Tag: 2013

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Label Spotlight: Michael Abiuso (SwitchBitch Records)

Hello again, everyone. We told you we would be rolling out some new content this week, and it is with great pleasure that we introduce you to our new Label Spotlight series. Following the path made by our efforts in Blogging and Publicity, these features will tell the story behind the world’s fastest-growing indie labels from the people who brought them into existence. If you have a suggestion for a label you would like to see featured in the coming months, please do not hesitate to email james@haulix.com and share your ideas. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

Rising from the shores of New England with a love for rock and an admiration for the work Roald Dahl, Michael Abiuso is the type of person you only meet a few times in life (if that). He’s been on the industry’s hardest working individuals since he started making a name for himself in his early teens, and now that he’s settled into his twenties it seems he’s able to accomplish whatever he puts his mind to. The most fascinating thing about him however, is that whenever you see him it appears as if he doesn’t have a care in the world. It’s almost unsettling at first to see such calm in a person surrounded by some of the craziest bands working today, but as you get to know Michael you realize that sense of inner peace comes from the knowledge he’s hacked the game of life and found a way to make a living doing what he loves with the people he cares about the most. If that’s not the goal of every person reading this today, you should probably reevaluate your life.

I know we sometimes refrain from using the most technical language on the blog, but more often than not our article do carry a sense of professionalism that leaves very little room for humor. That result is never intentional, and in today’s post we hope to share a more lighthearted side of life in the industry. There’s still plenty to learn, but feel free to let yourself laugh every now and then as well. It’s good for you.

If you want to stay up-to-date with everything going on in the world of Michael Abiuso and SwitchBitch Records, click here to follow the label on Twitter. Additional questions and comments can be left at the end of this post.

H: For the record, please tell us your name, job title, and the company you’re discussing with us today:

M: Good day James! Just so you know, I’m going to attempt to make this interview informal, and entertaining yet informative. My name is Michael Abiuso. Some would say I’m the founder of SwitchBitch Records. For those who don’t know what that is, it started out as strictly a boutique record label and once deciding upon not following any rules it quickly kind of morphed itself into this strange melting pot of a label, recording studio, service provider, means of communication and what it all boils down to (see what I did there?) is that if I see talent, hard working bands, good, honest people, and/or something I’d like to be a part of, I now have a vehicle and ability to do that with via SwitchBitch Records.

H: You have a long history in this business. To whom or what do you attribute your interest in music?

M: James are you calling me old? Mostly my parents, they had records laying around the house all the time and at the ripe age of 4 (ugh, thanks to Ian Watkins I have to watch my terminology) they had gotten me this small cassette karaoke recorder. I would put on records, sing along, record it to tape and then listen on car rides. (It was embarrassing and I’m embarrassed now), but it’s funny because my parents definitely influenced me to pick up a guitar and kind of pursue music, but when I decided to make an effort and pursue it as a potential career path, I think they were kind of like “fuck, maybe we shouldn’t have encouraged this route so much”…and then the got divorced. Not related, but if you can’t make a joke then…next question.

H: When you think of your earliest memories with music, what comes to mind?

M: Kinda answered that above, but for you James, I’ll think up another. My first concert was Billy Joel with Elton John at Giants stadium. Those dudes were/are so damn talented and their natural ability to entertain and grasp an audience blew my mind. I was in first grade at that point and remember getting a t-shirt that was way too big for my stupid body. Everyone in my class had a cool remark like “you know Elton John is gay, are you gay too?”. So being easily influenced by peers at that age I’m not sure that I ever wore it again.

Side note/fun fact: In high school Billy Joel came and spoke to my AP Music Theory class about record labels and the industry and to beware of them blowing smoke up your ass.

H: Turning an interest into a hobby is one thing, but taking a hobby and turning it into a career is another feat altogether. What was your first ‘job’ in the music business? (paid or not, doesn’t matter)

M: Yes James, it was another feat. There’s kind of a grey line where hobby turned/turns to a career. In all honesty, paid and unpaid ‘jobs’ in this field still feel like a hobby in that the work is all fun and rewarding although I’m aware that it isn’t. My first ‘job’ would be giving guitar lessons and recording bands throughout high school. I did live sound for a play once which I hated and from there I just played in the pit bands which weren’t paying, but were fun, challenging and looked good on paper for college.

H: Let’s talk about the origin of your label, SwitchBitch Records. When did the idea to launch a label first come to you, and when did you decide to act upon it?

M: James, do we always have to talk about what you want to talk about? It was definitely a combination of things that led to the launch. The three main things were 1) the invested time and effort being heavily involved on the production end of recording other artists influenced me to want to want to push the music further that just the recording 2) Being in different bands and signing w/ different labels ex: Eyeball Records (Kiss Kiss), Triple Crown Records (The Gay Blades), Red Blue Records (The Venetia Fair) taught me a lot and allowed me to see first hand what aspects I felt worked and didn’t work giving me the ability to apply everything accordingly to SwitchBitch Records. 3) I forgot number three, maybe I was high when I said there were three, maybe I’m high now which is why I can’t remember number three, maybe there wasn’t a number three and I’ve been high all along. Regardless I’m convincing myself that number three wasn’t and isn’t important.

I launched the label around 2009 and by launch, I thought of a name, concept and a few ideas with some friends but didn’t begin taking on artists and taking it seriously until 2012.

H: There are many indie labels in existence today. What lead you to step out on your own instead of choosing to join forces with someone already active in the business?

M: Well James, I don’t really like rules that much and I feel like if I were under the gun of some higher power at a label they wouldn’t take kindly to that mentality. In actuality joining forces wouldn’t be so bad, but being that I also record, and tour full time in addition to the label, I need to have the ability to take on artists and/or projects as I have the time and funds to do so.

H: What were your original goals with Switchbitch, and how have they changed as your catalog (and roster) has grown?

M: James, the B is capital. I know that and you know that, but I’ll alter it from here out for you. Brief setup to the answer: Goals have changed a bit as the roster has grown, but more so as I learned the business and different aspects of the label better. When I began taking Switchbitch seriously, I was nervous to take on something that put other people and bands in my hands. It really required the mental preparation of “shut up, don’t over think, just do it and don’t fuck up”. I read some music business books, books on contracts, books on marketing, had meetings with entertainment lawyers and then dove in head first. Answer: goals were to sign, record and release records. Now after going through the motions I’ve learned so much about every aspect of a label from graphic design for album art, merch designs to pressing cds, pressing vinyl to publicity, management…everything. Looking back, it feels like I started off knowing nothing. The overall goals remain the same, but I found myself enjoying some of these individual aspects required of a label that I will occasionally provide them for artists outside the label. Hence the ‘affiliate’ section of the label found on the website.

H: We would be fools if we didn’t ask the obvious question – what is the story behind your label’s name?

M: James, the story is…I try to incorporate experiences, influences and projects of mine into the label. For instance you know how the dude from ‘Under the Gun’ got the name from The Gay Blades lyrics? Yeah, same kinda deal. My first serious band was Kiss Kiss. That name derived from Roald Dahl’s ‘Kiss Kiss’. Roald Dahl put out another book of adult short stories called ‘Switch Bitch’. Need I go further? Although not a traditional name for a label, I figured a) no rules and b) the artists and work we do will give the label and name it’s true identity. If interested, read further for other examples, if not, move on to the next question.

The Gay Blades all called each other “Dad”, so I have all of our artists call me ‘Dad’. It may even be in the contracts as a joke. We like jokes incase you haven’t found out.

We have a lot of quotes here including “born rich, born famous, born dead”. That came from The Venetia Fair always saying “We are very rich and very famous” and our bassist, Mr. Chark’s motorcycle is named ‘The Born Dead’, so that’s kind of a combination of the two.

H: Some band members start labels to release projects from their own groups, but Switchbitch works with a plethora of talent. Who was the first group you signed, and how did you decide they were the perfect band to lead the Switchbitch roster?

M: Oh hey James, you’re still here? I think the first artist was ‘The Mayor’ which was a band of mine back when the label was more of just a name and idea. The band was just a fun project to do on our free time that was far from serious. We didn’t do much other than state that the recording was released via SBR cause it looked better. The first artist SBR signed when we began doing some serious work and taking it serious was Flannel Mouth. We (The Venetia Fair) played with those boys out in Peoria, IL. I knew there were sweet ideas and potential in their tunes that were just slightly buried beneath an over saturation of ideas and lack of direction which I thought we could provide for them. They drove from IL to MA, Joe (TVF pianist) and I produced their E.P. and every day since I feel they’ve been getting better and better and we’ve all been continuously learning and growing together.

