M66

FOUND SOUND

bringing the outside in

BREAKING BINARY Gender and music

Members Music Magazine Issue 66 December 2017

IDLES New world order

JOHN HARLE

MENTAL HEALTH

bLUE pLANET ii

THE RAiNCOATS

SPITFIRE AUDIO

digital edition

contents

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COVER FEATURE

ProPer Punk 18 How IDLES’ debut album Brutalism chang the rules of rock in 2017…

ed

CREATIVE CARE

LINDSAY MELBOURNE, NEIL THOMPSON, JANA CHIELLINO, NOBBY CLARK, BBC

Mental health and music-making

SOUND ON SOUND

IDENTITY SHAPERS

Meet the creators looking outside their studios for sonic inspiration

The new wave of artists who are reframing their sexuality in music

22 14

26 14

16

JUST JOINED Get to know PRS for Music's newest members 4

60 SECONDS Jazz, classical and experimental maestro John Harle on his life in music 5

SOCIAL @m_magazineprs @m_magazineprs prsformusic prsformusic m_magazineprs

cover photo: idles

I WROTE THAT

PICTURE THIS

The story behind the soundtrack to this year's biggest TV series, Blue Planet II

Why The Raincoats rocked

33

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EDITORIAL

PRODUCTION

Editor Paul Nichols

Production & Design Carl English

Associate Editor Anita Awbi Content Editor Lucy Doyle

Membership Advisors Simon Aldridge Myles Keller

CONTRIBUTORS Rosie Blanchard, Amy Field, Maxie Gedge, Cathy Mulloy, Stefania Pavlou, Alex Sharman, Coral Williamson.

PRS for Music, 2 Pancras Square. London N1C 4AG T 020 7580 5544 E magazine@prsformusic.com W prsformusic.com The printing of M Magazine is managed on behalf of PRS for Music

by Cyan Group Ltd, Twickenham. cyan-group.com Advertising T 020 3225 5200 E orla-tickton@media-ten.com Advertising does not influence editorial decisions or content. The appearance of advertising in M is neither a guarantee nor an endorsement by PRS for Music of the product, service, or company or the claims made for the product in such advertising.

ISSN 0309-0019© PRS for Music 2017. All rights reserved. The views expressed in M are not necessarily those of PRS for Music, nor of the editorial team. PRS for Music accepts no responsibility for the views expressed by contributors to M, nor for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations, nor for errors in contributed articles or advertisements. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited.

M is printed on paper manufactured using chlorine-free pulps and the raw materials are from fully managed and sustainable forests.

m66_december 2017_3

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lara poe

Finnish-American composer and pianist Lara Poe is fastbecoming a name to watch in the contemporary classical world. With a stack of accolades mounting up, including the William Schuman Prize for Outstanding Work at this year’s BMI Student Composer Awards, her hauntingly dramatic pieces are setting her apart from the crowd.

The London-based composer is known for experimenting with ‘microintervals’, which incorporate tones in different increments to standard semitones and scales. It’s an unusual technique she first discovered during her undergraduate years at Boston University, and which is now an integral part of her writing.

Early inspiration came from her dad, with some of Lara’s first memories revolving around him playing the piano when he came home from work. ‘My designated spot was a round chair that had a mountain of pillows piled on it; I would sit in the midst of them, under a knitted blanket,’ she remembers.

It was natural then, that the piano would become her first

instrument, and she’s since performed with the likes of the JACK Quartet, the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Aija Reke and the Liminka Music Weeks string orchestra.

With a keen hunger to expand on her craft, Lara took part in the renowned Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme this year, and can currently be found studying for a Master of Music at the Royal College of Music.

Developing her sonic explorations under the guidance of composer Kenneth Hesketh – whose own work wrestles with meaty topics such as philosophy, death and entropy – she’s turning her attention to environmental issues in current projects, including a collaboration with fellow student Jennifer Haugan which explores noise pollution levels in the UK. With several other chamber, orchestra and ensemble pieces in the pipeline, plus a performance at Aldeburgh Festival 2018, expect plenty more to come from this unique new talent. larapoe.com

sons of raphael ‘Their jaws are a grave, wide open, to devour your sons and daughters,’ a priest chants in the opening seconds of Sons of Raphael’s video for debut single Eating People.

As band introductions go, sinister quotes from Jeremiah 5:16-17 is a pretty surreal one, but welcome to the world of brothers Loral and Ronnel Raphael: it’s a fitting introduction to a rock ‘n’ roll duo carving their own enigma.

Crashing Ronnel’s boarding school to film the short on 16mm, the accompanying track is a candycoated two-minute wonder, roughed up with fuzzy guitars and drum machine beats.

Find out about some of the other new PRS for Music members at m-magazine.co.uk

4_december 2017_m66

Sounding – and looking – like the love-child of New York greats Suicide and The Strokes, Sons of Raphael are in fact from North London and have seemingly burst out of nowhere to become one of Moshi Moshi Records’ most intriguing new signings.

They released Eating People and Rio as a double A-side seven-inch single in November and, although they haven’t gigged a whole lot, their opening slots for Metronomy have already introduced them to a wider audience. Watch this space for more bubblegum fuzz from your favourite new brother pairing. sonsofraphael.com

members & music

sixty seconds

john harle John Harle is an Ivor Novello Award-winning composer, saxophonist and producer based in London. He’s performed with scores of orchestras around the world, breathing life into works by Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Marc Anthony Turnage, Sally Beamish and Michael Nyman.

Not only is John one of the most exhilaratingly non-conformist composers around, he’s also worked with top drawer talent including Herbie Hancock, Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney, bringing their vision to stages around the world. Here, he shares his insight from life at the forefront of British musical innovation.

What music did you grow up listening to?

I was a very intense listener as a child and teenager.

I was attracted to the ‘otherness’ of music by Pink Floyd, Pentangle, King Crimson, Stockhausen, Duke Ellington, Faust, Harrison Birtwistle and others. I had a mania with electronic sound, and enjoyed lashings of prog and jazz.

How did you get into the saxophone?

It was also the ‘otherness’ of the saxophone that drew me to it, along with being inspired beyond words by Johnny Hodges of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Hodges made the alto sax sound vocal. I knew I had to interpret that depth of sound for myself.

My father was a businessman with an early history of communist party membership, and he took me to see Ellington many times. He taught me about the life experience of musicians like Ellington and Coltrane - their struggle through very dark, terrible times - and about the civil rights movement.

I knew none of that - I was a privileged kid and I had to find another way to express the depth of my musical feeling. I really didn’t feel like ‘toying’ with jazz, as it seemed to me to belong to other people with a right to it. I realise now that this was probably overly-cautious.

NOBBY CLARK

What was your first big break?

Stanley Myers came to one of my Berliner Band concerts in 1980 and he asked me to orchestrate and direct the music for Prick Up Your Ears, a biopic of Joe Orton. That was incredibly intense, I’ve never worked so hard. It introduced me to his world of film and TV, and on the soundtrack album I worked closely with Hans Zimmer and other amazing characters from that scene. I decided it was for me.

Who has influenced you most throughout your career?

I met Duke Ellington in 1974 and that was the turning point in my whole life. I’ve never met a more gracious, charismatic and kind person before or since.

Harrison Birtwistle and the late Richard Rodney Bennett have both been hugely influential and

almost paternal musical figures for me through long periods of intense work with both.

Playing in Michael Nyman’s band for a long time helped me define an approach to saxophone sound that’s stayed with me. At various times, each of these four incredible musicians have helped form who I am now.

You’ve collaborated widely during your career – what do you get out of these creative relationships?

I have learned that truly great artists work harder than everyone else. Even if I’ve written the song, singers like Elvis Costello or Marc Almond work at it until it’s truly theirs. This is the highest level of authentic performance, and is always humbling and inspirational.

I worked closely with Herbie Hancock on a project I was managing for the Barbican. I turned up in my usual jeans and t-shirt, but Herbie arrived in a new bright orange suit from Ozwald Boateng. He looked me over, and was clearly unimpressed with my turnout. He smiled a sort of half-smile and said, ‘Stay sharp John!’

He wouldn’t have lunch with anybody - no time.

He block-booked Craxton Studio in Hampstead and practiced piano there every day. I’ll never forget it; possibly the greatest living harmonic brain in jazz, composing and playing scales for four hours every day.

What was it like to work with Moondog?

Moondog was a true gentleman, but a hard taskmaster. I met him through [Pentangle bassist] Danny Thompson; we formed a band together and persuaded Elvis Costello to stage us when he curated the Meltdown Festival.

Then I produced the album Moondog Big Band at the old Elephant Studios in Wapping. On the second day of recording I made the mistake of saying a lot of the music was technically quite easy. The next day he turned up with a ferociously difficult saxophone solo for me to record at no notice. It was a massive technical challenge,

but eventually successful after many takes, it taught me to respect the music, not to judge it by arbitrary standards.

How do your pieces normally start life?

Very little comes to me by looking out of the window and sighing a Baudelaire-esque sigh. If I have a day at home, I compose or produce from 5am until noon, then I do an hour and a half’s saxophone practice. If you have a routine like this, ideas come to you by the activity of working with the materials in front of you, or you get bored.

John Harle is published by Faber Music. His latest book, The Saxophone, is out now.

To read the full interview, and learn his top tips for composers, head over to m-magazine. co.uk/features now. m66_december 2017_5

members & music

PART TIME PUNKS

ALISON WITHERS

WAITING ON DREAMS

Indie heroes Television Personalities formed in 1978, just as the first crashing wave of punk ebbed. With a string of satirically titled albums including They Could Have Been Bigger Than The Beatles and pop culture-defining songs like Part-Time Punks and I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives, the post-punk quartet have since earned cult status.

