I partially blame Christopher Carrabba (aka Dashboard Confessional). He had a large hand in starting the whole thing that has since become entirely too common and even predictable in so much of the new music that’s coming out these days, especially among the scene crowd. Nine out of ten demos I receive have it. The thing with Christopher though, is that he, while certainly not the first to sing almost entirely through his nose, connected with fans on such a personal level that they totally overlooked it. His timing was perfect, his lyrics struck a chord, and his word of mouth cult status helped get him to the point where the nasally tone of his voice became his signature sound, it was cool for its time (sorta). The truth is, if you were to see him live back in 2001, you would see a show where the entire audience sang every word to every song, Christopher literally didn’t have to sing, and it was pretty remarkable to be honest. Admittedly I own, and occasionally still listen to “The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most” (I didn’t go much further back then that). It’s a solid album for it’s time.
My problem is that since then, it seems every up-and-coming singer to grab a mic has followed suit in the vocal department and wow is it grating. What used to be the exception, has now become the rule. When I come across new music in my daily pursuit, I’m actually relieved when the singer can sing, I mean, come on, shouldn’t that be expected? It’s not. People complain about auto-tune’s over usage in pop music today, which is a topic for another time, but what about the kids who sound like their mouths were sewn shut and their nose was their only outlet?  The minute I hear a singer crooning through the ol’ schaunze, I’m turned off because it sounds (a) contrived and lazy, and (b) like every other kid who discovered a microphone and Garageband and decided to make a record. Carrabba was singing through his nose, but at least it seemed like it was coming from his heart.

*note-in the past two or three weeks I’ve actually come across some pretty great non-nasal singers, all of whom will at some point be mentioned in this blog.

-Jay Harren

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I’m often asked what the process of signing a band looks like, or more to the point, how exactly a band goes from getting the attention of someone that does what I do, to actually inking a deal. Contrary to popular belief, A&R people don’t walk around with contracts in their back pocket ready to whip out to have a band they were just blown away by sign on the dotted line. And believe it or not, deals aren’t made on bar napkins either, not nowadays anyway. Here’s the process in a very small nutshell, at least where I work…
Through various networks that my colleagues and I have created through the years (discussed in an earlier blog), and through a lot of personal listening to some pretty bad music, we eventually hear about something cool that strikes our interest. Often we’ll fly to whatever city that band happens to be playing in so we can get a feel for what the band is capable of (for example, yesterday I booked a trip to see a band in Florida who’s CD is crushing me right now…more on them in another entry). Based on that, and a few other factors, we make decision as to whether or not to take the next steps. And this is where it gets challenging.

Of course there’s a criteria that we all have in the back of our minds when considering a band for signing, each person’s criteria may vary from one to another, but they are all similar (this too has been discussed in an earlier blog so no need to beat a dead horse). So let’s assume the band in question has met everything on our invisible checklist. The next step (as far as I’m concerned) is to play the songs for my colleagues. This is a sort of dress rehearsal for the final step which we’ll get to in a minute. It’s simple really, we all sit in a room (some via videoconference) with a great sound system and we listen to and discuss music in which we’re we’re interested in order to get each other’s point of view. These are people who do exactly the same job, who are on the same level, and who’s opinion we trust, and who may have an interesting perspective on the music that would help us in planning the next step, which is the step that ultimately counts the most…pitching to the boss.

