Cookin' an EP with the Folk 'n' Thieves

Cookin' up the latest EP release from the Folk 'n' Thieves has had its fair share of 'seat of your pants' moments!  Happy Folkin' New Year (as an idea) was on the books since October.  Inspired by a trip to the North Shore for a wedding (aided by whitefish, dandelion wine, cigars, and fresh pressed cider), we dared ourselves to get an EP together before the New Year struck!  No sweat right?

We needed songs (check), a bit of practice (check), a sound engineer, graphics, a venue to release it (check-- 331 Club...yes!!), and a finished product.  Oh...and a band of willing participants.

Start the whole thing out with a band discussion--questions about moving forward.  Could we make the EP happen?  What was the point?  How much $$$?  What bands would share the spoils of Happy Folkin' New Year?  Who would record us?  What's the square root of 8,000,651?  etc.

 --- And the result? ---

Well, one thing's for sure, Folk 'n' Thieves has been a ragtag combination of musicians and songwriters perty much from the beginning.  The structure is loose in terms of who/when performances happen (at least that is the trend).

So naturally, heading into the project, yet sticking to our formula, we lost a member of the band (banjo) and picked up a substitute/potential new member (organ/accordion) later in the project!

At some point, the decision on the EP came down to what many earth shattering decisions in life come down to:            

--------'Why the hell not?!?  (pardon my french) Let's do this!!'--------

     Our graphic man from the get-go, Jeffrey Nelson, had been feeding us great graphics for a time.  We figured we had those in the proverbial grocery bag (read on).

Self-releasing an EP isn't too grand of an idea as long as you can figure out how to get graphics on a cd.  Memorex CD Labels work great. So do nicely folded grocery bags and some sort of graphic/photoshop program.  Me?  I use GIMP.

To be continued...

Poem

September Night

Midnight sounds, distant rumbles
cars pass, spluttering
but an undertone of crickets
and peepers plays on.

A police car, lights
searing, blows through a
stop sign.
The elm doesn't notice.

It feels the press of the pavement
Patches of motor oil oozing down.
Yet it grows on
a shelter for the homeless sparrow

I find little solace
in the sound of
a V6 engine accelerating
from a dead stop.

But a single cricket chirps
within the leaves
of the elm
above my porch.

Pandora and Artist Royalties..

Will rationality win the day when it comes to artist royalties and Pandora?

or….does it all just come down to the:

Let's think outside of the box, Pandora...

Dear Pandora-

   I was sorry to hear that you are lobbying against artists.

 "Internet broadcasters led by Pandora are pushing Congress to pass the Internet Radio Fairness Act which could cut related royalties paid to musicians by as much as 85%." (http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/11/125-major-acts-unite-to-oppose-pandora-plan-to-cut-net-radio-royalties.html)   It appears that so-called 'fairness,' doesn't have much to do with this act.  Pandora is set to follow the way of commercial and satellite radio before it.

    Artists continue to be pushed to the back of the line when it comes to fair payment for their music. Whether it was major record labels and commercial radio in the past or Pandora now, bottom lines are driving the decision making of for-profit internet streaming services as they continue to grow.  That's all fine, business is business, but I believe it is important that Pandora works with artists, established and emerging to form an equitable vision for all involved.

   Normally, I would support the streaming of my music and the music of other like-minded musicians, but I also believe in fair pay for my work.  An 85% pay cut, seems steep to me.  Granted, it's nearer to what commercial and satellite radio pay on artist royalties, but that doesn't make it fair for artists.  Many more artists are able to create and make a living out of their music at this point in history than at any other time. Don't take a step back in time where exploiting artistic work in the record industry was the norm.  http://www.negativland.com/news/?page_id=17

   My music is not available on Pandora, and I will continue to see that it stays that way, until Pandora works with artists to support them (like it once did), not exploit them.  It's time for artists and distribution services to work together.  Let's not fall into the same patterns and 'boxes' that artists have been trying to escape from for so long.   

Tim Westergren Founder of Pandora Responds

Hi Neal,

Thanks for taking the time to write. This is an issue I take very personally.

I spent about 15 years of my life trying to make a living as a musician, so I am intimately familiar with the challenge of making ends meet, and I know that the digitization of our industry has made it doubly hard, as the CD has experienced such a steep decline. Supporting musicians is a central mission of Pandora and we pay royalties proudly.