Leah Sanderson is the sonic spell-spinner behind Keto, a forward-thinking acoustic project that floats somewhere above the minimal end of 21st century folk.

Abi Hubbard

Guided by the songwriting nous of influencers like PJ Harvey, Elliot Smith and Karen Dalton, hers is an intense sound, where bare-all lyrics rub against sweeping orchestration and gentle rhythm. Like contemporaries Cate le Bon and Hannah Peel, she warps simple melodies into something much richer, drawing you further in with each curve of her voice.

The Notts-based artist has had a great year, bagging a place on the Green Man Festival’s Green Man Rising stage, performing at Glastonbury Festival and Iceland Airwaves, and playing two headline shows for Communion Music.

Leah Sanderson #fundedbyprsf 6_december 2017_m66

Her connection with the Mumford & Sons-backed label and publisher doesn’t stop there: Communion cofounders Bear’s Den also selected the title track from her debut EP Waiting on Dreams for a compilation in the summer.

With a load more tracks ready to record, Leah went all Macbeth during 2017, travelling up to the Outer Hebridean island of Great Bernera to capture its broody isolation and dramatic shoreline for her release Blackened Pool.

She recorded it at her friend Pete Fletcher’s Black Bay studio, and became so embroiled in her surrounds, wrote another three new tracks before she left.

‘I’d never done anything like that before; being in a residential studio and having

nothing to really think about except recording songs was amazing,’ she tells M. ‘It was an amazing experience, not only the studio, but also the beautiful surroundings.

The scenery and tranquillity inspired me to write more songs, which we also recorded while I was up there.’

In late January, she releases the first new track, Always, with support from PRS Foundation’s Women Make Music fund. ‘It’s quite a sweet-sounding song, which for me provokes some quite dark imagery,’ says Leah.

‘Musically, it is held together by my nylon string guitar, with grand piano chiming in during the chorus. I want people to make up their own minds to what they think the song is about, but it does have a story.’

Read the full interview at m-magazine.co.uk/features

Centred around the songwriting talents of the elusive Dan Treacy, the godfathers of the C86 generation may have perched nonchalantly on the outskirts of mainstream success, but their influence spread far and wide. Acts including the feedback-drenched The Jesus and Mary Chain and awkward pop stalwarts The Pastels took note, while the band’s psychedelia-fused experiments paved the way for post-millennial acts like MGMT, who paid homage with their track Song for Dan Treacy.

Now, diehard fans are being treated to a longlost Television Personalities record. Unearthed from the vaults and set for release on 26 January, Beautiful Despair was recorded in 1990 at guitarist Jowe Head’s flat in Stoke Newington, London. The 15-track gem includes previously unheard songs including If You Fly Too High, written about an onstage jam with The Lemonheads’ Evan Dando in Berlin.

Jowe tells M of the sessions: ‘Dan was a very prolific songwriter. When we recorded, it was always an organic process. It was not really conceived of as album at the time, because we were having fun! I think that part of the charm of the project is that it is more relaxed and spontaneous than one would usually expect from a conventional studio recording.’

Learn more about the making of the record at m-magazine.co.uk/features

members & music

TOTAL IMMERSION

We’re here to help!

Pioneering songwriter, artist and producer Chagall has spent much of 2017 carving a niche for herself at the cutting edge of electronic music.

She kicked off the year developing an immersive Arts Council-backed performance piece, Calibration, using Imogen Heap’s Mi.Mu gloves to render layers of electronic sound, effects and visuals live on stage.

The show formed both the foundation of her residency at Somerset House, London, in the summer and her UK tour this autumn. With extra dates in the works for 2018, European audiences are soon to get a piece of the action too.

As an early adopter of new technologies, the Amsterdam-born, London-based artist is blurring the lines between music and machine, drawing audiences into her all-encompassing sound world.

Appearing at the recent PRS Explores: Immersive Technology panel discussion, she explained how new innovation, such as Virtual Reality (VR), can help re-engage listeners with music and push the boundaries of live performance. ’Our attention span is so short these days, I want my audiences to experience my music from start to finish and pay full attention to it. I think VR can assist people to stay in the moment,’ she said.

Chagall also praised immersive technologies for their potential to encourage music creation outside the mainstream: ‘What I’m hoping is that artists will feel more encouraged to experiment as musicians, and produce more interesting music and live experiences.’

Members Benevolent Fund For more information call us on.. 0203 741 4067 Email: fund@prsformusic.com Supporting songwriters and composers Registered charity No 208671

Read more from PRS Explores: Immersive Technology on page 13.

Chagall #fundedbyprsf m66_december 2017_7

members & music sound effect

Award-winning songwriter, saxophonist, bandleader and broadcaster YolanDa Brown developed a deep love of music from an early age via her father’s ample record collection. She learned the piano, violin and drums before settling on the saxophone as the instrument closest to her musical voice - and it has been the backbone of her career ever since.

YolanDa was the first artist to win the MOBO Jazz Award two years running, and has since been bestowed with a string of accolades including an Urban Music Award and an honorary doctorate from East London University. Her latest album, Love Politics War, fused her love of reggae, jazz and soul, and hit the top of the UK Jazz Chart on its release in the summer. She becomes the new Chair of the Youth Music charity in January 2018.

The first record I ever bought was…

Dangerous by Michael Jackson. I was nine and it was the first album I remember going to the record shop to buy. I loved listening to Liberian Girl on the Bad album and was entranced by the production.

I couldn’t wait to get Dangerous home, plug in my headphones to pick out all the little production details and be transported to another place.

The song that should’ve been a hit but never made it is…

Focus by Emma’s Imagination. I have only ever bought a song after watching a TV talent show once and this is the one. Emma’s vocal is so clear and full of emotion, and I am drawn to the writing and composition. I think we should have been hearing more of her.

The first song I developed an obsession for was…

Don’t Rock the Boat by Bob Marley. I remember my dad had all his records but the collection I loved to play was Songs of Freedom – a four CD pack including his first recordings with the Wailers right through to his last live performance of Redemption Song. It was fascinating!

The last great record I listened to was…

Chronology by Chronixx. I really enjoy the new generation of reggae, but I also love how he stays true to the foundation rhythms and sounds. A refreshing listen and I love a record that can make me move!

The song that I know all the words to is…

I am quite good at remembering lyrics and sometimes surprise myself at how quick I pick them up. When I like a song, the lyrics and bass line are what get stuck in my head. I get the most joy singing songs in Spanish and getting them word perfect. When driving in the car it has to be Chingon’s Malagueña Salerosa.

The song I wish I’d written is…

Tough question! I love to listen and try to understand the process of other musicians. If I had to choose I’d say Semente by Snarky Puppy.

I like writing songs with sections, textures and a great groove. This song is something that I would love to have on my discography as it has all three!

My all-time favourite film soundtrack is…

Love Jones by The Music – it covers all the bases for me. A fantastic mix of jazz, soul, old school RnB and spoken word. From Lauren Hill to Duke Ellington and John Coltrane to Maxwell and Cassandra Wilson. It never gets old and always makes me want to watch the film again.

The song that makes me cry is…

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta

Hear YolanDa’s choices at m-magazine.co.uk/listen

My favourite cover version is…

Aretha Franklin’s Skylark (alternate version), from The Great American Songbook album. I love her phrasing and the guitar complements her perfectly. There is another version available with the same set-up, but it’s this particular performance that makes me want to listen over and over again!

8_december 2017_m66

Flack. I revisited it when my daughter was born and it had such strong meaning to me that it felt like I was hearing it for the first time and from a different perspective. Such a relevant song mixed with hormones equals tears every time I hear it!

YolanDa Brown #fundedbyprsf

members & music

ones to watch 2018 Some of the UK’s leading tastemakers let us in on the artists, songwriters and composers they’re tipping for big things over the coming months…

BIIG PIIG Harriet Hall, Vice Merging nostalgic neo-soul soundscapes with easy-going songwriting and lazy electronic beats, Biig Piig is my tip for 2018. Tracks like 24k and Vice City perfectly capture her individual impressions of day-to-day life; effortlessly reflecting her competence to experiment and move fluidly between genre and style. @BiigPiigMusic

FREDO Alex Griffin, GRM Daily The next superstar from UK rap has to be Fredo. He’s continued to build with every song, and he’s got the streets of London in the palm of his hand - and he’s Stormzy’s favourite rapper, which can’t hurt his reach next year! @fredo

POPPY AJUDHA Jamz Supernova, BBC Radio 1 Xtra I’m going to say Poppy Ajudha. She’s got a great voice, great style and she’s repping a really cool new-wave jazz scene coming out of South East London. It’ll be really exciting to see what happens next with her. @PoppyAjudha Poppy Ajudha, Jamz Supernova #fundedbyprsf

CHROMA Steffan Dafydd, Clwb Ifor Bach Katie, Liam and Zac were born to be on stage and it’s magical that they found each other. From selling out Clwb a handful of times and making an appearance at Reading Festival in 2017, they’re more than ready to take on larger audiences in 2018 and we can’t wait! @CHROMAbanduk

DANI HOWARD Naomi Belshaw, PRS Foundation Dani graduated from the Royal College of Music in 2015, and already she’s won prestigious awards, including the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Composition Prize. We first came across her via our Classical:NEXT Fellowship scheme and quickly learned she’s an exciting young composer with great energy. @DaniHoward6

PICAPICA Garth Cartwright, BBC Radio PicaPica sound as delicious as freshly squeezed orange juice tastes.

The harmonies Josienne Clarke and Samantha Whates conjure up are emotionally engaged yet ethereal, and the songs sound like they were written around campfires yet built to last. A new band going places. @PicaPicaMusic m66_december 2017_9

money & business GENDER GAP NARROWS AMONG PRS MEMBERS

the big numbers

60/40 Split between new male and female songwriters and composers under 20 who are joining PRS for Music.

