I Choose You - the perfect murder/suicide jam for your Halloween party!

This year’s Halloween Hit was inspired by my favorite episode of the FX show, Atlanta: “Teddy Perkins” (Season 2 Episode 6). You can stream it on FX, Amazon, iTunes, Hulu and others. Though consistent with the season’s “Robbin' season” theme, this episode (written by Donald Glover, Ibra Are and Taofik Kolade; directed by Hiro Murai) is an anomaly in that it was horror themed and aired without commercials. The episode was critically acclaimed and fairly controversial due to its bizarre antagonist and cryptic ending. 

Research

I consumed and contemplated every theory I could find online, read all published interviews and analysis (here's a fascinating scene-by-scene with the brilliant director that offered a few insights). I could find very little insight provided anywhere by any of the writers. There remains much conjecture over Teddy's identity, nearly all of which fits into one of these scenarios:

1. Teddy is Benny’s brother and caretaker/tormentor.
2. Teddy is a deranged fan/caretaker who wants to assume Benny’s identity.
3. "Teddy" is Benny and Benny's dad is in the wheelchair.
4. "Teddy" is Benny and the real Teddy, his brother, is in the wheelchair.
5. "Teddy" is Benny’s dad and Benny is in the wheelchair.
6. Teddy and Benny are the same person.

I watched the episode 13 times in total: five during my initial research, six in which I viewed through the lens of each of the various scenarios, then two more focused through the lens of scenario 6, my favorite. With each viewing my appreciation grew, as the episode seemed meticulously designed to accommodate multiple identities and thematic layers.

Writing

I chose to believe that Teddy and Benny are two sides (or "eras" might be more appropriate) of one person. I think Glover is borrowing from David Lynch's playbook here (he did at one point state that he wanted Atlanta to be "Twin Peaks with rappers"), blending literal and metaphorical imagery. They seem to represent opposing methods (or stages?) of coping with abuse and fame; one becomes a recluse and hides from the world while the other wears a mask and glorifies the abuser, perpetuating the cycle of abuse. Those two manifestations are cloistered in a soon-to-be-historical site, gnawing at each other (a situation borrowed from What Ever Happened to Baby Jane). Teddy is trying to capitalize on their pain while also silencing Benny and giving away his beloved piano. Putting them in the same room in the episode's climax is a perfect twist that both surprises and confuses the audience (and seemingly, Teddy himself).

Some observations that support this theory:

• Teddy is not visible in any of the photos or film footage.
• Teddy does not appear to have his own music career, despite claiming that their father made them both practice "3 hours a day, twice a day."
• The two are wearing nearly identical clothes and have the same James Brown helmet hair.
• Teddy claims Benny has developed a skin condition, even while he himself looks like he be bleachin.
• When Teddy confronts Darius with the shotgun, there is a very intentional shot of Teddy's profile silhouetted opposite the young Benny.
• Teddy aiming the gun at Darius: “I want it to look real… The home invasion. You killed Benny because you were obsessed.” Darius: “There is no fucking Benny, all right?” Teddy: "Exactly! Exactly!"

Once I determined how I wanted to portray the protagonist(s), I identified the themes I wanted to incorporate:

• Some fathers sacrifice their children 
• Great things come from great pain 
• The whitewashing of a painful heritage
• Perpetuating the cycle of abuse 
• Our culture forgives and ignores abuse that results in great art 
• Our culture criticizes and ridicules celebrities that fall from grace
• The trauma and aftermath of celebrity

I also made a list of the musical elements that might comprise something Teddy/Benny would create:

• The jazz piano of Ahmad Jamal
• The ragtime melodies and passing tones of Scott Joplin
• The childlike soulful vocals of Michael Jackson
• The 70's and 80s synths of Stevie Wonder
• The rhythm and bass syncopation of James Brown

Iterations

Over two weeks I made four iterations; each new sketch was more somber and downtempo than the last, and contained less and less of the musical elements I'd planned for. I was about halfway done with a version that I quite liked when I abandoned it for the final version. Musically I liked it but lyrically it wasn't working for me; it read like a monologue by Teddy, revering his father and hinting at abuse. The more I thought about the duality I wanted to depict, the more I wanted the song to feature two perspectives at war over one body and one version of its history. The final version used fairly minimal instrumentation and featured two mutations of my voice trading verses (mid-range register for Benny and disconcerting falsetto for Teddy) and eventually harmonizing. I intended the "conversation" of this song to take place before Teddy decides to silence Benny by giving away his piano.
Here are some snippets of those unused iterations:

• Iteration 1 - combining a chop of Ahmad Jamal's "Piano Solo 11" (heard playing from Benny's room in the episode) with some James Brown rhythm.
  
• Iteration 2 - combining a chop of only the passing tones in Scott Joplin's "Solace" (played by Benny in the old footage scene) with a slowed down James Brown rhythm.
  
• Iteration 3 - combining a Curtis Mayfield/Marvin Gaye vocal approach with some Motown elements, a 6/8 shuffle often employed by Stevie Wonder and James Brown, and (eventually) a modern-ish hook with Stevie synths.
  

Production

I tried a few things on this production that I'd never attempted:

• I recorded the instruments tuned to 432hz (rumored to have been used by Prince, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, and others) because there's a mysticism surrounding that tuning that I could see Teddy buying into, and also I wanted to see if listening to it affected my brain state. I don't know if it did but I did find it slightly easier to sing in key, which made me wonder if my voice has some sort of natural tuning that I've been unwittingly raging against my whole life.
• I recorded the vocals at different speeds and pitches so they would sound a bit odd once played at normal speed—Teddy's vocal (the falsetto) to a version of the instrumental that was pitched/slowed down about 6 bpm, and Benny's vocal to a version sped/pitched up by 6 bpm. To make things weirder (and considerably harder to sing in tune), I automated a gradual 6 bpm tempo/pitch shift for each (in opposite directions) throughout the last verse so that the vocals, played back at normal speed, would evolve back into my natural timbre . 
• I automated the panning of the vocals to start pretty far apart and end up centered when the last word is sung.
• I used a very cool Roland Space Echo simulator by Audiothing to make the Maestro Rhythm King drum machine sound more Phil Collins.
• I used a very cool Vintage Reverb plugin by Valhalla (and some research on gearslutz.com) to model a reverb often heard on old Marvin Gaye records. 
• I used a free Vinyl simulation plugin from Izotope to add some grit and warble to the final mix, as well as the pitch dive at the end.

The mix most likely suffered a bit due to the last-minute nature of the whole thing—I wrote, recorded and produced the song inside of 48 hours. If all goes according to plan, I'll be a bit bummed on it when I listen back next halloween.

Lyrics

Benny: I keep my piano in the bedroom
so I can sleep that close to freedom, still
sometimes I chew my fingers more than I should
til they bleed.
Father always said to keep my color off the keys.

Teddy: I show my trophies in the gift shop
and pose my father in the billiard room.
I want the house to be a tribute to him—
a museum.
And though some may try,
my father’s love can never die.

Benny: Of all the vampires, kings and thieves
dropping by to harvest me,
none shall pay a higher price
than he who shares my bed at night.

Benny and Teddy (equal): I choose you
I choose you
I choose you to carry his pride
I choose you
I choose you
I choose you to be his sacrifice

Benny and Teddy (dominant): I keep my Hope locked in the basement—
can’t let the dark get out
or the light get in.
I find that hope is not so good for my skin,
or my throat.
I don’t know what it is...
I guess it’s just the way that I cope.

Benny (dominant) and Teddy: I'll get the shotgun from the attic
and leave our body on the lobby floor.
Then when she finds us, Sam will clean up the mess,
drive out east
—somewhere meaningless—
to bury father’s masterpiece.

A Letter to a Young Marketer

Hi Jordanna,

So you've got a new band, new album and big record release party coming up—awesome! Rather than give you a marketing prescription for your exact needs (which is probably what you hoped for), I want to lay some high level strategy on you.

