Pop star
Robbie Williams on Wednesday ruled out any quick return to touring, fearing his “inbuilt” drug addiction could strike at any time.
Williams, in Australia as he pursues his comeback, blamed his last major tour for landing him in rehab and prompting a three-year career hiatus, during which he grew a bushy beard and developed an interest in UFOs.
“There’s no plans to do a tour like the last one I did,” he told journalists. “I know what happens to me and where it takes me and which rehab I end up in. I will tour again but it won’t be any time soon.”
Williams, who will perform later on Wednesday and at Thursday’s ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) awards, warned he would always be vulnerable to drugs.
“I have that mechanism inside of me that enjoys not choosing life, that has it inbuilt in my DNA to want to get high,” he said. “I don’t think that ever leaves. I’m sure it won’t.”
The 35-year-old former wildman is travelling with his steady girlfriend, US actress Ayda Field, and said the pair have already picked out baby names: Sonny for a boy or Sunny for a girl.
But he remained wary of the pressures of the pop star’s life, especially spending long periods on the road.
“It’s a really unnatural situation to find yourself in,” he said.
“It’s such high highs in front of that many people at the stadiums … and then you go back to the hotel and you go, oh I’ve eaten the mini-bar again and the Internet isn’t doing what it should do and I’m bored with that.
“After nine months of living in an air-conditioned room and just going to the gig you kind of crack a bit. You lose the plot.”
November 25th, 2009 by admin
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I wish you could have seen me play the piano when I was just learning. I was the nearest thing to “hopeless” that you could imagine. I was into baseball, not music - and my heroes were Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Ted Williams. (And by the way, I still have a picture of those 3 guys on my wall.) My dream was to hit baseballs like them, not to play the piano.
But an opportunity to play with a combo presented itself to me when I was a freshman in high school. Seems the piano player of the group had graduated the previous year, and nobody else played piano well enough to play in the school jazz combo. I didn’t know zilch about playing in a group, and I didn’t know chords. But I was excited to have the opportunity to play with older guys, and so I took the job.
The lead sax player told me I really should know chords in order to play in the group, so I searched through a music magazine until I found an ad for a chord chart. It cost two bucks, as I recall, so I sent off for it. When I received it in the mail I slipped it behind the keys on my parents old upright piano, and promptly learned to play my first chord - Dm7. I LOVED the sound of it, and was hooked for life on chords. The 2nd chord I learned was Cmaj7, then Em7, then Ebm7 - and before that first night was over I had learned to play “Frankie & Johnnie” - the tune in my right hand, and those fabulous 7th chords in my left hand!
I loved it - LOVED IT - LOVED IT! And it even sounded good enough to impress some of my friends the next day. I suppose that simple chord chart that cost me two bucks has been worth several million over the course of my lifetime. And much more than that, has been worth quadrillions in pleasure and satisfaction and relaxation and……
Even though I came in the back door as far as piano playing was concerned, I learned fast because of what I knew about chords, so college was a snap, and so was my post-graduate Masters Degree at Southern Oregon University. After high school I studied with several of the finest private teachers on the West Coast, including a year with THE finest teacher - his name was Dave - and his studio was on Cauhenga Blvd. in Hollywood. As I would come for my piano lesson, I would often pass a big name recording artist coming to their lesson - and anyone who was anyone in Hollywood in those days took lessons from Dave.
Dave taught me 2 fundamental principles about piano playing:
1. The piano is NOT played with the hands - it is played with the brain. The hands are just tools.
2. If you master chord relationships, you can master music.
I’ve got little fat hands with short fingers. Hardly the ideal hands for piano playing.
I’ve also got a lousy sense of rhythm.
But you know what? Because of those two principles Dave taught me, I can play “above” my fat hands and my weak rhythm.
Above?
Yes.
Above.
Once a person “gets into the flow” of understanding chord relationships and then letting the brain knowledge flow into the hands, that person plays “above” his ability.
