We've spent lotsa words on bands per se; examining the local entities as creatures unto themselves; organisms of sound; mechanical things generating audio waves. But now let's drill down a bit, to the individual contributors, the artists/musicians whose teamwork creates said music.
But let's not pick just anybody, no. Let's go traveled, let's go prolific, let's go hard-working. Let's go rItchN, aka Ritchard Napierkowski; a Yankee-born, Austin-transplanted, post-modern troubadour and jack of all trades; who is, arguably, one of the most influential artisans in the Austin electronic music scene today.
Don't let this yearbook photo spin you the wrong way - riTchN is better known in the industrial/electronic/metal circles thisaway:
And when we say "travelling"? We don't just mean he moves from place to place, physically, though he has:
...I had moved back to NY (where I grew up) from Florida after living down in Orlando for a year and knew I needed to find another base of operations. A friend and I put together a road trip to look for a new "home" and drove around the country. Austin happened to be one of the main stops even though I was still picturing Yosamite Sam and tumbleweeds in my head....New Orleans almost ended up being my stomping grounds...but between the musicians, festivals and tech field jobs Austin won my blood-pumper.
-- riTchN
No, by traveling we mean Rich, like a lot of musicians in Austin, plays with a variety of musical entities. But this guy is more prolific than most - He performs (or has performed) with subNatural, Inertia, Carbon Theory, Panjoma, Hipnautica, Chant, Personacide, sick_muse, and Destroyed for Comfort.
PLUS the occasional personal project. On the side, you know. When he has time.
It helps that he can handle most instruments. Though primarily known to work a synth/sampler, he also does duty on guitar, bass, drums, "...a little bit of everything... I want to get a nice Accordian to play some "unplugged" shows..."
With all those projects going on, which do you prioritize? The response is a bit of the old hem and haw: "...it's almost like a constant struggle...subNatural's always been a labor of love... With Panjoma we're working on new material...Carbon Theory needs to record and Jim and myself will hopefully be jamming/playing again soon... And there's always the solo stuff..."
The Panjoma project is working him; with a Madonna cover, a WarPigs cover, vids for both, upcoming shows, PLUS new material to be recorded in August - "hopefully".
But for the majority of his time, Rich is focusing on subNatural. Started as a solo project in '98 and weathering several personnel shifts, the band is back and very busy indeed: Re-recording their entire catalog AND working on a new LP AND tons of shows lined up in both Austin AND Houston.
With all that to do, you'd wonder if this guy has time for a day job. Turns out he has a pretty sweet music-related gig - He's the head sound engineer at The Elysium, and does the same duty over at Red Eyed Fly on weekends:
...instead of just "quitting" my day job, music helped propel me further into a career I enjoy. My desk-job has more buttons/faders and knobs than ever.. Well.. a few jobs definitely had a bunch of knobs.. just less gear-tastic and more knob-headed...
-- riTchN
With his solo website getting a makeover, and new projects in the works, thought we'd ask the relevant question: Any advice for other indie artists?
USE EXISTING RESOURCES!! I'm all about experimenting and coming up with something new.. but when it comes to distribution, videos and everything else don't try to reinvent a wheel unless you're really gonna trick it out. The're so many wonderful resources out there from blogs, to websites/forums, to groups of folks out there with so much information readily available it's almost insane. It's all good playing shows but if you're serious about a project do some research.. Spend a few days planning what you want to do and how you're going to do it. As far as just creating? Don't push yourself too hard or stop because "someone else is doing it". Trial and error not only shows us what works.. but new ways of trying things.
-- riTchN
Try to keep up with riTchN by watching subNatural or Panjoma on Facebook.
Being a musician in this era, this slice between what was and what will come, has stirred up that brutal mother of all inventions, Necessity. And that mother straps the creative to the rack and stretches them into shapes they were not made to conform to.
How's about an example: Mary Panjoma, lead voice and front face for Panjoma, as well as catalyst in the Austin electronic music community. Mary is arguably one of the best chameleons at this new game; capable of seismic shifts from creative brain child to managerial mover-shaker in the blink of a snare hit.
