Recovery and "The Scene": Getting Through The Weirdness
May 07, 2013, 11:41:am
First, a big disclaimer. I don’t know everything about addiction. I don’t pretend to know what motivates each individual person to make bad calls and dive headfirst into the abyss. I just know what I went through and go through on a daily basis. I’m no expert, but I get asked about it a lot so I thought I’d share some of my experience doing this music stuff as a recovering alcoholic.
Also, I don’t give a shit if you get hammered, high, or jerk off while choking yourself. It’s your life to live. This isn’t an advertisement for recovery or a judgment on anyone else’s behavior. I wish I could still get screwed up, but I suck at it so I had to stop. Still, get help if you think you have a problem, whether that be a therapist or a detox or a program. It’s really hard to do it on your own.
With that said, at the time of this writing I got sober over three years ago. I hit bottom at a Caustic show (well, technically hours after when I woke up in the back of the club passed out) and realized shortly after that I couldn’t do this to myself and the people I loved any longer. So I decided to break up with alcohol and got help. For those who don’t know what Caustic used to be like and what Caustic’s like now, let’s put it this way: I drank on stage. And off. And anytime I could. Caustic was for all intents and purposes, at least to me, a party band where I got to be the life of the party. Honestly, it still is—I’m just not the passed out host at the end of the party any more.
Also, I’m not “cured”. I could still relapse. This is my thing for life. I just fortunately got it under control.
Being as known as I was for drinking I actually did have some trepidation stopping. It feels stupid now, but there was a small fear like I was letting people down by quitting, but when I realized I finally had to stop I simply didn’t care what the consequences were from people who weren’t my wife, family, or close friends. I hit the wall, and I needed to reassemble the pieces.
The main reason I’m writing this isn’t to toot my horn about sobriety (believe me, bragging feels stupid when life knocks you on your ass), but because I get asked a lot about how the hell I stay sober for shows and especially festivals. While it’s gotten easier over time, I won’t pretend that playing shows the first few times after I cleaned up was easy. Luckily I have a lot of good friends and fans who were extremely supportive of my decision. I also tried to keep a sense of humor about it, making a fake press release (linked below) announcing my newfound sobriety and for my first sober show getting a friend to be my “designated drinker” on stage (I subsequently have done this at other shows, including last year’s tour). I made a conscious effort to make what was a pretty uncomfortable situation as comfortable as possible by being open about it, but not whining publicly about all the crap I was going through (I did channel it into my Livejournal for a time, as well as lyrically for a few songs, notably White Knuckle Head Fuck).
After a few shows of just feeling weird having CONTROL again though, I felt better. Not only did I feel better, the shows got better too. I’m saying this based on what a lot of people have told me, and that feels great. I think the music got better too, simply because I actually started focusing 100% on it instead of splitting the focus with whatever I wanted to put into my system for “inspiration”…and generally ended up making the music sound like shit.
Back to the point. Here are some tips for your garden variety alcoholic/addict to get through shows, festivals, and dealing with lots of people having fun on various substances.
1) Just Say No…Thank You
I get offered shots and drinks all the time. I turn down shots and drinks all the time. I don’t get bent out of shape about it, because even though a lot of people know I don’t drink anymore I’m not so self-centered (okay, maybe a little) to think the whole effing planet knows. So I say no thanks. Sometimes people, especially those who are a bit more screwed up than they need to be, aren’t good at taking no for an answer. For that I simply channel Swayze in Road House and continue to be nice. I can’t think of a single time where anyone’s gotten angry at me or kept persisting, but if they did I’d just get the hell out of there. That’s their bullshit to deal with.
2) Move Around A Lot, Or Stay By The Booth
One of the beauties of being me is ADHD—I can’t focus for shit (and for the record a lot of people with distraction issues use and drink, as it allows them to focus better—it’s not a good excuse, but it’s true) and so I get fidgety staying in one place too long in general. This helps a lot at festivals as if I’m not watching the band on stage I’m generally bouncing from conversation to conversation and hanging out with people. If I don’t know many people there I tend to stay by the merchandise booth. While it’s nice to have someone handle your merch booth, it’s even nicer to be able to talk with people at the event. In my experience you also tend to sell more merch that way. You even get to sign it sometimes, which makes you feel like Bono…if Bono just sold a shirt referencing vaginas.
3) Know Your Sober Friends
Not everyone drinks or does drugs. Simple as that. Many people never have and still have a great time. Other people have stopped drinking or doing drugs and know what you’re going through. Know those people. I played the Kinetik Festival a few short months after quitting drinking and was determined to stay sober during the event, but staying sober for me wasn’t as much the hard part—it was being around so many (exceptionally nice) people who were waaaaaay hammered and/or otherwise altered. I wasn’t mad at them for it. I wasn’t even really all that bummed that I couldn’t do it. I just needed someone who understood what I was going through and could relate. Luckily I knew another artist that had also quit that would be there, and when he showed up I bee-lined it over to him and just knowing he went through the same shit made me feel a whole lot better. We talked about it some and hung out for a while and it recharged my batteries on dealing with the lovely drunken masses. In all honesty he saved my ass, as I drank for a lot of reasons, and one was because it made me more social. I’m far from introverted, but I was still getting my bearings at the time and was learning how to deal with people in a very drunk environment as a non-drunk.
