Mixing is one of the most difficult things to get right in music production and

one of the most important. Every producer and engineer will approach a mix

differently and like many elements of music production, there are no right or

wrong ways to go. It’s your music and only you know how it should really

sound. A unique mixing and production style can go a long way towards

creating your own personal style or sound.

Download your FREE copy of Basic Mixing Method

If you do a scan online, you can find many articles about how to interview a band and what kinds of questions to ask a band, but there aren’t many things about what bands can do to prepare for and leverage an interview. I’ve done a fair share of them, both as the interviewer and the interviewee, and wanted to share some experiences with you so you can maximize the interview.

Preparing For Your Interview

What do you do when someone contacts you for an interview? Do you have a set process, a standard one sheet to send them? Do you have a publicist that gives you information about what they’re looking for? Preparing for an interview is key to keep it lively and interesting. Here are tips about getting ready:

1. Prepare a One Sheet: Think of your media one sheet as a resume: list the main bullet points about your music career and a list of accomplishments or anecdotes. Not every journalist will have time to thoroughly research you first and having some kind of guideline will help. In fact, some may even request that you bring a list of talking points or topics of interest.
2. Set a Goal: What do you hope to take away from the interview? Some more press? A review? Some promotion about your tour or new record? Try and keep your answers somehow related to your overall goal.
3. Do Some Research: Take some time to go through the source: look at other interviews and features that they’ve done to get a vibe of their style, what things they find interesting, and who their audience is. Find out as much as you can about the format, interview length, and how it will be shared. Cater your responses to what you find.
4. Practice: Just as you’d want to prepare for a job interview, run through some typical questions that you’ll be asked: inspiration, your band’s history, talking about the new album, etc. You want your stories to be smooth, consistent, and concise. It seems easy but the more you go through it, the more you can keep it interesting and flowing well.

Years ago, my publicist my bands an interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB). OPB does TV and radio but we didn’t know which we were scheduled for and didn’t ask. We assumed just assumed it was TV. So we showed up quite overdressed (in our full band regalia) for the radio interview. It ended up being fine (we received many nice comments) and the piece ended on NPR but it was just an amusing blunder on our part.

During the Interview

It is becoming increasingly rare for artists to be coached for interviews. There’s just a general assumption that it’s only about answering questions given to you, whether it is by email, phone, or on camera. However, there’s an art to keeping your audience’s attention as well as encouraging them to share the piece. Keep these things in mind:

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An Easy  STEP – BY – STEP How To Guide 

By Shannon Coulter

©2007-2009 Laughing Geisha Press

Grab your FREE guide here! MusicLicensingGuide

Congratulations to MoonRunners! They are the BTD Radio April Artist of the Month. Our listeners voted them as their pick of the month. They rocked over 9,000 votes, wow!

MoonRunners are an indies band from the UK formed in 2009 and voted UK’s “Student Band of the Year” 2012. With several songs that have already been in movies and hits like “Turn It Around” you are no doubt you are going to see more of this band. “Turn It Around” is about turning your life and doing something about it.  Jordan Deehan (lead vocalist) just pours our her heart and soul in this song. Jordan is surrounded by a perfect mix of band members; Nathan Hughes (guitar, backing vocals), Owen Morgan (bass) and John Timney (drums). This is a band worth checking out and BTD Radio is pleasure to have them as our April Artist of the Month!

MoonRunners BTD Radio Artist of the Month Statement:

We would love to be “artist of the month” because… we are officially the UK’s “student band of the year”. We’ve got a gaining fan base globally thanks mainly to our music appealing across the globe and having a number of film makers wanting to use our songs in their movies. Having supported a number of established artists e.g. Shaun Ryder, Mcfly, and with a number of confirmed slots across this years UK “Festival” period, we hope to attract major players wanting to make MoonRunners a more established band and Beyond The Dawn playing our music would certainly boost the potential for us

Where can you find MoonRunners and buy their music?

MoonRunners can be found online via www.moonrunners.co.uk, www.facebook.com/moonrunnersuk, www.youtube.com/moonrunnersuk, www.twitter.com/moonrunnersuk and the song Turn It Around can be downloaded from iTunes, Spotify and other online music outlets.

Find our music in the 2013 motion picture release NEVER (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2342231/)

Aoede – Indie Music Channel’s 2012 BEST Female Folk Artist and Best Folk Producer and now BTD Radio, March Artist the  month!

The future is looking mighty bright for Aoede! Lisa, the singer of Aoeda describes her music as compelling pop for your heart. Her award-winning voice is enchantingly quirky with soprano tones. She is a singer-songwriter out of San Francisco.

