As an artist I catch a lot of the limelight, but I can’t create my albums just by myself. I could not do it with a team of supporting cast members, and I have one of the best. It takes many steps to take some songs from an idea I have to the finished CD the listener can enjoy.

Wolfgang Amadeus

It starts with the recording process, where I relied on my friends Greg Watmore who helped me with getting guitar sounds, Wolfgang Amadeus who recorded my acoustic guitar and lend me additional mics and gear I needed, and Eddie Brown to help me with arrangement ideas.
Then there are the players: Ricky Lawson, may he rest in peace (I miss you my brother), laid down some incredible grooves. He was always a step ahead at the sessions and new exactly what I wanted or needed on a track.

Ricky Lawson

Clydene Jackson and Oliver Brown have been my core band members since I produced their Gravity 180 CD. Cly’s tasteful keyboard parts and Oliver’s exciting percussion grooves are just a phone call away.

Johnny Britt happens to live just around the corner and was always ready to laydown a horn section, vocal or keyboard part if needed. Nate Harasim lives all the way in the Detroit area, but that did not prevent him from laying down some killer keyboard parts. Furthermore he took time out of his busy schedule to mix a track for me when I was under a crunch. Dov came by and did overdubs on violins and violas to create a live string section.

Nils, Clydene Jackson and Oliver C. Brown

Yes, I suppose anyone could have hired musicians and studio engineers to record and play the parts. But my friends came for the love of the music, and it’s hard to put your finger on it exactly, but I believe one can hear it on the recordings. Bassist Darryl Williams said: “I really love these tunes you have me play on” , “ and you made them sound so much better”, I replied. It’s the mutual appreciation of each other’s talents that strengthens our friendship.

Nils – Styling by Dion Julian

When it came to the album cover, my friend and stylist Dion Julian made me two custom suits for my photo shoot in less than 2 days. He would have just let me use the outfits for the shoot, but I ended up buying the suits from him anyways.

My friends at Pax Stereo TV: Meko Williams, Victor Allen and Mario Hemsley helped me with getting the word out about the new CD by putting us on their program.
Then there are my live band musicians like Tony Moore, Donnell Spencer Jr, Reggie McBride and Roberto Vally always go the extra mile and make sure the shows are rockin’. They brought their A-game when we performed our first two CD release concerts, and the raving reviews are the proof.
We also just shot video for Gravity180 and myself with film director Len Rosen, a incredible talented film maker and friend who just donated his time.
Life is great. It seems I have amazing talent available on tap. And for an artist, composer and producer there is nothing more valuable than that. These are relationships I nurtured over years, it takes work , dedication and mutual support. Now I am harvesting the benefits. So I am incredible thankful to all who helped me on my current project Alley Cat. This also includes Kathryn Bostic, Malcom McPearson, Reggie Codrington, Carsten Schmelzer, Eric Marienthal, Dave Rideau and I ask for forgiveness for anyone I might have forgotten to mention.
I might be the one on the front cover, but it takes a whole tribe. I could not have done it without a little help of my friends.
Thank You

Nils interviewed by Victor Allen at PaxStereoTV

Much has been said about the tumult in the music industry. CD stores are almost a memory of the past. CD sales have been declining, and even downloads are giving way to streaming, which pays the artist and the record label next to nothing. The old model of the music industry has been shattered.

But dear fellow musician, do not despair. I’ve seen the future, and I am telling you the future looks bright. The internet and digital file sharing might have killed the old way of doing business, but it opened a whole new avenue for us performers.
For one, Internet radio is slowly, but surely becoming the driving force in presenting our music to the audience. Now with new cars models offering wifi access, you can listen in your car, the office and at home to your favorite music mix. And I must say the selection is way more exciting than traditional radio, covering a wider variety of artists and fresh sounds.

Last weekend I did a TV taping at PAX Stereo TV an internet TV channel, run by Mario Hemsley and Victor Allen. My main reason for going was to create some new content to promote my new CD ALLEY CAT. As I mentioned in my previous blog “smooth jazz artist as content creator “, this is a new central part of my job as an independent artist. I have been seeing them a few times before, when there were maybe 15 viewers. This time we did some basic publicity on social media and had 500 – 1000 tuned in who then re-broadcasted the show to another 500 or more of their friends and followers. Internet TV and live streaming is still in its infancy, but the pioneers at Pax Stereo TV showed me what is possible.

