In the meantime, we hope to see you soon, in 2011. Our warmest regards, The WeLoveYourSongs Team http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/13 Tue, 21 Dec 2010 08:21:33 BST The Eleven 37s is a funk band! Theyre named after the story of 11 groups of prisoners that were taken away to 37 separate prisoner of war camps in the 1950s due to all the men and women being dressed as half tiger, half elephant freaks of nature as part of a military celebration. (It was the time). Front man and video blog maker of the band Jamie Topp was asked some questions: How and when did The Eleven 37s form? We formed way back when we were drinking milk from cows at a young age on a dairy farm. Weve been raised by farm animals for 21 years, each by a different breed of swan or sheep, we decided to form a band when we kept getting laughed at for always having dip dabs for Christmas dinner instead of turkey, this was around 3 years ago. I hate to tell you this. but most of that was a lie. We actually formed from the ashes of other bands in around early 2008, and decided we wanted to play something new and fresh, we all come from different backgrounds, which gives us a good hand for creating something new. How would you describe your sound? We are funk. We play funk rock music, and were a bit weird to say the least, it took about 2 years to settle into the solid sound that we wanted to follow, but we are happy with where we are heading. We play music that makes people want to dance, get up and enjoy it, smile, have a laugh and have fun basically. We mix it up between the fast paced fully funk powered songs such as Here Comes The Storm and Personality with slowly jazzier funk such as Fires (Part ii). Were not all about the drive all of the time and getting people on their feet, its good to bring it back a bit sometimes and get deeper into peoples heads with what were trying to get across. What does music mean to you? I wouldnt be doing much else besides this, its one of the rare ways in which we can express how we feel and that everyone can understand it without having to understand another language. You can change peoples way of thinking with a 3 minute track, or give them an ever lasting memory link, its such an amazing thing. And to be in a funk band, playing music that is so enjoyable to not only perform but to give to people to make them light up is a great thing. What has influenced you in the last years? The slow increase of funk bands coming back onto the circuit. We originally come form Brighton so weve grown up watching Mean Poppa Lean leading the way for bringing funk back onto the scene, they are one of the few bands out there that arent afraid to confirm to jeans, shirt and a pair of trainers when they enter on stage. They want to make people think what the fuck? but in a good way, just like we do. Of course old funky Chilis have been a big influence too, alongside with artists such as 3, Maroon 5 and Jamiroquai. Also another band weve played with and are good friends with are Storm Engine, they are all about that happy upbeat vibe, it all tastes good. Is there any singer or band you admire and you would like to collaborate with? As a band we all admire different artists, but I think we all look up to what the Chilis achieved in the early years, to collaborate with them would be an amazing experience obviously for any band. Personally, from a vocalist perspective I would love to collaborate with some female vocalists on a track, an upcoming artist that is a good example of this is Chris Cape, to play around with a double bass and some brass ensemble would be all good too, something we are hopefully looking forward to doing when we record later next year on a few tracks. I love Cee Lo Greens soulful voice too, I think he would be an awesome collaborator as well. What are you most excited about right now? Other than the lasagna thats cooking away in my oven right now, we are all quite excited about where we are heading at the moment with The Eleven 37s. Things have picked up considerably in the last 6 months after pushing out Here Comes The Storm (2010 EP) we are getting a lot of good attention back, and with the release of our music video (the second of which is follow just before Christmas for Straywire) for Here Comes The Storm people are witnessing that funk is coming back, and that its okay to listen to music that makes you want to dance and smile without looking like some twat that listens to S Club 7 non stop on your ipod because every other song on your iTunes has decided to corrupt but those 11 songs. Plus we are looking forward to another tour in July 2011 with our good friends Storm Engine, should be a funky journey. Here Comes The Storm Where is the ideal place to listen to your music? You can listen to our music anywhere! Spotify, iTunes, Facebook, Myspace, Youtube (and on the Eleven 37s Weloveyoursongs page, we add!) or find everything youll ever need on our website: http://www.theeleven37s.com. But as always, youll never get the full experience until you come see us live, strawberries, silly string guns, free stuff and dancing that will blow your mind, plus the fact that you