The Art of the Cover

In my last post I mentioned that there where a few topics/thoughts that had been weighing on my mind recently. One of those thoughts was is it possible to make a cover song/album that not only lives up to the source material, but also, just maybe, perhaps, surpasses it? Cover songs and even cover/tribute albums have been a part of the music industry for many years, and according to this Business Insider article, not only is it possible for a cover to be better than the original, there have been many that have surpassed their original source of inspiration. This gives me hope as I pursue my next project, which is going to be a covers album. Who am I going to cover you may ask? Well you’ll “just” have to wait. All will be revealed “in” due time. But I’m sure you probably already know who it is. He’s only the most popular and talented pop star of our current generation!

           

The first one that immediately comes to mind is Whitney Houston’s cover of the song, I Will Always Love You. The original version of this song was sung and recorded by Dolly Parton, but to many Whitney’s is the definitive version of the song. To that matter, and to the chagrin of Ms. Parton I’m sure, many people weren’t even aware that there was a version of this song before Whitney sang it. That’s where the beauty of the cover lies. It can take a song and/or album, and introduce it to a entirely new generation of music fans. Shoot hip-hop became the most popular form of music at one point in time by covering/sampling songs that came before them. Like Puff Daddy so famously put it, “take hits from the 80s!”

Some of my favorite instrumentalists have made entire albums of cover songs. Some of them featured a variety of songs from various artists and some of them were in tribute to a particular album or person. One thing that is the same between them is that most of these projects were well received by the general public. Apparently people like songs that they already like. Who knew?

Road Blocks and Pondering's

            As I sit here writing this blog today there have been three main thoughts dominating my mind, well at least as it pertains to the world of music. How do you get people to care about and excited to see a band/artist that they’ve never heard before? Is it possible to make a cover song/album that not only lives up to the source material, but also just maybe, perhaps, surpasses it? What would it take for me to completely go after this music thing? These are the questions that have been weighing on my mind. For today I’m going to focus on the first question. Don’t worry though. There’ll be more to come on the other questions.

How do you get people to care about and excited to see a band/artist that they’ve never heard before?

            Anything that I do, I always do it with a huge vision and appetite for success behind it, as we all should for any endeavor we take part in. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always happen like that from the get go, and you have to build your way up to it, step by step. Lately, I’ve been working together with a friend on a project called Nine51. Our goal with this is to both build it up as venue for artists/bands and to promote the artists/bands that perform at the venue. It wasn’t long into the process that the quandary above began to make itself known. Currently, we’re three events in at this venue. The first event went great, we felt like we had some good momentum behind us, and then the second event happened. The second event didn’t go nearly as well as the first, but thankfully we were able to bounce back with the third event. Through it all, that question continued to linger throughout my mind, and then it hit me. There’s a company out there right now that has attacked this question head on, on a much larger scale, and they have handled it “marvelously” (pun very much intended).

            If you didn’t catch where I was going with this the company I’m talking about is Marvel. Marketing wise Marvel is killing it with their entire, Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), http://www.terakeet.com/market-like-a-superhero-what-content-marketers-can-learn-from-marvel-comics/, but there’s no better example of that currently than their upcoming flick, Guardians of the Galaxy. This was/is a little known property by most, and, with the characters involved, seemed like a huge risk/gamble for Marvel. Marvel has shown, with this property, that with consistent quality, working with talented people, displaying a consistent message, and developing the brand as a whole that you can get people exited and achieve great success.

Versus

http://m.hollywoodreporter.com/v/Esq./WhySteveBallmer039s2

This has been the legal scandal that has gripped the nation for the last month or so. It has spawned two CNN specials, and has been the hot topic on sports radio non-stop. This is the story of Donald Sterling. Sterling is the, soon to be former, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, an NBA franchise. Donald Sterling found himself embroiled in controversy when someone leaked tapes of conversations, he had with his girlfriend, V. Stiviano, to TMZ where he made racist comments about African Americans in general, and Magic Johnson specifically. That he made these comments were bad enough. The fact that this leaked during one of the greatest first rounds in NBA playoff history was just horrific timing. The backlash from these comments has been coming non-stop, with the biggest being a potential strike not only by members of the Clippers, but from players league wide. They refuse to play for a man they consider a bigot, and they refuse to play in a league that would allow such bigotry. To quell this potential player uprising and continued media backlash, Adam Silver, the NBA’s commissioner, banned Donald Sterling for life from the NBA, fined him the league maximum of $2.5 million, and promised to get Sterling to relinquish his ownership and sell the Clippers.

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/technology/verizon-tells-netflix-to-cease-and-desist-blaming-it-for-slow-streaming.html/

This is a story about Netflix vs Verizon, but it’s also about much more than that. Net neutrality stands to perhaps change the way we consume the Internet altogether. In this case Netflix has consistently blamed Verizon for deliberately slowing down streaming towards their customers. Verizon claims that it’s Netflix’s responsibility to ensure quality streaming and customer service. But as I mentioned earlier this argument all centers around the FCC’s ruling on net neutrality. Netflix is a big proponent and supporter of net neutrality. Verizon is very much against that concept. Net neutrality is the idea/concept that all content and usage of the Internet should be treated alike. Those that oppose this concept, like Verizon, say that they should be able to charge by usage.

http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-amazon-and-hachette-explained-20140602-story.html#page=1

