Welcome to another episode of metal, masterminding metal Mastermind podcast, your host, Jason Stallworth, get co-owner of metal, Mastermind on here, brother, Can-Can, Dallas. Hey, everybody, we're going to talk to you about what it takes to release record. And when we're talking about making music, everybody has to go through the trial by fire all the way to the end. And actually show everybody what you did. And you know that's intimidating
for a lot of us, right? Because we're working so hard on our like creative Endeavors and we're like, oh man is it good enough are people going to like it? That's a real bit of anxiety for people in the beginning and when you're knee-deep into a project you like, oh, I have to now release this. Some people are even afraid to release their own music. I totally get it, you know, you're putting and I think today's in today's era you're putting yourself out there, exposing yourself.
And there's a lot of criticism and we'll talk a little bit about that but we're going to give you guys a really kind of a high level snapshot of the beginning to really the very end of getting your music ready. You know, things that you need to think about during the recording process and production process and so forth. When we first started metal Mastermind, You know, you presented this thing to me.
And we have this out there on metal, Mastermind.com or website is a blog post and a video early on. You talked about the golden rules of recording. Yeah, I happily, we'll talk about that and the golden rules. Are six rules that make a recording outstanding and the first three have nothing to do with the gear that you use. The first thing is, we need to have a great. It's and honestly, before a great performance, you should
even have a great song. So, the the first thing has to be that we're capturing a stellar take, and it's the best take that you've ever made for your recording following. After that, we have the right instrument and that kind of goes hand-in-hand with the great performance. Now sometimes, for example, let's say you got A cheap guitar, right? You baby. It's like the first guitar you ever had. If it's like one of those like First Act guitars that you get
as a teenager or kid, right? But you get Stevi to play right now. Steve vais, probably going to shred the hell out of that First Act Guitar. But, you know, there's always going to be that like little bit of what if this was like an actual Ibanez that Steve Vai would really play. So that's going to obviously change the elements of the quality of the recording. So, when you get Steve, I who plays amazing, playing on an amazing guitar. Now, you have a match made in
heaven, right? This is another thing that you can also think about vocals, how many vocalist that actually do really, really great work but don't fit within a particular project because of the sound of the A voice. That's a great example dude. You know, not everybody is for everything. I and I want to touch on the guitar part because I know a lot of our a lot of our listeners
are guitar players. You know, this doesn't mean you have to go out and buy the most expensive guitar on the face of the universe but what it does mean is in really along the lines of what you just said Can about vocals. You should be playing an instrument that you're comfortable with that truly fits you. I mean, great albums have been made. You know, gear this not super expensive. So the price tag doesn't have to do with it as much as does.
It truly fit you, if you're just recording something with the beginner guitar, our guitar that's just not set up, right? And I guess we would say he's just do, do your due diligence. And even if it is a guitar, that's maybe not Stellar, maybe you put a little money into it, instead of getting a new guitar, maybe you put a little money into the guitar and the bass, maybe change the pickup. UPS. Go have it professionally set up, right?
There's a lot of things that you can do using the gear that you already have. So I just want to make that point real quick. Absolutely. And part of the right instrument, is it being correctly setup? I did a drum recording about oh just a little over a week ago on Sunday in Massachusetts and that recording Turned out Stellar because they hired me as a drum Tech. Nice, dude.
So, you know, they have this, I need this band, it's called hero in the heart of great band checking out the kind of like this tool and Stone Temple. Pilots kind of sound to them, but they've got, you know, what history of working with my buddy who is an engineer and he's actually engineered for us as well as name is Kia, Esky and the results of a Meeting with
Kia sound great. They sound big but it just takes it to another level when you have also a drum set that's like properly tuned and set up. It just inspires the rest of the band when they play. And of course the the drummer is totally feeling of cells because the entire drum set sounds just incredible. So it's a really, really important, part of really getting to have your session
ready for recording. It is just yeah, getting it the right intonation, getting the right strings, getting the right action for your guitar or in this case, boiling up, like lubricating the heads for, you know, the lugs on a drum set. So that there's no tension on the lug. So when you're tuning, it's nice and smooth. Like, all these things they add up, it's like little little things but the whole becomes that much better for it.
So it's worth worth spending the extra time and the extra money before you get into the studio, just to make sure that everything is properly working. That's pure gold, dude. Yeah, I mean, those are those are great points. And again, it's like you said, can it's not about like, okay, this one little things going to make this Monumental difference, but it's a lot of things, little things that you put together. Did you just make the, the performance so much better?
