Gatekeeper Guys

Sometimes people ask me or seem mystified, considering the quality of my work in relation to others who appear to be thriving, why I don't have more followers and support on social media. This week I have two examples to show you what happens at my end and explain why this might be so.

One of the ways I try to promote this Music is through Spotify playlists, by submitting to playlist curators. Most of the big Spotify playlists require you to pay to have your tracks on them but you can find smaller ones here and there who will freely do it. These can be run by other indie musicians, producers, etc or simply ordinary music listeners. These are the ones we submit to. The vast majority of submissions are ignored, they don't even give your track a listen. A few rare ones will respond kindly, thank you and put the song on their playlist without fuss. More common though, are these guys (and it almost always is guys!), who will respond to me either begrudgingly accepting my submission whilst at the same time criticising some element of the song or criticising some element of the song and not even being clear whether they are going to add it (usually they don't). Here are two examples this week...

The first was a submission from October for "Initials":

It's the "I'm having a hard time getting used to the riffs on the left hand audio channel" part that is related to what I'm talking about in this post. Since I mixed "Initials" earlier in the year, I couldn't remember what he was referring to here, not that it mattered to me because I knew I was happy with that mix and still am, but out of curiosity at what he was talking about I went and gave it a listen with headphones. I'm assuming he can only be meaning the tremolo guitar part that comes in during the chorus as that is the only guitar part to the left of the mix which stands out. Yet it doesn't stand out. There is nothing wrong with it and nothing abnormal.

Notice the language overall. "Interesting!" is all he can say and then "I might be able to squeeze it into my show today". What does that mean? Either you can or you can't. It's like don't bother playing it if you are not into it! My whole ethos is about not forcing things, letting things find people. I only use Spotify playlists because Spotify itself doesn't pay you for streams unless the track has over 1,000 streams over the past year, and because it's all rigged with algorithms, the best chance you have of reaching 1,000 streams is to get the song on a playlist. I'm not going to beg people to play my songs. I want to create a culture where people who genuinely like things are enthusiastic about sharing those things with others. This half-arsed attitude that I meet so often from middle-men, wanting to impart their opinion and review my track, even though I never asked for it, is tiresome, and it's been going on far too long. You're a playlist curator, not a music magazine reviewer, and I specifically submitted my song for consideration to be played not reviewed! You only have one thing to do... play the song or don't play the song!

The second example, which was for "The Days Before" came today. The guy is Mexican so his English isn't great but I'll try and decipher below:

I'm not sure what he means by "we need to clean it", in relation to "The Days Before". Then he brings "Satellites" into it, presumably he thinks that needs "cleaning" too. Then he starts mentioning other songs and critiquing them. It sounds like he's saying "Through The City" is more spacious and he likes that and feels "The Days Before" and "Satellites" should be that way too. Then he says "October Rose" should be slower and with a more simple vocal/guitar intro. I don't know what "P.d. you make it in One Way Ticket" means. Is that a compliment or another criticism?

I was puzzled why he brought totally unrelated songs into his message when I only asked him if he'd play "The Days Before". Then I realised he's listened to my top few songs on Spotify and just decided to review them all and share this with me when I never asked. This guy isn't even another musician, and it's bad enough when they do it! What is wrong with these people? Can they not understand the very simple concept that the artist has a vision for his songs and that everything about the song is the way the artist intended otherwise they wouldn't release it?! Do they do this with John Lennon records or David Bowie or The Sex Pistols?

Somebody pointed out to me that many indie musicians these days are insecure and doubtful about their work and they are always seeking opinions and validation from outside themselves and perhaps that is why these guys automatically critique. They don't realise I am not like those musicians and not looking for feedback or reviews, simply for them to play the songs. Of course, don't tell these guys that or heaven forbid, they'll accuse me of arrogance! Well, in my world, you ain't an artist if you can't stand behind your own work. Maybe it's this culture of songwriting by committee that most of the mainstream pop stars are involved in. Nobody has the guts to create something and stick it out there without first getting a million people's opinion about it.