The whole thing was very low key. I brought Clydene Jackson, keyboardist and singer extraordinaire and we literally picked up a drummer off the street who happened to walk in. Turned out this was Marvin Smitty Smith, drummer of the Tonight show band for 15 years. That’s just one of the perks about living in LA. We had a relaxed hang, talked about the new CD and played live a few of the new songs. We got a great response and questions came in from Hawaii to Australia. I immediately understood the potential.
With adding pay-per view into the mix, we could organize a party and invite fans all over the world to tune in at our house concert. The business model is simple: everybody could tune in to a free preshow. Then they would have to pay a modest fee to stream the actual concert live into their living room. The after show would be free again advertising a paid download of the concert for those who missed it.
The tools are available, the technology works. There are several platforms available and right now most of them offer their service with a free trial for you to check it out.

Nils Interviewed by Meko streamed through iPhone

Another great aspect of this technology is, that it is interactive. We had 4 live streams going, using cameras and cell phones. The viewer can switch different angles and follow interviews done by online personalities like Meko Williams or Victor Allen. Take it a step further and the paying viewer could place a camera into their living room and I would be able to see their party on a monitor and interact with them in real time. Anybody ready to have us perform at New Years eve in their living room?

I see only exciting possibilities, like cliniques, Q & A sessions or join our rehearsal.  Just let you imagination flow. And its all in the hand of the artist. Indeed I think the future is bright I gotta wear shades.

Here are some resources for you to explore

Streaming apps for smartphones:
Periscope
Meerkat
ANGL

Links to streaming services:

http://paxstereo.tv

http://www.numubu.com
http://www.dacast.com

Big terrestrial radio stations have been on the decline, especially in the Smooth Jazz genre , but in others as well. However, internet radio stations and also internet TV stations ( like PAXstereo TV) are popping up everywhere. These are stations, are usually not reporting to the Billboard charts and are therefore rarely serviced by the record label. They are also always looking for content. I do realize, that there are many of them, which have such a limited following, that they are not worth your effort to create content for. But it’s the sheer number of them, that sometimes makes up for it. Also some of them get more popular as they gather more interesting content. And since you will be delivering your content digitally, how long does it really take to paste another e-mail address into your delivery?

So what kind of content should you create, other than your music? Here are a few ideas:

1. Behind the scene footage / “The making of “ – collage

Ricky Lawson

Whenever I record an album I try to collect photos, cellphone video and camera footage from the sessions. You could take such items and edit a short 2min short in iMovie or similar program. Distribute it to Internet TV station, YouTube Channel, Facebook etc…

2. Do your own interview

Write out some questions. Maybe have a friend come over and ask you those questions and record that conversation. Don’t go overboard, this doesn’t have to be an hour long 5 min is plenty

Distribute to Internet radio stations

3. Interview your peers

A few years back I came up with the idea to interview my peers back stage at the festivals we were playing. I called it “Backstage Pass with NILS” . click on the link to hear an example

Distribute to Internet radio stations

4. Create generic song ids.

Hi, this is ______ and you are listening to my new single ________ from the album______

Distribute to Internet radio stations with your single and CD

5. Create your own zero budget Video

Ideally we like to have a slick looking video but as a new and independent artist the budget might not be there. However you can create a Video with virtually no money as long as you have a cell phone. Even if you just sit and play along with your song, this will be more interesting to watch than a static picture with your music playing behind. Check out my friend Johnny Britt’s Video as an excellent example “I Tried” official video

Distribute to Internet TV stations, social networks

6. For more ideas go to my YouTube Channel and check out the “Behind the scenes”, section

For Alley Cat I did a series called “Anatomy of a Song”

For my City Groove CD I did a series called “The Making of”

For my guitar book I did several instructional videos

What is album sequencing? Simply put, it’s determining in which order the songs on a CD are placed.

To me as an artist, the CD, or album as I like to call it, is still a complete statement and expression of my art form. A great CD is not just a random collection of songs. As not all songs are obvious singles, some might be equally important to set the overall mood and pace of the CD.
I always come back to the example, which most of us, who grew up in the age of vinyl, can remember:
You buy an album, because of that hot single you just can’t live without. Then you wear it out, listen to it over and over. After a while, as you gradually get over the single, you start listening more and more to the rest of the album. You find these little hidden gems, songs you probably wouldn’t have downloaded just by themselves. And all of a sudden one of these songs is becoming your favorite tune on the album.
Not having that experience is what I believe to be the biggest loss in the age of individual downloads. So whenever you can, always download or purchase the whole album. I promise you won’t regret it, as long as the artist is sincere.