H: How big is the Switchbitch Records team? If people wanted to get involved in your efforts, who should they contact?

M: I’d like to think of Switchbitch as a collaborative effort of numerous people. I would even go as far as, take the liberty to, and have the balls to say that you, James are part of the team (I’m trying to state your name in every answer incase you didn’t catch that, kinda my thing). We have a solid foundation team of about 8 people. My main wing woman is a girl that goes by the name of Hanna. I don’t know what I would do without her. She basically manages and assigns tasks to the staff, comes up with a constant stream of ideas, and when I’m on tour (now) and can’t get to urgent things right away I can count on her to be sure it gets done by sending a simple text or email.

As for people wanting to get involved with us, and assuming that means people looking for positions, interns, bands looking to submit to work w/ SBR and artists looking for SBR services, they can all get in touch w/ Hanna at submissions@switchbitchrecords.com

H: When it comes to sharing music for promotional purposes, which services do you prefer and why?

M: I try and utilize different services for different things not only because they offer different options, but also because all people are different. Some may be attracted to videos and visuals, some may be busy and want to click a link and download a song to listen while they work, some may not want to use a ton of data on the go and just stream a few seconds of a clip. Not only do the different services attend to different markets, but they also allow for different exclusive options for press outlets that I’m sure you’re very familiar with, no James?

The most recent route and order of operations I took for sharing a song (which could apply to an E.P. or a full length) was:

(all exclusive)
-text announcement
-video teaser (youtube)
-stream (soundcloud)
-free download (soundcloud)
-release (bandcamp/itunes/etc)
from here one could follow up w/ a lyric video, music video, if it’s an E.P. or full length move on to next single. I always think interactive things such as contests are always sweet. All of the above can be shared via all social media out lets (facebook, twitter, instagram etc).

Remember when a band signed to a label, made a record, made a video, got in Hit Parader mag and MTV and all of a sudden they were 16 years old and called Silverchair? All without having to put a finger on a mouse or any sort of social media, just focus or writing and being awesome! Oh, you don’t? I’m old.

H: What is the biggest misconception people have about life in the music industry today?

M: Coming from an elder, they often have this mentality of “so, when are you going to get a real job?”. Well sir, why don’t you walk in a circle and restart this conversation by spitting in my face because the majority of us in the music industry work so incredibility hard with so much passion and enthusiasm 24/7.

Coming from a younger/middle aged group, they see an artists’ music video premiered on MTV Buzzworthy and think “hey, what’s it like to have made it and be rich and where’s your mansion and can I have one too cause…remember me?”. It is far from that my friends. Soooo far from that. Do you agree James?

H: As someone who not only works in bands, but also performs regularly, what advice would you offer aspiring musicians hoping to make their mark in their current music industry?

M: Well luckily James, there are no rules and let me tell you, my personal biggest mistake was being afraid to make mistakes. If you don’t make mistakes you have no basis and foundation to learn from and you’re often in a stand still position which will get you absolutely no where. I would suggest to do what excites you the musicians! There are infinite creative new ideas just floating around waiting to be captured and put into action. Don’t be lazy and convince yourself that you can’t do something. Throw caution to the wind and make your moves. (These could all be bad ideas, maybe don’t listen to me, I’m no different than all of you)

H: Looking ahead to 2014, what goals do you have for yourself and the label?

M: Just a plethora of things come to mind when reading each question and every question and I think..“James, do you have all day?” and then I think “James, do you think I have all day?” I have different ideas that come and go every hour, so what I am about to tell you may be 100% ass backwards in the next hour.
I had the ideas of:

-potentially doing a 2014 SBR sampler as we did in 2013
-recording/producing/releasing a full length for Flannel Mouth
-starting a SBR type mag influenced by UTG
-I told myself last year on new years that 2013 I’d do a solo record and had no time…that’s an idea for 2014
-mentioned to The Gay Blades writing 3-5 songs, recording at SwitchBitch Studio and releasing a 7" via SBR, again…idea, we’re all so busy
-tour tour tour tour
-finish moving everything from Boston to NYC
-The Wicked got a new lineup of band members together so I really wanna get them up to speed w/ touring and a new record.

H: I think we’ve just about covered everything. Do you have anything else you would like to add before I let you go?

M: Yes, James. I’d like say that you did a great job with these questions however I’d like to add that your timing was piss poor because if we chatted a week ago, you would have gotten some super sweet well thought out answers, but being that you waited until I hit the road…well let me just say I’ve been answering these questions in the van and/or in a venue surrounded by my band The Venetia Fair. Have you met them? Picture being in a van w/ 5 smelly rabid animals that drink, piss, spit, scream, fight and vomit. Now re-read this interview and hopefully you’ll get a better grasp of why I sound like a full lunatic.

Love you James and Haulix. Thanks again for having me, you’re truly inspirational!

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News

Blogger Spotlight: Tyler Sharp (Mind Equals Blown)

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the second and final Blogger Spotlight feature of the week. We have a special column planned for later this week and thought a two-day celebration of writers would be a good way to kickoff December. If you have a suggestion for a future column on this blog, or if have questions about Haulix and the services we offer, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

The best websites are only as good as their contributors, and right now in alternative music it is hard to come across a more diverse and talented team than that of Mind Equals Blown. We’ve already told you about the early days of the site, but today we’re going to learn about life in one of the industry’s fastest-growing blogs from the perspective of a contributor who is just starting to find his footing in the music business.

Tyler Sharp is one of the first writers to be featured on this blog that we discovered through our efforts with this very series. We saw Tyler’s name come up when looking at social sharing numbers from recent articles and quickly sought out his work as a writer. When we realized he was part of Mind Equals Blown we knew he had a story to share, and fortunately for us he was kind enough to let us in his journey thus far.

Making a name for yourself in music today is harder than ever, and while writing is definitely a good way to get your foot in the door it can also take years to offer any true returns for your effort. Tyler’s talents have already given him a leg up against his peers, and I have no doubt he’ll continue to succeed in whatever avenues of the business he chooses to pursue in the future. If you would like to informed on everything he has going on, make sure you bookmark and frequent Mind Equals Blown. Additional questions and comments can be left at the end of this post.

H: For the record, please state your name, position, and the site(s) you write for:

TS: Tyler Sharp, News Director, Mind Equals Blown.

H: To who or what do you attribute your interest in music? Writing?

TS: Musically, it was the band Underoath who really peaked my interest and essentially helped mold into the person I am today. They were the first band that introduced me to not only heavy music, but music outside of pop culture. As for writing, I have always been an avid reader. I love telling stories and I believe there is an important story to be told with music – I’m just trying to help write it.

H: When you think of your earliest memories with music, what comes to mind?

TS: Growing up I was always surrounded by the music my parents listened to (Led Zepplin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Fleetwood Mac, etc.), but I never initially took a liking to music. It wasn’t until I was in the fourth grade sitting in my living room watching Green Day perform their single “American Idiot” on the Grammy’s, that I really began my journey with music. The rest is history, I suppose you could say.

H: An interest in music is fairly common, but a desire to make a career in it is something else entirely. Do you recall the first time you realized the entertainment business was the place for you?

TS: As a matter of fact, I do. I was a Junior in high school, finally realizing that performing in a band for the rest of my life wasn’t exactly the most practical life choice. I had always enjoyed reading reviews of albums and interviews with bands and it just hit me that I could do that. I had never really thought about it before, but it literally hit me like a deer in the headlights one day, and I’ve been working towards my goal of a making a career out of it ever since.

H: You’re currently a resident of Indiana, which is not exactly the first place that comes to mind when people think of the music industry. What can you tell us about your local scene and how you first got your start networking in the business?

TS: I live in the Northwest part of the state, about an hour outside of Chicago. The music scene is somewhat confusing around here. Allow me to explain: Unfortunately, there is a lot of judgement and division. We have the hardcore kids, pop-punk kids, deathcore kids and everyone in between, but it just doesn’t seem like anyone can find a common ground. If your band doesn’t sound a certain way and or you don’t dress a certain way, then you don’t “fit in.” I know this situation isn’t unique to NWI, it’s just extremely disheartening to see so much seclusion in a scene that is supposedly built upon acceptance. Don’t get me wrong, there are some very good-hearted, reputable people here (kids, bands and promoters alike), it’s just discouraging that you have to search for them.

