A friend suggested I look up the band Wild Beasts. So I did (thanks Adam!). And I’m into them. A couple songs and videos in particular really have an aesthetic that’s exactly my kind of thing:

“The Devil’s Crayon”
Love the plucky pointed-yet-muted guitars, drenched in reverb and performing a layer of scraping riffs throughout this song.

“Hooting & Howling”
The dark, cold water theme really took me in. The general arrangement and instrumentation formed a unique listening experience for me as well. Kind of got tired of the scenery to the video about halfway in though. I did like the fact that they never went to a different set (an idea I’ve had-if I ever direct a video I’ll take this approach). However, would have helped if they did a little more within the set to change some major element about halfway through.

There’s a common semi-subtle detail in both these videos, where at times they focus on dust or small particles – oxygen/debris in the water in “Hooting & Howling” and dust coming off the snare drum at the beginning of “The Devil’s Crayon” – which inspired me. Overall, I love the way Wild Beasts approaches song arrangement/structure, instrumentation, and vocal style.

And here’s a bonus video: “We Still Got The Taste Dancin’ On Our Tongues” This one features the band floating horizontally just slightly above the ground. Again, a concept I had for a video, if I ever end up directing one. Kinda like the band is reading out of my notebook…

Wild Beasts Official Site: http://www.wild-beasts.co.uk

This comes via the Dreamboat Records blog: [http://www.dreamboatrecords.co.uk/news/2010/04/dust-cloud-video/]

Wow! I’m really into the band Bear In Heaven right now. Very creative band, both musically and tactically. They recently had issues being stranded in Madrid because of the volcanic eruptions in Iceland, and in their spare time at the Madrid Airport they created this genius video by placing their camera on the baggage claim, and setting it to their song Dust Cloud. What happened turned out to be brilliant, getting the attention of Pitchfork: [http://pitchfork.com/forkcast/14214-dust-cloud/]

A nice moment during the dust cloud from Bear In Heaven on Vimeo.

The track Dust Cloud is from the Bear In Heaven release Beast Rest Forth Mouth, and is available in vinyl+mp3 and CD formats direct from the Dreamboat Records shop, and at local record stores.

www.bearinheaven.com

It happens to me every day. And you know what my natural reaction to it is? To push even harder, straining to break through. That might happen eventually, but not nearly as successfully as I’d like.

You know what really works? To walk away. Get away from the problem and, ironically, you will find the solution.

Pretty much common sense, but it’s funny how in the middle of it all our lizard brain defeats us.

Photo by: Evil Erin. Licensed under a Creative Commons License.

I recently received a $15 iTunes gift card, and decided I wanted to do something a bit altruistic with it. Being a part of the team that surrounds indie artists, I know first hand how much work is involved on so many levels to get an artist off the ground. I know how hard it is to get the whole operation to a point where everyone involved can make a living from it.

So I decided that I wanted to use my $15 to support artists and teams just like those I’ve had experience working with-people who are just like me. Because I know what it’s like on the day-to-day level. I know first hand the sacrifices people make for a career in music. And I know exactly how tough the music business is.

So why am I telling you this? Because I want you to help me decide who to support. We’ve all got friends who we want to see make it. That we support by going out to every show they put on, buy every recording they put out, and tell everyone we know to come to their shows and buy their music too. The type of artist I’m describing might even be you, yourself!

Here’s the stipulations for this little contribution:

• I’m only going to purchase one song per artist, so I’m buying 15 songs by 15 different artists.
• The artists have to be indie artists. Either they are signed to a very indie label, have a small team of entrepreneurs helping them in some way, or they are funding their career on their own (or have an entrepreneur helping them with the funding part). The point here is that they are local indie artists that you know, bootstrapping their way. Not Coldplay, making $3 million a nite.
• The people you suggest have to want it. They have to have made real sacrifices, poured their heart and soul into their craft, and shed blood, sweat, and tears along the way. I want to know I’m supporting people who are dedicated. That there is real emotion involved. Not someone who is just a half-way hobbyist, not fully committed, not willing to do what it takes to succeed, squanders their opportunities and/or resources, or otherwise has a since of entitlement, selfishness, or general bad attitude about them.

$1 is a small contribution. But I know from experience that every contribution makes a difference. So let’s do our part to support these artists. Put your suggestions in the comments below, and sometime around May 1st I’ll use my iTunes card to purchase songs by the first 15 artists (as long as they meet the stipulations above) suggested. And if you want to suggest yourself, go right ahead :)

*Update: If you don’t want to make your suggestions in public, send an email to: stinson[AT]producernotes[DOT]com

Throughout the years recording technology has undergone some astonishing developments. With these developments record makers have been afforded an array of inexpensive tools with which they can pretty much do anything they can imagine.

But this progression brought about a side effect-the danger of overproducing, getting bogged down in the record making process, and concentrating too hard on the technology itself and not the music.

Here’s Dave Stewart, co-founder of the Eurythmics, in an Artists House video sharing his take on the role of technology in music production, and how that has evolved over the decades.

Record the music. Don’t use the technology.

