Centerstage - Chicago's Original City Guide

Articles Sections >> Arts + Words Bars + Clubs Dating Festivals Fitness Food Lifestyle Music Theater Travel + Tourism Who's Who > View All Best Beats Interviews Music Guides

Tips from the professionals on how to make yourself heard.

Thursday Apr 15, 2004.     By Patrick Sisson

Music Feed

Behind the Cribs episodes and glamorous images of successful recording artists, you'll find years of backbreaking work, subsistence living and little to no return. Getting A&R reps to drool over your demo or crowds to pack the floor at your next show aren't easy tasks, and no guaranteed formula exists to make it happen. If your band deserves the attention, only good-old character-building perseverance, and the occasional lucky break or industry contact, will put you on the path to dropping that day job, all pieces of information you're surely picked up at this point.

Consider the story of The Redwalls, a talented group of high school students from Deerfield who, after a few gigs at local venues like Nevin's Live getting in touch with the right contacts, ended up auditioning in front of representatives at Capitol Records before they had ever gone on a real tour. Definitely an example of what being in the right place at the right time can do.

If your group isn't as lucky, that doesn't mean the game is over. Instead of focusing on overnight success stories, stick to the basics of self-promotion and professional conduct to make the right contacts. Here's some practical advice from the people that really matter, those working at record labels, to help make it happen.

1. Create a local buzz
Self-evident, perhaps, but maintaining a strong sense of community and slowly building a local scene pays off in countless ways. Recently, underground hip-hop in Chicago has made its presence known. Local labels like Galapagos4 and Gravel have helped foster the growth of local artists and producers that are starting to make a blip on the national radar screen.

According to Tim Stroh, founder of Gravel Records, momentum begins with creating a dedicated, loyal fan base that provides crucial support in the early stages of a band's development.

"If an act has a strong local following," he says, "it will attract the attention of labels."

He suggests many ways to motivate your fans: contact local venues about opening up, collaborate with other artists, contact college radio DJs and make sure they have your material (and make sure they play it, even if it means bugging them every week) and make sure to pass out CDs of your music at shows. It also doesn't hurt to make sure the movers-and-shakers in town have a copy.

2. Keep it short and to the point
Once your band gets to the stage where it's ready to send out demos and look for a label, it's important that your tape stands out among dozens of other bands vying for a share of a label's limited resources. Rian Murphy, General Manager and Head of Sales for Drag City and occasional producer and performer in the group Chestnut Station, oversees the sales of nearly a quarter million albums a year on this venerable Chicago indie rock label. His advice to artists is to be direct.

"Start your demo with the best material, and keep it short," says Murphy.

In an already flooded music market where home recording and self-promotion via the Internet are the norm, sending professional demos is vital if you want to stand out. Stroh agrees.

"Be willing to invest time into making sure your product is of the best quality and appearance," he says. "People will consider you professional if you present yourself as professional."

3. Be focused in your approach
When you're sending out demos, there's no guaranteed tipping point or magic number where you're destined to get a return on all that postage. It's all about having the correct person hear your single at the appropriate time. Instead of getting frustrated and blindly mailing out tapes, increase your chances by targeting specific labels that have a reasonable chance of getting behind your band.

"Best thing to do is to know exactly what labels you want to send your material to," said a representative at Dust Traxx, a local dance label. "Names mean nothing now…at the end of the day, it's about how good your record is."

Local artist Kate Simko provides a great example of this strategy. A local DJ who's part of the electronic duo Detalles, she decided against a broader, mass-mailing approach when sending out demos, instead focusing on specific labels that friends and industry contacts suggested. Though her search eventually landed her group on German label Traum, a shared musical philosophy meant that the label put a lot of support behind the release, 'Shapes of Summer,' and will probably release a second album. All in all, it was the proper artist-label relationship that made this possible.

4. Remember this is a business
Finally, don't make uninformed decisions about business or leap at the first seemingly good opportunity you're presented with. The music industry is just that, an industry, and uniformed artists blindly signing contracts can quickly end up saddled with unfavorable terms and bogus deals. "The Problem With Music," a widely-circulated essay by famed Chicago producer Steve Albini that's available on the Web, may come off as a worst-case scenario, but it's a stern warning for bands who think they're above worrying about the business side of making music. Plenty of books, like the succinctly titled "This Business of Music: The Definitive Guide to the Music Industry" by M. William Krasilovsky, and Web sites like Getsigned.com, provide an in-depth picture of laws, copyrights and contracts.