Millions of followers: A blessing or a curse? 

I just came upon a tweet from one of the guys at “Indie Music Bus”, a great team of people dedicated to help indie music with various promotions on their sites, couple with radio airplay, press and social media promotion, check them out here: https://indiemusicbus.com/ - or follow them on Twitter @indiemusicbus​

The tweet was “ One of the telltale signs when an act is breaking into the big-time. Social media behavior changes quickly.

And of course, it got me thinking (because I actually like to do that!)…

TBH I’m fairly new to Twitter, Facebook and all the social media circus, but from what I’ve been made to believe, you cannot escape it if you want to be heard one way or another. I wasn’t too sure about it at first but then I decided to embrace it. At least I’m having fun on Twitter and it can’t hurt, right?

Influencing the influencers?

The problem starts with the perception of many medias, radios and press and basically any influencer in the “music industry” who are now expecting artists to have thousands or even millions of followers before being deemed worth of their attention. Even regular people will tend to look at your followers numbers, or followers/following “ratio” in PR parlance to see if you are to be trusted, or even considered…

So you start thinking along the same line as well… After all, life is too short to waste it with something that no one cares about, right? There’s so much music around that you have to find a way to cut through all the clutter and get to the really good stuff, right? (Note that I’m speaking about music because that’s what I do and care about most, but it’s true of any art and artists). The problem with it is that once again the principle at work with big network is at play here: you get to like a song because everyone listens to it, because it’s been pushed by people with enough PR muscles to push it into the ears of millions of people. Push any song (with a minimal amount of melody and vocal) millions of times and people will end up liking it on a grand scale… (I’m not going to cite any popular songs, I don’t care much about that, and BTW I have nothing against the artists behind them, I’m pretty happy that anyone has success in this life).

Thousands, millions, what’s next?

So you start to think that the strength is in the number of followers, plays in Spotify, etc. And you are solicited by many shameless scam companies promising you millions of followers/plays… fake of course, but isn’t it impressive? Isn’t it going to impress the influencers of this world? Will they finally give you a chance?

Nah, I doubt that very much. And so should you, if you care about what you do.
The thing is that if you’re doing it for the sake of it and you are passionate about it, it doesn’t matter how many followers you have… It will not count in the end. You could have millions of fake followers/plays, but no real human who cares, what’s the point?

Isn’t the ultimate goal of music/any art to connect with people? To tell your story to people who are eager to listen to it? And hear about them, and share your stories.

So, let’s say you truly get to thousands/hundreds of thousands of ‘real’ followers? And this is where this tweet above made me think…

My journey into the twitterverse

A few weeks ago, I had about 20 followers, I didn’t even tweet TBH.
As of today I have almost 600, and I try to follow them all. So the other day, I tried to tell them all why I was following them and appreciating them. It took me 2 solid hours to go through about 250 accounts… And I had fun lately trying to connect to people, finding a way to shine a light on them as much as I wanted them to pay attention to what I do (it really goes both way, see?). 
But 2 hours for about 250 accounts? What am I going to do next? How can I stay connected to so many people? I mean, I know that a good 50% are following me because 1/ I follow them or 2/ they want to sell me something, but still…

It means that I still have about 300 or more people that I’d like to keep in touch with… what happens if I get thousands of real people? There’s the challenge… How do I manage to still be available to them, see what they post, react to that? And yet I have a full time job, and a daughter who also need my time, and music to write/record/produce/mix/etc… how am I to fit all that in?

So my idea is that really, I’m not sure I would ever want millions of followers, because as much as it would flatter my ego, I’m not sure what it would do to my soul. I fear that I would lose any kind of human connection with any of them, and I’m really not sure I want that.

Ideally, I think a few thousands would be more than enough, if they are real people and if we share a common love for good music and care for similar things…
So, yeah, I'm just looking for human beings... Are you in or are you out?

Cut or keep? Always a difficult question 

Today I’ve been asked how I work when I arrange a song…

One thing is for sure: for me, it’s a rather long process of refined iterations. I can have many ideas that won’t make the final cut, for a number of reasons. I will often throw a lot of things into a mix then live with it (meaning listen to it intently) for a while and see what sticks… In this extract for example, I had this idea of a building intro with some cool arpeggio and vocal harmonies that I decided to remove in the end, in favor of a simple fade in and shorter intro. 

I liked the idea for a moment, and the harmonies could have sounded good (although here in this version they are a bit flaky), but the intro was starting to get too long and I thought that it was best to get to the meat of the vocal sooner.
At one point I toyed with the idea of making this a bridge, but somehow this was too much of a down point and again I decided against.

