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Advice: Entitled To Offend

Next week, Ryan Williford will be celebrating the completion of his first ten years in music. The ride has rarely been easy, but having stayed true to himself and his mission to succeed Ryan has found a way to navigate the often tricky waters of music without losing his heart. Today, in a very special guest post, Ryan makes a damn good argument for why more people in our industry need to not only speak their minds, but also stand by what they believe.

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Unless you have been living under a rock this decade, you should be well aware of several culture shifts. These shifts include the ever growing sense of entitlement, the “everyone gets a trophy” train of thought, widespread political correctness, and the move to be as non-offensive as possible. But you may be asking how these four things all relate, especially in the music industry? Well let me tell you, people feel so entitled for something as minuscule as a participation trophy that it infects the rest of their lives. They now feel entitled to be offended by every little thing that is said or done; for god’s sake “trigger warnings” are a thing. It makes the world too politically correct and conforming. Here is the rub though; if you feel entitled to a participation trophy, then I should be entitled to offend you. Now of course this does not mean you have free realm to say or do as you please, with the perfect example of stepping out of appropriate boundaries being Property Of Zack founder Zack Zarrillo.

On August 4th Zack posted an article, just two days after announcing the site’s end, about how he felt ENTITLED to post leaked information. He went on to explain that he was told numerous times by different professionals that he should not be posting said information. The 22-year-old then had the audacity to try to tell the industry professionals how to do their jobs and went as far as calling out Another Reybee Production, whose founder, Rey Roldan, has been in the industry for over two decades and has worked with the likes of Brittany Spears, Dashboard Confessional, and Yellowcard. The main issue here is, yes he is allowed to write and say what he wants to, but he went by it in such the worst possible way. He talked down to the professionals while also calling out a respected publicist that has done more in 20 years than any of us will hope to achieve in our lifetime. By not thinking the post through, Zack continued to burn bridges in an industry that he so desperately wants to be a part of. If he had presented the article in a more professional manner or as a self-reflection of how he should have taken the advice of his fellow industry professionals, it would have been more effective and not burned any bridges.

Then on the flip side we have the July 8tharticle where Kevin Lyman (Warped Tour, Mayhem Fest) was quoted as saying, “What happened was metal chased girls away because what happened was metal aged. Metal got gray, bald and fat. And metal was about danger. When you went to a metal show, it was dudes onstage; there was some danger in it.” He is absolutely 1000% correct in his assessment of the metal genre and community as large. What was already a predominantly male skewing community saw its female fans and new females shift over to the new breed of hardcore that would eventually be called post-hardcore. This new breed saw the addition of singing and pop like elements mixed into the hardcore and then the added touch of attractive band member, specifically frontmen. Pop-like elements were already enough to bring in females who would never listen to a straight up metal band, but-add in physical attraction- and you have the ingredients to be the youngest, most female-skewing community this side of Top 40land. Before the discussion begins, metal can try to claim metalcore all it wants; however, metalcore is more entrenched in hardcore and post-hardcore than it is in metal. The fact of the matter is, Kevin Lyman stated his truthful opinion professionally and saw severe backlash because our politically correct culture today sees us in a sterile slate where everyone thinks and says the same damn thing and anyone with an opposing opinion is terrorized and guilted until they apologize for having an original thought. Fans of The Audition, another past client of Another Reybee Production, would recognize this idea, I’m sure.

Kevin Lyman saw firsthand that we are in a culture where we cannot speak our minds truthfully for fear that we offend someone and/or hurt someone’s feelings. If you are offended or hurt by what someone says then maybe, just maybe it is because there is at least a nugget of truth in there yeah? Why else would you be offended? If something is false you can calmly state as such and move on with your life. Once you firmly take a stand that something offends you or hurts your feelings, you have proven that what is being said is in fact true. What makes this worst is that the music industry is so tiny that we are told to not speak our minds for fear our career would be hampered if we ever needed the help of someone we have spoken about. I am sorry but the previous statement applies here along with ‘let the individual’s work speak for said individual.’ I have always been one to speak my mind and be the bull in the china shop as opposed to walking on eggshells hoping to not offend anyone. Has me speaking my mind affected my companies any? Only once just far, but I’m letting my work speak for itself to those who otherwise didn’t want me on the job because of past statements.

If the past two months have taught us anything, it is that no matter if you speak the truth, if it is not politically correct you will never ever hear the end of it. Unless your name is Donald Trump, then you are the GOP frontrunner in this election cycle. In the end though, we are entitled to offend and should start to speak our minds more and stand by what we have said. Regardless of if you agree with him or not, “Angry Metalcore Guy” (also known as The Paramedic’s Mike Luciano) has done this. The more we as a human race speak our minds in the proper manner the better the chance that more real people will appear in influential roles. However, if we continue down the entitled conformity path, then future generations will be nothing more than Yes-Men who feel entitled to more money for just showing up and agreeing with their boss. In the end though, being able to offend and being offended means we still have some semblance of personality and original thoughts. Instead of trying to suppress those who offend you, either accept it or you know where the door is.

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How Concerts Gave Me Confidence

Punk Out is a 501©3 non-profit organization dedicated to connecting and supporting LGBTQ musicians and fans through music. We at Haulix believe the mission of Punk Out is very important, and to show our support we have collaborated with the leaders of the organization to share engaging blog content that is aimed at furthering their outreach. In this post we learn how blogger, musician, and music fan, Emma Rose, found confidence in a place most would not assume a woman would find confidence: at concerts. In her honest Op-Ed, Rose explains how seeing Lynn Gunn of PVRIS and Jenna McDougall of Tonight Alive live gave her the confidence to face down the hurdles in her own life. Enjoy.

