Musicadium Blog

Musicadium has moved offices, back to the Fortitude Valley!

Our new details…

2/477 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley, QLD 4006

info@musicadium.com

+61 7 3252 9962

Visiting Us

Our office is located on Brunswick St, just east of the iconic Fortitude Valley Mall, Brisbane’s vibrant Entertainment precinct.

If you are in a taxi, the closest intersection is Brunswick and McLachlan Streets.

If you are travelling by train, the closest station is Brunswick St.

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Check in at our new Office (if you drop in) on FourSquare!

This week, the featured artist on iTunes is one that we are especially excited to be distributing!  It is Australia’s answer to the “Supergroup,” Basement Birds.

No Doubt, you have heard of the other acts they front - Kav from Eskimo Joe, Kevin Mitchell AKA Bob Evans and Josh Pyke from…Josh Pyke.

Musicadium’s Artist Relations Manager Sarah Hamilton talks with Kevin Mitchell and Steve Parkin about music purchasing habits, cheesy/embarrassing tunes and how the boys came together to create their harmony-filled tunes.

1.     Ok, we have to ask the obvious question because we’re keen to know the answer! With 4 amazing creative minds in the band, does ego get in the way? Or is it more a case of that there is never a shortage of creative ideas?

SP: DEFINITELY THE LATTER. ONE THING WE DISCOVERED IS THAT WE ALL HAVE SURPRISINGLY SIMILAR TASTES IN SONGWRITING AND PRODUCTION, AND THERE IS DEFINITELY MORE A BAND VIBE THAT A “FOUR SONGWRITERS” VIBE.

KM: No one in the band seems to have an out of control ego which is a bit of a shame because that would probably make us a bit more interesting but at the same time reigning in ego’s can become such a tiresome affair after a while.  There are always a handful of songs being tossed about at any one time, jockeying for position to be the next one given the royal recording treatment.  I think our songs have bigger ego’s than we do!

2.    How did the concept of Basement Birds come about?

SP: KEV AND I HAD WRITTEN A SONG, AND I HAD CO-WRITTEN WITH KAV BEFORE WITH ESKIMO JOE AND ON OTHER PROJECTS. JOSH AND KAV HAD COLLABORATED ON A SONG, SO SOMEHOW THE IDEA AROSE FOR US TO ALL GET TOGETHER IN A ROOM WITH SOME BEER AND SEE WHAT HAPPENED!

KM: I believe it was probably Steve and Kav’s idea.  I don’t really know the answer to this question so I’m going to have a guess and suggest that, because Steve and Kav spent the most time together previously, they probably cooked up the idea.  Kav had just been on tour with Josh and Steve was touring with me at the time and Josh and I were already mates.  Conceptually, we thought we might like to make an album that relied almost solely on acoustic instruments and also indulged our collective love of harmonies.

3.    How does the songwriting process work? Does one of you start off and it just builds from there or do you each get assigned different parts?

SP: MOSTLY, IT’D BE A BASIC SONG STRUCTURE THAT ONE OR TWO OF US HAD COME UP WITH, THEN WE RUN THROUGH IT TOGETHER AND ADD IDEAS, MIDDLE 8′S ETC. IT VARIES. “BUS STOP”, FOR EXAMPLE, WAS PRETTY MUCH JUST A BOOZED UP KEV AND JOSH ON THE PORCH. KAV AND I RAN OUT AND YELLED “STOP! THATS A HIT! PLAY IT AGAIN!”

WE ALL WORKSHOP LYRICS AND MELODIES THOUGH, ITS ALL ABOUT WHATS BEST FOR THE SONG.

KM: We know we have a song ready to go when either Josh, Kav or Steve yell out, “It’s a hit!”.  Having never written one before I find them unrecognisable so I go along with their better judgement.  Someone always has a song they are working on and want to bring to the band so everyone throws in ideas to finish it.  We also work out amongst ourselves who will sing main harmonies, second harmonies or perhaps who might take a middle eight to sing.  The process is actually pretty fast as once we are all on a roll creatively we tend to work pretty quick.  Some songs are almost fully formed when they arrive and some songs are pretty much written entirely on Kav’s porch moments before they are recorded.

4.    We like the approach that you have taken to your release schedule - less tracks, more often.  Do you feel that this approach is the middle ground between the fall in album sales and the lack of “decent margin” on single sales? Or do you feel it is more a reflection of consumption trends?