4) Drive Yourself, or Know When To Leave
While not always a possibility, it’s good to know that if things get uncomfortable you have an escape plan. Sometimes things get ugly- people get really hammered, people start fighting, people go into a sex frenzy and you wouldn’t touch the best looking one even at your formerly drunkest. Mostly, it might be because people are being drunk dicks and there’s no talking sense to them. So leave. Make sure anyone you came with has a safe way home and ditch the place. It’s better to remove yourself from a situation that threatens your sobriety or general well being than be some stupid hero and stick it out. There’s no honor lost in leaving a crappy party.
5) Don’t Be A Self-Righteous Dick
You’re clean and/or sober. Congratulations. You went through hell and are working your way to a better life. You’re awesome. Guess what though? You’re far from perfect, so don’t hop on the judgment train because you’ve addressed your problem and someone else maybe hasn’t…or they don’t even HAVE a problem and are just getting their party on. Remember that you used to enjoy doing that before you started ruining your life and blowing truckers for meth cash.
Self-righteousness is as ugly as it gets. You’re no better than anyone else. You’re just better than you used to be. Get over yourself and be kind to the other drunks. Everyone’s not out to destroy their lives—most just want to strap their drunkbag on and try to get laid. Know that the best way to represent sobriety is by showing you’re still along for the party and still having a good time without all the substances. Acting like everyone has to be that way just makes you look like you’re pissed that you can’t have your cake and eat it too. It doesn’t mean you have to stick around for every stupid idea people have—it just means that judging people for the same shit you did is completely hypocritical. If people see you being cool with stuff it might make someone else with issues realize it’s not the end of the world quitting drinking or doing drugs. Because it’s not. It just means you have more spending money and remember where your car is the next morning.
Quitting alcohol and drugs is never easy if you have a problem. By the time you realize how bad it is you feel weirder being straight than on your substance of choice and your perspective on everything is, for lack of a better term, completely fucked. Don’t make your life harder for yourself by quitting other things in your life that can be positive. While I associated my music with my addiction issues I was able to turn it into part of my rehabilitation by getting more creative to fill the (massive amount of) time I spent getting screwed up. If you can’t divorce hitting the clubs or making music without drugs or alcohol then don’t feel obligated to keep it up, but if you can ease yourself back into it know that things can still be fun or more rewarding if you can still find the kernel of passion and love that got you into doing it in the first place.
And if you’re reading this and can’t relate to anything I’ve said I applaud you. I hope you never have to understand it. But for those who are reading this and going through all the shit—it does get better, it’ll get less weird feeling, and things will suck significantly less as time goes on. You hopefully don’t have to start your whole life over to get better, so don’t give things up that make you happy whether you’re clean/sober OR drunk.
As a small side note, if you basically want to hear me hitting rock bottom listen to my album …And You Will Know Me By The Trail of Vomit. It went into mastering a little before I hit bottom and came out a month to the day after I quit. You can get the Caustic’s Detox podcast “commentary track” on iTunes as well. I talk about all this shit in more detail than most people probably want.
I’ll put this out there pretty simply: I don’t need a label to release my music. I don’t say that with any intended arrogance or as a middle finger to any label I am , or have been, on. I just don’t.
Neither do you, really. Neither does anyone these days.
I was listening to a podcast yesterday (Walking the Room, if you’re interested. You’re not? Oh well.) and they were discussing labels releasing albums for artists and if you’d make more money just doing it yourself if you’re already established and have a strong online presence, tour, etc. The conclusion they came to, which I agree with, is that you can probably make more money overall doing it yourself if you’re at that point, but you’ll get more exposure to more people if you go with a label.
If you’ve been doing this for any length of time where you’ve been fortunate to build a fanbase that will support you by seeing you live, buying your albums and/or merchandise, and more importantly spreading the word on your stuff, then you honestly might not need a label. Hell, it could “only” be a few thousand people. It’s the relationship that matters—bands with 100,000 “fans” may only sell marginally better than a band with a devoted cult of 10,000 fans that worship the ground they walk on. Think Insane Clown Posse (who have waaay more than 10k fans).
Either way you do it though, know you’re going to have to work your ass off.
So why be on a label at all? You might get a decent royalty rate but when it comes down to it if you can sell enough CDs and digital downloads one your own you can make a lot more than if you do it yourself. Making music is cheaper than ever to produce and get out to the masses, so that’s a huge help to small artists. Also, more and more people are purchasing music using digital sites, and artist friendly sites like Bandcamp have made it even easier for fans to directly support the artists they love.
