Flinging Flyers

I'm exhausted. Went to make 400 copies of flyers and then dropped them off for the flyer posting company. I'm new to this, but my last flyer sold me 7 CDs and 10 concert tickets, and that was just one that I managed to post (I asked a group of Japanese students who came to see our show at the Jazzschool last Friday how they'd heard of us, and they pointed to my poster!). So, this is an investment but with luck it will pay off.

I got hip to the flyer scene when I made one for my husband's carpentry business upon his request after I lost my job in December. I made him 200, in color, which he placed in mailboxes in rich neighborhoods. One of them found its way into the hands of an interior decorator who works with a group of real estate agents, and he's been working contracts for them ever since. If this flyer distribution company does the trick, I'll make an even better flyer for him and have them distribute it.

That Glorious Momentary High

Just hours after coming back from three days of camping and hiking in Death Valley, I was stressed out. Suddenly I realized that for the first time in 10 years, the only things that were looming on my to-do list were music-related. There was no presentation to make, no paper to write, no business trip to schedule, no meeting to plan for, no employee to review--the types of things that in the past could cloud an entire weekend. No, now I had plenty to do but it was all part of living my dream! How could I complain about this? I mentioned my quandary to Wayne, my producer. "Next time, make sure all of your vacation is unrelated to music--don't spend the first two days at a music convention," he advised. He's absolutely right. For the past decade, 95% of all my vacations have been to music camps, conferences, gigs or workshops. If my life's work is also music, those "vacations"--which were never relaxing anyway, as I'd work my ass off during every one of them--are going to have to become real ones.

Sunday I went over to Wayne's and we worked some more on the next album. This time we listened to a few versions of songs I had found and discussed approaches to arranging them, but didn't do any heavy-duty arranging. After two hours, I left for my regular 6 pm gig at Grace Cathedral. As we did our quick rehearsal of the service, I was feeling tired and uninspired, and my throat was tight--I was reaching for notes, not really warm yet. Then the service began. The first few songs went by. I couldn't really hear myself well. The piano was overpowering me, but all I could do was trust that on the PA the mix was sufficient for the congregation. Then one of my favorite priests did the sermon. He's very good at riffing on a theme without overdoing it but also keeping things interesting and unscripted. His theme was that there are two interpretations, both of which are correct, about humanity: The first, that we have sin in our hearts that we must root out (at this he made a gesture of digging into his chest), that Jesus came to us as a band-aid to affix to our flawed selves. The second was that in Genesis, God says, observing creation, that this is "very good"--and we are good, we all have divinity in ourselves. When I'm lucky, something in the sermon inspires me. I sang Andrae Crouch's My Tribute, a gospel tune, and not too many phrases into the song that incredible sensation of emotion welling up inside me was there, pushing through, making all the words meaningful: "...just let me live my life, let it be pleasing Lord to thee. And if I gain any praise let it go to Calvary... To God be the glory..."

There was a moment like that on Friday night at my gig at the Jazzschool. We were playing my tune But I'm Weak, and the band really cooks on it as we've been playing that together for some time now. Here I am, crazy huge pregnant, dancing samba in high heels and lost in the energy. At the end of the song, Murray murmured, "You're having too much fun!"

Another moment like that happened today, at a rehearsal for our gig this Thursday at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley. The first tune we tackled was one I wrote and Wayne arranged recently, called Her Ways Wander. When we'd finished shedding the tune (and figuring out all the places the chart is wrong and needs to be fixed), I ran over and gave Wayne a hug. What a glorious moment, to hear a song you've written come to life, arranged, propelled by gorgeous chords and rhythms and played by great musicians. It makes all the stress, all the insecurity and photocopying and putting up flyers and begging for gigs worth it.

