Leeds seems to be a bit of a hot bed of talent for all things music, maybe its something in the water, but creativity seems to run deep.
One chap in Leeds at the moment, but originally from the mean streets of Edinburgh is Nom De Strip aka Chris Elliott.
We've heard a lot from Mr De Strip in the last few months, he's been a virtual conveyor belt of choonage since he burst onto the scene. No stranger to that scene, Chris is standing side by side with Stupid Fresh (Tod), as they look set for double domination. We hop skipped and jumped over the Lancashire/Yorkshire border to catch 5 minutes with the man himself:
Don - We'll start with the standard.... Describe your sound in 3 words? Nom De Strip - Whatever I Fancy! ... nice answer, and if you had one nugget of advice for unsigned dance music producers, what would it be? Try to make original tracks and avoid too many remixes. I have made millions of remixes that could have been, and would have served me loads better as, original tracks.
It is an interesting point that, sometimes an eagerness to just make music, and new music leads to an endless supply of remixes. It is true to say that remixes and bootlegs can help you make your stamp, but it is always prudent to make a stamp on some original beats, even if you sample/be influenced by other music!
As a Logic user and abuser, what is your favourite VST Plugin? I really like Gladiator, unfortunately that synth kills my 4 year old laptop CPU!
Just a few then ha ha! Thanks for the tip-offs - a few of those guys will be familiar to readers, but some others less so... and this is what this blog is all about!
And what's next for you? What does the short-term future hold for Nom De Strip? Release-wise I have tonnes of stuff out in December, 'Nom De Bomb' EP on Bombsquad, remixes of Dizzee Rascal - Dirtee Cash, Rishi Bass - Dirty Balloon (both with Tom Piper), and of Pablo Decoder - The End Of It All. I'm also gonna be in the studio with Tim Healey. Next year I have an EP with Bart B More out on his label, my first EP on Southern Fried in April, and more remixes for Tim Healey, DJ Dan, MC Flipside, Tom Piper, and I almost forgot.... my mix of Hatiras - Spaced Invader!
Gigs wise I have my final tour as part of Stupid Fresh to South Africa for xmas and New Year, after which I'm fully focussing on finalising solo Nom tours to Canada, north Europe, south Europe, Australia, Asia, USA in the first half of 2010 as well as as many UK gigs as I can get. I'm happily looking after my own gigs for now (promoters hit me up!), and have Tim Healey taking care of my music management as well as maintaining strong ties with Micky Slim and Bombsquad in the future.
Awesome, another very busy man!
If you still haven't heard of Nom De Strip, definately check out his Myspace... and look out for him and Stupid Fresh hitting 2010 hard!
1. Get all your followers/friends in one place - grab their email addresses! This is the first point, and if you are being proactive about building a fan base you need to get this bit sorted.
Scenario: So you have loads of friends/fans/followers over lots of different social media sites... reign them all in with a "sign up to get 3 free downloads from me" webform, and add them to your mailing list. We have developed an email capture/storage system here at Venga, which you can join for freeeee, see the video below for how to do this, seriously easy stuff. Once you are in, you create a list, then create the webform, then customise the subscription process by specifying what you want to send them back... all coming from your name and email address. Did I mention it was free?
2. Myspace still has its place so keep it up Yes Facebook is the daddy for getting in touch with relevant fans, and yes Twitter is "cooler" at the moment.... but people will always still check out the streamable music on Myspace so keep it rockin! A custom Looking Profile, packed with good content and your sign-up form... the profile doesn't have to bee anything too fancy.... you can get one like this for £89, email Veibel to hook that up on james@veibel.co.uk
But in keeping with the "free" theme if you check out this blog, you have access (for free) to all the code you could ever need. You have to be a bit of a geek to work it all out, but with a bit of practice you will get there - and/or pay another geek to sort it for you. Make sure you have an email capture form, and make sure you plug it like mad!
3. Facebook is the Daddy Set up a fan page for your music, there is lots of funky stuff you can do now with Facebook fan pages, upload tracks, embed videos, attach your events... and now with the dawn of FBML you can custom build tabs for your pages in html, and have html boxes on the left of your page... And a nifty tip if you are setting up a page from scratch: It's social media right, so invite 10 of your good friends to recommend the page to 10 other friends. It works, and itll bring you some decent "fans" on there.