Many artists just blast all their networks with whatever content they can muster. If the content is good they may get some traction here and there, but ultimately I think this is a flawed approach. The few successful, completely independent artists I know avoid any sort of magical thinking and embrace the reality that being a musician these days requires a plethora of additional skill sets, business and marketing being two of the most crucial (web development, graphic design, audio engineering, video production, management and concert booking are par for the course). During my time working for social, email and mobile marketing companies, I noticed a huge disparity between the way businesses approach marketing and the way most musicians do. Successful businesses focus on strategy and ROI (“return on investment”) while musicians focus on creative ideas and fan engagement, with less attention to strategy. Perhaps this is why so many of us are often broke and a large percentage of our promotions fall short of expectations. The more strategic you can get, the more impactful your campaigns will be. Rid yourself of any notion that content miraculously goes “viral”—nearly all viral content is the result of a calculated launch by a marketing team. It’s not black magic and it’s not luck; it’s strategy, money and data analysis. Here's how one of my favorite songwriters, Lex Land put it:

“My personality makes me ill equipped for self-promotion, which is unfortunately so necessary as an independent artist. Of course, this evasion led me to adopt the all-too-prevalent ‘pray and wait’ strategy that so many artists employ. After receiving countless "breaks" but never really "breaking," and during a years-long stall in the release of my third album, I adopted a new mantra: "What can I do?" Diving into a ton of different informational resources about digital and content marketing, and specifically in the music space, I experienced enlightening breakthroughs while taking a hard look at what I had been doing and what hadn't been working. To adopt any strategy is better than having no strategy at all.” 

You can find buckets of marketing guides and philosophies online—often as a downloadable pdf behind some obnoxious email capture form landing page—each tailored to what is being sold (goods, services, entertainment, etc.) and what channels it's being sold on (print, TV, social, radio, blogs, etc.). Tasks like calibrating your ads and writing an impactful press release are crucial skills that anyone who can read can learn. Do it. Google. Read.

Below is a 7-step marketing strategy you could apply as an independent musician. Depending on what level you’re at career-wise, this process may feel overly formal, cumbersome or even pointless to you because your budget is $0 or your goal/tactics appear obvious, but I encourage you to build a habit of thinking through these steps and articulating your answers to them; training your brain to switch out of "imaginative artist" mode and into "real-world, ROI-focused, pragmatic business" mode will focus and optimize your team efforts, increase your income, help you assess the value and productivity of 3rd party publicists and make hard career decisions faster.

1) Define your Goal for this Marketing Campaign. 
It should be measurable. Walk through the creation flows of Facebook/Instagram Ads, Google Adsense and Twitter Ads to help hone your objective.

2) Declare your Success Metrics and key Performance Indicators, as well as how you will track them. 
How will you know if you achieved your goal? How will you know if you’re on track to meet your goal? Don't confuse the warm feeling you get from Likes, Comments, Retweets etc. for success—their only marketing significance is how they influence your ranking in the feed algorithm. Don't be fuzzy about your definition of success for this campaign.

3) Identify your Target Audience.
Who exactly will this campaign resonate with? Who can actually attend your event or purchase your product?
[Note: “customer profile,” “segment,” and “target demographic” all mean basically the same thing in this context]

4) Plan your Marketing Tactics.
This is where your creativity comes in! Each tactic should clearly and effectively help you meet your Marketing Campaign Goal. If your primary goal is to get people to come to your show, then any marketing that is not region-targeted is probably overkill (unless you're explicitly soliciting referrals). If your primary goal is to make money from a new release, then encouraging your audience to listen to your new release on any and all platforms is not as ideal as directing all traffic to the platform that pays you the best percentage (e.g. not Spotify, Youtube or Pandora). What results can be realistically expected? Be skeptical.

5) Calculate a reasonable, realistic Budget. 
Think through all potential costs, even things that seem incidental (like gas, public transportation, staples, tape, etc.). INCLUDE YOUR UNPAID HOURS. Budget will probably be the hardest thing to estimate accurately at first, but you’ll get better at it, and its massively important as your cash flow increases and ROI becomes more calculable/provable. In the future you will use these skills to extract bigger chunks of money from labels and banks.

6) Define a Schedule for your tactics that is optimized to meet your goals. 
This is particularly important when relying on social networks for the majority of your promo, and when trying to inspire action on a specific date. Think through when your audience would actually be most receptive to your message. Don’t blast your social networks all at once; there are ideal times to publish on each network. And since many people will follow you on multiple networks, you’re wasting your bullets when you promote to them across all networks at once… better to stagger your posts so that viewers are reminded periodically. Determine the right order for each task (if you have to wait until next week before sending your press release, you should have a few drafting/revision sessions and an industry contact list gathering task scheduled for this week). Schedule regular reviews of your Success Metrics and Budget. Use a group calendar and set up alerts in your phone for each task.

7) Do a Postmortem. Learn and iterate on what worked and didn’t work.
This is the most important step, and the most often forgotten. Be frank and honest with yourself—it's not a blamefest, it's a crucial learning opportunity.

Here's how it might look in the context of your life:

1. Life Objective 1: Secure a family 
• Family Goal: Find and maintain a partner that can pay my bills
• Family Goal: Acquire a child that can pay my bills  
2. Life Objective 2: Sustain a career as a Performing Artist
• Career Goal 1: Develop 300+ draw in NYC so that I can headline small venues on a weekend night, trading support slots with out-of-town acts.
• Marketing Campaign 1: Secure impactful slots opening for prominent local acts
• Marketing Campaign 2: Promote record release show <—we are here 
1. Goal
2. Success Metrics and Performance Indicators
3. Target Audience
4. Marketing Tactics
5. Budget
6. Schedule
7. Postmortem

[Note: At this point you should have already justified how a proposed Marketing Campaign will help achieve one or more of your Career Goals]

And now here’s how your specific scenario might look:

Marketing Campaign 2: Promote record release show

1. Goal: I want at least 75 people to attend my record release party. The promoter, who also books a larger venue, will then consider us for national support slots in the future.
2. Success metric: Ticket sales (night of the show)    
3. Performance indicators: Ticket presales, Facebook Event RSVPs, Bandsintown RSVPs, Songkick RSVPs
4. Target Demographic: All genders between the ages of 21 and 38 in the NY/NJ area.
5. Marketing tactics: 
• Tactic 1 (Physical): Hang flyers in high-traffic areas (above urinals, front window, etc.) at or near venue.
• Tactic 2 (Physical): Send compelling press release, photo and show details to all local print for inclusion in their Events section and possible feature.
• Tactic 3 (Online): Synchronize show announcement and centralize Facebook Event traffic. Get promoter and all bands on the bill driving traffic to one Event page with links to ticket purchase, free music, and photos for all bands. Invite only those in the region. Encourage friends to invite their friends to Event. 
• Tactic 4 (Online): Pay to Boost Facebook Event page, escalating budget the week of the show. Run Facebook ads on various content starting two weeks from show, always promoting a URL with show info and ticket purchase.
• Tactic 5 (Online): Get a local music scene blog to premier the single from my new forthcoming album and announce show; use blog post as new content and increased legitimacy. 
• Tactic 6 (Online): Coordinate with all performers to schedule the addition of new content to the Event page every week and stagger social posts and profile photo/banner updates from personal and band accounts using photos, short videos, streaming content, etc. initially driving traffic to the Facebook Event, and eventually alternating between FB page, direct streaming content link, direct ticket sale link, etc. so as not to annoy audience. Be sure all parties involved Like, Comment, and Retweet each other's posts soon after posting to exploit feed algorithms.
• Tactic 7 (Online): Offer free download (using Bandcamp promo code) to anyone who posts a photo of their purchased ticket (or similar testimonial content) online.
6. Budget: $80, 40 hours unpaid labor
• $25 for targeted Facebook ads and boosted Event
• $15 for color flyers, staples and tape
• $40 for band photoshoot to be used for social posts and profiles photos
• 40 unpaid hours (log hours in online solution or phone app)
7. Schedule: 
• Week 1 (this week): 
• Mon: Design incredible flyer/promo images. [4 hr]
• Tues: Write fascinating press release with show details, ticket purchase info, promo image, and private streaming link. Send to team for feedback and revise. [3 hr]
• Tues: Gather local print Events Page editor contact list from online search and industry friends. [1 hr] 
• Wed: Use Mailchimp to send press release to contact list at 9am. [1 hr]
• Thu: Print $10 worth of color fliers at Staples. [1 hr]
• Thu: Hang color fliers at the venue and nearby coffeeshops. [1 hr]
• Fri: Create potent Facebook event page and give promoter and other performers "admin" status. [1 hr]
• Sun: Everyone announce show and invite friends to FB Event at 9pm.  [1 hr]
• Week 2:
• Mon: Tweet link to FB Event at 1 p.m. or 5 p.m
• Tues: Send follow up email to weekly print Events page editors. [1.5 hr]
• Wed: Share FB Event to personal FB pages at 3pm.
• Thu: Post promo image to Instagram at 8:30am. 
• Fri: Change profile image of personal page, include link in description.
• Sat: Share FB Event to personal FB pages at noon.
• Sun: Review success metrics. Adjust budget? [1 hr]
• Sun: Boost FB Event page for 7 days by $7.
• Week 3
• You get the point...
• Week 4:
• Week 5:
• Week 6: 
8. Postmortem: 
• :) I achieved and exceeded my goal with 82 paid concert goers!
• :( I went over budget by $20 due to the fact that I set up the FB ad budget incorrectly. 
• :( I worked an extra 1.5 unpaid hours due to traveling to and from printer and venue to hang fliers
• :( I worked an extra 2 unpaid hours on researching and contacting local blogs.
• :| Facebook Event RSVPs (111) were 35% higher than actual attendance (82).
• :| Likes and Comments subsided during weeks 3-5; maybe I got too markety?

