Author Archives: Krissie

Fans & Musicians

Posted on by
Reply

So a musician friend and I were chatting today about what makes a good fan, and more importantly, what makes a good musician. Beyond the nuts and bolts of playing music, there is something else that has to go into playing music in today’s music environment – fan interaction.

I know it sounds like a given, but I think there are a lot of musicians out there that aren’t getting it. Who know they are talented and think they deserve their fans’ dollars for delivering a great product. And they do…but fan interaction is a lot like customer service. You can provide a quality service/product and not do that little bit extra that will make me a raving fan of your good product. The same goes for music.

Every fan is different. A hardcore music follower, like me, is going to have a different set of standards than average Joe listener hearing a cover band at a local bar. But when it comes down to it, I think there are a few things that today’s musicians must deliver on in the fan experience – whether diehard or casual – that can make or break them.

There are a MILLION bands out there vying for my attention, my dollars, my attendance at shows, and my word-spreading. I am not the greatest fan on the planet, but I’m a good fan. I buy records. I understand that you need to make money. I know traveling is hard. I get that this is your job. I don’t mean to sound cocky – but seriously, you should want me as your fan. So how do you make me a fan? Here’s my formula for delivering the ultimate fan experience – to me or the undiscerning casual listener.

Make great music. Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to be a phenomenal musician. Everyone has to start somewhere. But love what you’re doing. Write good songs. Don’t half-ass it. Your fans know when you put a clinker out there to fill up a record. Trust me.

Have an awesome live performance. Okay, we all know that everyone has bad days, even musicians. But do not ever take the stage and not give it 100% of whatever you’ve got that day. Just because only two fans showed up to see you doesn’t give you the right to slack off on stage. Those fans paid their money and deserve a good show. Make your shows memorable for the fans. Take the time to notice people in the audience. Call them out. Listen to their requests. Don’t be too stuck on yourself or your talents to appreciate those who see the same talent in you. That doesn’t mean you have to play your cover of “Single Ladies” every time someone requests it – because we know you get sick of playing it. But if you’re not up for that one that night, ask the fan what else they want to hear and make sure you give them something that makes them feel special. We all understand that you can’t make everyone happy all of the time…but try your darndest.

A great example of this happened recently when I went to see one of my favorite bands, The Influence. They know I love one song of theirs in particular. It’s a number that requires an acoustic guitar. They didn’t have a lot of time to sound check and skipped checking the acoustic. The lead singer called me out saying, “Krissie, I know you love ‘Corpse Song,’ but we can’t play it tonight, so I’m going to play this one for you instead.” Was it one of my favorites? Not necessarily. But did it make me feel special? You got it. And even if I hadn’t known them and had asked a new band to play a song and they had denied me, if they had said, “I know you asked for X song, but so and so doesn’t know it yet…hope this will suffice for you,” I would have been happy.

Be genuinely interested in your fans. Talk to them before and after the show. If they take the time to come out to see you, sing along to all of your songs and buy a CD or a t-shirt, they DESERVE to have two seconds of your time for you to say “Thank you” and ask them a question or two about how they heard you, if they live in town, etc. If you’re paying attention to the audience during your set, you’ll naturally have questions to ask about them individually or at the very least, about the show itself (“How’d you like the new song? I’m interested to see what fans think of it…”). All it takes is one personal question to let someone know that you really are interested in hearing about them. Yes, there are hangers on and people that don’t know when to shut up or let the next fan approach – but you’re a professional musician. This is going to happen. Be honest and just say, “I’ve really enjoyed chatting with you, but this young lady/man over here has been waiting to talk to me and I want to make sure I thank everyone for coming to my show. I hope you don’t mind if I say hi to them.” They’ll get it…because, after all, they’ve probably been the one waiting in line before. Oh and P.S. I can tell when you could care less. Don’t let me figure that out. There’s nothing worse than someone who is being fake.

