To describe Sue Newberry’s music, I love this quote that her brother David Newberry – a kick ass singer-songwriter himself – writes:

“I want to say that you sing pretty and powerfully, have a killer pop band that can rock, and are smart and poetic. I think thats a good set of messages to try and get across. Is ‘funrock’ a word? I hope so. It’s literate funrock. That’s what you do. Well.”

K: Let’s talk about your name for a second here. What’s the story behind ‘Sioux’?

S: It was a nickname from a schoolmate many (15?) years ago. She spelled my name “Sioux” on letters we passed back and forth during class. It just stuck, and pretty soon my peers and teachers were using the spelling. When I was pursuing my university degree in theatre I found that the spelling of the name helped distinguish me in auditions, etc. After so many years I became really attached to the spelling and identifying myself with the pattern and the shape of the letters. It just made sense.

K: I see you are shifting over to Sue Newberry. How’s that going?

S: It’s such a small thing, but a big shift to make. I’m still transitioning all my online sites. I’ve never loved “______ and the ______” band names, but here we are. It seems to make sense for now.

K: Canada seems to have two distinct indie modes of music. Solo verses Band projects. Where do you sit in that dichotomy?

S: I sit in both seats! In the past I’ve played mostly solo, duets, in small projects. The last 3 years or so I’ve been fronting larger bands – our current band has 6 members. It’s super, and so interesting to me right now. I don’t write songs anymore for myself and my guitar, and instead start to conceive and write songs with a 6-person rock band in mind. Playing with a full band for the first time was like grasping the edges of my song and pulling it open, making room for so many sounds. For me, the band enables the expression of the idea and emotion of the song in ways that can’t exist when I’m playing solo. Lots of new challenges, but I’m loving the results.

K: What’s it been like working with a band? Have they been part of the writing process too?

S: We don’t have any set rules about how songs come about. Most often I approach a member of the band, or the band as a whole with a song I have written beginning to end, and we play it out, making changes as suggestions arise. We have tried writing or re-writing together as a group, but find it not as effective. I’m looking forward to continued experimentation.

K: We’re doing this social media blogging challenge together: a challenge that asks musicians to pull out their bullhorns and spend some (a lot?) of time digging into the marketing side of music. How do you keep yourself creatively engaged with your music while at the same time promoting it?

S: Deadlines! I find it essential that my creative time be structured in a way that has actual results in mind. Most of my songs come from a strong lyrical or melodic idea, and those will often come out of unstructured thinking or playing times, but the idea will wither out if I don’t eventually lock myself in a room and put the hard and frustrating work in of finishing the song. Deadlines are essential motivators for me, and for my creative engagement. That might sound backwards, but putting up structures helps me to immerse myself fully in a creative work time – or else the day-to-day will take over.

For example, I’m currently in-studio recording the last few songs of an EP that I started a while back. At the same time I’m working with a publicist, graphic designer, booking gigs, updating social media sites… it’s a very exciting but overwhelming time. I can honestly say that without set deadlines (such as a planned CD release) I would not have put in as much time as I have on my own and with the band over the last month doing the really important work at this time: getting the tunes together for this weekend’s studio session! (P.S. – I’m writing this after day one of recording — bed tracks are sounding great!)

K: Can’t wait to hear it, Sue! So, you are smack in the middle of recording your album… that’s no light feat. Long days / nights that absorb most if not all of a person’s creative energy and care. And here you are doing this blog interview! Do you think self-promotion is a necessary evil of being an independent musician these days?

S: *laughs* I think it’s important for the artist have a handle on social media, and be up to date with how social media is connected to exposure, publicity, sales, ‘buzz’, etc — regardless of if the artist  is at the helm of promotion or not. An unexpected result that I started to find about halfway through this challenge is this: I’ve been spending so much time with the ‘other side’ of the music, which is the product that is being marketed (as opposed to the creative process). Somewhere amidst all the thoughts, research and action regarding self-promotion that has been dominating the last 6 weeks I’ve discovered and started to truly believe that the ‘product’ I have is actually something that is worth promoting. So in that way, it’s not an ‘evil’ at all – it’s a pretty great motivator. 

K: If you could delegate away one job as a musician, what would it be?

S: It can be really hard to let go of the reins when it comes to your own craft, and self-promoting that craft! I’ve been working at it, though, and seeing the benefits. Things like mailing out CDs and press kits is an extremely time-consuming job that is better left to someone who has more professional contacts anyway, to yield the best results!

K: You mentioned you were in the studio this past weekend… you’ve got a new project on the horizon! Your album is coming out! Tell me a little more about it. What’s it called? Where and with whom are you recording it? How do we get our hands on it?

