“In the electronic music genre it’s definitely super saturated and a lot of the stuff that makes it to major labels is less than interesting. Like most industries, it’s a huge popularity contest so, sadly the more unique and creative stuff gets pushed aside and people have to really dig to find the good stuff. ” – @digibillymusic
Listen to the Interview Live June 2 at 6:40 pm et
Episode #329 : A.V.A Live Radio Behind The Music with Jacqueline Jax : http://www.blogtalkradio.com/avaliveradio/2016/06/02/episode-329-ava-live-radio-behind-the-music-with-jacqueline-jax
GETTING TO KNOW JOSHUA PEARSON DIGIBILLY
by Jacqueline Jax host of A.V.A Live Radio
Music business…
in the electronic music genre it’s definitely super saturated and a lot of the stuff that makes it to major labels is less than interesting. Like most industries, it’s a huge popularity contest so, sadly the more unique and creative stuff gets pushed aside and people have to really dig to find the good stuff. On the artist’s side of things, you are constantly to battle a wave of other artists all saying, listen to me. One of the benefits of today’s music industry is that it isn’t impossible to get your music distributed anymore. There are also a plethora of tools for the artist to use at their fingertips to help promote, design, and create their brand and music.
Social media…
I really like being able to connect directly with my fanbase, well on some social media platforms anyway; Facebook fan pages make it difficult to connect directly, because they don’t allow direct contact to profiles. And if you aren’t using Facebook ads, you just get lost in the feed. My best experience has been with Twitter. So many dedicated fans, friends, and collaborations have been gotten from Twitter. The hard thing with social media is connecting with fans that are outside of your social circle. To tackle this issue, I use a couple of analytics tools and find people based on keyword research and the hashtags they use. I also use Facebook ads occasionally. I found that it’s ok to be on everything, but not ok to spread yourself thin. It’s best to focus on 2 different platforms and stick to them. The hard part being which one to choose. You have to find the social media site that fits with the type of music you produce, so there is a bit of research that has to be done.
Singles vs an album…
I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I just recently have switched some of the ways that I release my music. I am calling it the KMFDM method. I release a few tracks as singles, then I release remix EPs, and then full albums with exclusive material. Some people are more prone to buying singles and some to full albums. Doing this caters to both.
Do you find that there is too much emphasis on being current and trendy…
I’m usually not the type that follows trends musically. If I hear something I like, I take note of it. Doesn’t matter if it is popular or not. I do however follow design trends when doing artwork for my musical creations.
I am most afraid of…
Not being able to create or appreciate art. I think hearing and vision loss would be the most devastating.
My personal definition of success is.. Being able to achieve the things I set my mind to.
One particular story is…
that there was a a few tracks that I mastered, they were flattened to MP3s because the original producer’s hard drive crashed and that’s all they had. The artist actually got a Sony Records deal from it. I took the MP3 and duplicated it to 3 separate channels. Then I zoned in on the different frequency ranges, mid, low, and high. I mastered the tracks from there. It wasn’t an easy task and it took a bit longer then I thought it would but in the end it turned out mint.
My overall goal for my life & career is…
to make art, enjoy art, and hopefully get a few people to enjoy it with me. I would like to be a full time musician someday.
3 Ways that I challenge myself…
1) Setting scheduled deadlines to each step of my process.
2) Constantly learning new things. Never growing stagnant.
3) Spending every spare second marketing and thinking of unique ways to do so.
I started with…
the trumpet, guitar, and my love for computers. When I was younger I picked up an Alesis HR-16 from a used music store and started plugging in different chains of guitar petals into it to generate loops and effects. That tinkering was the beginning of me making electronic music.
Persuasion…
is about a young girl that got into the punk music scene and an outsider perspective of the scene itself. And since I kinda grew up in that scene, it’s quite relative to my past. All in all, the song is not about the lyrical content but the composition and sound design. It is the beginning of a new sound that I have been experimenting with. It is the fusion of hardcore techno and drum & bass. This song is part of the “From The Dark” album that will hopefully be released before October, Halloween.
My music is definitely not for the easy listener…
I don’t really follow any specific formats or templates. Most of my sounds and instruments are made from scratch. I’ve be told that a lot of my pieces are mathematically complicated and belong in movies because they sound so epic.
This new album, From The Dark, is…
an ode to the dark and the extreme. The whole album will be filled with droning bass lines, distorted kick drums, cinematic orchestral pieces, and fast break beats.
It’s all about keeping a balance…
letting the song almost create itself, while driving it to build a certain way to strike the emotion that you want the listener to feel through the music. This album is the combination of all those things plus making it heavy and danceable. With this album, as I do with most of my songs, I want to blur the lines by crossing elements from different genres to create something completely different.
For marketing, I typically use social media (including Facebook and Twitter ads), email subscribers, and promo mailer from my distribution company for marketing.
I am from Philadelphia PA…
The scene is quite robust here except for the drum & bass scene. It’s a very small community that mainly focuses on the DJ and it makes the producers suffer by they pushing them away. The clubs in Philadelphia are known for playing hip-hop & house. There is a large music scene in this city. There just isn’t that big of a crowd for the music that I love to create. I’ve been working on a East Coast and/or European tour. I do get a few shows here but it seems like I have more opportunities elsewhere.
One of the fun music things I do is I run my radio broadcast called Digibilly Radio. It is all about finding all the hard, dark, or fast electronic music producers out there, that are quite unsung, and giving them an avenue to play their stuff.
Other things I do for fun are, cycling, coffee roasting, and illustrator / designer / web developer ( my day job ).
I would love to have 5 minutes alone with…
Of course the mastermind and pioneer of electronic music production, Trent Reznor. 5 minutes would definitely not cover the questions that I want to pick that man’s mind with. The library of knowledge that man has on the subject is crazy.
Website: http://digibillymusic.com
Social Links
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/digibillymusic
Twitter: http://twitter.com/digibillymusic
Tumblr: http://digibilly.tumblr.com/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/digibillymusic/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/b/114750944976453616424/+Digibillymusicvideos/posts MTV
Artists: http://www.mtv.com/artists/digibilly/
Reverbnation: http://www.reverbnation.com/digibilly
Audio Links Beatport: http://www.beatport.com/artist/digibilly/424747
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/digibilly/id903195976?uo=4
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_srch_drd_B00M3EFE8O?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=Digibilly&index=digital-music&search-type=ss
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/digibilly
Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/Digibilly/
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/artist/4FbGmHzhNCevOU31hHLyPr
Video Links Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/digibillymusic
Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/digibilly/profile
Periscope: https://www.periscope.tv/digibillymusic