So there's my stab at it. In reality I rarely take the time to draft something with this level of detail, but the important thing is that you start thinking like a business when it's time to promote your work.

A few other tips:

• Learn as much as you can about the various social network algorithms and exploit them. For instance,  to determine if users find your video interesting (and therefore worth showing to others), Facebook tracks user behaviors like turning on sound and switching to HD. So it may be beneficial to include text in your video or description encouraging users to turn their sound on or switch to HD (which should also provide better sound quality). The algorithms of Instagram, Reddit and Twitter each have their own interest-ranking metrics that they track, each playing a huge role in your social marketing success.
• More from Lex Land about her current marketing strategy: “The end-goal is to capture emails of fans or potential fans with whom I can build a relationship, and then monetize that email list by running quarterly promotions and alerting them of live performances in their area. I believe that social media should be viewed as a traffic generation and rapport-building tool rather than the sole point-of-contact for fans. Social sites are excellent for 'blasts' because of the visibility and daily use by most folks, and the ability to use retargeting on Facebook, especially, is invaluable- but, still, an email list is the only thing we as artists can carry with us through the ever-changing landscape of whatever platform is currently trending, or even from being on a major label to going independent. With a strong email list, we have leverage - to get better guarantees, to get better features, to get noticed by industry if that's what we're after. I think it's crucial that we fortify our bond with the consumer of our music to garner that leverage, rather than waiting for 'something nice' to happen to us that might bring the fans our way someday. All of this requires us to be more vulnerable, to open up more of our lives and ourselves to our fans, to be more assertive about that connection we can bridge between us and them through our music. This has perhaps been the best takeaway from what I've learned, to cultivate a more honest perspective about what I and my music have to offer other humans.” 
• Read this book

Good luck with the album and release show! Don’t quit when your campaigns fail; quit when you stop learning from your failures. You don't get anywhere by having lofty goals—you get there by optimizing the system you use to reach them. 

Gavin

A Letter to a Young Lyricist

Hi Matt, 

Thanks for taking an interest in my work! Congrats on your decision to pursue music. As I'm sure you're aware, it's a long painful journey with lots of sacrifices but more fulfillment than the average career, I'd bet. 

I suspect that my lyrical proclivities are a bit abnormal, so I'm not sure my approach is worth replicating, but I'm happy to tell you my personal philosophy and opinion in regard to prose/lyrics:

1) Read everything. A writer without a thorough grasp of the english language and the myriad of ways brilliant people have been exploiting it for centuries is like a drummer without rudiments... she might hit a few nice pockets, but she won't have the means to get acrobatic and will work much harder at phrasing than one with a diverse vocabulary and historical knowledge. Watch people like Van Dyke Parks, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, and Bob Dylan speak in interviews. It’s not a coincidence that they are some of the greatest lyricists of all time.

2) Listen to everything. Dissect the lyrics that really impact you. Figure out why they were so effective. Early in my development I was impacted by the lyrics of Rufus Wainwright, Joanna Newsom, Perry Farrell, Black Thought, Thom Yorke, Pharaoh Monch, Mos Def, Bjork, MF Doom, etc., but it took me too long to understand why. As someone that wants to increase my lyrical arsenal, it would be wise for me to listen both as an average listener and as a word engineer, and articulate why a phrase impacts me the way it does, so I can apply it to my work.

3) Live through everything. A lyricist is just a journalist in a poet’s jacket. Even fiction writing is based on first hand experience. Every few years I run out of stories. When that happens, I have to accept that I've lost my input/output balance; I'm writing more than I'm experiencing. This is a very common rut for artists, but seldom do they address it for fear of losing momentum. Stop writing, go out and have a breakup, or a car accident, or a crappy job, or a baby, or a protest... to "refill the coffers" with life stories that you can translate and relate to other people. The world doesn’t need more songs about how enjoyable dancing is. 

4) Be curious about everything. The most important and effective lyrics are those that tell the listener something they already know, but do so in a way they could not previously articulate. When you do that you are doing the listener a big service, and thereby creating value. Essentially, you are just drawing lines between things that other people had not connected before. This is the essence of good poetry. If I tell you that “love is like a burning flame in the chest” your response is most likely, “Yeah. Thanks for the incredible perspective.” If I tell you that “love is like having a bakery follow you around” you will stop and consider this, and may think, “Huh, it is kind of like that… walking near a bakery lifts my spirits with the smell of comfort. If a bakery were to follow me around, I would constantly feel like that. What a strange but accurate comparison that I had not thought of. Here is my money, GavCaz.” 

The way to train yourself to make these connections between disparate experiences easily is to learn about as many different worlds as possible, and take note of everything, especially how an experience makes you feel, so that you can find the parallels and intersections. Be curious about all things and people. Read, read, read. If you get good at it, you shouldn’t have to turn on your poetry cap… it will always be on. The goal is to live poetically. If you achieve that, lyrics will come easily. I’m not there yet, but I’m closer than I was five years ago.

5) Don’t worry about rhyming so much. Rhyming has ruined more lyrics than it’s improved. First learn how to write great poetry, and then worry about making it rhyme. Rhyming is easy when you have a dense vocabulary. Effective messaging is hard. Effective messaging with tasteful rhyming is the final step. 

That’s about all I got. Good luck - recognizing that your lyrics are a weak spot already puts you ahead of 98% of the artists out there, so stay at it and keep the long view.

Gavin

A Turning Point

As some of you may know, a year and a half ago I stopped touring to work a full-time job in order to get out of steepening debt and to finally afford the gear that I need to reduce costs on future projects. Thanks to an artist endorsement with the kind folks at Auralex Acoustics, I've finally completed my tracking room, mixing room, and vocal booth. I also recorded a quick Before and After comparison of drums, rhodes, and out-of-tune piano. Note: these drums are not close-mic'ed; I set up two Shure KSM 137 condensor mics (set on "omni") in the middle of the room, about 5 feet away from all 3 instruments. I made sure they were in exactly the same place for the before and after recording.

Now I just have to learn how to play music. 

