During this last week or so I've been reflecting about where I'm heading with my music endevours. I do this every now and again, but this time it's different, something new has occured to me.Until now I have not really taken an objective view of where the music industry might be heading, instead I've been looking at old music success models and trying to re-invent myself to fit in.

In the past I have been trying to obtain some sort of recording, publishing or marketing contract, ideally all three! In my recent research I looked into how the music industry has developed over the last century. It's clear that in the last decade, the amount of musicians recording and promoting their music has risen dramaticly. The amount of CD's being sold has dropped dramaticly and according to Wikipedia "The 2008 British Music Rights survey[17] showed that 80% of people in Britain wanted a legal P2P service, however only half of the respondents thought that the music's creators should be paid." So Basically there's more people promoting their music and less money to support the talent!








The way I see it, there are really 2 choices:

The first one is the commercial option, to become a good investment for the people who are investing in musicians. This is the path that the majority of the commercial artists find themselves on. It relies on large financial backing and therefore is very unlikely to have investors who are willing to take risks in the name of creativity.
It takes a great deal of commitment and constant work as the artist to keep fitting to the requirements in order to remain in this market and from what I can gather you are unlikely to have creative freedom.
Of course the good side to this is that you do get to be a musician full time, the question is at what cost?

The second option is to fund your own music endevours, source your own recording and production costs, learn the boring non-musical side of getting your music out there.
You will need support from those around you, your familly and or spouse, as there will be an outlay of time and money, basically it's a hobby.
Of course there's nothing wrong with having music as a hobby, alot of musicians are content with this. The reason why it can be difficult for some musicians to accept this, is because for some, you know that you do see things differently than those who have seen it as a hobby from the beginning, you have greater aims.
As with the commercial option you will need a great deal of commitment and constant work, but this is much easier when you belive in what you're doing! You rely on self belief as many people around you will not take notice of your talent, especially if you're not out there playing.
The plus side is that you retain complete creative control! Unfortunately, unless you make quite a bit of money, you won't be able to compare the production of your music to commercial music, but commercial music is totally over-produced nowadays anyway. You also will most likely need to find part time work.

I'm choosing the second option as I believe that the great music is created by creative freedom and real life. Unfortunately there is such a gap between the 1st and 2nd options, otherwise you could float between!

So now I'm out to get myself into any music projects that I feel are great, not settling for half good music, the aim is to make excellent music, to the best of my ability and with the ability of whoever I can work with! I look forward to getting it out there! Watch this space!

My first serious effort at becoming a professional musician was after I left College. I had been producing hip hop for a little while and had collaborated with some great emcee's. I set out to make a demo CD of hip hop entirely written by me. Without using samples I was producing a new sound.

After not having any success with this demo CD, I put my efforts into the hip hop collaborations that I was involved with at the time. 'MP3' was one of them and we began gigging, we had some good responses, but I didn't feel entirely satisfied.

I joined Red Light Go as a drummer in an attempt to get back into playing more musical based music, not that I wasn't feeling the hip hop, only that I felt that my skills wern't able to develop within that genre. I was with Red Light Go for almost a year, I left due to my situation (burning the candle at both ends) and dissatisfaction, I wasn't writing music and didn't feel that the band was truely great.

I moved to London in 2007, I really got back into writing music and sought to form a band to perform with. I actually ended up joining another band as a drummer, called Cloak & Dagger. As I had a bedroom studio setup, one of my main roles was recording and production engineer. Again after a year or so, surprise surprise I didn't feel that I was going in the direction that I wanted to!

After leaving C&D I sought to produce another demo, this time with the best of my latest  music. I spent some time researching what was recommended to do in my position. I looked into branding myself and chose a name Soul4t...I bought the domain name and designed some graphics for a CD.

Just before commiting to getting the CD's produced I had the opportunity to help build a recording studio in France. There I would be able to record professional quality and have time to spend on marketing my music. I set up a website to document the build: France Studio Build

The Studio Build was slow due to other parts of the house needing more urgent work and a general lack of focus and planning. When the studio was almost finished in March 2012, we were unexpectedly asked to leave. Luckily the in-laws were able to put us up so that we could stabalise ourselves.

The majority of my music recording equipment is still in storage, but after helping a friend set up a bedroom studio, I am finding ways to record music! I have just finished my first solo hiphop track for a few years: Listen Up. I have around 4 or 5 songs on the go, and look forward to finishing them. I'm also working with other musicians to get out performing, this time with songs which I've co-written or written myself. Lets get down to making great music!

