Gaining Steam

[tomEisenbraun]

Hey guys!

The music world is pretty crazy and pretty damn quick, isn't it? I sort of went from having no connections in this area to having a whole hell of a lot, and things are moving quickly and positively for me right now.

I know a number of you guys are from Atlanta -- Shockadow, Two Tone Tony, a couple others I can't remember at the moment -- and I wanted to let you guys know that I'm playing a show downtown at this place called The Fork Studios this Saturday (the 12th). It'd be awesome if you can make it out for it, no sweat if you can't.

But anyways, this is also sort of a thread for the whole topic of getting yourself out there as a starting artist. What do you do to help further exposure? You're pretty much guaranteed not headlining a show right off the bat, so you have to have people to open for, right? What does it take to get people involved? My last show left me pretty confident that people are digging the sounds I put out, what steps past that should I take? Make up some cool shirts? Start selling some CDs for real cheap? Set up an email list? What kind of things do people want to be a part of? I figure a cool funky shirt for relatively little money would be a good idea, and giving people a $2 CD (or free even) would probably work a lot better than asking them to memorize my last name and go home and find me on mySpace, right? Would an email list be effective? I would think people would tend not to sign up for that as much as they would buy a $5 t-shirt or a $2 CD?

I'd really like to hear y'all's thoughts, as it's looking like I'll start to gain more and more chances to get my stuff out there in the very near future. I imagine that the more I can do to get people to want to be involved in that, the better off things will be. I figure if people know my name, and have a way to be in touch with the shows I'll be playing, they'll be more apt to show up, rather than having to read the Flagpole and look for me, because let's face it, I'm a new one-guy act--nobody's going to try that hard to look for me.

So any thoughts?

Also, anyone think this would be a good t-shirt if I were going the t-shirt route?




(culled from this wonderful 3rd grade wrestling picture of mine:)


My whole senior class in high school bought 'em from me for $5 because they were so ridiculous. I think the ridiculous level of it makes it a decent sell? Especially for a crisp fiver--not a bad deal, right? Would you buy one if you dug the music?

Thanks so much for the input! I don't mean to be a turd by talking about myself, but we do have a wonderful community of music fiends here, and a lot of you have probably been to a whole lot more shows and seen a whole lot more new acts than I have, and I'd love to hear y'all's take on things.

Thanks!
Tom

[Crispy]

Ah, 3rd grade wrasslin', and the old two-finger tittie twister hold! I'd make fun of your boy-bewbs too, but pot kettle black and all that...
If I was in the Atlanta area, I'd come see you.

[corey]

Here's some initial random thoughts?

-$5 for a t-shirt? I'm not sure that you can get good, quality shirts printed for that cost, so selling them at that price wouldn't really benefit you... unless you just really want to sell them for cheap so that people will know and remember who you are. We got single-color screen printed shirts for about 3 bucks. Maybe $3.50 or something like that. I can't remember for sure.... but if you're gonna have your name attached to it, you'll want to make sure that it's a quality product and I doubt you'll get quality shirts for 5 bucks unless you know someone that can make it happen for dirt-cheap.

-Here's a simple idea for the name recognition thing. Cards. They don't have to be "business" cards 'cause that sounds kinda formal, but you can get some cool, slick cards done in the style of business cards. We had a bunch done a while back and they are handy for letting people find you online. Folks at shows may not always have money for merch (especially if they just paid a cover to get in the bar AND spent money on booze), but you will find that there are folks that want to be able to look you up online....And if you have digital downloads somewhere online (Itunes, snocap, whatever), you may reap the benefits of them buying your music later on. SO, they may not buy the merch initially, but if they can locate you online later, you may make some sells that way.

I have more stuff to ramble about, but I'll have to come back to it. :)

[BH]

I would suggest trying to get a Dutch radio station to play your stuff.  That worked well for another band I know of. ;)

I would love to come see you play.  Can't wait until you are big enough to tour the midwest!  Don't forget to save the setlist so someday when you are huge, an Eisenbraun Head can keep track of all the old information. :)

[Taterbug]

That's AWESOME,   If I lived in your area I would be there in a heartbeat.  Good luck and break a leg !!!!  
Maybe give away free crack or something at your show  ;D

[tomEisenbraun]

Thanks guys!

Corey, when I made the t-shirts in high school, I used a photo emulsion kit to print my own screen for the graphic. Took the shirt, laid it flat, squeegeed out a flat rectangle of white paint, let that dry, and then took red and yellow and marbled them onto the screen and squeegeed those onto the white for the color layer. My t-shirt is still holding up, and is on good quality Hanes that was relatively cheap at my Hobby Lobby. I can't remember the price, but it was cheap and fun to make them. I'd obviously want to make a little bit of a profit from them, but the whole idea is to just get people to have something they can sink their teeth into, attach a name to, and take some ownership of. The whole "I saw him when he was just getting started!" idea--I think that works a whole lot better when you get can get people excited about getting funky handmade stuff and the prospect of having that be worth something eventually as they've seen you grow as a musician.

The cards thing is a great idea, so I'll definitely figure out something to do there.

And Crispy, I sort of used the moobs as a selling point on that one! It sort of became the unofficial senior class t-shirt!

[corey]

Anyone that's in, was formerly in, or wants to be in a rock band should listen to "Blood on the Knobs" by Glossary.
Check the link for the mp3.
http://www.myspace.com/glossary

Blood On The Knobs

Shake up the future
Rattle this cage
Roll down the road to the next show that doesn't pay

I'm still holding onto rock 'n' roll
Holding onto rock 'n' roll

14 years growing up in bars
Sleeping on floors
Playing cheap guitars

I'm still holding onto rock 'n' roll
Holding onto rock 'n' roll

The late, late nights
The early day jobs
Rust on the strings
Blood on the knobs

I'm still holding onto rock 'n' roll
Holding onto rock 'n' roll

With many people
I've shared a stage
They've moved on and I never changed

I'm still holding onto rock 'n' roll
Holding onto rock 'n' roll

Maybe I've wasted all my time like a fool
But I've heard pain tear itself out of a piece of wood
So wake me up when we get to where we're playing tonight
So i can call my family and tell them I'm still alive

We'll walk on that stage and play like it's the last time
'Cause it might be
It might be
Turn the amps on and count it out
Close your eyes
Take a breath
This is what it's like to live without doubt