H: Onto your work with MindEqualsBlown. When did you first learn of MEB, and what lead you to apply for a contributor position?

TS: It was around January of last year when I first heard of MEB. At the time, I was operating my own music news-based website, The Scene As We Know It. I realized that while I loved owning a website and having others writing for me, I just wasn’t happy with the situation anymore – it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I felt like TSAWKI had run its course and I had the opportunity to open a new door, so I began searching around for a new website to contribute my efforts to. I first came across MEB in a forum on AbsolutePunk. I checked out the site multiple times before applying, weighing my options. I finally decided that I really liked what they were doing and felt as though I could bring some new opportunities to the table for them – so I applied and am currently coming up on my one year anniversary.

H: There are a lot of sites in existence covering the areas of music MEB is known for. What is it about the content offered by MEB that sets you apart from the competition?

TS: A good portion of our content is editorial based. I’ve noticed a lot of sites out there right now are more concerned about quantity, rather than quality, in regards to content. We try to tackle the major stories and issues in the industry today, but with a more in depth look than other sites may offer. Even our news stories offer not only the story itself, but our opinion and the chance for you to voice yours as well.

H: Like many bloggers, you do not get paid your efforts. Why do it?

TS: It may sound cliche, but I really do just love it. I love working with bands and PR people and setting up exclusives and premieres. I always get this underlying excitement when we break a huge news story or premiere a brand new song for a band. Seeing how much impact I have as a writer on the industry, even if it’s just a little bit here and there, just makes it all worth it.

H: What is the biggest misconception people have about the music industry?

TS: I think a lot of people see the music industry as this idealistic place where everyone plays nice and there’s never any controversy. The music industry is essentially a battle ground and you have fight for everything you can get, because there are a hundred people right behind you reaching for the same goals.

H: In addition to working on MEB, what steps are you taking to further your pursuit of a career in music?

TS: I’m currently attending Purdue University North Central for a degree in Communications. I’m really hoping to make a career out of writing, and I thoroughly believe music is where I’m supposed to be – so we’ll just see where it goes!

H: As someone who writes a lot of news, what is the most comment mistake you see artists make when trying to get the attention of journalists?

TS: Being unsociable. Let’s face it, a generic press-release template that says your band rocks like so-and-so and has shared the stage with so-and-so really doesn’t have much impact on me – and I’m sure I’m not alone. Bands need to get more personable; talk to me about your band, ask about the website, show me that you actually care about getting your name out there. There are too many outfits out there that just assume they deserve all the publicity in the world because they released a somewhat well-produced single, or went on a two week run with one of their “biggest inspirations.” It’s okay to be confident about your band (that’s good), but when you come off as arrogant or conceited, you’ll soon find that you’re not going to get anywhere fast.

H: If you could offer one piece of advice to artists hoping for more exposure on sites, what would it be?

TS: Like I said above, get personable. Talk with people and make connections. Meeting people and making new acquaintances is a huge perk about being involved in music, and I think a lot of people overlook that sometimes. Almost everyone involved in the industry has some sort of online presence, get in contact and open some doors for your band. Sending me a mass message on Facebook telling me to check out your band because you saw that I ‘Like’ this band or that band doesn’t exactly make me want to look into yours. Spark up an actual conversation and see where it goes.

H: When it comes to receiving music for review purposes, which services do you prefer and why?

TS: To be completely honest, Haulix is the only one I’ve ever used! I really love how all the materials are so easy to access and the new password integration is a very nice addition. It’s simple, straight to the point, and just enjoyable to work with.

H: What is your ultimate career goal?

TS: This is a tough question considering I don’t know exactly where I want to go with my career as of yet. I suppose in a perfect world, after I graduate I’ll find myself working for a large music-based publication, following bands around while they’re on tour and writing feature articles on them. Traveling is something I’ve always wanted to do, and fortunately enough, it seems to go hand-in-hand with music.

H: If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?

TS: I would definitely change the divisions between genres and fan bases. I mean, I get that if you’re a Trapped Under Ice fan, you’re not necessarily going to jam the new Black Veil Brides record and actually enjoy or respect it. Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean there has to be this large gap between fan-bases. If you don’t like a certain band or type of music, don’t listen to them; don’t discriminate against a person because of their musical likings.

H: Before we let you go, do you have anything else you would like to share with our readers?

TS: Come talk to me about your band, who knows, maybe you’ll end up on MindEqualsBlown!

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Job Board News

Blogger Spotlight: Teri Cwiek (PupFresh)

Hello and welcome to a brand new week of music industry insight and advice here on the official blog of Haulix. December has officially arrived, and we’re doing our best to squeeze in as much content before the new year as humanly possible. If you have a suggestion for a column or article you would like to see on the blog, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook

Shortly after launching our Blogger Spotlight series we began asking readers to submit recommendations of sites and writers they would like to see featured in the months ahead. We read every single request received, and to be perfectly honest have sent emails to every single person requested. Music is a busy industry though, and a number of people are simply too busy to dedicate time to features such as those hosted on this blog. We remain hopeful we’ll get them all however, and today one of our most requested names finally makes her debut after months of scheduling hurdles.

Teri Cwiek is a photographer, interviewer, and all-round contributing badass to the PupFresh team. Along with her fellow writers Teri has carved a unique niche in the world of alternative music blogging that has evolved in recent years to include nearly every corner of pop culture, and in today’s feature interview we aim to learn the story of how it all came together. You can read about her journey in the industry below.

PupFresh has been on my radar since its early days, but Teri is someone I’ve only recently gotten to know. Her dedication to providing readers with timely coverage of breaking news and first listens to the hottest new talent is inspirational to writers of all ages, and based on what she tells us in the paragraphs below it seems clear she has plenty more accomplishments on the horizon. If you would like to stay updated with everything Teri is working on, be sure to bookmark and frequent PupFresh. Additional questions and comments can be left at the end of this post.

H: For the record, please state your name, job title, and the publication you currently represent:

TC: My name is Teri Cwiek. I’m a photographer, interviewer, and “the nice one” at PupFresh.com

H: We like to start these interviews by learning a bit about the blogger’s past. When you think of your relationship with music, what are the earliest memories that come to mind?

TC: I grew up listening to a mixture of big band jazz and hip hop music, mainly due to the amount of dance groups I was apart of when I was younger. On myspace it was really cool to go to shows, at least in my home town, so I followed that trend and started making friends there.

H: Moving ahead just a bit, do you recall the first album you purchased with your own money? Do you still own it today?

TC: If I’m being completely forreal, it was either Destiny’s Child’s ‘Destiny Fulfilled’ or Hilary Duff’s “Metamorphosis”, both came out right around when I was in 4th grade. Unfortunately, I don’t have either. I still consider myself an active Destiny’s Child fan though.

H: How about first concert? Who did you see, who did you go with, and what do you remember about the event?

TC: I think it was Panic! At The Disco with The Hush Sound, Motion City Soundtrack, and Phantom Planet. I went with my father who was super terrified of me going into the general admission pit. He made me wear this obnoxious paisley silk beanie so he could keep an eye on me while standing at the back of the floor area.

H: Having an interest in music is pretty common for teens and twenty-somethings, but deciding to pursue a career in the business of music is something else entirely.  When did you know a career in music was something that interested you?

TC: I’ve always been the type of person to get super involved in activities for short bursts of times. I competitively danced (ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, Polish) for 14 years, baseball took up about 5 years of my life, I decided my junior year of high school that I wanted to join every single academically competitive club. I started going to shows in 8th grade and since then music has always weaved back into my life after I lost interest in the other hobbies, so it’s been pretty constant for the past 5 or so years.

H: We should mention photography is just as important, if not more important than journalism is in your life. To whom or what do you attribute your interest in photography?

TC: When I started doing press at shows, it was strictly interviews only. I wanted absolutely nothing to do with the photo side of things, there was way too much drama between other photographers. I accidentally signed up for a photography class in my sophomore year of high school and I had the worst work ethic in the class possible. Actually…I’m pretty sure I nearly failed (or came awfully close to failing) my first semester of it. I would always attempt assignments then give up halfway through because I thought I wasn’t good at it. My teacher entered a handful of my photos into a national competition and I won more than I should’ve, given my poor attitude in the class. I remember my counselor sat me down during class one day and was like “Teri, I don’t get how you can win 5 national awards for photos you took but fail Intro to Photography. Do the work I know you can do.” So I stopped comparing myself to other photographers and just started doing whatever I wanted, including mixing my love for music into the whole thaaaang.