If I'm trying to solo on a guitar where the actions to hi, I'm not going to play as well. Not going to be as inspired. You tune, this drum kit for this band. Like you said, I can imagine just like, The drummer sitting back there, like, holy crap. This thing just this is Flawless. So again his performance or her performance on the drum kit. Well, that's going to roll into everyone else and that energy is just felt among the band members and everyone in the studio when they're recording.
So, right. That's the stuffs crucial, man. Yeah, it's a mental game in the studio and the right environment is number three on the list. So re having not just great. Expert. Even just like a mental space for people. That's why people like to hire a studio out when they go and they do their thing. Because the evolved of a studio is something that makes you one. Take it more, seriously. Hey, you know, you're getting better sounds at the studio, then maybe like your bedroom, so
you decide. Okay, let's go and make it worth our while and you get in there and the environment of recording in that space. Just Makes it easier in the mix. It also can help Define the sound of like, what your band is all about. Maybe it's like giant drums, you know? Or it's, is it really tight drums, right? Is it going to be in an ISO Booth? Or is it going to be in a big live room? Those types of decisions help influence the rest of the album's Timbre.
So you got to you got to think of these things as all again, small elements that Add to the whole. And if we're talking about getting the right performance, right off the top, getting the right instrument and of course, having that in tune and all this kind of stuff. But then number three, putting yourself in the right environment to make that recording again. These first three have nothing to do with microphones or anything of that sort, we haven't even got to the like
interfaces or whatever. So, forget all that, like the first three if nothing else. The first three are incredibly important. That environment. So important to men, like, I, you know, I like my studio. This guy barely call it a studio, so 10 by 11 room, but I remember just a few months ago towards the end of 2020 to I walked into Morris Sound Studio in Tampa. Florida here my buddies in the band siren. They were they were finishing up their album.
They actually recorded everything on their own, but they brought it to Jim Morrison more Sound Studio. They brought it to him to do all the mixing and mastering Just being in that environment. I was like this is just I could live here, good idea but cut over here you know. But yeah that environment I mean I can't imagine recording and just going into an actual vocal booth to seeing as opposed to
just doing your bedroom again. Nothing wrong with recording in your bedroom, guys, but maybe set it up in a manner so that you're inspired. I need, can I need a studio overhaul? You and I are going to be talking about this and more. Cuz I'm going to need your help. Sometimes I feel like I have a little bit of clutter in here and there are days where I'm just not as inspired.
So if you feel like that then just know that maybe it's time to change some things around a little bit so that you have that atmosphere to where you're inspired. Yeah, for sure, but at the end of the day, going into a studio, gives you reason to also prepare, right? Your, your, your Good about being in a studio and not being in asses as inspired. And that's probably because you don't feel the pressure. That's a good so, dude, yeah, putting a little fire under your butt.
Really goes a long way in making a great record. And that's one of the reasons why, you know, they say time is money when you're at the studio because. Yeah, you have to make it count. So make sure you're you're on your A game. But yeah, number four is Is the Right microphone and that's where we finally start getting to audio gear and I want to touch about, you know, mixing and stuff like that in just a second.
But you know, not only having the microphone like for example like an sm57 on a guitar cab is a classic sound but you also have to put that microphone in the right place. So that's another element that we cannot forget. It's really critical to know where to put the microphone. So Part of going into a studio is.
Yeah. Somebody in the studio, is going to be trained to do that job, and they're going to keep in mind phase and all of these things that when you get down to the mixing element, it's going to make it a lot easier rather than having to, you know, try and rework. All the sounds because you're not capturing it correctly at the source and then you end up having to replace a lot of those things with like samples and psycho. Oh my God, I become such a mess and it's so much harder to work
with. Yeah. Those types of situations are things that we want to try and avoid and it all comes down to the source. Was it recorded correctly? Was it a great performance?
Was the drumset tune? Was it not you know those kinds of decisions again all add up in the end until finally you're using the right re amplifier to record and that's more of like at Ambrose choice that people will make at the very end, but if you know, you know, preamps really well that actually can also make something go from sounding either a little mediocre or even good to just great because you're having the Sonic choices as a palette to say, okay, I know I'm going to
choose the API Priam because the API preamp has a very fast attack And so, I'll put that on my kick drum because I'm going to record that click Enos that I want in my metal music, right? That's kind of the thought process, some of this stuff or I might use a need preamp because it has thick harmonic overtones what sound great on the crack of a snare make it sound like, you know, route really a lot of flak, as we like to say, you know, it's beefy attack. No, let me back up for a second
to the guitars. We talked about my king and a Yeah. Can we what are your thoughts on many people that use a Sims these days? I'll I personally like to use a mixture. I like to record some stuff with my life, a other stuff with the Sims. But how do you relate that? Like, we're talking about choosing the Reich, the Right microphone, the right preeminent Source on Al Atwood. What are your thoughts on a simulators and plugins?
