Funny Story, though...Part I
You might remember me shouting about a new single in here, even posting pictures of it's possible cover on Instagram. As you may have noticed, it got delayed, and now is the time share why that happened.
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| Possible cover for It's All Right, stage one |
Before Christmas time I sent our songs to a new record company, which had started out quite recently, just to try it out one more time and see what happens. In my e-mail I specifically asked if there would be a chance of collaboration, seeing that they also did promotional work and other stuff. They actually replied and called me out of the blue a few months later, telling that they liked the songs and were interested.
We had a meeting with them at their studio where we played more of our songs for them and discussed the collaboration options. Nice people, all of them, and the place was nice too. All very well done and with a specific strategy. As it turns out, it just wasn't the strategy we had in mind.
Their interest was to produce a song of ours in their studio and push it to radios etc. We heard some songs of another banda they were working with, who had apparently agreed to let the audio engineer/producer play the drums for them. It's sometimes the job of the producer, I get it, and a good one can really bring out the best in a band this way. But to me this felt slightly uncomfortable.
It's partly my reluctance to let someone touch my creation and alter it, but partly not, because we work together all the time on these songs with our guitarist/producer. Partly, it was the uneasy feeling that these people wanted their share of copyrights, which they would have gotten by being one of the arrangers. So, we told them that one of our terms is that the band plays all instruments.
It's partly my reluctance to let someone touch my creation and alter it, but partly not, because we work together all the time on these songs with our guitarist/producer. Partly, it was the uneasy feeling that these people wanted their share of copyrights, which they would have gotten by being one of the arrangers. So, we told them that one of our terms is that the band plays all instruments.
They agreed on this and we then talked about which songs would be the ones to start collaboration with. They really liked the song we had just finished, It's All Right, and said nothing would really need to be changed there structure wise. However, we had just spent a lot of hours with the song and hoped to start with something else, if a whole new production was going to take place. They agreed.
So we played the other songs as well, and another of them caught their attention: Invite Me in, a dance able tune with lyrics about the devil on your shoulder. The guy who did mostly the promotion work in the company said that if he were to choose, this would be the one. But the song was too long and would need some cuts. When I seemed to be uncomfortable with the idea, they suggested a radio edit, and a full length version on a possible full album. The reason was of course, that the song was too long for radio. They had in mind the pop-song three minute standard with no long intros and the chorus preferably at one minute mark..."You see, I have to push you through", said the promoter-guy. I reluctantly agreed to this.
One other thing that struck a bell slightly, was when he associated the song with Marilyn Manson. I told him that he's not completely off the bat regarding visual things, but musically or sound wise, this is not what we are aiming for, except maybe on modernity of sound, but yeah... no. It left me thinking that maybe this guy didn't know this genre well enough. For the record, I don't even listen to Marilyn Manson and Invite Me in doesn't sound remotely like that. Think more Siouxsie and the Banshees' Cities in Dust...
We then discussed the general terms of business: They wanted to sign a publishing deal about Invite Me in and produce it in their studio. The costs of using that studio would be payed by us. Possible full album would be a separate deal. The pros for us in this were that they would do promotion. After a while of thinking and discussing we suggested that we could start slowly, by letting the audio engineer/producer make a new mix of It's All Right. If that would prove fruitful we could then think about going all the way with Invite me in. This was agreed upon.
Back home, I commenced to work to find out what publishing deals are all about, because I didn't have a clear idea. It's basically about selling a part of your copyrights in exchange for promotion. The common way nowadays in the pop-music industry is to make a deal like this just for the one track. There are some problems, which troubled me about this: What if we want to make an independent music video about a song that's under a publishing deal? Can't do that without publishing company's agreement. What if we want that track on the album, but go to a different label or independent? Might cause problems... So you see, it's quite problematic when you don't own your music all the way. There are of course good deals and bad deals, and a good deal with a right label could help a band in the long run. But I was already thinking this might not be the one...
Stay tuned for Part II
Hypnosis
So we played the other songs as well, and another of them caught their attention: Invite Me in, a dance able tune with lyrics about the devil on your shoulder. The guy who did mostly the promotion work in the company said that if he were to choose, this would be the one. But the song was too long and would need some cuts. When I seemed to be uncomfortable with the idea, they suggested a radio edit, and a full length version on a possible full album. The reason was of course, that the song was too long for radio. They had in mind the pop-song three minute standard with no long intros and the chorus preferably at one minute mark..."You see, I have to push you through", said the promoter-guy. I reluctantly agreed to this.
One other thing that struck a bell slightly, was when he associated the song with Marilyn Manson. I told him that he's not completely off the bat regarding visual things, but musically or sound wise, this is not what we are aiming for, except maybe on modernity of sound, but yeah... no. It left me thinking that maybe this guy didn't know this genre well enough. For the record, I don't even listen to Marilyn Manson and Invite Me in doesn't sound remotely like that. Think more Siouxsie and the Banshees' Cities in Dust...
We then discussed the general terms of business: They wanted to sign a publishing deal about Invite Me in and produce it in their studio. The costs of using that studio would be payed by us. Possible full album would be a separate deal. The pros for us in this were that they would do promotion. After a while of thinking and discussing we suggested that we could start slowly, by letting the audio engineer/producer make a new mix of It's All Right. If that would prove fruitful we could then think about going all the way with Invite me in. This was agreed upon.
Back home, I commenced to work to find out what publishing deals are all about, because I didn't have a clear idea. It's basically about selling a part of your copyrights in exchange for promotion. The common way nowadays in the pop-music industry is to make a deal like this just for the one track. There are some problems, which troubled me about this: What if we want to make an independent music video about a song that's under a publishing deal? Can't do that without publishing company's agreement. What if we want that track on the album, but go to a different label or independent? Might cause problems... So you see, it's quite problematic when you don't own your music all the way. There are of course good deals and bad deals, and a good deal with a right label could help a band in the long run. But I was already thinking this might not be the one...
Stay tuned for Part II
Hypnosis
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