Starting a Company While Starting a Family

I took my son to the library yesterday to reload on books for each of us. After we got two more Dr. Dolittles for him, plus some other stuff (books on raptors, on mythical flying frogs and on household etiquette), I did a quick search on PR and kitchen remodeling. I love to browse the stacks, and as I was doing so I found a book called "Mothers Work" by Rebecca Matthias. She's the woman who started Mimi Maternity, A Pea in the Pod and Motherhood about 20 years ago. She was 28 and pregnant, a civil engineer with a hankering to start her own business, married to a computer scientist who had launched more than a handful of software companies. I've only just begun the book (should be a quick read), but I'm loving it.

Of course, I can totally identify with this woman, who discovered that at the time she was starting her family there was no such thing as professional maternity garb. She describes going into a store and seeing "...a collection of dresses that I can only say would be more appropriate for a ten-year-old than for my day off. The first one had a big white sailor collar and little puffs on the sleeves... Did pregnant women actually wear these things? Did they suddenly revert into 'cute' little girls to counterbalance the obvious statement their bodies were making: 'I had sexual intercourse!'"

The process of starting her company only weeks after giving birth is familiar to me as well--I remember the exact same sensations when I had Sebastian. I felt like a new person, saddled with tremendous new responsibilities but also with the need to finally be true to my own dreams and destiny, now that I had a child. "Things somehow did develop over the next few weeks," she writes. "As I recuperated physically, I got my old energy back. And I learned how to get things done in spite of having an infant as my partner. I took the attitude 'Where I go he goes.' Which is actually the only atttitude a nursing mother can take. I had this cheapy fold-up stroller which was really low-end compared to the Cadillac types of strollers most new mothers invested in. But the nice thing about it was it weighed about four pounds and I could carry it on my wrist like a pocketbook."

Similar to how Edward Tufte launched his highly successful book "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" with a classified ad in Scientific American (if memory serves), Matthias placed just two classified ads, one in the Wall Street Journal and the other in the New Yorker, and the requests for her yet-to-be created catalog of executive maternity wear started pouring in.

She has some great commandments for balancing work and home, admonishing those who embrace the "supermom" concept (one I'm guilty of). Give up one or more of the following: cleanliness, lots of friends, dinner parties, the PTA, cooking, committees or any of the other energy drains that society says you should shoulder as a mother. Enlist your whole family in the effort. Feed your marriage. Create some family traditions (like sitting down for dinner at 6 pm every night, even if dinner is take-out). Divest yourself of guilt, that useless emotion. Be organized. Get help. Enjoy life.

"Remember that you're doing this because you want to. No one is putting a gun to your head to start this business and to have kids at the same time. It so happens that the optimum time in your life to do both occurs right around the 25 to 35 age, so many of us end up in this crazy situation. But let's get rid of that martyr syndrome right at the outset. You're doing this because you want to achieve greatness. Because you have a burning desire to rule your destiny. Because you need the rush that comes with creating something out of sheer nothingness."

32 weeks!

Got 7-8 weeks to go! Here's how I have to put my shoes on now--this in one of my more agile moments, last night as I was getting ready for my gig at the Jazzschool. Funny thing about the full-length picture: I feel so huge, but from the front as in this photo I don't look nearly as big as I feel. Every woman I meet says "Oh, you look so small!" and every man says "Are you having the baby tomorrow? You look like you're about to pop!" When I told her my son was 8 pounds 11 ounces, the doctor was shocked and said "That's well above average--you may be having another very large baby." Hope that's not the case, although I had a good labor last time even if he was large. I asked if having a smaller baby meant an easier labor and she said it definitely did. Well, there's nothing I can do about it either way...

Joining the Band

Wayne Wallace asked me last week to join his band, Rhythm and Rhyme, and I eagerly accepted! I was already scheduled to do two songs on his upcoming record, and he's said he'll want to incorporate my vocals into more of the record (shadowing horn lines, improvising, etc.). I can't wait!

Bukowski on Excuses

I hesitate to reproduce the whole thing for fear of copyright violation, but just came across a favorite poem of mine by Charles Bukowski (I was intruduced to it by singer/educator/funnywoman extraordinaire Madeline Eastman at Stanford Jazz Camp a few years ago. Here's an excerpt:

no baby, if you're going to create
you're going to create whether you work 16 hours a day in a coal mine
or
you're going to create in a small room
with 3 children while you're on
welfare...

baby, air and light and time and space
have nothing to do with it
and don't create anything
except maybe a longer life to find
new excuses
for.

