Outside the Echo Chamber, Pt. V: Your Internet Marketing Starter Kit

     If Joshua Bell and Hillary Hahn play the Bach Double in a forest, do they really make a sound? You’d be right to point out that this parallel requires either the tragic hearing loss of two of the world’s most renowned living violinists or two extraordinary pairs of noise-cancelling headphones to match the image of the falling tree. Regardless, until the day that squirrels develop a love of Baroque music, no one would care if two musical titans joined forces one day in the middle of the woods. Likewise, spending all of one’s time in a practice room (or bedroom) perfecting a craft that never gets exposed to the public is unlikely to result in the sudden appearance of an audience somewhere down the line. If you’re the type of artist whose aspirations end at your own door, then by all means don’t let me kill your vibe (though you should definitely start looking for a day job). However, if your goals are of the more professional variety, there aren’t many valid excuses for you to not begin cultivating an audience while you are still in school. I strongly recommend the following three platforms during those fragile years when your self-conscious psyche is still whispering that you’re an amateur and you should wait until you're more mature. These platforms are free. They are simple to setup; and that voice in your head is a bastard who wants nothing more than to see you in a nursing home one day reminiscing about what might have been.

Soundcloud*:

*Note from the Author: Just this week, it was announced that Soundcloud is in quite a bit of financial trouble. Without getting into a complete tangent on the music tech industry, I will temper what you are about to read with the following statement: I still recommend Soundcloud because it is currently a very popular platform that may very well fix its current problems (it is still a young company). However, I'd also recommend taking all the advice listed below and duplicating it on another streaming site, such as Reverbnation. It's always good to have a contingency plan. Now, carry on.

    You should have a Soundcloud because, at some point, you’re going to want to put on a concert somewhere; and there is a good chance that a booking agent will ask you if you have any recordings that they can listen to online. Better yet, let’s say you’re playing a concert somewhere in Middle America, and a very enthusiastic audience member comes up to you afterwards and asks if you have any music online so that they can share your music with their friends. I won’t say that it is the pinnacle of amateurism to not be able to quickly point these hypothetical people towards recordings, but it is certainly close to it. 

    There was a time when you might have to drop hundreds of dollars building a personal website in order to have a suitable answer to these questions. Luckily, today there is Soundcloud; where it couldn’t be simpler to create an account, upload a picture of yourself, and populate the page with recital recordings, prescreening recordings, etc. Because that annoying voice in your head will likely act up during this process, I even recommend having a close friend there to help you choose what goes online. It’s true that we’re all our own worst critics, though things are rarely as terrible as they seem to our own ears. Having an accountabilibuddy to help you out is kosher. A time will come when you will likely need a personal site in order to present yourself as a professional; but for someone who is at the very beginning of a career in music, Soundcloud is an excellent starting point. It is free. You can choose to hide recordings later on as you progress artistically, and it is a platform that is used by roughly 200 million people.

www.soundcloud.com/open-g-records

    At Open G we use our Soundcloud to debut new recordings (check out the Schubert from our upcoming release), podcasts (in addition to iTunes), and other recordings that we like but that haven’t made it onto a record yet.

www.soundcloud.com/williamcarrigan

    My personal Soundcloud is possibly a better illustration of what I just described. Those recordings are pretty much all from my undergraduate recitals. No, I don’t expect to get any Grammys for them. However, I’ve been able to point to this page on more than one occasion when I’ve met another musician that I want to connect with and add to my network and they ask if I’m online.

YouTube:

    Let’s be honest. You probably already have a Youtube account. The question is are you actually using it as a place to post your own content, or do you content yourself (homographs, baby) to simply browse the work of others? If your goal as a creative person is to one day have a group of people that like you and will help support your lifestyle, your answer should be the former. 

    What should you upload to your YouTube account? Well, since YouTube is the world’s largest single source for music streaming, you should start with those same tracks that you uploaded to your Soundcloud page. Do you have any videos of yourself performing? Upload those, too. In the same way that some music schools ask that you send in a video as part of your prescreening, some booking agents will want to see you perform before deciding if you are a good fit for their venue/festival/etc.