S: I independently released a solo CD in 2008, as well as a duet CD with my brother David Newberry (2008). Both albums were toured from Ontario to PEI a few times. You can get a copy of the duets CD here:

www.cdbaby.com/cd/newberryvsnewberry

My upcoming 6-song EP is my first full-band project. It’s under the band name “Sue Newberry & The Law” and is a far step away from the folk/country/roots sound of my first two albums. It’s taken me a long time of playing, writing and touring to start to hone in on my specific strengths as a songwriter and performer. This new turn toward an more indie-rock-pop sound is feeling good with my writing style and voice. I’m really excited to be a part of a team project and we’re really looking forward to the release and tour. CDs will be available online this spring. Our website is currently under re-design and will be launched shortly before the CD release. “Like” our bandpage and you’ll be sure to hear about how to get your hands on a new CD!

www.facebook.com/siouxnewberryandthelaw

K: You’re doing some tour dates around Ontario this spring with your brother who’s also a musician. Sibling rivalry or revelry?

S: Revelry, in accordance with the specific definition:
rev·el/ˈrevəl/ [verb] Engage in lively and noisy festivities, esp. those that involve drinking and dancing.

K: Awesome ~ a dictionary definition! You’re a gal after my own heart, Sue. And now a few random questions: what’s your favourite mode of travel? (Bus, train, car, plane, boat, bicycle, skateboard, luck dragon?)

S: I’ve been taking the MegaBus lately from Toronto to Kingston for TEN DOLLARS. Double decker! That’s been pretty sweet. I do enjoy (non hwy 401) driving. But all that is behind me now, since I’ve switched to travelling via Luck Dragon. It’s kinda like, our band’s “thing”.

K: What are two lines from the cheesiest song you have ever written?

S: This question is awesome.

this glass won’t see me turn to stone
this face i see just can not be my own
this world around me can’t revolve
until all my problems have been soooolllllllllvvvveeedd (courtney love growl-out ending)

K: Yeah!! What are two lines from the song you are most proud of?

S: Our song “The Law” on our new EP is a mysterious story about a hero running from the law… but why is she running? Lyrics are pithy and fun to sing. It starts:

If you believe what you read than I’m a
Sharp Shooter
but don’t be deceived, believe me,
I’m just going through some hard times
and don’t we all go through
hard times ?

K: Nice! You’re awesome, Sue. Thanks so much for talking with me. Good luck with finishing up and launching your EP!

LISTEN to the song: The Law
From Sue Newberry & The Law’s upcoming album.

Find Sue Newberry & The Law on the Web:
www.facebook.com/siouxnewberryandthelaw
www.twitter.com/siouxberrynew

I met Tom online through the Music Success in Nine Weeks blogging challenge that I’ve been engaged in as my New Year’s Resolution to get a better handle on social media. This week I thought it would be fun to sit down with Tom and interview him about his music, his take on social media and his call to think locally with his Hundred-Mile Microphone Project.

K: Tom, I met you through this blogging challenge, and you keep popping up everywhere. And then there’s your group…

T: Trio Arjento

K: I’m glad you said it.

T: Yeah, it’s a funny name. Actually, it’s an anagram… the AR is from Marcy, JEN from Jennifer and TO from Tom. And it sounds like the Spanish word for silver. But it doesn’t mean anything. If you were Spanish, you’d spell it with a “G” not a “J”. We were going to call ourselves The Balvenie Scotch Trio after our favourite brand of Scotch, because it’s wonderful. But there were some people at our first show who thought that was an irresponsible way to name a band. People started scribbling on napkins…

K: How did you end up doing that first show together?

T: I’ve known Marcy the singer since I was five and she was four. She was in my younger sister’s pre-school class. She used to come around the house for play dates. I don’t really remember this, but Marcy claims I used to grab her pigtails like motorcycle handlebars and drive her around the house.

K: That’s beautiful.

T: She auditioned to sing in my first rock band in high school, when I was in grade 11 and she was in grade 9. We did all out rocking blues stuff, and she was totally unsuited for it. We did early U2 “Pride: In The Name Of Love” and the “Hippy-Hippy Shake”, which was on Cocktail… remember that? With Tom Cruise. [Tom S. picks up his guitar and sings a couple of bars]. We ended up with a guy with massive hair. But somehow Marcy stuck around. After highschool we formed a duo for six years, her voice and my guitar. The focus was on Ani Difranco, edgy aggressive folk. But I grew up on heavy metal.

K: Really?

T: Yeah. My background was all Black Sabbath, Anthrax and Slayer. And she kept saying “you know, there’s so much more to music than this.” She kept conking me on the head, and eventually I caught on that Joni Mitchell was pretty awesome too.

K: Though I have to say that one of the things about heavy metal is that guitar players are… like…good! Some of the finest guitar players come from heavy metal bands.

T: Yeah. But I’m at a point now in my life that I’m not impressed by the speed anymore. *smile*

K: So how did Jen come to be part of your band?