13% Percentage of women composers currently included in Sound and Music’s British Music Collection.

The organisation has a target of 50 percent by 2020.

Forty percent of new songwriters and composers aged 20 and under who are joining PRS for Music identify as female, according to new figures.

‘In 2016 we established a working group to examine the gender imbalance and explore how we could encourage an increase the overall number of female members.

Although just 17 percent of the total membership are women, this shift among younger generations indicates positive green shoots for a music-making community currently out of balance.

‘We’ve been analysing data, and gathering information and opinion from a wide number of sources, and we’re of the view that this is an industry-wide issue - we cannot improve female representation across our membership unless the wider community also changes.

In the 20-to-29-year-old category, 21 percent of PRS members identify as female, while among 60-to-69-year-olds, the figure drops to just 12 percent. In this respect, PRS for Music is largely in line with other collecting societies in Europe, with GEMA (Germany), SGAE (Spain) and STIM (Sweden) all reporting an overall female membership of less than 20 percent.

NEIL THOMSON

Among other music associations and unions, the picture is slightly healthier, yet men still significantly outnumber women. The Musicians’ Union recently reported that 30 percent of its members identify as women, while at the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, 23 percent are female.

Karen Buse, former Executive Director, Membership and International at PRS for Music, told M: ‘The growth in the number of young female songwriters and composers joining PRS for Music is extremely positive, and we look forward to supporting this upward trajectory into 2018 and beyond. However, we recognise there is an issue here.

Pictured above: Poppy Hankin (middle) from indie trio Girl Ray was under 20 when she joined PRS for Music in 2016.

10_december 2017_m66

‘To that end, we’re working with national and regional bodies to widen the discussion and action positive change. Our Education & Outreach team is working hard to reach out to women creators across the UK and we continue to increase our presence at targeted events, to raise our profile among the female demographic.’

Since its inception, the group has partnered with organisations including the BBC, Association of Independent Music (AIM), UK Music, PRS Foundation, Urban Development, MOBO and Girls I Rate.

New initiatives from PRS Foundation, including ReBalance and Keychange, are also working to fix these issues at grassroots level and beyond, while panels, keynotes and seminars at events touching every area of the business from music production to live music have provided platforms to discuss practical solutions throughout 2017.

Stay up to date with the latest developments at m-magazine.co.uk/tag/women-in-music

3 Number of years PRS Foundation’s ReBalance initiative will run, with the aim of addressing the gender imbalance in live music.

1/3 Women’s share of senior executive roles within the music industry, according to a recent UK Music study.

Your next paydays Performing (PRS): 13 April, 13 July, 15 Oct, 14 Dec Mechanicals (MCPS) Non-Recorded Media: 15 Jan, 15 Feb, 15 March, 13 April Recorded Media: 29 Dec, 31 Jan, 28 Feb, 30 March

business

business news

for all the latest business news visit m-magazine.co.uk

WHAT YOU’RE LISTENING TO LISTENERS AND CREATING AROUND THE UK

CREATORS

E D IN B U R G H FOLK JAZZ

G LA S G O W

BELFAST

ROCK FOLK

POP RELIGIOUS

LEEDS LIVERPOOL POP ROCK

We’ve pulled in listening figures from Spotify and creator data from the PRS for Music membership database to work out which genres are disproportionally popular in towns and cities across the UK. Among the quirks, we found Oxford has a greater than average number of classical music fans, while a bigger percentage of creators are making rock there than anywhere else.

What’s happening where you live, and what does it say about your town?

LISTENERS CREATORS

BIRMINGHA

CARDIFF URBAN CLASSICAL

M

GLASGOW

NORWICH

URBAN URBAN OXFORD

B R I S TO L CHILLOUT ELECTRONIC SO UT HA M PT ON URBAN DANCE

ROCK

INDIE JAZZ

CLASSICAL ROCK

URBAN JAZZ

LONDON URBAN URBAN

B R I G H TO N INDIE CK SOUNDTRA m66_december 2017_11

BILL MARTIN

CONGRATULATIONS A SONGWRITERS LIFE

❛His is a story of joy and life set to music. The best music book I have read in years❜ – Sir Michael Parkinson ❛The music business book of the year❜ – Chris Evans

Available on Amazon and at any book shop. ISBN Number: 978-1-5272-1281-7 Also check out – www.billmartinsongwriter.com

money & business

business

POWERING UP WITH BIG DATA

In the digital age, the music business is increasingly relying on big data to classify songs and recordings, track their uses and power recommendation services on streaming platforms. This data feeds the engine room of the industry, driving business decisions and shaping innovation.

Data has always enabled royalties to flow to songwriters, composers and publishers, but with the increasing volume of bits and bytes pouring into collecting societies such as PRS for Music, how is the world of rights administration keeping up?

Rachael Naylor, interim Director of Operations at PRS for Music, oversees the organisation’s data processing, which fuels member distributions and ensures the flow of royalties from organisations to songwriters, composers and publishers.

She’s been an integral force within the Operations Team since 2012, helping to transform its function during a huge period of change both at PRS for Music and across the wider industry.

Now a streamlined team, which partners closely with external music identifying companies and data processing specialists, Operations is focused on reducing costs and increasing capacity as digital data volumes continue to spiral.

Here, Rachael shares her thoughts on the challenges facing collecting societies and rightsholders, how the data business is shaping up for 2018 and what PRS for Music is doing to stay in tune…

The digital music market has transformed the whole industry. How is PRS for Music adapting to this and what are the main challenges you face?

Our biggest challenges revolve around data and service in terms of volume, management and quality. The volume of data we receive has risen exponentially in recent years, and while much of this can be attributed to online usage, we have also seen a steady rise across TV, radio, on-demand entertainment, public performance and the live sector as well.

To manage this, we’ve increased our focus on the quality of the data we receive, in terms of how it’s reported to us (format), what is reported (content) and, importantly, what’s not reported, as well as ensuring data is received in a timely fashion.

We’re also working hard to exploit our data, both to improve our overall performance and share insight with our members and stakeholders, with the aim of helping decision-making across the industry to become more data-driven.

You work with an increasing number of external partners who handle data processing and music recognition – how is that working out?

We work with a number of companies such as ICE, Nordic Music Partners (NMP), Soundmouse and On Music. The levels of service they provide us directly impacts the service our members receive – so it’s of huge importance we get this right.

We must influence others to provide the level of service we need, so we can deliver the best possible service to all our members. For example, our partnership with On Music has led to a significant increase in the volume of music usage data received on time.

We’re working hard to exploit our data and share insight with our members. We want decision-making across the whole industry to become more data-driven.

How has your department changed over the last couple of years?

Our Service Delivery Team has grown and evolved to manage all these various contracts and service partners. Frameworks have been put in place to track performance and we are keeping a close eye on this area.

We have also founded an Operations Strategy Team to design ways to increase operational quality, such as our new product to audit music data files we receive from our suppliers to ensure they meet the high standards we expect. It has helped with early identification of data inaccuracies and we’ve been able to assess more than 35 million lines of data already. This has ultimately led to an increase in the accuracy of royalty payments to our members.

How do you see things evolving in 2018?

I think 2018 will be an exciting year for us.

We will capitalise on the foundations we have built over the last couple of years to really add value across the business, to our members and the industry.

Our key focus will be on the continuation and development of Music Recognition Technology (MRT) initiatives, alongside transformation of internal and partner processes and services.

Our overall aim for 2018 is to be an industry leader in service and data management and delivery, to improve our service to members and allow us to engage more meaningfully with our stakeholders.

As data volumes continue to grow, what can we, as an industry, do collaboratively to streamline processing and royalty payments?

Musical works need to be registered in a timely fashion and I’d like to see an increase in the adoption of industry-wide standard codes wherever works are referenced – such as the International Standard Recording Codes (ISRCs) and the International Standard Work Codes (ISWCs).

Also, I would urge all songwriters, composers, artists, labels and publishers whose works are used on radio or TV, to ensure they are uploading their audio files and rightsholder information to the music recognition service Soundmouse, so that it can accurately match works to uses. m66_december 2017_13

Worth making a Song and Dance Over

Prism Sound Lyra user Justin Hurwitz.

Academy Award winning film composer (La La Land, Whiplash)

When Academy Award winning film composer Justin Hurwitz went looking for a new interface that exuded both quality and class in its construction and sound quality he looked no further than the Prism Sound Lyra. The crystal-clear transparency of even the smallest details in the mix made it the perfect choice.

The Prism Sound Lyra has 30 years of interface design expertise implemented in a small half rack mount unit which contains a wealth of professional features.

Prism Sound is the only choice for professionals worldwide.

START YOUR AWARD WINNING JOURNEY CONTACT US NOW

sales@prismsound.com | www.prismsound.com UK +44 (0) 1353 648 888 | USA +1 973 983 9577

money & business

business

CREATOR’S VOICE

The number of full PRS members who put themselves forward for election to the PRS Board hit a high in 2017, while the number of eligible members voting in the Directors’ Ballot was up 20 percent, according to new figures.

This growing interest among songwriter, composer and publisher members in the governance of the Society helped drive the appointment of four new board directors this year – Imogen Heap, John Truelove, and Roberto Neri (Downtown Publishing) and Jo Smith (Warner/Chappell) – and PRS is keen to see this growth continue.

Active governance The PRS Board plays a major role in setting the strategic direction of the Society, promoting the success of the company for the benefit of all members and ensuring that the Society is run in accordance with the PRS Constitution.

