Why on earth start another music blog?

I recently recorded and released an album of my own music. The process of making it was a culmination of countless hours of work, creative energy and careful thought. After a few years of refining the music, things ramped up in the first few months of 2020; the recording took place, the music was mixed and mastered, the licenses were secured, the artwork was created, the CD’s duplicated and the music was uploaded. It felt like I’d finished a huge task and a weight was lifted off my shoulders - I was proud of it and really excited to put it out there into the world! 

The day before I released it, I was talking to some family friends and they asked the simple question of “what do you do for an album release?”. It struck me by surprise as I realised I had no idea of what to do with this recording after it came out. It goes up online, people can listen to it, stream it, buy a digital copy or even a CD - but there was no marketing apart from a few posts on social media and a bit of radio play (thanks to the great work of ABC Jazz and PBS FM).

Now I wasn’t totally deluded, thinking that my weird, contemporary jazz album was going to sell a million copies and go viral. I fully understood that this was a passion project, a creative endeavour on a very small, community scale that was more about documenting this music than trying to sell it for any kind of profit. What really surprised me was the general sense of apathy towards recorded music that, due to its small scale, was released solely online. The way it disappears into the overcrowded internet marketplace, drowned by social media’s algorithms and the lack of real, meaningful connection in the digital world.

This is somewhat reactive and symptomatic of our current situation as musicians and artists trying to make sense of the world in Covid times. People have re-assured me that if you could be out playing gigs and doing an album launch, it would be different. But I can’t help but feel like this isn’t necessarily true. Small scale, independent, local musicians rely almost solely on their own social media platforms to promote their recordings and gigs, coronavirus or not. It feels increasingly unsustainable to be, not only the creators and documenters of our own music, but also the promoters and producers - completely reliant on a social media platform that’s purpose is to catch trends and advertise to it’s users - not distribute and promote art and music. 

At times, I also personally feel like it breeds the perception of an unhealthy narcissism amongst musicians within a community. I think a lot of musicians find the notion of self-promotion an uncomfortable one - something that we begrudgingly do only as a means to an end. I have created something (recording/gig etc) and I want to share it with people who might be interested. For most young musicians, this pretty much consists of posts on social media and maybe the zealous few who print posters, do interviews and go on the radio. What it also often amounts to is a lot of talking about yourself, justifying your work, trying to give people a reason as to why they should be listening to YOU!

More and more I have been thinking about ways we can help balance this, finding avenues to promote our music away from social media and amplify the work of others, not just promoting our own. And so, with the undeserved confidence of a straight white male who has little to no writing experience, I’ve decided to try my hand at writing a music blog (oh dear god). I plan to write little reviews and articles about recordings released independently by a diverse range of young, emerging Australian improvisers and musicians who have poured their time, energy, creativity, money and hearts into creating music for others to enjoy. I don’t imagine it’s going to change the world, but if it gives another artist a quote that they can use in a bio, something for them to share that isn’t written by themselves or even just lets them know that their music was listened to deeply by me (creepy), then I feel like it can’t hurt.

To kick things off, I’ve written my first article about Tom Allen Graham’s beautiful album Lake Tyers that you can find across the way.

Please note, this is in no way intended to be a public display of me on my soap box lecturing you all about not supporting local music enough. Actually, after releasing my own music, I realised the full extent of what goes into being an independent artist and was appalled by my lack of support in the past. I see this as a chance to atone for my previous indifference and attempt to make amends in the future. 

…and yes, I am aware of the irony that most people will probably only see this on Facebook and Instagram!