H: We know gear heads love these columns, so please tell us: What is your current photo setup?

TC: But that takes away from the magic! I currently shoot with a Canon 5D Mark II and Canon Rebel T3i with a 35mm f/1.4, 50mm f/1.8, and a 15mm f/2.8 fisheye. I have an external flash that I’ve been messing around with for the past year, but it’s definitely not in my core setup.

H: Onto the site. When did you first join the PupFresh team, and what was the application process like?

TC: I joined Pup Fresh in September of 2011, about 6 months after Dan and Willy converted their wrestling fan blog into Pup Fresh. The application process was far from anything official, haha. At the time, I worked for an incredibly small blog called Shameless Media that had a whole lot of beef with Pup Fresh. Basically, my old boss would always tell me how much Dan/Willy/Pup Fresh hated our guts, so I avoided them as much as I could. It wasn’t until I was sitting inside a cafe before doors for a Jack’s Mannequin show in Toledo when I talked to Dan for the first time in person, instead of just angry Tumblr messages. To cut an incredibly long story short, Dan realized that I wasn’t as bitchy as my website made me seem and we became friends from the whole misconception, and that friendship turned into him stealing me away from Shameless Media. Dan’s version of the story includes him becoming best friends with my little brother over their love of wrestling, but I think my version’s a little more accurate.

H: There are a number of alternative blogs and publications in existence. What made you decide to join PupFresh instead of pursuing other, arguably bigger opportunities?

TC: I wanted to stay with something small and local, in the show coverage sense. My last website had a huge staff (over 20 photographers alone!) and I would always get denied interviews for tours because there would already be multiple other people covering the same shows…for photos only. It was a complete mess to say the least. With Pup Fresh, our show coverage is based in Michigan so it’s a lot more orderly.

H: How would you describe the average PupFresh reader?

TC: We definitely have a more younger crowd than the average music blog in the scene.

H: You’ve become a very integral part of the site over the last couple of years. How many people contribute to the site regularly?

TC: We’re actually a pretty small site, given our size and growth over the last few years. Dan and I are the only ones who cover shows. Willy, Emily, and Pup Jess are on news. We recently hired a handful of album/movie reviewers and a fashion blogger. I’d say we have just over 10 people working on the site in total.

H: PupFresh has widened its coverage from alternative music to include pop culture items such as movie and television news. When did the site begin to evolve from a simple music outlet, and what inspired the change?

TC: We’ve actually always been pretty open about covering entertainment items. Before Beau Bokan (from Blessthefall) gave us us the motto “Sassy Music News”, our slogan was “80% Music, 20% Entertainment, 100% Fresh.”

H: If you had to pitch PupFresh to someone interested in discovering a new website, how would you do it?

TC: We actually have a voice to our site and always try to twist every news post into something sarcastic, even if it’s at the expense of our professionalism. I understand the concept of being professional in the music industry, but there comes a point where you have to realize that most music blogs are hosted off of Tumblr.

We’re also very straight to the point with most of our posts, which is something that I definitely find to be a positive quality. If one of my favorite artists are releasing a new album, just give me a couple sentences maximum to describe what’s going on and I’ll be happy. I’m actually not a huge fan of album reviews, even though we feature them on a regular basis. I’m not one for fluff, especially in press releases or album reviews…probably because English/grammar rules have never been my strong suit. Tyler, The Creator once said in an interview (addressing his goal to start a fashion/photography/skateboard/music magazine) that album reviews are the biggest bullshit ever, saying something like “I’d rather see an article with a single ‘Yo, this shit was dope…check it out’ comment than an entire page-long writeup about how this album’s some *insert cliche phrase here.*” You’ll find that I connect with Tyler, The Creator on a regular basis.

H: I noticed there is a bit of advertising on PupFresh. Do you or anyone else on staff make money working on the site?

TC: Dan and Willy split the money made from advertisements on the site.

H: PupFresh has developed a strong brand in the realm of video content, which is becoming increasingly competitive by the day. What do you think it is about the content you offer that keeps people coming back for more?

TC: I’ve always loved video content over written interviews and features. Especially in a time where everything is either screen capped or gif-ed on all social media sites, video content is just so much more interesting. A lot of our interviews are focused on the artist specifically, not just the music their band makes. Not saying the music aspect isn’t important, it definitely is. There’s other websites where you can go for interviews discussing the process of choosing a producer for a certain album, but we choose to talk about the the members themselves. We don’t take it to the extent of making every question about porn star names and dick jokes, though. Over the summer we did an interview with Elliott Gruenberg from Blessthefall, called “The Elliott Interview”, where we basically just had a conversation with him and recorded it. Elliott doesn’t do press that often, so it was great to show fans of the band a side of him that most don’t normally see. That interview’s probably in my top 5 I’ve done.

H: There are a number of unsigned bands who get their first taste of media exposure through PupFresh. Where do you look when hoping to discover new music?

TC: The Pup Fresh inbox delivers a ton of music emails daily, as well as our social media in general. We can post a tweet like “what bands should we check out?” and get a ton of response back. A dedicated fan base is something we look for as well, of course after the music aspect has been checked out.

H: If you could offer one piece of advice to bands hoping to find their way onto the frontpage of PupFresh, what would it be?

TC: Don’t treat Pup Fresh like it’s a huge professional website, we’re a PupFreshional music blog. Yeah, a 6-page press release on a 3-song EP might get you posted on more formal sites, but with us it’ll probably get skipped if I’m being completely honest.

H: When it comes to receiving music for reviews/feature consideration, which distribution services do you prefer and why?

TC: Being a video person, I love getting YouTube links to music videos or live recorded features. I’ve gotten a few tracks sent to me over Spotify, and that was pretty cool too since I have a premium account and am on it constantly. This might sound like a huge plug because this interview is for the Haulix blog, but I actually do enjoy Haulix’s services. One of the first times I remember using Haulix was for The Front Bottom’s newest album. I’m a huuuge Front Bottoms fan and was so stoked to get the album so I jammed it on repeat for days. We actually got an email from their publicist (Hey, Rey!) a couple days after he sent the link, wondering if I had shared it with anyone else because the play count was high enough that it got flagged as might being leaked. Embarrassingly enough, all the play counts didn’t only belong to just the staff of Pup Fresh…but just me. Even though that experience outed my inner Front Bottoms mega fan, I found that feature quite awesome. Haulix just makes everything so much easier.

H: PupFresh is not your only role in the industry, but it’s certainly a big one. What is your ultimate career goal?

TC: That’s a huge question, especially because I’m only 19. Last year I went to school to get into PR and management, but it wasn’t really what I expected. Right now I’m going to focus in the photo and video aspect of the industry because that’s where my heart’s at. One of my goals for awhile was to tour and I’m actually accomplishing that right now on the Pup Fresh tour with The Big Time, Late Nite Reading, Jocelyn, and 7 Minutes In Heaven.

H: If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?

TC: Another huge question. There’s so many of my favorite bands that had so much potential but didn’t sell enough albums to continue comfortably so they broke up/went on hiatus. This is really cheesy, but I wish there was a way to focus the industry less on album sales/sales in general. I know that’s stupid to say because it wouldn’t be an industry without that aspect, but I’m sick of seeing actual talent stop trying because they didn’t have the reach as other artists.

H: Before we let you go, do you have any additional thoughts you’d like to share with our readers?

TC: I think that wraps it up! I feel like a lot of people have a huge misunderstanding with Pup Fresh, unfortunately. Too PupFreshional to care.

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Haulix Weekly Update #15 – Pass The Stuffing

Hello, everyone! It’s the Friday after Thanksgiving, which gives us hope many of you are fortunate enough to have the day off. We’re taking things a little easier than usual, but we’re still available around the clock to help clients with all Haulix-related inquiries. You can reach us via email by contacting james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

With the holidays fast-approaching we are doing everything we can to ready our mobile platform while continuing to refine our already great distribution software. We cannot go too into detail as to what is on the horizon just yet, but know we should have a few new updates before Santa arrives next month.

As far as our blog is concerned, the past week saw the return of our ever-popular Publicity Spotlight. We have a few additional publicists in line for features this December, but due to the various stages of development each feature is in I’d rather not divulge any names just yet. For now, here’s a rundown of everything we featured this week:

we know there are dozens of great black Friday deals out there you probably want to take advantage of, so we won’t keep you much longer. Have a safe holiday weekend and make sure to spend a little extra time with the people you love. We’ll be back on Monday with a new Blogger Spotlight.