The Board comprises 11 writer directors, 11 publisher directors, two external independent directors and the Chief Executive Officer, Robert Ashcroft.

All directors are appointed by full and associate members at a PRS Annual General Meeting (AGM). The writer and publisher directors are appointed following a Directors’ Ballot in which both full and associate members are entitled to vote. Directors are appointed for a three-year period and are usually eligible to stand for re-appointment at the end of that term. In 2018, there will be three writer director vacancies and two publisher director vacancies.

VR VERDICT The benefits of immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) far outweigh the challenges to rightsholders, a leading tech expert has told the music industry.

Nicholas Minter-Green, co-founder of Parable VR, which is part-owned

by Channel 4, made the comment at the recent PRS Explores: Immersive Technology event. The event also gathered experts including Music Ally’s Stuart Dredge and PRS for Music’s Director of Strategy Graham Davies to discuss developing technologies and music.

‘Think about all the virtual rooms in which you can play your music – these never would have existed before,’ Minter-Green said. ‘There may well be challenges around exploiting every last percent of the rights, but on the plus side, there’s going to be an almost infinite set of new places where music can be experienced.’

Get involved Full members who wish to stand for election must be nominated by 10 other full members and are asked to send their nominations to the Society’s registered office either by post or email no later than 5pm on Friday 23 February 2018.

Candidates are also asked to submit a nomination form, which has been signed by their 10 nominees, plus a short biography, short manifesto statement, list of any current or recent directorships and a recent photo. If you are unsure as to your eligibility to stand for election, nominate someone else to stand or vote in the Directors’ Ballot, please see prsformusic.com/aboutus where a document setting out the role of a director can also be found.

Full members interested in standing for election or who want further information should contact Jenny Goodwin, PRS for Music’s Head of Secretariat, at jenny.goodwin@prsformusic.com.

2018 AGM The next PRS AGM takes place in London on Thursday 24 May and will be open to full and associate members of PRS. All members eligible to participate in both the Directors’ Ballot and the AGM will be contacted in early 2018 by PRS’ independent scrutineers, Electoral Reform Services (ERS).

For more information about the PRS Board, the Directors’ Ballot and the PRS AGM, please see prsformusic.com/aboutus.

The panel pointed to artists who already pair immersive technologies with music, including Ed Sheeran, who unveiled his single Shape of You to Snapchat users when they tried out one of the platform’s new filters.

‘Snapchat had about 150 million daily active users at the time. That was a massive-scale pairing of music with augmented reality, but you didn’t need a headset or anything expensive to access it,’ said Music Ally’s tech expert Dredge. ‘As an artist, this is the best time to experiment, while it’s still early days.’

Speaking about the challenges facing rightsholders, creative rights specialist Ben Green said: ‘We’re very much in an experimental phase.

If you host a VR concert and a user gets up on stage and creates some new music with you on a guitar, what happens with the intellectual property that’s created? Is it covered under the user agreement when they check a box to say, “I’m using this material on this platform”? You start to see the massive implications here.’

Elsewhere, Nick Edwards, PRS for Music’s Head of Online Licensing, explained the society’s position: ‘We’re seeing a huge change and a huge opportunity, and it’s not yet clear where that’s going to go. We must work with the industry to ensure the structure and the rights packages that we deliver are robust enough to cover the types of content being made available, and that the remuneration for our members is at the right level and allows them to get paid where their music is exploited.’

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HOW TO COPE WITH BEING A MUSICIAN Dr Claire Renfrew is a music psychologist who has hands-on experience working with songwriters, composers, performers and musicians across the industry. Here, she reveals some of her key findings and offers vital coping mechanisms for creatives…

Looking back on 2017, it’s been a watershed year for our understanding and acceptance of mental health issues across the music industry. Artists including Frank Carter, Stormzy and Years & Years have spoken openly about the problems they’ve faced, helping push this subject further up the agenda.

Elsewhere, Help Musicians UK’s ground-breaking Can Music Make You Sick? report, which was published in October, has brought real empirical insight to the table, quantifying just how much creatives can suffer for their art.

In the paper, researchers Sally-Anne Gross and Dr George Musgrove, from Westminster University, found that 71 percent of the 2,200-plus musicians they interviewed across the genre spectrum suffer from high levels of anxiety – three times higher than among the general population – while 69 percent report they have experienced depression.

Add to this a plethora of previous studies, which have noted that artists suffer frequently from multiple physical and psychological health issues such as hearing disorders, occupational stress, drug and alcohol abuse, musculoskeletal disorders, fear of potential injury or disability, stress and pain – and we might have an epidemic on our hands.

Worryingly, this unhealthy cocktail of complaints may be prevalent throughout a musician’s entire life due to their enduring commitment to their vocation, yet many receive little or no tailored health support.

Frank Carter, Years & Years #fundedbyprsf

The nature of the beast Music creators often find it difficult to strike a healthy work/life balance because of the constant 'always-on' nature of the music industry. Many have revealed in confidential sessions how they are unable to ‘switch off’, and struggle to distance themselves from their day job. For example, they often feel they are unable to watch and enjoy performances as passive listeners because they can’t stop viewing the show through a professional lens.

In all genres, the focus is on the music and not the self.

It’s often a symptom of the huge weight musicians place on their ability to perform and create. A far-reaching International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM) survey in 2015 quantified the fear musicians can feel if they lose their musical skills, with many revealing they rely on their profession for ‘much of their identity’.

Past studies have also revealed the contrasting experiences musicians may encounter, such as physical feelings of pain with pleasurable emotions such as passion. Many say they can continue through the pain because they are getting a psychological kick from creating music.

Often, the musician has been training from a young age – it’s a lifelong vocation that comes at the cost of neglecting ‘the self’.

In all genres, the focus is on the music and not the self.

HEALTH

We express ourselves professionally, which is an exceptional position to be in, but it can exhaust and deplete you.

Jazz trumpeter, band leader and educator Kim Macari says: ‘Another serious challenge is creative wellbeing. We express ourselves professionally, which is an exceptional position to be in… but it can exhaust and deplete you.

‘I was ill last year and received treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD], and I learned so much about the importance of self-care in our profession. In our society, we tend to wear exhaustion and busy schedules like badges of honour. But what I realised is that my creative output is vastly improved if I take care of myself well.’

Thank you for the music You may ask yourself why musicians, artists, composers and songwriters continue, despite the personal and professional challenges they encounter? Many say it’s the positive physical sensations, emotional connections and personal development they get which keeps them going.

The emotional attachment and love of being a musician, writer or composer is often one of the most important reasons to persevere within the industry, as music has such a prominent and crucial place within their lives – and also within the lives of many listeners and audiences.

Additionally, playing and creating music is recognised as a fundamental human construct - a fulfilling core psychological need. And, while these emotional connections felt by musicians towards their career can’t be ignored, the wider music community must work together on solutions to help them survive and thrive. Here are just a few:

Realistic expectations Previous research has outlined how music creators are often unprepared for the physical and psychological demands of the profession. It’s essential to prepare individuals for these demands and give them a transparent view of what’s expected of them to succeed within the industry.

Mentoring and educational schemes can help tackle this issue, giving individuals access to online forums and promoting a community in which music creators can share their experiences both positive and negative, and ensure they do not encounter issues alone.

Know your rights Musicians often mask their injuries or unwellness because they don’t want to be perceived as injured: they feel this could affect their reputation and employment prospects.

In addition, music creators often don’t take holidays as they want to be seen as ‘always on’ and readily available. But it’s important to know what holidays you are due and take them. If you are freelance, create your own holiday allowance and stick to it.

Artists should know their rights. Speak to the Musicians’ Union, which can give you further advice on what help is available.

Care and communication Charities including PRS for Music Members Benevolent Fund, Mind, Help Musicians UK and Music Support UK provide services to advise and educate musicians on mental health issues they may be experiencing. Self-awareness and self-care are essential – talk about your experiences.

Maintain balance Previous reports have shown that musicians neglect stress management. They experience a lack of physical autonomy and frequently side line recreational activity such as exercise over musical practice and creation.

Also, many musicians feel that career achievement and success may come at the cost of their own health and wellbeing. But it’s important to try not to link over-working with success, and attempt to maintain a healthy work/life balance.

Make time for yourself – it’s important to switch off.

Institutional support Professional music organisations and educators must revisit their structures to ensure a stronger focus on teaching individuals about self-care within the music profession. The importance of having awareness of a sense of self and how to identify personal stress must be taught in training institutions and in all music organisations, amateur and professional.

Coping mechanisms It’s really important that music creators are educated in positive coping strategies such as breathing techniques, selfreflection, imagery and mock performance practice. They are often woefully unprepared for the psychological and physical demands of the profession, and they need to cultivate a sense of self-control over their performances.

A sense of emotional regulation, as well as mindfulness, is also vital to musicians, helping them tackle issues such as performance anxiety. Musicians, writers and composers often express very personal emotions in their music and they should be educated on how to evaluate the impact this may have on them.

Useful links prsformusicfund.com mind.org.uk helpmusicians.org.uk musicsupport.org For more visit m-magazine.co.uk/tag/wellbeing

M66_DECEMBER 2017_17

Anita Awbi hangs out with Bristol punks IDLES as they celebrate their gigantic 2017 with a hot sweaty mess of a sold-out tour‌

LINDSAY MELBOURNE

A lot of people misconstrue purposefulness, drive and aggressiveness in music as anger.

It’s not the same thing.

IDLES #fundedbyprsf

profile PROFILE

‘You’re no one until you’ve supported Foo Fighters or been on X Factor,’ says IDLES’ frontman Joe Talbot with a sardonic smile.

He’s considering ‘band goals’ with guitarist Mark ‘BoBo’ Bowen, and chat veers towards Simon Cowell and his steely grip on British music tastes.

