Olaf and Derick, who run Born to Be Wide in Edinburgh most of the year, have brought their seminars to the annual GoNorth industry get together (ie piss-up) in Inverness, and I was at their DIY musicians chat today and thought I might post some of the advice given.  Some to disagree with, admittedly, but mostly not.

I think the most important piece of advice can be summed up in a single word and a single misunderstanding: networking.  Networking is the single most important thing you can do in this business, and some of the people who shrink from it the most are the people who are the best at it.

Most shy, face to the ground, please don’t speak to me indie kids recoil from that term like Scientologists from irony, but actually a lot of them are quite good at it. And it most certainly does not mean brazenly approaching people you don’t want to talk to and trying to whore your band to them, whilst they look about awkwardly, trying to escape.

All it means, and this point was made by almost every band present: just talk to your friends and ask them stuff.  If good bands play your town, talk to them about where to play in their town, offer to put them on next time they play and they can do the same for you.  And you don’t need to force conversations or impose yourself on people you don’t want to talk to, it just involves asking certain questions of people you know and like.  Would you grudge putting on a gig for a friend who was coming through?  No you wouldn’t.  So would your pals grudge putting on a gig for you in their city, or putting you in touch with a promoter who would do a really good job for you?  No of course not.  And if you find three or four people like that, that’s a tour.

And then when you’re on tour, just ask the bands you play with who they’ve worked with who has been good.  Then email them.  And even more importantly, be available to the fans after your gigs.  Just hang around and have a pint – you’d be surprised how many people come up and offer useful advice – who could put you on, who might do a communuty radio show in town, who might do this that or the other.  It’s not about pushing yourself on people or stepping out of your comfort zone – just let people who want to help help.

Personally, this works well for publicity as well.  You all know someone who writes a blog, has a show on student radio, might write for a local publication, or knows someone.  Be liberal with your promo copies.  Use Bandcamp, which allows you to sell CDs as well as downloads, as well as giving journos free downloads. Let people hear your music.

I’d personally agree with all of this, but I’d add one caveat: be really, really fucking organised.  Do all these things, but please try and coordinate them a little.  Send your pal at student radio in Bristol a copy a couple of weeks before you turn up and play.  Get your friend who takes good photos to take a few promo shots before you even record your album, so that anyone who you send the album to has all the tools they need to give you some coverage – the music, some pictures and a one-sheet biography.  And there’s no point getting a gig in London if you’re based in Edinburgh because the travel will cost you a fucking fortune.  Get a night in Manchester on the way down and one in Birmingham on the way back up if you possibly can.

But the one point that everyone made, and one which every DIY artist, label and everyone else has to accept: it takes fucking ages.  It will be slow and it will be tiring in a lot of ways, but if you are going it alone you can, but you have to have the stamina, and not be discouraged by how slow it is.  Because it may be slow, but at the end of the day it will be really fucking satisfying.

There is only one thing I care about happening in Edinburgh this week, and that is sweet, sweet sleep.  After the Scottish Showcase at the Old Queen’s Head last night (brilliantly put together by Anthony and Alice from God Don’t Like It, God bless their odd-couply socks) we stuffed everyone back in the van and I drove the eight hours back from Lahndan just in time to drop everyone off for a sleep and come straight to work.  So my brain is now in a puddle in the bottom of my shoes, and bollocks to gigs this week.

And you know what?  There’s fuck all happening in Edinburgh this week.  Yes, genuinely fuck all.  Unless I miss my guess which, let’s face it, wouldn’t surprise anyone there really isn’t a single gig that I would personally be heading to this week.  And you know, that might be the first time since I started writing this weekly listings post that this has happened.

Anyhow, in the absence of my anyone else’s shit to pimp, I suppose I should just pimp some of my own shit, because on Thursday night Jesus H. Foxx and Meursault are playing at the Go North music industry booze-a-thon in Inverness, before Meursault head on to play at the Rockness Festival on Sunday.  The Foxx have just released a teaser from their debut album, a track called Jeff & Josephine, which you can find on their blog, here.

As well as musicky things, you’ll find Derick and Olaf from Born to Be Wide up in Inverness, hosting four seminars over two days at the Ramada Jarvis Hotel on the subjects of bands who do everything themselves*, band management, alternative ways to making money out of music and getting your music synched to TV or film.  The full details are on their MySpace page, and I recommend getting along if you can, because these seminars can be very useful.

Even if the chat itself can get a little derailed into amusing anecdotes at times which, whilst highly enjoyable, are not of all that much practical use, you can generally spot the people you want to have an extended chat with later on and then collar them in the bar when they’re vulnerable – so there are several ways to get a bit of extra value out of these things.

And, of course, it will be a monumental piss up.

Jesus H. Foxx – Jeff and Josephine

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*Rather hilariously including our own Neil Pennycook as a representative of a band who, and I quote from the flyer: “book their own tours, organise their own festivals, release their own records, and manage to make money”.   Money?  Money? Where the fuck is my yacht in the fucking Bahamas then?

Bloody hell the year has started slowly in the world of Edinburgh live music.  The weekend just gone was very good, or at least it would have been if I hadn’t missed most of the good music in order to sit in the office here at Proper Job and stare at my computer while it stumbled through renderings for most of the day.

Other than that though there has been very little on since the new year, which is becoming a bit of a worry.  With the Roxy yet to show any real sign that they are going to pick up where the Bowery left off, Henry’s yet to announce their February gigs and the Liquid Rooms burned to the bloody ground, things are looking a little thin at the moment.

Trampoline are still putting on gigs at the Wee Red, but little seems to happen there beyond that monthly night.  Cabaret Voltaire have been told to focus their booking effort on enticing outside promoters to work with them (what outside bloody promoters, I can’t help but wonder).  Sneaky’s are trying their best, but things have still been a little quiet there too, truth be told.  All in all, it adds up to a rather worrying picture, honestly.  There is simply a considerable dearth of promoters in Edinburgh at the moment.  No-one has replaced Spitfires, Tracer Trails are showing signs of returning, but very slowly, Black Tape have packed it in, and I may do a quarterly night for the label, but that’s hardly enough.

In mitigation, there are apparently soon to be developments at the Roxy for the booking of the downstairs gig space, so hopefully we should see a big upswing there shortly, and coming out of recession a lot of bands have been cancelling tours due to money issues, so these problems aren’t ours alone.  I’ve been keeping an eye on the listings at Tut’s and Sleazy’s and the ABC in Glasgow and they too are not showing many signs of life.

So maybe I should just shut up moaning and wait it out like everyone else.  Maybe I should even take advantage of the quiet to get some label work done and finish the eagleowl Toad Session.  Still, I’m not bloody happy.  Not bloody happy at all.

Thursday 4th February 2010: Born to Be Wide‘s German Night at the Voodoo Rooms, with Jeans Team.

This is Born to Be Wide’s sixth birthday celebration, so the usual seminar will be downstairs in the Speakeasy before the gig things kick off upstairs in what I think is called the Ballroom.  I don’t know much about German music, apart from the ludicrous excellence of Die Aertzte, so I had to settle for a couple of songs with the word German in them.  They’re good songs, but I am as aware as you are just how much of a cop-out it is to post them.

Clem Snide – The Sound of German Hip-Hop

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Germans – I am the Teacher

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Sunday 7th February 2010: Still Flyin’ at Sneaky Pete’s.

These chaps are pretty good actually – bouncy indie pop and infectious choruses.  Of all the gigs this week this would probably be my pick.

Still Flyin’ – Good Thing it’s a Ghost Town Around Here

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