It’s always a balancing act… I come from a time where songs of 20+ minutes were not exceptional, and I don’t mind that at all, but you still have to keep the listener’s interest and sometimes cutting things is the way towards that.

Nowadays I tend to favor shorter music and more to the point, and try to make simpler music, by removing things more often than not. Which actually is pretty hard to do, because you get attached to some parts and you have to take a step back and realize what really works and what is just fluff that is not really needed. If something doesn’t make a song better, it better go.

In the end, the final version clocks at around 5 minutes, but I think it works and manages to keep the listener’s attention throughout.
You’ll be the judge:

No Return 

This song on my new “Infinite” EP came from a striking image... Listen here

I was following a physics course on a MOOC (Mass Open Online Course), and one of the session was about some extraordinary insights of Einstein’s theory of Relativity, and the subject of the speed of light as a constant. What I vividly remember was a computer simulation attempting to show the kind of visual distortion that would happen if you were to travel at a speed close to the speed of light (because nothing can go any quicker, even though Star Trek told you so!), and how things would appear to you as you were increasing speed. (The video here is of low quality, unfortunately I couldn’t find a better one, sorry! But hopefully you'll get the idea)

What I liked was how, as you passed a building in that simulation, it was still appearing ahead of you, because of the distortion and the time the light would take to reach you, and also the fact that as you were speeding up, everything in front started to appear brighter and focused on a center point ahead like the end of a tunnel…

And then I remembered how people who had a near death experience often talk about that tunnel and the light in front of them, and how it sounded similar.
Now I’m not a spiritual person, but this made me think that it was somehow strangely related.

From that came the central idea of this song (to be taken literally):

And as you reach the speed of light
You face your past collapsed and bright
Sliding

From there on, to think of a journey with no return, far from the sun, in a “rocket ship firing” naturally followed… It’s a journey we will all take one day, so I hope it will be full of wonders and exciting. I tried to make the sound and the song a possible (if only faint) reflection of this extraordinary adventure.

Early recording of a song I’m working on 

Here are the first 2 verses of a song I’m working on at the moment.

I thought I’d share it here for the curious. 
I rarely do that because I like finished/polished music but I thought this one was fun and already listenable even at this very early stage. You’ll be the judge.

There’s no intro yet, no ending, and I still need to flesh out the arrangement (which could be very simple or awfully complex… depending on what the song asks for). I like this one’s melody and chord progression, so there’s definitely a song here and I will probably work on it in the next few weeks.

Not all my ideas end up as a song. There’s a lot I discard, as I only work on something that I believe is worth the effort. Meaning it has to have a good melody at least, which to me is the main thing, and it needs to keep itself together even stripped bare like that with just an acoustic guitar and a vocal. If it sounds like something that can grow, then I will start working on the arrangement, and spend many many hours on it, adding layers, trying ideas, re-tracking, until it is ready for a mix and master…
Then I share it.

For the record, this one’s lyrical idea was prompted by my recent incursions in the wonderful world of social medias: where there is a lot of nothing being said and exchanged, but sometimes meaningful connections can occur.

I hope that I will be able to count you into the meaningful connections! :)

Do people still listen to these? 

Yesterday, I received a batch of CDs of my Infinite EP.

They look good, and it’s fun to have, but then, what’s the point?
Do people still listen to these? Do they even have a CD player anymore?

It’s said everywhere that CD sales are moribund, and that nowadays people are using streaming platforms for the most part. As for downloads, well, they are going down as well…

So what’s the use of this then?
Well, you should know that there are still many blogs and radios that only accept submissions of physical products. This means that not only do you have to produce these (and estimate in advance how many you will need to minimize the costs of duplication), then you also have to ship them in bubble wrap envelopes to wherever this is required, this ends up being quite an investment in time and money, without any guarantee for a return.

On the one hand I can understand that these radios and blog need some tangible product to keep in their library and have some attached liner notes to draw information from. On the other hand it sounds like a waste of resources (and place - I can only imagine how many of these a typical radio need to store) when it’s so easy to transfer digital music nowadays, tag your mp3 files and add a one-page PDF in a zip with all the info that is needed.

Oh well! At worst, this can make some really cool coasters! :D

Close Your Eyes - The official music video is out! 

Nowadays people don’t listen to music. They watch it on YouTube! 
Which is why having a video for all your songs is essential… Like it or not, YouTube is still the number 1 music discovery website far more than any other platforms.

Which is a bit silly, really, because I remember that back in the days we used to listen to albums, sometimes with eyes closed, to get engulfed into the sound and music and dream our own movie… I suppose we have became too lazy today to just listen to music without image support?