4. Soundcloud Soundcloud have some of the smartest guys out there and you can get going on the free account. You can customise the players for embedding in Facebook, Myspace and your blog. Make sure you utilise the "description" area of your profile on there... and direct potential fans to your other online platforms. All free, very easy and most people are comfortable with viewing it now. You can embed Soundcloud players almost anywhere now so you should be on there. We have some good tips for Soundcloud, these points are just an overview - a tick list if you will!
5. Last FM Little known fact number 1... You can upload your own music to Last FM... Little known fact number 2... You can "claim" your profile, and add information and images if there already is a profile on there due to users playing your music... Little known fact number 3 You can get paid for streams! I will do another post on streaming services, as it is a grey area that needs some explaining, however as a rule of thumb if you are a signed artist - speak with your label about Last FM, Spotify, Grooveshark etc... if you are unsigned then feel free to upload music. If you have a deal already and your tracks are out, only the label can claim the royalties. Here is the Sign-Up link!
6. Understanding the Twitter behemoth Twitter is excellent if you get it right, but oh so easy to get wrong. Fortunately Twitter is also very forgiving. Allow me to explain. By "getting it wrong" I mean infrequent updates saying "My single is out now go buy it" ... there is no engagement, no interaction. Fortunately, you can join the party at any stage - you are never too late. So if you have a Twitter account not doing very much, try and resurrect it... contribute as much as you can, and sync your Facebook and Twitter profiles if you are struggling for updates, cos you always update your Facebook right?
7. Podcasts / Mixtapes People love mixtapes, but what people love more is mixtapes with exclusive tracklists.
I appreciate this is difficult if you can't get the exclusive stuff, but put as much of your own music on there as you can, you can't get much more exclusive than that can you? Upload it to Soundcloud (which gives good opportunities for interraction) and spread the word! As a side point, sign up with bit.ly (free) to shorten your links... you can then keep tabs on how often your links get clicked from your Facebook/Twitter profile or blog!
For the very adventurous amongst you, set yourself apart with a Podcast, invest in a decent mike and pretend to be Pete Tong. You can add your Podcast to the Itunes store for free download, and you can pick up subscribers that way, which you can direct to your site/blog/profile and scoop up their email address with your form!
8. Get Blogging It is sometimes difficult to start a blog from scratch, and I can totally relate to that. I also appreciate that an empty blog is worse than no blog at all. But this is in the list, as it is something you really should be doing to give you an extra edge - as most people aren't.
Talk about music production, talk about your favourite DJs, talk about the advances in DJ equipment recently, talk about the state of the Underground UK Cattle Farm Psy-Techno scene (maybe don't talk about the last one) but whatever you feel confident of putting a few words together about. All of this will help you stand out from the crowd, and will give you loads of interesting stuff to talk about on your Facebook and Twitter updates! With Blogger you can sign up for free, or just use your Myspace blog!
9. Get in touch with blogs Slightly different to blogging yourself, this is sending music, videos, information to the dance music blogs out there. There are a few, and you will get varying levels of success, but if what you are offering is good (free download, nice vid and a good image/logo of yourself as an artist) you should get some success. These guys get lots of visitors on a daily basis, all will be interested in what you have to say! In addition, you will get a link back to your profile(s)/blog and you will hopefully attract a few email sign-ups!
*IMPORTANT* - Follow these rules though for contacting blogs and labels in general.
10. Forum Involvement Finally, Get involved with the dance music forums around there. There are loads. You don't have to be an authority on anything, but if you have interesting stuff to say you will earn some friends and get familiarity with people who you would like to listen to your music. And having that "familiarity" will make such people more likely to listen to your stuff.
In addition, stick a link in your signature to your blog/profiles!
11. Get a Youtube Channel Free setup, good customisation tools (you can pretty much make your channel look how you want nowadays.... and people LOVE listening to music on Youtube. Even if the pictures are stills, people love will still watch it. Make sure you link out to your profile(s) from the video description! Tools for making the video generally come with newer macs and if you're on Windows... Windows Movie Maker would do just fine - FREE.