T: I took a break from our duo, while I lived in Kuwait for a while. Then in 2006 Marcy phoned me out of the blue one day. She said, “I know this guy who plays guitar and sounds a lot like you, would you like to come jam with us sometime?” The three of us jammed, then we posted up on Bandmate. We found a bassist, a drummer and a keyboardist… that was Jenny. That band lasted for 2 1/2 years. It was an amicable thing, but in the end that band called it quits over differences in the direction. Marcy, Jenny and I formed the trio.

K: How long ago was that?

T: Two years in October.

K: And so is it all original? You do covers too, right?

T: It’s probably about 70% originals at any show. The covers we throw in for amusement. For example, our Michael Jackson cover of “Human Nature”. We try to do things that are either extremely beautiful or things that are just comical. We’ve done “November Rain” by Guns and Roses. Joni Mitchell “Both Sides Now.” And Ani Difranco, because Ani is part of my DNA now. But the focus is on original material.

K: You’re in Hamilton, right? Do you guys tour across Canada?

T: No, we haven’t. Last summer we were working on an album, and things were coming together nicely. Then Marcy had a baby. We’re kind of in a holding pattern right now, writing new material, putting the finishing touches on the album. We’re not playing out much right now because she’s tired and needs a nap! That’s one of the reasons I joined the Songwriter’s Association of Canada –I thought I could get my songs out there.

K: Do you ever play solo?

T: Not really, no. I’m not much of a singer. It terrifies me. In the past 12 months, I’ve made it a goal that I’m going to sing in public. And I do now. I’m getting better, but you couldn’t give me an hour and a half in front of the microphone.

K: And you’re a dad too. I’m thinking about the touring thing. I’m not sure how many kids you have…

T: I have two boys, they’re seven and ten. So they’re old enough if I go away for a few days. We played at the Orillia Jazz and Blues Festival in October, and I was gone for three days then. And that was fine. But the idea of doing a three-week tour is not really feasible. It might happen this summer, but we don’t have any serious ambitions to tour in the next year.

K: That brings me to something you’ve been talking about, your Hundred-Mile Microphone project. Tell me about that.

T: It started because I bumped into an old friend on the web, a guy name Glenn Marshall, who runs a recording studio here in Hamilton. He’s worked with a ton of people, Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno at the top of the list. He used to be in a band in the 80s. I was just coming into the scene, and he was at the top of the scene. And I remember hanging out with him, and I was really impressed that these people were making music their lives. Then he just kind of vanished for a while. I don’t know what happened. Well, in his blog he says that he developed stage fright. Suddenly he couldn’t go up on stage anymore. He went into the studio, became a great producer.

This got me thinking about my place in the local music scene. And I realized that in a lot of ways I don’t know what’s around me. Because we’re all – you… me… everybody is so distracted by music that’s piped in from outside. I found Glenn’s song on the same day that Whitney Houston died. Everybody was posting “Whitney Houston is dead. What a tragedy, and what a great voice.” And I was sad, I mean I liked Whitney as a singer. But then Glenn’s song came in, and it had a much more powerful impact on me because it was somebody I knew. I’d shaken his hand, I’d eaten dinner at his house. So I got to thinking that maybe I should spend more time exploring my local musical environment.

Since I’ve posted up the blog and the Facebook site that partners with it, I’ve been getting me the names of bands that I’ve never heard of that literally live right around the corner from me. Music is everywhere. If I go for a walk on a summer night, I’m going to hear somebody playing guitar out of their basement or attic window. Right now, a five-minute car ride and I could be at ten different clubs where somebody is playing music. What this project is is the chance to redevelop personal connections with the music scene. To say thank you to Glenn. To say thank you to my buddy Dave, who’s playing a gig tonight. By the way, Dave’s band was the first band that my wife ever saw when she was fourteen. Not only that, but his sixteen year old son is in my English class right now. Everything just goes in these little circles. It’s awesome when you realize it. You don’t need any music from anywhere else, because there is so much good stuff right here. Wherever here is.

K: You’re doing the nine week blogging challenge with me, which is all about social media. Why did you decide to do that?

T: The initial attraction was because the band is not playing out that much right now. I thought let’s see if I can use this little shiny box *points to computer* to grow the fan base and explore other avenues for getting the music out there. Initially I found a couple of things a little frustrating: The transparency of all this software: I could set up a blog, but then it wouldn’t talk to my twitter which wouldn’t talk to my Facebook. There was all this trying to massage the pieces together so that they cooperated.

The other thing is that I often feel like I’m dropping pebbles down a well and listening to the echos. As consumers of web content we all see the big, popular stuff; when something goes viral everybody gets it. And I think this gives me and probably some other people a false sense that when you put something on the internet you will find an audience. Which is demonstratively not true.