I had the pleasure of meeting this talented lady last month at a get together up in LA. Within minutes I took a liken to her. Her spirit was very uplifting and she shined with happiness. After some time into our conversation we were talking about how it seems like we know each other but can’t figure out how. It wasn’t until later that Lisa emailed me and told me that Rising Magazine sent her to our show in September of 2012 and we connected that way. What a small world… or would say… it was meant to be. I love how those kind of things work about.

I invite you to check out Aoede!

Please vote:  Aoede is Finalist in International Songwriting Competition (ISC) can you please Vote Aoede Fairy Tale Love:

http://www.sonicbids.com/voting/Default.aspx?p=466
First one under Children’s Music?
You can Vote daily until March 31st and welcome to share!
Aoede (A-E-D)-muse of song

www.isloveafairytale.com
www.aoedemuse.com
www.facebook.com/aoedemusemusic
www.twitter.com/aoedemuse
www.reverbnation.com/aoede
www.youtube.com/aoedemuse

2012 LA Music Award-Children’s Album of the Year: Is Love A Fairy Tale?
Indie Music Channel’s 2012 BEST Female Folk Artist and Best Folk Producer!
Artists in Music’s 2012 BEST Folk-Acoustic Artist and ALBUM of the Year!
Aoede’s Award-Winning Album-IS LOVE A FAIRY TALE?-NOW Available on iTunes!

His name is Ivar F Hansen also known as “Ballademaker.” I would describe his music as soothing to ears with ethereal piano tones that will send chills up and down your spine.

Ballademaker is from Norway and sounds like; Vangelis Papathanassíou,  Jean Michell,  Jarre,  Kitaro, øyestein sevåg,  Spyra Gyra.

He is very sound of his Korg Karma keyboard. Here he share’s a few words about it. Korg Karma is one of the best keyboards ever made for fun and serious use. Many pro musicians have made records using this keyboard and for stage use too, I recommend every one who will have fun and make serious music to get one, no limit if its 10 years old now its still rocks.

You can read more about this Ballademaker at: http://www.reverbnation.com/Ballademaker or www.ballademaker.com

When I first heard Photo Electric, I just fell in love with their music. Their sound and vocals just blew me away and then I found out they were a duo, I was blown away. Hat’s off to you two for making such fabulous music. We are delighted to have you as our BTD Radio Jan Artist of the Month!!

BTD Radio

Check them out!!

Photo Electric is a female fronted electro-indie duo that plays upbeat introspective songs to cure your winter blues. Their intense live show is accompanied by live video manipulations and an engulfing light show. Blending electronic elements and with haunting melodies Photo Electric sidesteps genres while maintaining a familiar sound. Photo Electric’s debut release Boom is available as a free download from their website. They are currently planning a spring tour.

http://www.photoelectricband.com

Yes you heard it right. We are giving away the same mixing and mastering logs that we use in the studio. Print them out, change them up…make it work for your recordings. These logs have become very useful for us.

We attach these logs to a clipboard while we are mixing (using the mixing log), writing down notes as we go.  When we are ready to mix down, we then start the  mastering process (using the master log). You will notice the master log is not as big. It shouldn’t be. Mastering is used for raise volume levels and make the song shiny.

When completed; we staple the logs, song lyrics and credits all together and file them.

Download our Mixing Log (PDF)

Download out Mastering Log (PDF)

THE BEST KEPT SECRET…

In this post I bring to you a most useful tool that you can use for all your recordings. It’s recording the recording. I know, you are reading this and wondering what I possibly might be talking about. What I mean by this is, recording a memo… verbally. You all ready have a mic at hand because you are mixing or mastering your songs, right? Take it a step further.

I have to tell you I often find it hard to write down a sound! A  lot of times when I begin writing a song, I might hum the tune or scat the vocals. How in the world do I put that on paper? What if I am away from the studio, no guitar or drum kit in site. Dang…how do I get that tune in my head and into the studio when I am ready. It’s simple, record it! Take a verbal memo. Heck, most cell phones have recorders on it. Use it! Don’t let that song get away!

When you get back to the studio, just export that memo to your hard drive and you are ready to go.

Here some ideas:

• Take that memo, import it into your DAW software as a track. Use this along with your scratch track, add to it as you go along.
• In your studio and your coming up with a slew of ideas, setup a MEMO track, hit record and start taking notes about your song. Keep that memo track with your project when you save it. Don’t forget to mute it so it’s not in your mix down.  You can take it a step further and export the memo track as a stem. Keep it in a safe place for future reference.
• Another tip, make a recording of the recording (your song) with (voice-over) memo notes. Save it and keep it in a safe place. If you happen to loose your original project, you will have notes on how to record the mix again.

These are just some thought, the options are endless.

Save yourself some time in the studio!!