    Do yourself a favor, and don’t stop there. I’ve met few people in my life that don’t have a unique personality to some extent. Maybe those personalities are not all likable, but the fact remains that they exist. You can scoff at this fact all you want, but certain individuals have found ways to make livings through their Youtube channels because they regularly upload engaging content that displays their unique personalities and generally some skill or knowledge base that others find helpful. I highly recommend (I’m currently in this process, myself) asking yourself if there is some coherent angle that you might pursue to regularly post new content to your channel that doesn’t require months of score study and preparation. Do you consider yourself a good teacher who might upload vitamin-sized lessons to your channel every week or two? Do you like ranting about things in a way that is amusing to others? Your channel has built in analytics that can help you to gauge if your videos are getting people’s attention, so by all means experiment. The key is to develop a singular voice for yourself and to post consistently so that people have a reason to come back to your channel and see what you’re up to. If you’re faithful to this tactic and are able to build an audience of subscribers, you might be surprised at how your audience can help you throughout your musical career. As an added bonus, a portion of ad revenue from your channel might even help you pay the rent each month.

www.youtube.com/opengrecords

    We’ve got some work to do here, but the primary goal for our YouTube channel is to give behind the scenes looks at the creative process of our artists. It will also be used to debut new recordings and as a hub for super classy music videos for our favorite tracks on record. The latter will be more fully realized by the new year.

www.youtube.com/wcarriganbass

    Currently, my channel is setup as a promotional tool to show to other musicians with whom I’m interested in collaborating. I’ve been reading a lot this past week about Youtube strategy and am currently hashing out a plan for regularly uploading original content (because of my own career goals, many of these uploads will be covers of other songs in different styles). Stay tuned.

Sex, Drugs, and Updating Your Blog

     I also recommend reading this article because it speaks at length about making personal connections with your fans and the ways in which that can help you in your career. It's about having a blog, but the same techniques can be applied to a YouTube channel. Read it when you're finished with this post.

Email:

    I’ll admit that I’m pretty late to the game on this one, myself (both in terms of my work for Open G and in my own personal career). Call it the naive ignorance of a millenial, but until recently I had written off email as antiquated in a world dominated by the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Do I need to mention the overwhelming amount of spam that each of us gets on a daily basis from scholarship websites or schools that don’t realize we’ve been enrolled somewhere else for the better part of two years?

    Here’s the thing, though: for people not living under a high-tech rock, email is still one of the most effective ways of getting in touch with another human being. Better yet, you don’t really have to trick any back-end system in order to get your message in front of the eyes of someone who cares about what you’re doing with your life and your music. If you rely solely on sites like Facebook and Google to drive awareness, you sacrifice nearly all of your control to their ever-changing algorithms. Those sites have tremendous value, but do yourself a favor and take back some control of your online presence by starting a mailing list and a newsletter.

    Personally, and at Open G, I use a service called MailChimp, which has thus far been extremely intuitive throughout the setup process. At Open G, our plan is to send out a newsletter each month (starting next month) recapping a few of the cool things that we did during the previous month, as well as outlining the things on next month’s agenda that have us excited. Another nice attribute of MailChimp is that it has some pretty sweet data analytics tools so that you can see statistically how effective your email campaigns are in driving Internet traffic, and you can adjust your behavior accordingly. There’s an information box on the homepage of this very website if you are interested in joining Open G’s mailing list (again, we’re talking one email a month and you can opt out any time). 

    The best musician newsletter that I’m currently subscribed to is that of Scott Sawyer, a wicked guitarist and an even cooler guy who I’m always proud to say was one of my teachers at East Carolina. Scott offers a wealth of interesting content (and occasional free downloads) to his subscribers each month in addition to his performance calendar and information about projects that he is currently working on in the studio or with his students. I highly recommend subscribing to that here and using it as an example for your own trip down the email rabbit hole.