Tracking Room - before

Tracking Room - after

Mixing Room and Vocal Booth

The Problems with Kickstarter

As many of you know, I successfully funded my Won Over Frequency record with Kickstarter.com last year. It was a very educational experience, and one I do not regret at all.  As the site's popularity continues to rise, I thought it would be helpful to publish some of the downsides and potential pitfalls that an artist may experience using the Kickstarter system.  These are issues I found with the site as of October 2010, so if they have been changed, please post a comment and correct me:

• Kickstarter keeps 5% of your donations and Amazon (their payment gateway) charges a 3-5% transaction fee (rest assured, it's 5%). I cannot over-emphasize how important it is to fully comprehend that percentage, and the fact that their pricing not tiered. Consider this: if an artist raises $10k for a project, Kickstarter/Amazon takes $1000 just for providing a template profile page and pledge management account on their site, none of which allow custom branding or styling. If an artists were raising a budget for a small film, say $50k, then Kickstarter/Amazon would take $5k, despite the fact that the functionality they are providing in the $5k scenario is the same as the functionality they provide for a $100 scenario (albeit with more credit card transactions). This seems suspect to me, and that cost to a project budget must not be underestimated - an artist must increase their goal amount considerably to account for it. 
• Pledgers and artists are only allowed to use Amazon Payments for all transactions, which requires an Amazon account. No Paypal, no cash, no checks, no easy credit card form (unless you have an Amazon account). 
• Even though the funds can be instantaneously collected, artists cannot get paid until two weeks after their campaign ends. They then have to wait 5-7 days for the funds to transfer to their bank account. These delays are not explained anywhere on Kickstarter.com. The only explanation I can come up with is that Amazon is giving itself an extra two weeks to make interest off of the  artists' collected monies. 
• Artists cannot change Rewards descriptions or quantities after publishing their campaign.  I understand doing so is a bit dicey, as allowing artists to change a Reward's description after a pledger has signed up for it may be objectionable to the pledger, but I think that editing should be allowed, as it is the artist's reputation that would suffer should they choose to do something unethical. Running a campaign like this is always a learning experience (especially since the majority on the site are first-timers), and there is a strong likelihood that incentives will need a few adjustments as the artist learns what's working, what's not, and what is just unrealistic. It is important to be able to optimize a campaign as it is underway.
• If a campaign is successful before the end date is reached, the payment process still won't start for 14 days after the end date. I understand that in doing so Kickstarter is honoring the agreement that pledgers donated under ("my card won't be charged until this date") but I think offering a "charge my card as soon as the campaign is successful" option during the pledge process would allow for both cases and better accommodate artists working with no funds (ahem, all of them). 
• I do not believe Kickstarter has cultivated a network of philanthropists that browse the site trying to give away money to cool projects. It is my impression that traffic is not one of Kickstarter's value adds. Artists should not expect to get a project funded if they haven't already amassed the fans and generous family members needed to do so. 

All this being said, I was very impressed with the Kickstarter user interface and admin section, as well as their propensity for collecting donations - therein lies their true value. I'm not convinced that their interface should be credited with any campaign's success, though; I believe that a campaign's success is very much dependent upon the quality of its associated video and the cleverness of its incentives. If an artist has the technical ability or the kind of budget where that 10% deduction is large enough to pay for web development, building a microsite with similar functionality may be more cost-effective and allow for more branding and flexibility.

Gavin Castleton Album Titles & Artwork Explained

On more than one occasion I have found myself arguing with dear friends about the naming of albums. I have a pet peeve: I hate the idea of a "title track," the naming of an album after a song. Not only do I see it as creative laziness, but also an insult to the other songs that share the record.

With the advent of the digital age, the reasons for publishing a group of songs in one block began to disappear. No longer is the medium designating the length of a release. No longer is the marketing cycle for a release as lengthy or as expensive as it once was---in fact, most labels are starting to embrace releases with shorter shelf-lives and cheaper social marketing efforts, adopting the use of EPs, singles, and remixes as legitimate forms of listener-engagement and revenue. So it stands to reason that nowadays when an artist gathers a group of songs and publishes them, she is doing so because those songs belong together, and not just to consolidate production and marketing costs. Subsequently, if the songs belong together then surely they form a bigger picture: maybe they collectively depict a time in the artist's life, maybe they illustrate a period in the author's creative development, maybe they're just all about the majesty of burritos. When that collection of songs is named after just one of the burrito songs, it suggests that the one song can sum up album's message... so why include any other songs on the release? Are they not integral to the message? Put differently, It think of my songs as children (as many artists do), and my album as a family, why would I name my kid "Castleton Castleton"? Sure it'd probably garner him twice the success with the ladies, but how would my other kids feel about that? And why would I waste your time with more of my clumsy kin when CC already said it all?

I have a similar distaste for the self-titled album. My thought is this: if you as an artist have finally recorded something that sums up everything you've learned about yourself and your craft so definitively that you want it to share your name, then I hope to high heaven you don't intend to release another record, because you've reached the end of the journey. And the rest will be recycling. And there simply isn't room in our ears anymore.

Of course none of these circumstances are usually the motivation for the naming of an album - I suspect they just don't think that hard about it, and so they resort to the old industry standards: title tracks and self-titled albums. Well, I'm not a fan of the lazy approach to anything in regards to music - here are some explanations for some of the albums I've released:

HYPOTENUSE (2004) & DARK AGE (2004)

Album Title: Near the end of my 25th year, I wrote and recorded what would become my first two solo records: Hypotenuse and Dark Age. Originally I intended to make one long album, but soon realized that this collection of songs was better divided into two piles: the angry and bitter rants with the hip hop edge belonged to Dark Age, and the somber, wistful electronica songs comprised Hypotenuse. As is true for many people, 25 was a pivotal year; my familial and business relationships were in a massive state of flux. I was becoming acutely aware that my life had gone completely off-script, and the internet was spray-painting the music industry every shade of revolution, opportunity, and economic confusion. As a human I was eager to reinvent myself and shake off the perceived "yoke" of my parents. These albums signified my transition from a very private, fairly passive aggressive person to a somewhat exhibitionist aggressive-aggressive person. They also ushered in a new era of self-sufficience for me; having fully embraced the gamut of music production software, I would no longer be reliant upon others to create music. Oftentimes clumsily produced and lyrically self-absorbed, the songs on these albums are truly pubescent (though I often think my music career has been---and will continue to be---one long puberty). But they play an important role in the timeline of my releases, cataloging a very dark year for me and paving the way for my creative renaissance. They spoke directly to specific people in my life in terse naked language - no right angles, no circumvention - just the most direct line between two points: an emotional hypotenuse.

Album Artwork: The cover of Hypotenuse is a self-portrait in pen superimposed on an acrylic painting. It's a drawing of me huddled in a blanket on a bed, composed entirely of triangles.

The cover of Dark Age features a vectorized photo of me staring directly at you. It was taken with somebody's point-and-shoot at CMJ (note my facial enthusiasm at this prestigious industry event). I chose it because it was the type of image we would never use in Gruvis Malt artwork, and it was unflatteringly "honest." The text and layout are a nod to that of Propellerhead, the software company that makes Reason (a program I'd used heavily on both records).

FORTNIGHTSHIFT (2005)

Album Title: This record was intended to jump-start a band. Blak and I were unified in our frustrations with our unmotivated groups (One Drop and Gruvis Malt respectively), and we set out to make an EP that we could sell on our encroaching east coast tour.

I flew down to Orlando and wrote four of the five songs with Blak in a weekend. We then brought the rest of One Drop in to a friend's studio to track them. From the first day of that marathon writing session to the tracking, mixing, and final mastering date, the project took two weeks, or one "fortnight." We referred to most of those sessions as "the night shift" since they often began around 2:00pm and ended around 4:00am. Hence, "Fortnightshift."

Album Artwork: The front and back covers are photos of a field taken near the studio in Chuluotta, FL where the EP was tracked.

GRACE LAND (2006)

Album Title: Gary Tivole, the unlikely protagonist of Grace Land, is a huge fan of Paul Simon, "There is a game I like to play where it's me in New York / In front of a small audience of mostly young ladies / playing these songs / answering questions afterwards / like how I came up with 50 Ways / or where Art Gurfunkle and myself went wrong." I liked the idea that he would name his album "Grace Land," an obvious bite, but would insist that it isn't derivative at all because his title is two separate words while Simon's is "Graceland." I also liked the irony of it as a title; suggesting that the ugly, awkward, and often irrelevant rantings of Gary Tivole are in any way associated with "grace" is hilarious to me.