Every label is structured differently but at the end of the day, no matter how big or small the label is, the signing decisions come down to the guy who is running the company, the guy who’s responsibility it is to keep the lights on, so every signing decision is taken very seriously, especially in an age where album sales are depleting more and more each day. Once the decision is made to move forward on pitching a band to the guy who signs the checks, I get on a plane and fly to New York and sit in his office and play him the band and give him my pitch. It’s my job to convince him that this band would make sense for our label and to give a compelling reason, or reasons why. We’ll sit, we’ll listen, and we’ll discuss. The thing I love about this process, as nerve-racking as it can be, is that I know the person I’m playing music for is a true music fan, has an enormous amount of experience in his job, and knows how to balance the love of music with the business of music. He might come at me with a couple of reasons why this band is the wrong fit, and while I’ll give him my arguments to the contrary he is often right (the usual). Or, it might be a case where we agree that perhaps it’s a bit too early in the band’s process and we’ll just keep an eye on how things progress for them (even more usual). Or he may agree with me and give me the green light to move forward on signing the band and we all live happily ever after (the highly unusual). In this case we usually arrange for him to see the band live either by having the band come to New York to play a show (preferred), or in some cases play the office performance space (not-so-preferred), or he may fly to the band’s home town to see a show (also preferred). I tend to opt for a real show so he can get a feel for what the band is truly capable of in a live setting. If we absolutely have to I’ll have the band do a showcase in the company performance room, but that is often super uncomfortable for both the band and the people who are there watching as the room tends to be a bit sterile, and let’s face it,  there’s really nothing quite like a club setting.  Although having said that, one of the bands I signed played the performance room and killed it and subsequently got the deal. No matter what setting the band plays in, it’s do or die from that point forward. If it’s great, then we move into the “let’s make a deal” phase, if it’s not, then well, we don’t move into that phase.

No matter how the pitch turns out, I’ve done my job which is to seek out and find what I think is the best of the best nation-wide. I wish it was as easy as signing bar napkin at 2AM after seeing a mind-blowing show, but after a few years of doing this, I’m realizing more and more each day that it’s much safer to have a few filters to help me make the right choices and ultimately keep my job.

Jay Harren
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I spent the weekend in Nashville attending the Next Big Nashville Music Conference. I saw several great bands from that fine city, but the two that stood out the most were from here in Atlanta. It’s always good to see a band from my town playing in another city because there’s a much different energy to the show. I’ve seen Death on Two Wheels and Ponderosa play in Atlanta countless times, and I’m always impressed to say the least, as are most Atlantans, which is why both bands have become a staple in this city. But seeing them in another town was different.  I tried to put my finger on it as both bands played their hearts out. Maybe it’s the edge that bands get when playing in unfamiliar territory to unfamiliar faces, or maybe it’s the bottled up energy from so much time in the van in the hours and days leading up to the show. Regardless, there’s a certain amount of grit and hunger that these bands in particular, and most touring bands in general bring to the table when they are out of their element. As I watched Death on Two Wheels play to what was at first a very cold, jaded crowd, I saw their drive and determination to win that crowd over increase with every note. I was reminded once again that that is why I like bands to have some touring under their belt before even considering them for a record deal. These guys literally live and breathe their music. There’s a sincerity and passion in both of those bands, and several like them, that is born from a lifestyle that can only be found on the road. When you’re not sure what floor you’re crashing on that night, and when you shop at the Salvation Army out of necessity and not because of the ironic t-shirt you might find, and when you’re depending on Top Ramen and PBR to sustain you each day, your drive to succeed inevitably increases and each show gets better because all you want to do is win over a few new fans in the hopes that one day they will multiply into a bona fide following and eventually a living can actually be made as a result of the hard labor. And by the way, while to a very small degree it might make it easier financially, getting a record deal doesn’t end the grind of the road; in fact it actually increases the need to stay out even longer than before.
The circuit continues, not just here in Atlanta or Nashville, but all over the country. Some bands break through, others break-up, but everyone I know who has experienced the grind wouldn’t trade it for anything.

-jay harren

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Built to Spill
There Is No Enemy
Warner Brothers

By Al Kaufman

The good news is that Built to Spill, the godfathers of the indie rock scene, are back in fighting form after a few meandering missteps. The bad news is that few seem to care. It's been about 10 years since Built to Spill put out a truly great album (Remember Perfect from Now On and Keep It Like a Secret?) and during the interim, upstarts like Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, and even the entire indie-rock supergroup Monsters of Folk have filled the vacuum. So Built to Spill's great new CD was tossed onto the masses with nary a whisper.

Too bad. There Is No Enemy is full of the crackling pop and textures that made Built to Spill such revolutionaries. Doug Martsch continues to write moody, deeply textured melodies, but he is more focused with them (although many may wish to pass over the jam band sounding "Oh Yeah," or the end of "Done," which sounds like it has a space battle video game going on in the background).

"Life's a Dream" embodies "la la la"s from the psychedelic Beatles days, and "Things Fall Apart" is a gorgeous, gut-wrenching, break-up ballad. Then there's the straight ahead crunchy guitars that encompass "Pat." And all of it is brought together by Martsch's high-pitched, nasally vocals. Welcome back Built to Spill, many have tried to duplicate, but nobody can replace.

As I sat to write this blog I was approached by a friend who asked me the question that I was going to write about in the first place. I get asked it all the time, probably once a day. I’m flying to Boston tomorrow to sit on a panel at the Boston Music Conference, and the main subject of the panel revolves around this same question. The question is “how do I find the music or bands that I want to work with?” Or from a band’s perspective, it’s “how do I get the attention of a label?” The answer is there really is no specific or easy answer. I find music the same way most music listeners find music: on-line, word-of-mouth, press, radio, conferences, whatever.

For example, a producer friend of mine whose taste I trust and respect told me about a band he recently worked with in the studio. Without hesitation I listened to the songs and loved what I heard and I’m now seriously considering working with the band. Another example that I’ve used in this blog before is the band I met at the Atlantis Music conference a couple of years ago, who I ended up signing (Hey Monday). Or another band I work with, Manchester Orchestra, had created such a buzz and such a legitimate following that literally every label in the industry wanted to be a part of what the band had built. Or more recently the local support that 99X gave to The Constellations which, along with hard work on the band’s part, lead to their recent signing to Virgin. There are many ways to find the bands; we just have to be alert.

I get a lot of music sent my way throughout any given week. Almost all of it is unsolicited (un-asked-for), and sometimes unappreciated (massive MP3 files that clog up my inbox forcing me to do a clean-up every other day due to the limited space on our company’s server), but I digress. For the most part, I listen to everything I get, but there is definitely a priority stack (with the large, unsolicited files being at the bottom). The stack that get’s priority is the stack that I’ve heard about from a credible source whom I trust, or that I’ve heard about on my own just from physically (or digitally) being out and about in the music scene, both here in Atlanta and across the country. The bands that have done their legwork and have hit the road and have recorded original, competitive, imaginative, music are the ones who always seem to rise to the top the quickest.

Most A&R people have networks set up in various cities, whether with band managers, attorneys, scouts, club owners, or just friends who are big music fans, we usually hear about bands that are making waves in their hometown. We all have our ear to the ground, that is after all our job, and if you are legitimately doing the work you need to be doing on your end, more than likely we will find out about you. Nine times out of ten a band gets discovered because they were out doing their own thing, creating their own mini-empire, and word got out about them and the labels (big and/or small) converged on them. The constant barrage of CDs and MP3s we receive each week is all well and good, but it’s so much more effective when we as labels hear about bands through good old fashion buzz. If there’s a buzz then you are doing the right thing, and you are more likely to get noticed, than the ones who try to get signed without anything going on and who expect their troubles to be over once a deal is in place. As I always say, there are no guarantees, but if you are doing the work on your own you are much more likely to make a living at it than if you are sitting around waiting for success to come to you.  Bottom line–do what you do best, do it smart, do it well, and  whether you secure a deal or not you will at least have made a real effort and you will increase your chances of doing it longer.

-Jay Harren

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The recent, well-deserved signing of Atlanta’s The Constellations to Virgin records made me think about the Atlanta music scene. On a national and international level, Atlanta is known best for its thriving hip-hop scene, and what an incredible scene it is. Within a two mile radius of my house there are a plethora of world-class studios owned and operated by legendary artists and producers like Outkast, Dallas Austin, TI, and Akon.

But what about rock? One of the many things about the current rock scene here is that, while it’s not necessarily infamous like say Athens in the ’80s, Seattle in the ’90s or Brooklyn now, it is actually much more diverse within the rock genre itself than any of those cities.

In the late ’80s/early ’90s Seattle was cranking out the “grunge” and while not all of those bands sounded exactly alike, they certainly carried with them the same vibe and sensibilities that made them unified and created the “Seattle sound.” The current wave of Brooklyn bands is similar although really the only break-out (compared to Seattle 20 years ago, or Athens 10 years before that) from there in the past couple of years has been MGMT. The point is, Atlanta does not necessarily have a defining sound in rock, and I think that’s a good thing. It shows the diversity within the city itself. This isn’t to say that no two bands sound the same in Atlanta, it’s that the bands from here who have received critical and commercial acclaim throughout the country (and in some cases, the world) sound nothing alike, and I think that’s great.