So, if you are making music nowadays, you need to create videos. And of course that’s another hole in your budget/time, either you hire people to work with you on videos, or you have to learn to do it yourself (and not everyone can be gifted at everything) and this takes more time away from what your focus should really be which is writing/playing/recording music.

For this song, which is supposed to be the feature song of the EP, I wanted to make a special “Official” video. And I was fortunate to find Gareth Kay, a video artist from London - UK, who accepted to work with me on a limited budget but with a dedication to create the best content possible. We talked about a loose scenario and directives that included someone between life and death trying to make a sense of his life in “out of body” experience sequences. I wanted the end to be hopeful, like the song ultimately is, after a psychotic experience seen from evocative images.

I’m very happy with the result which looks sleek and professional, despite the budget, and nicely bring along the viewer on an emotional journey.

The greatest? 

I’m often puzzled by discussions about the “greatest” band of all time, or the “best” guitarist/drummer/bassist/etc., or the “top ten” albums, and in general with the obsession with ranking everything.

When it comes to music, I have my preferences like everyone of course, but I often have troubles defining what I love “best” or what I find to be the “greatest”. I’ve found that for me, it varies greatly with time and mood.

I have spent most of my life listening to all sorts of music in various phases, and if I’ve started by listening classical music, then rock, then hard rock, then punk, then blues, then pop, then folk, then progressive rock, then jazz-rock fusion, then jazz, then classic rock, then ambient, then… I have a hard time listing them all and in a specific order - let alone ranking these genres.

It might come from the fact that I had most of my musical awakening in the seventies, where eclectism was the norm, and also the fact that I wanted to be a session musician and wanted to be able to play in any style, so I studied them all and I tried to absorb as much as I could from any style: I was a musical glutton, and it helped me shape my own music I believe.

Today it would seem like everyone is obsessed with ranking, and I wonder: does music really needs to be a competition?

Canada 150 

Yesterday was Canada day and the country was celebrating the 150th birthday of the confederation.

Although I’ve been living in Montreal since 2005, I’ve only been a real Canadian for a couple of months, since I only applied for citizenship recently, which was granted on May 3rd during a ceremony that celebrated multiculturalism and the values of the country.

I’m pretty proud of being Canadian actually. Not that I disown my French roots in any way but Canada is a country looking towards the future more than the past and its values of openness and welcoming immigration policy is something I really appreciate.

Unlike its southern neighbours (this spells with "ou" here!), it is a safe country to live in, and the social climate is not one of fear and distrust. It is the country we have chosen to raise our daughter because of this, among other reasons.

I also like that its thoroughly North American culture is still pumped with European blood and this can be seen in many places all over the country. Montreal in particular still shares a lot of its culture with France and is proud of its French roots. An ideal place for me to live in.

If only Winter didn’t last that long! :D

Official video in production 





Today I received the first draft edit of my new official video for “Close Your Eyes” which is going to be the feature song and video from my new “Infinite” EP.

It is directed by Gareth Kay, from London, UK - you can check him out at http://www.garethkay.co/ Gareth is a very talented indie artist who has worked on numerous music videos and has also worked on another video of mine (unreleased yet, it will be used for the promotion of my second album).

I’m pretty excited about this new video! We took the time to build a cool story line that goes well with the theme of the song which is about questioning your life and looking for hope and redemption, ultimately finding it where it counts.

The song is kind of an epic for me, with a rather large sound reminiscent of stadium progressive rock bands (I leave you to guess who :)), so it seemed like a natural candidate for a video narrative, and we hope that it will take the viewer and listener through a visual and musical journey that is rewarding.

So stay tuned for this one, it shouldn’t take too long now! :)

“THE FACE” 

Every guitar player knows it: As soon as you pick up the instrument for a solo in front of a live audience, you have to make “THE FACE”… at least if you want to be considered a real guitar hero!

This is especially true if the guitar is electric, but even classical or folk players with an acoustic instrument are not entirely exempt. A simple Google search for “guitar face” will show you all sorts of vivid examples in all genres.

It’s pretty hard to pinpoint exactly where and when the fashion started, historians will probably debate this one for many years to come. I suppose it all came, like most of popular music, from the blues. And it makes sense that the suffering of the slaves in the cotton fields somehow translated to the players singing their harrowing plea.

How it came to be adopted by guitar players in particular, and in the rock scene especially, is left open to controversy. I will not adventure a theory myself.

I just know that for the many many years that I studied guitar, I have missed one essential part of my training by not doing it in front of a mirror. I would have perfected my stance and yes, probably made it big!

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