I woke up at 5 AM on a summer morning to the sound of rain pounding on my windowsill, building in intensity by the second. Two hours later, I arrived at Manhattan’s Webster Hall, armed with ponchos, umbrellas, and enough food to survive an apocalypse. Despite the torrential downpour, I took a rush hour train, navigated the subway system by myself for the first time, and walked in circles in NYC’s East Village just to sit outside of the venue for 12 hours.

Nobody seemed to understand. Passerby’s stared at me as I sat alone on a city sidewalk with the bitter wind chill and rain drops soaking through my clothes and into my skin. My mother called me every 20 minutes with a sense of worry and confusion in her voice, wondering why her child would do something so crazy. My friends rolled their eyes when I told them where I was…and they all asked, “Why?”

Why did I want to wait half a day to see the band PVRIS? It is because concerts give me the self-confidence that I have been unable to find in any other section of my life. Being in that crowded venue allots me a few hours to be myself, but the waiting in line and finding new friends can be just as exciting.

As the line wraps around the block, I share my ponchos with a few fans who soon become friends. The small talk slowly turns into conversations usually shared with best friends after months (maybe even years) as trust is built up. Before I know it, we are exchanging stories of middle school bullies who left us crying on the bathroom floor and how it fueled our internal fire to become better than those broken fragments.

Suddenly, all the weight on my shoulders is lifted. How is it that these people who were just strangers a little while ago are the reason I feel less alone? I can’t even begin to tell you about the relief that comes from knowing that someone else has fought off the same demons as yourself. The concert community taught me not to be ashamed of the nights I spent questioning who I was or the petty mistakes that I kept hidden in the depths of my chest. And to think, all this empowerment before I even step inside the venue!

Once the wave of darkness overtakes the sweaty room, the real magic happens. For me, this isn’t the music. It’s those brief moments in between where the drummer and guitarists are tuning their instruments and the vocalist has to entertain the rambunctious crowd. While I’ve had a plethora of amazing encounters during these fillers, a few have sent chills through my bones despite the blazing heat created by being in close contact with sweaty kids.

Since this all started with PVRIS, it only makes sense that I talk about Lynn Gunn. In a music scene lacking in female representation, Gunn is the much needed bright light–even though she wears only black–that will inspire a younger generation of girls to pick up a guitar. Watching her on stage, I am mesmerized. Not only by her impeccable vocals, but by the confidence she has in herself that somehow makes me feel just as secure in myself. As someone who has struggled with identity for way too many years, there’s some comfort in seeing an openly gay female musician proudly sing a song she wrote for her girlfriend (Love, Robot vocalist and fellow role model Alexa San Román.) People say it gets better, but I only actually felt the potential for things to improve after seeing someone who has probably gone through similar tribulations and emerged on the other side.

Speaking of “the other side,” I must also bring up Tonight Alive vocalist Jenna McDougall. Like Gunn, McDougall transforms a concert from a night filled with music into one of hope and fading feelings of self-doubt. She doesn’t use the lulls in a set to just interact with the crowd, but to inspire them. On the Future Hearts Tour this past spring, McDougall adopted a mantra: “From this day, I refuse to live in fear of someone else’s judgement.” I may have been to a few shows on that tour, but the words hit just as hard each time. When she repeats this phrase with passion and asks the audience to recite it back, I scream it while tuning out the world around me. It’s one thing to hear someone else say it, but hearing the sentence roll off my tongue actually makes me feel and believe every single word.

Before discovering concerts, I was always a quiet, soft-spoken kid who hated seeing that reflection in the mirror. Then music came crashing in and welcomed me into a new world where I was encouraged to wear those pizza converse my friends made fun of me for and where nobody cared who slept on the left side of my bed. From the petty to major things, concerts gave me the confidence take the person I was inside the venue and bring her into the light of day.

I will forever be grateful for the songs, band members, and music-obsessed friends who broke through my thick skin and pulled out a person I never knew existed. Because of these events, I can look at myself and smile, because I love me just the way I am and I no longer live in fear of anyone’s judgement.

Emma stumbled into the music journalism field when she saw an ad for a blog in need of writers. Since that day in January 2015, she has been a founding member of the team over at ShuffleBeatMusic, a blog that interviews musicians and reviews shows. While cataloguing the success of performers helps her to stay engaged in the scene, Emma’s dream is to some day be on the other side of the industry. A self-taught musician who plays drums, guitar, bass, and keys, she has just recently formed the band Heartless Bones and hopes to grace the stages of Warped Tour someday. Of course, there must always be a backup plan. Emma is currently studying Public Relations and music business at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. Wherever life leads her, it will always circle back to music.

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Feminism Through Song: Erika Lloyd Celebrates Powerful Women in Music

We spend a lot of time talking about the worlds of rock, pop, hip-hop, and even EDM, but there is a big world of music we have barely been able to scratch the surface of so far on the Haulix blog. It’s not that we don’t want to cover more areas, but we do want to be sure we know what we’re talking about. The content produced on this site is the result of direct experience, so if we’re going to post about something our team doesn’t fully grasp we’d rather find an outsider to come and write for us. The best content is created by the people most informed to write about that particular subject, after all, so when we knew we wanted to cover strong women in music we knew we needed to have classically-trained vocalist Erika Llyod help us out.

