A Gift For The New Year

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

All of the recent music videos have been created to accompany singles from the new album Mandala. So far we’ve seen four of them.

Brace yourself for number five.

As always it’s in a style unique from any other Northern Introvert video and of course is being brought to you by another guest director. This time we have Los Angeles resident Bob Dossa. Taking the lead role is Katherine Canipe.

Here’s what Bob had to say about the video:

“To me, the song has such a feeling of anxiety and conjures up some really dark images. Digging through those images lead to the idea of someone trying to outrun that feeling of anxiety. It’s a struggle, a fight. The song feels as if something else is in control, and the best you can do is try and escape.”

I can’t give anything else away right now so you’ll just have to just sit tight but all will be revealed on January 14th.

Happy endings not guaranteed.

Big thanks to James Hanpadungvongs for the photos of the shoot.

New Album Out Now - Mandala

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

As of today the new album Mandala is available from a bunch of digital stores; Spotify, iTunes, BandCamp, Deezer and more. No physical copies I’m afraid, digital only for now.

I’ve been working on these tracks since early this year. Since then a lot of time has been spent preparing them for release as well as rounding up all the film makers for the music videos. It’s taken a while but they’re finally ready to to be let loose.

It’s been almost five months since the first video was released, and there’s been two more since.

You can listen to the album wherever and however you like. You can stream it for free, download it for free, or if you’re feeling generous you can pay for it.

I don’t mind which method you choose. Anyone who takes the time to listen at all gets a thumbs up from me. There’s so much music out there at any one time, choosing to spend yours listening to mine is a great privelage.

Anyone who does pay for it, and those who have done in the past, thank you! I greatly appreciate it. It’s a genuine help to me and without it I would struggle to continue with all this, especially as the project grows bigger.

So I hope you enjoy the new tracks. There are more music videos on the way soon; we’re not done yet! More on those later.

New Single & Video: Masnavi

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 09:27:13 +0100

The brand new single and video are out today. Guest director Richard Harrison has created the visuals for this single. More details about the concept are available in the Masnavi Video Preview blog entry.

Check out the video below. If you like it you can download the track for free.

Masnavi Video Preview

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Another video preview for you, this time for Masnavi.

Stepping up to the challenge is Richard Harrison, an animator from Manchester in the UK. I found him after stumbling across a video of his The Boy Who Lived in a Box and straight away wanted to get in touch with him.

Rich specialises in 3D animation, story and character design and enjoys working on the entire process of animation film making from concept to editing.

The video is totally different to any that we’ve released so far. Physica was also fully animated, but created using entirely different methods involving 2D illustrations.

Here are a few teaser images to wet your appetite:

Music Promotion Tips: Free Exposure Through Blogs

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Chances are if you’re reading this article you’re a producer like me. Most likely someone who is fending for his or herself without the aid of a major label. In my experience, I’ve noticed many people will oversimplify to you how easy it is to promote yourself and your music online, and even respected publibshers and service providers offer some pretty misleading information which rather than helping you out is actually feeding their own business model.

Despite the number of resources now freely available to us for promoting music, it’s still not as easy as some would have you believe. Yes, independent artists are making waves all over the internet every day, but for every musician who gets a taste of the limelight there are a thousand still sitting in darkness hoping for someone to discover their music and help them promote it.

So, how do you get it right where so many others are getting it wrong? Here’s one suggestion based on what I’ve learnt through my experiences so far. This method is not quick and simple, but it is free and can bring you some awesome results if think about it properly.

So let’s get to it. First off…

Why Focus on Blogs?

You may already know the answer to this, in which case feel free to skip on. I’m going to briefly discuss it anyway just to cover the facts for anyone who’s unclear or totally new to this. I’ll take the same approach to other points further on in this article.

Blogging has now for some time been a massive part of music culture on the internet. We all love to share new music with others. When you hear something that excites you, you might tell some friends, post it on Twitter or maybe Facebook. It’s this love for sharing that motivates so many people out there to set up their own music blogs and share their tastes with the world.

Not only are huge numbers of people hosting their own blogs, but even larger numbers are visiting them. People want to hear new music. I definitely do, and if I know a blogger who shares my tastes in music, I’ll visit his or her website over the iTunes chart any day of the week.

Blogs have become one of the best ways to discover new music for a lot of people who are interested in sounds that aren’t in the more traditional mainstream outlets for pop culture. New artists, independent artists, alternative artists; it’s good for everybody.

I’ve personally witnessed bands and producers go from being total unknowns to respected names within 24 hours thanks to sites like hypem. It happens every day.

This is a booming platform that allows anyone to get a mention, and for that reason alone it’s the perfect platform for aspiring musicians.

So…

Where to Start

I’ve chosen some basic steps for this process and they are:

1. Make some music (this may seem to obvious to include but bare with me)
2. Target some blogs
3. Prepare your submissions
4. Send your submissions
5. Wait!

Here’s an overview of each step ranging from brief to detailed where I considered it necessary.

1. Make Some Music

Like earlier, feel free to skip this step. If you’re totally new to music production, you may find some of the following comments worth considering.

Obviously you need some music to send out before you can complete the rest of this process, and while I’m in no position to tell you how to make your musi what I will say is take your time.

As much as I would like to believe it I’m probably not unique when it comes to the feelings I experience whilst creating music. If I end up with something I like, I get really excited and can’t wait to get it out there and for people to hear it. However I make sure to slow myself down and spend that bit of extra time getting it just right before I decide to release it. I’ve witnessed people rush their music to release before and consequently not made the most of what it could have been.