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    I really can’t stress enough the importance of getting your work online so that other people can discover you. I know the excuses because, at one point or another, I’ve used them all. I’m also interested in hearing what internet outlets you use that aren’t in my Big Three! See that comment box down below? Use it to let me (and whoever else reads this blog) know what you use, how you use it, and why you like or dislike it. Feel free to share links to your own pages or to articles that talk about the pros and cons of a site. As always, thanks for reading; and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Outside the Echo Chamber, Pt. IV: Stranded Silver

    To put on concerts beyond the standard solo or studio recital while in school is certainly a cool thing to do. Taking the initiative to start your own “band” while in school and taking that band out into the world is another level of awesome that is not attempted nearly enough. Enter Stranded Silver, a flute quartet comprised of four East Carolina students and (recent) alumni - Mary Gheen, Willie Santiago, Jackie Traish, and Benjamin Sledge. The group was initially brought together by Mary and Willie with the intention of playing as a for-credit chamber ensemble. However, when their teacher informed them that she simply had too much on her plate (22 students will do that) to handle another quartet, the four of them decided to try and make some noise on their own.

    That November, after roughly two months of rehearsing, they booked their first performance at a local nursing home and played almost entirely standard classical repertoire. The concert was well received, as most concerts for the ever-amiable Golden Generation tend to be; and it significantly boosted the group’s confidence in their ability to act on their own. They quickly followed this first performance by booking ECU’s recital hall for a January concert of their own and submitted recordings for consideration to perform at the National Flute Association’s annual convention in Chicago.

    Now, it’s very important to keep in mind that these guys were planning both a show and a trip to Chicago during the back half of their fall semester. That meant finding time for rehearsals and weighing travel costs at whatever time of day was available amidst preparation for exams and performances. Choosing audition pieces from the traditional material they had showcased in their first concert proved a quick fix to circumvent the lack of chemistry and identity that any two-month old group would almost inevitably face; however, as they sent the recordings off to be judged, they suspected that their musical vision in its current unrealized state might not grant them a performance slot (or the ability to apply for a school grant to cover the cost of travel). Rather than sitting idly by to await their fate, however, they decided to try and raise money for the trip on their own through crowd funding site GoFundMe and fundraising performances. Although the band generally divides managerial duties between the four of them (Ben handles business coordination and social media, Jackie handles logistics, etc.), these fundraising performances required each band member to sift through their connections and organize opportunities. The concerts were generally a more effective fundraising tool because they involved in-person interaction. Additionally, Jackie says, “If people are more willing to hand you money than to use a website, no percentage comes out of it.”

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Left to Right: Willie, Jackie, Ben, and Mary

    I need to back up a bit. As I mentioned, Stranded Silver’s winter months were spent focused on two goals (convention and concert); and their evolution during this time was hardly linear. All four members had begun to sense a natural tendency within the group toward more contemporary music soon after that first concert. As Jackie tells it, “We liked some of that [traditional rep], but then we started adventuring into more contemporary flute quartet music…and pieces with extended techniques; and we realized as a group that we really liked those kinds of pieces a lot more than the classical.” It became apparent that they wanted to have a significantly expanded repertoire when their concert rolled around in January. To find new music to play, they used traditional sources (school music library, online chamber music databases) and Youtube before ultimately directing the search toward individual composer catalogs. Composers who had written extensively for flute or had written a piece that a Stranded Silver member had previously enjoyed playing drew the group’s immediate attention. Willie describes the search for new music as a “hit or miss” process but reiterates that “just looking through Youtube isn’t necessarily enough because when you look through Youtube, a lot of the same things will come up…a lot of these [newer] pieces aren’t widely performed.”

    Once they decided that they wanted a piece of music, it was necessary to either directly contact the composer or to contact the composer’s publisher. (Side note: If a composer is represented by a publisher, that information should be available on their website or through a simple Google search of “[composer name] publisher.” This is hardly a road block to be feared.) When it comes to speaking directly with composers to purchase music, Jackie says “I’ve had positive reactions almost every time.” In the case of Tim Sutton’s Grace, which has become somewhat of a signature piece for Stranded Silver, East Carolina actually purchased the piece for them at the band’s request; and that piece is now part of the music library. This sort of school support for student creativity cannot be applauded enough.