Erika Lloyd is a vocalist unlike any other we have featured on our blog. She has studied with world-renowned early music performers, earned a Bachelors of Voice Performance Early Music from Indiana University, and she was a featured soloist in the revered choral ensemble, Pro Arte. Erika’s work in cross-genre performance and composition led to the Grammy Award-winning ensemble, Chanticleer, arranging and performing Erika’s song, “Cells Planets” on its international 2010-2011 Out of This World Concert Tour . She’s an early music renaissance women if there ever was one, and there is still much she hopes to accomplish.

Along with her husband, Brad Whiteley, Erika has been able to hone in on a sound entirely her own that the world is quickly learning to love. Her debut album, Power, will arrive in stores September 18. You can view the lyric video for the title track below:

Erika recently penned a wonderful blog about powerful women in music, or the lack thereof, and we begged her to let us share it here on the blog. You can read here thoughts below.

If you would like to learn more about Erika Lloyd’s work, click here to visit her official website. Power arrives in stores September 18.

Feminism Through Song: Erika Lloyd Celebrates Powerful Women in Music

As I prepare for the September release of my debut solo album, “Power,” I’ve been enjoying digging in to the meaning and inspiration behind the album’s name and title of the first single. The word “power” has a lot of connotations both positive and negative, as well as a ton of different meanings, which made for an intriguing title. Influence, energy, capability, and strength are the positive meanings that I chose to reference in the song and recurring themes of the album.

Western classical music and musical theater are where I got my start in training and performance. I studied piano, trumpet, and voice, later receiving my Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from Indiana University. In learning about the way music history was recorded, I noticed something peculiar. After taking seven semesters of music history classes, covering over 800 years of music, I can count the number of female composers discussed on one hand. Looking through collections of The Great American Songbook, I find only a few women’s names in the composer indexes. This is even true when studying anthologies of 19th and 20th century American folk, blues, and country music. In the 135 years of the Metropolitan Opera Company’s existence, they have only performed one opera written by a woman! This does not mean that women weren’t composing music all along, it was just attributed to men. Or, it wasn’t printed, distributed, or performed outside of the home at all, because it was written by women.

Okay, so many people know that women weren’t credited for their contributions to music hundreds of years ago. That’s totally in the past though, right? Nope. This year, it was misreported so many times that Björk’s recent album Vulnicura was produced solely by the man who co-produced it with her, that she put out a statement trying to correct the mistake. (This had happened regarding previous albums as well.) She was recently quoted in a Pitchfork interview explaining, “I learned—the hard way—that if I was going to get my ideas through, I was going to have to pretend that they—men—had the ideas.” The cultural roles of women only being up front singing, and men being the creators and shapers of the art form, were created long ago. They are not based in reality and yet, they are still widely accepted even by other women. This past fall, writer, performer, and engineer, Imogen Heap blogged about her false assumptions about Taylor Swift before co-writing “Clean” with her for 1989, “I had done what I HATE others do of me, which is to pre-judge a person based on assumptions. I had assumed Taylor didn’t write too much of her own music and was likely puppeteered by an ageing gang of music executives… How wrong was I?”

“Power” is not about all of the obstacles created because of sexism in the music industry though. It’s about all of the people who write, record, perform, arrange, produce, engineer, and tour in spite of them. I want to thank all of the female artists who make my life so much better with their music. They are 100% who they are and won’t compromise their artistic integrity for anyone: creating their own roles, on their own timelines, breaking boundaries, and changing the rules for the next generation. These artists are as vital, relevant, and as hip as they want to be at any age, with whatever gender identities they choose for themselves. In the “Power” lyric video I illustrated my top nine favorites: Grace Jones, Björk, Kate Bush, Nina Simone, PJ Harvey, Elizabeth Fraser, Joni Mitchell, Jane Siberry, and Tori Amos.  

As a music teacher, I want all of my students to know that gender has absolutely nothing to do with creative capacity, intellect, knowledge, or skill. I want to celebrate the power of music and the musicians behind it at all levels of notoriety. I will leave you with one more quote from Björk’s Pitchfork interview, “You’re not just imagining things. It’s tough. Everything that a guy says once, you have to say five times… I definitely can feel the third or fourth feminist wave in the air, so maybe this is a good time to open that Pandora’s box a little bit and air it out.” We need to first acknowledge the unfair treatment of women in the music industry, and then join our powerful influences in the quest for proper recognition and equality by doing what we do best: making and sharing great music with each other. Now, that’s power.

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The Pros and Cons of Blending Genres

A question artists often ask us is whether its better to focus their sound or try their best to be diverse in the material they deliver. Our best advice is to play the music you want to make, but as we are not musicians ourselves it’s easy to understand why some might not put much weight in that opinion. So, with that in mind, we found a musician to respond for us. Enjoy.

“Broooo you guys sound like The Roots crossed with Bruno Mars!”

“Nah yo, they sound like Jurassic 5 meets the Rolling Stones!”

“OMG! Like, do you guys play any Mumford & Sons?!! You have all the instruments…except the banjo I guess…”

While none of these post-show fan comments are entirely accurate (especially that last one), the underlying truth is that we, the DownBeat Keys, blend many genres in our eclectic-yet-cohesive pop / hip-hop / funk / rock sound.  While initially our “genre-fying” tendencies created hurdles to greater commercial success, there are signs that popular tastes and music industry convention are evolving in our favor.