Bad "Lost" Episode

Did anyone see Lost this past Wednesday? Yechh. Felt like US-Iraq war propaganda. Has their writing team--which has been truly amazing up till now--been hit by a bus? Did they start focus-grouping this show? I really hate this new direction they're going in with the war theme, Jack creating an army, now Sayeed torturing one of "The Others" and being sure his actions are justified because he feels no remorse. The last scene, in which he repeats the refrain "Have you forgotten?" to explain why he's taken this route, rang untrue to me. And according to the previews, the next show will be flashbacks to some sort of alien abduction scene that the Dharma Project is behind. I liked all the metaphors and the ambiguity up to this point, along with the intermingling of international characters. I don't think this bodes well.

Derek Sivers on DIY Music

The opening keynote at the DIY Music Convention I attended in Los Angeles last weekend was delivered by Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby (where my CD's for sale, along with those of countless other musicians), musician and self-taught software guy (he has a column on O'Reilly.com). Here's some of what he had to say:

1. Be different. "There's so much music out there today. You have to stand out with your music, not just with your marketing." He recommended a book by marketer Seth Godin entitled "The Purple Cow". This next bit was relevant to me, given my recent exit from a career with a major trade publisher: "Advertising is getting almost no results," he said, pointing out that even Rolling Stone no longer carries ads for record releases--most of them are for cars, watches or tech toys (similarly, MTV no longer runs music videos). "If your music was playing in a restaurant, would people stop chewing and look at the speakers? Lots of musicians feel creative in the studio, and then they throw away all their creativity the moment they start promoting." Sivers is fond of repeating a quote from Brian Eno: "Art doesn't end at the edge of the canvas." Sivers expanded on that point, saying "How you present it to the world is part of the experience, a continuation of the art. Be a niche. Be sharply defined. 'I am this one thing.' People think that means they have to define themselves, and they don't want to be pinned down. But think of each album as a project."

2. Do cover songs. Now, this is not a stretch for most jazz musicians, but I did get a distinct impression at this particular conference that there was a focus on pop and alt rock where such advice is often rejected. In the jazz world, of course, we all know the standards. "Do a twisted cover version of a familiar song that hasn't been done to death. Search in iTunes. Fans need a familiar song." His reasoning? Much of online sales is now via song-based searches, hence the value of offering a new version of a classic song.

3. Read "The Long Tail," an article published in Wired magazine by its editor, Chris Anderson. The gist of this piece is that Amazon and NetFlix are examples of companies with extensive catalogs; over half of their profit comes from unknown things rather than mega hits. "All of these businesses want all the 'content' they can get. You are precious and everybody wants you. Apple iTunes, Napster--they need more content. They're not going to care what it is or judge it, they just want it. This is the new age of distribution."

4. Assemble a great team. According to Sivers, electronica musician Moby was once asked, "'Why are you more famous than all your peers?' 'I'll tell you exactly why: All my friends did everything themselves: Booking, hanging flyers, etc. While my friends were spending months at a time hanging flyers, I approached people who were the best at what they did. At the end of nine months, I had this team of six people/companies.' He treated it like a job. Ramp up your approach to meeting people." Sivers recommended the obnoxious-sounding book "Power Schmoozing" as indispensable. "The key to networking is to discover what you can do for people. Follow up. If you're that 1 out of 100 who follows up, you'll stand out."

5. Read. Go for the 20-year-old books in your industry. Check Amazon's list mania to find the ones everyone recommends.

6. Do something about what you learn. Get over the hump. "Start doing things as opposed to just thinking about doing them."