So these are the 11 things that you should have going on. It seems a lot now, but get into the groove and you can keep them all motoring along nicely! The post that compliments this one can be found here, definately have a read of that one aswell if you haven't seen it before already!
They say word of mouth is the best form of marketing, and an artist getting plugs from the best in the biz is Tom Flynn.
Props from Jesse Rose, Mowgli, Worthy, James Zabiela, Zombie Disco Squad and more... and with releases on Mowgli's own Deadfish imprint, Tom has been on the lips and in the playlists of the guys that make the big waves in the scene... and with good reason.
Slick techy productions with crunchy percussions and a flow worthy of any set have set him apart.
Fresh from his release on Jengaa, which is out on Beatport now (go get it!) we caught a few minutes with Tom for a chat, on (amongst other stuff) why you shouldn't rob your future!
Don - Great to have you with us Tom, let us get straight to it, describe your sound in three words? Tom - Bouncy, Dirty, House (music)
If you could empart one nugget of knowledge, what would it be for unsigned dance music producers out there? My one piece of advice to unsigned producers would be don't keep on buying synth after synth. It's an easy trap to fall into, thinking that the next synth you buy will make you sound like claude VonStroke. It's best to master one synth instead of having 12 synths that you don't really know how to use. On a seperate more important note - don't illegally download music, you're only robbing your future.
(Don Note:) An interesting point there, and something we haven't discussed in great detail on here... I will cover it in a blog coming soon, but I think it is important for guys to go out and buy music. It is sometimes so easy to download music off a blog, I have seen big zips floating around with the Beatport Top 100 on... that is plain wrong! I think there have been a few blogs closed down recently for doing just that. In any case - if an mp3 accidentally slips into your music folder by mistake, always try to look it up upon release and download it anyway, if only to give a nod (and 32p) to the guy(s) that spent hours making it in the first place!
Moving on then to a more production level, what is your favourite vst plugin? My favourite plugin at the moment would be Dr Device from Audio damage, insane mangling heaven which i reach for quite often.
... and who do you think will blow up in 2010? My top tip for 2010 would be Strict Border, I think the tribal thing they got going on is really rocking it, very percussive and downright dirty.
Finally, what is next for Tom Flynn? Well, Following on from my EP on Jengaa, coming up for me is an EP release on Deadfish - Magia and Twisty, an EP on Worthys Anabatic label next year, a remix for a new signing to Jengaa called Hoppa! by the Headshotboyz and a remix for Daniel Carro's Bakelite beats label. I've also just finished a remix for Chris Crowthers Dubnoir Label, a track called Balkan Blues which will be out in a few weeks.
Super, all busy busy, thanks for joining us, its been an interesting chat!
Yo, im Don, I work closely with the A&R Team at Venga Digital. This blog pays homage to the guys that make this music happen, the DJs and Producers that go out and buy the beats. They make music, and they send it to us. We always listen, always respond... and now we have a channel for giving advice on these points, together with dothing a cap on a monthly basis to the best demos we receive!
All demos for the monthly unsigned chart go via Venga, so send them to the A&R team on demos@vengadigital.co.uk
The sign-up form below will get you on the "Producers Circle" list, and you'll be kept up to date with unsigned artist matters, an email when the new Venga Digital Podcast is live, and we'll give you a nudge when we are compiling the chart, in case you have any freshness you would like to submit!
If you are a producer yourself, you may be interested in the work of another Venga Digital offshoot, Brandshank, we offer Web Design for Bands, artists and record labels! See if we can get something working for you!
Then a little shout to the guys that help us behind the scenes, we have Iain who gives our long hair the chop at Hair Clippers for Men then we must give a nod to the people that kindly helped us out with our printing needs, the lads and lasses at Wireless Printer Reviews. Thanks all, and enjoy reading the blog!
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Attack Yourself! - Bang Gang (Ghosts of Venice Remix)
Paul Beltrami vs Dat Boy - My City
Jayvin Mena - Fidget Swirls
Vex - In Da House
The