I think they're great, especially for a day when you're tracking an instrument, like drums, to be able to just Get a sound going so that we can all play together. Especially as a band. Right? We're not talking. Just solo individual doing multi-instrumentalist, kind of thing. We're talking about a band. You want to have something that's flexible. Something that you can work
with. But at the same time and we talked about this actually I think on our last episode with Nick with Nick and we're having a deai is totally crucial to establishing you know what the future of the sound of that guitar is going to be in the mix so you can have the D, I sort of preserve the original guitar performance and if the guitar performance was just great that day, you know, you don't really have to change anything but maybe you have to change the
tone of the guitar amp you can just re-amp it and just take that performance and just color the sound of the tone of the guitar even differently and really take your time with it because you can sculpt it now without Out having the pressure of having, to alter record drums, it's already done. So, that's a great method of doing it and you know, a lot of interfaces nowadays they just come in with, you know, heisey
input. So you could actually just plug your guitar right into the high Z input and just start recording right away. And a lot of people are, you know, not really hearing the difference between making a real guitar and versus making a sin when it's in the context of a mix. So it also depends on the mixing engineer. That you have who can work with the things that you're giving him? Because if it sounds good. I mean it is good. A lot of people aren't even aren't even my can any happen
all these days? Not young not using VI. They're just plugging directly into the interface. You can amp Sim like positive Grid or neural DSP or whatever amplitube there's so many out there and I guess you know to your point in having the right Mike. Will you know that rule applies? Even with the amp simulator when you Can go into the amp simulation in the cab ir and all that and move the mic around, right? Get that appropriate sound that you're looking for this sits.
Well with your mix and I know we're going to get more into mixing a little later here but as far as microphones go I know we got to touch on vocals here as well man. So that's that's where it really obvious visual part. Right? Absolutely. And one final thing, I'll one thing that I love about recording guitars with Addie, I actually I like to personally
Re-amp it, get it real amp. But I also like to use the DIA as a way to just blend tone with a am sin and just have that sort of balance of really defining the actual tone of the guitar amp. So that's that's a tip that I like to do. That's a very nice balance. By the way, I love that. I love, you know, again, making a real amp but then it amusing that signal, or maybe like, in my case, I might even just re-record that again, you know. You guys, too. Yeah, I'll do two Rhythm tracks,
hardpan each one. I like to hear those subtle imperfections. Those nuances between the two guitar tracks, you know. I like to hear that. At that, to me, that just makes it more lively. Yeah. And, when it comes to the metal, I think the simpler the better. I mean, you don't need really more than two guitar on either side, you know, I don't I'm actually sounds pretty big just doing it on its own.
When you start a during adding like a ton of layers of guitars, it just starts getting really, really cluttered, and it becomes hard to define tone. So my recommendation, for most metal projects is just keep it simple one left one right. You know, each one can maybe have up to two mics, maybe three if you really want to go all out with like guitar Reverb like rooms and stuff like that. All that's another conversation for another day. But the The concept of simpler
is actually better. It makes things open up more, there's less competition in the mix. Those kinds of things, we want to think about. So, when we're recording, we want to record with intention of what this is going to be used for so that we don't waste too much time. Because yeah, again, time is
money right? So but yeah it's time this morning and it is a good point you make in and just to just kind of reiterate real quick, you know, we're talking about is, you know, you record your to Rhythm tracks, hardpan each or panting how you want. But you record A temp, right?
But you've got that dry signal as well so that you can use an amp SIM for that that same, you know, that same performance just to kind of like really get some cool textures and different tones and really just dial things and a little deeper. So that's just a really cool Method Man. Yeah everything adds up at the end, it's too. You know when you get to the mix the mix becomes something entirely different as a process. We're Not worried about now
getting a recording. We're all about trying to blend all the elements, the mix and there are two, you know, methodologies that I'd say you can go blonde digital with every tool available to you, or you can go analog. If you've got the time and money to do it and some people like to talk about analog as this thing that's just Superior in every way because there's just Analog toned with it and room. Yeah, there's a lot of people like to overhype.