SP: IT WAS MORE OF A CASE OF - “OH SHIT, THE ALBUM’S NOT FINISHED YET”, TO BE HONEST! IN ALL SERIOUSNESS, I LIKE THE IDEA OF MAKING SOME SONGS INSTANTLY AVAILABLE, AND ANY PHYSICAL RELEASE TO BE A BIT MORE SPECIAL. I THINK THE DAYS OF THE JEWEL CASE WITH A ONE CARD SLIP ARE OVER, TO BE HONEST. AS DYLAN SAYS, “THERE’S NO STATURE TO IT”

KM: Woah - slow down!  “Decent margin”?  “Consumption trends”?  It was our managers idea.

5.    You seem to have fairly similar tastes in music, but do you secretly love any bands/artists that you’re usually embarrassed to admit to but can unveil to us now? (If it makes it any easier mine are Roxette and Beyonce…)

SP: I’VE ALWAYS MAINTAINED THAT BRITNEY SPEARS’ “TOXIC” IS ONE OF THE FINEST SONGS WRITTEN THIS CENTURY. SHALL WE COVER IT LADS?????

KM: Oh I’m never embarrassed about music that I like.  That’s why I have absolutely zero musical guilty pleasures.  I love Billy Joel’s “She’s Always A Woman”.  Infact I love everything Billy Joel did up until 1985.  Beyonce’s “Halo” and “Single Ladies” are also phenomonal.

6.    How do each of you purchase music? A combination or is one of you a vigilant vinyl collector?

SP: I STILL BUY CD’S. I WORK IN A RECORD STORE (MILLS RECORDS IN FREMANTLE) AND MY BOSS WOULD BE A BIT DARK IF I DIDN’T! I LOVE VINYL, I STILL THINK IT’S THE BEST WAY TO LISTEN TO MUSIC, RATHER THAN JUST HAVE A SHUFFLE OF UNNAMED MP3′S PLAYING ON AN IPOD IN THE BACKGROUND. THE ARTWORK, THE SMELL OF NEW VINYL, EVERYTHING ABOUT IT! I AM REALLY HOPING WE GET TO RELEASE THE BASEMENT BIRDS ON VINYL.

KM: I used to collect vinyl but I must admit it has been slowly beaten out of me.  I haven’t bought vinyl in about 7 years and my collection rarely gets played these days as my record player isn’t even plugged in anymore!  Although I love the romance of vinyl.  That will never die.  I don’t even buy many cd’s anymore.  The majority of my albums/songs are bought from iTunes these days and listened to on an iPod.  I love the immediacy of it.  If I’m wasted at 2am and suddenly realise that Donna Summer disco is the best music in the world to dance to, I can be shakin’ my hips to her greatest hits collection within minutes!

7.    Finally, if you could add a fifth member to the Birds (living or dead) who would it be?

SP: LIVING OR DEAD?? LIVING, I’D HAVE TO SAY PAUL KELLY. THEN WE WOULDN’T HAVE TO WRITE ANY SONGS, THEY’D ALL BE THERE ALREADY AND BRILLIANT! WE’D JUST HAVE TO SING THEM! DEAD? I’D ADD ROY ORBISON. THEN WE COULD COVER THE TRAVELLING WILBURYS WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS…

KM: Anyone as long as it was a woman.  There are times when I think what the four of us is doing is absurd.  We’re four grown men and sometimes it just feels ridiculous.  A woman in the group would add an extra depth I think.  But what kind of sadistic lady would want to join?
You can download the iTunes Single of the Week - Basement Birds - Waiting for You at

It is back again for 2010 - from today until the end of May 2010, Studios 301 mastering rates are 25% off! This applies to all Studio 301 engineer’s rates, and are listed below.

(per track rates are unattended / per hour rates are attended sessions)

Leon Zervos: $140 p.track / $260 p.hr
Steve Smart: $1200 p.12 tracks / $150 p.hr
Oscar Gaona: $125 p.track / $165 p.hr
Andrew Edgson: $90 p.track / $105 p.hr

And a small selection of work from our mastering engineers in the last month or so:

• Leon Zervos: Brian McFadden - Cloud Control - Renee Cessar - David Campbell - Georgia Fair - Stephanie Brownlee - Polar Opposites
• Steve Smart: Neil Murray - Brian McFadden - Lisa Mitchell - Washington - Pivot - Toe to Toe - Against
• Oscar Gaona: Rogue Traders - Cassette Kids - Matt Corby - Angus & Julia Stone - The Beautiful Girls - Radio National - The McClymonts
• Andrew Edgson: Chaingang - Serenik - Foz - Coptic Soldier & Miriam Waks - Sleeping on Trains - Aural Window

For more info, or to book, please contact Anita via the details below.

