CHAPTER 1
PROMOTION
I have been involved in two aspects of promotion: one, for bands I was in and two, for myself. I will discuss certain tactics I/we used in an old local band, but after I quit the band, I took what I had learned and applied it to my personal career as a solo musician—or rather a "drummer (work) for hire." Whether you are a singer/songwriter or a solo musician like I was, looking for a group to join, use these techniques to help you get to the next level.
Grassroots Promotion
My father and brother are in politics. My dad has been an elected official for the past seven years, and my brother's career has taken him all the way to the White House and will undoubtedly land him in public office someday. One of the things I have picked up from listening to their conversations is the similarity between running a campaign and promoting yourself as a musician. The term grassroots essentially means getting out there and doing everything yourself—setting out on foot and knocking on doors, shaking hands, etc. I applied this to my own career. Here's how you can too ...
When I was much younger, I ran triathlons. A triathlon is a sporting event that combines swimming, biking, and running, in that order. This was before the days of rampant internet use, and after school I'd be in my room thumbing through Triathlete magazine and would see these professionals running all sorts of races around the world, such as the Ironman in Hawaii, and I wanted to talk to them. I wanted to get to know them. So, what did I do? I picked up the phone and called 411 and tracked them down. I found out what city and state they lived in (even in Australia and Canada—thanks to my parents for paying the phone bill!) and called them. And they always talked to me. They had a soft spot for an aspiring triathlete in his early teens and sent me numerous autographed pictures—and even a bike. One day I tracked down the winner of the 1994 Ironman, Greg Welch, and his wife, Sean, in Australia. After developing a relationship with them, one day I asked, "Mr. Welch, I need a new bike. Do you have one you're looking to sell?" He said something along the lines of, "Actually, I do." And thus I bought a bike (for a killer price) from the winner of the '94 Ironman Triathlon, and the stem even had the Ironman sticker still on it! I keep it to this day as motivation that you can do anything you set your mind to. Eventually, his wife sold me her carbon fiber rear spoke wheel, too, and I had a bike that amazed even the pros at the local bike shop.
When I was in college, I was interested in film scoring—making music for movies. One of my favorite scores at the time was for March of the Penguins, so I tracked down composer Alex Wurman's contact information and called him. He said that he had received lots of fan mail but no one had ever called him, and he believed that my persistence would take me far. Additionally, he gave me personalized advice to take my career to the next level, which proved to be very useful.
You can take this same approach. Pick up the phone and make calls, e-mail people, knock on agency/studio doors—the epitome of grassroots promotion. Now, if you're going to knock on doors, you have to have your ducks in a row, and here are some tips. If you're going to pass out your information in hopes of getting shows (for a band) or studio work (for an individual), you will need to have a press kit that includes such things as a photo, bio, bullet-point resume, press clippings, and a CD. It's very important that you have these items and that the kit looks professional. Also, it's good to have business cards—ones that people will remember. Make them stand out. One way is to use thick or glossy paper. Another method—something I used to do—is to have a nice color picture with your information on the front and a tip chart on the back, so people can use it when they go out to eat. An old friend of mine gave me his business card that used this method and I hung on to it—and used it—for years. Nowadays, I have my bullet-point resume on the back of the card. If you can't fit it all, just include the most impressive accomplishments. Get creative; the possibilities are endless.
Note: Knocking on doors without an appointment hasn't proved to be as effective as reaching out by phone and e-mail first. It's virtually the same as a "cold call." There's no connection, and in a town like Nashville, it's all about who you know. If you're going to knock on doors, set up an appointment ahead of time so people know to expect you (more on this in example 4 below). Nothing, and I mean nothing, however, takes the place of getting out of your house, walking to the hot spots in town (such as bars and venues where people are playing, etc.), and shaking people's hands. Introduce yourself, tell them you're new to town, give them a card or swap information, and keep showing up. Make yourself known. After all, out of sight, out of mind. The most important tool to me thus far has probably been the internet. For instance, recently I met with Taylor Swift's drummer. I reached out via e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter. He said, "I know you've got the hustle because you hit me on all three of my social media outlets." We don't live in the world of 411 like we did when I was younger—getting phone numbers is harder than ever. Instead we live in a world of social media. Take advantage of it. You can effectively reach people at the click of a button.