It’s the end of a crazy year for the band, which, sure enough, included an opening slot for Dave Grohl and his gang at the O2 Arena in London. Unsurprisingly, a turn on Cowell's talent show has so far proved more elusive.

Joe slaps his head and rolls his eyes. ‘In normal life, everyone says, “Oh, you’re in a band, have you been on X Factor?” I say, “No, look at me, you fucking weirdo! I’ve not been on X Factor.

Listen to me, what the fuck is wrong with you?”’ You can see his point. Joe is dressed head to toe in ripped and faded black, his bleached hair is cropped close, and behind those specs is a wild look which suggests total depravity.

‘I never considered myself having goals until just this moment but this is it!’ Mark chips in, his whiskers all abristle. ‘Let’s do our next album live on X Factor!’

‘Only if we can call it Sophomore and fucking nail that Showaddywaddy sound we’re going for, yeah?’ counters Joe. We’re supping pints at the Old Blue Last, a pub just around the corner from tonight’s gig, and the banter is flowing freely.

Yesterday it was Tunbridge Wells, today it’s London’s East End, and tomorrow? The first leg of an 11-date European tour. It’s all happening for IDLES. Their smash and grab on British music in 2017 has been chaotic, charismatic and completely justified. The band have been grafting hard for eight years, self-releasing EPs, financing their own tours and sharpening their sound far away from the glare of the industry spotlight. Then, in March, everything changed.

Brutalism Aptly named after a particularly harsh strain of minimalist architecture, IDLES’ self-funded debut LP Brutalism landed on 10 March, igniting their slow-burning musical ambitions with a big bang.

M66_DECEMBER 2017_19

‘It’s one of the most amazing things to happen this year,’ says Mark. ‘These people are our friends now. They’re even getting together to come and watch us play in Hamburg. It’s amazing that we’re a vector for all of this.’

‘We’re trying to encourage emotion,’ Joe adds. ‘Nowadays, with such a violent society, I think the easiest way to get that emotion is to really fucking push people. But our message isn’t hate or anger and I’m glad people get it.’

Outside the sold-out London venue, an excited crowd is brewing.

Some faces familiar to the band begin queuing inside by the merch stand, chatting to bassist Adam Devonshire, who says he feels ‘lost’ when he’s not out there mingling with fans/friends.

Above: Idles performing at PRS for Music Presents, September 2017 Below: SXSW

Tracks like Well Done and Mother, with their sideways swipe at austerity Britain, class inequality and sexual violence, tapped into our society’s growing disillusionment. 42 minutes of concise carnage, the band’s anger buzzs with anarchist exhilaration, reminding us just how potent proper punk can be.

‘The world is all a bit weird at the moment,’ Joe offers. ‘No one really knows who to believe in or what’s going on. People don’t trust money anymore, they don’t trust God, they don’t trust the government. As an artist, whose corner do you fight if there are no corners left and everything is a big fucking mess?’

It’s a rhetorical question that IDLES have answered with wave on wave of musical realism which they’ve whittled away to its simplest form. Lo-fi bass, drums, guitars and railing lyrics: a primal response to rampant capitalism, ‘shit pop and bigoted bullshit’.

‘I don’t really enjoy people who preach about their political standpoint and I don’t like zealots,’ says Mark. ‘I feel a certain political way, but I get on with it. It’s how I interact with people, how I work my job… It’s not for me to go, “Oi, listen up.”’

For IDLES, music is therapy: everything feels looser once they’ve exorcised their demons on stage and on wax. ‘We’ve become less angry because our music has become more purposeful and aggressive,’ says Joe, as we skirt around his few years in the wilderness, when he lost his mum and life swerved out of control.

‘I think a lot of people misconstrue purposefulness, drive and aggressiveness in music as anger. It’s not the same thing. If you look at the people in our audiences, they’re always smiling.

They’re going for it.’

As the music gets increasingly hostile, IDLES become gladder. Meanwhile down in the mosh pit, the fans are, literally, jumping for joy.

JENNNIFER MCCORD, ANITA AWBI

All is love Search IDLES across social media and you’ll find the #allislove tag everywhere. It’s favoured by the AF Gang, a loose collective linked by Facebook, who rose up earlier this year to organise IRL meet-ups at gigs. They also go to see other acts endorsed by the band, like Protomartyr and DUDS.

A lot of bands put pressure on themselves to be successful, but they forget what success is.

One of IDLES’ long-time girlfriends is having a cigarette in the smoking section, while the band’s other guitarist Lee Kiernan stands nearby, talking to more fans about train sets. ‘They’ve always played live so much, but it’s only just getting this manic,’ the girlfriend says, waving her hand around the throng.

‘Often it’d be to a room of 10 people, and I’d get pissed off. Why does my boyfriend want to do that rather than hang out with me? Now I get it. Although sometimes I feel like [Mick Jagger’s old girlfriend] Marianne Faithfull!’

While IDLES have obviously wooed an army of music fans hungry for honesty, they’ve also charmed the pants off the industry too, with early support from broadcasting veteran Steve Lamacq (‘Lord Lammo’ to IDLES) helping no end.

Since getting airplay on his BBC Radio 6 Music show, they’ve won the Best Live Act Award from the Association of Independent Festivals, scored funding from PRS Foundation to play the BBC showcase at South by South West 2017, performed at PRS for Music Presents and found their way onto a clutch of year-end Best Albums lists.

It’s not us, it’s you It’s showtime and IDLES run on stage, dressed all in white. They’ll be wearing these outfits – unwashed – for the rest of the tour.

Joe looks out across the crowd. This could be the largest headline show they’ve done yet. ‘We haven’t got bigger, you have,’ he shouts. ‘Thanks everyone, it means a lot.’

PUNK

There’s plenty of ramped-up testosterone in the mosh pit as massive blokes jump over the barriers and crash into one another. But they’re also holding out a hand to anyone who falls over. Mayhem is woven into the DNA of IDLES’ live shows, encouraged by the band’s on-stage antics. But none of it ever bubbles over into unpleasantness, maybe because Joe always delivers a short sermon on inclusivity and love for all.

‘I think the nature of our music is open-minded,’ he says.

‘What I’ve witnessed at all our gigs is that anyone, fucking anyone, is welcome. No one feels like they should act a certain way or look a certain way – and I think that just comes from us being ourselves.’

Before the end of 2017, the band announced some massive gigs next April at G2 in Glasgow, Gorilla in Manchester and Heaven in London, with the latter two selling out five months before the shows. Momentum is obviously building fast, but how will it impact the good vibes?

‘If you’re a realist and you’re a musician, the more popular you are the more opportunity you have to play more – so of course we want to be popular,’ Joe figures.

Although he doesn’t like playing to massive crowds because he wants to ‘be able to see the eyes of the person at the back’, it’s not going to stop him on his path. ‘If we write shit songs then no one will come to see us and we won’t be able to do it anymore. We don’t want that,’ he says.

Well done Once IDLES finish their European tour, they’ll be holed up in a studio in rural Wales to record their second album with producer Paul Frazer (aka Space). They’ve already been airing new tracks Samaritans, Alcohol and Rottweiler live, and with a focus on capturing their on-stage sound, what could go possibly go wrong?

‘I think a lot of bands put pressure on themselves to be successful, but they forget what success is,’ says Joe. Your fertility increases when you’re not worrying about conceiving, he explains, using his long-term relationship, and subsequent fatherhood, as an analogy. ‘Your body is an organism, it’s an open temple,’ he adds, with a completely straight face.

IDLES have obviously incubated for long enough now and are completely relaxed in their own skin. Says Joe: ‘At the end of the day, it’s an album, and just because the songs will be permanently on record, it doesn’t mean that mistakes shouldn’t be there. We’re not perfect. It isn’t perfect, nothing’s perfect.’

‘Our X Factor debut will be perfect though,’ Mark pipes up.

‘We’ll be all Kate Bush in leotards and the judges will love us. We can play the second album – you know, those new songs which sound like IDLES but are played in the style of Showaddywaddy?’

And on that note, conversation turns back to Simon Cowell…

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BASCA, 2 Pancras Square, London N1C 4AG

The British Academy of Songwriters, Composers & Authors (BASCA), protects the professional interests of songwriters, composers and lyricists of all genres of music and campaigns on their behalf in the UK and throughout the World.

British Academy of Songwriters, Composers & Authors

More and more musicians are downing instruments in favour of capturing the natural noises outside their studio. Anita Awbi delves into their sonic world…

It’s 1952, a long, damp evening at the end of August. People are filing into the Maverick Concert Hall near Woodstock, Upstate New York, for a premiere unlike any other. Pianist David Tudor walks over to his instrument, sits down and begins – by shutting the keyboard lid. Twice more he opens and closes it, signalling the end of one movement and the start of another – but the audience hears no music. Not one note. The piece is John Cage’s 4’33”, and its silent echoes still reverberate today.

‘It’s a strange, complex and difficult piece in a way, but in another it’s extremely simple,’ says British composer, producer, author and innovator David Toop. He’s devoted his life to the exploration of sound and music, pioneering new norms along the way.

‘It’s a framing of listening within a particular setting, where you’d normally expect to hear music that’s deliberately separate from the environment: a shocking gesture in one sense,’ he continues. ‘But in another, it forces the audience to listen to the world around them, and consider those noises as performance.’

Before 4’33”, musicians drew influence from the outside world – emulating noises from nature and industry – ‘but the big difference in the 20th century was technology,’ says David.

‘It became possible to record sounds from outside. The fact that these noises also began existing as recordings suggested you could use them as they were - not by imitating them with an oboe, but by actually bringing in the sounds themselves.’