If we had written this blog three years ago, it would have been full of complaints. In a music industry built around inflexible radio formats, “falling in the cracks” used to be the kiss of death. If your music didn’t fit one of the genres supported by radio, industry execs didn’t know how to market it, and were thus extremely hesitant to sign any artist that blended genres to the point of defying a clear-cut designation.

While this attitude is no doubt still present, there are many reasons for eclectic artists to be optimistic. In the past few years, mainstream radio seems to have loosened. Following the robo-pop dominated late 2000s, acoustic / folk-rock revival started to appear on the airwaves. Music incorporating throwback influences followed shortly after, with artists such as Bruno Mars, Pharrell and Daft Punk scoring major mainstream hits with tracks that drew heavily on old-school sounds. Also worth mentioning are the host of novelty songs cropping up of late, such as the doo-wop tinged “All About That Bass” by Meghan Trainor  or Lunchmoney Lewis’s ragtime-electro anthem (what?) “Bills.”

With even the CEO of Spotify predicting that genres will fade away, we feel confident that popular tastes and the music industry at large  are warming to genre-fying artists. So we plan to keep on blending, even if it means girls compare us to Mumford & Sons…

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The Do’s and Don’ts of Proper Email Etiquette

One hard truth about working in music that you will never see glamorized in movies or through song is the seemingly endless stream of emails that pour through your digital inbox every single day of the week. Whether you work as a journalist or someone hoping to pitch journalists, I am certain not a day goes by where you feel as if you’ve received too few emails. With that in mind, we’ve partnered with our friends at Muddy Paw PR to provide you with a guide to email etiquette that will help you maintain professionalism through all forms of digital communication. Enjoy.

Dear reader: Are you in a band, managing a band, working their PR, or writing about them? Perhaps you’re about to send off that all-important request to photograph a live show of your favorite artist or apply to write for a major publication?

Regardless of what area of the music industry you work in, there is one universal aspect that connects all of us: emails are every bit as important as phone calls and Skype meetings. In our world, an opening email is often your first and best chance to make the right impression. Make a good first impression with a band or company and you can be set for years. Make a bad impression, however, and it is extremely difficult to recover.

As a publicist, managing editor and former hiring manager, I’ve seen nearly everything over the last five years. A few of my email experiences with bands and industry clients include: alcohol-driven rants, smiley faces after every sentence, misspelling my three-letter name (if I had a nickel for every time I’ve been called Jo or Joy…), being called Insert Name Here, and being outright insulted.

It’s a roller coaster, this music business. But with five years of experience across multiple fields, I’m here to share with you some tips on maximizing your email correspondence. Whether you’re in a band looking to get a label’s attention, applying for that dream paying job, sending a request to your favorite band’s PR team or just looking to expand your relationships with the right people, these are a few do’s and don’ts to make you look as professional as possible in all your industry dealings.    

DO: Get straight to the point.

This is essential, regardless of what industry field you work in. Whether you want to speak with a label executive, get your band some coverage or send a job application, don’t overload your message with unnecessary text. A quick 1-2 sentences for a polite introduction, then get down to business.

Use your first main paragraph to outline your reason for contact and what you’re looking for. For publicists in particular, state the artist’s genre and who they sound similar to. With many industry workers forever fighting losing battles against their inboxes, if you take too much time getting to the point, your message may be deleted. Always make your language clear, concise and professional to give yourself the best chance of getting your desired response.

DON’T: Try to fake sincerity.

Sounds incredibly obvious, right? Well, just like measuring someone’s tone in person or on the phone, it is also easy enough to judge a person’s sincerity in e-mail correspondence. Do your in-depth messages receive a sentence or two in response? Are there a lot of basic spelling errors? Sentences with no punctuation at the end? Particularly blunt language? All of these imply a level of laziness, a lack of respect, and too little desire to be helpful. An insincere person can often be spotted a mile away, even through e-mail messages, and news of an unpleasant experience spreads quickly in this industry. So how can you maximize your chances of making the right first impression?

DO: Be as kind and accommodating to the other person as possible.

The music industry is all about building relationships, and chances are you’ll be dealing with a lot of the same people over and over. If you make yourself easy and pleasant to work with, new friendships will emerge and the number of great opportunities you receive will grow very quickly. This quality could make the difference between being approved or denied from that “dream opportunity” you’ve been waiting for.

DON’T: Introduce yourself with “What’s up?”

For job applicants in particular, this is a must. During my hiring manager days, the number of applications I received that started with “What’s up Joe?” was startling. More often than not, that intro was followed by a poorly written application letter and no resume attached. When you’re looking to get your foot in the door of your chosen field of work, keeping your language proper and professional (and, of course, actually having a resume) is essential if you hope to land that all-important interview.

DO: Always click “Reply All”.

Bands, this one’s for you. Before a recent meeting I had with a potential PR client, we introduced ourselves through e-mail and I kept my boss on CC so she could see how the talks were progressing. A total of 10 messages were sent back and forth, and not once did the client hit “reply all” to keep my boss in the loop. This was a red flag – one of several throughout the correspondence – because it told us the client was not reading my messages carefully (despite me repeatedly mentioning my boss’s name). After a not-so-great start, the meeting resulted in my boss and I deciding this was not someone we wanted to work with, despite being incredibly talented.

Obviously there were more important factors than the client’s lack of CC knowledge, but bands, it is vital to keep ALL parties involved in your correspondence. Many of us have bosses, interns, managers, editors, etc. who need to know what is going on at all times and can offer insight when necessary. It’s a simple task to check if anyone is CC’d in a message, but if you really can’t remember to do it, Gmail even gives you the option to make “reply all” your default setting.