That's her with the orange hair (or wig, rather). That's Patrik Nilsson behind her with the bass, and riTchN on the keyboards on the far left. Not pictured: Guest players Melissa Riotgurl (of The Future Process) and John Ousley.
So back in 2005, when Mary and Co. formed Panjoma, they went looking for a place to play, and discovered a hole in Austin's live music genre pool - Electronic. Here in the live music capital of the world, we gotcher rock. We gotcher country. We gotcher rock-country, we gotcher alt-whatever, we gotcher... But we don't gotcher industrial-strength electronic. Nosirreebob.
But as it turns out, though Mary is an artist, she's not just an artist: She seems to be missing the artist's penchant for obstacle avoidance, and raised her game, as it were. Knowing the strength-in-numbers motto, she dug around in the dank underground scene for other off-center, out-lying bands; and with this handful of musical and cultural rebels, formed an improbable cooperative - The Austin Electronic Music Grid. From there, they could team up, launch out, find a venue, find an audience, and find success (in whatever way it is defined).
Notice that this was 2006, back before the social media moguls ruled the world; back when crowdsourcing was a yet-to-be-understood word. At least in this context.
Mary the Artist morphed into Mary the do-it-yer-own-self-er; forced by creative need to move into uncomfortable, inexperienced areas. Into the littered land of DIY.
This DIY movement, we think, was born by this era of rampant computers, free-roaming software, affordable hardware, and the fiscal disarray that seems to follow in their train like some leering toadie.
Triggered by technology, the dismal financial outlook of the music industry has brought about a radical restructuring that is still being architected at the time of this writing (Spring 2011). From here, it's all speculation and talking heads; some of it good, some of it fantastic. But it's just that, speculation: We'll get there when we get there; we may know it, we may not. One thing we do know - In these days, Artist and Sugar Daddy (a.k.a., Label) are on the outs. For both parties, the cost-benefit analysis is grim.
Meanwhile, the musician continues to create. Then, when the creating is done, pays the price for that creativity with time spent doing un-musical things, like promotion. Video production and post production. Email lists. Excel spreadsheets, newsletters. Photoshop. Web sites.
Panjoma's latest release, a collection of their greatest hits, has an official release date of 5/1/11. Remastered, re-worked, sounding better than ever; we're talking bouncy-hypnotic soundscapes, danceable-yet-deep tracks, industrial instruments grooving to a dance-friendly staccato, Mary's sultry vocals; all interlaced with ever-so-rare experimental niceties popping up, far more than the average allows. A definite must-listen, you hardened skeptic you. All recorded in the home studio, natch. (Did we put "audio engineering" in the un-musical list? Should've.)
Musically, Mary + Patrik + riTchN pass the compositional and production baton like champs, each knowing their way around music theory and each other; understanding the nuances and subtleties of both.
But on the business side of the fence? No one is jumping on that horse, so Mary takes the reins. In earlier days, a label's retinue of staff would tackle this front, then break for lunch. Now? Now the indie dives into promotional details all by her lonesome self. Looks at the checkbook balance and does the cost-benefit of hiring out vs. DIY.
Hiring out would mean renting studio space and gear and an engineer's talents and a post-production mastering guru. DIY means being your own mastering guru and engineer. DIY means renting, buying, borrowing, and cramming gear into a spare room; recording on nights and weekends; damn the neighbors, full speed ahead.
After that's done, you find yourself where Panjoma is now; staring at the next hurdle, the Promotion Monster, and wondering what you can sacrifice to slake his thirst. Checking that bank balance and seriously considering getting someone like Ryan Cano and The Loyalty Firm for all those required-yet-non-musical tasks. Like strategizing and socializing and doing all those chores that end up spreading your name and music to a world-wide audience; videos and tour management and reviewers and press releases and mailouts and printables and -
We dedicate our time to getting our client's music in the press and that's a full time focus and our full time job. We then report all postings we secure and target high profile blogs that use aggregators like Elbows, Hype Machine, MOG Network, Technorati to help spread further around the globe.