Here’s why it’s good to be on a label…and for the record we’re talking a decent label that takes their job seriously. There are plenty of labels that just enjoy saying they’re a label and don’t do shit to promote their artists.
A good label…
-fronts the cash for the release and/or maybe even an advance to use for recording and touring (which will come out of your royalties). They take the hit financially if it doesn’t succeed.
-handles distribution. They package the albums. They do the shit work that most of us hate dealing with.
-promotes the release with DJs, magazines, radio, and maybe even pitch it for inclusion on TV and film.
-gives you some credibility in the marketplace, aka “This band must be good—they’re on Butt-Butt Records!”
-provides a potential family of other artists to work and be associated with.
-represents you to the best of their ability, using their collective skills and expertise to market you and help get your name out there.
Here’s why DIY can be better—when you do it yourself you…
-don’t have to answer to anyone ever. You represent yourself and never have to worry about someone misrepresenting what you do. You “get” you like nobody else.
-can keep whatever money you bring in. This could backfire and you could lose your ass if you don’t budget right or don’t sell enough, however. Still, you could potentially make more. A lot more.
-have a better connection with your fanbase. They can’t use the “well I bet you’re getting screwed by your label so I’m happy to torrent everything you’re trying to sell” excuse without, well, looking like a dick.
-can release what you want when you want how you want. That means everything can be free. Your call.
-are forced to learn about the business of music, even on a small level. This makes it harder for people to screw you over. It makes you smarter and more confident.
I’ve had the privilege of being on labels as well as self-releasing, I honestly don’t know what’s best for me these days. While it’s nice to be on a label with as much name recognition and clout as Metropolis I receive no advances (nor have ever asked for one- I don’t feel like owing people money) and with Kickstarter and other crowd funding sources out there it’s easier than ever if you’re established enough to finance your art without having to get into massive financial debt, plus keep that strong connection with the people that support you. Truth be told if I self-released my last album I would have made significantly more money (or significant for me—even a couple hundred bucks is a big deal to me a lot of the time), as I bought my album wholesale from Metropolis to fulfill my promises to Kickstarter backers. No regrets, but thems the facts. And even more truthfully, I’m not a cash cow for Metropolis, but I sell well enough to hold my own. I’m not a Covenant, Combichrist, or other more popular “C” band. I’m a critically acclaimed (which usually means squat, sales-wise), smallish to middle-sized fish in a big pond. Therefore they need me about as much as I need them: Not much at all,k when it comes down to it. Again, thems the facts.
So what do I recommend?
Honestly, I think it’s vital for an artist to understand how to self-release, and since most of us don’t start making music and get signed before we have music out. Because of this I wouldn’t rely on anyone to handle your music for you at first, so I definitely encourage anyone out there who wants to take the next step and release their own music, whether it be dealing with getting a CD out and/or releasing music digitally. The trial and error knowledge I’ve learned from that process has given me a confidence to know that I can just walk away from whatever label situation I’m in (and I’ve never been in a bad one, fortunately) and keep going. Eventually a label may come calling and you decide it’d be interesting to see what else they can offer. With all the experiences you’ve had self-releasing you can ideally better figure out if the label you’re talking to is actually going to be beneficial to what you’re trying to do musically or if they’re, for lack of a better term, full of crap.
Being on a label is overall a good thing. I wouldn’t have connected with a lot of fans if I didn’t have the “Metropolis Brand” (and formerly the “Crunch Pod Brand”) behind me. Let’s face it—some people still assume you’ve “made it” if you’re on Metropolis, so they’ll check you out because of it. How far that will actually help you is more on you than the label however, because as much as a label can promote you it’s on your shoulders to do the lion’s share of the work. They can bring the crowd to you, but you have to impress them enough to stay.
It’s all a matter of preference. Personally I’m still debating whether I want to be on any label at all these days, as I’ve been fortunate to work my way up the ladder enough to be self-sufficient and, frankly, I think I could potentially do better alone. I know a lot of other artists who would get lost in the process of self-releasing and still think the validation of a label is more important than potentially getting screwed on a deal. For example, know that there are labels out there currently that you will never get the rights back to your music when you sign with them. Metropolis isn’t one of those, and I would never have signed with them if that was required.
In closing, making amazing art and putting in the time to get your name out there can be done alone or with a label’s helpful push. Just know that there isn’t any one way to do it, especially nowadays, and if you’ve got the determination and motivation you can succeed either way. You just need to decide what’s best for you and what sacrifices you’re willing to make for either side. Either way you’re going to put in a lot of work to succeed, so get ready for the long haul, and make it worth it.
(This blog was inspired by a suggestion from Ben Schicker on Facebook)
*************************
Caustic on Twitter: www.twitter.com/_caustic_
Caustic Store: thecausticstore.bigcartel.com
Caustic's new album THE MAN WHO COULDN'T STOP is out NOW on Metropolis Records: www.industrial-music.com
Here are some tips on gaining (and maintaining) momentum on social networking sites.