Although John Cage’s piece caused a scandal, he helped open the sonic sluices at a time when technology was catching up, shifting the parameters of recorded music forever.

Dots and loops The influence of 4’33” can be heard in everything from Brian Eno and David Byrne’s early cut-and-paste tape manipulations to the stadium-filling industrial clangs of early Depeche Mode and more recently, Matthew Herbert’s playful use of crisp packets and copies of the Daily Mail for musical and political purposes.

Mira Calix, Matthew Herbert #fundedbyprsf

Fast forward to 2017 and it’s no longer surprising that British dance music producer Bonobo’s top five album, Migrations, incorporates found sounds as diverse as an elevator in Hong Kong airport, rain in Seattle, a tumble dryer in Atlanta and a boat engine in New Orleans.

Found sound is making increasing sense in our digital age, where breaking down the ‘fourth wall’ via social media has never been easier. And with the growing synchronisation between sound and vision, listeners and creators are ever more attuned to noise as art.

‘In our contemporary electronically-mediated culture, people are very used to hearing the conventions of combining music with dialogue, sound effects and environmental sound,’ explains Marcus Leadley, a composer who teaches field recording courses at Goldsmiths University, London.

‘Film and advertising rely on audio to tell stories, convey emotion and support messages. It also works the other way around in real life, where hearing music in the street, the home or in transit is an aspect of everyday experience.’

More recently, Björk’s latest LP, Utopia, released in November, samples birds and insects, and draws directly from David Toop’s Hekura (1980) and its expanded reissue Lost Shadows: In Defence of the Soul (2015).

David, who was asked by Björk to identify any noises on the LP which might be his, says: ‘It’s part of a philosophy for her, I think, to soften the boundaries between humans and nonhumans. It becomes a very important thing for somebody like her to include these different sounds… The music she’s making is very much in the digital domain, but then it’s full of birdsong, New Guinean sacred flutes, and so on.’

Sticks and stones For experimental electronic artist Mira Calix, exploration of found sound and field recording wasn’t about inviting the outside world in, more that she was strapped for cash when she started out.

SOUND

Pictured: Belle Chen

It’s all about the love of sound and respecting where it comes from.

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I’d leave a microphone hanging out the window because I wanted to add air into what was a very digital format. I literally recorded air.

Above: Susso

‘I didn’t have money for loads of gear, so I went out and recorded things because I could make instruments out of them. Where other people were using drum machines, I was making rhythm sections from sticks and stones. It created something distinctive – and that’s how it all began for me.’

Now plotting a follow-up under the Minyanta moniker, due early 2018, he’s considering his continued pull towards found sound.

‘I think it adds a folk music element – it brings people and place into the mix. The Susso record was attached to family and culture within a folk landscape, and that’s how it works.

Since then, Mira has won a stack of awards and increasingly prestigious commissions. First emerging in around 2006, she says she’s noticed a growing appetite for interesting sonics from both the commissioning and listening worlds.

‘In the past, folk music wasn't put on at [the] Kings Place [concert hall] or somewhere like that – it was performed in pubs and on the streets. It naturally incorporated the atmospheres and conversations surrounding it – and these are the sounds that add identity to music, geographical, social and creative,’ he continues.

‘There’s more found sound creeping into everything, even pop music. These are often natural sounds, such as waterfalls or birds, and they give the music atmosphere. Inadvertently, they’re giving listeners an expanded sound palette too,’ she says.

‘For me, I wanted to get oxygen into my studio work. I’d leave a microphone hanging out the window because I wanted to add air into what was, and still is, a very digital format. I literally recorded air,’ Mira explains.

New soundways Susso is a found sound-based project that arose from curiosity, not necessity. It was masterminded by Welsh songwriter, producer and bassist Huw Bennett after a trip to Gambia, and resulted in the cracking album, Keira, for Soundway Records last year.

NATALIA QUEIROLO

A mish-mash of field recordings of Mandinka musician Susso and his extended family, it also includes found sounds recorded on street corners, in homes and on the beach, which Huw over-dubbed with his own playing. The results are seamless, thrumming with immersive Highlife, pounding rhythms and joyous melodics.

Where other people were using drum machines, I was making rhythm sections from sticks and stones.

Cosmo Sheldrake #fundedbyprsf

Oceans of sound Global travel and cultural exchange are driving a growing use of found sound and field recordings within British music. It’s never been cheaper or easier to get out in the world with high definition recording equipment to capture your surroundings.

Australian-Taiwanese pianist and classical composer Belle Chen, who now resides in London, has been drawing on recent travel experiences across the Mediterranean, and the British and French capitals, for her latest album series. Bestowed with the honour of being tipped by Brian Eno, her music is unbound by tradition, often combining classical repertoire with recorded soundscapes.

‘When I look at a photograph and try to remember how it felt to be there, all I see is the pretty picture. But when I listen to a sound I recorded on my phone, the memory it evokes is deep,’ says Belle. ‘I can remember how I felt, the people I met and the conversations I had. In a way, these locations become my duetting partner, my co-performer.’

Belle began by manipulating soundbites because she wanted to ‘disintegrate’ convention and make her music more intimate.

‘I felt I could communicate my story better, not just convey Chopin or a collage of moods,’ she explains.

Interspecies collaborations The list of British experimenters to mine this rich organic seam are too many to mention here, but Matthew Herbert

SOUND

collaborator and wayward alt-pop experimentalist Cosmo Sheldrake is definitely holding the torch for 2018.

LPs, the music at his mother’s church and the sample-based sounds of jazz/hip-hop producer Madlib.

The PRS Foundation-supported found sound evangelist creates ecstatic sound collages drenched in trippy Through the Looking Glass undertones. Following five years of incubation, his debut album, The Much Much How How and I, will drop in April. It was written under the influence of a diverse group of musicians – from The Kinks to Moondog to Herbert – and was shaped by his study of anthropology at university.

In 2016, for a year-long residency at the British Library Sound Archive, he was given access to the Christ Reformed Church in Peckham, South London, to record their songs and sermons.

The residency, and subsequent album, Untitled, inspired him to consider the importance of audio within the historical legacy we’re leaving for future generations.

A love letter to the natural world, it follows the Tedx talk he gave back in 2013 - Interspecies Collaboration – which included a symphony of natural sounds alongside his own vocal improvisations.

‘For me, found sound and field recording is another kind of storytelling,’ he says. ‘I like the denseness and complexity of it.

You’re never capturing just one thing. You’re capturing a whole ecosystem or web of complex relationships, which tell their own stories.’

Cosmo talks of textures and characters, clearly animated by the process of allowing the wild into his work. ‘For me it’s almost easier,’ he says. ‘It’s more of a collaboration. When you remove a sound from its setting and introduce it to another sound from another context, suddenly a whole new conversation opens up.’

Recording rules For visual artist and musician Larry Achiampong, field recordings allow him to explore his cultural identity, heritage and class through sound. He was brought up in East London to Ghanaian parents, and has been influenced by their old Highlife

In a career spanning different media, countries and cultures, he’s acutely aware of the misappropriation of sound and meaning in modern music – the major downside to using field recordings indiscriminately.

‘There are often appropriation issues in music, especially with field recordings and found sound,’ he confirms. ‘If you look at our reference libraries, there are often colonial undertones in there.’

For Larry, it’s about ensuring all avenues are properly explored and accurately represented. ‘I think working class communities have been doing that for a long time,’ he continues.

Top left: Larry Achiampong Above: Mira Calix Below: David Toop at White Cube

‘If you look at the history of hip-hop through to jungle and house music, people have been co-opting incredible sounds with the intention of generating good vibes and building upon a culture – and that’s the base angle I’m coming from. I’m not interested in the hierarchy of sound, where you need certain knowledge and access. It’s all about the love of sound and respecting where it comes from.’

For in-depth interviews with creators mentioned here see m-magazine.co.uk/tag/found-sound

M66_DECEMBER 2017_25

Mx MUSIC Now, more than ever, non-binary and LGBTQ artists are pushing sonic and social boundaries in music and far beyond. Lucy Doyle sits down with this year’s gamechangers to get their take…

Pictured: The Spook School

Because of who we are, we can’t really avoid presenting gender or our own queerness.

GENDER

‘I think as a trans person, if you’re not “read” as the gender you’re trying to present as, that can create anxiety. It’s one of the reasons that we ask the venues to provide gender neutral toilets at all the shows we play,’ says Nye Todd, vocalist in Scottish indie-pop quartet The Spook School.

young people identify as gender non-conforming or non-binary now. When I was 13, I wouldn’t even know what the fuck those words were,’ he says. ‘When those kids grow up in 10, 15 years’ time, it will be really interesting to see what that world is going to look like. It’s hopeful.’

He’s chatting about the challenges facing artists and gig-goers who are trans or transitioning – and it’s clear that as a band, The Spook School are intent on breaking down the barriers, one binary bathroom at a time.

Creative freedom

‘It’s part of our band rider, I guess. I think we had one case where we turned up and they were like, “Oh yes, we made the disabled toilet gender neutral, but if anyone wants to use it, they have to come up to the bar and get a key.” We just took the key and didn’t give it back,’ he recalls.

Three albums in and now signed to Alcopop! Records, the band are continuing their tradition of creating lo-fi, noisy pop anthems that deconstruct gender and celebrate queer and trans identities. New songs like Body from forthcoming LP Could It Be Different? delve into image, self-love and, for Nye, learning to embrace being trans. ‘I guess writing things is a good way to work stuff out in your head’, he says of the unplanned nature of the material.

The band are just one of many voices weaving their experiences of gender and sexuality into their music, without care or preconception. For post-punk trio Shopping, it’s a natural byproduct of their individual identities. ‘I think, because of who we are, we can’t really avoid presenting gender or our own queerness,’ says the band’s bassist, Billy Easter.