    So the audition recordings were en route to the NFA, fundraising efforts were underway, and the quartet was sitting on a bevy of new music to sift through for their concert in just over a month. Now they needed to not only choose and rehearse the music but also promote themselves and their concert. Ben made the apparently executive decision to dive into social media and create not only a Facebook event for the concert but also an artist page for the band. I say executive decision because this move was a complete surprise to the rest of the group, though they welcomed it. When I ask about the social media strategy early on, Willie quickly responds, “The strategy was to invite everyone we know.” They invited all of their collective Facebook friends to like the artist page and, Jackie says, “We nagged everyone to come to the concert. We made flyers. ‘We made food. You’ve got to come!’ And they were great to say ‘Well, these are my friends, so I guess I’ll go.’ Then, at the end of the concert we had a lot of people come backstage to say ‘That was awesome!’ Some even said they enjoyed the concert so much that they would have paid money to see it.” That concert featured older pieces by Anton Reicha alongside newer pieces by Eric Ewazen and Ian Clarke. More importantly, it drew a crowd of over 70 people and nearly filled the room to capacity.

    Over the next few months, the band was given the disappointing news that they had not been selected to perform at the NFA convention, but their fundraising allowed them to fly to Chicago anyways in order to soak up as much knowledge and experience as they could. Since then, they have performed for multiple school functions, including appearances at an ECU Excels event and at ECU’s annual band camp. The quartet has even made appearances at a handful of high schools in the Greenville area on their own volition. Towards the end of that same spring semester (and in the middle of recital season), they staged a second concert in the school’s recital hall which drew an audience of roughly fifty people, despite a serious tornado warning hanging over the area. They donned face makeup and masks to perform Tim Sutton’s Grace at that year’s Frequencies concert. Both Ben and Jackie cited this particular performance as a turning point for the group’s identity. Says Jackie, “[We were thinking] this is either going to go really well, or we’re going to have to change everything that we’re doing…We got a standing ovation as the first group to play. So that was the moment that we thought ‘That’s it. This is what we have to do. It’s what we like, and it seems apparent that it’s a positive experience for others, too.’” Although the group’s face makeup has not seen too many appearances since then, the conservative music selection that defined the first months of their journey is almost certainly a thing of the past.

    I ask Jackie what is next for a group that now faces the challenge of having two members graduated, including one who no longer lives in the immediate area. Although she admits that scheduling will become more difficult, her response shows clear enthusiasm for what the future might hold: “Every semester brings the struggle of needing to do even more music. Going to the [NFA] convention was a big moment for us to decide what kind of things we look forward to doing next. So we started with classical rep. The next semester we did more contemporary things and added some multimedia. Now we’re in a place where maybe we want to compose a piece. Maybe we want to do arrangements of pieces that are more popular. Maybe we want to do more media or choreography…We’ve tried a lot of things and we like a lot of things. So now it’s a new semester; and we’re still trying to figure out ‘Okay, what’s next?’”

    It’s very important to me when interviewing anyone for this blog to ask them what advice they would give to anyone who is interested in attempting something similar. In this case, as in the case of Frequencies, that something is the fulfillment of a creative vision that goes beyond a student’s required curricular activities. To each member of Stranded Silver, I posed this question, and I do not believe that the similarity of their answers is in any way coincidental. I will close with their advice in their own words.

Mary: “We’re such a fast-paced group. Most people don’t want to do things until they’re absolutely certain that it’s going to work, but we choose to move really quickly.”

Willie: “If you have an idea, roll with it.”

Jackie: “You can’t tell yourself that no one would ever be okay with [your idea], no one wants to listen to that, or that you don’t have time for it.”

Ben: “Every single thing that we’ve done has been a jump of faith…I think the biggest thing is just go and do it.”

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Be sure to check out Stranded Silver on:

Facebook

Soundcloud

YouTube

Reverbnation

Open G is taking over Spotify!

And by "taking over," we mean "doing our best to carve a small niche." If you're interested in what we do and what we're checking out here at Open G, give our account a follow, or you can follow playlists like the one below. They're managed by Chris, but feature recommended music from all of our podcast guests, artists, and friends. Check it out!

P.S.- We're aware that that grey ghost man avatar is about as exciting as a Kenny G concert in the corn fields of Nebraska. Spotify won't let you change avatars unless you link to a Facebook account. We don't have an actual Facebook account. You see the problem here. Thanks for not holding it against us.