On behalf of every industry friend, co-worker and acquaintance I’ve ever known, please use “reply all” so we can stop tearing our hair out!

DON’T: Put your subject line in all caps.

DO YOU SCREAM AT PEOPLE IN PUBLIC TO GET THEIR ATTENTION TOO? Unless you’re in a crowded bar or at a concert, I doubt it. An all-caps subject line makes us feel like we’re being yelled at, and although some believe it increases your chance of getting the other person’s attention, it often does more harm than good. Just like the message itself, keep your subject line short, to the point, and with normal-sized letters. As long as your words are clear and attention-grabbing, you’ve done your job.

DO: Respond Promptly Whenever Possible.

Now, I’m not saying be a slave to your e-mail inbox. Many of us get overwhelmed with hundreds of messages every week and sometimes it’s not possible to respond quickly. But this isn’t Facebook, where everyone plays the “click on the message notification to see the first few words and if it doesn’t look important, I’ll respond 10 hours later” game. Many music industry workers use apps like Mandrill or SendGrid which lets them “track” the e-mails they send to see if and when they are opened by the recipient. Personally, if I read a message and see that it doesn’t require an essay in response, I try to reply within 24 hours. Look at it this way: do you take days to respond to a call or text from a friend? Of course not, so why should professional work-related messages be any different?

Responding promptly tells the other party that you are taking them seriously, you’re dedicated to the cause, and you’re being accommodating to their needs. Amazing how many details you can see through someone’s online correspondence, isn’t it? However…

DON’T: Respond to important/lengthy messages with your phone.

Have you ever sent a super-embarrassing text to a friend or family member thanks to the ultimate frenemy known as auto-correct? Yes you have – don’t lie. Unless it’s just to say “thank you” or it’s absolutely time-sensitive – in which case a phone call is better – hold off on responding to your most important messages until you’re in the much safer confines of your laptop. A later, well-written response is always better than the virtual foot-in-your-mouth typo that phones often bestow on us.

Joe Ballard is a music writer and publicist. He cares as much about the words used to promote music as he does the music itself, and that is part of the reason we love him. Learn more about Joe and his work with talented up and comers through the Muddy Paw website.

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The Unspoken Rules of the Band T-Shirt

Hello, everyone. As most of you probably know already we here at Haulix pride ourselves on the quality of this blog and the content featured on it. We do our best to bring you all the advice and guidance we can provide navigating the modern music industry, as well as first hand accounts of the day-to-day realities of dedicating your life to the world of entertainment. Most of this content is produced in house or through a series of close connections, but every so often we spot content created elsewhere that we cannot resist posting here. The following article is an example of this, and we hope you heed the advice being shared. Click here to follow the author.

I’m in a band. Actually, I’m in four, but that’s a whole other story about my own neurosis and obsessions. But no matter how many projects you’re a part of, it’s nearly impossible to make money as an independent musician by selling music. Being played on the radio and streaming services can result in mere cents monthly—and touring is pretty hard to do while working a day job. Life as an independent musician without a day job has a ton of sacrifices as well—like your grocery budget (though sometimes, quite frankly, your booze budget is a bigger worry). And so, whether you’re working during the day or not, you really have two ways of making money: playing gigs and selling merch. This is where the band t-shirt comes in.

A t-shirt is oftentimes an investment for the band. Depending on quality and count, you’re usually faced with an initial outlay of $100 to $250, and while markup is high,it can take a while to sell off stock unless your design or your band is particularly interesting. With services like Teespring, it’s possible to sell the shirts without having to make an investment, but then you don’t have them to sell at your shows, and unless you’re particularly well-known on the internet, it’s a bit harder to market them. Selling a round of tees can bring in enough money for a guitar repair or a few tanks of gas, or it can put you in the hole if you aren’t careful enough.

Band t-shirts are governed by a complicated set of rules—both how you wear them, and how you sell them.

Despite being a relatively simple way for a band to make a little bit of extra money, band t-shirts are governed by a complicated set of rules—both how you wear them, and how you sell them. First of all, it’s in poor taste to wear a band’s t-shirt while attending of one of their performances. It can make you seem too eager and too obsessive—and absolutely no one expects you to be a fan of the band that you paid to see play.

On a related note, never wear a shirt that you purchased at the merch table immediately after purchasing it. You carry that shirt over your shoulder and hope that you don’t lose it—or else you will definitely not look cool. A great way to expand your wardrobe is to look around for lost t-shirts on the floor where a mosh pit may once have occurred. You’re likely to find at least one shirt in an ill-fitting size that’s stained by being trampled on by dirty shoes.

These rules become even more stringent when you’re part of a band—especially if you happen to be the one tasked with designing a t-shirt. I’ve designed a tee for nearly every project I’ve been a part of. This decision falls on me because I have graphic design experience, and quite honestly I like to believe that everyone is envious of my sick sense of style.

Designing the t-shirt involves debating the color it will be printed on, the cut, and of course the graphic. I always make an effort to design the shirts to be something I would wear myself. Is this shirt wearable for both the people actively going to the band’s shows, and the band members’ mothers who hype their gifted children at the local farmer’s market? It’s a delicate balance trying to ensure that your shirt will in fact be marketable enough to bring in some form of income. Perhaps that’s the reason that there seems to be such touchiness regarding when it’s appropriate to sell or wear these tees. Or perhaps these rules are there to make it harder for everyone.