While at a glance Internet radio’s efforts to lower its royalty burden may seem like yet another setback for artists, we don’t believe that’s the case. In addition to a basic issue of fairness, we would contend that a more reasonable royalty for Internet radio will greatly accelerate its growth leading to much larger royalties.

Currently, there is absolutely no question that Internet radio’s growth has been greatly slowed by the unequal royalty burden it shoulders. Those rates have pushed the three largest internet radio companies (AOL, Yahoo, MSN) essentially out of the business, and they have also precluded most broadcasters from entering the market place with any vigor.

We’re not seeking the lowest possible royalty. We want something fair. And to us, fairness means allowing us to be governed by the most prevalent, long-accepted royalty standard (called the 801B standard) that has governed copyright administration for decades. In fact, record labels and songwriters have used and accepted this standard themselves in their own rate-setting processes. We don’t know what the outcome of a new standard would be, but the criteria under that standard strike us, and many before us, as reasonable and balanced.

I hope this helps at least clarify our thinking. We think there is a win-win here, but it requires both sides taking the long view.

Thanks again for writing in.

Cheers,

Tim

Re: Pandora

Tim- 

I really appreciate the reply and your perspective on the problem.  Your response really does mean a lot and you will have my ear in this situation.  I will post your response on my blog and website.  I think it provided a perspective on what you all are facing at Pandora.  I'm am an independent musician and as much as I identify as an artist, I also realize that much of this debate hardly involves me and my non-existent royalties anyway!

I do understand that entities like the RIAA have you backed into a corner with very little room to make a profit or even allow for the expansion of the streaming industry.  I also believe that Pandora provides an amazing service to musicians as a way to be heard and discovered.  My fear is that Pandora or internet streaming services may go the way of big media, something more like Clear Channel, where there is little to no room for the great undiscovered music that is out there, something I fear Clear Channel has no idea even exists.

Your response gives me hope that there are people involved in the Internet streaming business who do listen to the small voices out there.

In the past few months, I've been reading media futurist Gerd Leonhard and yesterday in an attempt to gather more information, I found this YouTube video dated 11/9/12 where Gerd and Tom Davenport of the Guardian talk about the situation Pandora and Spotify are facing.  It really helped me re-form my perspective on the issue.  Thanks for the email reply and I hope you will continue to keep artists and creators in mind as this issue develops!

Thank you, 

Re: Pandora

Thanks, Neal.  Appreciate it. 

You're right that a flawed royalty system could have the exact consequence you've described. 

Hopefully rationality will rule the day.

Parting it out, piecing it together.

Home recording just got a whole lot easier. Couple of days ago a friend of mine mentioned a sale that was taking place at Best Buy, so i figured I'd go check it out and see what there was to see. I had been looking at getting a recording interface for my computer and had priced out a couple over the past year. On top of that I was armed with a few extra bucks. Lo and Behold the Focusrite Saffire Pro 24. It was on the upper end of my price range but definitely something that if I saw, I would probably buy. It was available at a price discount, so I snatched it up.

I have now been busy breaking it in on our piano at home. I've been working on finalizing a couple of piano parts for the album and have used it to do some playback and practicing. Alittle something about interfaces. I don't know gobs about them, but here's a brief description. Interfaces allow recording in real time. With an interface hooked up to a computer (in this case a firewire connection) a musician can play an instrument and hear that instrument in their headphones with a mix that has already been recorded. If you've recorded with Garageband, (at least with the older version I use) you'll notice some lag time while the computer records and plays back what is already been recorded. Interfaces help alleviate this slow down and the computer can busy itself with plugins and other important stuff like updating you on your friend's Facebook status while you record.

These pictures are us recording with a couple of mics we have laying around at home. An SM 58 and a Blue Encore. Not particularly great for nuanced recording, but enough for us to get the part solidified. Amanda was busy working on her part for Old Man and the Sea here. It turned out amazingly well. Just a week or so ago we recorded it in one evening with our producer's set up and a box or two of Jakeenos pizzas and obviously, a glass of wine!

Big Bad Mike!

As a part of the Artist Initiative Grant-- I wrote a community aspect into the proposal (Thank you Minnesota State Arts Board!!). The idea was to share music with a Minnesota community. I chose to work with youth from the Urban Arts Academy. These youth are going to help record some songs on the upcoming album! Many thanks to local South Minneapolis photographer Bruce Silcox for the photos in this Blog Post!