Outside the Echo Chamber, Pt. III: Frequencies

    In my previous post, I spoke of the need for young musicians who are interested in a career in classical music to venture beyond what is accepted tradition and create unique musical experiences of their own while they are still within the safety net of their music school, their parents, or both. This process can be really frustrating at times, as it involves lots of trial and error. However, the lessons learned through that effort are an exceptional complement to formal classroom work; and spending time each day working with your friends to create something of your own can be a huge relief from the everyday stresses of music school.  

    As I was writing that post, I tried to find websites or articles for various student-led ensembles across the country that I could hold up as examples. Unfortunately, finding those examples proved to be too much even for the mighty Google. So this week, I decided to take some initiative and throw a spotlight onto two groups from my own alma mater that are doing some very cool work outside the lines of their assigned curriculum. One of these stories is below, and the other will be posted later this week.

    Today I’m going to highlight a group founded by clarinetist Wesley Rhodes, who is in his final semester of study at East Carolina before he heads to Colorado State to pursue a Master’s degree in performance. Wesley founded Frequencies two years ago as part of ECU’s New Music Festival, which occurs each spring. The idea was to put on a concert where students could select modern chamber music that appealed to their own musical tastes and perform that music for their peers and faculty. As Wesley puts it, “For me, the goal was getting the students to be aware that these pieces are out there, get them aware that they can actually do them, and then getting the faculty aware that we, the students, can do them in front of people.” If you’re currently a music student who is reading this and wondering why I’m making a fuss about this, think of all that goes into planning a recital for yourself, then imagine adding four or five other groups to that recital and not having your professor help you pick out the music from start to finish. Hopefully that puts in perspective how cool this undertaking was, particularly at a school where this sort of thing was not really happening.

    The first step to turn this idea into a reality actually did involve a faculty member. Specifically, Wesley had to get the blessing of Ed Jacobs, who is the director of the New Music Festival, as well as a dear friend and collaborator of ours here at Open G. What was Eddie’s response when a student came forward and said he wanted to organize a concert by students and for students? As Wesley tells the story, Eddie’s first words were “I’ve been waiting thirteen years for someone to do this.” Teachers: that is the perfect response to a student telling you that they want to try and create something of their own. Students: if you have an idea, don’t automatically assume your teachers will shoot it down and tell you to stop distracting yourself from that Bach partita.

Wesley Rhodes, Founder of the Frequencies concert series at East Carolina University

        From that initial conversation onward, Eddie let the kids play but was there to offer advice if they ever needed it. “Dr. Jacobs was kind of like a facilitator making sure I wasn’t taking on too much or too little,” Wesley says. “I was really lucky to have that.” The two traded a long series of emails to find the perfect name for the concert while Wesley began the tedious work of filling out the bill with other performers. When I ask about his mindset in deciding performers and repertoire, Wesley tells me that he tried to find willing performers before worrying about rep because “It’s easier to get the people together than it is to say ‘I want to do this piece’ and get very close to the end and not have what you need.” The first concert featured performances of Ian Clarke’s Orange Dawn (flute and piano), Krzysztof Penderecki’s Capriccio (solo tuba), Leon Kirchner’s Five Pieces for Piano (solo piano), V.J. Manzo’s Discourse for Clarinet and Interactive Software (Eb clarinet and electronics), Antal Dorati’s Cinq Pieces pour Oboe (solo oboe), and Gregory Wanamaker’s Duo Sonata (clarinet and alto saxophone).

    The hardest part of the whole process as he relates it was scheduling proper rehearsal time for each of the groups to play together amidst the chaos that can be music school in the spring. For the concert this past year, Wesley estimates that no more than seven rehearsals occurred, so it was absolutely important that each rehearsal run in a smooth and focused way.

    They found pieces to play predominately over the internet and on occasion had to contact a composer directly in order to acquire the actual sheet music. “Some of the pieces written after 2002 are more of a case where you’d have to actually email the composer and say ‘I have this event going and I’d like to put your piece on it.’ And so you’d have to sort of wait a little bit and hope that they’d get back to you. More often than not, they would, which is really awesome.” Google’s ability to find music and the proper contact for acquiring that music truly knows few limitations.