1) Posting content is key. Posting links and video is better.
The key to staying in the eyes of those who like your stuff (or who ideally soon will) is to always post some sort of content. This can be album updates, remix updates, upcoming shows, or doing a video journal. Always try and make it something you'd like to read as well, as even though it might not be the biggest news on earth make sure it's still worth checking out. Do it on a regular enough basis too, which can mean once a week for Vampirefreaks, a couple times a day for Facebook, and five to ten times a day (or more) on Twitter. Figure out what's best for each site and stick to it.
2) Know those people that all confirmed they're coming to your event? LIES!
It's happened to me too many times to count. I set up a Facebook event. I invite people that could potentially go and get a great response! When the showtime rolls around a tenth of those people show up, making me feel like I've been lied to, betrayed, and another word to demonstrate how much it sucks.
Here's the thing- people like to show support by saying they're going to the event even when they have no intention. Maybe it's to try and help you make it seem like the event's going to be huge. Maybe it's because they originally did intend to go. Maybe they're just dicks. I don't know, but I do know that it's really annoying but it's also important to never count on those who say they'll attend an event to actually attend. The only people you're sure that may be there are those who purchase tickets in advance. The rest is a crapshoot.
And as a side note to those of you who find it necessary to invite every goddamn person on your friends list, regardless of if they live where you'll be playing-- you're a dick if you don't take the time to weed out people who would never make it to the event. You're a lazy, spamming dick. Seriously. I know I for one drop people who do that off my lists immediately.
Again, you're a dick.
Dick.
3) If you post content, make it interactive
One of the things about social media sites that a lot of people find baffling is that they're SOCIAL media sites. That means people are meant to chat on there. People are meant to respond. People are meant to share. And if you post bland updates you'll either get bland responses, but most likely you'll get no responses at all.
Ask questions. Make a poll topic to get their input on something you're thinking about doing.
Share an observation. In other words, make your page more about being a community than just a place to advertise your art. It'll make it more homey for fans and they'll check it out more often. Engaging your fans is a huge thing, and being good at it puts you at a large advantage over most other artists who either don't get it or don't care. Get it? Care. It'll help.
4) Repeating the same content the same way will mean less people see it every time you do so.
This is mainly for Facebook, but it applies in spirit to any other social networking site because mostly it's annoying to read a cut/paste announcement every day. However, for Facebook the more you post the same thing in the same way the less the algorithms will let people see it. Use the "people saw this post" as an indicator, as that'll give you a decent idea of, well, how many people saw it.
Switching up how you say things, keeping out key words, and doing links differently can help you avoid the algorithm trap. Get sneaky. Learn to say the same thing 5 ways and not only will people see it, they ideally won't get bored hearing the same information again.
5) Accept that you won't get lucky and go viral. It's like expecting to win the lottery.
I've seen (and felt) it a thousand times. An artist posts something, whether it be a new song, video, or thoroughly amusing picture that s/he knows people should LOVE. There's no reason this shouldn't be shared a lot on all of the social networking sites. The artist NAILED it.
And then poof, it's gone. Nobody cared. Or at least not on the level the artist expected.
This is exceedingly disheartening, as every artist hopes they can find that one freakin' break where all of a sudden hundreds of thousands of people know who they are in the space of a few days. The thing is that you never get to decide on what people will all simultaneously freak out over. Reality is an entirely different thing though. Hell, the most popular post I've EVER created on a social media site was posting a picture of a license plate that said "SKNNY PUPPY" on it. That's it. And it got viewed 20 times more than anything else I've ever posted.
Yup. There ya go.
Never assume any one thing is going to "break" you out to the rest of the world. Work at getting a little farther every day, and gaining a few new fans every time to pimp yourself. At least you'll have a better foundation of support if you do get lucky enough to go viral. Otherwise keep that nose to the grindstone.
6) If you tweet it, make sure you mean it.
Here's the thing about Twitter (well, especially Twitter)-- if you post something completely insane, ignorant, or awful someone is going to get a screen capture of it. It's the rules. You can delete it within seconds, but you can always assume it was seen, recorded, and will be used against you regardless of the remorse or guilt you felt after you sent it.
With that always in mind, watch what you say. If you're pissed and intend to go off it might be a good time to get it out in an email with no addressee assigned and then delete it. Don't blow off steam on the internet unless you're prepared to deal with the deluge of bullshit it might cause. It's not worth it and will distract everyone from what you want them to concentrate on: Your art.
7) Your amount of followers means next to dick. Your amount of likes means next to dick. Your ranking on Reverbnation means next to dick. UNLESS you make it mean something.
I've seen it way too many times to count-- you go to an artist page on Facebook and they have an ungodly amount of "likes", but have literally nobody "talking about this". While this means nothing to most people, what it actually says is a lot to the those in the know. It essentially means that they have spent a lot of money advertising themselves on Facebook to get the all-important "likes", but then have given those people absolutely no reason to come back and visit. As a comparison, it's like spending millions to design and open a nightclub but forgetting to get a sound system and DJs to make the crowds actually come in.