And the great thing about it is this: It’s not some secret formula hidden in the archives of some dusty music conservatory in Prague. Instead it’s an open book - there are courses galore on the internet you can take for peanuts compared to a traditional music conservatory. The internet age has provided a way for the average person to become an above-average musician!
Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music and piano books and products such as DVD’s, CD’s, musical games for kids, chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses for adults. He holds advanced degrees from Southern Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern Oregon. He can be reached at http://www.pianolessonsbyvideo.com. He is the author of the popular free 101-week e-mail newsletter titled “Amazing Secrets Of Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions” with over 55,000 current subscribers.
Those interested may obtain a free two-year subscription by going to http://www.playpiano.com/
April 10th, 2008 by admin
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Record pools…ever heard of them? The chance is that you have
not. And, there is an equal reason that you have not. And, even
though major record labels have used them for years, and
continue to use record pools extensively, record pools are one
of the most secretive elements within the Music industry.
Yet, although record pools can literally make you and your music
project an overnight success, they can also make you filthy
rich. And, if you utilize enough of them often enough, you can
get filthy rich!
But, let’s answer the foremost question first…what are record
pools?
Record pools are music organizations that distribute the music
from labels and artists to deejays who are pool members for the
express purpose of obtaining music for the nightclubs in which
they play/spin records. The pool is overseen by an individual
referred to as a pool director.
Record labels and artists send music to record pools in order to
test market their music at the least expensive cost, as well as
a fast way of getting paid. Likewise, labels and artists do not
charge pools for copies that they send them. Additionally,
record pools are probably the fastest way to get exposure for a
new release.
Okay, the pools win by getting music from labels and artists,
which attracts deejays as members. Accordingly, deejays win by
eliminating the need to purchase music for their nightclubs.
But! How do labels and artists win? What’s in it for them?
What is in the deal for labels and artists is:
* Quick exposure directly to music listeners
* Quick exposure directly to music buyers
But, how does the process really work? Glad you asked, because
now, I have a chance to give you a step-by-step approach:
1. First, you need to have a very strong single (or singles) if
you desire to release more than one single release. My advice
is, regardless of your genre, if your music falls within a
“commercial” aspect, i.e., Pop, Rock, Dance, Urban, Country, or
any hybrid or sub genre thereof, your preference, first and
foremost, should be either:
a.) A hot dance single or…
b.) A very strong tear-jerk, heart-wrenching ballad
Anything in between will simply not suffice because club goers
are in clubs for (primarily) one thing…to dance, whether that
is shaking their gluteus maximi to an uptempo beat, or
“slow-dragging” <=(old school term for grinding ever so closely
while not necessarily being in love).
2. Take your selected single(s) and enhance it/them to some
degree that will make the song(s) slightly different from your
radio version. Ways to do that include:
* Extending the song(s) from the radio versions' 3-4 minutes in
length to 5-6 minutes in length for the nightclub versions',
since people prefer longer versions in clubs.
* Adding or modifying sound effects.
* Dropping out or fading certain instruments, or incorporating
new instruments not heard in the radio version.
I believe you get the point...
3. Place your club version on vinyl, as most nightclub deejays
still prefer vinyl (wax), although there are now a number of
deejays that will also accept your enhanced version on CD. To
cover all bases, consider placing your club versions on both
vinyl and CD, if it is affordable to do so.
4. Contact record pools to learn if they have member deejays who
play your genre of music in their nightclubs and, if so, the
number of such deejays they have. This number from each pool
will allow you to determine the number of pieces you will need
for the pool(s).
Note: One such pool that actually distributes on a worldwide
level is Dixie Dance Kings at http://www.dancekings.com DDK also
holds the honor of being both the 2002 and 2003 International
Dance Music Association pool of the year. DDK’s service areas
include: United States, Alaska, Japan, Europe, South America,
the Caribbean, Saipan and Guam.
Even so, there are a number of additional record pools, however,
DDK is an excellent one to begin with.