It honestly group analog is is great but it is a tricky thing to work with and it's a pain in the butt to recall anything. You have to also understand that we went into digital because there were certain things that analog couldn't do. But at the same token, we're having to think. Like if we do analog And I was recently working on something with an SL G 4000 series console. We have one at at the University and it's such a different mindset and I think it depends on the music.
If you're going to choose to do analog you have to be very very conscious that whatever you do in analog. You have to commit to that. There's no going back and redoing that one little, you know. Old transition just to make that One DB of a change and it's like no dude because if I have to comment on another day and recall that whole session just to do One DB I'm going to I'm going to tell you that ain't happening. So ask you this do you really think that anybody is going to
listen to an album or a song? Then after the fact say hey by the way that was all analog it's that going to change their mind about how They feel or perceive that song, you know what I mean?
So really, you know it's gonna yeah, it'll it'll add its color and all that cool stuff and you know that can be one of those things that feels like more of a finalizing touch to everything but it's at the end of the day, you know, the Common Man or common woman or be want to put it there, going to listen to the song for the song and they're going to enjoy the music for the
music. Not. The Sara Lee because of the production value, even though, of course it is. It here's what I would say about production value when it comes to Consumers. If nobody tells you how great of a production, it was you've done your job. There you go. There you go, man. Good point. It's got to translate well, to a point where any people will know if something sounds wrong and then they'll call it out.
They'll tell ya. If they don't hear anything wrong, they'll just say how great of a song it was hopefully it was a great song. Yeah. So they'll focus more on that element instead and the production value becomes Secondary to that. So they'll say, oh, by the way, yeah, that I love the snare, sounds great, you know. So that is a big part of making music which is just knowing that all the production value at all the hours that you go in to be queuing and compressing and all
that stuff. Somebody at the end will appreciate it in a sense, that's very subliminal or subconscious, but it might not be the thing that's Forefront. It'll be the the context of the music itself first after that, it's all secondary. But, yeah, that's, that's a huge part of it. I don't you've tried mixing your own stuff and what you've even hire other people to mix stuff for you to Jason. Why would you do that? Like why do you think it's important for people to?
Also think about maybe not doing everything themselves. Well you know, so there's before I don't want to be my own weakest. Link this new album, I'm working on now, I'm taking some different approaches in certain areas, but I think it's good to get a basic mix because that's just going to help you record in the recording process.
For example, you know, I hired Cameron flurry for drums, for my last two, Albums and, you know, I, but I had to have some sort of drums before hiring Hound, you know, and I had to have those kind of mixed appropriately so that I could record my guitar tracks, you know. So, I think it's good to have some sense of it to make sure everything's kind of balanced out, but there comes a point where okay, how good do I want this to be again?
You know, I mix my own stuff in the past because I felt that At the time, I didn't have the budget to go further than that. And I shouldn't even say that that's a limitation. We put our put on ourselves. What would I really? And I don't want to say should have, could have but going forward. It's like, if you don't have the funds will get the funds, you know what I mean? There's nothing stopping. You don't allow that to be a limitation, you know, can you? And I talked a lot about
mindset. We've been, we've been going deeper into this story lately. And, you know, you, you control your destiny. Do you want to hear that or not? Whether you believe it or not? And if you don't believe it, that means life's probably not going. So great. But you're in control of how you feel and how you react to things that happen. Even the things that that are seemingly out of your control, you still control, how you react to them, how long you hold them
to that emotion. And we're going on a different tangent. So, let me Circle back to recording here. You know, you don't let fun, don't let funding be that limitation. In the way to get it. Because if you really want to do something, you will find a way or better. Yet create away and there's just no reason not to do that. If it's important to you. So, again, you you can you can attain the skill, you know, like nixies course.
I'm going to be going through his course and as I go through his mixing course, you know, metal producer Overlord, the mixing series. We had annexed by the way, guys, on the podcast, prior to this one, that was last week's podcast. So, If you finish listen to this, if you didn't hear that, definitely go check that out. Lot of gold nuggets in there to help you with your mixing.