While there's nothing wrong with advertising yourself on social media sites (it's cheaper than a Rolling Stone ad, and a lot more people are on social media sites), you're doing yourself a massive disservice if you're spending any sort of money and not doing the follow through to give anyone who added your page a reason to return. How many people do you think go through their liked pages and say "Hey, I haven't visited this random page I added in a while. They had a great ad!"? Answer: No one.
If you're going to do all the work to cook a great meal you should actually put it in the oven. Otherwise you'll just get laughed at by other artists who know you spent a good chunk of change to get traffic on your page and then you didn't do anything with it. You want momentum, and the only way to gain that is by posting stuff people want to see and doing it often enough for you to stay in their brains.
Oh, and for the record I've seen stats saying that you're heavily engaged with your fanbase if you're seeing 5-10% of your likes "talking about" the page. Take it worth a grain of salt, but having 16,000 likes and 45 people talking about it looks...sad.
8) If you want people to stick around remember it's not only about you.
Artists often think that they need to talk about Big Important Stuff every time they post, without realizing the reason most people are online to begin with is to WASTE TIME. As I mentioned earlier it's good to post tidbits about what you're doing, especially when new stuff is in the works, but I've always enjoyed also sharing stuff I like, whether it be videos from other artists that have influenced me, movies I really enjoy, or pimping other people's art. If anything letting people know that your friend is putting out an album is just a nice thing to do, but if you're good at breaking news ("Congrats to X-Band, who just signed to Necronomicon Records!") people will keep an eye on your page a bit more.
You're trying to build a community. You're just one part of it. Include others. And don't post 10 times a day unless it's top notch stuff. Nobody cares that much about your music if they have to endure a bunch of meaningless reminders every day. We get it, you're playing a show Friday. You don't need to post about it three times a day.
9) Have an opinion. It's good if it's a popular opinion too, but whatever.
Sometimes I rant. Mostly it's about stupid stuff that in the grand scheme of things, but whether it's bitching about artists doing stupid things on their own pages like making you like the page to stream one freakin' song from them to whining about lack of album sales, I just like to let off stream. As we all know the internet is serious business and every idiot has something to say, but I see an overwhelming lack of artists understanding that this is supposed to be FUN. I feel sorry for any artist unwilling to actually express themselves about things that, frankly, most people agree with. I try to avoid political stuff as much as possible, but everything else is fair game. If a debate starts make sure that everything stays fair and respect other people's opinions, but know that even if it gets a bit heated as long as everyone's being cool with each other and not flying off the handle then, well, you've got a lot of interaction on your page. It's not about creating false controversy and more about facilitating a discussion.
Either way people appreciate it when you're actually acting like a human being and have feelings. Try and balance the positive stuff you talk about with the negative, especially the whining and self-pity bullshit. Your opinions can rally or challenge the people on your page, but you don't want to lose a bunch of them in the process, so ease off on the big abortion and gun control debate...unless that's your thing. Then by all means go for it. I'm not your mom.
10) Myspace still sucks. Sorry, Mr Timberlake.
Enough said. It's amazing how much a company will spend to suck just as much.
*************************
Caustic on Twitter: www.twitter.com/_caustic_
Caustic Store: thecausticstore.bigcartel.com
Caustic's new album THE MAN WHO COULDN'T STOP is out NOW on Metropolis Records: www.industrial-music.com
This is going to sound like a really shitty thing to say, but I can't understand why a majority of artists are signed to labels these day.
I don't say this because there's not immense talent on labels. I don't say this because they don't deserve exposure and aren't well meaning. I say this because I don't see how the hell these artists could possibly recoup from a business standpoint.
Look, I know this isn't about the money necessarily. Rare is the label pulling in phat cash these days, especially the smaller, struggling indie labels, but when I hear about a band getting signed to a label these days that I've never heard of (or often heard of, as well), and I check out their Facebook page or Twitter page or YouTube channel and see next to no activity or interactions outside of "WE GOT SIGNED" and "4 people liked this", then...yeah, how the hell do these bands really have a chance to succeed past that, especially if money's invested in CDs (if the label actually makes them still, but most do)?
The majority of smaller labels in this scene (and Metropolis, while definitely the scene's Big Gun in the U.S., is still pretty small relative to "major labels") do not have the clout, staff, or financial power to promote past a certain point. It's a fact, and this in no way makes the labels any less honorable or completely freakin' awesome for what they do. Owning a label isn't just a gamble, it's generally a bad gamble. I say this as someone who ran an incredibly small label for a while when it didn't even suck as bad as it does now. You have to not only be smart as a talent scout, but even smarter as a business owner and know how to effectively promote an artist with an extremely limited budget. The problem is that it's exceptionally hard to promote artists who can't promote themselves.
