Riplets vocals have arrived!

I started producing the track today. I took off with a whining sample of 'When Doves Cry', some delayed handclaps and weird gasping sounds. Keep it empty and simple. That's the hard part, actually. Next week I want to have it finished.

Riplets remix still far away

The bare vocals still did not arrive. I'm getting a bit nervous (NOT!). It seems Lady Aida has also made a dancehall remix. Her remix will appear on the 12" EP, mine will hopefully be added to the downloadable cd that might appear at 3voor12. I like competition, especially in the dancehall genre. After all, dancehall is all about different 'versions' of the same cut.
I had a good idea yesterday when I lay in bed. Use the intro of 'When Doves Cry' of Prince! It fits well with the tempo of 'Hey Mickey'. Maybe alter it a bit to make it unrecognizable. I don't want Prince's lawyers tracking me down... :-)
The Riplets are going to play in The Hague next week. I'll visit them then. I hope I got a remix ready by that time.
This, by the way, is some info on the first remix that apeared of 'Hey Mickey'.

It's a small world

I'm starting to find out that I'm actually moving in a small circle of 'music lovers'. I visited the Winston Kingdom last night. They had organized the monthly RTV Mortale night. Almost everybody in the venue had something to do with music, and therefore eachother. I think I'll be an insider sooner than I expected...
I met Jacqueline again, of 3rdofjune. She was able to introduce me to Yoast of RTV Mortale. Yoast was supposed to be in the jury of the Melody Line bandcontest, in which I wound up second with Carmenkata. He wasn't there, though. That's a shame, because I know he would have loved Carmenkata.
[drga-drga] might become a sponsor of RTV Mortale, the underground music-station of Amsterdam. Their Mortale nights in Winston are well organized and a lot of people show up. Could be cool.

The bands were OK. I especially liked Sally Skunk and Ninginkata. Listen to Sally Skunk here, or to the Ninginkata songs Little Transistor, Planes to catch, Adore.

Fiel Garvie cd released soon

The cd 'Leave Me Out Of This' of Fiel Garvie will be released on the 1st of March. That happens to be my birthday, so the omens are good :-) This is a bit later than expected, but we are learning as we move along. Better to be thorough than hasty. Marten and I dropped off the cds at our distributor today. They agreed to do all the promotion activities. Except weblogs and ezines, they don't take those seriously.
Fiel Garvie is right in the middle of editing a video. We'd like to see it, and if it's ok, promote it at MTV, TMF, The Box and 3voor12 WEBTV. We've never done that before so that's gonna be fun. "Listen, I know this video contains no babes and bling-bling whatsoever, but if you would consider playing it..."
Read a great and true review of their record in the US based Flak Magazine. The review also touches on the difficulties the band will generally encounter, because of it bears a vague resemblance to shoegaze music.

Carmenkata promo-cds

I've been burning a few Carmenkata promo-cds, and Carmen has finished up on the bio. Finally, Carmenkata is making its way to the promoters...
While looking for great songs to include on the different promos, we bumped on some old songs. And some of them were realy good... Why on earth did we ever decide to ditch them? Well, they deserve a second chance. Maybe one day we'll even bring out a 'Rare' album of Carmenkata ;-)

[drga-drga] moves ON

I met up with Marten today. We were supposed to go to Konkurrent, but they were busy and we were unprepared :-( Never mind, there was enough to do. All we do is brainstorm and chat about what is on our minds. Without an agenda, but it really works for us.
We called up Productiehuis ON, to ask if they would like to co-produce our 'Drug of the Nation' festivals. These festivals want to mix up experimental electronic music, multimedia art, theater & dance, and indie bands. We already did one festival last year in Atak, Enschede. There's one coming up in Arnhem, on the 26th of March.
They were very enthousiastic! [drga-drga] is an organization they are dying to work with. That's a big break for us, because we really could use their expertise in raising money. They also have quite some credibility and contacts with venues. We are going to meet up next week or so. Now our understaffing suddenly seems less of a problem... :-)

Meeting with a booking agent

My head is bursting with info. I had a meeting with Mark, the booking agent for Moon About. I was together with Martin and Jan, the other members of Moon About. The meeting took place at Mark's office, a modern building in an industrial park of Enschede. Mark works for B.Vip.M, an important booking agency in the Netherlands. We wanted to talk with him, because we want to play more often and for more money. We hoped he could tell us what we had to change. In other words: what are our strengths and weaknesses?

The last time I saw Mark was a year ago. He then seemed uneasy to talk to, unwilling to speak his mind. Today, he was much different. Which is another lesson I've learned: people need time to open up to you. The first meeting is never the best. So don't panic if you feel like you didn't click. It will be much better next time.
Today, Mark overloaded us with info. I hope I can reproduce some of the things he said.

