Please have a look at these fine videos by two fine artists we have had the pleasure to work with, The James Warner Prophecies and The Hard Fox.

Our man Jamie, the producer extraordinaire that he is, will run 10k this autumn for a good cause. Please sponsor him.

My mate Donal Whelan of Masteringworld.com is a fine mastering engineer whose special powers we trust. He was kind enough to repost something I wrote earlier in our News At Zen newsletter. So, to keep the loop happening, I’m posting about it here. Next I’m gonna tweet about what I had for lunch. Then I’ll upload a vlog about what happens to the lunch once it enters my digestive system. This reminds me of my school friend Johan who actually recorded on tape his morning shit while reading aloud his German homework. He then asked permission to play in class his special project. Our German teacher wasn’t amused. I nearly cracked my ribs laughing so hard at the sound of his farts and garbled German grammar punctuated by the remnants of dinner hitting the water. These days Johan is a fine banker on Wall Street. The German teacher went nuts. I make music in London and go to music industry conferences to meet new people. One such person is Donal Whelan whom I met at In The City. He’s been mastering a lot of our stuff ever since. The circle is complete.

Who woulda thought that a very special German project involving a tape recorder and excrement would lead to this?

The world is indeed a strange place.

The music business is indeed a shallow money trench where pimps run free… see quote in top right corner….

We were asked to make a record and donate our session fee to Help For Heroes, the charity that supports the families and victims (British ones) of the current wars this country is fighting. We declined because we don’t want to support the war machine. I find it very difficult to understand people who do a marvellous Orwellian doublethinkquickturn by saying that they don’t support the war but they support the troops. Hell, to me the troops ARE the war. I wouldn’t want our name to be associated with those who wage war.

Around the time when these current wars started I was still in a band touring for a living. It seems like a lifetime ago! All these years and they’re still out there killing innocent people. I was very vocal about my opposition to all that mindless killing, so much so that there was a little bit of pressure from around me to shut the fuck up because the mood in America, where we were signed and where we promoting our record, was rather enthusiastic about killing ragheads in the name of freedom.

Meanwhile back in the jungle…

Elton John got booked to play at Rush Limbaugh’s birthday party for about a million quid. Rush Limbaugh is an American shock jock whose views on just about everything are a few million miles to the wrong of anyone I know. He is a bigot, a racist and he hates gays. But he sure gave Elton a million reasons to sing at his party. A struggling artist has to sing for his supper, but Elton…. even if he gives every penny of his gig fee to some worthy charity, his choice to appear at this particular party is unprincipled and uncool.

What turns the wheels of industry…

There is a lot of chatter in the music business about how to make the business work for everyone concerned. Here are some statistics for you: according to a study by Music Week, the weekly industry journal, less than 5% of people employed in the UK music industry make more than £40k a year. More than 40% make less than £10k a year.

I had to play the part of agony aunt the other day in a stop and chat meeting with a mate of mine whose 30 year career in the music business has seen him A&R for a major label, have simultaneous number 1s on both sides of the Atlantic as a producer and, currently, run his own record production company. He reckoned that if he was to look at his business objectively from a business point of view, he would have to conclude that he is in a business that is not economically viable.

If he looks at his overhead (studio rent, salary, depreciation of equipment, having to buy new equipment to keep up with the Joneses, taxes, insurance and all that biz) the money he makes from producer fees is dangerously close to not covering it all. Clients don’t always understand it. They reckon that it’s his duty to produce a record that is a killer and make the money from royalties and whatever success that comes later.

But he says, and he’s right, that the record being successful, let alone a hit, is not only about how good the recording is. There are many variables the producer can’t control. At one extreme, the band might break up. The A&R might get sacked and the project shelved. The producer will still have spent the time making the record. Only, now there’s not a chance in hell of making any money from it.

No matter how much we believe in something, we, too, have to pay our bills so that we can keep working for our artists. Yes, we work FOR the artist. The one doing the working needs to get paid by the one he is working for. That’s the way it usually goes, innit? The artist works for the fan. The fan pays for the artist’s services of entertainment and emotional fulfilment. The fan, in turn, has a “proper job” at a major corporation for which they get paid and from which they seek periodic escape into the world of sex, drugs and rock’n'roll. The big companies go and rape ragheads in the name of freedom so that the wheels of industry can keep rolling.

Shit! We’re connected after all.

Even if everyone is more or less living hand to mouth and thinks they’re getting ripped off by everyone else, we on the creative side of the music business have a relatively cool life. We remind ourselves of our lucky position every so often. In between bouts of despair when everyone expects us to work for free.

To quote an old Arab proverb: when you’re in it together, even getting hanged feels like a party.