I was about to write a blog about my recent realisation of where I fit in in the music industry. Then I started and it became a mini autobiography! Then I thought that I may as well include it as a background story.

Since around the age of 11 or 12 I presumed that someday, I would be a professional musician. It was clear that I had some musical ability that wasn't apparent in my peers. Throughout secondary school I benefited very little from the schools musical reputation, but in the last couple of years my peers had benifited from the lessons that they had taken and were involved in some good musical projects. Unfortunately I wasn't regarded as a musician and therefore wasn't allowed to take part! Nevertheless I got an A at Music GCSE, even though they disputed some of my work...even my performance!

I began a music tech course at a sixth form, alongside some subjects chosen for me by the head of the sixth form. I was being taught the basics of music recording, something which I had been doing for a few years now.








My father and I both thought I'd be better off leaving and persuing a music career. At this point I was becoming socialy distracted, I was entirely socialy distracted and unfortunately none of my social circle shared my musical pursuits. I did write a 4 track demo based around hip hop, but using live instruments for the backing. I tried promoting it a little and sent it off to a few record companies.

After working full time for a few months, my father and I decided to get me back into college. We found what looked like a great course, Access to music - performing. Two weeks before the course was due to start they cancelled it! I then enrolled in the normal college, doing a couple of other courses that I could put my mind to. After 1 year of study, I wasn't committed enough to it and I didn't return for the second year. I continued to write hip hop and was collaborating with emerging emcee's.

I began working full time again and continued with the hip hop tunes. After a couple of years I decided that hip hop wasn't fulfilling me musicaly. I had always enjoyed playing the drums and decided to look for bands to join. My brother, a guitarist, was in a band called Red Light Go and they were looking for a drummer, so I went in for an audition. I was hired as the drummer and began gigging.

My girlfriend began going to uni in London and I began to feel my time being stretched, burning the candle at both ends. I became fairly unwell whilst in London and decided that I wanted to spend my music time writing music rather than lugging a drum kit around. This was the point where I began writing more musical music, as apposed to hip hop tracks.

A year went by my girlfriend and I decided that it would be a good plan to move in with each other. I got a transfer from my job to a london store and we moved in. I set up a mini studio and continued my new songwriting. We moved a year later and had more space and I had more equipment, still writing in the bedroom studio, this was where I wrote and recorded the songs under 'Unclassified'. I found my desire to perform a little overwhelming again and joined a band called Cloak & Dagger again playing drums.

Again I found that all of my musical endevours were going into the band. As the music we were playing was defined and written by two of the band members and I didn't feel that my music fitted in, so I decided to leave the band and focus my energies on my own music again.

I made the decision to produce a demo CD of my latest work and then get promoting, performing my own music with a band. I designed the cover and was on the verge of ordering CD's to be printed. In the last year my father had been looking around france for a place to live where he can set up a studio to write his music. He was in partnership with a girlfriend who also wanted to move to france.

They came to stay for a couple of days and on the last day, they asked my fiance and I if we'd like to spend a year with them in france to help Dad set up the studio and help them set up a B&B as my Dad's girlfriend needed a business. This was an amazing opportunity not to be missed! We had arranged to get married and wanted to do that before moving, so 2011 was a crazy year!

We moved to france but progress was slow moving, there was lots to do around the house and there wasn't much in the way of planning. It was a huge change for all concerned and problems arose...naturally. I learnt how to make websites in order to record the studio build: www.movingmyrecordingstudiotofrance.weebly.com

Just as the studio was nearing completion we were asked to leave! This was tough and there are many revelations since, that go some way to explaining this strange turn of events.

We packed up and left within 2 days, luckily the in-laws back in Bristol were able to put us up and offered alot of support. We are now in the exiting times of change and I have been carefully thinking about what my next adventures in music will entail, one thing's for sure it's going to be exciting!

I feel it is most appropriate to begin my blog by celebrating a guy who, from what I can see, is working hard on his music in a most inspiring way.
For me, Greg Blackman should be part of what represents current music in Britain.
If we focus more of our attention on 'Guys like him' then we can make this representation clear for all to enjoy. If not, we will continue to limit our musical surroundings.

I think I remember seeing a documentry about how people had to sneak radio's into their rooms to get a listen to the emerging Elvis or Beatles records, as it wasn't seemly music at the time.
Imagine if people hadn't done that! So people, this is our time, lets do this!
Funnily enough, from what I understand, it was the success of the aforementioned artists, that bred the white collar culture that has been dominating our music industry ever since! Time for a revolution of sorts!