Alright, the album, the record, the song cycle, the grouping of songs thrown together; however you wish to define them, are finished!
Complete.
Done.
And if that's all you want, congratulations. But, if you want more, say for people to hear them or buy them or stream them, then, as the song says; you've only just begun.
There's the artwork, creating the album cover, the disc cover, setup any distribution you might have in mind, get the word out through social media, the Mr Primitive website and blog, friends, associations. Issue a press release, initiate a row with some other important figure in the business; have your people get the ball rolling.
Unfortunately, I'm my people so it's all up to me.
And there's the not so insignificant fact that as a very well known unknown, I must juggle the expense against the no so insignificant return on that expense; I'm not so well off to be throwing money away.
So, the album covers are done, thanks in large part to the wonderful art created by Yuji Pearce, and they've been sent in to Disc Makers to be produced and to CD Baby for distribution to Spotify and Apple Music and the like. I've registered the album with the gubmint for copyright protection and set a release date of November 10th.
Please mark your calendars.
And, just because it sounds like fun, I'm going to have a release party at the house because that's what big stars like me do.
Will it push me over the top? Will I be an even bigger sensation that Taylor Swift who decided to release her new album on the very same day?
Only time will tell.
I'll confess that I don't find all of this particularly exciting, I'd rather be jumping right into making a decent recording of Winter, an album I made a demo of many years ago and never finished. But that's not how the game works and if no one knows about the new album, Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory), then there's a good chance they'll never hear it, and that's a shame because it turned out to be quite wonderful, if I may say so myself.
You do what you gotta do.
Check out this week's song from the new album, Stills, at http://www.mrprimitivemusic.com/home
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Monday, September 11, 2017
Thoughts on Steely Dan and Walter Becker
The three biggest influences on me and the music I make are Peter Gabriel, Lindsay Buckingham, and Steely Dan. The irony is I didn't see (or hear) that while making most of the music I had, but as time has given me the distance I need to understand that, their influences are clear to me.
All are iconoclastic in their approaches and all are instantly recognizable in their work. And I think they were deeply aware of this even if the press, and it's very interesting to go back and read the articles from music mags and the like to see the incomprehensibility of their music to a certain type of writer regardless of whether the publication was hip or not.
The big difference with Steely Dan, something they shared with the post '66 Beatles no less, was that unlike Gabriel and Buckingham, they stopped touring and through their most productive period from '74 to '77 were essentially recording artists and that was what they wanted to be. Beginning with Katy Lied through to Gaucho, their interest was in creating, as perfect as they could make them, records.
These weren't made to get butts in the seats when they toured, or to keep them in the public eye; they were notorious for making life difficult for the press, they were made to be listened to and appreciated as works, essentially, of musical art; something, I believe, they shared with Gabriel and Buckingham. They put an incredible amount of time, money and energy into their songs and it shows. The musicianship is outstanding as is the recording; even Katy Lied, whose masters were damaged by the Dolby unit they were using at the time (makes you wonder what the original must have sounded like).
Their genius, in my view, was that their records worked on many levels; song diversity, the initial dichotomy of a smooth seemingly straight forward pop tune, that was in fact exquisitely layered throughout and a listener rewarded each time the song played. They used any number of styles and genres; pop, rock, jazz, R&B to great effect. Their albums, whether planned or not; they would slyly say they created the songs independent of theme, but I'm not so sure; Aja and Gaucho are seeped in late '70's California.
Then there are the lyrics. Perhaps the most common thread in commentary about Steely Dan involved their lyrics; the problem being the supposed inscrutability within them, but that's a sham; all great artists have written lyrics that make no sense or are written such that the meaning, assuming there is one, is not clear to the listener. The difference with Steely Dan was simply that there was no sure connection with the artists themselves, Walter Becker, who died recently, and Donald Fagan. Whether the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, Gabriel, just to name a few, and no matter how diffuse the lyric, the common belief was that the lyrics reflected on the band and their lives. That could not be said of Becker and Fagan, and they knew this and reveled in it.
Not every writer feels the need to put themselves out there whatever the form. They may be in the minority, but they are not unknown. Steely Dan created a legacy of recorded material about their time, but not necessarily about them.
I think that's genius in a business that is so deeply naval-gazing.
All are iconoclastic in their approaches and all are instantly recognizable in their work. And I think they were deeply aware of this even if the press, and it's very interesting to go back and read the articles from music mags and the like to see the incomprehensibility of their music to a certain type of writer regardless of whether the publication was hip or not.
The big difference with Steely Dan, something they shared with the post '66 Beatles no less, was that unlike Gabriel and Buckingham, they stopped touring and through their most productive period from '74 to '77 were essentially recording artists and that was what they wanted to be. Beginning with Katy Lied through to Gaucho, their interest was in creating, as perfect as they could make them, records.
These weren't made to get butts in the seats when they toured, or to keep them in the public eye; they were notorious for making life difficult for the press, they were made to be listened to and appreciated as works, essentially, of musical art; something, I believe, they shared with Gabriel and Buckingham. They put an incredible amount of time, money and energy into their songs and it shows. The musicianship is outstanding as is the recording; even Katy Lied, whose masters were damaged by the Dolby unit they were using at the time (makes you wonder what the original must have sounded like).
