Poster Performace

In an older post, I uploaded a draft poster I was planning to use for promoting my band. I thought this poster would have been good to use because it fit our genre, had a photo of us and had lots of space for gigs. But when it came to actually using it when we had a gig, it didn't really live up to my expectations.

A few things I noticed were:
-We needed a decent photo
-Not enough space for extra information
-No direct links to our Facebook/Twitter

After a few alterations, I came up with this:

This was used to promote a gig we had in a shop at Merry Hill. I'll go into what it was like playing in a shop later on, but for now let's focus on the poster. As you can see, it seems to have a better lay out, in the sense that our name is nice and big, and the photo looks professional. Also, we have the date and time big too, meaning it would be hard to miss. The thing I really like about this poster is the QR code in the bottom right corner. If someone were to scan this with a smart phone, it would take them directly to our Facebook page. This is a HUGE advantage, because most people are too lazy to go wading through Facebook to find us. It's also quite a gimmick. I know I would scan it, just because it's something you don't normally use a phone for.

After putting this up on the band page and around the shop we were playing at, we had quite a big response from people. It wasn't quite the amount I was expecting, but there was still a buzz about it. The shop actually taped these down on the counter, so everyone who bought something would see it. I personally think this worked a lot better than the old one would have, only because it seems a lot more professional.

As for playing in a shop, it was an extremely weird experience. A normal gig for us entails being loud, dancing, running around in the crowd and just having a laugh. Being in a shop, it was quite difficult to do this. We were up on a balcony, so we couldn't exactly give the performance we wanted, but we have it a hell of a go. If we were playing a pub or club somewhere, it would be completely different. And again, if we we're playing a festival, it's another different experience. Having done all of these, I can begin to explain what kind of impact location has on a band.

As I've gone over, playing in a shop in a crowded shopping centre is all well and could, but it almost inhibits your ability to be 'normal'. For me, it was the fear of knocking something over, or injuring someone. However, playing in a pub or club is different. In these venues, you don't share the stage with the public or a shelf full of shoes. You can move, dance, run, anything. Another factor is why people are actually there. Why do people go to shops? To shop. Why do people go to venues? Live music. These may not be the right words to portray what I'm thinking, but I almost felt 'in the way' at the shop. Moving on to playing festivals, it's another story. Again, the stage is yours to own, but the audience interact in a different way. Yes, you still have the drunken fool screaming 'PLAY FREEBIRD!' but at a festival, there's a whole lot more. It's a much more relaxed kind of gig.

All in all, each different location is influential. It shapes how you play. Having never busked before, I'm quite interested as to how musicians react to that.

Venues

 There are many places for bands to get heard. Whether it's on the internet, at a venue, or a street corner, everywhere is a potential venue. In this blog post, I'm going to explore some venues, and see which one has the better opportunities.

When people talk about venues, I normally picture a room with a PA, a stage and a bar. Most places are like this (with some variations of course). Being in a band, it's not as easy as just booking a gig in a proper venue dedicated to live music. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's not as easy as doing up your shoelaces. Some obvious venues include: Pubs, clubs, theaters, arenas, etc. Getting pub gigs is rather easy, but as the size of the venue increases, so does the difficulty of getting a gig. One of our tutors came up with a genius idea. Clubs are becoming evermore popular with younger generations. The amount of people that pay to go into a dark, sweaty room and drink themselves into a mess is phenomenal. And who provides the music? A DJ. Most people nowadays know a DJ. I, for one, know about 6. If a band or artist were to take one of their tracks and make either a DnB or Dubstep remix, you could ask one of your friends to play this when they next work. This could get so much promotion for your band!

I'm going to go at this from a certain viewpoint. I'm going to discuss these ideas from potential audience. For example, you could get 100 people in a pub to hear your music, whereas if you were playing an arena, there's a potential 2-3000. Of course, 100 is better than none, and 3000 is obviously better than 100. But what if there was a way to have a constant flow of new listeners while you're playing? Is that possible?

Yes. Busking.We've all seen buskers in our lifetimes. Whether it's an old accordion player sat outside the town hall, or a violinist outside McDonalds. As people, we normally turn up our noses and walk on like it's nothing special. But these buskers have the master plan. They're out there, playing they're instrument to thousands of people that walk past, and even earning a bit of cash when a generous person walks past with some change.

So what's stopping us from doing that? We could set up a small band, sit out in the sun, play our music and be heard. It seems almost too good to be true. The fact you could have a river of people walking past and every one of them hears your music. On a busy summers day, town is usually jam packed, so there could be thousands upon thousands walking past. Although in most cities you require a busking license, no one can stifle you. People can only tell you to move on. And if that happens, come back tomorrow. And keep coming back.

As well as busking, there's a thing musicians do called a 'living room tour'. This is when an artist or a band is paid, and they set up in someone's living room and play a gig. This would be an amazing experience to see, and it's definitely surreal to actually perform it. Fenton have been hired for a living room gig before, and it went down extremely well. We earned a fair amount of money from it, and we even got free food!

Health & Safety Talk (Notes)

Health & Safety at Work Act 1974

H&S shouldn't be seen as a barrier.

