By definition, the music business is, of course, just a business.
I think it is set-up mostly to the advantage of the big companies dominating it but the tide might be turning @AlanHeartmusic
Live interview
Episode #362 : A.V.A Live Radio Behind The Music with Jacqueline Jax :
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/avaliveradio/2016/09/20/episode-362-ava-live-radio-behind-the-music-with-jacqueline-jax
GETTING TO KNOW ALAIN LAROUCHE
by Jacqueline Jax host of A.V.A Live Radio
Alan Heart
By definition, the music business is, of course, just a business.
I think it is set-up mostly to the advantage of the big companies dominating it but the tide might be turning.
In the era of social media/internet we live in,
there has never been a better time for indie artists to try and make their way to the top. I believe that in 2016, with all the tools available such as social media or you’re A.V.A live radio web site for example, it is more than possible for a determined talented person to make it in the music business.
The pros are everything !! Getting to write music for a living.
Producing my first album. Producing my first music video and acting in it. So on and so on. I love the life in music !!
The cons are not as present as the pros but, still…
I think my biggest one is the cost of everything. I find you have to be very disciplined to stay within budget. But the one that hurt me the most, was when my manager and friend got sick and went into a burnout. He then had to resign and I found myself without a manager.
My personal preference as a new artist is to release an album.
I believe it shows a certain commitment to the project as well as giving the artist more original songs to perform in concerts. From my personal experience, I found that the first year for an independent artist is a very busy one. You need to launch all the social media, prepare the concert, arrange radio tracking, manage the band, etc. I found it hard to squeeze time to write new songs during that period. That’s why I believe it is good to write the whole album before. After the first album, I think it is appropriate to release singles in order to add song to an already existing playlist.
The social medias definitely offers me the possibility
to reach more people and get my music known in places I could not have accessed with traditional methods. It also allows the fans that feeling of being close to the artist by allowing them to follow the progression of the artist’s career in real time. I benefit from it by getting my music heard by a lot more people and, as an artist, that’s really my main goal !!
Being an artist in the Pop/Rock genre,
I believe it is important to be a bit trendy. It must be hard to get airplay with a new song that already has an old sound. However, in trying to be too trendy, one might fall in the trap of imitating someone else’s ideas. For my album, I wanted the sound to be actual, without influencing the style of the songs.
I believe, at times, it is with hard work.
I try to figure out the reason I am struggling, and then find a way to turn it around. But these days, with the music business being so complex and diversified, I think it is often necessary to seek guidance from a person with higher knowledge on that specific topic in order to turn it around. I believe knowing when to ask for help is the key to turn struggles into triumphs.
By being an independent artist.
There is an enormous amount of freedom and satisfaction generated when I am able to write exactly what I want to write about. When I am able to make my music sound exactly as I want. When I don’t have to compromise any important values I have set for myself. By being an independent artist, I am truly able to live life on my own terms in every way.
I would love to have five minutes alone with Lauren Hill.
I have to say I find her very incredibly attractive, but the true reason I chose her, is how gifted an artist she is. From movies to rap singer with an amazing singing voice, she is also rumoured to have incredibly good moral values.
I would definitely take the five minutes
you are suggesting but with such an artist, I could probably talk with her for hours and not find one boring second!!
I have been inspired by music all my life. For as long as I can remember,
I always used to change the lyrics and the melody of popular songs in order to make my friends laugh. However, the first time I really tried to make an original song was about 15 years ago. I was working as an airline pilot for Air Inuit in the Canadian Great North and one of the other pilots told me he was composing music with his young boy on a program called Garage Band. He told me I should get a Mac computer and try it myself. This is exactly what I did and I discovered I had a talent for writing music. I felt the music I was composing was good but in order to make certain, I entered the Song of the Year contest with the second song I wrote and made it as a finalist. This was an excellent motivation booster and I have been composing music since !!
Haze
Haze is a “breakup” ballad. It is a story about a person who has lost a loved one…
But does not know why… He can’t remember anything about what happened… But still, he has to live with the consequences anyway…
When I wrote my new album “My Time”,
I wanted it to have two ballads, one happy and one sad. This is the topic I chose for the sad one.
Links for purchase of album/songs:
https://www.reverbnation.com/alanheart
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/my-time/id1119699225?l=fr
https://www.amazon.com/My-Time-Explicit-Alan-Heart/dp/B01GIH0ARQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1473277283&sr=1-2-mp3-albums-bar-strip-0&keywords=alan+heart
https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Alan_Heart_My_Time?id=B53s7m52j67p3yw4xpwcox2yb2y
The funny thing that happened with this song
is I did not know if it could be on the album… The song made me so emotional, I kept crying while practicing and we always had to delay the recording because I could never finish the song… Now, obviously, at some point I was able to suppress my emotions and I finally was able to make the recording !! To this day the song still makes me very emotional, but now, I can control it !!
You can expect a lot of variety from my new album “My Time”.
When I started to write it, my concept was very clear; I wanted an album with very different styles of songs but that all fitted together. To achieve this, I developed my “triangle” concept. The concept was to always have the Pop and the Rock styles (to different degrees) and mix it with another style. To give you an example, we added a “retro sound to the Pop/Rock for “Out of Control” and “The Girl I Know” while we added country rock for “Need to be with You”. For “Haze”, we went Dub step.
Being a person who enjoys all kinds of musical styles,
I wanted to create an album for people with similar tastes. I wanted to stay as far away as possible from an album with songs that all sound the same. I truly hope I have achieved my goal !!
I live in the beautiful fortified city of Quebec.
The city is a French city so it is very good for French singer/songwriters singing French Folk songs… But not so good for artists expressing themselves in English. There are many small pubs for the French Folk singers but very few opportunities for original singers in English. Many microbreweries offer possibilities for English music, but only for cover bands and not for original music. The one good place to play would be the “Dagobert” in downtown Quebec. For original music, you should try booking Wednesday or Thursday as the weekend is mostly reserved for cover bands.
As an artist,
I believe the music business is essential in achieving my goal of being heard by as many people as possible. It is made to do just that.
Social Media Links:
Website: https://www.alanheart.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alanheartmusic/
Reverbnation: https://www.reverbnation.com/alanheart
Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/AlanHeartmusic