Be genuinely interested in making new fans – of all types. I know it sounds silly, but this is key. If a guy with piercings and tats hanging at the back of the room doesn’t look like your “typical” fan but stuck around for your whole show, dude, make an effort to approach him. You never know when the “new person” in the crowd is going to be one of those rare finds who can get you in the door with a whole new audience. If a long time fan brings friends to a show, pay special attention to them. A few minutes with them will gain you a handful of new fans at the next show. And while we know that looks sell, don’t forget about your less attractive fans. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a musician make a beeline for a bottle blonde Playboy model lookalike at the back of the room (who, by the way, was talking during your whole set) when someone who had just seen you for the first time and was genuinely interested in buying a CD was hanging out at the merch table for 10 minutes and eventually walked away. This goes for female musicians, too. Don’t just talk to the guys. Talk to the girlfriends and the wives.

Remember me. Now, this is of particular interest to indie bands whose audiences are still small, but damn it, remember me. If I’ve come to see you every time you come to my city, try your damndest to remember me. I know you meet a zillion people. I don’t expect you to remember my name. But if I’ve consistently come to see you as your audience grows, a smile and a “Thanks for coming out to see us again” will win you a billion bonus points with me.

Make it easy for me to see you live. Play in my city more often than once every six years. Let me know when you’re going to be in town (or even close by – I will travel!) – send e-mails, tweets, Facebook and MySpace bulletins. Hang posters. Hire someone to run your social networking sites. Ask your wife or your girlfriend to do it. Use your fans (this requires having a good relationship with your fans – which goes back to some of the above points). Train your pet monkey…I don’t care how you do it, but don’t make me work to find out about your shows. If you want people to come to your shows, you need to put the effort into making sure we know about them. Don’t expect that I’ll go to your social networking pages or the venue websites of the 10 clubs in town to check to see when you’re coming. Because 50% of fans aren’t that dedicated.

Anything you do above and beyond these things is bonus, really. And let me give you a clue: it’s not too hard to go above and beyond this. That kid who has been to see you the last 20 times you’ve been in town? Give him a free t-shirt. It’s a $10 loss for you which you’ll get back 50 fold in him telling his friends and bringing them all to the next show. Got a fan who has done an insane job of promoting your music or your shows? Guest list them at the show. Nothing makes a fan – especially a loyal one that you aren’t “friends” with – feel more important than walking up to the door with a friend and being able to say, “I’m on the guest list.” Make your college buddy who you haven’t seen in six years who didn’t care about you for squat until he found out that you were a musician pay the cover charge. Notice that a fan bought six CDs on pre-order? Take two seconds to send them a thank you note via e-mail (yes, you can use the “junk mail” account to do it so they don’t have your real address). Sending out the orders of new CDs yourself? Watch the mailing addresses and if you recognize a name, put a sticky note on the CD with “Hi”, a smiley face and your name on it. Thank a long time fan on a website, Twitter or other networking site or in the liner notes of your CD – unprompted. Mention a crazy fan’s antics in a video blog. It’s the little things, gang…those little extras…that make fans for life.

Words of wisdom? Probably not. But they could help make me a fan.

What makes YOU a fan?

(Thanks to all of the amazing artists and their management teams in my life who “get” it and gave me the background for writing this – Shane and Thumbs, Wil, Josh, Mr. Hoge, Sammy and the guys, Gareth, Honor By August, The Influence guys, Swifty from Georgia, Matty…you know who you are!)

I Won’t Say I Told You So…

Posted on by
Reply

Every once in awhile, I get something right…

Remember back in December? When I did My Top Ten Albums of ’08? A little band from Cali called The Ruse was at the top of the list…Well, Ryan Dixon over at iTunes heard them and is now making waves for them, putting their “Midnight in the CIty” album on the iTunes New Music Tuesday podcast and now in the “What We’re Listening To” section of iTunes.  I’m tellin’ ya, folks, it’s only a matter of time before The Ruse is a household name!

