Turning Techical Ability Into Popularity- How To Get Noticed

[lightandmind]

So I'm writing you guys becaused I was super-heated earlier tonight. I was frustraited because earlier this evening I mixed a Black Keys cover, ("I Got Mine"), that I tracked yesterday. I've heard the original but couldn't recall it's sonic properties, & decided not to listen to it. After the mixdown, I A/B'ed my mix with the original, & wouldn't cha know, mine competely crushed it. I mean, significantly better. First, I'm super happy & proud of myself, then, my joy quickly turned to saddness because I feel as though I'm capable of very quality work & all my clients couldn't be happier, but I'm still stuck in Columbus, OH, making records, (tape), out of my attic with very basic tools, have no health insurance, & not getting nearly the compensation I feel that I'm worth. Do most of you feel the same way? My mixes get local radio airplay from time to time, & sometimes regularly, but doing good work leaves me very little time to promote myself as a business. Is waiting even longer to build more street cred my only option? Any Ideas?

-ThanX Guys

[Nick Sevilla]

"Turning Techical Ability Into Popularity- How To Get Noticed"

Hi,

If you wanted to get noticed, then being an engineer is nota good career for you. Become something else like a musician or an actor.

Here's a litmus test, if you don't beleive this :

Name the engineer that did the album "Brothers In Arms" by Dire Straits.

DON'T CHEAT !!! No Googling...

I bet you have no idea.

Ok,now,name the engineer for your favorite album (no, not one you already know)... again, no using internet help.

Being an engineer is a behind-the-scenes job.

Now, if your question is regarding as to how to get more business, then there are things you can do.

The most successful thing, is word of mouth. This has gotten me most of my gigs for the last 5 years or so. The bands you work with, do they have friends that also have gigging bands? THis is tricky,because of the selfishness in some bands. THey won't want their competition to soundas good as them,and so might not tell others about you,since you're their "secret weapon". Some musicians are above this,and thus can recommend you to other musicians.

The second most successful thing you can do, is local advertising.

1.- Your local music store. Where you buy music instruments etc,like GC, or mom and popmusic stores, if there are any around you.

2.- Your local record store. You know, the one that sells all kinds of stuff,and has a bulletin board. Not the Borders store... hopefully one where musicians like to hang out, and will be able to see your advertising.

3.- The internet. You ahve a website? but NOT MYSPACE??? Myspace is going away... it's quickly becoming passe.

Cheers

[Snarl 12/8]

Move to LA, NYC, Nashville, London, etc. If you're serious about "making it big" go to where the action is.

[xonlocust]

i think there's SOME truth to the above post about moving to a bigger market - but really the only reason that's true is because more 'real' bands are active there.

of course, there are 'real'* bands from everywhere. the key i think is to be involved with 'real' bands. bands who put out records, tour hard behind them, bands who talk to their friends on tour and say 'holy shit our boy in lumbo is amazing, you have to work with him'.

for ex - bloomington, in isn't exactly a major market in traditional senses, but our boy mike bridavsky/russian recording has done an excellent job of this.

the recognition and better work is going to come from your clients, not really anything inherent in your ability. pulling in more local bands who don't really do much out of your area off of craigslist is just a lateral move.

speaking from my experience and my friends bands - often times a studio or engineer is more often chosen for personality reasons than a strict clinical "record A sounds better than record B so let's record at studio A". it's way more often - dude, we had the best time at studio A, super funny, easy going guy - you guys would love it there. the record sounds great and it was such a great experience.

chicago has a pretty active recording scene and even so, so much of peoples choices on studios to use are based on wierd personal choices. you can make a great sounding record at a ton of different studios in this town with a ton of different engineers - but more often than not it's based on 'i was having a beer with X or he recorded my friends band Y so we called him' that leads bands to the various studios. objectively all the studios are making great sounding records with different shades of the studio/engineer on them - it's not about the end product, but the relationships.

no idea how long you've been at this, but that takes time - you can't buy relationships.



* insert your 35$/barcode joke here

[BENDYmusic]

Careful with that whole "move to where the action is" thing though, your talents might not mean as much outside of your community. Be prepared to start at the bottom and have some serious competition to contend with. That magic mojo you have going is worth a lot, don't take it for granted. I hear you loud an clear on being under compensated, but thats gonna happen. Try and get over compensated on a few projects once in a while to balance it out. Stay humble man, I am sure the success you deserve will follow.