What a treat it has been!! Working with kids on music can be alot of fun. You do have to be flexible and ready to go with the flow if the mood changes. Doubtlessly, youth in today's world are looking for cool trendy music. What better way to get them excited about music than through.. Big Bad John..right?!? Have a listen.

Big Bad John

Well maybe not. When I played it for a couple of the youth, i was worried.. One of the kids was like.. 'oh, it's kinda like country rap.' As soon as the word 'country' escaped the lips, I thought I was done for. Country music can get a pretty bad 'rap' (no pun intended) in some circles. I'm not denying Taylor Swift is popular.. But when you say, 'Taylor Swift', half the kids in the room will perk up..and the other half usually go "Lame!!" If you've never heard of her.. check it out. 50/50 chance you might love it? Regardless though, country music evokes alot of strong, often heart-felt emotion in young people today.

I wasn't totally downcast though. 'Rap' had come out in the same sentence as country, so I thought..well we might be on to something here. And who can deny that 'rap' is cool. Isn't rap the essence of cool? Kids like it right? ..I can't really rap, but I thought I could at least try to country rap.

Now alittle more backstory is necessary here. Big Bad John was composed by Dean and Roy Acuff and made famous by Jimmy Dean. My father-in-law, Phill Stoelb, wanted to re-write the song for a retiring co-worker by the name of Mike. He re-wrote the lyrics for the song, to fit the original Big Bad John arrangement. He wanted me to record the re-written song so it could be played as a surprise at Mike's retirement party.

I thought it sounded like a great idea. Here I could work with the kids on some rhythms, and some singing. It would work as a warm up for them. Get them accustomed and ready to record other songs on the album coming out in May. (One of those is currently in the works as we speak!!) We made tambourines from bottle caps and wood scraps. We learned about microphone safety and sensitivity. We also played to a metronome so we were on rhythm. And the youth joyfully chanted 'Big Bad Mike!!' for the microphone. The photo above is an earlier class we did on inspiration and instrument making (cigar box guitars) with the Re-Use Band Project.

Now if you are interested in hearing this conglomeration of sound, you should travel to this link.

Broken Ground - Neal Swanger's Song of the Soul

That will take you right there.. this is a 50 minute interview with Northern Spirit Radio and host Mark Helpsmeet. We discussed some of my recent projects, including the Folk 'n' Thieves, the Broken Ground EP and Big Bad Mike with the Re-Use Band. If you just want to hear from the Re-use Band, you'll have to fast forward the interview to just about the end. It's well worth it. you'll get a few more details about the song in the interview itself.

Our current song project with the youth involves a bully named Billy. He eats red hot cheese puffs and he has big original feet. His favorite target to pick on??? (at least currently)-->> Little Francis. Poor Little Francis.. :( Well, I don't want to give away much more. Besides the youth are helping to write this song and frankly, i don't think i have permission from them to speak about it on the record... They were very concerned about their rights to Big Bad Mike! It is a strong-hearted up and coming generation!!!

In Pie and Other Unrelated News..

Chances are that you've got a cooking blog that you follow now and again. I'll start by saying don't follow mine. You may end up with indigestion... But here's a recent experiment that could have turned out tragic for the squashes involved. Looks like they came through it okay though.

I had some leftover squash filling and pie dough so I poured it into the little cups and made mini pies. I also used a butter crust recipe. That was all that was in the house and nowadays I've found that I can google any random assortment of ingredients and come up with some recipe that has at the very least some well taken photographs to make it look good... like this!!

On Friday I sent out some EPs to some local radio stations.. There are a couple in the Twin Cities and also just outside of and in Wisconsin that I put on the list. I sent out five to start and as I find out about more, I'll keep sending them out. If you hear any music let me know!

I have been in the recording studio with other musicians now for the past couple of weeks. Work continues on the album. It is coming together and the more layers we get, the more exciting it is to see it start to coalesce.

Well if you've made it this far.. speaking of coalescing, new music and all with a new group!! Folk 'n' Thieves is just starting to get off the ground in Minneapolis, but we've already had a few Farmer's Market shows and gigs..and we've been warmly received. We're still working on getting some decent recordings up, but if you want to take a sneak listen..you can have at it here.