But make the choice to move on anyway. You will always second guess a decision you made in the mix. Or question a vocal. It’s easy to convince yourself that there’s more work to be done-that the bass is too loud, the drums are too quiet, the mix is too thin.

And you know what? There IS always more work to be done.

You’re always going to worry about what others will think of your work. It’s the blessing and the curse of working in a field that is so public. Don’t let that fear creep in and hold you back.

At a certain point you have to detach… just enough…

Just enough that you can escape the self-doubt.
Just enough that you can care less about what “everyone” thinks.
Just enough that you can have the confidence you need.
Just enough that you can learn how to be okay with closing a project.

Because if you’re constantly second-guessing everything you do, then you’re running in place. And then you’re not growing, moving your career forward.

Then you’re a slave to what “everyone” thinks. And “everyone” will never like the records you make.

Well, I must be crazy. At a time when I have a seemingly impossible amount of things to keep up with, and because of which I often times have to take time away from this blog, I’ve become a contributor to yet another blog. The official company blog for my startup, Radical Notion (independent media).

It’s been an extremely long time coming, as I intended (and promised, in fact) to launch the blog over a year ago. Fail. But in any case, now there is an official place where we can share specific news and ideas relating to Radical Notion (independent media), and I don’t have to pull double duty on Producer Notes with posts which don’t always quite fit the context here. Of course, there will still be some spill-over idea/news that will fit the context of Producer Notes, and when appropriate I’ll continue to share.

So I invite you to point your browsers in the direction of the Radical Notion (independent media) blog: radicalnotion.net/blog. We have a specific focus we’re set on there, and would be thrilled to have you join the tribe. The super-easy way is to subscribe to the RSS feed at: feeds.feedburner.com/RadicalNotion

Look forward to talking with some of you over there!

Last Wednesday I posted about The Flaming Lips documentary The Fearless Freaks, and in that post I cited a few memories in my life around the time I was first turned onto The Flaming Lips.

Yesterday I came across two pieces of media that featured Terry McBride, CEO of Nettwerk Management. 1) A Be The Media interview, and 2) A YouTube video of Terry’s TEDxVancouver speech. In both of these pieces of media Terry talks about the emotional power of music and its ability to bookmark moments in our lives that we can return to whenever we choose. Immediately I thought about my post from Wednesday, so I had to share:

The Be The Media interview:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/be-the-media/2010/02/03/terry-mcbride-ceo-nettwerk-music-group (kinda long, but worth it-1hr total)

TEDxVancouver speech:

For the last few years, I’ve looked to Terry McBride as a major source of inspiration. The principles upon which I founded Radical Notion (independent media) are very much non-traditional, outside the box ideas. And ever since I founded this company, I’ve been searching for new ideas, finding inspiration everywhere I could, and seeking to better understand what these new ideas and inspiration I have are. This search of knowledge for what the future of the music business looks like is what ultimately led me to Terry McBride and the ideas he shares.

Terry McBride has an understanding of this subject matter which is astonishingly articulate. I hope one day I can understand all of this half as eloquently.

Having knowledge of the tools-understanding them-is an important part of your artistic process.

The results and character of what you get with pen and paper is certainly different from what you get with keyboards and electrons.

Recording to tape using a collection of vintage tube mics is not going to make your art any more or less compelling. But there is a specific inspiration you get from recording to tape, and another specific inspiration you get from recording to a DAW. And neither one of these is “better” than the other-they’re just different.

Make sure you understand the tools. Don’t ignore one thing because it’s too “new” and another because it’s too “old.”

Utilize a collection of tools throughout all your creative processes, whether recording, writing, taking photos, or anything else creative. You will be pleased with the way it changes your style and character, and the different nuances within the results you get.

So yesterday I published my first blog post of 2010, and I’m happy to be posting once again. I believe when I made the announcement that I would need to be taking time away, back in October, I mentioned that I would be getting rid of the regular posting schedule of publishing new posts every Wednesday. Instead, I’m going to simply post whenever I can. And my intention is for posting to happen often.

I think that by doing away with a regular posting schedule, and writing posts relatively on the spot (rather than taking days to prepare a post), I’ll ironically have more freedom to post more often. From best I can tell after running this blog for two and a half years, all the work and thought I was putting into preparing weekly posts was too much of a challenge to balance into my daily work.

In addition to this new posting routine, I’ve diversified the range of topics I’ll be creating a dialogue within (see category descriptions below). I think exploring these new topics will help me learn and become better at my craft (which is one of the main reasons I run this blog), as well as make it easier to come up with content to post, and giving the blog an even more human feel-as I hope my personality tastefully shows through a little more.

New categories:

• Contemplations-Me learning out loud; working to understand new (to me) perspectives and epiphanies, relevant to record making
• Inspiration-Things I’m generally inspired by (different from the Music Business Inspiration category)
• Recollections-Career and autobiographical stories

I hope these changes do indeed serve as an improvement to Producer Notes. I hope it makes you enjoy the blog even more. I hope it brings more value to the blog. I hope it brings more discussion to the blog. And I hope it leads to more learning experiences for both you and me.

I Hope this new year has been good to you so far, and I look forward to the conversation we have on Producer Notes in 2010.

Thanks again for being loyal readers.

Cheers!