have The Eleven 37s guarantee that I will always aim to get face to face with at least one person at a show and steal one piece of clothing from someone. How do you promote your music? Through every means necessary. As well as the music, we are also very passionate about understanding the brand of the band, and keeping it within something that people can relate too. There is a lot of merchandise circulating the country that weve given away for free, plus many EPs. We make sure our music is accessible to everyone, thats why weve invested in iTunes and Spotify, and why the Here Comes The Storm EP is available for free download on various websites, as well as the fact that you can stream all our tracks from loads of places. We do a lot of radio interviews and appearances, performing live acoustic tracks, as well as popping up in the street form time to time unannounced. Shows of course is essential, we love playing LIVE, its the biggest drive, by the end of next year we are looking at totaling up nearly 100 shows. Touring is also a big way in which we go about promoting our tracks, a good example is in 2009 with our tour for our second EP. We want everyone to hear our stuff, and were willing to do it in every way possible. Were about to say goodbye to 2010 what are your favourite new songs and records of the year? Well one of the newest bands Ive gotten into this year has to be The Black Keys, I love the new album, I would recommend listening to Next Girl and Tighten Up (and the video to go with it too), theyve got a very funky sound and their videos match up to the mark too, so check them out. Ive been listening to a lot of new stuff this year, iv really gotten into Arcade Fire, Deadmau5 and Ben Folds Five recently, so quite a vivid mix of stuff. And I know our drummer has been going back and getting into Pearl Jam a lot quite recently. We all have a wide spread music taste, but luckily instead of being an issue, it actually works really well as we can pull out so many different ideas and sounds and apply it to the funky paced tunes that we provide. And what are your plans for 2011? More music, a Special EP early 2011, a tour in the summer and a full length album by the end of the year. And to shave off our bassists beard in 3 months. Stay funked. The article has been written by Eira of Acuvi, a music blog focusing on new and unsigned music, and the people behind. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/12 Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:19:47 BST As many of you have probably realized, some changes have been made on the site during this first period. Here a brief summary of whats happened on the website maintenance side: - It is now possible to the RSS feeds of the new We Love Your Songs blog. - We have integrated Disqus on the site and you can now like, dislike and/or write your comments on every blog posts. - The share buttons for which we have seen there were sometimes some litlle problems, are now working properly. So now you dont have excuses anymore, you can now share all your favorite tracks and artists with other people around the web! - Some bugs here and there have been fixed and the site is generally working better. Regarding the prizes for our Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist competitions, we have reached an agreement with uPlaya / Music Intelligence Solutions Inc., to offer a great Marketing suite of uPlayas Premium Services to both the winners of these contests. Just to give you an idea, uPlaya was called the FICO credit score for music... by the San Francisco Chronicle, and its unique technologies defined as something that could profoundly change the way music is created... by The Economist, a world renewed business information magazine. More info and an official communication from both companies about this great news for all the members of our community will be released shortly. Other exciting interviews from our artists and news about the future developments on the site will be revealed very soon as well! Stay tuned! http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/11 Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:39:40 BST Escape Directors is a band that formed in 2009, in Colin Riesers basement as a way for Steve Carter to perform his acoustic material with a band. They released their first album Ladders as a free download in 2010! Who is Escape Directors? And whats your musical background? Steve Carter- Vocals, Guitar, Piano Nick Wilson- Piano, Guitar, Vocals Colin Rieser- Drums, Vocals SC: Ive been playing music for about 4 years and my background is self-taught. CR: Ive been playing the drums since I was 7 when my dad gave me his 1960s Slingerland drumkit and I took drum lessons for 11 yrs. NW: Started on my fisher price keyboard when I was 7 still prefer that keyboard over anything else. How would you describe your sound? I would say were an indie rock band with pop sensibilities. What is the best piece of praise you have received so far? We played what we feel was our best show at Mexicali Live in Teaneck a month back. The energy from the crowd after we finished was enough praise for us. Were