Room at the Middle

If your experience was anything like mine growing up, when someone told you they were a full-time musician, I thought they meant one of the below: 

1. A musician in a symphony or jazz band (so they actually were serious and worked)
2. A rock star that was either already famous or well on their way
3. A blowhard that lived on his best friend’s couch and said, “Dude – I’m totally good for the rent, just give me another month”

The option that never occurred to me was that someone could be a full-time “popular music” musician, and be making a decent living just doing that. We’ve all been conditioned to think (because of American Idol, The Voice, America’s Got Talent, or my personal favorite when you combine them – “America’s Got an Idol Voice”) that unless you win the proverbial lottery in the music industry, you will never really be able to be a full-time musician.

The fact of the matter is, these shows are all that is left of the traditional music industry model of the “we’re going to make you a star” ideal. Bands/DJ’s/artists that are out in the world actually creating and performing music on their own have greater resources to find and play to their fans than ever before.  I would argue that this is one of the greatest things to happen to music in decades because we will continually see a rise in the number of musicians that create music because they love music and the art form because they can actually make an honest (even if it’s not a luxurious one) living by doing it.  We’ll also see a decline in the number of people who want to be involved in music just so they can “make it big,” because the chances at stardom are more slim due to the market being so segmented and diversified now.

All of this is not to say that the best artists still won’t rise to the top. Revolutionary artists will continue to shift the paradigm and reflect culture as often as they might influence it.  The revolutionaries just might be in a day and age where the distractions of fame and wealth won’t be the factors that they were before…and for that, I can happily say that I welcome it.

I’ll see you all somewhere in the middle.

-TRMJ

The image of a 37 year old man waking up on his parent’s couch in the basement and shuffling to the kitchen at 2pm to have a bowl of cereal before he “starts” his day is a stereotypical view many have of musicians and other creative types…are they justified in thinking so?

There are always exceptions to every rule, however, I would argue that even the most hard-working creative type can err towards the ease of saying, “I’ll just finish that project later” - the statement that usually leaves painters with canvas upon canvas of unfinished paintings, authors with novels and short stories that trail off before resolve is found for their characters, and songwriters with dozens of songs that have a first verse and a chorus, but the elusive second verse is lost in a sea of Word documents and eraser shreds.

Is that to say that all artists are lazy? No. Is that to say that we all can’t benefit from some discipline in our craft and the practice of our art form? Almost certainly, we can.

Inspiration is very difficult to generate – some might even say impossible. However, we can train our brains to be more prepared to expedite the creative process when inspiration rears its mysterious face.  This can involve anything from training your mechanical skills (practicing your scales with your instrument, bettering your brushstrokes, etc.) to developing the process by which you get into your creative mode.

I’ve begun (at the advice of a book entitled Writing Better Lyrics) writing for a designated period of time each day – that’s something that I haven’t done for years. The purpose of doing that is to train the creative side of my mind to more easily get into the “creative zone” and for the flow of the writing process to go more smoothly and more expeditiously. I love exercises like this. No matter how far along we are in whatever we do, there is always room for growth. The illustration of athletes in training is perfect to draw an analogy to this – the creative “muscles” can certainly go into a state of metaphoric atrophy if they lie dormant for too long. Keeping them in training and practice makes them much sharper and able to be called upon much more quickly when inspiration strikes.

So, as any personal trainer, tutor, music teacher, creative writing professor, or brew master would tell you – just keep doing it, it’ll get better.

Stay creative my friends,

-TRMJ

10. This is a single from my next full-length record, History. It's much easier to check out one song for 30 seconds than it is to check out 12 or 13 30-second samples, and downloading one song at a time only costs you $0.99.  So, put the big wallet away, and pull out your change jar.

9. I never thought I would use the word "escrow" in one of my songs...but here we are.

8. I used Duran Duran-style synthesizers for this song. If my calculations are correct, that should make some of you Hungry Like the Wolf for it.

7. I have a The Cars-style bass line in this song. It should help to Shake it Up a bit.

6. The artwork for this single came all the way from France. Celebrate accordingly by having a croque monsieur while you listen to it.

5.  It's another upbeat tune for the summer. Even though the title would suggest that it would sound like a down-tempo romp through parents sending their kids to college, it's much more at home being blasted from a boat on the lake.

4. If you live in the Southwest US, you didn't spend any money on fireworks this year for 4th of July (because of the wildfires), so you can spare a dollar

3. Because so many of you downloaded "You Don't Lie When You're Lonely" last summer, it made it onto the Hollister Clothing Company summer playlist.  Let's see if we can do that for "Empty House!" (or, if you're the person who works for Hollister that downloaded the song last summer and you're reading this, just go ahead and contact me and we'll work out the deal for this one :o)

2. You like to support independent artists in their musical endeavors.

...and of course, the #1 reason to download "Empty House" is

1. You listened to the preview of the song on iTunes here: http://bit.ly/k4fF1E or a preview on Amazon Mp3 here: http://amzn.to/kg4WFv and you liked the song.

Thanks for all the support guys, and I hope you enjoy "Empty House!"

-TRMJ


 

Tennis. Scoops of ice cream. Espresso. Whiskey. Whatever you're thinking singles and doubles might refer to, we all have our preferences and ability to process the amount of each item. Some people need a double (or a triple, or a quad) shot of espresso just to get the morning going, while others can scarcely bare one shot of whiskey to sip on during an entire evening of poker.  I would propose the same is very true when it comes to our minds and our ears processing music.