Having said that, there *is* a cool thing coming out of Hamilton right now. There’s a guy named Drew Smith, who is a wonderful singer-songwriter… he sounds like Radiohead or Coldplay, atmospheric poppy stuff. He did a neat thing to make his last video. He had $2000, so he outsourced it. He got a dance school in India to make a Bollywood style video. In the last two weeks he’s gotten about 185,000 hits. And today it’s going to go through the roof, because it’s on the front page of the Arts & Entertainment section of the Wall Street Journal. It’s an article about outsourcing, really.

K: You’re bringing up the elusive question about why things go viral. (a) They have to be really good but also (b) everybody’s always looking for the new story.

T: Just being a good singer singing a good song is not going to get you a million hits.

K: Right.

T: A whole different part of your brain gets engaged in how to get your idea out. But I don’t watch videos. I just don’t like them. I like to listen to music, not look at it. So the idea that I can make a picture that goes with my music kind of blew the doors off of my brain for a week and a half there.

K: It’s a whole other art form, in a sense. How many hats *do* we wear as musicians? We’re already doing (a) the music (b) the writing (c) the performing…

T: …and then there’s maintaining a blog, doing my twitter feed, and now I’m going to direct my own videos? And I’ve got a day job! I’m a high school English teacher. The idea that I’m going to come home after work, spend quality time with my wife and my kids and maybe do a little cleaning in the kitchen, and then start shooting a video at 11 o’clock at night?

K: Oh yah man, come on! Maybe you should outsource to your students.

T: That’s funny, because yesterday… I’ve got these two really wonderful visual artists who are in my writer’s craft class… I gave them a copy of my CD. I said “I can’t pay you for this, or give you bonus marks in English class for it. But you have my eternal gratitude, and I’ll give you credits in the liner notes.” So they’re going to do a series of illustrations…

[We talk for a bit about making videos out of fridge magnets and lite brights, etc.]

T: You know that I maintain three blogs?

K: Yes. I love the poetry one.

T: The poetry blog never gets any hits! Every time I publish a poem, I post it up on Facebook and the same 20 – 25 people read the poem. Occasionally somebody responds, and that’s just fine. I don’t write because I want to get rich and famous. That’s clearly never going to happen for anybody ever again! But as soon as I posted my first Hundred-Mile Microphone, I got 200 hits within 24 hours. Apparently there’s an audience for this, an appetite for the exploration of local music and culture. I’m excited to discover that I’ve stumbled upon something that other people are excited about too.

K: Cool! Okay, just a couple more questions. Sweet or Savoury, and why?

T: Savoury, I don’t know why. Because I’m already sweet enough?

K: Adorable! One more. What would your secret nickname be for yourself?

T: Like if I were a superhero?

K: Sure.

T: If I were a superhero I would want the ability to breath under water. So what would my nickname be? I think I would probably call myself… *thinks* No… not “The Amphibian”. That’s a terrible name for a superhero! I can’t tell you my secret name. That would be giving it away, right?

K: Right. *smile* I really appreciate you taking time to talk with me, thanks Tom!

LISTEN to Love Lets Go, the title track from Trio Arjento’s upcoming CD.

VISIT www.trioarjento.com

LIKE Trio Arjento on Facebook

CHECK OUT the Hundred-Mile Microphone Project.

WATCH Trio Arjento’s version of Human Nature by Michael Jackson on youtube. (Yes, a video!)

So earlier this week, I spoke with Tom Shea of Trio Arjento, Sue Newberry of Sue Newberry & The Laws and Kimi Lyn Smith to find out what’s going on their worlds.

Initially I thought I would post all three interviews today… a cornucopia of music and ideas for you, my faithful blog readers, to peruse through. But after chatting with each of these wonderful people and hearing their responses, I realizes that they each deserve their own day in the glow of the blog-sun. I will be posting Sue and Kim’s interviews separately over the next couple of days.

Today, may I present to you…
An interview with Tom Shea of Trio Arjento!

Next week: “Your Newsletter”.
Look for my next blog update Monday February 27th.

For more about the blogging challenge I have embarked on for my 2012 New Year’s resolution, see my earlier posts:
Warm up: Does Anybody Ever Win These Things
Week 1: What The Mayans Can Teach Us About Setting Goals, Or…
Week 2: Hold the door, this elevator is going up!
Week 3: Home Sweet Homepage
Week 4: Social Media and the Theory of Everything
Week 5: Music Videos Are Not Dead! They’ve Just Gone North For The Winter.

The task: (a) entwine youtube into my online presence and (b) post a new video. So after fiddling around with my youtube channel – switching over to the new layout, updating the look with my now ubiquitous honeycomb backdrop and adding web links and so forth – I set out to finish part (b) of the task.

And I’m glad I did. Because this week, it seems, I have inadvertently launched a new project aptly titled: my Homemade Music Video Project. This has been on my secret to-do list since I first created the music video for my song Be My Girl back in March of 2010.