The Ruse on iTunes

So excited for the guys!!

And while we’re speaking of California bands, head on over to iTunes and check out this great little band I stumbled upon… Venus Infers. It’s the perfect cusp-of-summer music. Super modern rock/alt-pop with surf influences kind of sound happening, a little Strokes meets Kooks kind of action. Digging them in a huge way!

Laundry List

Posted on by
Reply

Prepare for a boring, state-of-the-Krissie-union blog. You may just want to skip it.

It’s Monday night. I should be cleaning my apartment and preparing for my family’s arrival this weekend for Easter. Instead, I’ve been working on updating this blog and getting caught up on all things internet. It’s been a busy month…and I’m ready for things to slow down. Unfortunately, that’s not going to be happening anytime soon!

So yes, the family is coming down this weekend. I’m usually the one to travel, so it’s nice to be staying put for once. Not sure what I’m going to do to entertain everyone for three days, but I can pretty much guarantee that there will be a lot of Scrabble action.

I’m also less than two weeks away from Charlotte Racefest. This will be my third half-marathon in as many years. I have to admit – I have not trained as well as I should have for this one. A little overly confident going in, but now that it’s getting close, I’m really getting anxious. This is going to be a tough course, I think, more like Nashville than Virginia Beach (in other words, not as flat). I’m shooting for a goal time of 2:15 to finish. That would be a 13 minute improvement over my time for VA Beach last year. Ambitious, I know…and I’m going to feel super disappointed in myself if I don’t make it, but I have to push myself!

Work is quite busy right now and we’re coming up on three conferences in a row. Needless to say, once my race is wrapped up, I’ll be in a work zone until mid-May.

And, of course, I will have a few musical distractions to keep me singing happy songs…Tim Brantley, Will Hoge, Bruce, Amos Lee.

It will be Memorial Day before I know it…

And then, summer is here. I haven’t really decided what I’m going to do this summer for a vacation, if I take one at all. I do have one 3-day weekend that I’ve scheduled to go down to Isle of Palms for the weekend…Tonic and Green River Ordinance playing at The Windjammer. Want a combination that can’t be beat…give me the beach and two great bands, plus, good friends coming along for the journey (and hopefully, some Feil brothers in attendance to put the icing on the proverbial cake).

Speaking of friends, I’ve had a lot of solid “friend” time over the past four weeks. That makes me happy…I’m also surprised at how some of my friendships are changing. There’s a few that have been really “in flux” lately. Some of that is good, some of it is sad and hard to swallow. I hate watching friendships fade, but I guess it happens as life moves on. People get to different places in their lives and don’t understand what the other one is going through, despite their best attempts to do so. Yes, sometimes there are circumstances that lead to the closure of friendships, but more often than not, it seems to be just a gradual distancing. The time between phone calls gets longer, visits get shorter, your views diverge radically where they once were very similar, tempers flare, feelings get hurt and not discussed because it seems like too much effort…and before you know it, the friendship is gone. *sigh* Like I said, sad. But sometimes, it happens and you just have to think upon your once friend with fond memories and move on…No hard feelings, lots of love, and a wish for them to be happy.

2009 seems to be a year in flux for me. Moving. Friendships changing. The job becoming something entirely different than it once was. Despite the roller coaster up and down of it all, I feel surprisingly at peace. I’m trying to be more open minded about things. Trying to let the little things go. Meeting new people. Challenging myself. Setting new goals. A veritable laundry list of self-improvement items is getting checked off and tallied.

It feels good.

A turning point in music for those that deserve it most

Posted on by
Reply

For the first time this weekend, I felt a perceptible shift in the direction of the music industry. I’m speaking purely from a fan perspective here – I know nothing about the music industry as a business person (nor do I really have the desire to). Perhaps it’s a little premature and perhaps shaded by a little naivete and bias towards bands that I love, but I really think that maybe, good changes are afoot.