Album Artwork: The album art for Grace Land is a series of self-portraits that Gary did in marker on a wall in his apartment. We were lucky enough to peel blocks of the wallpaper off without damaging the drawings or alerting him.

HOSPITAL HYMNS (2007)

Album Title: Hospital Hymns was inspired by a six month stint I worked as a temp in a Rhode Island hospital stockroom. My job was to restock the various units. It was remarkable to me how spiritually sterile the environment seemed, despite it being home to some of the most emotionally turbulent events in its inhabitants' lives. I was also interested in the contrast between the non-unionized stockroom workers and the more "presentable" doctors, nurses, and lab techs we kept well stocked. While writing more music for solo performance, I was surprised at how much the Mormon hymns of my youth had influenced my harmonic instincts. I decided to write a narrative across five "modern hymns," each employing some phrasing or melodic tendency from a hymn I'd grown up with. The fictional 76-year old narrator seemed a fitting gauge for the listeners' spirituality: Do you see him as a religious fanatic, completely out of touch with reality and even dangerous, or as a humble follower who can find beauty and God in the places that those who eschew him cannot: the darkest corners of a bustling white-washed building?

The Artwork: The cover of Hospital Hymns is a water color painting I did of the narrator haloed by flowers. The back cover of the promo copies had a floor plan for the hospital I worked in.

FOR THE LOVE OF PETE (2007)

Album Title: For the Love of Pete is a collection of songs I wrote for my ex-girlfriend spanning the six years we were together. We  developed our own language, as lovers do. We had a game where we referred to each other as "Pete," but preceded by another "P" word. Like, "Oh, don’t be such a Presumptuous Pete" or "You’ve been a real Prickly Pete lately." My grandfather is fond of saying, "For the love of Pete!" when we exasperate him. Since the album is a collection of love songs I wrote for my Past Pete, the phrase seemed fitting.

Album Artwork: For the Love of Pete features photos of Jenny and I in the backyard and neighboring farm of our Lincoln, RI residence. You wouldn't know it by our expressions, but we'd been broken up for several months at the time of that shoot. She not only took most of the photos, but also did much of the layout and typography.

A BULLET, A LEVER, A KEY (2007)

Album Title: This narrative record, the fictional recounting of my life in reverse chronological order (from a miserable suicide in 2054 to a 2007 live performance), is about little choices with big consequences,  spurned by questionable incentives. The title comes from the book Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J Dubner, which states, "An incentive is a bullet, a lever, a key: an often tiny object with astonishing power to change a situation... There are three basic flavors of incentive: economic, social and moral."

Album Artwork: The cover of A Bullet, A Lever, A Key was inspired by a Saivite funeral. The photo was taken by Jaime Lowe, and Alex Barton helped arrange flowers around my face after covering it with honest-to-goodness pyre ash.

HOME (2009)

Album Title: I wrote this album in the midst of the biggest storm of my life: my six year relationship was in pieces, my bands were becoming inactive, I was financially unstable, and had fallen out of love with the town I'd lived in for 14 years. I didn't name the album until I was nearly finished recording it, and when I finally did there didn't seem to be any other contenders that made nearly as much sense as "Home." All of the paths I was embarking on were leading me away from comfort, away from the "homes" I'd built for myself throughout the first third of my life. I came to realize through the making of this album that the artistic process itself was my resting place, and that when nothing else was steadfast, my ability to cope through creation remained constant. When I need it, art itself is my home. The final words of the album are, "Home is not the place you dwell, home is where you see yourself." Much like the final events of the Hospital Hymns narrative, this lyric is designed to dissect the listeners based on how they interpret that last line. What kind of artist are you? Do you build your home out of reality, "seeing" yourself for who you actually are and painting unapologetic self-portraits in your chosen medium? Or are you an idealist, rejoicing in limitless potential and seeking solace in the imaginary place you can craft for yourself?

The Artwork: The cover of Home is the result of a lot of work by two experts: photographer/digital lighting pro Ryan Rogers and graphic designer Justin Muir. Through the magic of computers Justin was able to take a beautifully stark portrait from a shoot I did with Ryan and graft molding zombie veins,  socket irritation, and two scenes reflected in my eyeballs: an arial view of a ladybug, and a horizontal view of encroaching zombie hoards.

The cover, often mistaken for that of a nu-metal band, is meant to exhibit the theme of duality that runs throughout the record - red vs. blue (internal vs. external), ladybugs vs. zombies (proactive vs. destructive), fact vs. fiction (reality vs. ideality), etc. The expression on my face suggests that there is no clear solution.

RANDOM ANTHEMS (2009)

Album Title: This EP was the first and last release borne of political needs rather than artistic. The label felt it would help us promote my next tour to have a new recording to blab about in a press release. Hope is a Drug, Scared Scared Scared, and Shell 2: Nephew of Shell were three very different tracks that I was very happy with but had no particular plan for. The only thing that unites them in my mind (aside from my sensual voice) is that each is anthemic of embracing humility: Hope is a Drug promotes fulfillment through immediate art-making over the success that may or may not result from it, Scared Scared Scared is my acknowledgement and acceptance of the universal fear of being alone, and Shell 2 is an unflinching assessment of my health and aging.

Album Artwork: In keeping with the "random" theme, the cover to this EP is a photo of Lumas at an outdoor basketball court down the street from my apartment. It was taken by Jaime Lowe and I used it because I liked it.

WON OVER FREQUENCY (2010)

Album Title: This album was tentatively called "Orphans" for its first trimester. After releasing Home, I wanted to make an album without a narrative arc or unified pallet; I wanted to make the opposite of Home. I changed the title to "Won Over Frequency" when I read this article in the NY Times and it occurred to me that perhaps there was a unifying thread here. My music is getting easier to sell to people (though let's be sure to divorce the term "sell" from anything to do with revenue). I no longer struggle through the writing process as I once did; songs cooperate with me during the birthing process. And a rhythmic logic to the chaos of my stylistic interests has emerged. The songs on this album speak to and resonate with a wider audience than anything I've done to date - they are the closest I've come to my "pink noise" (represented in music synthesis as the wave pattern "1/f," or one divided by frequency). I chose the double entendre "Won Over Frequency" because I've arrived at this style of songwriting, and conquered this little patch of grass in this war zone-of-an-industry only through persistence and consistency.

Album Artwork: This may have been the most labor-intensive artwork of any I've done --- not for me really, but for the incredibly talented people that worked on it. The cover depicts my fat face sloshed with pink paint on a black background. I'm staring you in the face (as is also the case with Dark Age and Home), disarmingly and somewhat disarmed. The cover is meant to represent the collision of the two engines of my creative process: emotion and logic. The stark, Pepto-bismo pink is both a nod to the concept of "pink noise" and representative of the dramatic emotional romantic in me that would have the audacity to pose the question "Are you brave enough for my love?" and the judicious black foundation (with Brendan Bell's Matrix-green geometric imprints) is the pragmatic scientist in me that would have the audacity to marry hymnal chords with odd time signatures. The pink strip hurtling towards my face from the left-hand side doesn't completely override the background --- they co-exist, compliment each other even, and then meet in and share my headspace in a nearly 50/50 ratio.

re: Listen 2 my trax and let me know what u think!