    Frequencies has now been a part of ECU’s New Music Festival (now the North Carolina New Music Initiative) for two years and is gearing up for its third. Their performance this spring will be on March 20 at 7:00 pm, in the event that any of my readers are in the eastern North Carolina area.    Wesley is set to graduate and move to Colorado this winter, at which point the leadership of Frequencies will be passed on to junior flutist Benjamin Sledge (remember that name for my next post). When I ask Wesley if he feels the group has met their goals, he emphatically replies, “I think we met them splendidly. There’s always a little bit of fear with any recital you give that someone or something is just going to crash and burn, and we didn’t have that either time. It was amazing. It was well received, and the faculty wanted to see it again; and people from the community who came out were very excited to see that it was a younger crowd making these things happen. I think, in the long run, it’s going to help draw in a bigger crowd.”

    If I haven’t made my point painstakingly obvious by this point, it is simply that we young folk are highly capable of creating things at any point in our schooling or not-quite-yet-professional careers. The sooner we start, the better for each of us in the long run. I am very excited to see how this group develops beyond Wesley’s tenure and am confident that it will continue to be a staple in the already exceptional new music scene at ECU. 

    I’ll close with a quote from Wesley when I asked him if he had any specific advice for students who had an idea but weren’t sure they knew how to begin realizing that idea and making it a reality. “Just don’t be afraid to jump in the water. It could crash and burn, but there’s a good chance that it won’t. Before I approached Dr. Jacobs, I was a little skeptical of it, because I was thinking ‘What if he says no, or what if he says yes but I can’t get anyone [to play] and we have to withdraw the whole thing?’ So it’s just something where you have to be ready to jump in the water; and if there’s a shark in the water, you deal with it.”

William Carrigan is a bass player and songwriter based in New York City, as well as the current Chief Operations Officer at Open G Records. He graduated from East Carolina University with degrees in classical and jazz performance and currently attends New York University in pursuit of a Master’s degree in music business. He can be reached at will@opengrecords.com.

Outside the Echo Chamber, Part II: Killing our idols

            I recently read a Playboy article (SFW) where the author laments a stranglehold that he perceives nostalgia has on the output of Hollywood’s biggest movie studios. I’m going to spare you any jokes about Michael Bay’s obsession with ruining 90s-era television shows and simply point out that there is a real trend here that is equally prevalent in our world of classical music. It is a difficult argument to make that the upcoming release schedules for classical music’s largest record labels - Decca and Deutsche Grammophone - will generate any buzz whatsoever outside of conservatory music libraries just dying to catalog another edition of Dvorak’s cello concerto. If you look at the recent programming of premier orchestras, you will see a similar pattern: long-dead composers dominate, and “movie karaoke” performances of black-and-white Hitchcock films are seen as edgy attempts to woo the general public. It seems that we, too, in the classical music community have a serious nostalgia problem.

            Now, there is rarely a less productive discussion than the one that seeks to assign blame for a complex issue. Truthfully, the woes of the classical music industry largely reflect those facing the music industry as a whole; and if we really want to understand what ails the broader music industry, we have to acknowledge a world where the average disposable income is shrinking and global industry has become obscenely consolidated. If we set aside these larger questions for now, we are left with the task of finding ways for creators of classical music to combat the aging of our audience and inspire new generations to become loyal listeners. This problem is fairly specific to our niche within the industry and is one that I optimistically believe is manageable.

            This brings me back to that original Playboy article. It’s obviously true that programming classical “classics” is a proven way for orchestras to attract more conservative donors; and I certainly don’t mean to insinuate that Mozart and Brahms should be forever abandoned to obscurity. Students in conservatories certainly need a foundation in this standard repertoire; but it seems also imperative that young musicians and writers be empowered to shape the future of music in their own unique way that moves beyond what is standard. After all, a foundation is only as enticing and worthwhile as whatever you build on top of it.