Here are four stories of things I have done that epitomize grassroots promotion ...
Example 1
Techno artist/film composer Brian Transeau (BT) came to a now-defunct venue in Memphis called Elvis Presley's, or EP's, Delta Kitchen. I was a big fan and had sent him a MySpace message, but he didn't respond. So I decided to meet him face-to-face. When I got there, I immediately walked upstairs to the VIP section and straight to the private dining room in the back. I acted and looked like I was on a mission, like I had business being there. I walked into the lobby and a man in a suit, who was guarding the door, held up his hand and said something like, "Sir, you can't come back here. This room is private." I walked straight past him and into the room. I interrupted BT's dinner, but I got to shake his hand and introduce myself—and give him a business card, of course. Nothing ever came of it, but if you don't try, you'll never know. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Example 2
When I was playing with my old band, Chosen View, in Memphis, Linkin Park came to the Coliseum, and I decided that we should use that to our advantage and hit them hard—using their fans for our potential fan base, as the genre of music was similar. I told the group that we should print flyers and hit every car in that parking lot and every person walking out of that door. We did. We went to Kinko's and printed off thousands of copies. We took them to the Coliseum, and each of us grabbed a couple hundred and took off in different directions, pinning them beneath the wiper blades of every car in the arena's parking lot. We saved some flyers, and when the concert was over, we went up to the front doors and handed one to every person leaving the arena. It was not only a good idea because a lot of potential fans were in one location at one time, but also because they had all just seen a great rock concert and had smiles on their faces. They were dying to see more, and that we could give them. The result? Read the next example.
Example 3
I remember this one as clear as day: We were sitting around the New Daisy (a venue in Memphis) manager's living room floor discussing promotion for our upcoming showcase with all of the bands on the bill, including a good friend of mine, Ed Harris. We were talking about posting flyers all over town, and Ed said, "Well, we can sit here all night and talk about it, but why don't we just do it?" I said, "Let's go." We went to Kinko's and printed off thousands of flyers and posted them on every telephone pole from one end of Germantown Parkway to the other. We were out so late that the police stopped us, thinking we were teens up to no good. For those of you who don't know the layout of Memphis streets, Germantown Parkway is one of the biggest and busiest streets in the city. We walked from Germantown Parkway and Wolf River Boulevard (Humphreys) to Germantown Parkway and US Highway 64 (Stage Road). We then proceeded to hit a stretch of Kirby Whitten Road as well. This was a good many miles, and we posted every flyer we had in our possession. We broke the record at our showcase for biggest local turnout.
Example 4
My good friend and former bandmate told me, "I wouldn't have the balls to do that. I could never just go to a city alone and start walking." But you have to. If you're serious about your career, you have to understand how many good musicians are out there and that the odds are against you if you don't get out and let yourself be known. I was born and raised in Memphis, but there came a day when I wanted to expand and promote myself in Nashville. One day, I drove there by myself and got a cheap hotel room for the night. I brought with me a box of business cards, one hundred copies of my resume, and a photo. I went to Provence Breads & Cafe in the Nashville Public Library downtown and burned one hundred CDs of songs on which I played, and I had a legitimate press kit. I drove down the world-renowned Music Row with a pen and paper (pulling onto the shoulder often) and wrote down every studio and agency. I went back to my hotel room and called them, getting only a few appointments. The next morning, I woke up early, went to Music Row, and walked the whole thing. I went from one end all the way up to Belmont (stopping in) and back down the other way. I stopped in several studios and managed to form one good relationship. He even invited me back the next day to watch a recording session, which I did. They do it a little differently in Nashville, he informed me, as they go by what they call the Nashville Number System. I looked at some charts and learned it in no time. His name was George Clinton (no, not that one), and he worked at Bayou Recording, now defunct.
The funny part is that this trip to Nashville didn't produce any jobs—and hardly any leads, for that matter. Like I said before, though, if you don't try, you'll never know. I did, however, return to Nashville later to record at one of the studios on whose door I had knocked and got no answer, so I'd slipped a press packet in the door. This recording session was entirely independent of my solo trip to Nashville, but it goes to show you that if you do something like this and it doesn't work, you have to do more. Always more. Don't give up.