I rule. It’s official.

Made it to the final at Bexley Open and lost to the better player. Good match played in good spirit. I’ll get a bigger trophy next time… that’s a promise.

Come to think of it, this was my second loss in a final in the past couple of weeks. I need a better manager. ANY manager will do. Preferably someone who has connections in the squash business. I also need a sponsor. A better racket. More comfy shoes.

V.

The Do Or Dies bring out an extremely cool single called Maps And Plans. We think it’s very excellent. Listen to it and perhaps you will agree!

If you do agree that it’s a wonderful song by a talented band, do all concerned a favour and visit your favourite download store to purchase it. Click on the photo below to go to iTunes.

Yo!

The strangest most varied goings on going on at the ‘Farm recently: remixes for hot new band Everything Everything (Geffen), songs for Lisa Tucker (American Idol finalist signed to Ne-Yo’s label Compound), final album mixes for our very own world’s best band Esteban and second and third singles for Intruder Records signing Ideals.

I did find the time to lose the Club Tournament final at Blackheath Squash. Making the final was cool enough. I lost to the better payer. Which is what usually happens in sport. Cue in England’s miserable World Cup run? Let’s hope not.

England’s first game is against USA. Well, we produced a single for a newcomer artist called Jack Trainer. The track, titled My American Friend, is an ode to a mate of Jack’s who introduced him to the guitar and, a few hours later, arranged his first gig in a community hall in the deep south of the US of A. By all accounts it was a messy blues jam sort of improv thing… unperturbed by the bewildered reaction of the colonies, once back in Manchester, Jack learned how to make music. This is his debut. We love it.

There is a political side and a sad backstory to the track as well. It’s about Britain being America’s bum bitch, as Jack eloquently put it. Fact: the neighbour of the guy who taught Jack to play guitar was the first American to get killed in Iraq.

My American Friend is out on 4th July.

Pop music and irony – perhaps the greatest gifts this country has given the world.

When you’re going through hell, keep going. – Churchill

Violet Bones bring out their single 78s & 45s (click thru to iTunes). The song is picking up airplay at various stations around the country. Having supported Ash and New York Dolls recently, the band are ones to watch. Watch this:

If you want to watch them live, go to one of these shows:

In other news, I read an interesting blog here www.calnewport.com about funny man Steve Martin’s path to success. The nut of the story is that you must dedicate yourself to becoming outstanding in your field. THAT is the key to success, not the peripheral things like who’s your manager and what tours you do or marketing exercises you undertake. It’s not even hard work, as such, that is the key. You know, the Boxer approach from The Animal Farm: “I will work harder.”

Rather than mindless peripheral toil, it’s about attention to detail and constantly pushing yourself to be better, different and undeniable.

Many artists look for answers in the peripheral things. When the answer is something along the lines of what Steve Martin proposes – as it most often is – we get strange looks when we enthuse “hey, let’s write some great songs and make some great records and play some great gigs!” Uhh… yeah but no but yeah but… what’s the SECRET password?

I’m a different kind of music biz person in that I don’t try to equate everything to football. I do the same with squash! And so I want to mention the experiences I’ve had recently with the very best in that field. I played a bit with the current world number 5 James Willstrop and even though he was just gonna knock it around with an amateur like me, he took all the warm up stuff and stretching very seriously. On court he concentrated on every shot like that was the only shot he was gonna make. When we finished, I was already heading for the showers while he stayed behind to warm down and stretch. It really was quite something to experience.

We had an interesting chat about the fields in which we ply our trades. In his it’s enough to beat the other guy to get to the top. In mine, it’s enough to do something the other guy likes to make it to the top. Of course, everything sounds easy when you put it simply like that, but as we know both are incredibly difficult to do.

Not many have the mindset required to focus on one truly important thing. Getting to be a one trick pony as opposed to a five trick pony is hard enough. If we’re honest with ourselves, maybe with enough attention and focus and work we will find that one trick that gets them through the gates to see you. After all, it’s considerably better than having five that mildly entertain your uncles and aunties at family gatherings.

Every aspiring artist should read this post by Bob Lefsetz, the music industry blogger extraordinaire from LA. I can’t find much, if anything to disagree with. Most artists will agree with it, too, I would guess. But deep down, way deep down, we all think that there’s someone out there… a guy who knows a guy who’s going to make it alright…. get us the right gig at the right time, push it to the right people. You know the drill. Bollocks. Read Bob’s wise words and get busy.

The original post is on his website www.lefsetz.com and I copy it below for all your reading pleasure.

1. Focus on the music.  Get it to the point where the audience only needs to hear it once to get it.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i4ad94ea6265fac02d4c813c0b6a93ca2