I say secret because in addition to making music, I have a fantasy of being a world famous movie director / auteur! Okay, if not world famous…then at least kinda well known around internet circles and among my fans and friends.

How To Make A Secret Message

I’m a filmmaking newby, and I’m fascinated with old super 8 footage and stop animation and all sorts of low-tech ideas. What better way to figure stuff out then to…well… figure it out!

So the project goes like this: I am going to make videos for every song on my album, Even Though The Sky Was Falling… and then some (I’m thinking of a few tunes from my earlier album, Hearts Fall, and when the new album comes out – songs from that one too.) Once a month, or so, I plan to put together a new video and… yep, you got it… post it on my youtube channel. Seamless integration!

And So, Drrrrrrum Rrrrrrrollll…

Here is my first submission: (well, second if you consider Be My Girl to be the inaugural one so many mooooons ago.)

May I present: Little Grey Sparrow!

(Warning: embarrassing hair cuts ahead.)

Part Two: A Brief Musing On The Function Of Music Videos

Remember a few years ago when every body was saying that music videos were dead? That’s because in the old school way of thinking (old school being 80s & 90s MTV model) music videos were promotional tools only… music video were the sweet eye candy, the ribbon on the music, the window dressing on the salad days designed to do one thing only… sell singles.

They were sleek, expensive and only doable for artists with major label support. After all, there was only so much broadcasting time available on MTV or MuchMusic – and those were really the only outlets for showing them. If you were going to sink that much money into promoting a song, the production values had to be high. And that meant having big backers.

Even the addition of CMT and MuchMore didn’t do much to change this. If your video didn’t have high production value and someone working it for you [read = $$$], it was/is tough to get it added to rotation. (Though having said that, and if I may toot my own horn for a second: last year Be My Girl got picked up by Bravo, and I hear it still plays from time to time. Groovy!)

February 14th, 2005: The Day That Everything Changed

And then Youtube showed up. All of a sudden you could post as many videos as you wanted and the ability to garner viewership was, theoretically, a democratic process. If people liked your video and shared it, well gosh darn… you’d go viral! Thus followed the explosion of kitten and silly prank videos and other quick sugar fixes. [Ed. note: well, it took a few months for youtube to actually get up and running. But the domain name was registered seve years ago tomorrow. And in my opinion, that's romantic enough to deserve to be the title for this section]

Youtube opened up an avenue for independent artists to try their hand too. And thanks to the limits of bandwidth and viewing resolution, as well as the immediacy of upload times, music videos no longer needed to be polished and sleek, just interesting to watch.

Tap, Tap… Is This Thing On?

This raises the question – as an independent musician trying to build sustainable income from music, I wonder do music videos really help to sell music anymore? Do people rush from watching my latest post over to iTunes to download the song?

Maybe that is not the right question anymore. What music videos do is help to forge stronger relationships with fans, and hopefully make new fans too. And equally important is that the process of searching for visuals to express a particular song inspires me to expand my creative thinking. Hopefully that brings depth and moves me to make better work in the future.

What do you think? Are music videos dead? If not, what do you get out of them? What makes a music video interesting enough for you to watch and to share?

Next week: “Blogging”.
Look for my next blog update Monday February 20th.

For more about the blogging challenge I have embarked on for my 2012 New Year’s resolution, see my earlier posts:
Warm up: Does Anybody Ever Win These Things
Week 1: What The Mayans Can Teach Us About Setting Goals, Or…
Week 2: Hold the door, this elevator is going up!
Week 3: Home Sweet Homepage
Week 4: Social Media and the Theory of Everything

The scientist in me wants to know why there is such a discrepancy between ways time passes when you are online. Note the difference between:

(A) The length of time you have to wait between posting a status update on your Facebook and the moment you receive your first reply. Those few minutes can stretch out to foreeeeever! (If you’re looking to bend your brain, check out the article on “Event Horizons” on Wikipedia. Warning: Geek Alert!)

Similarly, why does it take so long for someone to respond to that important email? (Don’t they know it’s urgent… URGENT! In my world, that is.)

(B) On the other hand, how come time flies so quickly when it comes to writing that new blog entry? Where did that eight hours go since you sat down to type out a few lines?

Let’s Do The Time Warp!

One of Einstein's lesser known equations: (L+R)(H+K) = TW
(A jump to the left + A step to the right) (hands on your hips + knees pulled in tight) = time warp.

.

Scientists are busy working on developing a single equation that can tie together and fully explains all known physical phenomena. So tell me, wouldn’t that be helpful when trying to balance my million online social media sites? Soundcloud, sites that let you “sign in with your facebook account” and organizational apps like Hootsuite and Bufferapp suggest that computer programmers are on the same hunt for the perfect “Theory of Everything”. Though they are still faced with the issue of dark matter to deal with (anyone using Myspace these days?)