So I'm going to go through that and then I will decide as I go through that, do I want someone else mixing at this point? Or do I feel like I did a good enough job to someone else is still going to be better than me at it. Does it on a regular basis. So I'll make that decision towards the end is something that I want to hone in on more or would I rather another expert handled that and just let me stick to the songwriting. And the performance and all that
good stuff. So that's another question. You have to ask yourself and be honest with yourself. Now, mastering real quick I always outsourced mastering I will never Master my own albums songs, any of that, that always gets sourced out and can you can kind of cover the reasons why I don't know the type reasons why I just know that I am not the master of mastering so I'm going to let a master bathroom.
Sorry for well guys. You know mastering actually if you look into the Cost of what, a mastering Studio, you know, takes in terms of financial investment, it's actually very
similar to a recording studio. The only difference is, we're not re-buying microphones or we're not buying, you know, these live rooms and building that stuff out with a mastering facility, all that information or all that money actually goes towards the quality of the equipment and the equality of the room, you know, years not.you're, not doing Recordings in this big live room but you have a really, really accurate control room with amazing, amazing monitors.
Some of these monitors, they can go up to 100,000 dollars. It's incredible how much money people can spend on speakers. So that kind of mentality of, you know, going to a mastering engineer with your music that you've mixed yourself is actually a really great step because now that mastering engineer can listen to the music that you've made.
In a very accurate room and actually make unbiased decisions that will enhance the music part of what you want with the mastering Engineers actually that they're very experienced with the genre that you're talking about because, you know, especially if they're one of those mastering Engineers that's been like a trendsetter like a Roger lien or an andyman, dad or
somebody like that. These kinds of mastering Engineers have worked on legendary albums and a lot of the sound that were inspired by our from the work of Guys, so they know what they're going for here and they'll tell you whether or not your mix is up to that standard to which is a valuable piece of information as a mixing engineer. So super valuable dude, man. Yeah, you're coming from all the way from the beginning of like, okay.
I want to record the best recording that I can do to getting the mix to be right, to then getting to the mastering
stage, right? The mastering engineer is is really the last stop before you get to the consumer and it is so critical that you have a conversation with your mastering engineer and have them give you Consulting like throw away the ego and just get the consulting firm you mastering engineer because they will tell you what you need to work on or what you need to pay attention to when you're mixes and it's invaluable information as a mixing engineer, but just as a
producer, in general, Able to prepare especially for the next time you go to this person, you know exactly what they're looking for. And so now you become that much more efficient at what you do and everything elevates. It's kind of like a tide that lifts all boats if we want to call it with that analogy, don't take it too. Personally. If a, mastering engineer tells you, hey, this needs to be done in your mix and you're just like, well, that's what I intended rights like okay baby.
Be but maybe he's got a point to you know, or she's got a point. It's it's all relative, but at the end of the day, you're hoping that the mastering engineer that you're working with is someone who's more experienced than you. There are a master at their craft. That's right. Good. So they can give you the feedback that you need and you know because again like we said this is the final output.
So that's why I choose to always get a master Engineer and I don't Master my own stuff to maybe take your mix in, in for a consultation. Is this something that you can master and work with? Or is there something that you would change or even recommend, you know? Or is there something that you just can't work with that sin? This makes you don't have een and then fix those or make make the appropriate changes and then go back for the actual mastering process. And like you said, can it, you
know, that's a learning. That's a, that's an education right there with the mastering engineer. Engineer whose experience says, okay. Y'all master your project but, you know, here's a few recommendations, you might want to go back and enhance or change or whatever before I actually Master the project, that's a
really good experience. Yeah, and that I think is a great way of segue into actually releasing your record because my philosophy on taking that last step in audio production because it's like, putting the nail in the coffin. Like this is On once you get your thing mastered, there's no going back right, you? Okay? Unless you want to pay that again, you don't and it's just not worth it at a certain point. You got to say this is done,
right? So once you get everything done with mastering now, it's like okay. Now what do I do? I got to put it out there, right? And Jason you and I we were looking at the riaa. For those of you who don't know it, The riaa are the basically, the folks who put out, who gets a gold record, who gets a platinum record. They're involved with like Arts of the Grammys and all that kind of stuff too. But the riaa has some really, really interesting points that I think are really important to
note one. Eighty four percent of midpoint 2022, sales were all streaming Wilder and only 10% only Sent were physical like, you know, CDs and by now. But we'll get into breakdown of that real quick, too. Yeah, guys 2022. I mean, 84% and we all know that streaming doesn't pay a whole lot. I released through CD baby, you know, I'm always, I'm grateful for whatever, right? I'm grateful, but I still want
to continue to get better. But you know, when you get those checks in the mail or the deposits rather, you're like wait a minute. This all these people, listen to my music but I only got this is random car. Now, let me just bring this up. As I use, I do believe people still buy CDs and vinyl your hardcore fans will do that. Let me just bring this up about digital though about streaming. It was someone goes to buy your album. They buy it. That's it.