In other words, if you the artist are a car, unless you actually put some gas in it yourself the label can only get behind and push you so far before you stall out again.
Most labels try and have a decent sized roster. It only makes sense, as that means there's regular(ish) content coming out from artists at all times. It behooves that label (and yes, I said "behooves", dammit.) to sign artists that are not only solid musically, but also solid as promoters themselves. This can be done by being active online, making videos, touring their butts off, or a ton of other ways. The problem is that you don't see that from most bands. What you see is barely active social media pages, a couple shows coming up on their website (if they even have one), and mostly...nothing. The internet has allowed people to think they've got a fanbase, or more importantly the ACCESS to a fanbase, when in fact they have as much as any other artist with a keyboard and a Soundcloud account. The internet is a nonstop parade of artists counting chickens before they're hatched, then getting bitter when they find out they've got a bunch of rotten eggs.*
And most labels really don't seem to think that through in my opinion. They're snapping up decent to solid artists (and again, the quality isn't my issue) that have potential but very little ability to push themselves and realize that potential. Add onto that the prevalence of torrenting, the diminishing retail opportunities out there to sell physical product, and the massive competition from the million other (mostly bland and shitty) artists out there that will serve as another distraction from your artists and label. In a losing situation you need people you can count on, and I don't see a lot of these artists as that. There are many exceptions, but when you think of those exceptions think of the majority of other artists that would fit into this category.
Labels do serve an extremely valuable purpose. If anything they're a stamp of approval from someone else that your music is worth hearing because they're going to invest money in it, and some people do pay attention to that. How many really care is also a big question, as unlike the early internet you have literally all the music in the world at your fingertips. The main issue that comes up then is "Is this a wise investment?", and I simply don't see most signings as being that these days.
As the addage goes, how can someone help you when you won't help yourself? They can't, and neither can a label. A label can give you the tools to broaden your exposure but they can't force you to get motivated to do what you were signed to do: sell music. And why is this? Honestly in a lot of cases I think it comes down to people deluding themselves into thinking there's a "big break" that artists get when they've been signed and that This Is It. They think they get one chance, or when they get that one chance and nothing happens then their one moment is gone. What they don't understand is this world isn't full of one Big Moment. No, it's full of plateaus. Once you hit one level you hang out and build until you can climb to the next one. That takes work. Lots of it. And the label can help you bump up a plateau or three, but they can't do much more unless you're willing to gas up that car and start driving without their help. Then you gas it up again and keep going, and keep going, and keep going. Just because you sign a contract doesn't mean you get to take it easy. Making the music is the easy part. Getting people to hear it is the work.
So maybe labels should stop pushing cars that won't start and begin looking at becoming pickier and getting behind the ones that come with a full tank. They'd be better off in the long run.
*Man, I'm really pushing the analogies today, aren't I?
*************************
Caustic on Twitter: www.twitter.com/_caustic_
Caustic Store: thecausticstore.bigcartel.com
Caustic's new album THE MAN WHO COULDN'T STOP is out NOW on Metropolis Records: www.industrial-music.com
Merchandise is a huge thing for artists, especially nowadays when album sales are dwindling and there are a sea of artists available to music fans with a few taps on a keyboard. You want to stand out. You want to survive financially. You want to see cool people wearing your t-shirts.
This is understandable. But how do you figure out exactly what’s good to get, where to go, and how much should you get?
There are a few ways to think of merchandise as an artist. The least crass way is as an extension of your music, a complement to what you’re putting out there sonically. The most crass way is it’s the only way a lot of us can make any money in this business and you want people to advertise your “brand”. I think both are important to understand and accept, and that you shouldn’t be making merchandise JUST to try and make money. Anything that smacks of desperation may come across that way to fans, and you never want to milk your fans just because you could use a little extra cash. It always has to be worth everyone’s while...as much as making crap to buy can be, at least.
So you may be thinking “what should I get first?” Let’s back up a second. First off, ask yourself a few questions:
1) Do I have a band name that is uniquely mine? The first part of that question can be done by a little thing called a Google search (hint: “The Beatles” is already taken). It may seem stupid, since your band is just starting out, but take it from someone who knows—it’s a pain when there are several bands with the same name as you out there, especially when they may all think they have rights to the name. Trademarking isn’t cheap, but it’s what you sometimes have to do to ensure your name is actually your name. You don’t want to deal with lawyers if you don’t have to. With a name you know is available you won’t have to.
2) Do I have a nice logo that’s memorable yet speaks to the people that I want listening to my music? After all, a catchy logo is important, and a catchy logo with an icon of some sort even more. And while some people don’t think too much about the context of it, realize that you’ll probably never see a Radiohead album with the logo in some awesome black metal font (cool as that would be). Think it through, as that name and logo will be the first thing a lot of people see about your band.