fortunate to have great people who support us and want to see us succeed. We also surround ourselves with lots of influential individuals who give us great critiques on how to improve. Its important to us to have both sides. Honest Man Youre involved in The Project Matters, what can you tell us about it? The Project Matters is a foundation run by a wonderful woman named Karen High. TPM supports local New Jersey bands under 21 by providing resources for musicians to keep doing what we love to do. Our involvement in the project has given us opportunities that we never could have gotten without TPM. We owe a great deal to Karen High in believing in our band. How do you promote your music? Shows, free downloads, newsletters, advertisements, word of mouth, licensing, radio airplay, podcasts, anything and everything. We love getting our music in peoples ears, so whatever we can do to accomplish that is how we promote. How important is it for you as a band to have a relationship with your fans? Fan relationships is a priority for us. Without them, we wouldnt have the encouragement to keep going. Its important to nurture those relationships, listen to them, see what they think, and take them on this journey of breaking through the noise together. What are your favorite track(s) at the moment? SC: At the moment Ive been listening to the new Kanye West album on repeat. I just got into Sleeping At Last and Caspian. Andy Hull from Manchester Orchestras solo project Right Away Great Captain! has also been a staple for me lately. Jon Brions score for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, my favorite film. CR: currently, Ive been listening to Kevin Devine, Wakey! Wakey!, Local Natives, Dirty Projectors, Travis, Sufjan Stevens and Bassnectar and Rusko for my partying dubstep vibes NW: Ive been all over the place lately, from Coldplay to Incubus to Damien Rice to The Who to Paper Rival. Do you think its been easier for unsigned bands to be heard? Its easier for unsigned bands to be heard but its increasingly more difficult to sustain an audience. These days a well versed crowd has seen everything musically. Bands need to be more creative so they can give fans experiences and not just the same old rehashed show/album. And lastly, what are your plans for 2011? Our main goal is finishing writing then recording our next album. We just set a recording date for March and this album is going to be a major opportunity for us because well be working with an esteemed producer. After that, its promoting, playing shows, licensing to TV/film spots and writing. The process never stops for us, were always working on every aspect of the band as much as we can. Were looking to make a lot of noise in the upcoming months. The article has been written by Eira of Acuvi, a music blog focusing on new and unsigned music, and the people behind. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/10 Mon, 06 Dec 2010 14:32:43 BST Tyrannosaurus Grace is a new musical project based in Ellensburg, US. They have a unique mixture of upbeat pop, new wave-waves, electronic - and synth pop, and released the self-titled debut album in 2010. Whats The Story Of Tyrannosaurus Grace? The group initially started in the fall of 2009 when founding members Tim Held and Justin Foss were living halfway across the country from each other, Justin in Oregon and Tim in Michigan. They had played music together growing up in various bands in their native state of Washington but had not worked together for years due to their distance apart. At the time each one was working on their own solo projects and showing each other what they had done by emailing their songs to each other. After a few months of this it dawned on the two that they could use the internet to collaborate on music together and for the next few months they traded files back and forth and soon had nearly and albums worth of material. The two felt so good about the collaboration that the decided to move back to their native state of Washington so they could collaborate in person and in the spring of 2010 they did just that. They continued diligently writing and recording. As word of the project spread they were soon able to bring on some of the areas most talented musicians. The first to join was drummer Dave Hoffman. Dave had briefly played in a band with Tim in 2007 and Tim knew he would be a perfect fit for the project. Shortly after Daves joining, the group was recording a song which ideally would have a female voice on the track. Dave suggested his friend Lakyn Bury who was a talented singer/songwriter. Lakyn agreed and came in a few days later to lay the vocals down. The group was so impressed with her abilities that they immediately asked her to join the project permanently to which she agreed. The last member to join was bassist Jeff Gerrer who was also a former bandmate of Daves. Once all the members were in place, the band soon finished their first self titled album and began booking shows. The band continues to write and record and is booking as many shows as possible, slowly but surely building a following around their unique brand of synth-pop rock. Who Does