You got paid. You never get paid for that one. Purchase again you can sell more CD's vinyl or whatever. Right. But you don't get paid from that particular sale which was streaming if there's a good side of it is that it's always out there to continue increasing if you If you push it. So, I think at the end of the day, it's really all up to you and how much work you do. In other words, don't just put something out there and like,
oh, nobody's listening. Well, I you're not pushing it or you're not pushing it correctly, or you're not pushing it to the Right audience, and that's probably a different conversation for another time. Can, but again, 84%, yeah, this this is an important statistic, right? We can't ignore that. People are streaming all the time, all the time. We have to just kind of Dove understand that that's where the industry is going.
And that's why I like to look at some of these Revenue statistics with the music industry because it's showing the trends and we can't, you know, it's like it's if you can't beat them, you got to join them in this industry for this particular situation, we cannot ignore that, people want things to be streamed. So and, you know, there are some benefits to streaming, right? Actually you get higher quality, audio is streaming.
That's a big Part of it. That's one of the reasons why I love streaming because I actually get lossless audio now we're, you know, a, while ago CD was like, the better choice. It was the same, you know, kind of quality but now CDs are actually inferior in quality to streaming and Rosie. Dude, you can't you can't get the same sort of yeah, output on a CD versus what you do now. So that's a big reason. Why CDs Or just kind of dying in a way because you're talking
about a digital product, right? A digital product, the same file can be found elsewhere. But now on this medium it's actually inferior to what's being put on the other platforms. So yeah, CDs are going to die and people are buying CDs, mostly. Because I think it's paraphernalia. It's just something that they can, they can buy that, you know, supports the band, but they could also display it in their home as something that they like and expresses himself.
But That just brings us more to vinyl which has been over the years increasing like tenfold. It's kind of insane. We have more people buying vinyl than ever today at since the 80s. We actually broke records from the 80s if you didn't know. So more people, there are getting their hands on vinyl which makes us, you know, have to consider. Hey why not get final or our music but that also comes With some preparation, right? You can't just take your digital master and just put that on
vinyl. You have you, do you know the reason why? Because grooves, right? The grooves in the vinyl have so much only a finite amount of space and all of the stuff that we put with our digital Masters. They're so loud. They're so loud. That if you put it on vinyl, you're more likely to get skips on that. Record.
So we have to actually take the original mix that we did and remaster it for vinyl specifically so that we don't get any of those skips that I was saying with the digital master that we would get so vinyl. Mastering is its own thing and that's another cause. So though another process are completely. So it's mastering times to you've got your mask on for digital release and you've got a whole completely different Master for your vinyl. That's Interesting dude.
Yeah you have to you have to consider it in that sense. You don't want to just take your digital master and just put that
on vinyl. It's not it's not going to work out as well so that is a big consideration for a lot of people and it's kind of putting us in a corner where yeah we're becoming more independent in this industry release hero music and stuff like that and then you see this thing about vinyl and people are like oh that's I guess that's He just, it's another medium, we can add to it, but no, it's actually an entirely separate process. And if you want it to be done,
right? You're going to have to cough up that investment for it. So something to think about, in the future where if you really want hardcore fans and people who are hardcore fans and they buying vinyl, they're willing to pay more that the statistics show it. So, it might be something that's worthwhile. People tend to have these waves with these mediums and Trends, you know, I don't know if CD will ever come back as it was before because it's just a digital copy, right?
So it's an inferior digital copy at this point but I don't know vinyl because it's a different medium. It's it's got a bit of History to it. It's it's Legacy, right? And then there's also the act of using vinyl you Are dedicating time to listening to music. You're making listening to music and activity again which is something that you guys were always doing but now you see and you're like all the kids there they're finally discovering this
stuff and it's like hello. This is what we've been doing the whole time. So I always thought that was kind of funny. It's a different experience can you know, like I'm just imagining right now. There's so so those everybody listening just close your eyes for a second. Imagine. You walk into this room, this living room or bedroom? Whatever, it may be. You've got a nice comfy chair.