Right now we’re actively considering a shirt design created by my bandmate where the graphic is a clitoris with a witch hat and a smiley face.

First of all, it does not matter how much money you’re putting into recording your album or paying for gas to play out-of-town gigs—it’s unseemly to try to sell any merch before you’ve released any music. An over-merchandised band seems like they’re in it for the money, and not for the opportunity to share their creativity. You need to prove yourself as an act before you make any money. Think of your first five years as a very long interview process at that stuffy corporate job you loathe the idea of.

Often, the shirt acts as a statement associated with the band. One of my new projects is a band called Witch Lips. Right now we’re actively considering a shirt design created by my bandmate where the graphic is a clitoris with a witch hat and a smiley face. I’m not entirely sure what statement that graphic is making, but it seems like it will be hilariously empowering.

Sometimes it’s simply something that’s aesthetically pleasing and easy to wear. I’ve designed a shirt for my solo project that’s a cat in baseball gear. I don’t even like baseball but it looks cool and it’s endearing. Sometimes it relates to the artwork on your album art. There’s a variety of choices. But no matter what, it’s completely disreputable to wear your own shirt no matter how personal you make it. You’re in the band—you’re not supposed to like the band too. Definitely not your own shirts.

This is contrasted against the fashion industry. If I go into a boutique store and I purchase an item and ask to wear it out – that’s seen as a great compliment. It’s not uncomfortable to wear a designer’s clothes to their show. It’s not curious if a designer wears their own lines. In fact all of these actions seem to celebrated.

A band’s brand, at least initially, is as much about the community that surrounds them as it is about themselves.

Why have these rules evolved in such a way, and why are they so divergent between the two industries? Perhaps it’s about ego management. Unlike the fashion industry, a band’s brand needs to grow from the outward in. It’s not something that feels natural when it’s developed by a marketing department, where that’s often expected elsewhere.

A band’s brand, at least initially, is as much about the community that surrounds them as it is about themselves. If a band tries to project what they want to be to a crowd of local-music-lovers, they’re likely to come off uncomfortably and the crowd is less likely to be receptive to it.

There’s a disconnect between the band’s visual output and their musical output. Bands make music. The visual output of a band, whether it be a tee or even in many cases a music video, comes off as advertising. Advertising makes the youths uncomfortable, even if it can benefit the music community in the long run. We’ve grown accustomed to the image of an indie musician being so devoted to their music that they severely sacrifice their well-being in order to live their dreams. We don’t think of musicians as business people like we do for other self-employed creatives.

Maybe these rules don’t matter. Do I really care about whether people think that I like a band too much? That I’m simply wearing a shirt so that it doesn’t fall on the floor? Furthermore, am I so worried about my image as a musician that I can’t even display the visual art I’ve created, even if it supports my own musical projects? Will breaking these rules lessen the respect that other fans have for me, to the extent that it negatively impacts my career? In the end, it’s about being creative and supportive of the art that I love. This means that I need to ignore the voices of angsty teens and semi-retired punks in the back of my head and start wearing some of those hella dope tees that are sitting in the back of my dresser.

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Why Our Scene Should Care about Queer Youth Homelessness

I hope this shocks you as much as it still shocks me…and I’ve been privy to these statistics for several years now: 40% of all homeless kids and teens in the United States identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer (LGBTQ), while less than 3% of the general population identities under the queer umbrella.

Think about that for a second: Forty percent.

To put that in perspective, imagine the uproar if you went to a Taking Back Sunday show and 40% of their set was New Again tracks. There’d be a mutiny! But meanwhile, on the streets of America, queer kids and teens sleep under blankets on sidewalks, beg for food, sell their bodies, become ensnared in substance abuse, and fall victim to rape and other unspeakable forms of violence. Sure puts the angst of The Story So Far in proper perspective.

Now, in fear that this becomes the pop-punk equivalent of a Sarah McLachlan commercial, I’ll get to my point: LGBTQ youth homelessness is at epidemic levels and our scene should care about it.

Here’s why. These queer kids on the streets are us. They are our age. They are our generation. And they often come from similar fucked-up home lives as we do. That fucked-up home life is why many of us gravitated to some slice of the punk community to begin with: to escape the isolation, the judgment, the anger, and/or the fear of being different.

In recent years we’ve seen a substantial increase in the amount of queer kids and teens becoming homeless. Why? Well, it’s complicated, but the simplest explanation is that increased LGBTQ youth homelessness is a product of a false sense of security. As our society has made progress on queer issues (Marriage Equality, employment protections, etc.), the media’s coverage of the LGBTQ community has become rosier and rosier. Closeted kids see this positive coverage, assume it’s safe to come out, and then find out ex post facto that their support network is as weak as the ties that bind Tom DeLonge to Blink-182. Queer kids get abruptly kicked out of their homes and are forced to live on the streets without any street smarts or knowledge of the resources available to them. And then there’s the whole “most homeless shelters are run by religious organizations” thing, which makes it way more difficult for LGBTQ kids to find the queer-specific resources they need (but that’s a box of shit I do not wish to unpack at this moment.) So the cycle devolves into all the terrible symptoms associated with youth homelessness: sexual abuse, rape, substance abuse, criminal activity, stunted educational development, lack of employment opportunities, etc.

These kids could be in the pits of a Beartooth show. And they might be. But I’m guessing that, for the most part, they are not.