What in The Band? Tim Held- Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards Justin Foss- Guitar, Keyboards, Drum Programming, Recording and Production Lakyn Bury- Vocals, Guitar, Keyboard Dave Hoffman- Drums, Drum Programming Jeff Gerrer- Bass Hows your music evolved since you moved from working on your music individually to actually work together? Each member of Tyrannosaurus Grace plays an important and unique role in creating the overall sound. Initially when Tim and Justin were working on their solo projects, and even working together without the other members of the band, they were able to tackle the parts that they were adept at and sort of faked the others. If you listen to what we were working on a year ago compared to what we are working on now, the drums, basslines, and some of the songwriting elements are not as unique and intricate as they are now. How Would You Describe Your Music? We typically describe the genre as synth-pop/modern rock, but there is also an element of pop-punk in there. One of our friends described some of our songs as sounding like Against Me meets The Cars which we think is a fairly accurate description. Do You Think Its Been Easier For Independent Bands To Be Heard? I would say that its absolutely easier for independent musicians to be heard these days. With sites such as Myspace, Reverbnation, the numerous blogs focusing on independent music, and of course, We Love Your Songs, it is easier than ever for independent artists to get their music out there and into the ears of people who are interested in finding new and interesting music. The only problem I see these days is that with so much independent music being released to the public it gets harder and harder for artists to hold someones attention. How Do You Promote Your Music? We use the various social networking sites, i.e. Facebook, Myspace, twitter, as well as maintaining our own website/blog. We also use online tools for artists from sites such as Reverbnation, Nimbit, and LiveMusicMachine. We try to get most of our online publicity by maintaining a spreadsheet of blogs that cover music that is similar to our and submitting to them whenever we have an interesting story. We also do street promotion by handing out 3 song demos from our album with printed sleeves that have our logo, website address, and any details of an upcoming show if we have one. Any Guilty Musical Pleasures? Well I can only speak on my behalf(this is Justin writing this btw), but I do cringe to admit that I have Ray Js Sexy Ladies on my iPod. Yeah, thats embarrassing. What Are Your Plans For 2011 ? We are going to continue writing, recording, and playing as many shows as possible. We would like to expand our radius down to Portland, OR(we are currently in Central Washington) and possibly move there in late 2011 depending on how well we are received. We are also looking to expand our online presence by getting more attention from the online media. We will be working on building some interesting stories around the band within the next year to which the press may take an interest. The article has been written by Eira of Acuvi, a music blog focusing on new and unsigned music, and the people behind. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/9 Mon, 29 Nov 2010 12:10:56 BST This interview with Mark Marshall is the first in a series of interviews featuring the artists in We Love Your Songs community. Hes interviewed by Acuvi, a music blog focusing on new and unsigned music, and the people behind. Firstly, can you please introduce yourself? Sure - my Name is Mark Marshall. Im a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and recording artist from upstate New York. Pleased to meet you. :) Music is and has been a big part of your life, when did you know this was your way to go? I couldnt say. But as long as I can remember, music has touched me in a way that nothing else does. So I suspect Ive ALWAYS known that music would be an integral part of my life. You are currently working on an online, multiple-album project Four For 4 what can you tell us about it? Well, my last release, New Eye was a hodgepodge of genres - 19 tracks that ran the gamut from rock and roll to techno to ballad to 60s style pop. Some folks didnt know what to do with me! So I thought this time, Id divide the work up into genres... a pop album, a rock album and an instrumental album. Plus a special members-only version of New Eye - called The Other New Eye - which makes Four albums. For the first year of the project, it was closed to only paying members - who get all four albums when theyre done, plus a DVD of video from throughout the project - and they get their names printed on the CD artwork. Now the project is open to all, but folks can still buy The Other New Eye, DVD and name-print package. Whats the best and worst thing about let people follow the process of your albums? Worst part - I have to shave and figure out what to wear for the Video Blogs. HA! Seriously - the worst part is when things arent working out well. Sharing that is the hardest - because I feel like Im letting folks down when writing is going badly. I never expected