PREFACE: I'm not writing this because I'm in any position to give out advice on how to be financially successful with your music [I'm 32 and my youngest sister buys my groceries so I can try to pay for my new album], I'm writing this because I regularly receive emails from musicians (mostly younger than me) asking me to listen to their music and offer some sort of critique or advice. I'm both flattered and scared of these emails because the musicians usually sound like they're on their way to somewhere, and when I was younger and older musicians would say things like, "Keep at it, you'll find your sound" I found it not only condescending but also a disheartening concept: the act of becoming a musician who arrives at his "sound" and then settle in to it in perpetuity. My view of that advice has shifted somewhat, and now I think, "Keep at it, you'll find your toolset" might have been more applicable (though no less condescending). Most times that's what I want to say to the musicians who email me, and I'm not comfortable saying it. So here are some thoughts that seems true to me right now that may serve as feedback to you who are looking for it:

What is "success" to you?
I think a good way to visualize this question for an artist is to consider where along the life path of an idea you feel fully content. Here's what an idea's life path might look like:

A. An idea is born in your head
B. You sketch out the idea - your idea is realized physically
C. You show the idea to another person or a crowd of people
D. You publish the idea in "final" form
E. You monetize the idea
F. You market the idea aggressively to increase revenue and expand your audience

Surely you could add some steps in there or take some away or reorder them a bit, but the point is that your answer to the question "At which point am I happy?" should determine your whole approach to idea-raising. For me, my answer has slowly moved down the list as I get older and more invested in making music. Currently I am fulfilled at D, but am committed to F because F-ing someone else's A makes me unhappy.
If your answer is somewhere from A to D, you are most likely either young or find fulfillment comes from a different life path (or you're not as happy as you could be).
The big deal about F is that to do it effectively you really have to think much more about steps C-E. Much more. The remainder of this essay will be directed at those who answer "F" because the majority of emails I receive seem to be from F-ers.

C. YOU SHOW THE IDEA TO ANOTHER PERSON OR A CROWD OF PEOPLE
I've been thinking about what habitat is the most conducive to incubating a good idea. Portland, OR is an inviting, extremely non-critical and supportive environment for artists trying things outside their comfort zones. New England, where I lived for the first 14 years of my career, is highly competitive, critical, and exclusionary most of the time. I don't think either is the most ideal setting for the full maturation of an artist, but I think a good ratio of the two is. When you're just trying something out for the first time, it's good to have a supportive and forgiving environment, but if that's all you ever get, you may not be challenged and scrutinized enough as an artist to develop a strong voice. Maybe when first fostering your art, the crowd you introduce your idea to is more important to your growth than the idea itself. Do not underestimate the role of the community you hope to grow within. If you can't feel your art improving, than you should consider moving.

A word on humility and balance: the older I get in this career choice, the more apparent it becomes to me that striking the proper balance between ego and humility is the most important step in an artist's growth. To make truly great music you must be humble enough to remove your ego from the songwriting process, and self-confident enough to find and write from your own voice. The two seem contradictory, I know, but knowing when to let your ego lead and when to tuck it away might just be the very definition of wisdom.

So with that in mind, I think if you truly want to grow you have to listen for applicable criticism from honest people that want to understand you, and ignore criticism from those who aren't and don't. You'll want to amass a council of people in the former category, and get to a place spiritually where you can listen to them with your defenses down (if you can't listen to them that way, then don't waste their time asking for an opinion).
My personal policy on reviewers and music critics is that I will not entertain criticism from someone who is not strong enough to expose themselves to the world creatively (and I don't consider writing a music review to be a form of creative nudity, sorry). What kind of coward criticizes the creative efforts of another person when they themselves have never braved the pain and joy of that kind of vulnerability?

D. YOU PUBLISH THE IDEA IN "FINAL" FORM
I believe this step is the crux whereat our current system fails. We now have the means to publish an idea immediately and make it available to the entire planet. With the question "How will I publish this?" no longer being a hard one to answer, we now have the luxury of asking ourselves, "Should I publish this?" But we don't. What does this result in? Answer: a flood of horrible ideas and over-documentation of the über-mundane, the likes of which America has never seen. True, there is no longer a narrow-minded posse of aged white man at the helm of the music industry, standing between you and the next Frank Zappa... in its place is an ocean of autotuned automated mashups to sift through. Has music become a more meaningful part of our lives as a result? I'm gonna say no.

Think of the filter that used to be positioned between the listener and the artist in, say, the early sixties (based loosely on the experiences of Bob Dylan):

1. An idea is born in your head.
2. You learn to play an instrument and surround yourself with others who can as well.
3. You rehearse together incessantly while your parents yell at you to get a job.
4. You play at your high school dance and the county fair and you join everyone else's band.
5. You drop out of college and hitchhike to Greenwich Village.
6. You sleep on couches for a year or two, performing as many sets in a night as you can at as many venues as you can walk to, collaborating with as many folks as possible.
7. You play harmonica on a friend's record and the producer takes a liking to you and brings you in to perform for the head of a label.
8. The label offers to fund a simple record of mainly covers, and allows you to record two originals for the B-side.
9. The label distributes 1000 records to radio stations who do not play it. You tour the country, visiting the stations to perform for the DJ in person in hopes that he will take a liking to you and play the record for the 200 people listening in his town.
10. Eventually you score an opening slot on a national tour (since an independent touring circuit doesn't exist), and gain notoriety as "the guy that played before ______."
11. The label brings you back into the studio with their best producer to fix up 10 of your songs and promote them more aggressively. The label pays DJs around the country to play your single.

This is an extremely simplified version of one's path to some semblance of fame, mind you, and not even close to the path of becoming an international sensation.
Now here's today's filter between an artist and an international audience:

1. An idea is born in your head.
2. Buy a Mac.
3. Watch a Garage Band tutorial on Youtube and record yourself.
3. Sign up for a myspace or facebook or youtube account.
4. Press "upload"

Sure I'm exaggerating, but do you see what's missing in the current routing? Answer: the truly rigorous obstacle course that sculpts an idea into a timeless resonant piece and a child with a guitar into a revered artist with a life-long body of work. It's not a crime to create something and keep it to yourself. If you want to hit the ground running, figuring out the right time to start introducing strangers to your music is crucial. I am still struggling to rewrite some people's impression of me that's based solely on something they witnessed in the late 90's. Had I waited to publish some of that nonsense, or worked with a mature producer (an approach I have mixed feelings about) who could have helped me work through my ideas better, I may be further along today.

E. YOU MONETIZE THE IDEA
This is the easy part. You have a million options for digital distribution, all you have to do is compare prices and potential traffic. Since all of us are graphic designers now, we don't even have to hire anyone with a design degree to make the t-shirts. Just print in florescent colors and GO. Be sure to mention that you DIY'd it. Want to make a music video? Just shake the camera a lot and keep focusing and defocusing the lens. The more edits, the better. Shoot it with your iPhone if you like, and sell it on iTunes. iSimple!

F. YOU MARKET THE IDEA AGGRESSIVELY TO INCREASE REVENUE AND EXPAND YOUR AUDIENCE
The American definition of a "musician" has changed drastically in the last fifteen years. Where once a musician's duties consisted of writing, performing, and recording, the list has expanded to include engineering, producing, graphic design, videography, video editing, web development, blogging, booking, book-keeping, sales, and most of all, marketing. With the labels mostly out of the way, the musician has more control over her output. But she also has a much much much much much heftier work load. Maybe she gets a higher percentage of her earnings (what earnings?). But the issue that is not being discussed is what happens to the musician and the art form itself when she is tied up in or tied to the money-making aspect of it? Could it be argued that the distance from marketing that a label once provided was instrumental in keeping an artist focused on their craft and sheltered enough to keep from tainting it? Ask yourself how much you enjoy marketing. And then ask yourself what happens to your music when you're the sole source of marketing. Would your music be better if you outsourced the dirty work to a talented agent? Would the internet be a nicer place if bands didn't have to constantly talk about themselves?

Moving forward, I will assume that you, like me, cannot seem to find decent representation, and the burden of marketing is entirely on your shoulders. If your audience is not growing fast enough for you, you have only three options:

1. Change your music
Self-indulgent composition rarely results in what I consider meaningful music. If you want to stay competitive in a market run by children with shrinking attention spans, you should trim the fat. I am obsessed with song economy. When I write a song, I ask myself, beat by beat, bar by bar, "Is this supporting my message or detracting from it? Is this element propelling the listener forward?" Now that's me, and I often make intellectually cumbersome music, so I'm not saying that I've mastered it or that one should spend all their time combing through the song and fine-tuning it. But I'm getting good at it, I enjoy it, and I think the efficiency in my songwriting is increasing my listenership. Someone important probably once said, "A track is finished not when you run out of things to add, but when you run out of things to take away."