            If we’re going to shape a future of concert music that is exciting to others, as well as ourselves, we have to insist on an environment of creation and collaboration that doesn’t necessarily stop at the boundaries of the classical community. I don’t think I’m being unreasonable when I say that the burden for this falls predominately on the shoulders of my own generation (we’ll say 18-26 year olds) and those who serve as our teachers and mentors. If we want people our age to take an interest in the music that we play, we have to stop relying so disproportionately on what has already been done a thousand times. The reality is that all young musicians can benefit from working with their peers to create and market a musical experience that is all their own. Teachers who encourage this sort of experimentation and provide opportunities for their students to collaborate with each other will be providing their students with invaluable experience and perspective for the rest of their careers. When the youth within the classical community begin to universally adopt a forward-thinking mentality and the release schedules of Decca and DG start to resemble those of smaller labels - such as New Amersterdam and Nonesuch Records - the future for classical music will be bright, indeed.

William Carrigan is a bass player and songwriter based in New York City, as well as the current Chief Operations Officer at Open G Records. He graduated from East Carolina University with degrees in classical and jazz performance and currently attends New York University in pursuit of a Master’s degree in music business. He can be reached at will@opengrecords.com.

Outside the Echo Chamber, part I: Introduction

            For those who don’t know me, my name is William Carrigan, and I am in charge of operations and business strategy here at Open G Records. You are currently reading the first of a series of blog entries that I am writing to advance a concept that plays an important role in our strategy at Open G, and is also important for anyone seeking to make a meaningful and successful statement in their artistic career. This concept is a phenomenon called the ideological echo chamber; and although it is most often associated with political and religious groups, it can just as easily be used to describe groups within the art world, particularly those possessing a “rich tradition.” (Side bar: If I ever start to seriously use phrases like that, shoot to kill.)  Put simply, an echo chamber is a group of people who think alike, primarily share ideas amongst themselves, and rarely venture outside of their group to seek the counsel of others. Though my comments will generally be directed at those who would identify themselves as “classical” musicians (after all, this is a “classical” record label’s blog), artists from all art forms and genres will hopefully find ideas in these entries that they can use to avoid artistic echo chambers and further their own unique vision in new and exciting ways.

            We live in a time when most major universities in the United States have a freestanding music school that offers degrees in classical music and jazz music. I don’t think it’s absurd to predict that as soon as the traditions of rock and hip hop have been quantified and shaped into a curriculum that can be shoveled into the mouths of eager students, degree programs for these genres will come to exist in many of the same schools. In all of these programs, students will spend hours learning everything they could ever forget about the “rich tradition” of their chosen style of music. They will stay up late cramming for exams and having deep conversations wondering what they will do after they have graduated into a world where people don’t seem to care about their art. Many will graduate without an answer to this question and will postpone the real world by going on to get their graduate degrees. Those who are truly enamored with academia will spend even more time in school getting their doctorates. When graduation can no longer be avoided, a select few may go out into the world and pursue a career creating and performing, though the majority will fall back on non-musical jobs or become professors. These professors will go on to teach the next generation of students, and the cycle will begin again.

            Now, I don’t mean to imply that school is horrible and that music with historical traditions should just keel over and be dead already. Personally, I am grateful for the time I was able to spend studying music during my undergraduate years, and the general knowledge that I now have of the Western musical tradition has proven to be helpful in my practice and in my playing. What concerns me, however, is that those of us who care about historical music face a cultural dead end if we continue to close ourselves off within self-feeding collectives stubbornly adhering only to our selective “enlightened” traditions. After all, if  “real” music died in 1897 (Brahms) or 1955 (Charlie Parker) or 1970 (Jimi Hendrix) or even 2006 (J Dilla), then what the hell is the point of being a musician anymore? Nobody really gets THAT excited about a cover band.

            No, I’ll be writing these blogs in hopes that they will be a starting point for those who are looking for ways to break through the crushing mold of tradition to create something that inspires both their own artistic spirit and, I believe more importantly, the imagination of the community around them. Along the way, I will point out people and groups that I believe are doing exciting work in this regard; and I welcome any and all suggestions of artists who have inspired you through my email which is listed below. I hope that these blogs will prove as challenging to your own artistic beliefs and priorities as the process of writing them will be for my own.

Until next time,

William

William Carrigan is a bass player and songwriter based in New York City, as well as the current Chief Operations Officer at Open G Records. He graduated from East Carolina University with degrees in classical and jazz performance and currently attends New York University in pursuit of a Master’s degree in music business. He can be reached at will@opengrecords.com.