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Publicity Spotlight: Chrissy Borsellino (The Catalyst Publicity Group)

Hello and welcome to another exciting week of music industry insight and advice here on the official blog of Haulix. We know Thanksgiving is right around the corner, so we’re stuffing our some of our best content to date into the coming days as our way of saying thanks for continuing to support our efforts. If you have a recommendation for a future column, of if you have any question about our services, please do not hesitate to email james@haulix,com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

Everyone comes to want a life in music for their own reasons, but one thing we’ve learned through this series is that most journeys to the industry begin at a very young age. Parents fill homes with music and art in hopes of opening their chid’s mind to the creative possibility of the world, and over time those same children become increasingly fascinated with whatever form of entertainment played a predominant role at their mailing address. For Chrissy Borsellino, that entertainment came in the form of music, and today we’re going to learn how she rose through the ranks to become the Publicity Director at The Catalyst Publicity Group.

I’ve known Chrissy for a number of years, but it wasn’t until early 2013 that we had the opportunity to finally meet face to face. It was SXSW, and Chrissy had a number of artists performing throughout the city seemingly every night of the week. To say she was busy would be an understatement, but when it came to engaging her clients and the press who had come to see them Chrissy made time to make each of them feel like they were the only thing on her mind. She realizes the importance of making others feel important, and that is just one of the many (possibly countless) reasons I knew she needed to be included in this series. She’s kind, dedicated, and more driven than almost anyone you’re likely to meet.

If you want to follow Chrissy’s efforts in the music industry, be sure to follow the Catalyst Publicity Group on Twitter and Facebook. Additional questions and comments can be left at the end of this post.

H: State your name, job title, and the company your currently work for:

CB: Chrissy Borsellino, Publicity Director at The Catalyst Publicity Group!

H: When you think about your life with music, what are the earliest memories that come to mind?

CB: Oh I have lots of musical memories from my childhood. From attending local music festivals with my parents (they dressed as ZZ Top for Halloween one year, seeing my mom with a long white beard as a youngster was definitely impactful) to rollerskating around my house to Disney records. We were a huge vinyl household.

H: Do you remember the first album you bought with your own money? Do you still own it today?

CB: I can’t remember precisely the first album I bought myself, I’m thinking it was No Doubt ‘Tragic Kingdom’ with a Media Play gift card. But I can remember vividly playing my Michael Jackson ‘Thriller’, Paula Abdul ‘Forever Your Girl’, and New Kids On The Block ‘Hangin’ Tough’ cassettes until they could play no more.

H: You’ve been involved in music for awhile now, and publicity was not necessarily where you got your start. What initially attracted you to the entertainment industry?

CB: I have been insanely in love with music from a very young age. As I previously mentioned my parents were a big influence on that, filling our house will all different artists and genres. When my brother began drumming for a few local bands in high school I really started to understand the “business” side of things and was immediately drawn to it. My goal then is the same as my goal now, to discover an undeniable talent and help them break through to success.

H: From what I have gathered, one of your earliest gigs in the business was with Step Up Presents. Can you tell us a bit about how you landed that position, and what that experience was like?

CB: Ahhh my first real gig in the biz! Step Up Presents is an independent concert promotion company in the Albany, NY area. While I was attending SUNY Oneonta, getting my BA in Music Industry, I had to intern to be able to fulfill my degree requirements. After speaking with my local Syracuse promoter, he intro’d me to the Step Up owner and I was brought in for an interview. This took place backstage at a concert venue DURING a show, I believe it was The Chariot playing. Once I was given the job I spent that summer assisting with shows doing everything from catering/hospitality to settling with the bands to box office duties and more. The most ridiculous task I had was running the “shower shuttle” at a big metal festival in the Poughkeepsie area, taking smelly band dudes to the hotel a mile away to shower. The most terrifying was the amount of injuries and blood at the Slayer concert, complete with a fan climbing up into the rafters and delaying the show. After my internship was done I stayed on in a part-time capacity, driving to Albany from Oneonta a few times a week to help out. It was the best experience of my life, I met and still stay in touch with a lot of people from that time.

H: A lot of people work for little-to-no pay when they first start out in the entertainment industry. Was this the case for you? If so, when did you start earning income?

CB: I was lucky to find positions that paid when I first started out, even my internships at least gave me money for gas/travel and food. Immediately after my second internship with Cherry Lane Music Publishing ended (right after I graduated college) I secured a full-time position with ASCAP and stayed there for just under 2 years. Only after finding myself unemployed, thanks to our wonderful economic crisis, did I start having to work positions for “experience” rather than pay. And I did that just to keep my resume and network building.

H: If you could offer one piece of advice to aspiring industry professionals, what would it be?

CB: Network. That’s the MOST important part of the whole business. Even for artists. The more time I spend in the business, whether it be at a label, management company, concert promoter, publisher, or PR firm, the more I’ve seen that having that support and rolodex is what is going to get you from point A to B, B to C. Sure being a hard worker, an expert in your field, having the ability to learn quickly, the drive to keep learning as the industry evolves and having a crap ton of patience is also important… but without that network, it’s always a blind, uphill battle.

H: At what point did publicity become your focus, and do you recall anything pointing/inspiring/leading you in that direction?

CB: I got my start in publicity during that time of fun-employment. I wouldn’t say I was necessarily drawn to the work of a publicist but rather working directly with the talent to strategize ways to help them break through the over-saturated music landscape and find their audience. Between my stint there and working for Catalyst I found myself back in music publishing for about a year. I’m captivated by so many sides of the industry, I doubt I’ll ever stay in one field permanently.

H: Who was the first artist you worked publicity for, and what was the experience like?

CB: Oh man I can’t even remember that, I worked with a lot of artists when I got my start in PR specifically. I will say that my first glimpse into the world was working as an assistant for Warren Haynes (Gov’t Mule, The Allman Brothers Band) and his management company/record label. I was the middle-man between the PR team and him, figuring out his itinerary and helping them schedule press opportunities. I remember it being very hectic.

H: What advice would you give artists about seeking publicists? Is there anything they should look for and/or avoid?

CB: Know what a publicist does. When approaching a certain publicist or firm, do your research… know what artists/clients and publications they’ve worked with, the kind of campaigns they’ve run. Do your homework! It’s money coming out of your pocket for this service and you should be extremely well versed so you can ask the important questions and not waste time on the information you can find via the google machine. Also make sure you have something press worthy to bring to the table. A record that came out months ago and a short headlining tour at no-one-cares-about-that-venue is not enough for a publicist to run a successful campaign on your behalf. If they tell you otherwise, they probably just want your money.

H: As someone who has worked with signed and unsigned talent, do you feel record labels, big or small, are necessary in the modern music industry?

CB: This depends entirely on the artist and their situation. I believe though, with the right team, strategy, and outside-the-box approach to things, labels are completely unnecessary. But you have to want to put in the work. If you’re an artist who’s main goal is to find their team so they only have to create and do none of the business, then thats not for you. I will say in this ever-changing business landscape, it’s good to at least make sure you know what your plan is and where you’re money is going. We’re at a time where the artists hold way more cards then they ever did before, why not take advantage?

H: What is the biggest mistake you see bands making when trying to market themselves?

CB: The over self-marketing on their social networks. Posting only about your record or upcoming shows to get your fans to spend money on you is not smart. Fans want the connection, not bands asking them to continuously buy their crap. There’s this great social media food pyramid that I think all artists and companies should adhere to. It outlines how many posts should be about self-promotion, direct engagement, media content and more. It’s a really useful tool!

H: As a publicist, what advice would you offer writers hoping to work with your artists?

CB: Please do your research. We send over bios, one-sheets, and links for you to make the most of your time with our clients. Asking them the same cut-and-dry questions that everyone else is asking only annoys them and hinders the experience. And never, ever, flake out on a show if you’ve been given guest list spots/tickets/passes unless it is a truly extenuating circumstance.

H: When it comes to sharing music with journalists, what services/methods do you prefer? Why?

CB: That depends entirely on the client. Some bands will want a secure, private stream sent of their unreleased record to deter it from leaking. Others don’t care and just want the journalists to be able to listen to their music. When it’s the latter I typically use my secure dropbox to send over whatever assets are needed for a particular client. It’s easy to keep track of, add/delete from instead of having to do a whole separate upload, and doesn’t “expire” until I want it to.

H: If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?