On Friday night, I watched Shane Hines and The Trance take the stage on their home turf, to a sold-out venue, to release their new CD, The Glory Journal. The CD was entirely fan-funded. That should say something right there – that this amazing band is able to put out a professionally recorded CD without the support of any label, entirely on the faith that their fans have in them, is pretty intense. I’ve been a fan of Shane, Thumbs and their band for several years now, and each time I watch them on stage, I’m blown away more than I was the time before. Not only is their music absolutely amazing, they continue to mature and evolve as artists and constantly amaze me with the depth and insightfulness of their songs, and the quality of their music. They aren’t afraid to take risks, try new things, and really put themselves out there. I’ve seen them play to crowds of 10 and crowds of hundreds. I’ve seen them play listening rooms and smoky, loud bars where they deserved better. I’ve seen them awe people with covers and knock it out of the park with their originals. On Friday night, I stood amongst a crowd of new and old fans and watched them step into another “new” era for their band. A friend who was with me – relatively new to their music and her first time seeing them live – turned to me at one point during the show and said, “They are absolutely amazing.” Watching that room be in love with them, I was filled with excitement for what is yet to come in their path as a band, proud of them as both a long-time fan and a friend, and inspired by their art.

In a similar moment on Saturday night, I watched a young, newly signed band on stage and was floored by their development. I’ve only been a Green River Ordinance fan for two years, and just saw them live for the first time in January. They’re on their first “big tour,” reaching out to fans who have never seen or heard of them before. Firstly, I have to say that in two months, they’ve gotten even stronger than when I saw them the first time. And talk about winning over a room. A crowd there mostly to see the other band was wowed by them, to the point where someone in our circle said, “Man, I’d hate to be the band that had to follow them.” They are full of the energy of a young band, with all the optimism that entails. They truly want to reach out to every member of the audience and say, “Hey, we’re GRO and we want you to love our music.” One member of the band was fighting the flu, but unless you knew that, you never would have been able to tell. He put it all out there, never letting on that he probably wanted to run off stage, puke and go to sleep. They worked hard to get that crowd to love them, and they were rewarded. And then, after the show, they made a point of talking to everyone that they could. They treat fans they’ve met once with the same regard as long-time fans that have supported them since they started this project six years ago at seventeen years old. They are friends who love making music together for the sake of making music, and that’s evident just by watching the chemistry they have on stage.

Another band that plays with them in Texas, Sleeperstar, recently wrote a Facebook note encouraging their own fans to buy GRO’s record, even if it meant not buying their record. In a music industry where it seems like everyone is out for their own selves, that kind of mutual admiration only comes from true respect for the band as musicians and as people. They also made another phenomenal point, which I must excerpt here because I couldn’t have said it better myself.

“I say all this because it’s an exciting time in music, it’s an exciting time for GRO, and it’s an exciting time to get to see a band release a record at a time when NO ONE gets to release records on major labels…. so for the GRO guys to get a record released, ESPECIALLY IN THIS ECONOMY, it’s a win for them but it’s also a win for every single one of us who has cheered on good bands, supported your buddy who is writing songs in the dorm while learning biology, not filled your car up with gas so you could purchase the bands cd who came to your home town and made you fall in love all over again with music…”

– From a Sleeperstar Facebook Note

And I guess, sort of, that’s my point. The music industry seems as though it’s been in flux for several years and a lot of what has been put out there for the public to consume “en masse” isn’t all that appealing. I don’t think we’ll ever see again a music industry with “mega stars” – a la the Beatles, Michael Jackson in the 80s, or New Kids on the Block in their heyday. There are too many people competing for space in the market. But, that being said I think music has become a much larger part of culture than it has ever been before, and therefore, despite no mega-stardom, it is possible for artists to make a living doing what they love. And it’s awesome to watch good bands finally starting to succeed on their talent, and not by how much money is put behind them. It’s a testament to the “power of the people” that talented musicians who have worked hard can reap the rewards of a loyal fan base and become “known” because their fans and friends are spreading the word about them, not because they’re being played 16,000 times a day on mainstream radio.