In what’s seemingly becoming a trend, this is a story about a bigger company attempting to bully another company into succumbing to their demands, to get them that much closer to becoming a monopoly. Pretty much what this equates to is that Amazon is attempting to bully publisher Hachette to accept their terms for e-book pricing (retail and wholesale). To force Hachette’s hand Amazon has put artificial delays on their books. They’ve made some of their titles unavailable fro pre-order, increased the shipping time on books they already have available, and have even blocked certain titles from showing up in search the way that they should. Stephen Colbert, one of Hachette’s authors that this affects, gives his take on this situation far better than I ever could…

http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/ukf9gv/amazon-vs--hachette

The Year That Changed My Life

            Ten years ago I embarked on a year and opportunity that changed my life forever. Back in 2004 I earned the opportunity to become a member of Tops in Blue, (TIB). As a member of Tops in Blue we traveled all around the world putting on a show and performing for our troops overseas and nationwide. But Tops in Blue is so much more than that. One of the lessons that priors, former members of Tops in Blue, try to engrain in new members is to not go into TIB looking for what you can get out of it. They tell you to go into the program prepared to give it your all, and you’ll come out of it with so much more. I knew this would prove to be true because I had already gained so much just making it to TIB.

            There are some people that try for years and years to make it to TIB. Some make it and some never do. I was fortunate to have made it my first time out. The first step I had to take to make it to TIB was to compete in the base talent show. This was one of the first times that I had performed in front of a crowd all by myself. Needless to say, I was nervous, and you could hear it when I played. But that was step one of the performer in me emerging from out of my shell. Next up after that was sending in my application and a video of me playing a couple songs in hopes of being selected to compete in the Worldwide Talent Competition that determines the members of that years tour. Worldwide is a whole different beast of a talent competition. Before you got there you had to select what song you were going to perform in front of a theatre full of people. At worldwide, in addition to preparing for your performance, you had to audition in all the other categories there. So while I was there to audition for the band, playing my sax, I also had to do a vocal, dance, and variety audition. Basically auditioning for TIB you had to leave all of your caring what other people think at the door, or you just weren’t going to make it. I made it through all the auditions and my performance, each one bringing something out of me I didn’t realize I had, and a few weeks later I learned that I made it to the team!

            As a member of the 2004 TIB team, in addition to getting to travel around the world playing music, I received so many valuable lessons, skills, relationships, and more thanks to this tour. I always say that TIB was at the same time one of the hardest and most rewarding things that I’ve ever done in my life. Even if I personally didn’t get anything from TIB, which I did, the effect that I saw it have on our troops, especially the ones in the dessert, made everything that we did and went through more than worth it. But like I said I took so much away from my year with Tops in Blue. I have friendships from this tour that will last a lifetime. I learned how to be a performer, how to produce a show, how to lead a group, how to take charge of the stage, how to work hard and to continue to push through until the task at hand is complete, and much more. So there it is. 2004 is the year that changed my life, and Tops in Blue is the program that was used to do it! 

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Josiah James Interview

Josiah's latest EP. Coming to you soon!

            For those that have read any of my previous blog posts know how big of a proponent I am of people following after their dreams.  Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Northern California, indie artists +Josiah James. Josiah exhibits doing what it takes to go after the dream that’s in your heart. As a freshman in college Josiah decided that instead of attempting to juggle the responsibilities of college along with song writing, recording, and touring that he would hold off on school, and pursue music full time. As other great luminaries before him that left college early to pursue their passions, such as +Steve Jobs, the gamble paid off.  Since that time Josiah has done numerous tours, over 500 shows, and has released three albums, and he is currently readying the release of his new EP, Identity.

            On the journey to our dreams, especially as independent artists, we often learn as we go when it comes to the business end of things. I asked Josiah about some of the stories he’s experienced with his business dealings and working with other, artists, bands, and musicians. When it came to touring Josiah often worked out mutually beneficial arrangements with those that he toured with. He would often work out deals with the other bands. Deals along the line of if it was their tour maybe they’d get the guarantee at the door, but he would get to ride with them on the tour, wouldn’t have to pay for gas, and he would make money from album and merch sales. 

Unfortunately there are times when individuals in the industry use dirty tactics or tricks in their dealings, and we learn very quickly that we need to protect ourselves in this business. Josiah recalled a time with a certain band. They were in a hotel room. While they were in their hotel room Josiah was working on a potential new song, with the other band in the room. He didn’t see a reason to not trust these guys, but they ended up trying to steal the song, and claim as there own. It took a lot of backtracking, going through voice memos and such to prove that the song was his work. For a while Josiah didn’t think that he would get to release this new song to the public, but eventually he was able to prove the song was his. That’s just one of the dirty tactics that independent and major label artists might have to face in this industry. 

As an independent artist there are times when there just isn’t a lot of money to bargain with. Sometimes you have to just find musicians that are just down to help you, and can work with what you can afford. That’s the case for Josiah. He has a set amount that he can work with. Sometimes he can do a little bit more than that, but if there’s a musician that just wants more and more money he has no qualms with not using them. In fact there are times where he’s worked not using a band into his live show. During a live show Josiah will create a full song right in front of his audience. Using his acoustic guitar and a live looping technique, Josiah will layer guitar parts, percussion, and his voice and create a whole song live in front of the crowd. I’ve never seen it, but it sounds pretty amazing to me, and it’s easy for me to understand why there were so many people in my circle raving about this guy before I ever met him.

Josiah James epitomizes the new school independent artist. He does it on his own when he has to, and he has expertly engaged his audience using social media. Over the years he has amassed thousands of fans that have supported his music, and he has exemplified living the dream!

For more on Josiah James you can check him out on his website www.josiahjames.com, and on social media outlets everywhere:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/josiahjamesofficial

Twitter: www.twitter.com/josiahjames

Instagram: @josiahjames