You got a little end table there with a cup of coffee, maybe a craft beer, maybe T, whatever you know, it's ready for you and you walk over to this area where all your records are you pull and out you you touch it man you got this this cover you pulled out the record, you pull out the vinyl, you put it on that player. Put the needle on You just skills, sit back and relax. And now you're listening. You can open your eyes now, guys, that I think that is, I
don't know. It's a different experience. I think I think most of, you know what I'm talking about, just a different experience than just having your headphones on and punching in the next song, and I'm going to skip this one. Go to the next, right? So I don't know it. I think it's worth looking into. If you're going to release your music, it's active music listening. Exactly. Yeah, exactly what you say.
It's not Not, it's not passive, it's not going on the subway, or in your car, and just putting it on just to have time passed by. It's getting to put yourself in a position where you're actively listening to music and that is just, it's a separate event and I love that, I love what vinyl does for people when it when were talking about that. So we're now we've got okay, so you've got streaming, you've Vinyl now. It's like, okay, how do you get the word out?
Well, Jay Sammy. There's a couple ways and, you know, us as people in metal Mastermind, were always at kind of like the Forefront of what's the industry doing right now, right? We're on YouTube. We're on Facebook, we're on social media. We're exploring these different options and I know you've got a lot to say about what it takes to Market your music. But let's talk about when you are established.
Establishing culture and community that I feel is one of the most important things in creating a brand for music, right? So, can you talk a little bit about that? And what that's been like for you? Because you are a great example of something like this. It's almost magical and I never envisioned it happening. Like it is, you know, and it's not like I'm some big shot, right?
I'm sitting right now on my YouTube channel where I think I've have a belt I think I have about sixty three thousand subscribers. Not a ton, you've got people with hundreds of thousands and even Millions, but if you can establish some kind of platform whether it be on another social media platform or wherever your reach is wherever you, feel your audience is and just be yourself. Just be you. And I think the most important
thing is to give value. If it's your music we're talking about, you don't want to just say, hey, I just dropped my latest track go. Oh, check it out. Well why would somebody go check it out? They've got a gazillion other songs and bands like a check out so you have to establish a connection with folks right?
And that's more than just the music a lot of times it's giving value like I talked about earlier which we strive to do on metal Mastermind. Hey, our YouTube channel starting to grow now too, you know, so we strive to give value and the result of that is people To purchasing our courses on metal Mastermind.com, right because we've created this community here, you know we have a Discord, we've got all kind of stuff out there, got a lot of stuff coming down the pipe to.
I don't want to get into it right now, but it's all about establishing, you know, your own community and I'll just say this, you know, there there are, there are fans. There are subscribers that are followers for every single person in this world, you have an audience, you just have to, you have to kind of attract. Them.
I don't even want to say create the audience, you attract them by what you're putting out, but if there's one thing I will say, just remember to always give some sort of value Beyond just your music because that's going to be. The reason that people listen to your music. What? I'll what I'll end on and that note, as I'll say this, that they don't necessarily even buy your music, they do, okay, think the Music's Got to Be Good. Make no mistake, it's got to be good as got to be produced as
well. Well, the songwriting has to be good, right? But beyond that your audience, they don't really buy the vinyl to CD this or that they buy into you. They buy into the relationship in the connection that you've established with them. That is so important to understand and you hit the nail right on the head. Yeah I'm hitting it with these analogies today so yeah you've got mildewed.
Yeah you've got it really you know right there man because Being a modern musician today and releasing your album to the world is more than just doing the music itself. It's all about the, you have to be a true Entertainer all around you and you can, you know, inform your audience. You can Inspire your audience or you can entertain them, those are key elements of being, you know, a content creator. And that's what it really is, right? You have to be multifaceted in this case.
Now, you have to be able to To diversify your income being a musician nowadays is not just living off of your music. It's also making you know deals elsewhere investing and you know working here to make a buck and just making sure that you have more income streams and not relying on. Just one thing. If you're at a position where you are let's say you're only stuck at a job and that's the only thing you've ever done that can be very difficult. Or someone to break into the music industry.
Because this is the entire income stream that they're relying on all, I would say to that is just have patience because it just comes with time, there's no shortcut in the music industry. I mean, yes, you can be an overnight success with a viral video or something like that, but at the end of that, you're actually looking at somebody's work, who's been working at something for a long time? And most of the time, it's a 10-year.