Studios 301 Australia

Ph +61 (0)2 9698 5888
Email anita@studios301.com
Web http://www.studios301.com
MS http://www.myspace.com/studios301
Syd 18 Mitchell Rd Alexandria, NSW 2015 Australia
Byron 373 Ewingsdale Rd Byron Bay NSW 2481 Australia

Cover art for this week comes from Triggersound’s Vernakyewlar. A three-piece electronic outfit, Triggersound utilise a diverse sonic palette that blends acoustic and synthesised instruments to create a sound that is dancey and ambient. The album’s artwork looks awesome and is a pretty good visual representation of how their tunes sound.

Vernakyewlar is available for download on iTunes. Get it here

Musicadium is excited to be a part of the chain in the General Pants Major Label singles club!  This month’s releases for the label are:

Underlights

Formed in 2008, their sound is a melting pot of folk, blues and indie pop all laced with a classic Australian aesthetic. The band spent 2009 honing their craft on stages all over Sydney and supporting bands such as You Am I, Children Collide and The Howling Bells.

http://www.myspace.com/underlightsband
Track: Love Me
Genre: Rock
Region: Sydney

Made in Japan

Formed in mid 2008, Sydney four-piece, Made in Japan have become well established within the Sydney music scene. To date Made in Japan have produced a range of eclectic but unique material spanning indie, punk and progressive sounds. They are currently working on their debut album, which is due for release late 2010.

http://www.myspace.com/japanmade
Track: Pairs
Genre: Indie
Region: Sydney

Tin Can Radio

Tin Can Radio is an unashamedly high-energy band who has already established a strong following. Their infectious flavour of synth-driven indie dance music infuses their unique melodic stylings to driving disco punk and dance rhythms.

http://www.myspace.com/tincanradio
Track: Hot Trash
Genre: Indie/funk
Region: Brisbane

WHERE: Turbine Platform, Brisbane Powerhouse
WHEN: Tuesday, 27 April, 6 – 8pm
WHAT: Models are Hot

For musicians these days, there is a sobering reality about the distribution of music content; wake up and smell the peer-to-peer! How can you ask for the cake and get to eat it too?

This panel will explore new models of distribution, collaboration and commerce emerging around music in the digital age. It’s one thing for Girl Talk, Nine Inch Nails and Yoko Ono to give away their music, but what about at the other end of the scale? The panel will discuss new opportunities in the changed media environment, using Melbourne band Ancient Free Gardeners as a case study.

Chair: Brian Fitzgerald (Creative Commons Australia).

Panel: Elliott Bledsoe (Creative Commons Australia), Tim Price (Musicadium), and James Milsom (Ancient Free Gardeners).

Music By Ancient Free Gardeners.

RSVP to the Facebook event invite.

In June last year Musicadium artists Montpelier were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to fly over to the USA to make a record with a producer named Kevin Augunas.  Kevin has made records with Cold War Kids, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Yves Klein Blue to name a few.

This video serves as aa look at their time in the studio and in th United States, but features their fantastic indie-pop rock tunes.  A perfect soundtrack to accompany four young, bright musicians recording their debut EP.

If you like what you hear, check out Montpelier at http://www.myspace.com/montpeliermusic or buy their music on

“Un-Convention is about music. Plain and unadulterated. It is about looking to the future of music; how it will develop and flourish in the technological age. It is about being independent. Held over 2 days, Unconvention is a music conference that is specifically for the grass roots of the industry.”

This symposium was conceived in the UK in 2008 and has since expanded to other parts of the world. It strives to connect like-minded people to address issues facing the industry and discuss ideas as to how independent music will adapt and prosper in the age of technology.

2010 sees Un-Convention being held in Brisbane over two days at our new digital arts space, The Edge with aims to connect young and emerging practitioners with each other and; provide them with practical and achievable strategies to develop careers in and around music.