Funnily enough, this week actually found me spending more time offline playing guitar and recording demos than in the previous three weeks combined. Ironic, since the task was all about social media, which as you know happens entirely online.

But as Einstein (probably) said: you gotta take time to dance if you want to have something to share with your tweeps and facebook friends.

Next week: “The Musician’s Guide To Youtube”.
Look for my next blog update Monday February 13th.

For more about the blogging challenge I have embarked on for my 2012 New Year’s resolution, see my earlier posts:
Warm up: Does Anybody Ever Win These Things
Week 1: What The Mayans Can Teach Us About Setting Goals, Or…
Week 2: Hold the door, this elevator is going up!
Week 3: Home Sweet Homepage

First of all, let me give a shout out to Carlos Gouveia who built all the backend for my website entirely from scratch last year! Go ahead, check it out: www.karynellis.com. But wait – it’s not a small site – so actually you may want to finish the rest of this article first! :) Tell you what… keep reading to the bottom of the page, and I promise to post the link again there for you.

Footloose and Full of Fancy PHP and CSS and ABCs and XYZeds

I went deep into the recesses of the admin area and ftp site to make several much needed updates. I was wowed to be seeing what all goes on behind the scenes to make a website run. Programming is a whole other art form, in my opinion, that I can only admire from afar as a musician. Things are waaaay more complicated then way back than they were when I built my first, rudimentary site using Notepad and basic html coding. Remember those days? Needless to say, this week there was a *huge* learning curve for me to be able to update the new site myself.

Luckily in addition to music, I love puzzles – yeah, I’m a nerd that way – and so I pulled several all-nighters (three of them, in fact) figuring out how to do simple things like get my “join my mailing list” button to appear on every page and to create a new section on my site called “How To Host a House Concert”. I also had fun working on graphics stuff like the corresponding cute little house concert notices that you see on my tour page and scattered throughout the site as well as the new banner on the contact page. But, my friends, it was worth every late night minute. This is stuff I’ve been meaning to do for ages! And it feels good!

January February Spring Cleaning

So the floors are swept, and the window sills are dusted. Still have to wipe down the cupboards and sort through the coat closet. There are a few more things I’m going to update in the next week or so, once I’ve caught up on my sleep! Like a better way to hear music on the site and those comments from the survey that I promised I’d be posting (turns out I have to build a new page, and I didn’t have a chance in the midst of everything else. But they’re coming…!) [Ed. note: Posted!]

Another *very* exciting thing (in my humblest of opinion) that’s coming in the next couple of days is the addition of a slideshow on the homepage! Woo! Moving pictures! Like finally hanging up the paintings in the living room. Maybe the slideshow will already be up by the time you read this! The programming is – I admit – beyond my cut ‘n paste abilities, so my friend Nick Stott is walking me through the process of making it live. We have a IM date early this week to do it. I’ve seen the preview, though, and I love it! [Ed. note: the slider is up! Hurray! Nick, you rock!]

“You Know That Cute Little Place On The Corner Of Profile & Page?”

Now, you may be asking yourself why I am doing all this fancy pants work on my website when it seems like all the action these days is to be found on places like facebook and twitter?

Those sites are for sure fabulous for meeting up with people to socialize. They’re like meeting up in a café for a coffee date (or if you’re a super social site user, like holding court in that same café all day). But for myself, I also enjoy the pleasure of good old-fashioned inviting people over to my place for a visit too.

That’s because I want people to come over to my house and thumb through my bookshelves to see what I’m reading, spot a good book and then borrow it. I want them to admire the collection of beautiful, rusty farm implements displayed along the wainscoting, which I gathered while living for a few years on a farm outside of Kingston, Ontario. I want to put the kettle on for coffee and to set out a tray of crackers and hummus for us to nibble on while we sit in the dining room and chat about stuff. Sometimes I just want to play host in my own home.

Those are some of my Rusty Things

Calvin & Hobbs, Six-String Nation and the French / English Dictionary about sums it up.

Yes, I want people to come to understand me / my personality through the space that I live in. Imagine carting all the things that define me every time I set out to meet someone in a café somewhere. Sure, I can bring a snapshot or two… but it is through the particular way things are laid out in my space, that I can share a lot more of myself with you.

The metaphor’s not perfect, of course. Until we have true 3-D downloading capabilities using transport technology through the internet, you won’t be able to feel the weight of those cool rusty farm tools just by visiting my website… but you will get to enjoy a colour scheme that matches them and no ads in the sidebar. Likewise there is not quite enough room in my house here in BC for *everyone* who visits to become my roommate. But, I wouldn’t mind if that same everyone made my website their go-to page when logging into the internet. :))

Here’s that link that I promised you. www.karynellis.com. Find any other dust bunnies during your visit to my website? Any thing that would make it a better place to visit? Anything you especially like about it? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Next week: “Social Media = Engagement”.
Look for my next blog update Monday February 6th.