[chris harris]

So, you don't feel that you're getting the recognition that you deserve? And the best example you have to make the case is some band that recorded a Black Keys cover?!?! Honestly, before you decided to see if your work stacked up, did you know who recorded and mixed the original version?

[signorMars]

Sounds like you're working on at least a semi-consistent basis, which puts you ahead of a lot of engineers. If you're waiting for big name bands to come record with you, count the number of big name bands that you know personally, as in, you could call them on the phone, give them your first name and they would answer with a sincere "HEY! What's up? How you been?" instead of needing you to remind them. Now divide that number by probably 10, and that's the number of big name bands that MIGHT record with you. It's about personal relationships, it's about skill, it's about not being an asshole, and mostly, it's about patience. It's always good to remember that it took Steve Albini 7 years of pursuing recording as a career before it was his full time gig. John Vanderslice spent the first few years that Tiny Telephone was open waiting tables and not taking any pay from the studio. It takes time to get established. The more good records you get your name on, the better, but expect it to take awhile. One of the first fully paying gigs I got (no discounts or free mixes or any of that getting started fun stuff) I recorded 5 songs for a band. They ended up using 2 of them for their first album, one of which was their college radio hit single. However, they recorded the rest of the album with another engineer who was more established, better discography and such, and now he is their go-to engineer. Having the one semi-well know record helps me a lot, but not if I'm competing with people who have 20 well-known records or 200 well-known records in their discography. So it takes awhile. Each new project should offer more word of mouth and opportunities... and like they said above... try to avoid working with dead-end musicians who may never release the material you record for them. It helps build experience for you and helps you pay the bills and buy gear, but it won't do you much good "making a name for yourself"-wise if your discography is all unreleased material.


This is all is coming from me as a working on a semi-regular, but accelerating, basis. I don't pay all my bills with recording, but it's getting better every year. I get the same frustration you do, especially when a client chooses an engineer on price or friendship history even though I would probably do a better job recording them. Try not to get bitter and try not to burn bridges. Some of the people who pass you up may come back to you next album because they hated how this one turned out. Never know! Good luck.
my $.02.

[ott0bot]

Start lying....

about everything. Who you've worked with, where you used to work, the bands you've helped produce and record, and most importantly all your ex-wives and how the divore took everything. That way you can explain why you're starting from scratch again, and you're vintage console had to be stored in a warehouse until things cool down. Beringer is actually really high end, most people just don't know about electronics these days.

Just see if anybody actually does the research and finds out. For everyone that does I'll bet there are 10 that don't, and once they find out it's already too late. And even then you can say: "Yeah it stinks when you don't get credit for all the hard work you do, Rick Ruben always takes all the credit."

[Dan Phelps]

Some thoughts/suggestions/musings...

1. Stay HUMBLE. You may be the best thing since the 1176, but no one will want to work with you if you act like it all the time. Even if you had a great history/credits/platinum albums to back up an attitude, it's still way better to a nice, humble guy who is good to work with. I think a big difference between people who have had success vs. people who continue to have success is attitude. Nobody cares about that Grammy winning record you engineered 5, 10, 20 years ago when your attitude bites TODAY. I say be a confident, humble human being and let your work do talking.

2. If you just want to work as an engineer consider moving to one of the cities that still has a major recording industry and start busting ass to get work. Work hard. Do good work. Maybe this will work out for you!

3. If you are most interested in working more consistently on music you enjoy, consider finding a non-industry city that has a music scene you resonate with and move there. Focus on serving a regional scene that you enjoy more than trying to record massive hits. What's a massive hit anymore, anyways? For instance, I have nothing against New York, LA, or Nashville, but I like living in Seattle. It suits me, the food and coffee are excellent, I am slowly but surely making my way here, I've connected with a ton of super talented people, and I like feeling a part of a community.

Just keep doing good work. Work hard. Enjoy it. Don't forget to have a life outside of music...it will help you not get burnt out and give you something else to talk about. If you want to be doing things on a larger scale than you can in Columbus, then move somewhere else. If you are serious and it's what you want to pursue you'll just do it. Otherwise, don't lament the fact that you are under-appreciated. If you want to live in Columbus, then figure out how to be happy there with what is available, know what I mean?

Ok. Enough from me. Best of luck...