This will optimize SEO recognition which matters if someone who wants to do work is searching you by Google. It will be impressive when your band is the first 20 pages in the search.
- Ryan Cano of The Loyalty Firm
In spite of this mountainous to-do list, Mary decides that, today, at this point in time, this expertise might not be worth another mortgage. She instead invests with what she has, time. Trips to the post office, emails, documents, duplications, website stuff, release party details (it's looking like June, either the 18th or the 25th, with Arc Attack at Kenny Dorham's Backyard). Doing what she can to get radio play and maybe, maybe, organizing a tour. If it doesn't cost too much.
To other artists, parting with the cash money is worth it: "I HATE doing that [stuff]," says David T. Jones of Watch Out For Rockets; and if the number of "How To Promote Your CD/Band" articles and Facebook posts are any indication, he speaks for most indie artists - This isn't typically within the artist's comfort zone; you'll spend more time promoting a recording than the time spent inventing and making the thing.
Somewhere, sometime between then and now, the balance will return. The ball the labels carried will be carried, but by other types of entities. Perhaps something more co-op like, something similar to Anthony Erickson's Eye in the Sky Collective, which looks to leverage a group of artists to gain price breaks in promotional or production services. Or maybe more Austin Electronic Music Grids will form, only less genre-centered and more promotion focus.
Or maybe not.
When asked what she would say to other indie artists, Mary's advice was simply "Be patient, stay together. It takes 5-10 years to get where you're going."
She was talking about bands, but the wisdom applies: Be patient, buckle up, do those uncomfortable things guys; wherever we're going, we're probably still 5-10 years away.
We couldn't just leave well enough alone. This blogging has got us all worked up, so we went and started a podcast to go along with.
Announcing the Austin Independent Music Podcast. Hopefully, it's just what you'd expect - A varied sampling of Austin-based indie music to listen to, right there on your iPod or Zune or whathaveyou, in straight-up mixtape style. The blog is here: Subscribe to it with your blog reader and you should be able to listen to it right there in your browser.
At this point in time, we're not listed in the iTunes directory. Hopefully that will change pronto. But in the meantime, if you're feeling like you can handle a smidgen of iTune-age tweaking, here be the directions, tuned to taste, straight from Apple's iTunes website :
A podcast I want to subscribe to isn't available in the iTunes Store.
...In the "Advanced" menu, select "Subscribe to Podcast" and paste http://feeds.feedburner.com/AustinIndependentMusicPodcastinto the dialog box.
Let's talk Panjoma. The style is industrial/electronic dance, with the accent on industrial. NIN-stylings, a touch of trance, some experimentalish flourishes, and the occasional bit of disco-ish 4-on-the-floor stomp. Typically good for what ails ya.
These guys and girls have been a source of musical munificence in the Austin area, and we ain't just talking sonically neither -
Lead singer Mary Panjoma is arguably the driving force behind the Austin Electronic Music Grid, a conglomeration of indie bands in the Austin area, cooping to cross-promote and breed musical success. At their weekly events (sometimes at Plush, sometimes at the Red Eyed Fly), you'll find Mary there, laptop cam running; while a member of the Austin Electronic Music Grid tears it up on stage. Seeing her like that, giving her time to promote someone who is, potentially, a competitor - That'll give you cause to wonder. Maybe this is what's become of that time she spent studying philosophy (mentioned in her bio, right alongside the expected musically-focussed studies like piano, music theory, production, etc); paying it forward, as it were. Can't say for sure.
Panjoma "live" consists of the aforementioned Mary, Patrik Nilsson, riTch N (who we'll discuss in a future entry), John Ouseley, and Melissa Riotgurl (of The Future Process, another group we'll cover in our utopian future).
Here's a personal favorite, their excellent cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs". Check it:
