-This was an “Open House” so to speak so that cast & crew could get together, get acquainted-and also get a tour of the place where most of the shooting will take place. I caught up w/ some friends & made some new ones. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to make it. We took the tour and then did some more socializing. This place is pretty cool-lots of atmosphere. Lots or “ghost orbs” in the pics too 🙂 Can’t wait to get things started on this.
BAND PRIMER
AUGUST 2010
TIPS FOR PROMOTING ONLINE-PART 1
-Before I begin this month’s Band Primer, I just want to say thanks to all the people out there who are in support of this & thanks to 4th Coast for letting me do this. It’s very much appreciated.
-This month I’m going to write about some tips I’ve learned thru out the years about band promotion online. Some of this stuff will seem pretty basic, but you won’t believe how many bands don’t know and/or ignore these tips. I’m going to be concentrating on email, My Space & Facebook for all this.
-Unless, you have a ton of money & time, you’re better off w/ an email mailing list than a list via regular (“snail”) mail. Some bands use postcards and, while not as expense as reg. mailings, will still add up. Email lists are free-hence why almost everyone uses them. A good rule of thumb is to use an email service like what’s on Reverbnation to coordinate your lists. With them you can track your mailings and see how effective they are. They’re also great in organizing the people you have on your list into categories. There’s no use sending a show invite that’s in Syracuse,NY to someone in Australia for example.
-One very important thing w/ email mailing lists-make sure you have an “unsubscribe” button on each mailing that you send & that is easy to use. If someone does use it-don’t get offended. You can’t please everyone. I know a number of bands that just grab email addys from anywhere they can and send out their stuff-and then won’t remove you off their lists when you ask them. Not good. Now you have someone who doesn’t like you and word of mouth is still pretty effective.
-On My Space many bands use what’s called “bulletins” to send messages out. While that’s great, many of them get ridiculous with them. Sending out 25 bulletins (or more) in a 30 minute time span is not only going to annoy people, but chances are, will get you deleted. It’s one of the reasons why many people migrated to Facebook-they got tired of being hit by so much band stuff everyday. If you’re going to do the bulletin thing, do it once per day. If you have to do more (on the same thing) do it up to 3/day, but make sure to erase the previous bulletin you put up. If it’s different subjects, make sure it’s only 2-3-maybe 4 per day. People get annoyed real quick when they look at their bulletin page and all they see is page after page of bulletins from your band-especially if it’s the same damn one.
-On Facebook-when you want to tell people of an event, use the “create an event” page. Do NOT send a message out with everyone you know on it. Why? Because when people reply back to the person who posted it-you will get it too-as well as everyone else. Nice to get 20 messages in your inbox that have nothing to do w/ you right?
-More tips next month!
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-10 days ago, Ex-CAROLINE BLUE Bassist Billy Pierce contacted in regards to playing this show. It was a backyard party and their singer couldn’t make it so they asked if I could do it. I said sure-after we talked about payment of course 🙂
-Billy sent me a list of about 65 songs to work on. I got the actual set list a few days later-down to about 45 songs. They were all cover songs. While I had performed some of them in CAROLINE BLUE, many of the songs I’d never sang before. Songs from Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Guns & Roses, Def Leppard, Whitesnake, White Lion & a lot more. I figured I’d do the best I could and it was a good opportunity to see where my limits are.
-Billy had asked me if I wanted to bring a guitar to jam on a few songs and I said no. I just wanted to concentrate on singing. The day of the show, Billy said he was bringing his son’s amp & guitar for me to play. Then he also added 2 more songs into the list-“Wicked Game” (HIM) and “Love Gun” (KISS). Almost every hired gun show I’ve done has had this happen so it was no biggie for me-at least this time it was songs that I’d played before. 🙂
-I got there before the show and set up. Now I see why so many people want to be singers-you don’t have to lug gear (HA!). We did 3 sets. The 1st set was basically as written. The 2nd & 3rd sets they varied off the list and I basically followed wherever they went until the last 2 songs-which I suggested be played. The guys from Meanstreak were really nice & accommodating-couldn’t have ask for more. Everything was pretty laid back. They even had some other guys come up and sit in with them.
-The party was suppose to be from 7-11 PM but it ended later than that. It was a fun time and I was paid well. On top of that, I also brought some CAROLINE BLUE merch w/ me and managed to sell 2 shirts and 4 CDs-go me! 🙂
-I want to thank all the guys in Meanstreak for having me sing with them and thanks to all the people there who were enjoying the music. It was also cool to share a stage with Billy again-we haven’t done that since 2005 I believe.