CB: That’s a really tough question. I guess I’d have to say the value of music and the songwriter. Between consumer and certain business practices, it’s sad to see the ever growing under-appreciation for the musicians creativity and work. If you really love an artist or a song, then do the writer a solid and make sure they are compensated for their craft.

H: You’ve held a number of titles thus far in life. What is your ultimate career goal, and are there any areas of the business you’ve yet to work in that interests you?

CB: Oh that’s ever-changing for me. The situation I’m in is great, I really enjoy being able to select the artists I want to champion rather than be handed a client I had no previous engagement with. I love working with talent I really believe can go the distance and exhausting every avenue and outlet in order to help them find their success. But I think if I could do ANYTHING I would want to be a music supervisor for TV or film. Matching music to visuals to enhance the experience has always intrigued and inspired me.

H: Okay, I think I’ve taken up enough of your time. Before we let you go, do you have anything on the horizon you’d like to share with us?

CB:
(i could not think of anything lol)

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Haulix Weekly Update #14 – Here Comes The Holidays

Hello, everyone! The week is coming to an end in just a few short hours, which means it’s time once again to reflect on everything we’ve accomplished in recent days.

Thanksgiving is less than a week away at this point, and here at Haulix HQ we’re hard at work on a few new updates that we hope to roll out before Santa comes scurrying down your chimney. We’re not ready to discuss what we have in store just yet, but know we’ll have a few digital gifts for clients in the weeks to come. As soon as we can detail everything, we will. 

On the blog end of things, the last few days have been some of our favorite to date. We unveiled a new spin on our spotlight features, detailed the importance of YouTube, and learned the story of two influential industry minds. You can find quick links to all our posts below:

Spotlight: Jenn Stookey (Highlight Magazine)
Advice: The Importance Of YouTube
Spotlight: Tom Falcone
Spotlight: Dan Salter (Echoes & Dust)

Even though there is a holiday next week here in the states we’re going to strive for our usual content push (4 articles + recap). If you have any suggestions on columns or articles you want to see, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts.

That pretty much wraps everything up! We’ll be back on Monday with a publicity spotlight you won’t want to miss. Have a great weekend. 

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Blogger Spotlight: Dan Salter (Echoes And Dust)

Hello and welcome to a new week of music industry insight and advice here on the official blog of Haulix. We have a lot of great content planned for the days ahead, including the interview you’ll read following the paragraphs below. If you have a suggestions for a future installment of this series, or if you have any questions regarding our services, please do not hesitate to email james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

Life has this hilarious tendency to do whatever it wants regardless of your plans or intentions, and while that can often be a frightening prospect it can also be one of the most exciting. For Dan Salter, life changed forever on a wet evening in London back in 2008. It was there he and his friends first had the idea to launch a music zine that told the world about all the obscure bands they had grown to love and admire, and in the years that followed Dan would discover a calling in life that has brought him international acclaim.

I had not spoken with Dan Salter prior to setting up this feature, but his work with Echoes & Dust is something that has been on my radar for a number of years. He’s always been a great writer with a unique perspective on life and it only makes sense that he eventually found his way to leading the editorial team at his site. His story is certainly one-of-a-kind, and it’s an honor to share it with you this afternoon.

If you would like to stay up-to-date with everything Dan and his team of contributors have going on, make sure you bookmark and frequent Echoes & Dust. Additional questions and comments can be left at the end of this post.

H: State your name, job title, and the publication you currently write for:

D: Dan Salter, Editor in Chief & founder of Echoes & Dust.

H: Let’s start at the beginning. Do you remember the first time you recognized your love for music?

D: My parents were both huge music fans (Mum saw the Stones in Hyde Park in 69 & went to the first Glastonbury) so music has always been a part of my life. I grew up listening to all the classic bands of the 60s & 70s, Zeppelin, Stones, Floyd, Hendrix, Joplin etc but also Roxy Music, The Police, Blondie and the like. They took me & my brother to festivals from an early age so lets face it, my fate was always sealed!

H: What was the first album you purchased with your own money? Do you still own it today?

D: Haha, it was a vinyl copy of Dire Straits – Brothers In Arms. I was about 14 & yes, it’s still kicking around somewhere.

H: Are you a journalist professionally, or do you write about music as a hobby?

D: it’s purely a hobby, I have a day job too & so do all the fantastic guys who give up their free time to write for us.

H: Journalism is an interesting path for anyone to choose in life. What lead you to becoming a writer?

D: I’ve always had a penchant for words, I was a voracious reader as a kid and a lyricist in bands when I was younger but becoming a ‘music writer’ was something that grew out of the frustration of a small group of friends that found there weren’t any website dedicated to the kind of obscure indie music we liked. One day we decided to stop moaning about it & start one ourselves, thus E&D was born and overnight I’d become a music journalist & editor!

H: Who or what inspires you as a writer?

D: That’s a hugely tough question to answer with words. The easiest thing would be to take you on a tour of my music collection & shout ‘THIS’ and ‘THIS’ at you. It’s that moment when you hear something for the first time & it makes your soul resonate, it’s that feeling when something hits you out of the blue & you know it’s going to be your new favourite thing. That’s what I live for & that’s what makes me want to write about it, I want other people to share that feeling.

H: When people ask you about your site, how do you explain the coverage offered?

D: We have a phrase on the team that we feel fits perfectly; wilfully obscure. Our approach has always been to go out of our way to cover things that don’t get much column inches elsewhere, to face away from the crowd & highlight musicians doing the same. We like music that challenges & provokes. That probably sounds massively pretentious! In less high falutin terms, we cover a broad range of genres, everything from post rock, math rock, ambient electronica, dream pop, the whole church of metal, space rock, glitch; you get the picture.

H: I noticed the story of the site’s origin involves a group of friends deciding to work together. How many contributors do you have at this point? What do you look for in new recruits?

D: Yes, originally there were 5 of us that got the site up & running but sadly life commitments mean that I’m the only one left from that original crew contributing on a regular basis. We have something like 50 writers now but their level on contribution ranges from smashing out 2 or 3 reviews a week to people who only write that in a year. All we generally ask of people is to have a passion for the music & the time to write about it, although the ability to string a sentence together is a bonus! We’ve been very lucky, over the years we’ve managed to find a bunch of very talented, dedicated people who get a kick out of writing about music & believe in what were doing. Without their contributions & the help of Sander, Ben & Hannah (Metal, Features & Live editors respectively) I wouldn’t been able to sustain this for 5 years.

H: I noticed there is little-to-no news offered on Echoes And Dust. Was this always the case?

D: More or less. It’s something we’ve considered from time to time but on a basic time & resource to benefit calculation it doesn’t stack up for us. There are plenty of sites that offer news & we see little point in adding to the cacophony as it would mean we couldn’t do some of the other stuff we do. Anything that we do want to give our readers ‘news’ on we tend to run through our Facebook page rather than the site.

H: There is an ever-growing amount of competition for attention in the music blog arena. How do you marketing Echoes and Dust?

D: We don’t really ‘market’ the site. We’ve never paid for advertising or anything like that. Most of our growth has come as a direct result in the growth of both the quantity and, I hope, the quality of our output. We have something of a symbiotic relationship with the bands, labels and PRs for the music we cover & hope that they spread the word about us as we spread it about them. It seems to work.

H: From what I can tell there is no paid advertising on the site. Do you have any plans to monetize moving forward? If so, how?

D: Again this is something we’ve discussed ad nauseum between the team. For the moment we’ve decided against it. The running costs of the site a relatively low and something I don’t mind paying as it allows me to do all this cool stuff so it’s not an issue right now. If we get to a size where the traffic means that costs rise then we’ll have another think but for now we’re happy as we are.

H: Your site seems to have a local focus, but you’ve undoubtedly begun to build an international audience. How do you balance catering to both demographics?

D: By not really thinking about location too much. We live in a globalised digital environment (kill me now!) where physical location is almost meaningless. We have writers all over the world from Melbourne to Johannesburg to Rome to Edinburgh & so on & we get submissions from an even wider range of places (we covered a metal band from Andorra the other day) so we just try & judge things on the merits of the music & not where it’s from. These days we get nearly as much traffic from overseas, especially the US, as we do from the UK.

H: What is your ultimate career goal?

D: Oh god, i feel like I’m a job interview now & I never have an answer for this then! As well as running E&D my partner Hannah & I run Cognitive Dissonance which is an umbrella for a small record label, a little bit of PR and a business building websites and Hannah plays in Rumour Cubes, who have just started recording their 2nd album, but we’re realistic enough to know unless we’re lucky none of this will let us give up our day jobs so just having a job that pays the bills & gives us enough free time to be involved in music in some small way is enough for now.