that to be the case. But the best part is the love and support Ive gotten from listeners and site visitors. I never expected that either. They have just been amazing - I cant tell you how much Ive been touched by that. Do you have a specific method for writing your songs? Not really. For the most part, I tend to get a music framework down before I start writing words and melody. But it all depends on the song. I can get a lyrical idea that starts it off too. Each song is its own animal. What has been your biggest inspiration? Well, that depends. The music itself calls to me, I suppose... but in terms of writing inspiration, theres love, desire, hope, longing, desperation... I guess Im an emotional writer at heart. Which is why sometimes writing is hard for me - if I dont legitimately FEEL something about what Im writing, its like pulling teeth. Ive never been one of those folks who could just sit down and say Hey! Im gonna write about that lamp! I mean, I probably could - but Im pretty sure the song would suck. :) How did you hear about We Love Your Songs? Im not sure, honestly... I take the job of getting my stuff out on the web really seriously, so chances are, it was in doing research for that. But Im very grateful that youre there - as of this writing, Im #1 in both best new unsigned artist and best new song. Im incredibly touched by that... that people voted me there. Just awesome. CD vs digital where do you think were going with this? Well, unfortunately, we live in an MP3 world. The sound quality sucks, but thats where we are. I always have hope for something better - and the source files are still way better quality than MP3, so down the road one can still release in alternate formats. On my site, I offer all of my stuff in lossless formats, so folks arent forced to buy downloads of crappy-sounding files. But there are also emerging technologies, like MP3HD, which do offer something better down the road. I secretly hope that one day I can do a release on vinyl. THAT would be awesome - PLUS, Id get to do a real album cover. :) How do you promote your music? Well, there are a myriad of tools out there for anyone who is willing to take the time. Twitter, Reverbnation, Bandcamp, Facebook, headliner.fm, musicSubmit... but the two most important things to remember are... if your music sucks, none of this matters - and that you have to maintain relationships with folks in the social media sphere. You cant just blast a bunch of messages out and expect the world to come knocking at your door. You have to be out there interacting with them... which is just fine with me, because getting to know folks around the world through this process has meant more to me than I ever thought possible - like a big family. And it gets bigger and better every week - for which Im very, very grateful indeed. How has your music evolved since you first began playing music? Wow - thats a great question - never thought about it til you asked. Well, I think my arrangements have become more complex... and my chord structures as well. I dont read music - I play by ear - so much of what you hear in my stuff started out as improvisation. There are times when a chord progression comes to me, and two weeks or a year later, Ill listen back to it and think Where the hell did THAT come from? :) And also - although I use mostly pretty antiquated gear - technology has improved VASTLY since I started recording... as has my access to that technology. I started out recording on a two track recorder - now I have access to 50 tracks if I really want them. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/8 Mon, 15 Nov 2010 15:13:44 BST A couple of days ago we spoke about We Love Yours Songs with Kyle, Editor and Community Manager of Hypebot, a great American website about Music, Technology and New Business. In this interview we talk about the site, how we think to empower artists, and discussed about currect event likes the migration of users away from LimeWire. Why did you create We Love Your Songs? We created Weloveyoursongs.com to offer to unsigned artists a new place to share their music and compete with other artists, to help them to bring forward their passion for music and give them the space they cant find on mainstream channels where major labels are ruling. We have created that also for the music lovers like us that are always looking for new interesting sounds to listen at and that are eager to discover new talented artists. How will you empower artists and their fans? First of all we are hoping to empower them by giving the visibility they deserve through our competitions. We are already in talk with other websites to give out additional prizes for the contests and services tailored only for our community. We are not able to reveal anything more than that at the moment but the plan is to gradually offer a full range of services mainly through partnerships/collaborations. What separates you from other indie music sites? We are trying to create a lovely community of music fans and unsigned artists where everyone can grow and interact with others in a constructive way, and not a place where people go to have 15 minutes