A listener of your music should be able to answer the question "How did this song make you feel?" If they can't, I think you failed. [or in the case that your piece was not meant to communicate with an audience, maybe you shouldn't publish it]. Even if you are making background music, or muzak, they should still answer, "Pleasant. Non-violent. Subdued."

When we were only a few years in, people kept telling us (Gruvis Malt) to hone in on one sound. I always felt like they were telling us this because they couldn't handle all of our styles but in retrospect I think they were telling us this because we weren't good at all of them. No one trying to help you tells you to stop doing something you're really good at. If you're not doing something very well, that doesn't mean don't work at it ---on the contrary, you should work at it twice as hard---just think hard about whether or not it deserves publishing.

2. Change your marketing strategy

I. Clarify
Get your misinterpretation-of-what-integrity-is out of the way and define what you're really selling: are you selling musicianship? Are you selling a great lead voice? Are you selling a shocking experience? Are you selling a dance party? Are you selling a sonic hug? Are you selling nostalgia? Are you selling anger? Are you selling a charismatic front woman? I think charisma is the hardest characteristic to find and the most valuable. In my opinion the greatest bands sell a feeling. It is my personal goal to sell several feelings in succession, because that's what my life is like, and I want to be understood. Ask yourself if anything is being "sold" by you that eclipses or even contradicts your best-seller. If you're selling calming atmospheric music but your lead guitarist is prone to chopsy noodling, then you are not thinking clearly as a group.

II. Starve them first, stuff them later
When you are trying to make new fans, give them less (both online and in live performance) - only your very best material. Only thirty to forty-minute sets. When a new listener visits your profile and there are a million things to look at, they will leave with nothing. On the flip side, when you are trying to retain fans you already have, give them plenty to play with. Always diversify and update your content.

III. Stop begging - if your music is strong enough you won't have to.

IV. Stop bragging - if your music is cool enough, other people will do it for you.

3. Change both
Don't be afraid to start over. Starting over is the biggest opportunity that you'll ever receive to improve your music and your marketing strategy.

CONCLUSION: When considering the achievement of "success" as it is often defined (i.e. fame, fortune, cleavage, etc.), there seem to be two schools of thought: those who believe it can be manufactured, and those that believe it is mystical or luck-related. I would like to suggest another way to look at it. I would like to hypothesize that perhaps success is the result of the right combination of three (or more) variables: timing, work ethic, and capital. I made this handy Venn diagram to illustrate this concept:



This theory has been quite consoling to me, as subscribing to it keeps me from beating myself up about the areas that I don't feel in control of (timing, for instance), and inspires me to compensate for the areas that I do feel in control of (work ethic, for instance). So in closing I'd like to say that while the advice that I've given here is primarily about manipulating those three variables into a favorable ratio, I think it's very healthy and humbling to accept that, in your life, there are variables that you cannot manipulate - and that's the exciting part.


RECOMMENDED READING:
Bob Dylan - Chronicles: Volume 1
Malcolm Gladwell - Outliers: The Story of Success
David Bayles & Ted Orland - Art & Fear
Paste Magazine (Rachael Maddux) - Is Indie Dead?

Tour Wrap Up

So my April west coast run has been completed. Our Mini Van Brett Michaels performed remarkably well again, and both Gray Robertson and Javier Torres proved themselves to be top quality musicians and allies.
Once again I learned many lessons regarding touring - maybe not enough to warrant another installment in my Keys to Failure series, but certainly some applicable knowledge. Here are the highlights:

- We managed to cut our overhead down quite a bit by using a cooler and making the effort to go grocery shopping for the whole group.
- We learned that "Gavin Castleton" can pack out a club in Santa Monica with people that live in Hollywood and surrounding towns (and not in Santa Monica). Perhaps it was just good timing, or perhaps some of the venues we did in the past weren't ideal for my particular demographic. Keep trying venues until you find the right fit.
- We learned (once again) that you really should think about where you set up your merch. If it's an area too high-traffic or too low-traffic, you will lose.
- Working with an actual professional promoting Promoter is the best possible way to break a new town. When you do find one, respect and thank them profusely.
- If you need DIs, carry DIs.
- "Artist-Friendly" venues that want you to sign a paper saying that you won't play covers so that they don't have to pay Performing Rights Organizations are not "artist-friendly."
- Really really really really think about the money deal you're agreeing on when you're booking the show. Yes, you're desperate to confirm a date. Yes, you feel as if you don't have a leg to stand on because you have no draw in that town. But calculate how much money you will leave with if 10 people pay, 15, 25, 30, 50, 75... Does it sound painfully low? Is it even enough for gas to the next town? If the club insists on taking a huge chunk of the money to cover their costs before you see anything, then a) you are going to leave empty-handed, and b) they are asking you take on all the risk. Since a show is a joint venture, the risk should be shared. You're better off playing in someone's basement for free or going to the park - at least your dignity will be intact and you'll probably save money.
- If the venue considers itself "DIY" (i.e. the band is responsible for their own sound, setup, door, etc.), then you should be getting 100% of the door (while the venue gets 100% of their alcohol sales).
- Don't drive 24 hours to Denver and back for one show at a coffeeshop. GEEZ. Just cancel the show. If you burned a bridge with a coffeeshop in Arvada (which, it turns out, is NOT Denver), big deal. 1/2 off on a $30 pizza will not even come close to covering your expenses.
- Don't play with locals that over-saturate their market. Better to play alone and get all the door money, even if they're awesome and fun to be around.
- Have a "Gas Money" tip jar. Always.

And the BIGGEST lesson:
- it is entirely possible that you can make more money playing less shows.
All said and done, the three of us made $72.21 each (for 13 days of work). I probably could've made more holding a cardboard sign and a tin cup by the freeway. And had anything horrible happened with Brett Michaels, we would've been in a real bad spot. But interestingly enough, when you truncate the tour to exclude Seattle, Spokane, Boise, SLC, Denver, and Portland--- so that it's just a five-day run starting in Phoenix and ending in Reno, the numbers get a lot less pathetic. Had we only booked a five-day tour, we would each have made $200.88. So we learned that we can't really take any more risks on those eastern towns without very good reason - not if I want to pay my musicians (and Lumas) what they deserve and somehow cover my rent. Less is apparently more, in this regard.
So Denver, Seattle, Spokane, Boise, SLC: we'll try again in a year or two and see if you are more interested in supporting us then.

Solid Advice from Danny Barns

http://www.dannybarnes.com/blog/how-make-living-playing-music

The Keys to Failure: Tour Edition

I just completed a 60-date tour around the US in a '93 Plymouth Voyager minivan with a very skilled bassist and drummer, a 70 lb doberman/german shepherd (for the first half) and a tour manager in tow. We were homeless for 77 days in all. It was the single most educational experience in all my 11 years of touring and, for almost all intents and purposes, a success.
Here are some of the many lessons I learned:

THE KEYS TO FAILURE: TOUR EDITION by Gavin Castleton

I. BUSINESS
Simply put, as an independent touring artist you cannot afford to be frivolous about money (unless you are one of those trustafundians from Williamsburg). There is nothing artistic about being fiscally irresponsible, just as there is nothing artistic about being a drug addict... this goes double for those that want to play progressive music - you have to be twice as business savvy if your music is twice as hard to digest as the average musician's. The two opposing perspectives I have always wrestled with have settled into this one congruent precept: idealism in art, realism in business.

A. There are two types of listeners: those that show up, and those that don't.

B. Keep spreadsheets of everything, and record your expenses daily so that you can spot a bad pattern early on.

C. Keep a good list of contacts, both of the shows you did, and the Carrots* you met - color code the shows by how good they were.

D. Help the band you're on tour with however you're able, share floor space and food costs with each other as often as possible.

