Signal To Noise

Since the dawn of music there have always been musicians who challenged the norm. Bach was notorious for telling off the nobles that supported him. Mozart was probably the original wild lifestyle rock star. And really who can blame them? In the times of Bach you had to be a very skilled musician to earn a living and you were barely paid for it. Now fast forward to 1950’s. Rock and Roll was taking off and stars were born every minute. Some became famous and made a ton of money, and others were slaves to the "nobles" of the time, you probably know them as Record Labels. Fast forward yet again to today and the music world is in turmoil and the labels blame illegal downloading. Looking at the last 400 years of music history, and realizing that is was essentially the same business model, I say something have to give. We live in an exciting time. It's easier than ever to make and distribute music. Thanks to the Internet, we now have easier access and more choices of music than ever before. And we also have a new emerging way of helping to raise money to put out your album, Kickstarter. Kickstarter lets anyone with a dream or an idea raise money to get their project off the ground. Filmakers, artists, writers, musicians, you name it, someone has a project for it on Kickstarter. I like Kickstarter because it is a pledge system with "rewards" for different levels of contribution. But most of all I like it because your project is funded (or not funded) based on the merit of the project and your hard work to promote it and get backers. If you are a solo musician who has been working really hard taking every gig you can and building a fan base, chances are you will be able to use Kickstarter to raise the money. One of my favorite artists, Hamell On Trial, has started a Kickstarter Project to raise money to record his next record. He set a modest goal of $7,000 dollars and in a about two weeks he reached that goal. In fact with 15 days to go (at the time of writing this) he has currently raised $8,023. In Episode 8 I talk to Ed about his Kickstarter project, his next steps and his approach to recording in the studio. If you have never heard Hamell's music, I recommend you start with "Tough Love" and then either "Ed's Not Dead" or "The Terrorism of Everyday Life". And after that, go see him live. You will never anything like a Hamell show. You will laugh,sing, shout, and probably have the best time you have ever had at a live show. I also encourage you to go to Hamell's Kickstarter page and make a donation to support the next great Hamell record. I am already backing it and I am waiting with anticipation to get my copy of the new disc. And since we are talking about the recording studio, we also feature a segment on Peavey's Revalver software done by Scott Thompson of the Focus On Metal Podcast. I have been using amplitube for about 5-6 years now and other than being a resource hog, I have been happy with it. Hearing the Peavey software and seeing how affordable it is, will make me a convert.