Their genius, in my view, was that their records worked on many levels; song diversity, the initial dichotomy of a smooth seemingly straight forward pop tune, that was in fact exquisitely layered throughout and a listener rewarded each time the song played. They used any number of styles and genres; pop, rock, jazz, R&B to great effect. Their albums, whether planned or not; they would slyly say they created the songs independent of theme, but I'm not so sure; Aja and Gaucho are seeped in late '70's California.
Then there are the lyrics. Perhaps the most common thread in commentary about Steely Dan involved their lyrics; the problem being the supposed inscrutability within them, but that's a sham; all great artists have written lyrics that make no sense or are written such that the meaning, assuming there is one, is not clear to the listener. The difference with Steely Dan was simply that there was no sure connection with the artists themselves, Walter Becker, who died recently, and Donald Fagan. Whether the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, Gabriel, just to name a few, and no matter how diffuse the lyric, the common belief was that the lyrics reflected on the band and their lives. That could not be said of Becker and Fagan, and they knew this and reveled in it.
Not every writer feels the need to put themselves out there whatever the form. They may be in the minority, but they are not unknown. Steely Dan created a legacy of recorded material about their time, but not necessarily about them.
I think that's genius in a business that is so deeply naval-gazing.
Monday, September 4, 2017
More on Taylor and Mr Primitive and the need to create buzz
With the enormous glut of music sloshing around the world at any given moment, even the big stars need to get the word out. It is in this context that my present fascination with Taylor Swift continues. As most people with any music interest know, Ms Swift and her PR machine, team, group; apply any term you feel is appropriate, are getting us all exciting about the new album coming out in November.
Now if the hype is to be believed, the date has symbolic value and well as a means for a personal dig by Ms. Swift. That may or may not be true but it gets our attention. And it has paid off in the number of eyes and ears that have checked out her new song and its accompanying video-apparently they still make those-upon which a few dollars were spent.
So, what does this have to do with Mr Primitive, you ask? Well, not much beyond my personal fascination. Perhaps it's too bad I don't, or perhaps more importantly, Ms. Swift does not have a personal beef with me. I could use the attention more than she, but there no guarantee that I would garner anything from it other than spam from her pissed off legion of fans.
And who wants that?
Other than someone desperate for attention...you may assume as you like on that...
Still, it remarks on our times that such blandishments are required given Ms. Swift's stature; she is not as desperate for some worldwide PR as yours truly, and this may be the rose colored glasses talking, but the news that a new Beatles album didn't necessitate the need to bring up any manufactured feud with the Stones! Just the fact that new music was coming was enough, but such is life or how I choose to remember it.
The other intersection of the famous, or infamous for those of you who have a poor opinion of Ms. Swift, and the not so famous, that would be me, is that my new album, Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory), and hers are both due out in early November. Will I be riding her coattails, or will she be riding mine? Only time will tell.
Of course, for perfectly understandable reasons, I did not spend a small fortune on my album, or any videos, or in preparation for a long worldwide tour, so I don't have nearly the same level of investment riding on the outcome of the album's success as Ms. Swift and her team does. Nor do I need the same level of promotion, however acquired, to ensure that the money rolls in.
But I still want my album to be successful, by whatever metric I find supporting, and it is interesting that even the mega-famous must work the machine and feed the beast.
Now if the hype is to be believed, the date has symbolic value and well as a means for a personal dig by Ms. Swift. That may or may not be true but it gets our attention. And it has paid off in the number of eyes and ears that have checked out her new song and its accompanying video-apparently they still make those-upon which a few dollars were spent.
So, what does this have to do with Mr Primitive, you ask? Well, not much beyond my personal fascination. Perhaps it's too bad I don't, or perhaps more importantly, Ms. Swift does not have a personal beef with me. I could use the attention more than she, but there no guarantee that I would garner anything from it other than spam from her pissed off legion of fans.
And who wants that?
Other than someone desperate for attention...you may assume as you like on that...
Still, it remarks on our times that such blandishments are required given Ms. Swift's stature; she is not as desperate for some worldwide PR as yours truly, and this may be the rose colored glasses talking, but the news that a new Beatles album didn't necessitate the need to bring up any manufactured feud with the Stones! Just the fact that new music was coming was enough, but such is life or how I choose to remember it.
The other intersection of the famous, or infamous for those of you who have a poor opinion of Ms. Swift, and the not so famous, that would be me, is that my new album, Whispers (From a Forgotten Memory), and hers are both due out in early November. Will I be riding her coattails, or will she be riding mine? Only time will tell.
Of course, for perfectly understandable reasons, I did not spend a small fortune on my album, or any videos, or in preparation for a long worldwide tour, so I don't have nearly the same level of investment riding on the outcome of the album's success as Ms. Swift and her team does. Nor do I need the same level of promotion, however acquired, to ensure that the money rolls in.
But I still want my album to be successful, by whatever metric I find supporting, and it is interesting that even the mega-famous must work the machine and feed the beast.
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