So, what can we do? Well, there’s a lot. It starts with building a more inclusive music community for all. It means tackling the rampant homophobia, transphobia, biphobia, and misogyny that wreaks living hell in our scene. It demands that musicians speak out about the plight of queer kids and teens. And this isn’t unprecedented. In the 1980s, one of the vogue  musical celebrity causes was ending homelessness in the United States. We have precedence.

We need to support organizations such as The Ally Coalition, who work with local LGBTQ youth homeless recourse centers. We need to demand that more centers like the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s Youth Center on Highland in Los Angeles or the Ali Forney Center in New York City receive adequate funding. And we need to take a fresh look at how we as individuals view kids and teens living on the streets.

This past April, we threw an awesome benefit show, headlined by the dudes in Gatherers, and raised several hundred dollars for Philly’s only LGBTQ youth homeless resource center, the Attic Youth Center. And we’re in talks to throw more benefit shows for the AYC in the coming months. We know the support is out there.

The punk community, in all its flavors, is about bringing outsiders together. The queer kids who live on the streets could easily be you or I. That’s why the punk community should care. Let’s use our music to bring homeless queer kids and teens under our roof.

Michael McCarron is the founder of Punk Out, a movement dedicated to fostering a culture change in regards to the LGBTQ community within the alternative music scene, to providing resources and support to those who are journeying through the “coming-out” process, and to encouraging musicians who identify as gay, bisexual, or transgender to be more visible. Click here for more information.

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How Being On ‘The Voice’ Changed My Career

The Voice has claimed the throne of music-related reality television programming long held by American Idol, and as a result the vast majority of aspiring vocalists are now turning to NBC’s hit series to help take their careers to the next level. There is no denying that an appearance on a singing competition could potentially help your career, but just how much it aides you and what, if any lonterm benefits exist is something very few have taken the time to address. Today, in a very open editorial, singer/songwriter Jane Decker talks about her journey on The Voice and how she feels about the experience now that she’s spent some time away from the popular reality series.

Hello Haulix readers! My name is Jane Decker, and I’m a solo artist from Cincinnati. My music is more of an 80’s pop vibe – I like my tunes to be funky fresh and perfect for a dance party. I just turned 21 years old, and it’s crazy to think that I’ve been in the music industry this long. When I say “Music industry” I mean I’ve been hustlin, trying to get my name out there.

I started out in a pop rock band at the age of 14. We were called Delta Delta! and then renamed Formulas after being picked up by a management company. It was a really cool first experience for me. We recorded our first EP with Kevin Gates (Nevershoutnever, Cady Groves, Breathe Electric) It was the first time I was in a real studio recording music that would be sold. I learned a lot from the band. For instance, I didn’t know that people wouldn’t come to your shows if you didn’t promote them. To be honest, I was kind of an idiot back then. I just didn’t get anything (not that any 14 year old girl would.) While I was still in Formulas, my brother told me that if I was willing to record some of the other songs that didn’t fit for formulas, that he would pay for it. I of course took the offer, and then Belle Histoire was born. Belle Histoire did some cool stuff in my opinion. We toured, had interest from agents, were signed to a small label, and had good management. 

I loved that band, it was important. In the middle of a tour, I was basically encouraged from an old manager to try out for THE VOICE. I thought it was lame, I didn’t get why I would do that. At the same time, It seemed dumb for me not to try out. I felt I had a decent chance, I was young, and my voice was at least kind of interesting. In July, my mom, brother, and I all flew to New York so I could go to this audition. I was terrified, every other girl in the waiting room was absolutely beautiful, and also seemed to have the “look” that girls on reality singing competitions have. I was kind of terrified, but also pretty confident in that fact that I wouldn’t be there unless I had something that was making sense for the casting team of the show. I sang my songs, and then they say thank you and let you leave. They don’t really tell you if you’ve made it or not, there is a lot of waiting for that. 

Three months later, I was in Pittsburgh in the middle of a tour with Belle Histoire, I get a call from an unknown number basically saying “You’ve made it, you are gonna come out to this location and fulfill the rest of the audition process for the show. It felt pretty incredible, because I honestly didn’t think I would make it. Fast forward to my Blind Audition. I felt pretty confident, but I was also super nervous. By the time I auditioned in front of the judges, there weren’t many spots left on teams. So I honestly felt like the judges were being picky on who they wanted. It felt kind of crazy that I didn’t make it, but at the same time, I don’t feel angry about it. I followed my season, and I noticed a huge trend. Unless you win the show, you don’t get a ton of crazy opportunities. Yes, being on the show would’ve been best for me, but I also think that being identified as a singing competition show contestant isn’t the most prestigious form of "Making it”. I think if I would’ve kept going in the show, I would’ve felt a feeling identical to the one I had when I was initially asked to audition – Fake. I know it’s kinda silly to say “This is my craft, my art, blah blah blah” since I’m a pop singer, but it really is my CRAFT. I really like that I got to decide what songs were gonna be on my EP, and that I get to decide if a show if worth it for me to play. 

It’s definitely gonna take me longer to get where I want to be, but I’d rather have an opinion on how I get there. What I want is to start building a bigger fan base, get a really good booking agent, and then use all of that as leverage to sign a deal with a label that I really feel confident in. I don’t want to ‘pre-sign’ a contract that a random attorney is looking at telling me it’s fine. This may seem like a very backwards way of looking at how I want my career to be, but I think it’s the most honest. I don’t really care about selling out stadiums, or being a celebrity. I want to be paid for writing good music. For me to do that, I need to get good licensing opportunities, play effective shows, have marketable merchandise, and have a lasting brand that people feel is able to be relied upon. I don’t fully know where all of that plays into the infamous “getting signed” that all artists want but know nothing about, but If a label can help me do that, then get this girl signed! 

