Groove Sandwich

Here's a new track for you folks!

 

 

Jeff Higgins is the founder of Groove Sandwich. School and work have been robbing him of blog time lately.

A new show on May 20th!

Just thought I'd share....

A New Breed of Label: An Interview with Jay Durel

 

I recently had the pleasure of talking shop with Jay Durel, Vice President of FOL Records. He and his colleagues have some bold new ideas for the music business. They've developed a business model that sounds like a win/win situation for everybody involved.

Jay, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer some questions for us. First, what's different about FOL Records versus a traditional record label?

A traditional label finds artists, invests in them, then pays them a small percentage of profit (usually around 15%) after the money has been recouped. Also, once signed to a label, it is very rare for an artist to have creative control and freedom to do as they please. Contracts usually last 2-5 years with no option of opting out. Not only that, but the label owns the music they make.

On the other hand, FOLrecords is open to anybody, for free. The artists always have complete control over their music. When signing up for our service, the only rights we gain are non-exclusive. All this means is we gain the right to promote your music, which in turn helps promote the website. 

To understand the differences between a traditional label and FOLrecords we must first explain what FOLrecords actually is. FOL stands for First Online Label. We are the first Do-it-yourself platform for musicians and fans. Revenue Sharing and Pay-What-You-Want are our driving forces.

Artists can create a profile and upload their music, videos, pictures, etc, and get paid for people simply viewing their profile. Revenue Sharing is already creating many successful people through youtube. We will be paying the artists 80% of the money made from the advertisement on their pages. 

Currently, every song, is available for free download. In our next big update, this "free download" will change to "Pay-what-you-want". The fans will still be able to download music for free, but it will leave the path of least resistance for anyone who want to support their artists. While these ideas are revolutionary in themselves, the features we are bringing to fans are truly innovative. The tools we are offering inherently promote entrepreneurship and individuality, versus the current system of big business and mass consumption. Every song on FOLrecords will have a unique link and unique embed code available to registered fans. When fans use these links to promote the artists, we can track exactly how many views and/or purchases they bring to the artists. The fans will earn a percentage from the advertisement and any purchases they bring the artist. 

Artists also have direct contact with us through our "My personal A&R" feature.

These are the fundamental concepts that make up FOLrecords. We began creating this website 7 months ago with a very small budget. Things have moved a long way since then and we have a lot more in store.

Where did you get the idea for this?

Seven months ago, I was living in Houston going to school for audio engineering, working for a film company, working/interning at a studio, and working at an italian restaurant as a delivery driver. My neighbor and long time friend Joe Griffith was just returning to Houston after graduating from Full Sail university. One of his close friends from school, Kamil Gryzch, was visiting from chicago. Kamil started his first label at 16 and has been running websites for years. At the time, I was trying to create a website for a video game but it wasn't anything serious. Kamil and I met and pretty much immediately began talking about websites. That's when everything started. He told me about his idea of bringing revenue sharing to music, and I immediately saw its potential. We stayed up till 4 a.m. every night for those next two weeks figuring out every detail we could about how to make this work. Little did I know he already had a prototype in development. The only feature it had was the initial revenue sharing, but it was a start. Now, we are all living in Los Angeles and working out of our apartment.

What kind of changes do you want to see in the music industry?

We want to make the music industry about the music, not the money. Which seems counter-intuitive because our website is a monetary system, but the platform promotes quality. The artists that deserve to be supported will be supported by their fans. The fans only promote the artists people like. It is a win-win situation. 

What kind of genres would one find at FOL?

FOL is very hip-hop heavy at the moment because all of us have experience in the hip-hop industry, but you will find a little bit of everything. The website is not genre specific in any way. Our platform is available to everybody, everywhere. 

How much does it cost the artist? How much does it cost the fans?

Nothing. It is free to sign up and participate. Fans are essentially helping the artists by simply viewing their profile.

Where do you see FOL five years from now?

Being the #1 online music platform for musicians and the #1 source of music for fans. 

 

Jeff Higgins is the founder of Groove Sandwich. He apologizes for the lack of content lately, but he's been in outer space battling aliens.

If you get creeped out while reading this, you're not alone.

Putting the Cart Before the Horse

Since starting up this blog, I've heard a lot of groups. I've heard acts that I know in my heart will one day achieve greatness. I've also heard music so dreadful that it makes me wonder if it's part of some over-the-top joke. One of the most common problems is an over-adherance to a genre. A band will become so hell-bent on becoming the next best (insert genre) group that they focus on the elements that they feel they have to include to be a part of that sound. What they're actually doing is putting the cart before the horse.