These could be our weaknesses and threats:
- Always mention one price to your customers. The customers being the folks you play for. That way your customers will not be feeling cheated or ripped off.
- Related to this subject: Mark preferres a very simple pricing model. Best thing would be one price, no matter what distance you have to travel.
- Make sure you have good sound, and lighting. This is something we're lacking. Our sound is so-so, but we don't bring lights with us. We could rent them, and add that to our price.
- We should have postcards with our bandphoto on it. Make sure the bandphoto is done by a professional photographer, who is familiar with shooting bands. On the photo, the band should be dressed to kill. Wear similar clothes, it looks sharper. The clothes should be fancy, looking expensive and stylish.
- All B.Vip.M bands are playing 5 hours, 15 minute breaks included. We are only able to play 4 hours, so we should extend our repertoire.
- Go check other booking agencies. Mark won't mind, as long as you keep the same price with everyone. He mentioned Euro Entertainment. I knew about troubles they had with New Entertainment, and I noticed he would not be too happy if we would also work with them. But any other agency would be ok. This is an important point. I always thought booking agents would feel offended if you work with their competitors, but it seems to be ok to do so. He even told us we could use his name as a reference.

He saw some strengths with us:
- We are reliable. We are always friendly and professional towards our customers. Our playing is always good enough.
- We are flexible. We can move our stuff to another place during the show, or even play while moving.
- We are easily accessible for the booking agent. He doesn't need to know two weeks in advance when we can play, he needs to know RIGHT NOW. We happen to have our agenda online, so we always know exactly when we are available, all the time.

We mentioned the possibility to add a cute female violin-player to our line-up, should the customer want it. Our question is: does the customer want this? He was mildly positive about it. He noticed a large demand for trios, because of the economic decline. As a little besides, did you notice how everybody is trying to explain everything away with the help of the ever present 'economic decline'?
But nonetheless, there could be a need for a fourth member with a customer. He would keep it in mind. I know by now that he won't keep it in mind, but that it is our duty to remind him... so put it in the bio!
Speaking of the bio, it turns out to be more important than I thought, actually. Mark has only seen us once, and that's more than a year ago. He only holds a vague remembrance of Moon About. So he uses our bio to sell us to customers, actually reading out loud the bio to the customer! Anything that is written in there, literally makes its way to the customer. Naturally, the bio should be short and to the point. But it should also point out ALL our USPs. Marketing term: USP = Unique Selling Point. So I think it's time to at least go over our bio again and check if it needs updating. And it undoubtedly will.

A practical point: we should extend our repertoire with a few more Elvis songs like "Devil in Disguise". This song really improves our show a lot, because it's so different from the rest of our songs and it really grabs the audience by the balls.

[drga-drga] understaffed

During the visit of Marten, we brainstormed a bit about our label [drga-drga]. We always brainstorm, we almost never plan. Up to now, this worked perfectly. If we need to have something done, we do it. We don't plan it. We have no intention to change this, by the way. But we did find out that we are slightly understaffed. It's no big problem, but we could do more if we had one more person. So, this is a shout-out to all you people who feel like they missed out on this great feeling of having a label: join [drga-drga]!
More info on [drga-drga] you can find on the website. You can also email me.

Carmenkata moves forward slowly

My pal Marten came by yesterday, to bring the blank promo-cds of Carmenkata. They are beautiful. They are blank cd-rs, but they come packaged in a professional looking sleeve and printed. The sleeve leaves space to write down the tracks and some other info. This way, we have a professional looking cd which can contain any kind of music... great for promo duties!
If anybody feels compelled by this idea and wants to have his own great looking blank promo-cdr, plz email our label [drga-drga]. We could do that for you.

Yesterday, I also did a rough mix of the new songs we have recorded for Carmenkata. Seven of them, we have emailed to Xander. Xander is our A&R manager for an exciting project Carmenkata is working on. We promised to keep him up to date with our new material. It took a while to comply but we've done it, one week later. Xander is part of a new production house that wants to work with Carmenkata. Our goal is to make a commercial album, without losing the alternative vibe of Carmenkata. They have the contacts, we have the music. Seems like the old record deal, except they are not a record company. They are producers, and hot-shots too. Think Blof, Anouk, Idols, Birgit... It's all very exciting but it will take some time before we can get results. Everybody is very busy, and money needs to be made in the meantime.

Come Again?