3) Is this band worth investing in? This is the most important thing. If you’re three weeks into rehearsing with the band and one person’s definitely moving away to college, the other has a weird addiction to portapotty fumes, and you’re just in it for a good time, then maybe you don’t want to blow even a few hundred bucks on shirts. If you’ve been around for a while and feel like your musical thang is fairly stable…well then by all means go for it. Just don’t feel like you HAVE to do it. Especially if the band is constantly on the brink of collapse and you’ve only played one open mic so far.
If you’ve worked through those three questions, then let’s talk what’s smartest to get in terms of merchandise. My first suggestion is stickers, as they’re cheap to make, people love getting them for free, and they put them everywhere. I’ve used www.stickerguy.com for mine since day one. For $20-50 you can get a bunch of stickers and ideally people will grab them at your merch table and put them on their laptops, cars, or baby’s foreheads. It’s all free publicity, and if your stickers are cool enough maybe if some uninitiated music lover sees them enough they’ll check you out. They’re also really cheap to mail to people, which is always something to take into consideration given that you may have more fans in another state or country than in your hometown. Think of stickers as a gateway drug into buying more merch (or, better yet, give them away with the purchase of a something else. Any excuse is a good excuse to give people stickers.)
The second thing I recommend getting is shirts. I used to recommend CDs as the second, but now you can put up tons of music free/cheap on the internet and you can’t download a t-shirt. People DO still buy CDs at shows though, so either get small runs of CDrs made or larger runs of replicated [i.e. “real”] CDs made, if the demand warrants it. Back to shirts, though. Luckily these days there are plenty of sites that can handle small batch orders of shirts. With that said know that the more you buy, the cheaper the shirts get. Bulk purchase is a beautiful thing, but also know that a limited design will sell faster if you’ve got a solid fanbase. I often sell short runs of designs and keep the orders to whatever I sell in preorder. Why? I don’t have a huge budget, and even though that means people who preorder will need to wait a bit longer to get the shirts in hand (and be up front about that), you’ll have all the money in the bank when you order them.
If your fans are game, preordering is one of the best ways to offset your costs in general. It’s saved my butt on numerous occasions, as I’ve done it with special editions of CDs (which I budgeted to pay for the entire run of CDs, including the “non-special” versions) and a lot of other items. It’s a good idea to let people save a few bucks if they preorder as well. Then it’s win-win in terms of everyone getting something special out of the deal.
Always know your budget, my friends. Always know what you can handle. While it takes money to make money, you can’t make money if you’re paying off the money with things you’re not selling. Then you get desperate and pissed. See what you can handle. It may mean buying less shirts and costing a bit more, but you’re building an empire brick by brick, not building by building.
In terms of where to go, I’ve gone through a few places for T-shirts over the years. When I have to order larger amounts of shirts (and I’m talking 100 or over. I’m not Metallica and selling thousands a show) I’ve always personally gone through www.industrialshirts.com for what I do (and there’s probably a version of this site for every genre of music). I’ve been friends with Rev John for years and always try and work with people I know and know will come through for me. I’ve also done smaller batches through www.rushordertees.com and even though I’ve never used them personally, I know a lot of people use www.vgkids.com. Remember that you can also get a screen printing kit and go even more DIY and make them yourself. Searching out local printers is also a good call, as that will save you money on shipping if it applies and it’s always nice supporting local businesses. Most importantly just find someplace you can trust.
Once you decide on a design and quantity, think about pricing. You don’t want to ultimately lose money on shirts, but know that you’ll probably give some out to band members, superfans, promoters, or people that help you out by watching your merch or something while you’re playing. I initially priced my shirts at $10 simply to move them. You don’t want to underprice anyone else you’re playing with (which may mean you charge more at a show to price match, but that’s just common courtesy to other bands…and might be required if you’re playing with a larger artist who requires you to do so to sell them at all), but know that if you try and sell a t-shirt at $25 and you’re opening shows when it’s still light outside…yeah, you aren’t going to sell many. You want these shirts being worn and worn by as many people as possible, so don’t think in terms of huge profits- think in terms of promotion…and not losing a lot of money. Also, don’t buy shirts that are the cheapest quality. The difference between crap and a decent quality shirt may be a dollar or two, but it’ll also mean it doesn’t fall apart in the wash, lose its ink, and will ideally be worn more frequently. People appreciate quality. For the record I usually charge about $15 for shirts now, simply because the costs in general have gone up for materials and it still feels like a fair price to me, especially when I see a bigger show the artists are charging $25-35 for bullshit.
As for other items I’ve made over the years, well they’ve ranged from shot glasses (and make VERY sure whoever you go through makes DISHWASHER SAFE ones—my first run of glasses were crap and I felt horrible every time someone mentioned the ink coming off) to patches/badges to dog tags and thongs. The important things to remember when deciding on merch is will it travel safely (shot glasses are sturdier than pint glasses) and how much room will they take up in your van/car/suitcase/closet (shot glasses are significantly smaller than pint glasses as well). Also, how heavy are they in terms of shipping? Keep this in mind, as even though you’ll want to add postage to orders you don’t want someone to skip buying your band’s merch because it’s $40 to mail your logo-fied hunk of iron ore. Shipping overseas has also gotten ridiculous, so being wary of heavy items may mean selling more to your fans over there.