Night success story. So people in the music industry who have been working all their lives, they don't even see a dime of a return on investment. There are always, you know, expending income to make it happen until you know some point it actually starts working out for them and it could be in a different way that they didn't expect before. So you just have to be very, very cautious and very aware
that doing the Indie music. Ian is going to be at minimum a 10-year effort, and you have to commit to that. You have to say, my music. What I do with my music is solely because I feel it must be done. I have to go and make this happen, because if I don't, I will live the rest of my life with regret and that has to be part of your core, your or Mission, and going out there. And having to go and Market yourself, you have to do it because at your core, this is something that must be seen by
the world. If you have any sense of Doubt of like, oh, I'm doing it because I think I can make money in music, you're doing it for the wrong reasons, right? You're not doing it because of that, you're doing it because you're have this Mission, but you also understand that. Yes, this is a product at the same time. So you have to Make it a business for yourself and a lot of people will do a root that you know, a traditional route. That is actually been modernized.
In many ways now is actually doing a press release. You can use a press release with the same artists that are, you know, Big Time shots. You know, you know, like you can get a lot of stuff. Done with a press release company that works for other artists, similar to yours and that can help you get album reviews, you know, being the Spotlight for several different people. And that could be a great way to start building.
Also your own audience as well, so, but in combination with that, right, you have your album release, you've set up a PR Campaign, which I would recommend doing something for, you know, I don't know. Like at least 3 months, right? Have some runway for yourself to give you some time, but use em. You can just Google search these guys. You literally say, you know, Arch Enemy PR Company, right? Have you open a spreadsheet to yeah?
Yeah. Or even just put your John ra metal PR Company or something like that, right? Like have a spreadsheet. Look at. And compare which ones you think are going to work for you and call them, right? And see whether or not. There's somebody on the other line who actually will attend to you. These are all things that you want to do, and you want to make sure that your your Eject right
eye, it's finished. You don't want to have a lingering thing like, oh man, I still got to get this master, but I want to start doing PR, right? I mean like don't put the cart before the horse, have a product ready because when you got that now you can just focus on that and your album releases all that's on your mind and take priority for these things, right? We're we work in Seasons as musicians. We work with with composing then it's time to produce and Time to
release. So, that's a big part of all of this and take take care with your mental health. On all of this, it can be overwhelming, but understand things, come with time and you need some patience, but I don't know. Jason, when it comes to that really Guns, N Roses fun. Yes. When that when that release comes man if it feels like everything happens so fast it does. Yeah. I mean but You know what, I want
to just back up just a second. You know you can if you want to be a full-time musician guys you can will have to, we don't have time today but we'll do another segment if you guys want to hear that. So look for that, I'm sure. I'm I see everybody nodding yes right now.
I can I can see them on the other end of the headphones do it, but there are, there are plenty of ways to make an income as a musician, especially these days, that weren't available, you know, 30 40 years ago, when I was when I was younger. So that's how I'm able to do it. Full-time musician. A lot of you know about three little over four years ago. Now I left my corporate job out of very good position at a huge
corporation. I don't want to say it was cushy, but, you know, there was a sense of security there and had a really, really good paying job, you know, with everything I walked away and I walked away for a very specific purpose and I knew what I needed to be doing full time with my life. Course, I work more than full-time. It feels like I have like Six different jobs because again, there are multiple sources is something.
We'll cover. We'll cover that in another podcast because I do want to talk to Dad because some of you might be saying, well, if I can't just go all in and I won't do it at all but I don't necessarily want you think like that you know hold on to your gig and not all of your like that but I do know. Some of you are like that. I kind of have that mentality. Sometimes I'm all-in or non, you know, my wife, she helps keep the balance for me. So that that's a good thing but there are To do it.
They're always to start out with the part-time income and lead into full-time income. So we'll cover that in another session. But again, this has been a, this has been a good chat today. Very good chat today, man. A lot of. Yeah, Kate is here. Oh, totally. And what we have for everybody out on, metal, Mastermind, our resources, wherever you are in that process, we are here to try and guide you through that. So that's one of the beautiful things that we offer.
It's not just, you know, do one thing or another. We have a variety of resources for the modern metal musician producer. I'll highlight our Flagship course real quick. And we want you go to Middle Mastermind.com, of course, we got a bunch of courses on therefore guitar vocals. Got a base course, coming up mixing, but we have a songwriting course as well. That can and I put together and we're getting ready to do a free
upgrade on that, by the way. But it's called metal songwriters Forge. That's a great place to start. If you're wanting to release music and write music and just get Some ideas. That's a really good place to start, is to do check that out at metal Mastermind.com folks. Want to thank you so much for following us for listening until next time as always create your own sound.