E. When someone actually fills your rider, leave no crumb behind.

F. Never forget that Merch is where you make the bulk of your money.
   1. Be sure to have credit card capabilities at the merch table: CDbaby swiper or iSwipe for the iPhone + Web Payments Pro (Paypal).
   2. The location of your merch table is as important as what's on it.
   3. In an all ages setting, put out all your merch options, and free items as incentives.
   4. In a bar setting, limit your display to 2 CDs and 2 shirts, and keep the freebies away from drunkards.
   5. Deposit cash often but keep ample bank for change.
   6. Keep track of all sales, look for trends and adjust the display/stock accordingly. Experiment with the display constantly.

G. Be transparent about your business with those in the van - that way they're not surprised when they don't get paid much, and you're not surprised when the end of the tour comes and they come looking for the big paycheck. Let everyone know how important it is to stretch money, in real time, and make sure they can see the results.

H. On a big tour, being friends with the crew is of equal or greater importance than being friends with the bands.
   1. They can let your set go over a few minutes, or cut you off a few minutes early.
   2. They work with many many musicians that you would like to hear about you and consider taking you on tour.
   3. You may consider hiring them in the future.
   4. They spend all day with the headliner - a vote of confidence from them is worth a lot more than one from an average citizen.

II. PERFORMANCE

A. Maximize impact.
   1. Get constant feedback from the road manager, band members, and audience members/fans about what songs/moments had the biggest impact. Never stop fine-tuning your show.
   2. Altering your music to appeal to a wider audience is suspect, altering your set list to appeal to the type of people in the room is just logical.
   3. Find rehearsal spaces as often as you can and use them.
   4. In a bar setting, play your loudest song first and your best song last.
   5. The right kind of charisma in a front man has far more impact than the tightest rhythm section.
   6. Write a short loop-able piece of music for every combination of instruments, so that when one band member has a problem the remaining members can immediately provide a soundtrack for the downtime.

B. Know your sound.
   1. Learn the sound engineer's name and use it on stage.
   2. When a sound man tells you your kick drum will be plenty loud in his club without a mic on it, without having heard your music or your kick drum, insist on a kick drum mic.
   3. Bring along everything you need to operate without a soundman: mics, mic stands, extra cables, a portable PA if possible.
   4. Be aware of your buzzy equipment and bring along ground lifts and power conditioners. Don't be in a position to be educated about your own equipment by a sound engineer (but ask her to educate you about hers).
   5. Bring a soldering kit and learn how to use it.
   6. Don't try to fix your equipment before a performance unless you have at least 3 hours of spare time (so you can find a replacement should you make it worse).
   7. Know how to run a small PA.
   8. Have a 2-minute piece of music that you always soundcheck with. Have it start quiet and slowly reach your loudest volume. Have it feature every instrument/patch/effect. If you check with the same thing every night, you will be able to spot abnormalities in the stage sound faster, and adjust for them. And the sound engineer will love you.

III. BOOKING
There are generally two types of venues: those that take care of their musicians, and those that expect musicians to take care of them. Unfortunately, there are far less of the former, but when you do find them, return often, and return that respect ten-fold.

A. Concern yourself with the line-up.
   1. Ideally you want your opening act to be attention-holding but non-threatening to your sales.
   2. House music is more cost effective than a horrible opener.
   3. Don't add local bands to the bill that just played a free show in their town 3 days ago
   4. Don't play on 5 band bills - that's the promoter's way of telling you "nobody draws"
   5. Don't let the club pay a DJ to spin after your headlining set. Bring an iPod and keep that DJ money (no offense, DJs).

B. Know who you're dealing with.
   1. Ask for a media list from every promoter. If they don't respond quickly with a list attached, then they are probably not a promoter.
   2. When a promoter tells you that the band you're playing with tonight will be "a good fit for you guys," it means she owed them a favor.
   3. When a promoter asserts "I'm an honest guy," that means he's not.
   4. On a huge tour, advance shows with the headliner's road manager, not the club directly.
   5. When you arrive, take stock: do you see any of your fliers hung in the club? Do you see any around town? Did you get a Facebook event invite from the promoter? If you answered "no" to these questions, challenge the promoter fee.
   6. Ask for stuff - if you don't ask for the hotel rooms, they'll never be offered to you. If you don't ask for a band discount on food, you often won't get it.
   7. If you've been doing shows for 13 years and a club offers you a door deal that seems really weird and illogical but they insist that this is how it's always been done, don't play the club. There's a reason most door deals look similar.

C. Don't rule out open-mic appearances - their audiences are 99% musicians, and usually very open minded (the downside is they're broke).

D. Do reconnaissance: if the town is cool but the show sucked, ask everyone where you SHOULD be playing and with whom. Ask your tour mates for clubs that they enjoyed playing in other towns - pool contacts with all the musicians you meet.

E. Proper routing is of equal importance to the actual quality of the shows you play: if you have to drive 16 hours to play a show (there and back), there is not much chance of you coming out on top financially.

IV. MORALE

A. Expect the worst show, and be prepared to play your best show.

B. Make an effort to relax on days off.

C. Value the sleep of your band mates as much as your own. If you're awake before everyone else and aren't late to hit the road, shut up until everyone else is sitting up.

D. If you need sleep, tell your host multiple times before arriving at their house. If they are drunk, tell them you have to get something from the van, and then sleep in the van.

E. Don't date anyone in the van.

F. Tour with people you can relate to: comedically, philosophically, financially, musically, etc.

G. When you get access to a kitchen, use it - not just for the nutrition and cost efficiency, but for the soul.

H. Long drives aren't just bad for the wallet, they're bad for the spirit.

V. VEHICLE
Fuel efficiency is everything. Aside from a massive car accident, gas is the single highest expense on a tour, so your mission is to do everything to minimize the use of it.

A. Stay up on your oil-changes and van maintenance. Whatever the cost now, it'll be twice that if you wait (and your mpg will most likely suffer).

B. Observe the speed limit. "While each vehicle reaches its optimal fuel economy at a different speed (or range of speeds), gas mileage usually decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph. You can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.24 per gallon for gas. Observing the speed limit is also safer." - fueleconomy.gov

C. Use cruise control wherever possible, and overdrive gearing wherever possible.

D. On long drives always give yourself two extra hours for a flat tire.

E. Get AAA. Get AAA.

F. Clean out the van at every other stop. Mold leads to sickness.

VI. TRAVEL SAFETY

A. Bring enough earplugs for the whole tour. Buy in bulk and give them out at your merch table (with each mailing list signature).

B. Be sure to have GPS and an iPhone in the van at all times.

C. Be aware of all band members' allergies in regards to housing and hospitality.

D. Be aware of the climate you're traveling through: air conditioning for the desert, heat for the mountains.

E. Bring the same amount of clothes as your band mates and keep your laundry cycles aligned.

F. When in Philadelphia, bring all your equipment with you everywhere you go. Sleep with your equipment.

VII. THINGS I DID WRONG
- waited too long to get medication once my LA Cough started
- talked too much before the shows, even though my voice was already on its last leg
- played shows in the midwest
- played shows in Pennsylvania
- played venues that allow smoking. The potential listeners will never outweigh the hospital bills and damage to my voice.
- failed to warm up my voice properly before every show
- didn't keep a checklist of equipment (cost me about $220 in gas and shipping)
- repeatedly asked for peanut butter on the rider
- didn't use flip flops while showering in the girls basketball team's locker room at Xavier College
- paid $115 to an "independent contractor" for a parking boot in Chicago. When it is not a state-sponsored boot, wait until the guy is gone and take it off with a lug wrench. Or call the police.

* car⋅rot [kar-uht] –noun
1. Someone who asks for a free "demo" to give to his cousin who works for Sony.
2. An audience member (one of four) that promises the next time you return to town (s)he will personally guarantee a sold out show.
3. A person masquerading as a promoter who claims the ability to put together a show for you at a larger venue in town with a big national act that (s)he "is suuuuuuper tight with." Rolling Stone, Spin, and various MTV sister stations will all be in attendance. NOTE: correspondence will slow to a stop as the projected date grows near.