For example, Deerhunter sound nothing like The Black Lips, who sound nothing like Manchester Orchestra, who sound nothing like Snowden, who sound nothing like The Constellations, who sound nothing like The Coathangers, and so on and so on, and yet they are all from here, for that matter most of them are from the same neighborhood. The one thing, however, that these bands and others like them do have in common actually has nothing to do with their sound and everything to do with their drive and authenticity. It comes down to all of these bands living and breathing their craft. They are all true to themselves in every way. What I mean is, in each case all of them had a vision for what they wanted to do, what they wanted to sound like, and how far they wanted to go, and they all committed to it and went there, no compromises, no looking back. This factor alone is so important to every band’s success no matter where they’re from. When bands aren’t true to themselves or when they try to take on another personality on-stage versus off-stage, it just seems so transparent and counterproductive. This obviously doesn’t mean that every authentic band makes it and the inauthentic ones don’t. We all know that’s not true. There are plenty of copy-cat bands who achieve some level of success as well as original, passionate artists who never see the light of day for whatever reason, and Atlanta has plenty of both. As I’ve said many times, my job is to seek out up-and-coming bands not only here in Atlanta, but in every US city, and I can assure you we have no shortage of innovative, talented artists coming up through the ranks. It’s a long hard process for any band, and there are no guarantees, but the ones who are true to their vision have a much better shot at rising above the fray.

Jay Harren

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I got an advance of Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3 album recently. It’s actually pretty solid throughout, but that’s not what this is about. The album has fifteen tracks on it, and like I said, it’s pretty solid but it seems to me that fifteen tracks on any album is too long these days. Jay-Z can get away with it because well, he’s Jay-Z after all, and people will listen through the entire thing at least a couple of times until eventually boiling it down to their favorite tracks which will then make their way onto their iPod. Or, if it’s mind-blowing from start to finish, which some albums definitely are, and some may consider The Blueprint 3 to be, the whole thing makes it to the player. The point is that in the year 2009 with media so readily available to anyone at any time, new bands/artists should release their music in smaller quantities putting out only the best of what they have, no filler. This obviously isn’t a new idea, people have been doing it for years, but it seems especially important now in an era where competition isn’t only with other bands, but with other forms of media entirely, it’s a lot to expect a new listener to sit through 12 or 15 songs at a time when they haven’t previously even heard of you. This isn’t to say people won’t listen to an entire album, I do it regularly, it’s just that it’s harder and harder, given the state of music availability, to get people to spend that much time with the unknown.

What’s wrong with new, unsigned bands releasing a song or two at a time every few months, giving people a taste of what they can do? Do this for an extended period of time, and then compile all of the songs plus a few new ones on an album to be released as a whole. I do, after all totally believe in the body of work that is the album. I’m all for hearing songs in context, in fact, depending on the band, I think it’s imperative to hear the flow of the album in order to really get the artist’s vision, plus I love album artwork, so by all means let’s keep them coming. I just think that as a new artist in the year 2009, it’s easier to get the attention of new listeners, new fans by putting out quality over quantity. Plus, releasing songs little by little helps build anticipation for what will eventually be the entire work.

Established artists are clearly different, especially when they are album-based artists like Radiohead or My Morning Jacket. bands like these have a massive fan bases who will always give an album the benefit of the doubt, but even then it’s hard to get people to extend their attention span past what they are used to.

I’m curious to know what the general consensus is when it comes to you the music fan taking on a new artist. Are you a fan of entire albums versus a few songs at a time? Do you like a few songs before diving into the whole album? What’s your preference? (Comment on bottom of page).

In my humble opinion, singles and EPs are the way to go for brand new artists, and for some established acts, who want to gain new fans. Let’s save the over-wrought, debut concept album for the bands that have earned the ears and time of the listeners, and before long maybe you’ll be one of them. Then, I’m more than happy to listen (at least once) to your 25-song epic take on the history of ancient Rome as told through the eyes of an alien visitor who discovered a guitar in a cave during a time when music was outlawed… or not.

Jay Harren

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