Funnily enough, just this week I saw a spiritual video about this very thing of people criticising you but wrapping it up in shiny paper with a bow. Their take on my scenario was this:

"I'd go even further and say that they know how good you are, and they are purposefully criticising your work, because they are painfully aware of their own incompetence."

Earlier in the year when "Burn The Bridges" was played on some internet radio station, which I was grateful for, even there they couldn't resist critiquing, saying the vocal could have done with being louder! That was a very specific mixing decision because it was a more synth-based song, I wanted that slightly faraway, buried, vocal sound and the instrumentation to be more prominent on that track.

This culture of critiquing like that is concerning because what it shows is how uniform the world is becoming. People in design and architecture often talk about the greyness of these times and how all the buildings now are shades of grey, all the cars are grey and they point to the past and how much colour was in the cars and buildings. This is the musical equivalent. There is a uniform "indie sound" and everybody is going for it because they want to copy what's popular so they can get on these playlists and so on. The playlist curators and radio guys then get used to this sound and so when presented with something original and unique they can't handle it. They don't know what to do with it, what to make of it. Listen to records from the 50s through to the 90s. You will hear wildly different mixes, some with loud vocals, some with buried vocals, some with the bass really loud, some with the drums barely there. None of it is wrong. It is what happens when music is not formulaic and it is a sign the art is in a healthy state.

Music is a creative expression! It is not a sport. You can't measure it like that but plenty people seem to be trying to. Some of the most classic records from the 60s and 70s would be considered terrible mixes today because certain elements would be sticking out too much or not enough. Tambourines too high on Beatles mixes but drums too buried. Vocals way too upfront on many 60s records with the backing tracks sounding almost like karaoke. Lots of reggae from the 60s and 70s would be considered very unbalanced by today's standards. That's what makes that music so interesting and compelling! The lack of formula means each artist or producer had a unique, distinct sound. Too many people these days are treating music like science or mathematics or sport. There are so many videos and "experts" out there ready to tell you how to do this or that the "right" way and I've always purposefully avoided it. Not out of arrogance but because I have a vision for this Music and I haven't come across anyone who could achieve what I'm aiming for. They would do their version of it and it would inevitably end up sounding like everything else out there because they are scared to do anything else and maybe don't even know how.

I sense one of the problems they have with me is I am untrained in everything. I taught myself all of it and never got a degree in audio engineering or went to a special art school and I have no connections within the industry, no help, nothing. Yet still I've managed to create work comparable to anything out there. Because I've had so few in my corner to do it for me, I've had to learn to speak up for it myself. Of course, I learned from those who came before me, I don't deny that, but I learned on my own terms in my own way. People hate that because they are sending their sons and daughters to universities and so on and now you have all kinds of music people selling courses and sharing their expertise. They don't want me to be noticed because people might get the thought "if he can do it, so can we". Then they will question why they are paying this expert or that expert for their services or getting this degree or that degree when they can see that I'm producing high quality songs without any of that.

These gatekeeper guys have been there in one form or another all the way along my journey, and unfortunately, they like to insert themselves in these positions between me and the public, where they have control and can position themselves as the authority when they often don't know what they're talking about. They are insecure, either because they've failed and so they want me to fail, or they are pissed off because I am doing it all myself, not taking part in their social media culture, or just jealous. The ones I've highlighted above are the vocal ones but I'm sure there are many more who simply ignore. This is why I rarely get likes, comments, interaction on any of my social media platforms. There is this mean, tight-fisted, bitter and begrudging energy, where even when I do something impressive, they can't bring themselves to admit it and it's always been lurking, and I've known it all along, which is the main reason I've distanced myself from most guys throughout my adult life, but it's become more obvious now. Of course, I must emphasise not all guys are like this with me but many are.

So this is why I am always mentioning cutting out the middlemen and finding ways to directly connect with people who love this Music. My Music is for people, not for music industry people.