7. Beware the Van Gogh effect. "Plenty of rich guys would love to own a Van Gogh, but how many would invite the crazy old guy over for dinner?" There's a split of music vs. musicians that we should be aware of. Business people are scared of the musicians themselves, what with their reputation as being sensitive, emotional and tempestuous. Hmmmm. I've noticed that suits are scared of creative or technical people in general. Sivers' solution is to find a middle man or take yourself out of the equation when pitching to these types (say THE music, not MY music).

8. "Do what excites you, not what drains you." He told a cautionary tale of starting a record label on the advice of an industry executive who told him he should put his tremendous marketing and networking skills to good use beyond promoting his own band. "I felt like I'd been given a death sentence. I left the meeting and called my dad. 'Well, you should probably do it. This guy knows what he's talking about.'" Sivers invested time and energy into creating a record label with an artist roster as he'd been told to do, only to see it fail. By contrast, his efforts at CD Baby all grew organically, somehow springing from his abilities without a sense of forcing or obligation. The point: One person's path in the music business need not be someone else's.

Go To Hollywood for Instant Results

Just got back from two days at the DIY Music Convention in Hollywood, CA. I'll post some in-depth analysis later, but suffice it to say that we drove down to L.A. and really acted as a "power family": While I was attending the excellent sessions on promotion, music publishing, film and video game music markets and major label vs. indie debates, my husband was out making connections. This meeting he arranged with Mike Myers (see above) may be the one that turns Jazzmérica into a household word!






Meanwhile, I posed provocatively outside Grauman's Chinese Theater. A movie premier was getting underway across the street at El Capitan theater, but the stars on the red carpet were sadly neglected as photographers whirled to focus on the pregnant woman just across the street. Later, I met with Sylvester Stallone, who surprisingly likes to hang out in Rambo garb just in front of the wax museum. He's a lot taller than he seems in the movies, and--get this--he's actually latino!





My five-year-old handled the paparazzi like a pro. Here you can see him toting his $5000 custom plush doggie and a designer wheeled suitcase. His stylist chose the soothing earth tones in his ensemble, part of a new line available this fall in major department stores.








Finally, it was off to Death Valley for a glamour shot set in the sizzling sand dunes. Dressed in KMart Maternity denim, I stole a page from Demi Moore and struck a victory for expectant singers everywhere with this groundbreaking image, soon to be posted on a highly trafficked blog and possibly considered by a bulemic, drug-addled art director for the cover of W magazine. Once my entourage had left, we trecked out to the highest dune and ate oranges. The whole expedition took about 2.5 hours, but our triumphant return to our rental car went undocumented. My husband laughed that no one was there to witness a five-year-old, an 8-month-pregnant woman and her overweight, smoking spouse return from their four-mile desert hike. Ah well. Fame is so fleeting.

My Fortunes, Post Pearls

Just got back from the gig at Pearls. Our energy as a band was great. Really enjoyed myself and felt like we all played well together. Murray improved a lot of charts and that is making a big difference. As usual, I danced my ass off--Mike Spiro told me such antics weren't advisable with me being so pregnant, and I said I couldn't help dancing when they played so well. One song, my tune I Think of You, "was so funky I almost gave birth," I told the crowd. It will be interesting to see how I do next month when I'm there. Being pregnant is like being young, I said to the audience. You'll never be as young as you are right now, so you'd better enjoy it. And with pregnancy, as big as you feel one day, you'll be even bigger the next. Might as well dance while you can. My legs are tired, though. I know I'm going to feel this tomorrow.

I'm home and the boys are snoring in their beds. We'll see if I can sleep. Two fortune cookies were lying on the table, so I ate them with a glass of milk. The first fortune said, "Taking a chance at something new in the near future will pay off." The second said, "Beauty surrounds you because you create it."

Moby's Blog

Just found electronica/alternative musician Moby's blog. It's funny, strange and political, and by all appearances is actually written by him.

Pearls Tonight!

We'll be playing Jazz at Pearls tonight in San Francisco, 8:30 and 10:30 pm shows. Hope to see some of you there!

I Love Session Work!