On a side note, let me tell you what has produced jobs and opportunities: living in Nashville. Nothing takes the place of networking and shaking hands. Being around and in the middle of the action is so important, and Nashville is a very musical city.
As with the last example, this was done during my solo career, after I left my previous band. During my days in college, I got this feeling that I needed to get myself out there more. More on the national level. More aggressive self-promotion. So I decided to start local and then go national ...
I had recently returned from my trip to Burbank (more on this later), and I called the campus newspaper at the University of Memphis, where I was a student at the time. I told them about my trip, and they decided to run an article about it. After it was printed, I decided to take it to the citywide newspaper, the Commercial Appeal. A man by the name of Michael Donahue did interviews with local bands, and he had done a couple with bands I was a part of in the past. I called him up and said that the University of Memphis newspaper, the Daily Helmsman, had just run a story on me, and he, too, agreed to run one.
Now I wanted to go national. The funny thing about this is that people ask me, "How'd you do that?" The answer is simple. I asked. First, I e-mailed everybody on the contact list at DRUM! magazine, and they put me in the New Blood column of their December 2009 issue. In the process, I made pretty good friends with the assistant editor. Next I e-mailed everybody on the contact list at Modern Drummer, and they put me on the online blog section of the magazine's website—twice now. I got to write a bio and a subsequent article on staying healthy on the road, and both were posted on the website.
So, pick up the phone, send e-mails, shake hands, etc. Get aggressive and market yourself. Most importantly, ask. There ain't nothin' to it but to do it.
Social Media
Nowadays, we live in a world of social media—Facebook, Twitter, etc. Take advantage of it. Whether you're in a band or a solo musician, set up both of these pages. Facebook is great because it's so popular, but Twitter is valuable, too, because you can reach celebrities and companies/ organizations instantly. I have done so. For instance, I recorded a video of myself playing along to a song by Static-X entitled "Brainfog." When I was done, I tweeted it to the band, and Wayne Static retweeted it on both the Static-X page and his personal page. So it's important to take advantage of the opportunities we have, thanks to the digital age and the ease with which we can communicate with others.
Note: We ended up playing a festival with Static-X a few years later, and I caught Wayne right before they went on stage, introduced myself, and thanked him for having shared my video. He said, "That was you?" It's a smaller world—and industry—than you think.
COMMUNICATION (RECORDING, ON STAGE, AND CONTRACTS)
Recording
The world of studio recording is a very important one and one that every musician will enter at some point in his or her career. There is one thing I've always said and I'll stick by it: there are drummers who could run circles around me. They can solo their butt off—but can they function in a studio setting? Can they play well with a band? Can they play for the song and not to showcase themselves? These are important questions and need to be honestly evaluated if you think you might fit this description. One of the most important considerations of the studio is can he or she play to a metronome (also referred to as a click track)? This is something that takes some getting used to at first, but over time you will undoubtedly embrace it and the comfort it provides. Another common issue I've seen—or rather, heard—with drummers is that they solo throughout the entire song. They're on a mission to prove to people that they can actually play; therefore, they don't play for the song but for themselves. I'll give you a tip. Although there are times for tasty accents and fills, there's usually one time for a big fill, and it falls, in my personal experience, between the double choruses at the end of the song.
One of the most important aspects of working in the studio is communication. This communication is both verbal and nonverbal. Both types, actually, are used in the studio and on stage (which we will discuss later). Communication in the studio from a session musician's point of view consists of that between the artist(s) and producer and you. When they tell you what they're going for—what their "vision" is—this is, obviously, expressed verbally. A live situation, however, consists of verbal communication and cues but primarily of nonverbal signals. This is due to the fact that while a song is playing, it is difficult for the musicians who are performing to communicate verbally, at length at least.
When a session musician first arrives at the studio, he has to verbally communicate with the artist(s) and producer. If he knows them already, great! If not, first impressions last a lifetime (more on this in the section about my trip to Burbank), so this initial greeting is very important. Just a few pointers: address them properly (Mr. or Ms. "last name here"), have a firm handshake, and maintain eye contact.