Use common sense.

An accident can affect working life. You could throw your back out and not be able to work.

Things to be careful with:
Tie cables down, carrying the PA (legs bent, back straight), overloading electics, stacking smaller on bigger, fatigue while driving

Walk into venue and:
-Find fire exits
-All doors clear (putting you and fans at risk)
-Electrical safety (Shoddy looking plugs) (Check Residual Circuit Breaker)
-Check the carpet, you could fall if it's lumped up
-Check (before you go) how you're going to get gear in

Third Party Insurance
£50 a year. If someone hurts themselves on my gear, the insurance will cover it.

Musicians Union:
-insured for £10m
-Instrument cover
-Tax investigation cover
-£20 a year (for students)


PAT Testing:
Supposed to be PAT checked every year, visual check every 6 months. About 60p an item.

Leave the earth connected in plug ALWAYS. Things could stay live if not earthed.

Always tape the cables down when it's a high traffic area.

If someone's getting electrocuted, they'll grab on to whatever shocking them. First thing to do it remove the current, and then get an insulator and break the link. Call 999 immediately.

If possible, tape cables going around the door of an emergency exit, not in front.

3 plugs:
-Standard household (has up to 13amp fuse)
-Round pin plug (15amp, no fuse)
-European plug (16, 32, 64 3 phase)

On the back of most gear, there's a sign that says the wattage and voltage of the equipment. You can work out how much wattage you're using by just adding the numbers up.

To find out how many amps, divide the wattage by the voltage to give you the amps. If you end up with more than 13 and you only have a 13 amp plug you're screwed. Could end up in a fire.

H&S at work act says there shouldn't be sounds level over 135db for longer than 10 minutes. Basic sound level shouldn't be over 80db for longer than a day.

Perfectionism

Recently, I've been recording a lot of things. I'm currently in the middle of recording an EP with my band, and I also record videos for this blog. One thing that has really thrown me is the fact that I have to get it perfect, or I hate it.

In a few of my videos, I make mistakes. I know that once that happens I should carry on like it was nothing, but I can't. I have no definite answer why, but I have a few ideas. One of them is that as I was growing up listening to my favourite bands, there are never mistakes on the tracks. I think this is mentally conditioned me to think that if I make a mistake, it's not right (which is completely untrue).

Another idea is a kind of ripple. I don't know about anyone else, but when I make a mistake in a high pressure situation, my brain goes into overdrive and I keep thinking 'You made a mistake', 'You went wrong', 'You played an F#, you f***ing idiot!'. This then continues making me loose focus on what I'm playing, thus leading to many more mistakes. It's an on going thing.

While recording the EP, I've taken at least 15 attempts at a 16 bar solo. After playing for almost 14 years, you'd think this would be a piece of cake. I thought it would be easy, to go into a studio, record a few licks, then listen to the playback and it sound like Metallica. I was wrong. It's incredibly difficult for me. Everyone else was saying each take was fine, but there was always a bit of unwanted string noise, or a bend wasn't perfect. This really bugs me, meaning I'd delete the take and go again. 

I've been taught a really good way to get over this. A college tutor told me to do 3 takes, and then choose the best one. I think this is a great idea, because that way you have set a limit and you have a kind of deadline. I tried working to this discipline, but again, each take had something wrong with it, and it bugged me.

This is different in a live situation though. I remember our bands second gig. We played a small festival type party for someone's birthday. We we're up on stage, and there was about 200 drunk teenagers watching. It came to one part in a song where everything cut out apart from me and the vocals. What happened next, I blame on Jack Daniels. My fingers stopped working right when I needed them the most. Nothing but me hitting every wrong note ever played in a succession, and the vocalist. The notes were that wrong, our vocalist actually stopped and started laughing. But it was okay, because I was laughing too. I just made a joke out of it, fell onto my knees and started playing some country licks for a laugh. Even the audience we're laughing, but I didn't care. A mix between whiskey and laughter created a bubble around me. Then, we finished the set, got off stage, and got our party on.I think the reason I could laugh it off was because it was live. I knew there was no going back, I knew there was no second take, so I just went with it.

 Why I can't do this in a studio situation I will never know, but I'm going to work it into my practice regime to film myself playing every time and get used to being recorded and allowing a certain number of errors. After some time, I'm sure I'll learn to disregard any mistakes.

Livestreaming

I was just thinking about how my band could reach a wider audience than those actually at the gig, and the idea of livestreaming came to me. It seems like a simple enough thing to do, and that way people can watch us perform without actually having to leave their bedrooms.

Having never really done a proper livestream before, I wanted to make it as professional as possible (aka no low quality webcams or audio). I Googled 'How to do a professional livestream' and came up with this gem of a page:

http://www.streamingmedia.com/Producer/Articles/Editorial/Sponsored-Articles/Six-Tips-for-Planning-a-Professional-Looking-Live-Streamed-Event-90985.aspx

It's told me everything I need to know, and it isn't really all that difficult. My band (Fenton) did an amazing gig last year in Wales, and the organizers have asked us to do it again. I'm hoping to take down all my equipment and stream that providing that the venue has wifi and I can use the mixer.

Fingers crossed!