of fame. We dont want to go in competition with sites like Myspace, we only look at the niche of unsigned musicians and people who love to discover new great music and songs. How do competitions work and why should artists join? We actually host 2 competitions, Best New Song and Best New Artist. Everyone that registers as an artist in Weloveyoursongs.com automatically take part in both the contests. We have set the 31 of January as end date of the first round, after that the ten most voted songs and the ten most voted artists by the public will be selected and will go for a final phase until the 10 of February when a winner for both competitions will be awarded. The votes that artists receive for their songs are valid also for the Best New Artist competition comes from the public. The prize at the moment is 1000 divided in equal parts between the winners of the two contests. Unsigned artists should join because we see in the site a great potential and if we grow they can grow with us as well. They can win some prizes, receive feedbacks of their works from other artists and music fans, create their own artist page and be heard from everywhere, from London to a small provincial town in the south India, from San Francisco to a lovely neighborhood in the middle of nowhere. And after all they have nothing to loose since its completely free to join our community. What are your thoughts on the LimeWire shutdown? Its honestly always difficult to have a clear position on what is right to do when we talk about piracy. In my opinion negative reinforcement is not the solution, it only perpetuates the problem, other alternatives will appear and piracy will gradually continue to increase. The music industry should comes back once for all to reality, accept that everything in the last years has changed and start to offer a real alternative to piracy. Will LimeWire users convert to legal services? No, not in my opinion. For whatever reason they didnt buy music before then they will continue to do that. Will you create a community that supports creativity? Yes, the purpose is to create a community that allows their members to grow together and stimulate creativity and curiosity. We are really looking for new collaborations with Indie labels, organizations and websites to offer exclusive services and tools, and new exciting opportunities to our members. Is merchandise helping to offset lower music sales? Maybe in part but I am not sure that this will fill the profit gap created. I think that indie artists have to reinvent the way in which they promote their self and exploit the many opportunities, as the ones we try to offer with Weloveyoursongs, have been created with the massive diffusion of internet. The article was firstly published here. http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/7 Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:23:47 BST After almost an year of working, planning and dreaming we are now all exited to welcome you all to weloveyoursongs.com ! Weloveyoursongs.com is an internet community for unsigned musicians and music fans, on which you will find some interesting articles, interviews, competitions and tons of cool new sounds to listen at! Our principal aim is to empowers artists that are not yet signed by any music label, and we are committed to provide the best environment possible for the artists that are part of our community to be heard on internet, and for the music fans to discover new talented underground musicians, hear some exciting sounds and have the possibility to interact with other people with similar interests. On Weloveyoursongs.com you will always be able to take part to new challenging free to join contests where you can increase your popularity, get voted and if you are good enough be awarded with some money and other prizes! Two competitions are already on - Best New Song and Best New Unsigned Artist - and we really hope to see all you there! These contests are open only to unsigned artists, free to join and with a final total prize of 1000. The WeLoveYourSongs team is composed by a network of inspired collaborators located all over the world, with a strong passion in common for music and innovation. A big hug to all the people that have pre-registred and supported us through our social networks pages and an enormous thank you to Chris and his great team, of Anthony, Adam and Tom at Buckle Consulting, that have worked hard on the site in these last months and made all the previous work become something we now love. We are very grateful also to Fernando, Hugo, Emese and Samantha for their ideas and efforts on our logos, Sophie and Frankie to spread the voice and Elena for her help on organizing and planning. Thanks very much to help us to make all this possible guys! We really value the members of our community and we would love to receive a lot of your feedback in order to evolve and make Weloveyoursongs.com an even better place where is possible the exchange of constructive criticism between us, unsigned musicians and their fans. And now...let the music play! WeLoveYourSongs http://weloveyoursongs.com/blog/view/6 Mon, 01 Nov 2010 06:42:22 BST