The event will be broken down into sections that address different aspects of the industry such as music as a service; music as a product; music and media; music, technology and entrepreneurialism and; music as culture as they relate to independent music in Brisbane and Australia. These sessions will be run and delivered by distinguished industry professionals including Musicadium’s own Tim Price and Sarah Hamilton. Joining them will be Triple J presenter Maggie Collins, who in addition to her radio work, manages local stars Skinny Jean and The John Steel Singers, industry-commentator and freelance writer Andrew McMillen, Nick Braban, who runs Barsoma, Regurgitator’s manager Paul Curtis, who also tours and promotes bands as well as operating a small label, Rave Magazine editior Chris Harms and many others.

This conference presents a great opportunity for not only artists, but also anyone involved in the industry. It’s potential to harness the already-tight-knit nature of Brisbane’s music scene to promote synergy across its different facets could yield some great results. This can be summed up by the tag on their website “Un-Convention doesn’t believe in ‘do it yourself’. We believe in ‘do it together’”. Coupled with the wealth of knowledge that the presenters will bring to the table, we can hope to see some great things come of this.

The event runs over the 12^th and 13^th of June at The Edge and tickets can be bought from Oztix at $20.00 a pop.

For more info on Un-Convention, visit http://www.unconventionbrisbane.com/ .

Some music can be like an addiction. We’ve all had bands or songs or even lyrics that for some reason you need to spin over and over again. There’s an indescribable constant craving to hear how it all fits together, and there’s no explaining why you love it as much as you do.  Since Ross from Disco Nap dropped into the Musicadium office a few months ago, the band’s tunes are always one of the first to be played from the Musicadium iTunes playlist. If you haven’t listened to them, do it now. You’ll be touting ‘I told you so’, to anyone with an ounce of musical taste who’ll discover them in a week or so. They’ve had spins on JJJ, and the single ‘The Soft Sell’ debuts on Rage tonight and is a taste of what is to come from their debut album Running Red Lights. For a band that had their first gig ever at the Sounds of  Spring festival in 2009, you can expect a lot. Don’t worry, they more than deliver.

We caught up with Disco Nap’s frontman Ross Hope, and asked him a few questions about the new project and his music.

Disco Nap’s music strikes a real mix of crossovers in different genres, what would you say were the main influences in the writing and recording stages?

There were a variety of influences in the writing and recording stages of the Disco Nap album, notably: my favourite songwriters, favourite albums and favourite TV shows. Artists like Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie/The Postal Service), Elvis Costello, Robert Smith (The Cure) and Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) were huge influences on the songwriting.  After listening to one of their albums I always felt inspired to write better lyrics, better melodies and to become a better songwriter in general by telling stories and conveying emotions.  I didn’t know at the time if the songs I was writing would ever be used for anything but I knew they were different to the songs I’d written for my previous band Iron On and I became interested in different production ideas.  I even went and listened to a lot of electronic music, something I hadn’t really done much of previously.  During the writing process I also watched the box set of Six Feet Under and that definitely influenced the themes of the record and some of the imagery in the lyrics.

You’ve collaborated with and worked with some great musicians who’ve helped out on the album. Do they play live with you? How does it alter the recording process having featured special guests?

I feel very fortunate to have had some of my favourite musicians lend their talents to the recording process. At the time of recording I hadn’t actually thought through what I was going to do once it came time to play live, I just wanted to be able to hand-pick the guests and worry about the live sound later. I’d been a big fan of Dean Shwereb’s (Screamfeeder) drumming since I was a teenager so he was my number one choice in that department. Of course I knew that when I asked people like Scott Bromiley (John Steel Singers) Pip Branson (Something For Kate, Infusion, Pip Branson Corporation) and Seja Vogel (Sekiden, Regurgitator) to help out that they weren’t going to be able to be in the live band, I was just happy to be able to sit back in the studio and watch them do their thing.

You have said that the music was inspired around the central themes of life, death, love, family, and rebirth, tell us a little bit about how this came about?

The combination of what was going on in my life while I was writing these songs and the feelings I had as a result of watching the box set of TV series Six Feet Under led to those themes becoming central to the album and The Soft Sell in particular. At the time my previous band had just broken up and I felt like I was at a bit of a cross-roads both musically and in my life in general. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to continue writing songs and releasing music. Gradually though these different kind of songs started coming to me and I tried to not have any judgement about what they sounded like or what they were for. The themes from Six Feet Under – life, death, love, family and rebirth - really just reinforced the process I was already going through and the ideas I was grappling with – as one things ends another starts, as something dies something else comes to life.