Drummer Andrew Milk notes that often it’s the artists and communities around them - who are responsible for initiating change. ‘People in charge won’t give a fuck until you make them,’ he says, referring to The Spook School’s gender neutral toilet request. ‘Change never comes from the oppressor, you know?’

The Official Body Shopping guitarist and vocalist Rachel Aggs is wary of industry fads that make artists flavour of the month. Explaining the message behind Suddenly Gone – an angular, rhythmically urgent track taken from their next album The Official Body – she points to ‘feeling like your identity has been somehow commodified, or is fashionable.

‘So people have decided, “Oh, this year we all want to talk about brown people, we all want to talk about queers.” If you can find one that’s both, then “jackpot”. It challenges your confidence, because you feel like what you actually create is not being valued, but there’s still this attention on you.’

With such a fine line between ‘fad’ and ‘empowerment’, feelings are mixed when it comes to the mainstream media’s handling of gender issues. From reports of pop star Paloma Faith announcing she’s raising her child as gender neutral and the increasing use of non-gendered titles like ‘Mx’ instead of Mr or Mrs, to the Church of England issuing its schools with guidelines on combatting transphobic bullying, 2017 has been a high-profile year for gender in the news.

‘There’s sensationalism around it, where it’s, “Oh my God, this freaky thing,”’ says Billy. ‘So, it’s a bit detrimental.’ However, Andrew counters that press coverage is a positive thing for awareness and education. ‘A huge proportion of teenagers and

For Chicago-born singer-songwriter Ezra Furman, there’s meaningfulness in speaking up, even if it feels like yelling into a void. ‘It doesn’t take 30 years for an attitude about some issue to change. It takes one year or five years. It’s down to the language people use and it’s down to, “Do people start talking about things that they care about?”’

During a performance of Tell Em All To Go To Hell at Coachella this year, Ezra called out the activities of the festival’s owner, oil tycoon Philip Anschutz, including his alleged donations to anti-LGBTQ groups. Asked whether it had any implications on him and his band The Visions, his answer is telling: ‘We’re not playing Coachella 2018. They didn’t offer it again… but I don’t know if they would’ve anyway.’

Like Nye, who says he wrote and played songs about being transgender ‘before I talked to anybody about it’, Ezra's first experiences of beginning to dress feminine were played out through his performances. ‘The first place I was public with it was on stage because, honestly, that was easy to do. It seemed like it could be a joke. It could be an act.’

Describing forthcoming album Transangelic Exodus as ‘a queer outlaw saga’, he says that including ‘trans’ in the title was, ‘a shout-out to something that feels like a community to me, which is trans people and also queer people in general.’

Growing up, issues surrounding gender and sexuality caused ‘a lot of pain’ but it was punk music that made him catch on to that, ‘maybe this could be a source of actual power’. He adds: ‘It gives me a great reason to push, reason to speak up.’

Similarly, for post-punk buzz band Graceland, it's essential that they use their voice. ‘It’s important to all of us to be “role models” or rather just be proud of our queerness and our own individual gender identities,’ says drummer Maxie Gedge.

Safe space Pointing to DIY spaces and local scenes as providing an ‘essential platform’ for LGBTQ artists, Maxie cites the scene in Norwich as being pivotal for her. ‘Because anyone can get involved and own it/shape it, those communities tend to be more reflective and diverse than the mainstream.’

Meanwhile, collectives like SIREN are demonstrating the power to spark change in established scenes. Launched in 2016 as a response to ‘the homogeneity of rave and club night line-ups in the techno and dance music scene, as well as a desire for more creative and safer spaces for women, non-binary and queer people to party’, they say they’ve noticed encouraging steps forward already.

‘There is now recognition that women’s voices need to be heard. This has been reflected positively in more women DJs being booked on line-ups,’ SIREN continue. However, there’s still much to be done: ‘sexual harassment in clubs is a familiar occurrence for women and other marginalised groups, so it’s important to us to create a safer space without prying eyes where we can forget about the patriarchy for the night and feel free and liberated,’ they say.

M66_DECEMBER 2017_27

The Apple Music Affiliate Programme It pays to participate

Apple Music is the fastest growing music streaming service in the world and now has over 30 million subscribers. It is available in 115 countries.

Users can stream over 40 million songs, playlists and albums along with their entire iTunes library without ever hearing an ad. They can also download anything from Apple Music and listen to it offline right from their device. With up-and-coming artists and daily curated playlists, Apple Music is always bringing content that’s new and noteworthy. Users can create a profile and follow friends to see what they’ve been playing and share the music they love too. New users can try Apple Music with a free 3-month trial, and there’s no commitment; they can cancel at any time.

By joining the Apple Music Affiliate Programme you can earn commission by linking to Apple Music. You will earn commission for each Apple Music subscription driven by one of your links, and, as a songwriter, composer, or music publisher, you may be eligible for two to four times the standard commission rates.

Getting started is easy, simply visit https://www.apple.com/itunes/ affiliates and apply. Your application will be reviewed within 3-5 business days. Once approved, you can start creating links and earning commission.

For more information please visit https://affiliate.itunes.apple.com/ resources.

GENDER

Above: Graceland Above right: Shopping Below: Ezra Furman

Female liberation is also key at The Sisterhood: an intersectional queer, trans and disability inclusive space at Glastonbury Festival, open to anyone who identifies as female. Romy Boettger, venue manager for 2016 and 2017, sees the space as vital for keeping ‘the dialogue about sexual harassment and abuse at festivals – and the world in general – going’, while for Artistic Programmer Alice Holland, it was also imperative to keep Glastonbury’s radical heritage alive.

‘It’s really important that we defend the values of alternative life before festivals just become something that are consumed and people don’t have ownership of it in that way,’ she says. The space also creates apprenticeship opportunities for women to learn new skills. ‘There are so few female techs in the industry and so few opportunities to learn that kind of thing without a guy breathing down your neck, telling you you’re doing it wrong,’ she says.

The first place I publicly experimented was on stage because, honestly, that was easy to do.

Survive to thrive Nadine Davis from BBZ, a platform seeking to eradicate misogyny for queer women, trans folk and non-binary people of colour, earned her festival ticket as tech support at The Sisterhood and was invited to collaborate the following year.

‘We designed the space and created a public restroom as a reaction to the conversation around transphobia and the issue of toilets still being gendered to this day,’ she says.

It’s an issue close to her heart, as although she identifies as a woman, she details experiences of being escorted out of venue toilets by security and having to prove her gender by lifting her top up. It’s a personal example she often gives when asked about everyday challenges faced by marginalised groups, ‘because it’s the most vivid and violent that people understand.’

So how is the industry adapting? PRS Foundation – the UK’s leading funder of new music and talent development – is reflecting the changing tides of how gender is classified. New projects Keychange and ReBalance, which invest in female music creators and industry professionals, notably include gender inclusive terminology in the application requirements, encompassing ‘all those who identify as women’.

Senior Grants and Programmes Manager, Joe Frankland, said this has since been added to the existing eligibility criteria for the Women Make Music fund, which aims to ‘encourage more people to come forward for our support and to remove any barriers for those new to our work.’

Meanwhile, as a response to US President Donald Trump’s snap decision to ban transgender troops earlier this year, DIY streaming and merch platform Bandcamp came out fighting with a one-day fundraiser where it donated its share of music sales to the Transgender Law Center. Over 200 artists and labels joined the platform in donating their own shares, including British labels Wichita Recordings, Bella Union and Hyperdub.

As the language around sexuality and gender evolves, the opportunity for new voices in music to reach listeners on these issues continues to grow. For Andrew, it’s gratifying to know that fans are able to identify with the themes presented in Shopping’s records: something he says he was searching for when he first started listening to riot grrrl and queer punk.

‘I love that people can listen to our music and feel, maybe, a little bit less alone, or feel a connection. The idea of that is really empowering.’

For in-depth interviews with everyone m-magazine.co.uk/tag/mx-music

here

visit

M66_DECEMBER 2017_29

Join us for another record year Here at the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) we’ve just enjoyed one of our most successful years yet. A dramatic increase in membership has encouraged many more talented songwriters and composers from across the generations to join us.

This is, in part, due to our continuing outreach work with students at universities through our Academic Partnership Programme. One of our main objectives is to support the next wave of talent to ensure British music continues to thrive.

We consider students to be ‘professionals in training’, and aim to guide them as they embark on a career in the music industry, sharing knowledge and expertise from our established writer members.

Reaching out We have also widened our reach across the country throughout 2017, participating in events from It’s All About the Song, in partnership with the Musicians Union in Glasgow, to the Great Escape Festival in Brighton, and the How To Make Your Music Pay session in Leeds – with many more events planned in towns and cities across the UK for 2018.

Our programmes aim to inspire members and connect them with successful songwriters and composers across genres, regions and cultural backgrounds. For British music to remain relevant, we’re determined that BASCA works towards creating an industry that is more representative of our population.

To that end, we’re committed to highlighting talent that hasn’t been given adequate exposure. For example, our successful week of events with the BBC Singers culminated in an inaugural performance of a whole programme of works by Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) composers.

Fair play As much as we embrace the positive changes that technology brings to the industry, our campaigning during 2017 – and into 2018 – also focuses on ensuring that this is not at the expense of our creators.

Songwriters’ moral rights are currently under attack from the US-based Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and revelations have emerged that the royalty-free service Epidemic Sound has been infiltrating Spotify playlists.

We continue to campaign as a leading force in the domestic, European and international political arenas – with organisations such as the Global Intellectual Property Enforcement Center backing our position against YouTube and its use of the ‘safe harbour’ loophole within digital content legislation.