This may seem like basic stuff to some of you, but you'd be surprised how often I get sent lackluster albums. Far too often bands make music that is clearly geared toward a genre that they're all in love with, but the final product comes out dull. Why? Because for every genre, there's an archetypal artist. When one sticks too closely to the standard of a genre, it's very easy to sound way too much like its most prominent act. How many industrial bands have you heard that sound too much like Ministry? How many rappers have you heard that sound too much like Tupac?

If you think you or your group is in danger of going down that road, try this exercise:

1) Write down your top ten favorite songs. Comb through your library of music and put some thought into it. These should be songs that you can't live without. For the purpose of this example, we'll use one of my favorites, "Cramm" by Three Trapped Tigers.

2) Write down all the things you like about every song. For me and "Cramm", I like the instrumental nature of it, the heavy guitars, the syncopated rhythms, the dynamics and the wide tonal range.

3) Look at what you've written for all of your songs. Let's say that in most of my favorite songs I've written down "heavy guitars", "dynamics", "ambient passages" and "female vocals".

4) Examine your own music. What things from your list do you incorporate into your own tunes? I might take a look at my material and note that I don't have heavy guitars and I don't have female vocals (actually, no vocals at all). Is your material lacking any of the concepts that are important to you?

5) The next step is entirely up to you. If there are musical elements that truly make you happy but are being left out, you may want to consider going back to the drawing board. There's no shame in taking another stab at the material you've already written, especially if it means that you're happier with the final product. 

Be original. Don't focus on being a part of any genre. If you're out there forming bands and writing songs, you obviously love music. Take all of the things that you enjoy and combine them into the music that makes you the happiest. If it doesn't get you fired up, how can you expect it to do the same for your audience?

Jeff Higgins is the founder of Groove Sandwich and he definitely sounds too much like Tupac. (Not really.)

Music from the Frontier Episode #4

Today’s music is an absolute treat. We’re having a look at Inverted Pendulum by Comfort Zone, an experimental duo from Los Angeles that exclusively plays improvised music. Featuring percussion and a Chapman stick, Comfort Zone draw on a number of genres including jazz, post-rock, and noise. Given my recent bashing of the Chapman, these dudes have a lot to prove. Let’s see what they can do.

One of the major pitfalls of playing improvised music is that a performer can eventually begin to recycle old tricks, despite his best efforts. Comfort Zone manages to avoid that beautifully. Each track is its own entity that differs enough from the others to be distinctive yet never enough to lose sight of the album’s overall feel. Additionally, there’s a lot of restraint shown by both performers. They periodically demonstrate an ability to tear it up on their respective instruments yet they always manage to keep things relevant to the song. If a particular passage doesn’t call for an all out barrage of sound, you won’t hear it.

What impressed me most about Inverted Pendulum is that I actually enjoyed the passages played on the Chapman. In the past, I've bashed the instrument because all of the music I'd heard on it was most douchly. Comfort Zone manage to elevate the instrument to a new level and prove that it truly is capable of wonderful things. I've never been so happy to be proven wrong.

Jeff Higgins is the founder of Groove Sandwich. He doesn't often admit that hes wrong. Savor it.

Music from the Frontier Episode #3

Today I’m listening to Magicicada from the lost city of Atlanta. As you can tell from his live track “The Name of the Word”, his brand of pseudo-electronica, pseudo-lofi, pseudo-glitch music uses a lot of consonant sounds. It’s not something that you hear very often from those of us that choose to explore the outer reaches of creativity. While he does later get into some more aggressive tones and textures, it’s the development into some wild rhythms that keeps me locked into this track. With all of the voices at play, it’s really refreshing that it never gets too heavy at any point. It may not seem like a very bold piece of music at first, but as you listen you’ll find many layers to explore. Keep up the good work, Magicicada.

 

Jeff Higgins is the founder of Groove Sandwich. He's also the founder of Jeff Higgins.

Check it out, ya'll.

My first show as a solo artist.

 

Want tickets? Of course you do. Click here and you can purchse as many as you like. Come on out. This shit is going to be fun.

 

Jeff Higgins is the founder of Groove Sandwich. He has no idea what he's doing.

Music from the Frontier - Episode #2

It’s big. It’s loud. It’s terrifying. The New Orleans based electronic artist known as Amputer delivers sheer horror in music form. The only thing I could conceivably compare it to would be David Lynch’s Eraserhead. It’s unspeakably disturbing yet there’s something about it that latches onto you. You can’t escape it. I’ve heard noise music and I‘ve heard drone. What I’ve never heard before is somebody using these elements to such a programmatic effect. Kudos to Amputer for getting me hooked on something that so thoroughly scares the crap out of me.

 

 

Jeff Higgins is the founder of Groove Sandwich and he needs to go listen to something happy now.