Related post: I love!

I am in the second week of my blogging challenge: Music Success in Nine Weeks, and this week’s task is to write two or three sentences that sum me up as an artist. This “elevator pitch” (also called a 15-second pitch) is a short blurb meant to be delivered quickly to a potential fan, industry supporter, media tastemaker, etc, in the time that it might take to share an elevator ride together. Just enough description to entice them to check me out if they haven’t heard of me before and to raise awareness of my music to a new level.

Talk To Me, Otis!
This should be easy, right? I am songwriter, and I am used to using words. But… [pause] I’m not an engineer. Trying to condense my work into a couple of lines feels like trying to draft the blueprint of an amazing “elevating machine.” I know there are some hoists and some cables, and there’s a cabin nestled inside an elevator shaft. Or… maybe there are ropes or pulleys or…

From the National Archives.

I, like many artists, often create from a place of impulse. I write songs and I perform them in front of hundreds of people, but I don’t often stop to think about the impact I am making. I mean, I like it when people respond to my work. I love hearing comments and applause, yes. But I don’t really know how people, you know, see me. In my mind, I’m just doing my thing without too much thought to whether or not my slip is showing. So what could have been a ten-minute exercise – two or three sentences that sum up my sound – turned into a week-long journey into another philosophical question: what impact do I make in the world?

The Mechanics Of Un-Invisibility
I decided to ask people. I drafted up a four-question survey I called “How Would You Describe Me To Your Friends”. (I used SurveyMonkey.com, a decent platform for making free surveys.) I asked people to tell me who I sound like (similar artists), what genre I play, and what words they might use to describe my music to someone who doesn’t know me (tying this back in to what one might say to a stranger in an elevator.) I included a long list of adjectives scoured from reviews and stuff written about me. This in itself was pretty trippy: sometimes I am stuck in my own little elevator cabin and I lose perspective on where I am in my career. I found a lot of really nice write ups in the press using words like “playful”, “whimsical”, “melodic”, “bittersweet”, “expressive”, “warm” and so forth. Felt good to put the list together.

However, the moment I hit send to my newsletter pointing them to the survey, I had an incredible plunging feeling. You know… you’re standing in the elevator and you hear the moaning of cables, and the sudden lurch of the cabin and you think… “oh my god this baby is going down!” Thoughts of “self-indulgent” and “who I am to ask… who really cares about little ol’ me?” started running around inside my head.

The Rush Of Falling
Imagine then how utterly blown away I was to discover forty people were willing to take time out of their busy days to fill in my ever so clunky survey (did I mention I’m not an engineer?) People left comments that were amazing. I am reminded that just as I feel goodwill for other artists so too do people sometimes feel goodwill towards me.

The Root Verb Of The Word Elevator Is Elevate:

1. To move (something) to a higher place or position from a lower one; lift.
2. To increase the amplitude, intensity, or volume of.
3. To promote to a higher rank.
4. To raise to a higher moral, cultural, or intellectual level.
5. To lift the spirits of; elate.

While all of the above are relavent in the context of this week’s task, definition number five, in particular, catches my eye.

Here’s a short sample of the comments people wrote:

“I really enjoy having your music as part of the soundtrack to my life. When I am up it can take me just a little higher and when I am down it’s like having a friend to ride it out with. But whatever and whenever, your voice and music always feel like home.” SB

“There is something very personal in your shows. I have been to three or four, and I have always felt “close” to you, even though we never spoke. It truly feels like you are sharing your most personal feelings with the crowd… the feeling of “I know how she feels, I felt it too”.” YF

“Your music lifts my heart.” DH

First Draft
So much of what I am discovering these past couple weeks doing this blogging challenge is that to be better “business-minded” and reach new levels as an artist, my relationships with people are at the core. I was reminded again this week that my art connects me to others and others to me. And at the end of this week, I humbly submit, I feel elevated.

The pitch I wrote at the end of this process is somewhat anti-climactic after all the emotional adventures I went through. But I’ll put it down here for the curious. (A shout out to Ross Douglas and Guido Ocker whose wonderful comments were woven into directly the pitch.)

“Karyn Ellis is a gentle powerhouse of a songwriter. Playful, bittersweet and made with the finest ingredients of Folk, Country, Pop and even a trace of Jazz. Listen and be fortified.”

Please do let me know if you think it sounds like me! Suggestions for edits are welcome. I have an inkling that it does, but can I really know for sure? :)

Next week: “Your Website”.
Look for my next blog update Monday January 30th.

PS, I’ll be posting more comments and feedback from the survey as part of next week’s challenge. [Ed. note: Survey Results and Comments from the Survey have been posted here!]

Related Posts: The Difference Between Small Towns And Cities… Stickers!, and a prose poem: “Some Days It Surprises Me”

To kick off the challenge, this week (number one) is all about setting goals. Write them down, so the wisdom goes, and you’ll be way more likely to achieve them. Which got me thinking about why I have never done it before now.