As for right now, I have a really great manager, and a great publicist that’s helping get my name out there. It been very helpful for the begininng of the Jane Decker journey. I’m already very lucky to be in the place that I’m in. 

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The Music VS. The Misery

The following blog is a guest piece by Sheridan Allen, founder of Punk Talks! Together with her team, Allen works to educate people in music about the importance of mental health. We believe in her efforts, and we wanted to give her an opportunity to share her mission with the world. 

It is no secret that we, as a scene, are…well, sad. Emo music and the subculture that exists within it is not a new revelation of a social movement; since the early 2000’s when the emo music genre began to fully take shape, we have watched the many ways that the community has shifted. From the eye-liner wearing, skinny jean craze of 2006 to the lull of 2011 to the DIY northeastern-saturated underground movement that exists today, the trends have changed, but the feelings haven’t. In my final semester of my undergrad, I spent my time studying the prevalence of mental health issues within our community. I could bore you with the hours of data collection, analysis, and literature reviews, but I will condense my findings into something that I am sure you have already guessed by now: mental health is an issue in our community.

Throughout my research, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to interview a few industry professionals in an attempt to better gauge their perception on this issue. Not shockingly, individuals working full-time in the punk/emo music industry see this problem (and often experience it) and agree that we could certainly benefit from a positive change. Ryan McKenna, bassist for Prawn and Sorority Noise agreed that “there’s a lot of angst that gets thrown around because that is kind of the root of the music itself” and consequently “the scene is a powder keg of mental health issues waiting to happen.” And while it may be true that not every individual in this community, professional or otherwise, suffer from problems related to their mental health, there is a general agreement that mental health needs to be addressed. Zack Zarillo, owner of PropertyofZack (and a slew of other credentials) agreed with this sentiment, stating that mental health isn’t “truly addressed in our community unless something warrants it being mentioned, like a tragic event.”

I, too, saw this issue and its prevalence from an objective fan standpoint and I wanted to do something about it; this observation was the driving force behind my research and development of Punk Talks, an organization that I run which provides free/donation-based discussion and mental health assistance to musicians and industry workers within this community. Further, Punk Talks aims to raise awareness, educate, and diffuse the apprehension and stigma of seeking professional treatment. Mental health has been at the forefront of discussion in American social issues in recent years; a push in awareness and educational efforts have encouraged compassion and have assisted in the reduction of stigma associated with treatment. Despite the increasingly positive outlook society has on this social issue, why are we still so precautious about taking care of ourselves? Why are we more comfortable posting to our Tumblr’s how alone we feel or labeling ourselves as a “sad boy/girl” but we completely shrug off the idea of seeking treatment?

My goal is simple: to give back to the community that has given me so much throughout my lifetime. We have a unique opportunity to destroy this idea that to be creative, we have to be miserable. If I can help a young person who is worn down by the stressors of being a music professional, and they in turn, can provide comfort to an audience themselves, I have been successful. This discussion is a crucial one, so we need to remain intentional and engaged in it. I feel so privileged for the opportunity to help facilitate this discussion. You don’t have to be sad to make great music.

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Advice: Send Awesome (Snail) Mail

Yes, pitching editors and sending CDs to Pitchfork is important. But what about the CDs and shirts you’re mailing out to your customers? How do you treat the people who are actually putting money in your pocket? (HINT: I hope it’s more fun than what you’re sending to Pitchfork)

When you’re small you can go the extra mile. When you care, it doesn’t seem like extra effort. I’m talking hand written notes, or extra goodies tossed in with a paid order.

Some bands and labels treat this very “business class;” here’s your CD in a padded envelope. End of transaction. Meh.

In late 2013, one of my Skull Toaster readers ordered a CD from this doom band in Seattle, WA called Giza. They sent him an extra copy with a hand written note saying something like, “give it to a friend.“

So this reader got in touch with me and we did a give-away on Skull Toaster with that extra copy, exposing that band to a whole new audience that loves and appreciates that sort of music. And now they’re linked here, too. Funny how that can work, huh?

Johnny Cupcakes throws candy and other goodies into random orders. Why? Eh, why not?

I said something nice about MailChimp on Twitter awhile back and they sent me a t-shirt and a hat. Why? Again, why not? People love getting stuff in the mail, right?

If you can make someone feel special, do that. If you can add some delight to someone’s day, what the heck are you waiting for? Permission? There’s enough doom and gloom in everyone’s social media feeds. Why not put something unexpected and awesome in someone’s mailbox?

I recently took part in an online service with a company I used for the past few years. At the end of the survey they said they’d send me a shirt. Oh, fun!

Well, I got the shirt, but I noticed it was sent from a fulfillment company (the return address actually said fulfillment company). Instead of a hand-written note or stickers, there was a tiny "filler invoice,” with a literal $0.00 charge. No one at the company I did the survey with touched this. It was automated. 

A team of unpaid interns can do something like that. There was no magic.
Compare that to my friend Travis, who tells me all the time about ordering from a tiny label (kidding) called Dischord and the hand-written thank-you notes they include. 

If anyone is too busy to write handwritten notes, it’s them. Delighting your mail order customers is like out-running bear; you only have to be faster than your friends (your competitors). In a world of me-too, copy-cat operations doing the bare-minumum to skate by, going just above and beyond isn’t really that much work.

Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.
 
 

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