Here are a few guidelines I use to find the perfect sequence of songs.

While I work on an album, I make myself car CDs trying different song orders. I am looking to find songs that work well after each other.

1. the first song should be a grabber. It is usually the first song anybody hears. It also sets up the character and sound of the album

2. sometimes you have a song that’s the odd one out. I would try putting it at the end of the album or as a break in the middle.

3. I look at the tempo, or more precisely the tempo feel, of my material and list the songs in 3 categories: up-tempo, mid-tempo and slow. Where is the majority of my songs? To keep the album flowing you don’t want to place too many songs from the same tempo category next to each other.

4. I would shy away from a sequence of songs that get gradually slower. I rather choose an order, so that tracks get gradually faster and then drop to a slow song as a breather.

5. I would not put all the singles (your radio songs) at the very top of the album and I certainly would not put all the best songs at the end of an album. This is where album sequencing differs from a live show set list. I would put my best song at the end of a live set, but not as the last song of an album.

6. If there are two songs that are similar sounding, I would not put them next to each other.

7.  I would not choose to put two slow songs next to each other, unless my album is a collection of ballads.

8. Key considerations: To me that’s secondary to tempo , but if you have 4 songs in the same key next to each other, that could get a bit boring. Also after 3 songs in the same key, a song in another key might sound more different than intended.

Remember these are just general guidelines. Any of these rules can be broken if it feels right. That’s why I call it an art, not a science. The overall effect should be an album that flows well from one song to another and keeps the listener engaged.

Just last week I delivered my mixed master to the record company. Two months earlier they heard my demos for a new CD and they were excited. These were songs I considered mostly finished and it was decided, that my next CD should be released in August. A September release date was not available and October seemed too late to create enough momentum on a single before radio shuts off the charts for Christmas. They usually don’t increase spins or add new songs to their playlists to make room for Christmas songs, starting as early as last week of November. An August release means the CD needs to be delivered by the first week of June. This is when the record label announces the CD to their distribution channels, registers the ISRC codes that help track the songs and so forth. This way the distributors will have the CD listed in their catalogue by July and can ship the orders in August.

I thought – no problem. All I had to do is schedule a few keyboard sessions, a bass session and record lead guitars, (something I like to keep for last) and then mix it. I also was two songs short, but since I had been working on an acoustic guitar album as well, I decided to pull two songs from that project and convert them to fit this new CD. I also had an additional song ready. I like doing that just in case I am not happy with how one of the tracks turns out. So I worked this month and fine-tuned the production on all the album tracks, recorded the missing bass parts, ear-candy, like percussion and additional keyboard parts and made sure I am happy with each song. By the end of April I was pretty much set with everything, except lead guitars and mixing. The demos sounded great, I was happy with the production and the compositions. Then it hit me: this is going to be an intense month.

I usually spend about a day per song to do a lead guitar track for my own record. I take my time to find the right sound, try different amps and mic placements. Then I relearn and practice the melody from my scratch track, maybe come up with a even better way to interpret the song. I will record several takes until I get the perfect performance. With ten more lead guitar tracks to record that’s 10 days. Mixing a song takes about a day and a half. At least that’s what I spend to make sure I get it right. For 12 songs that’s 15- 18 days and I’m talking 8 – 12 hours per day. So if I work 6 days a week and do nothing else I would just make the dead line and deliver.

That’s when I realized this is going cost me. As a contemporary jazz recording artist I am not independently wealthy. Other than collecting royalties, I have to make a living by either touring, or producing and writing for other artists, and doing guitar sessions. I also teach a few lessons or give lectures here and there. But to meet my deadline I had to put everything on hold for a month. Fortunately I had a record budget that allowed me to do so.

The lesson is that you shouldn’t underestimate how much time you need to get your CD finished. Try to get songs really finished early to avoid getting under a time crunch with your deadline at the end. But if you don’t set yourself a deadline, you’ll run in the even greater danger of never getting your project finished. I know of several wonderful musicians, who work on their album for years. They just keep changing it with out getting any further to the finish line. As I like to say (and I’m not sure who I am quoting):

“a good production, as well as a good mix is never finished, it’s just abandoned at some point”