Goals – sigh – why bother?
According to the doomsayers – the Mayan Long Count calendar ends on December 21st 2012 and therefore, they conclude, humankind will be toast too. *cue ominous music* Uneasiness is sweeping the general population like the flu: freaky weather, volcanos and earthquakes, oil spills in the ocean, economic struggles in Europe, full body scanners at airports, newsfeeds describing unending tragedy and mistrust between fellow human beings. Doesn’t that list just go on and on…

In the face of all this doom ‘n gloom, I’m sitting down to write out my goals for the next 3-months, 6-months, 1-year, 5-year and lifetime, and I’m thinking… geez, December 21st is less than a year away. Does that mean I shouldn’t bother with anything beyond the 6-month plan?

Neverending Story
But wait a minute, I thought Y2K was supposed to be the doozy that would knock us all out with errant missiles and misbehaving computers. And, wasn’t last year home to a couple of rapture ascension dates that never came to pass? In fact, a quick look at Wikipedia tells me that there have been over a hundred apocalyptic dates throughout history, and more to come (assuming we make it through this year.)

So you can see why when it comes to setting goals – just like quitting smoking – there has never really been a good time.

Okay, sure. Consciously I do not actually buy into the doom ‘n gloom model. Quite the contrary. My worldview can be summed up by this quote: “I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!” (Louise Bogan)

This week, however, I was embarrassed to discover what has been stopping me from expressing my goals all these years. Somewhere along the way my hope fell out of favour, and hopelessness gained entry into my subconscious. I have been worn down by the barrage of bad news and numbed by it.

Crazy Little Thing Called Hope
Well damn you, doom! The reason I became an artist in the first place was to hang on to this little spark called hope. Even in this time of winter, I call forth music like spring calls forth poppies. I will sing and write songs like blooms waving freely across a field.

Yes, what I have realized this week is that it is no small act – writing down one’s goals (aka dreams.) It goes beyond mine or anyone’s personal aspirations; I see expressing them as an act of hope. By affixing goals/dreams into concrete form, I am saying to the world I trust that you are going to be here with me on December 22, 2012 and as far into the future as life takes me.

So Don’t Blame the Mayans
If anything, let’s applaud them for their incredible forward thinking and rich civilization. After all, they created a calendar cycle 5,126 years long, setting their sights well beyond any single lifetime. That’s advanced goal setting if I’ve ever seen it. The fact that the calendar runs out this year means it’s more than overdue for me… for us… to take it from here, thanks.

This week I have created a number of pretty 8 ½ x 11s describing my goals for the upcoming year, and I have placed them in my newly created “Goals Book”, a document I will refer to again and again throughout the coming months and years.

For the record (and in honour of the Mayan long count calendar,) let me add one here too. “It is December 22nd, 2012. Happy solstice! It’s good to be alive! To celebrate the returning sun, today I am sharing my homemade video for “Winter Song” (one of my new songs from my new album recorded this year) online through my newsletter, website, various online social media sites, etc. Enjoy!”

What are you doing December 22nd?

Next week: “Creating The Perfect Pitch”.
Look for my next blog update Monday January 23rd.

Related post: (1) I Like Lists

I’ll take this as a positive sign from the universe that I’m on the right track with my new year’s resolutions. I’m making a new album this year.. woo!… and along side of that creative project… I have decided it’s time to make a concerted effort to get organized!!!! I’m delving into marketing, admin and all that crazy business stuff that seems to go along with the job of being an independent musician these days. I want to turn those seemingly four-letter words into things that are okay… or, you know what… even better than okay. I am embracing the idea that it is GOOD to get my music out there in the world.

To that end, I have just started an online blogging challenge called “Music Success in 9 weeks”. Based on Ariel Hyatt’s book of the same name. Each week I (alongside 60 other songwriter colleagues / challengees) am assigned a task designed to kick up the “career” side of things for my music, starting with week 1… Setting Goals! I then get to blog about it. To share with you, my dear reader, the entire grueling process of getting my biz in order. Once a week, expect me to be elated, embarrassed, annoyed, enthusiastic and all sorts of other things starting with not only vowels, but consonants too! Join me on my journey. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this process too.

Post script: According to the fine print of my camcorder prize, I won’t actually get it in my hungry little hands for another eight weeks or so. So let’s think of it as the carrot that keeps me on track with this blogging challenge. By the time my camera arrives, I will surely be launching into the new and rejuvenated moi! And just in time to film the making of my new album, too! Yes!

PPS, I’ll be posting my progress once a week on Mondays. My first “Music Success in 9 weeks” blog goes up Monday January 16th. :)

xo Karyn

You can look out your front door here in the interior of British Columbia and see all sorts of wildlife milling around in your yard.