You're Talking About Music?

I'm talking about the difference between releasing an entire album at a time vs. releasing single songs one at a time. There can certainly be advantages to both; I'll give you my current thinking on where I think music is heading, but feel free to disagree in the comments section.

Doubles/Albums

For the most avid music fans - it may not be a chore to check out a new band/artist and go through and listen to 30-second samples of all 12 songs on an album. In fact, some music fans prefer this, because they like to get an idea of the entirety of an album's statement by the artist (I fall into this category). They can, and like to, take in a large amount of music at a time, and are willing to invest time and energy in a new band or artist. While I love this category of fan, I think we are in the minority. 

For the most part (this will be a big generalization here), in the digital music medium, albums are directed towards people who are already fans of a particular band or artist.  Hardly anyone will randomnly search for an artist on itunes, listen to their entire record, and then make a decision to purchase it. Most people don't have the time or the patience to do that. 

What will prompt people to buy an entire album is if:

1) They already know who the band or artist is, and they are anticipating a new release

2) The album has been referred to them either by a trusted media source (e.g. Pitch Fork, A/V Club, etc.) or by a friend who swears by the album.

3) There is a major discount on the record if it's purchased as a whole (I recently made a decision to buy Lady Gaga's new record because it was available on Amazon.com for $.99)

While I think there is still tons of opportunity for artists and bands to sell CD's at their shows, in a digital medium, albums are primarily meant for people who are already fans - or those who are the special breed of people who have the patience to go through each song and make an album purchase. 

Singles

Here lies the majority of the population. These people like music, but feel bombarded and somewhat paralyzed by the amount of choices in the current music climate.  They can't go through the top 20 list of artists on Itunes and listen to samples of each artist's entire record - that would take 2 hours to do, if each artists has an average of 12 songs on their records.

So what do they do? They make their decision based on one song. Most of the time, people will look for the highest rated song by an artist and listen to that to see if they like it. If they do, they might buy it, or simply decide to check out a few other tunes based on listening to the first one. 

This is the integral point of where a person decides if they want one song, or if they're going to take a chance and buy multiple songs, or maybe even an entire record. Regardless of the decision that they make, the way they were introduced to the new artist or band was through listening through one song at a time.

Get to the Point, Matt

Here's what I'm saying - I think it is incredibly important for artists and bands to release their best songs one at a time. It's very easy to direct new listeners to one song at a time, and almost everyone can spare 30 seconds in the day to go listen and determine if they like it or not. If they do, they will take their own initiative to buy it, and/or go listen to other music by that artist and determine whether or not they want to buy more music or become more invested in that artist.

I plan on doing this with my new song, "Empty House" - it will eventually be one of the tracks on my album History, but I am going to release a number of singles from the record first so I can direct people towards bite-sized moments from the record so that they're easily digestable. Look for "Empty House" to be out within the next couple of weeks, I will keep you guys posted for sure!

Feel free to post all kinds of arguements here if you'd like (in the comments section), but at least for now, this is the direction I'm heading...

-TRMJ 

The Real Matt Jones and Low Spirits in Albuquerque have teamed up to offer you a special deal from the one and only Groupon.com! This offer is only available from Groupon.com - to get it, click the link below:

http://www.groupon.com/deals/rmj-albuquerque?c=dnb&p=3

Details:

*The deal from Groupon is good for admission to The Real Matt Jones concert at Low Spirits in Albuquerque on January 15th, 2011, AND for any CD by The Real Matt Jones! (You may choose from Better Transitions, The Segue EP, or Passerby) 

*Open seating will begin at Low Spirits at 8pm, and the first act will take the stage at 9pm. Acts on the bill include:

Meredith Wilder - An incredibly talented singer/songwriter from Albuquerque.

Landon Smith - Denver-based singer/songwriter with songs in the movies Adventures of a Teenage Dragonslayer and Absent.

The Real Matt Jones - Voted Albuquerque the Magazine's "Best Vocalist" of 2010, and featured on Hollister Clothing Company's summer playlist for 2010 and songs featured in the movie Angel Camouflaged.

*Low Spirits is located at 2823 Second St. NW in Albuquerque. Click the link below to go to the map:

http://bit.ly/lowspiritsmap

*Once you purchase your Groupon from Groupon.com, bring it with you to the concert on January 15th. There will be a person at the door to check your ID to make sure you are 21, and there will be another person to verify your Groupon. Once it has been verified, you may make your way to the merchandise table which will be to the left of the stage, if you are facing it. Please show your verified Groupon to the person working the merchandise table and you will be able to select whichever CD of the 3 you would like. (Of course, you are more than welcome to buy any of the others as well, and if members of The Real Matt Jones band are around, they will more than likely sign it for you!)

*Purchasing this "Groupon" (it's actually a coupon that you can print out from your computer, or pull up on your smart phone) is once again, good for admission to The Real Matt Jones concert at Low Spirits in Albuquerque on January 15th, 2011 AND for one The Real Matt Jones CD.  Please bring it with you to the concert to redeem both your admission and your CD.

*If you have any questions regarding the process, please leave a comment in the comments section below, or send an email to:

trmjqanda@gmail.com 

Thank you, and I look forward to seeing you on January 15th at Low Spirits!

-TRMJ