Have fun coming up with merch, too. A classic logo design is great, but actually saying something with that logo will attract more buyers. You want to stand out, after all. My “TELL ME ABOUT MY UTERUS” shirts (which is a sample from one of my early songs) were a huge hit with men and women. So were my “STOP SAMPLING FULL METAL JACKET” shirts. They don’t always have to be funny, either. Do what works for you, but being bold usually works out better than being timid when it comes to design. Again, figure out what works for you and how you want to represent yourself. Coming up with unique, limited merch ideas is a great plan as well, but know that if you invest in something handmade or more expensive in general that you might not get any takers. We aren’t all KISS, after all. We can’t all sell coffins with our faces on them…but I’m working on it. As you build your audience you’ll hopefully get a gauge on what they want from you, and it’s always nice to supply it.
When it comes to pricing items be fair, but know that you’re doing this to make a little money so you can afford the gas home for a gig. Often I try and see what other artists are pricing their merchandise at (especially online) to get a feel for what’s standard. I usually budget out things like shot glasses and say to myself “How many of these can I sell at X-PRICE to break even?” Depending on the item and what I’m buying it for (figuring in postage), I generally try and put that number between 1/3 and 1/2 of the full quantity being bought. That means that if I can sell 33-50 of 100 widgets I’ll be making money. Again though, you don’t want to rip anyone off, so I generally err on the side of caution and take a little less money knowing that more people may end up buying them and getting the Caustic name out there a bit more. It all depends on the item as well and where you get price breaks in terms of quantity.
On that note, sometimes selling things (like shot glasses) cheaper if people want to buy them in multiple quantities is a good thing. Your fans appreciate a good deal just like you do, so give them one as long as it still works out for you, too. Also, sometimes there's no way you can get a good price break on an item for where your budget is and whatever you want to get will be grossly overpriced. Wait if this is the case. There's no reason to lose your butt on a merch idea if nobody would want to pay that much for it to begin with. Save the idea for later when a sale happens or you find another place that can do it for a better price.
A big thing to be aware of is you should know that creating merch means you might be spending a lot of money with not much coming back in at first, so be exceptionally cautious with it as being an artist is already stressful enough without being bitter that you invested a few grand in merchandise and have only sold one shirt to your mom and another to your (now) ex-boyfriend. I often test out design ideas by putting them up online to see what people think. If I don’t get a huge reaction I just avoid making that design. In some cases (such as the recent “Oregon Trail” Caustic shirts) someone just put together a picture as a joke and I reposted it and people demanded a shirt, so we said what the hell and made it (and I paid the design originator for the good idea). Interacting with your fanbase helps feel out what they want, plus it lets them know that you’re listening to them (as you should, in a lot of cases). In any case know that you’re going to have to work your ass off to sell your stuff, so get used to telling people (and telling them often) when you have new merchandise coming out. That’s another good reason to have a preorder, by the way—you’ll be advertising the new shirt/hat/CD way before it’s even made.
It’s a good idea not to invest in a ton of merch at once, so don’t go crazy and buy three designs of shirts AND a thousand CDs AND a bunch of bras. Also, try and be frugal when working with designers. Don’t let your ego and need to have that “perfect designer” mean you spend more on a shirt design than what the shirts will ultimately cost. There’s always someone out there that will work less expensively for that chance to get their name out there (and let people know who made the design—it’s just professional courtesy. Also, try and at least pay them a little for their efforts.) Logo shirts are always a good first shirt to make, too. A good rule of thumb to be aware of is that if most people wear black shirts in your scene then you shouldn’t challenge the status quo and make yours bright orange. Please PLEASE be aware that if you make merchandise know that it’s for the long haul. The chances of you selling a million shirts at one gig are slim to none. That’s why pricing your breakeven point is important—you’ll know you’ve ideally made your money back after the first rush sold, so the rest of the sales that trickle in after the fact can be all profit and help fund later merchandise endeavors.
Finally, while being cautious, frugal, and creative will hopefully ensure the most success in moving your merchandise at shows, know that the best way to sell it is to make incredible music and put on the biggest shows possible. Otherwise they’re just buying another shirt, and they can buy those anywhere and probably cheaper than what you’re selling them for. The music and your relationship with your fans is the main reason to support you, and the merchandise is simply a way for them to show that support. And for them to not be naked.
************
Caustic on Facebook: www.facebook.com/causticmusic
Caustic on Twitter: www.twitter.com/_caustic_
Caustic Store: thecausticstore.bigcartel.com
Caustic's new album THE MAN WHO COULDN'T STOP is out NOW on Metropolis Records: www.industrial-music.com