As an entirely self-funding organisation, we rely on the continuing support of our members to carry out our work, so please, join us – and become part of a thriving community, where your voice contributes to a fairer future for all music creators.

Vick Bain has worked at BASCA for more than a decade and has has been Chief Executive of the organisation since 2012. In November, she was added to the Roll of Honour at the Music Week Women in Music Awards for her services to British music

Find out more at basca.org.uk

Other stand-out events this year explored the challenges of composing for computer games, setting up your own publishing company and utilising digital platforms to generate audiences – as well as a celebration of the life and work of leading jazz composer and arranger Mike Gibbs.

For British music to remain relevant, we’re determined that BASCA works towards creating an industry that is more representative of our population.

Pictured: the composers from the BBC Singers concert

i wrote that Blue Planet II is the BBC One hit wildlife series. Scored by Oscar winner Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea and David Fleming for Bleeding Fingers Music, it’s the UK’s mostwatched TV show of 2017 so far.

Pulling in an audience of 14.1 million for its first episode, its emotive score brings the marvel of the planet’s oceans to life. Here, Jacob and David tell us how they soundtracked the action…

Jacob: Hans, David and I approached writing for Blue Planet II just as if we were scoring a movie, because the series is very cinematic in nature. The trials and tribulations these animals’ experience are very universal at their core: finding love and figuring out how to survive in a hostile environment.

These are things that all humans deal with.

David: We decided to develop a common musical thread for each episode, which proved an inspiring jumping off point. Each one was different. For example, in the episode about the open oceans we used sparse, dry guitars and tense strings to evoke the harsh, desert-like conditions of these vast and almost desolate seas. The episode on coral reefs called for woodwind and the occasional Gershwin homage to highlight the frenetic pace of what could be thought of as the ocean’s bustling cities.

It’s incredibly gratifying to be involved in a series that is beloved across so many different demographics.

The fun of creating these concepts and accompanying sound palettes with Hans and Jacob was figuring out when to use them and when to break from them in order to tell a more specific story. Whether it was a pirate sea shanty for the galleon-shaped Portuguese man-of-war, or a retro bossa nova for an undersea turtle spa, there

song writing

(l-r) Hans Zimmer, David Fleming, Jacob Shea

were so many amazing opportunities for colourful, individual moments.

Jacob: I think it was very helpful to have three composers working on the project so we could personify the music and convey emotion. Each one of us was really detail-oriented when it came to scoring each scene. For the walrus section in particular, I tried to bring out the various emotions contained within the mother and cub scene. The melting of the icebergs is really tragic for these animals. This scarcity of resources forces them to be combative in order to survive. It’s a complex and layered story.

David: The Mobula rays’ footage is really special to me personally. The scene is just so visually inspiring.

There are these beautiful shots of huge rays jumping, almost flying out of the water, at sunset.

Then, the end of the scene is filmed underwater in almost complete darkness. Lit only by glowing bioluminescent plankton, the cameras were able to record these rays weaving around each other and colliding in what looks like a giant, almost animated dance. I used a slow, sweeping waltz to highlight the romanticism and grace of what could otherwise be seen as a chaotic frenzy of movement.

Jacob: We usually start working on a project when the editors have a rough assembly, and this was the case for Blue Planet II as well. We first got

started writing music to rough edits of the scenes and, as the scenes got tightened, we also went in and tightened up our cues.

David: I find it’s always better to get involved in a project as early as possible – that way, we can start developing recurring themes for the entire series. But the truth is, even in its roughest form, the Blue Planet II editors were brilliant at carving intimate stories and relatable characters out of a truly massive amount of footage. Most of our job was to highlight, and hopefully elevate, the story as it took shape.

We were always present for the orchestral recording sessions, either in person or remotely from Los Angeles. We did several large sessions in Vienna, recorded by the inimitable Geoff Foster. We had the privilege of working with a group of 62 amazing musicians, including strings, woodwinds and choir. Every musician involved brought their own personality to the music and really elevated the score.

There were also several recording sessions done early on for the ‘tidal orchestra’ theme we created, which was incredibly useful in terms of avoiding sound clichés. These recordings of orchestral textures were created in association with Spitfire Audio. The idea was to apply impressionistic techniques to the orchestra in order to evoke the sound and spirit of the sea. It was always helpful to have this original concept tying the score together.

BBC

Jacob: With Blue Planet II now on air, it’s been thrilling and really heartening to see the programme, which showcases the planet’s natural wonders, become so popular.

David: It’s incredibly gratifying to be involved in a series that is beloved across so many different demographics. It seems like most people we speak to have some personal connection to watching the original Blue Planet series, and remember being moved by it. It’s great that Blue Planet II is having a similar effect, all over again. m66_december 2017 _33

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The Raincoats, Acklam Hall, West London, 1979

Jenn Pelly, music critic and author of the new 33 ⅓ book on The Raincoats, remembers when she first fell for the all-girl post-punk gang.

This picture was taken by The Raincoats’ long-time manager and collaborator Shirley O’Loughlin, who’s now also a photographer and lecturer at the University of Westminster.

Shirley O’Loughlin – and ask them questions about their work and lives.

I sat at Ana and Shirley’s kitchen table scanning hundreds of pages of clips (reviews, interviews, listings) from the British music weeklies of their era (Melody Maker, NME, Sounds, Record Mirror) that they’d saved in boxes.

It felt like coming into contact with a secret history; these undigitised documents that could have very well stayed in boxes even longer.

Back then, the band were reinventing what punk could be. They used to live in a squat right near Acklam Hall in Ladbroke Grove and they played a ton of shows there, pushing boundaries with their poetic anarchy. The venue was central to the scene back then, hosting gigs from The Clash, Joy Division, Television Personalities and more.

A year later, I drove to Cape Cod, Massachusetts to find The Raincoats drummer and The Slits founder Paloma McLardy, aka Palmolive. I found that learning things about their lives illuminated the songs and deepened their meaning each time I listened.

I first heard The Raincoats in college, less than a decade ago, although it often seems like their songs have been inside of me forever. The Raincoats’ iconic self-titled debut was only the third ever full-length release on Rough Trade Records in 1979, but I wasn’t born until a decade later, in New York.

I learned about Ana’s upbringing in fascist Portugal and her connection to classic rock ’n’ roll like The Beatles and Bob Dylan (The Raincoats even covered the Dylan tune Tomorrow Is a Long Time at one of their early shows).

When a friend made me a mix that included The Raincoats’ legendary, binary-obliterating cover of The Kinks’ Lola, they immediately felt like a part of me. I had never heard anything like them before – atmospheric punk music with scratchy guitar and violin, melodic bass, girl-gang chants, feminism, anarchy, poetry – and yet, it was like a mirror. This was it.

I learned about Gina’s interests in conceptual art, performance art, land art, and dub. I learned about Palmolive’s interest in politically-charged Spanish poetry (like Garcia Lorca and Antonio Machado), about Vicki’s classical training and feminist foundation.

I’m interested in the genesis stories of bands, especially bands of amateur musicians – the moment at which a group of people who previously did not play music find the confidence within themselves to unleash something, to express themselves, to will their musician-selves into existence.

I didn’t know a lot about who The Raincoats are as people and wanted to learn more. Magazine articles tended to reiterate the same information – like the fact that Kurt Cobain was an enormous fan, or that they influenced riot grrrl. So in November 2014, I flew to London to meet with the band – guitarist Ana da Silva, bassist Gina Birch, violinist Vicki Aspinall, collaborator 34_december 2017_m66

I could begin to hear that each song contained four distinct and quite disparate personalities, all merging to create magic. One of the most inspiring aspects of The Raincoats, to me, is how you can hear these women democratically working together – a bassline weaving into a violin, or two voices overlapping – to negotiate their differences and create something beautiful, something that could only be made by the four of them together.

Jenn Pelly writes for Pitchfork, SPIN, Nylon, Rolling Stone and the New York Times. Her new book The Raincoats is the latest in Bloomsbury Press’ 33 ⅓ series and is out now.

I Quit My Day Job Because I Make More Money From My Music.

That’s every musician’s dream, isn’t

it —quitting your day gig because you make more money with your music.

Well, that’s my life now, and here’s how I did it…

I joined TAXI. Looking back, I wish I’d joined years earlier. TAXI taught me how to create music that people in the industry actually need. Then they gave me 1,200 opportunities a year to pitch my music!

Matthew Vander Boegh, TAXI Member My income keeps growing exponentially, and my music keeps getting better because it’s my full time gig now! Here’s the ironic part…

I live in Boise, Idaho, not Hollywood, yet my music is on TV nearly every day.

My studio is in a glorified tool shed in my backyard, and my gear setup is so quaint other musicians ask, “Really?

That’s it?!” I’ve got a computer, monitors, a few mics, and a cheap little interface.

No fancy outboard gear, no rack-mounted anything!

I’m getting paid for my music now instead of sitting on my couch dreaming about it. I’m my own boss, and some day my music will probably pay for my retirement, a vacation home on an exotic beach, and some umbrella drinks!

My Two Secret Weapons

Targets and deadlines are my secret weapons. Knowing who needs music and when they need it motivates me to get things done. It’s changed my life!

Actually, TAXI changed my life.

It Didn’t Take That Long

I promised myself I’d quit my job as a college professor when my music income became larger than my teaching income. I reached that goal in less than five years because of TAXI.

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Join TAXI now and let them help you build the right catalog! Be patient, be persistent, and you’ll hit critical mass like I have. My income keeps growing every year!

I’m all the proof you need that a regular guy can make enough money with his music to quit his day job! Do what thousands of other musicians have done to become successful—join TAXI. You might never have to work another day gig in your life!

1-800-458-2111 • TAXI.com

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