Man, the recording session I did last Friday was great! I went to Cupertino to do a recording of 6 tunes for a company (I'll have more information soon on how they'll be released, etc). They fed me, paid me and -- most importantly, at least for achieving peak performance -- flattered me. We got it all done in four or five hours. At first I was nervous and hoping I wasn't going to flub too much. As it happened, we were able to get each tune in about three takes, max. Murray Low had written the arrangements and played piano; I told him this was a lot easier than recording my album (here's hoping that bodes well for my next album). David Belove and Paul Van Wageningen were on the recording as well.

By the last tune, which was a Cole Porter standard, Everytime We Say Goodbye, the producer asked me if I had a specific version in mind that I was going to think of when I sang it. I said no -- did he want me to listen to something? We went into the other room and as dusk deepened outside we listened to Ray Charles and Betty Carter do a duet of the tune with a lush orchestral setting. It was just gorgeous, slow and simple (vocally, at least). It could have been recorded in the 90s, except when the big session choir came in, which made us laugh; that was a glaring anachronism that placed it resoundingly in the 60s. When it was finished, I went back to my booth and he to his control room. I sang the tune down once.

"How was that?" I asked at the end after letting a few beats go by. "I think that might have been it. That was just great!" he said. Then there was more silence, followed by, "Oh no... you're going to kill me -- I didn't record that!" We did another take, but it had a few problems. On the third try, however, everything was golden: The emotion, the notes, the quiet intimacy of it. He didn't want me to change a thing, and after listening to it neither did I. Really, he deserved a lot of credit for setting up that moment by sharing such a nice, inspirational version of the tune with me. I wasn't imitating it, but it did give me some insights into the tone and feeling that the tune could have. I went home feeling absolutely great, and a little bit richer too!

29 Weeks?!?

Holy smokes, I'm in the last trimester of pregnancy! How did this happen? Why do I still not have a dishwasher? The other day someone asked if I'd organized the baby's room. "What room?" I replied. There is no baby's room.

Hmmm, maybe I should look up breathing exercises. Or take the labor refresher course. Last time went great, and I highly recommend bringing music and using the tub or shower. I really hope I get a private recovery room this time; last time that was the only miserable part, sharing with a mentally ill woman who'd just had a 10-pounder and needed me to console her through the night. I hope everything is on track--went to the doctor last week for my checkup and waited an hour and then they told me she had to leave to do surgery. So I got back on the bus and spent a leisurely 45 minutes observing my fellow riders as we crossed town. But I have no complaints, other than a bit of lower back pain on the right side.

Enough stressing, I need to practice.

Songwriter Soup

Here are some tidbits from the always-excellent Performing Songwriter (January/February 2006 issue).

Producer Hal Willner on his latest project:
“I’m about to do a multi-artist album of sea chanteys. I don’t know much about sea chanteys, so I’m diving in with everything I can.”

This is cool—I’ve been thinking about sea chanteys ever since I got hooked on Patrick O’Brien’s Master and Commander series. As I wrote in this space some time ago, I have a song called “The Names of the Winds” that I wanted to be sea chantey-esque, whatever that means.

Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics on strange sounds:
“Annie [Lennox] and I play[ed] milk bottles on “Sweet Dreams.” On “This City Never Sleeps,” I went down into Camden underground station, and recorded the trains, and then I tuned my guitar to the sound of the track. On “I Love You Like a Ball and Chain,” the rhythm track is drums, but it’s also my mum and auntie on the roof of a building that had all gravel. I had them up there with earphones on and they were marching to the beat of the drums…. On “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves,” I was trying to get a sound that was like a shaker, but not a shaker. More like an African sounding thing. I couldn’t find anything, so I got all these pencils and rulers and put them inside a big box, and taped the lid shut, and I would shake the box. Then I would trigger that sound from the hi-hat of the real drummer. I was always experimenting.”