H: When it comes to receiving music for review and feature consideration, which services do you prefer and why?

D: Haha, is this the bit where I’m meant to big up Haulix?! 😉 honestly though, digitally delivery systems like Haulix have made this job so much easier. I’d say 95% of sub,is ions are delivered to us digitally in some fashion now & we prefer it that way. Makes it much easier to distribute to the writers. In fact it’s got to the point where sending us something physical is actually detrimental to something’s chances of getting covered. That’s not to say we’re not advocates of physical products though, digital is just easier for reviewing.

H: If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?

D: Again with the huge questions! Just one thing? Almost impossible! The industry is at a really interesting point of flux at the moment & know one can really know where it’s going to go, although there are plenty of theories. So, if there was just one thing I could change it would be to see that musicians & artists get fairly paid for the art they create. At the moment we’re a long way from that.

H: You talk a lot about the future. Before we let you go, can you tell us a bit about what you have planned in the months ahead?

D: Obviously we’re coming up to the end of 2013 now & by our reckoning it’s been a pretty stellar year for music, so we’ll be having plenty of activity around that with some interesting interviews & features on people that have really impressed us this year. One thing we’re just putting together now, and something we’re very proud of doing, is a new feature strand called Musical Therapy in which we are going to explore the relationships between music and mental health, We’re getting contributions from across the spectrum of artists, writers & fans and getting them to share their views on how music has helped them, or otherwise, with mental health issues. Ultimately we want to shine a light on how prevalent these problems are in the creative sector & perhaps, if we’re lucky, remove some of the stigma attached to something that a lot off pepole suffer.

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News

Haulix Weekly Update #13 – Email and Mobile

Hello, everyone. If you’re reading this it means you survived another week of work or school and the weekend is just a few short hours away. Yes, it’s Friday once more, and we have a nice little recap ready to help wrap up the week.

The holiday season is well under way, but before we get tied up in presents and decorations we still have a lot we hope to accomplish at Haulix HQ. The development of our mobile platform continues, and earlier this week testing began on various mobile devices. We’re not quite ready to announce a launch date just yet, but know it’s likely coming sooner than you expect.

In addition to moving forward on that project, we recently unveiled a new, in-depth description of everything offered through our ‘Email Invitation Activity Screen.’ By following this link, you can learn about how Haulix is working to help you better understand who receives your promos, who opens them, who uses them, and which accounts are dead or otherwise inactive. There’s a lot of information there, so we recommend setting aside 10-minutes or so to properly dive into the material.

Onto the blog…

The past few days on our blog have been some of our favorite to date. From the two interviews posted, both of which offer unique perspectives on life in the business, to the ‘Advice’ columns, we’re extremely proud of the content we’ve posted. We know not everyone has time in their daily schedule to see what we’re up to, so below you will find a list of links to each of the week’s stories:

That pretty much wraps up our coverage for this week. We have a couple special surprises in store next week, but that’s all the information I’m allowed to share with you at this time. Have a great weekend and make sure to stop back by the blog on Monday. If you have any questions or concerns over the weekend, email james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

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News

Haulix Advice: 5 Things To Do AFTER Receiving Media Coverage

Hello and welcome to the first ‘Advice’ column of the week. There have been at least three installments of this column dedicated to getting the attention of bloggers, labels, etc., but today we’re going to turn the tables a bit and look at what happens AFTER you gain the exposure you’ve fought so hard to earn. If you have a suggestion for a future ‘Advice’ column, if you have a question you would like us to tackle in the week ahead, please do not hesitate to email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts.

Gaining the attention of blogs and their readers is no easy feat, especially for unsigned talent with little-to-no history. You can write the best songs and have the nicest videos, but if you do not know how to network and pitch yourselves no one will ever learn about your talent. Once they do however, there will only be a small window of time for you to capitalize on having won a moment of their attention, and this afternoon we’re going to learn what you should do in the hours after first receiving media attention.

1. Take time to celebrate, but realize there is still a lot left to accomplish.

I was never in a band that became popular enough to appear on sites like Absolutepunk or the like, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t spend many nights wishing one of the influential tastemakers of the scene mentioned my efforts in their publication. If your music/video/album gets mentioned, celebrate! You’ve taken yet another step towards your goal of a career in music, and while it’s certainly not enough to pay the bills it does serve as a strong reminder other people in the world care about your art. Don’t take that for granted.

2. Tell everyone in the world about the news (and ask them to share it).

This one probably goes without saying, but the unwritten rule of exposure on music outlets is that the band featured will publicly share and/or promote the publication’s content once its live. Don’t just share link to stories with fans, but ask them to share it as well, and don’t be afraid to request they comment on the post if time allows. Sites that see a bump in traffic or discussions from coverage of your band are likely to cover your band again in the future because they believe there is a value to your content that other unsigned acts cannot provide. In order to show them that value you will need the help of your fans, and its up to you to sell them on sharing your work.

3. Engage the comments section, but don’t antagonize them.

If the reason you’re reading this post is because the first article about your music just went live, you need to understand the response in the comments section may be very slow at first. As much as sites love to help expose young talent, people are not always quick to comment (especially in a positive sense) about something they are unfamiliar with. A great way to combat this is to actively participate in discussions taking place in the comments section of articles about your band. Answer questions for people, offer insight into your creative process, and generally speaking do whatever you can to be a decent human being that is open to criticism. It’s not that difficult, but it can make a world of difference in how quickly people become engaged with your art.

4. Say “thank you” and/or support the publication that wrote about you.

You would not believe the power the phrases “please” and “thank you” have in the music industry. From labels, to bands, publicists, and everyone in between you would be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks they hear either of those phrases too often. People tend to do as they please and take what they want without giving much though to the process behind it all, but you can stand out from the countless unsigned artists of the world by voicing your appreciation to the sites that give you space on their front page. It does not have to be anything formal, but it should be sincere. People remember those who are kind to them, and they’re far more likely to want to work with you again in the future as a result.

5. Don’t be afraid to begin teasing your next announcement.

Once people learn about your art it’s very likely they will want to know everything they can about your current efforts. Using social media and the comments sections on posts about your work, take a moment to tell people about everything else you have going on while your name is still fresh on their minds. They might not buy the album or see the tour you’re trying to promote, but at least they’ll know of it and will have the ability to share that information with others if such opportunities present themselves.

Categories
News

Blogger Spotlight: Adrian Garza

Hello and welcome to another week of music industry insight and advice here on the official blog of Haulix. We have a lot of great content on the way, and to kick things off we’re sharing the story of a young industry professional whose already miles ahead of his competition. If you have a site or journalist you would like to recommend for this feature, please email james@haulix.com and share your ideas. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

Earlier this month we brought you the story of Tyler Hanan, a college student who has already become a well-engrained member of the music industry thanks to his drive, determination, and relentless work ethic. Today we’re returning to the collegiate world to discuss a similarly minded individual, only this time our featured talent hails from Florida and prefers to be called Adrian.

Growing up in a Mexican-American household, Adrian Garza was exposed to a wide variety of music from an early age. His love of music continued to develop as he grew older, but it wasn’t until Tooth & Nail Records randomly selected him to be a street team member during a stop on Warped Tour 2010 that he ever considered a life in the industry. Now he holds down the Editor-In-Chief position at his University paper while writing for multiple music publications (and working another part-time job) and finds that recent dream has already started to become a reality. Today he shares the story of how he got his start, and what he has to say may very well help other aspiring industry professionals find their footing in this crazy business of music.

Adrian no doubt has a bright future ahead of him, but the place he finds himself now isn’t so bad either. If you would like to stay on top of everything he’s working on, please take a moment to follow him on Twitter. Additional questions and comments can be left at the end of this post.

H: Please state your name, job title(s), and the publications you work with:

AG: My name is Adrian Garza. I spend a lot of my time as the Editor-In-Chief of The Southeastern Times, the student newspaper of Southeastern University. I also used to write as a staff writer for Christian Music Zine, and still work independently as a band manager and publicist.

H: When you think of your earliest memories with music, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?

AG: Coming from a Mexican-American household, I remember listening to a lot of my dad’s mariachi music in the car, especially on longer road trips. There were several artists that he listened to, but one that comes to mind among those would be Vincente Fernandez. Even though I won’t listen to any mariachi nowadays, I know all of that time spent with the genre made me into who I am today between an appreciation for folk and country, as well as how I learned to play an acoustic nylon stringed guitar before any other instrument.