And you know what? It’s really something to watch happen.

Alone and okay

Posted on by
Reply

I spent the past weekend watching rain pour down outside. And I’m not referring to scattered thunderstorm rain. I’m talking animals pairing up and boarding the ark kind of rain. Which eventually turned to snow. As so many of us often do, I took shelter from the rain in the things that make me feel warm and safe.

Had a particularly awful day at work on Friday. That night, I was supposed to go see Matty at Tyber Creek. I actually got dressed and drove up there. But when I got there, there was a big tent outside, more than one band playing, nowhere to park, and I really wasn’t in the mood to deal with crowds of people. So I turned around and drove the 20 minutes back home (right now, this is the only disadvantage to having my own place that I’ve been able to dig up), then stayed up watching bad TV until 2:30 in the morning. Finally convinced myself to go to bed, knowing I had to run the next morning.

I was up at 6:30, feeling fairly wide awake. The rain was already coming down outside. Running in the rain isn’t as bad as it sounds if it’s not freezing…it actually feels really refreshing. It wasn’t terribly cold, so I put on shorts. Did my pre-run ritual of Red Bull, advil and a piece of peanut butter toast. Threw on a hat so I wouldn’t get totally soaked. Stretched. Then was off to meet Brad.

I know it sounds sadistic, but I’ve really come to appreciate my Saturday morning runs. I work out all of my frustrations from the week, focus on breathing, and sometimes talk things out. When it’s a big group of us, the conversation is light and we often switch around, running with one buddy for a mile, then changing up. Not everyone comes to run every week; we all have obligations. But Brad is the most consistent, and he and I talk about lots of different things while we run. Religion. Politics. Music. Movies. Life in general. He’s a fantastic athlete, so running with him usually pushes me past my comfort zone, which is a good thing. And runs with Brad fly by…literally, they’re over before I know it. We ran six miles on Saturday AM, raining the whole way. But it was a really great run and I was super charged up when it was over, so I headed home to put on dry clothes and get some errands done.

And boy, did I ever. Two grocery stores (coupons, people…I saved some serious dough!), Walmart (ugh), Target, Sprint store to drop off three old phones for recycling, Pier One to shop for a bookshelf (which I found but couldn’t bring home due to the torrent outside), dropped off two boxes of books to a used book store, Lowe’s for some around-the-apartment stuff, Office Max to get mix CD supplies, and finally, home again.

And that’s when I became a hermit for the rest of the weekend. It was just one of those dreary outside weekends that made it so easy to curl up and hibernate, indulging in all of those things of comfort that make the world seem a little bit better. I ate way too many Rice Krispie treats. I watched back episodes of Burn Notice and NCIS. I fell asleep on the couch at 7:30 PM on Saturday and didn’t move until 5 AM, when I woke up and crawled into my bed.

And Sunday? I spent the entire day reading and making chili. It was so fabulous. I devoured Twilight. Easy read, good story – and the weather was the perfect backdrop for it. Read it cover to cover between 10 AM and 7 PM. I can’t remember the last time I just sat and read for hours like that. It was fairly spectacular.

Just about the time I finished the book, the snow started to fall. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful weekend of solitude. I needed it to recharge my batteries (March is a busy month), and it prodded me to promise myself that I’ll spend more time doing things I forget that I love. Reading. Cooking. Writing.

I spend so much of my time worrying about being by myself. I DO spend a lot of time doing things solo, and it can get disheartening. In fact, more often than not, it makes me sad. I love being around people that I love (and sometimes, even ones I just like!). However, I’m so glad this rainy weekend came so early on in my new abode…to remind me of the simple pleasures of being alone.