5. Once you have the number of pieces for the pool(s), and after
the pool receives them, it will usually take 1-2 weeks before
your music begins getting club play. Then, the response is
almost instantaneous.
Note: Prior to sending out to pools, you should also ensure that
you have your offline retail distribution covered so that you
can get sales as a result of the club play. A good place to
begin for offline retail sales is with The Orchard, with its
website at http://www.theorchard.com and New Artist Direct, with
its website at http://www.newartistdirect.com
The Orchard currently pays for sales on a quarterly basis, while
New Artist Direct currently pays on a monthly basis. Combined
with CD Baby paying weekly, you can realize income on a weekly,
monthly and quarterly basis. Such a setup is unheard of with
traditional distributors, and you will now have money in your
pocket a lot sooner and more consistently.
There was a time that, when an independent artist was fortunate
enough to get airplay outside of his local or regional area a
couple of thousand miles away, equally unfortunate was that
there wasn’t a thing he could do about it, in terms of sales. He
could only weep at his potential sales losses
These two organizations eliminate that loss, of which they have
a 90%-95% concentration into offline retail stores, both major
chain stores as well as independent music stores.
6. The point of making sure that your music is set up with these
particular organizations is that, when club goers hear a “hot”
record that they like, naturally, they want it, and they want it
NOW!
And, while these two distributors do not take hundreds of your
CD at a time (which is a great thing for you, as it does not tie
up your product and make it difficult to get back, as with
traditional distributors), these particular distributors make
your music available through a national retail database so that
stores can place orders instantly for their customers.
They operate much like online music sales sites CD Baby and
Amazon.com do, again, with accepting only a few copies at any
given time, but they are the offline versions, reaching music
retailers while giving you the best of both online and offline
sales worlds.
Now, you have already seen the wide distribution area of the
Dixie Dance Kings record pool and, if you have not, I encourage
you to review it. And, again, there are quite a number of
additional record pools that, in general, serve as specialty
pools to particular genres, or serve virtually all commercially
viable music releases, regardless of genre.
In fact, I now encourage my radio promotion and publicity
clients to try to make record pools the very first aspect of
their promotion and publicity campaigns.
7. Nightclub deejays must report their club responses to your
music to the pool director, generally, between 2-4 weeks. Each
deejay compiles his own club response report, which he then
turns in to the pool director.
The pool director then compiles a final report from each deejays
report, and provides you with a copy. This report generally
includes each club’s listing, address, the response rating to
your music, along with an overall average score. You can then
use your report as influence to obtain; more radio airplay,
press coverage, distribution deals, and more.
8. Now, in addition to having a completely different version of
your song(s), you also have another version of the song(s) that
you can sell at retail if you wish and, as the saying goes,
“getting two bangs for your buck,” or as I like to put a twist
on it, “getting two bucks for your bang,” as a certain number of
people will also be interested in your enhanced club version.
9. An added and peripheral benefit of having a club version of
your music is that a number of record pool deejays also have
specialty/mix shows on stations in their area or, they may even
be a part of the main staff on their area stations.
Thus, should a nightclub deejay really like your music, and is
not simply fulfilling the obligation to play your music in his
club, it is very likely that you will begin receiving airplay on
his area station as well.
One final note is that radio and retail work very closely within
their own local and regional areas, with each apprising each
other of what is getting response from listeners, and what is
being asked for at retail, respectively. This is why it is
vitally important that you are set up with the two
aforementioned offline retail distribution services and others
like them.
Now, when you begin the radio promotion and press publicity
aspects of your marketing campaign, they can merely serve as
“icing on the cake,” so to speak, as opposed to being the only
driving factors you have to make the public aware of your music.
In fact, with now including record pools within your marketing,
and being able to provide proof to both radio and press of your
music’s club response, you are likely to experience much easier
access to the media. And, wouldn’t that be a good thing?
March 28th, 2008 by admin
Posted in Living With Music | Comments Off