H: What was the first album you purchased with your own money? Do you still own it today?

AG: I still specifically remember the day that I walked through my local K-Mart and bought a copy of Switchfoot’s Nothing Is Sound on the day it released with my allowance when I was only 12 years old. It features one of my most favorite album covers, and it’s still one of my most favorite records. Sadly enough, it got lost somewhere over the years.

H: Having an interest in music is relatively normal, but deciding to pursue a career in music is a bit more rare. When did you realize the entertainment industry was the business for you?

AG: It was only about 3 ½ years ago that I realized I had a potential future in the music industry. Specifically, it was at the Warped Tour of 2010 where I was picked up by Tooth & Nail Records to be their street teamer for the West Palm Beach date of the tour. In the moment, I didn’t think much of it; I just thought it was great to help promote what was my favorite record label at the time. Throughout the day, I just had question after question come to mind while I worked alongside Micah Dean, their tour rep who also worked as an A&R representative when he wasn’t on the road. Somewhere along the lines, I mentioned how I really enjoyed reading HM Magazine, and he surprisingly offered to personally recommend me to Doug Van Pelt, the Editor-In-Chief of the publication. In the moment, I didn’t think much of it, because I really had no interest in writing for a living, but over the course of the next couple of weeks, I really grew to like the idea because I had always had a passion for sharing things with others. But I didn’t see myself wanting to solely working in writing about the bands who are already known, I wanted to be one of the people who gave bands that initial push.

With all of that said, a career in the music industry is just what makes the most sense to me.

H: You dabble in a few areas of music, but a lot of this interview will focus on your writing efforts. When did you first take an interest in journalism?

AG: I do remember enjoying this mass communication class that I had back in my freshman year of high school. But that’s really all I thought of journalism back then; one of many units in a mandatory class that I took in my freshman year. Until that offer came along back in 2010, I knew I liked telling stories, sharing the ideas that I believed in, and getting others to listen to the bands I loved, but I didn’t see any future in it.

So, continuing off of where I left off on the last question, I was basically given this opportunity when I was coming towards the end of my summer before my freshman year of college. At the time, I didn’t have much of an existing direction of where I wanted to go with my life; I planned on pursuing a degree in business management, but I really wasn’t all too thrilled about it.

I was in the music business program at my school for about a month, and while I liked the idea of getting a degree that allowed me to take so many classes that related to business and music, it was the requirement of performance related ensembles and mandatory lessons, along with the lack of classes that focused specifically on the different facets of the industry (booking, A&R, management), that led to me wanting to change majors.

When it hit me that there my college offered a major in journalism, I decided that switching over may have been worth my time. So I decided to take a shot at writing an article for the student newspaper to see how I felt about journalism before I made the switch official, and it was after submitting that first article that I realized how much I enjoyed it.

H: The obvious follow-up, when did you first combine your love of music and journalism?

AG: It was actually, my second article I ever wrote for the Southeastern Times, which was a feature story on Terra Terra Terra, one of Lakeland’s most widely known acts. It might’ve not been the best thing that I’ve written, and I may have needed a lot of help, but that was all I really needed to know this was the right path for me.

H: You’re Editor-In-Chief at your college paper, as well as a staff writer for online music outlets. Why take on multiple roles?

AG: I really like how I’m able to write and express myself in different ways through all of these outlets. I can add personality and emotion to my writing for UTG, but at The Times, I’m supposed to be more objective and not subjective. I will admit that I don’t like working on more than one album review at a time, and in that same way, I don’t like only covering events. Another interesting thing to take into consideration is the audience and the people I get to work with: On campus for The Times, I’m interviewing different faculty members and administrative figures, where my articles are being published and shared out to a campus population of 2000+ people. At UTG, I’m interviewing musicians, working with publicists, labels, and managers that operate on so many different levels, and sharing that out to a limitless audience over the internet.

H: Do you find working on music has influenced or aided your efforts in regular journalism (or vice versa)? If so, how?

AG: In my opinion, the two are more closely related than many would think. Both fields rely heavily on creativity, and both are done in independent settings. I feel that my work with journalism has given me the excuse to take the time to keep up with what people are into, and that allows me to put that into action with my work with music.

H: Like many, you make little-to-no money for your efforts in writing. Why do it?

AG: Like I said before, I started doing this just to see if I liked it. After that, I wanted to keep writing for smaller outlets (like the school newspaper and Christian Music Zine) specifically for the sake of building up writing skills. Not to say that I didn’t enjoy that time in my career, it’s just that back then, it was more about learning slowly than it was about diving into big and unique articles like I’ve done recently. Now I do it because I care that much about giving recognition to the bands who deserve it.

H: In addition to writing, you also run a management company. When did you launch this effort, and what can you tell us about your progress so far?

AG: I launched Torches Management & PR back in December 2011 when I was asked by two different musician friends of mine to help with their projects. The crazy part is that one of those bands, Eyes, was located all of the way out in Colorado Springs. On the polar opposite in distance, I also worked with another band that was located on my college campus, A Sound Asleep. Most of my work was dedicated towards the release of each band’s EPs, though I did start booking a summer tour for ASA that had eventually been cancelled early on. Some of the things that I’m pretty proud of is getting The Lakeland Ledger to cover ASA and getting some notable small-time blogs to review the Eyes EP.

Nowadays, I haven’t been as active with Torches as I wish I was, but who knows, maybe I’ll come across the next big band that I’ll just have to work with. But for now, I know that I got a lot out of those experiences and that I made a difference through them.

H: As someone working in many areas of the industry, what advice would you offer someone hoping to get their start towards a career in music?

AG: My best advice would be to not wait a second and start now. I know this sounds kind of weak, but we live in an age where there is so much free information readily available. Go online and look up articles, browse forums, check out books at your local library (I’m serious, you’ll be surprised at what you might find), then take in as much of that as you can. When you’re done with that, learn some practical skills, whether it’s coding, graphic design, excel, and anything else that could be relevant. Then go out and do something with it, even if it’s starting small.

H: The last decade has been littered with claims from those who believe the music industry is dying and/or otherwise crumbling as a result of piracy. Considering you’re about to leave school in pursuit of a life in music, what do you have to say to those who see it as a weak industry?

AG: This question’s always given me trouble in real life, because I will be one of the first to admit that in a way, it is. Yes, album sales have declined over the years, and yes, it feels like much of the bands that are playing so many of today’s biggest festivals are the same bands who’ve played them for the last several years, but there’s still a lot to stay excited about. The big four major labels have lost much of their coveted market shares to so many indie labels which have had the most humble of beginnings. It’s no secret that vinyl has been given a lot of attention lately, and that’s great, because it has opened up a lot of room for labels to go all out on the packaging, making for an experience that’s all the more unique.

H: What is your ultimate career goal?

AG: I wish I had one big and massive goal with my career, but I don’t. If I can continue to keep doing what I’m doing, but on big enough of a scale where I can be given more access to working on bigger stories and bigger bands, while getting some sort of sustainable income out of it, then I’ll be happy enough!

H: When it comes to receiving music for review and feature consideration, which services do you prefer and why?

AG: Haulix truly blows the rest out of the water in both function and convenience! I’ve never experienced any technical difficulties with that streaming service, and the fact that you guys offer downloads to those who are constantly on the go is a major plus.

H: If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?

AG: If I could change one thing about the industry, it would be less about the business itself, but the fans who keep it alive. I feel that in general, we as Americans are a little too spoiled between what we have available to ourselves and how much we decide music is worth. I would wish that when people make a claim about how one of their favorite artists releases one of the best albums of the year, they would all back that by actually buying said album. I wish that buying a t shirt wasn’t seen as a justification for stealing an album, because come on, sure you’re helping a band put gas in their tank, but don’t be in it for the fashion.

H: You talk a lot about the future. Before we let you go, can you tell us a bit about what you have planned in the months ahead?

AG: Shoot, there are too many things that come to mind! I’d really like to go out to SXSW to take in the full experience before I graduate and look into finding a full time job that would prevent me from doing otherwise. Seeing as how I’m only halfway through my tenure as the Editor-In-Chief of The Times, I still have more than a few ideas left in store. One thing that I’ve been on the fence about would be writing a script to a three minute short film for my college’s 180 film festival. Outside of all of that, you can still expect me be working on the best reviews, interviews, and news pieces that I could possibly put out for Under The Gun Review.

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