In the not so distant past, I used to play with Dre and Rene in Come Again, an accoustic trio. Very much like Moon About, but with more of a party vibe. Problem was, we never asked for enough money, and we almost never played. This seems about to change, because booking agency Line-up Events seems interested. Mo' money, and mo' gigs.
Rene asked me to forge a band photo. We didn't have one, and I'm the most talented graphic designer of the three of us (oh, my God). I searched for hours among my hundreds of pics I shot from the coverband we used to play in, the He-Devils. Couldn't find much. Most pics were too Rock&Roll. After all, this is for an accoustic trio, we have to play for delicate things like weddings and business events. No use to show them a band who is extending middle fingers, prancing around with plush animals... :-) But it was fun to look them through.
I managed to extract our heads and put them in one pic. I'm not completely satisfied with the result, but for the moment it will have to do. We are not living close to eachother, so a real bandpic will have to be taken later on. You can see the result on the right side. By the way, I'm the guy at the right :-)

Riplets remix update

Yesss, I received a reply from Janneke of The Riplets! The vocals are on their way. Now I can start making a dancehall remix of their coversong 'Hey Mickey'. As it turned out, the space on the to be released 12" is already full. However, there will be a spot on 3voor12 with all the remixes, including mine. If it's good enough, of course.

Club 3voor12 rulezz

I went to Club 3voor12 yesterday. Best networking event I had so far in Amsterdam. And it was fun! Marten of [drga-drga] asked me to take a Fiel Garvie cd with me, and give it to Helmut of the VPRO radio. Helmut played the single of the album once in his radioshow Flush. I was a bit worried about it, because I don't feel safe yet with these VPRO-people. They can be very negative about your music if they feel like it. I took the promo-package with me, but I wasn't sure if I could get the opportunity to slip it onto someone over there.
I hooked up with Maarten in front of the studios. I'm recording a cd for his solo-project Reaganesk. This guy has introduced me to a lot of interesting people already. He's living in Amsterdam a year longer than my six months. I heard of this night at club3voor12 from Dre. He's a guitarist whom I played with extensively back in Enschede, but he moved to Utrecht a few years ago. Now that I'm living in Amsterdam, we're practically around the corner again. Dre is playing for the moment in King Me. This band took up the idea to publish a cd with songs from women, played by male artists. Titled: 'More than a woman'. O well. The cd was presented yesterday in club 3voor12, so Dre had to play there as well. Together with a host of other cool bands that contributed to the cd: Mist, Coparck, Pfaff and DJ Jaap Boots himself. Jaap Boots is the presenter of the program club 3voor12.

I noticed that in the short time I'm in Amsterdam, I already knew quite a few people playing in the bands. Dre of course, but also Arthur, who's playing in Mist. And the members of Coparck, whom I visited in their homestudio. They were looking for a drummer. As it turned out, at the time of my visit they already found a drummer and were checking him out. He turned to be ok. No problem, I'm already too busy as it is.
Arthur I know from a recording session I had with Reaganesk. He did some background vocals and elevated the songs to a whole new level. I still want to see him play his solo-stuff live. He told me yesterday there's a gig coming up in my area! I love it that I'm always having my agenda on me... :-)

The first band to play was Darryll-Ann. I used to be a big fan, like 10 years ago. They did some great stuff, and some of it is still good. I can't shake off the notion however, that they turned into this 60-ies comeback-band. I mean, the beards, the plain clothes, the easy rock they're playing. The grandeur is still there, though.

After that came The Riplets, a female punk-rock quartet from Rotterdam. Man, they were hot! Poppy, girlish, simple and spontaneous. Janneke, the singing Riplet, announced the coversong 'Hey Mickey' with the remark that she was still looking for some more remixes for that song. They are going to issue a remix album on vinyl. "Just talk to me after the show", she said. I immediately had the idea of doing a dancehall remix of this song. If I could pull that off...

In between sets I talked with our distributor. I already thought as much. He had not understood that the cd of Fiel Garvie could be released a week ago, he was still waiting on a signal from us. We agreed to meet next week, to iron out these misunderstandings. I told him that the live show of Fiel Garvie was a positive surprise, and that it might be a good idea to put them on their festival in Paradiso. Talking some more, he told me that I gained quite some credibility for being a bit negative about the liveshow of Fiel Garvie at first. It showed him I was honest. Lesson learned: never lie about these things. People don't want to be put to shame because they sticked out their necks for something lame.

The Riplets remix-album was still buzzing through my head. OK, I'm not a great hit-producer, but I could give it another try. How to get in touch with the singer of The Riplets? I was already envisioning hard ways to make her talk with me, but no need. As I was conferring with our distributor, she came standing with us. After a few oblique but honest ravings of their show, I popped the question. Could I do a dancehall remix for their project? No guarantees of course. She was enthousiastic, totally living up to her spontaneous self. I should just send an email to the band, and I would get the stuff I needed. Deadline is the end of February. OK, I like that...

During the last set I talked with a female booking agent and bandmanager. She has quite some contacts, though she is just starting off herself. She could hook me up with a recording studio that has monthly workshops. That could be quite interesting for me, because I could still learn a lot on the production side of things. In fact, I'm a rookie on all aspects of the music industry... :-)

To top it off, Arthur introduced me to Rick of Live in the Livingroom. He's also the singer of Mist. I have been trying to get my band Carmenkata on their program of inhouse singer/songwriter concerts. A very cool initiative. He remembered, and was still waiting on a demo. I'll have to send that up this week.