BandsOnABudget

1. WHEN SHOULD YOU RELEASE NEW MUSIC?

A few weeks ago, the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) announced that starting this summer, “new albums and singles will be released at 00:01 local time on Fridays.” This international release day has been put in place for a few reasons, but mostly because staggered release dates don’t make much sense anymore. With the digital age changing the way that fans consume new music, it’s just easier to release things on the same day. At least, it’s easier for most major artists, but what about the smaller bands? With T-Swift and Beyonce taking over the weekends with their releases, it might be better for your band to stray away from those days when releasing your singles.

2. THE NETFLIX OF VINYL

Yes, the Netflix of Vinyl. This subscription based media company is reworking the ways in which we consume vinyl. In case you haven’t noticed, everyone is listening to records again, resulting in a 52% increase in vinyl sales since 2013. VNYL is hoping to continue this trend with their vinyl delivery service. Basically, users choose from their list of categories (or #vibes, as they call it), then VNYL sends you a batch of hand-picked records. You keep what you want, then send back what you don’t like.

3. SEVEN TIPS TO GET SPONSORSHIPS FOR YOUR BAND

Sponsorships are a mutually beneficial arrangement between two or more groups. Most artists can get free custom band merch, show promotion, and credibility through these partnerships. For companies, they usually benefit by creating public awareness, increasing sales, and building their credibility by working with a band. These tips will show you how to get your band some long-lasting sponsorships.

4. MUSIC BUSINESS ADVICE FROM 5TH CENTURY B.C.

As much as you might dislike a good history lesson, there is always something to learn from our ancestors. This lesson comes from the work by the Chinese general Sun Tzu. Although he wasn’t necessarily in a rock n’ roll band, his universal advice and philosophical teachings still have the ability help those in the music business.

5. THREE BRANDING LESSONS FROM MUSIC’S BIGGEST SUPERSTARS

J. Cole, Lady Gaga, and Dave Grohl are not only musical superstars, but they are teachers too. Whether they intended to pursue this career path, or they just happened to fall into it, lots of lessons can be learned from them. With the ability to reinvent themselves and own their art, these three are true branding masters.

HOW DID THE BAND FORM?

The band formed in Toms River in 2007, the summer of 2007, and it was like this acoustic project that I had started. Initially, I was arranging a lot of stuff and saying this is exactly how it’s going to sound and over time, especially on Deliverance, we found members that were collaborating really naturally together and understood each other in the studio and on stage. I still write the songs but it’s started to be more of a band effort to arrange the records and to put together the final picture.

WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE NEW ALBUM?

So we have Deliverance coming out on march 10th, it’s our 3rd full length record, it’s our favorite record. I don’t know if anyone – if every band says that maybe, every band says that about a new record – but it is the truth. And then we have the tour coming up and that starts off March 5th and 6th at Asbury Lanes and tickets are on sale at rivercityextension.com – it’ll be a whole U.S. tour.

WHAT KIND OF MUSIC HAVE YOU BEEN LISTENING TO LATELY?

I’ve been listening to the new Cymbals Eat Guitars record a lot – a lot, a lot, a lot – we’ve all been listening to that record, and we really like it. I saw one of their songs posted online and I listened to it and I bought the record and I got into it. I listen to that, and I’ve been listening to Leonard Cohen a lot. I got into Leonard Cohen sort of over the holiday season. And the new Sun Kil Moon album, Benji, we’ve all been into a lot and some Radiohead.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE BEER?

My favorite beer of all time is Yeungling Lager, and we do love craft beer but I mean we’ve tried so much beer in America and overseas. I just went to Belgium recently and was trying beer over there and everything but I’m never not in the mood for a Yeungling.

ANY ADVICE FOR NEW BANDS?

Well if they’re a new band and they’re just starting up and they’re younger than I am they probably don’t know who Cake is. But Cake was this band from the 90’s – very important, they had a great sound –and their lead singers name is John McCrea. Buddies of mine were in this band in the north west and when they were coming up, Cake was coming up. My buddy saw John McCrea on his bike one day and he said “John, do you have any advice for up and coming musicians?” and John said “yeah I do,” he said “if you suck quit now.” The first time he told me that I was kind of like weirded out by it, it’s kind of shitty thing to say but I thought about it since then. I mean it’s probably been 5 years since he told me that story or maybe longer and I realize that what he means is, if you think you suck, if you don’t believe that you can do it then there’s not a chance. Because on the way up there’s going to be plenty of people telling you it’s impossible or what your doing doesn’t matter or it’s not this or it’s not that or that you should stop. So if you think you suck then you don’t have a shot at it.

I guess that comes down to believing in yourself really care about what you’re doing make sure you’re putting your best work forward and be yourself and believe in yourself. You need to have a clear mission [of] anyone that’s going to come in to help you. Because that may happen and may not happen for a long time and may happen right away. There will be plenty of people telling you how to do this but you have to know better than anyone else. So know yourself and believe in yourself and believe in what you’re making and don’t let that be compromised.

WHY BANDS ON A BUDGET?

I’ve never thought about learning from anyone else like Bands On A Budget. everything just turned out really good everyone is really hands on, turnaround is super quick, the prices are really good, and it’s like Danny told me, really we’ve been able to do everything. Every time I ask him if there’s something that we’re able to print or get in by a certain time or whatever it is we need to do they’ve been able to make it work for us and we’re very grateful for that.