How inspiring! I’m going to see if I can go out and get some “found sound” for my next album. But reading it brought back memories of my first Tascam 4-track recorder. I remember trying to duplicate the sound of congas playing a bolero pattern with pots and pans from the kitchen. As usual, I thought that was amateurish—and yet when you look at so much of the Afro-Cuban instrumentation, it comes out of necessity. I mean, a donkey jaw! Or in New Orleans, the washboard. Or the jug band.

“Fett” (I guess that’s the columnist’s name) on gimmicks for getting heard:
At a recent music conference, a man walked up to him and “asked if I’d be willing to listen to his music and provide some feedback. … He handed me a tiny, keychain-sized Nomad USB MP3 player from Creative … and a set of ear buds and said, ‘I’m Brian Kingston and here’s my demo.’ … then he explained, ‘I have four songs on the Nomad for you to listen to. I’ve already put instructions on how to use the player and my contact info on it. It’s yours to keep.’ I was immediately intrigued because no one had ever presented their music to me this way.”

The author says it worked out well, as he listened to this guy’s music before any of the other stacks of CDs he’d been handed (and he said it was really good). Further, “I found out later that Brian didn’t have to spend a lot of money to be unique. He told me that he scours the Internet and buys refurbished Nomad players in bulk, so he only ends up spending five or six dollars apiece on them. That’s not much more than the cost of a CD with a label and case and a nice-looking press kit.”

Disposable technology has truly arrived. Now don’t everyone go out and do this at once!

Health Insurance for Musicians

The subject of health insurance is one that I've been thinking about. I'm covered up until the baby is born in April, and then I'll have to get new insurance for the family. Praise the Lord, we're all healthy. But I don't want to breathe a word about my impending insurance change to the doctors, because I don't want them to treat me differently during the remainder of my pregnancy (and paying the COBRA cost of my current HMO is out of the question for us). Here's the story of a person who discovered just what that different treatment would entail. His name is Brian Austin Whitney, and he runs a music business called Just Plain Folks Productions in Indianapolis. His latest newsletter tells about a recent health crisis that was going to cost him $100,000 and what he's doing about it.

"...Like many of our artist and writer members out there without a second corporate day job, I have no health insurance. I've managed to survive the last 8 years without insurance. ...

I was told I needed the procedure immediately. In fact, the surgeon told me he wanted to schedule me that day. When I told him I had no insurance, he paused and his demeanor changed noticeably. He suggested I visit a particular hospital in town that treated people without insurance which has a reputation more for treating drug overdoses and gun shot wounds than delicate surgical procedures. I am the farthest thing from a snob, but I think if your life is hanging in the balance, even the most grassroots minded person on the planet would do whatever they could to get the best treatment they could manage. This wasn't just a broken bone or a bump or bruise. This was life and death.

...Lest anyone is asking themselves why I didn't just get a private plan a long time ago, the reality is that with pre-existing conditions (I am a diabetic among other things) no one would cover me. It wasn't an option. The only coverage I could get excluded ALL pre-existing conditions and anything that could be connected to it. As anyone with diabetes already knows, nearly anything short of a broken bone or cancer could be connected to that disease."

However, he did manage to delay the procedure four days, and then finance it via a unique solution:

"Last Wednesday I married my best friend Linda Berger who, in addition to being the long time JPF Projects Director, is also a
pharmacist with a great health plan. Sometimes out of the darkest moments in your life comes the greatest light."

As a result of this experience, Whitney is forming a new political action network to address the lack of health insurance for musicians and artists. He also included some great links in his newsletter, which I will personally be using:

"Future of Music Coalition -- a national nonprofit musicians' advocacy organization -- has just created HINT - the Health Insurance Navigation Tool. The goal of this project is to provide informed, musician-friendly support and advice to curious musicians who need information about health insurance, for free.

www.futureofmusic.org/hint/
www.futureofmusic.org/hint/overview.cfm
www.futureofmusic.org/hint/stoploss.cfm
www.futureofmusic.org/hint/hsa.cfm
www.futureofmusic.org/hint/bestpractices.cfm
www.futureofmusic.org/hint/appointment.cfm