“A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad” – A quote by Shigeru Miyamoto which applies to much more than just computer games.

If you want people to take you seriously, take care in your selection process when choosing what to release. If you want to get some WIPs out there and get some feedback, maybe set up a personal SoundCloud channel or something similar to keep them separate from your public releases. Other producers might be interested in hearing what you’re working on but many listeners won’t.

2. Target Some Blogs

Heads up, this may take some time.

You now need to scour the web for blogs that you think will be interested in your music. Look for blogs who post music by artists similar to yourself.

It may be tempting here just to look for the biggest blogs, but don’t simply go for the highest numbers and ignore certain blogs just because they appear to have a small user base. The smallest blogs can often reward you with the best new fans. Put simply, make your decision based on content and not size.

Start to compile a list of all the blogs that you want to send your music to. It’s worthwhile creating a spreadsheet here and building your own custom mailing list for future releases. Make a note of the blog name, a contact email address, a recipient name (if possible), and anything else you think may be useful.

You may be wondering how many blogs to target. There’s no definitive answer to this but naturally you want as much exposure as possible. Be sure to only select the blogs which you think would appreciate the track you’re currently trying to promote. If you find a blog you aren’t too sure about, maybe set it aside in another list and wait until you have a more appropriate piece of music to send them, maybe a future release.

Remember, this may be the first contact you have with many, if not all of these blogs. This is important, and you don’t want to send them something that is clearly not suited to their blog as they will be unlikely to seriously consider any submissions you make to them in future.

This whole part of the process can take a long time when you first do it. Don’t be afraid to go ‘deep into Google’ (I don’t know what the plot would be but I just know that would make a great movie). The time you spend here will be invaluable to the whole process, so don’t rush.

Additional: If you’re fortunate and you know someone who’s ahead of you in the promo game, maybe they’ll already have a list of emails and would be kind enough to send it to you. It’s worth asking around.

3. Prepare Your Submissions

Depending on your current level of exposure, you are bound to get mixed results from the press releases you send out. Some blogs will read it, listen to your music, and post about it. Some blogs will read it, and forget about it. Few blogs may not read it at all. Various factors are against you here so you need to do everything you can to maximise the chances that the recipient will not only read the email, but will like what they see and hear and then want to share it.

One key thing to bare in mind: keep it short. These blogs get A LOT of submissions every single day. They won’t have time to read an essay.

You want to get straight to the point and cut out any unnecessary information. If there’s anything about you that is different and you think makes you more appealing than other artists, then mention it. It definitely helps to have something interesting and appealing about yourself that the blogs can pick up on and to give them a reason to write about you.

The bare essentials to include in a press-release of this kind are:

1. Your Music – Make is as easy as possible for them to listen to the music. Many bands decide to send SoundCloud links. Also consider making your track downloadable or sending a copy attached to your email so that the blogs can offer it up to their readers. Some blogs will specifically ask you to submit press images, so keep an eye out for that.

2. Short message – Tell them who you are and where you’re from. Keep it short, but offer them to opportunity to get more information from you if necessary. If you have a website, link them to your bio page.

You might want to consider sending your track or music video to the blogs before anybody else. That way they get exclusive first access and will feel more keen to tell people about it as they can be the first to do so.

Most bloggers will not appreciate being the recipient of a batch email. Address the receiver by name and write to each individual personally. Realistically you don’t have to custom write every email and can re-use certain parts, but if there’s an opportunity to be more personal in your message then take it.

4. Send Your Submissions

Finally, the easy bit! After your previous steps of preparation, get those emails sent out.

5. Now Wait!

So that’s it. You’ve done all you can. But here are a few general pointers for what to do next:

i) Keep an Eye on Twitter

Most blogs post out new links through Twitter. You should search twitter now and again to see who is posting your music, and show them some gratitude. Maybe reply with a thanks, re-tweet them, whatever you like. The same applies to Facebook and other social media platforms.

ii) Keep an Eye on the Blogs

It’s good to see if your hard work has paid off or not, so keep an eye on the blogs. You can use Google’s date range function to search for pages including specific text that were posted recently. Wrap your “band name” in quotes to specify that you want a perfect match to help filter out any junk, and select something like Past Week for the date range.

Don’t spam your social media pages with links to blog posts, especially if they’ve literally only included your track or music video in the post. The aim of all of this is to reach new fans, not put off your current ones. Reviews are more interesting though so if you’re lucky enough to get a write up then do send it around.

ii) Try to Build Relationships

On top of promotion and exposure, a great outcome from this is that you will make contact with some specific individuals from some blogs. This is a great start, as once you make that first connection with someone at one of the blogs you’ll be able to approach the whole thing a bit less blindly. And, it’s simply cool to make some new friends.

Conclusion

So that’s that. I’ve used these techniques in the past to promote various things and people, and they have worked with varying success. This article will hopefully help those of you who are fairly new to promotion and have not approached the blogs before.

Of course every artist is different, so customise my suggestions to fit your own needs and I’m sure you’ll be able to make some progress.

And if you think I’m wrong on anything I’ve written here, want to point out anything I have missed out, or if I’ve managed to help you in some way, please let me know! I fully welcome criticism. You can find me on Twitter @roscoejack. Come and say hi!

Thanks for reading.