Here’s the set list for this night
SET 1
-Rock & Roll All Nite (KISS)
-You’ve Got Another Thing Comin (Judas Priest)
-Born to be Wild (Steepenwolf)
-Crazy Train (Ozzy Osbourne)
-TNT (AC/DC)
-Bad Religion (Godsmack)
-Let it Go (Def Leppard)
-Sweet Child of Mine (Guns & Roses)
-Youth Gone Wild (Skid Row)
-Summer Song (Joe Satriani)
-Walk This way (Aerosmith)
-Man in the Box (Alice in Chains)
-Enter Sandman (Metallica)
SET 2
-Wicked Game (HIM)
-Detroit Rock City (KISS)
-Nothin But a Good Time (Poison) (I didn’t sing this)
-Tears Are Falling (KISS)
-Love Gun (KISS)
-Lick it Up (KISS)
-Crazy Bitch (Buckcherry)
-We’re Not Gonna take it (Twisted Sister)
-Bad Girlfriend (Theory of a deadman)
-Sweet Emotion (Aerosmith)
-La Grange (ZZTop)(I didn’t sing this)
-Ain’t Talkin Bout Love (Van Halen)
SET 3
Living After Midnight (Judas priest)
-Some Blues song (I didn’t sing this)
-Detroit Rock City (KISS)
-Rock & Roll All Nite (KISS)
-Breaking the Law (Judas Priest)
-Animals (Nickelback)
-Paranoid (Black Sabbath)
-Enter Sandman (Metallica)
-Crazy Bitch (Buckcherry)
BAND PRIMER
JULY 2010
HOW TO LEAVE A BAND-THE WRONG WAY
-Last month I talked about leaving a band the right way. This is bound to come up if you’re in the game long enough.. Someone will either leave the band you’re in or you will leave a band yourself. As mentioned last month, the most important thing is not to burn any bridges if you can help it. Sometimes this can’t be avoided. Networking is very important in this game and the person you dis today could be the person you need in your corner tomorrow. You can’t get along w/ everyone, but that doesn’t mean you have be a jerk to anyone either. Treat others like you would like to be treated and it will help you in the long run.
-So what’s the wrong way? The most common is bad-mouthing. While it’s rare to have it done to your face, it’s very common to have it done behind your back. Sometimes it happens while that person is still in the band. While talking to your close friends about frustrations/problems is one thing, talking to the bands fan base and/or writing about it on public blogs/social network sites can lead to a lot of bad blood between people. There is a fine line between explaining a situation and bad-mouthing. Be selective in your language. The line is usually crossed when the words get personal. Saying someone is late all the time is one thing. Saying someone’s late and that they’re a total jack off lazy **** is another. Unfortunately, one very common skill among many musicians is the art of criticizing. If you haven’t experienced it, you will soon enough.
-One of the worst ways is to leave a band hanging-especially in regards to shows (but it could also mean other things-recording in a studio, filming a video, etc..) The band has a bunch of gigs lined up and suddenly the person bails-leaving not only the band in a bad position but also cheating fans of the band who are wanting to see those shows. I had this happen to me in CAROLINE BLUE. We had 3 shows lined up in 3 months. Right after we finish the 1st show (while we were still in the bar) this guy in CB hands me a resignation letter (while I’m with a bunch of our fans mind you) and walks off. We had an Ezboard forum at that time and the reactions from not only CB fans but fellow musicians was not too good on this guy. So we’re left with 2 shows that , if I hadn’t found guys to sub in a few days later, would have been canceled. I’d also heard thru several sources how I was being heavily ragged on by this guy. A few years later I ran into him and I was polite. As I was leaving he said if I ever needed his services again to contact him. Nice huh?
-Bottom line-the business is hard enough as is. If you’re leaving, be upfront about it, honor your commitments to them, and be helpful & respectful.. You can always trash talk later when you write your autobiography (HA!).
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-At 9 AM I was in the 2nd Annual Teal There’s a Cure 5K (3 mile) Race @ Marcellus Park in Marcellus, NY. The money raised for this goes towards Ovarian Cancer research & awareness.
-Believe it or not, I actually arrived pretty early-I know, shocking isn’t it? 🙂 I wanted to beat the rush and didn’t want to risk my car overheating-especially on a hot day like this. Turns out I didn’t have to worry-I basically drove in without any problem. This was the 1st time I’d ever been to the park and it’s really nice & clean.
-There were over 300 runners and walkers and over $15,000 was raised. There was a speech before the race giving thanks to the sponsors & participants, as well as some facts about Ovarian Cancer. The National Anthem was played via a CD player & that had to be the strangest version I’d ever heard. I thought someone had put in the wrong CD initially 🙂 It was about a minute or so before a lone piano played the anthem.
-So I got up to the front and at 9 AM the race started. I kept a pretty even pace-5K should be easy for me now right? Well, I have to say that this course had a lot more uphill running than I anticipated. That and the heat were different than previous races. I still managed to sprint a little at the end. I came in 74th place at 30:58. I basically averaged 9:58 per mile-not bad! The person who came in 1st did so in 19:27. And just so you don’t think only the young can place up high, in 5th place was a 45 yr old guy who came in at 22:36-that’s about 7:11 per mile. Something to aim for 🙂
-I forgot to bring my camera to the race, but luckily my boss at work was here and took some shots w/ her Blackberry. Her daughter has Ovarian Cancer and is undergoing treatment. I hope she pulls thru.
-Next week is the Boilermaker, but I’m not ready to run 9+ miles yet. Next year. Not sure when my next race is, but I’ll still be running almost daily on my own. I’ve made it a habit now. Till next time….
-BTW-Ch. 10 News here was there filming and I was briefly caught in the beginning of the broadcast. The link is below. I’m standing behind a guy towards the middle who’s wearing a yellow shirt. I have shades on and my head is looking down cause I’m setting the stopwatch on my cell phone 🙂
Teal There’s a Cure 5K Race
Location: Marcellus Park, Marcellus, NY
-David Garlow recently put up an interview he did w/ me for the Syracuse Local Music Examiner. You can see it at Syracuse Local Music Examiner Page (WWJ Interview). Please feel free to leave comments at his page-thanks!
-I’m running in the Teal There’s a Cure Race on
7/4/10 (Proceeds to Ovarian Cancer Research).
-Feel free to sponsor me if
you’d like! Make checks out to Teal There’s a Cure and send to
WWJ
P.O.Box 5161
Syracuse, NY 13220
WAYNE W. JOHNSON 