You guys have just come out of the studio recently recording your debut album “Running Red Lights”, was it a big process? and have you found it rewarding?

It was a big process and a slow process but absolutely essential to how the album turned out. Unlike my previous recording experiences where I’ve been in a band that’s booked out a three-week block of time at a studio, the The Disco Nap album was recorded sporadically over a six-month period. Basically whenever Darek Mudge (Producer) had time and I had money we’d work on it for a few days. The best thing about this process was being able to take my time with everything and make sure it was right. The process of starting with 12 acoustic demos and ending with a fully fleshed-out album was very rewarding, it just required a lot of patience.

In September 2009 Disco Nap won Triple J’s Unearthed to play at the Sounds of Spring festival, this was your very first show. How was the experience of playing your first show at a festival and what other opportunities has come from this?

It was very exciting but also fairly terrifying. Stein our bass player had only been in the band for about three weeks when we got the call from Triple J, so to play our first show on a festival stage was a bit daunting. I think when you’re presented with an opportunity as good as that you pretty much have to jump in and make the most of it. From all accounts the show actually went well and being an ‘Unearthed artist’ has created a lot of other opportunities since that first gig. It also hasn’t hurt to get our debut single The Soft Sell on rotation at Triple J.

For those who haven’t heard your new single ‘The Soft Sell’ yet, could you describe what it’s about in a sentence?

The Soft Sell is a song about taking a risk and letting go of all that has previously felt comfortable to you in order to find something new.

Click below to purchase Disco Nap’s Latest Single The Soft Sell on iTunes:

A new music store website called Guvera claims it will tackle piracy, and bring a whole new way of consuming music to the public. Guvera works like this: users can download free tracks off the website which are paid for by companies that advertise on the site. The customers just have to answer some basic questions about their lifestyle in registration which helps cater the advertising to you by your demographic profile. The site offers over three million songs from both major and independent labels. This sounds like a win for consumers, with the offer of free music straight to your iPod, just for looking at a couple of pretty pictures of a Big Mac. It also sounds like a win for advertisers who can advertise in more effective and cheaper ways. But what does it mean for the artists?

I am a songwriter myself and play in a pop band called This Means That. We are currently in the process of recording our debut EP and at the moment we are reaching the difficult decision of either using this release as a way of earning profits by selling the disc at shows and online or, using them as promotion, and giving them away for free to our listeners. A site like Guvera has the potential to change this however, as artists would have the potential to both offer their music for free to the listener, as well as also making royalties in return. This places artists in a good situation, by being able to capitalise on possible fans without having to sacrifice income. Although by setting the price for your release as $0 on one site and offering it for $16.99 on the other artists may be lowering the value of their music - meaning that no one would buy the album off iTunes if they have seen it advertised for free elsewhere. It is also important to not that at the moment Guvera still only carries content for labels, however they have speculated that they will open it up to independent artists soon.

One thing that struck me as odd is the lack of social networking integration. For such a new website seeming to be on the cusp of technology, it came across as a poor decision not to include features such as Facebook connect or a Twitter API. These integration features would allow the customers on the site to seamlessly tell their friends through Facebook, Twitter or Myspace about the purchases they had just made. This type of technology has been recently announced for iTunes and will mean a big boost in free promotion for the artists. However features like these should be in the pipeline for Guvera and seeing as the site has just been launched, I wouldn’t be surprised if these applications were added later on.

The ability to directly link fans through to a track was also missing. This will make it a little harder for artist to direct their fans through the site, although this could be a positive as it creates a larger divide between the product people have to buy, and the free track. Guvera could also add a new or featured artists section, to further promote the less well known artists on the site, as the home page at the moment is quite bare.  This would create a really powerful promotion tool as people who log on to access a well known acoustic folk track could then be offered several other less well known acoustic folk tracks, based on their previous purchases and demographic profile. The fact is people won’t be scared to click download on your track that they have never heard of before, as it won’t cost them anything.

A platform like this is a powerful tool for artists to offer their music to their fans and shouldn’t be shirked at. There are still a few problems at the moment, however I have no doubt that these will be ironed out over the coming months. When it comes to releasing music, consumers want as many options as possible to access it, and by not offering your music on one particular service it may annoy fans. Any outlet that is able to release music and generate income for the artist is important; however it is the successful management of all of them that creates real success.

So if you were able to put your tracks on Guvera, would you?

Photo Credits: Kelly Samardak for Just An Online Minute.