Hailed by listeners as “The only UK rapper I’d spend money on,” Jovel Walker, also known as Random Impulse just released his newest independent album “Full Metal Alchemist”.
Ucombo: We’ve had the pleasure listening to the tracks on your newest release “Full Metal Alchemist”. I’m very much impressed by your clear sense of descriptiveness shown in the songs and your unique rapping style.
Ucombo: Could you tell us about the inspiration and story behind making this wonderful new project?
Jovel: you want the truth? anime! i’m a super nerd and i watch Japanese religously. The concept behind the album is based on a theory i took from the anime “full metal alchemist” (hence the album tittle) which is alchemy is understanding matter, breaking it down, then reconstructing it as somthing else, so what i did is take all my musical influences break them down, then take all the bits that i found amazing and used it to make something completely different. Nerdy as hell right?
Ucombo: You sold an astonishing 10,000 units of independently with your first debut release “Word On The Street” in a short space of 6 months. What do you consider to be the most important factor in making that possible? Read the full interview on Ucombo Blog.
It’s the 21st century and everyone’s got their own personal soundtrack! Everywhere you go you see people with iPods, Creatives, or any random MP3 player stuck to their ears. Most people can’t get through their mornings without a little tune to wake them up. Seems like everyone needs to listen to music, to feel a beat, to hear a melody�it gets you through the boring bits of the day. Do you have an hour long commute ahead of you? Listen to music. Just plug in your earphones and put on a little Amy Winehouse or maybe some Kanye West. If you want to relax and mellow down, listen to some Jeff Buckley. Or if you want to move your feet, just listen to Justin croon his Sexyback. Going out with your friends? If you want to dance all night, listen to the music playing in the hottest clubs and groove and grind to the beat.
Music is one of those things that can bridge any gap. Old men, young kids, Asians, Europeans; it doesn’t matter! Anyone and everyone know what music is. Its a sure bet that kids living in the Amazon jungle have heard Michael Jackson and Madonna. If you go to Japan and walk into a club and they’ll be playing the same songs as kids in America. Singers in England know Edith Piaf’s songs even of they don’t speak French. Music is universal, and if people across the world have one thing in common it’s that they listen to music. And they don’t have a lack of options! Music is anything but boring; it changes and grows every day. Nowadays we have pop-rock, country-pop, indie-blues and any other genre you can think of. Whatever you want, guaranteed there is an artist out there that has a tune to fit your style and your mood.
Getting music is easier than it was ten or even five years ago. We don’t even have to buy CDs anymore, what with the incredible invention of MP3s and the internet. You can just download songs… Read more about music downloading.
You have just formed your own band but do not know how to promote your music. Having an unsigned band promoted is tough for several reasons. For starters, you do not have enough money to help you promote your music and CDs. More so, even if you have gigs, there is no way that you can receive top dollar from those gigs for that fact that your band is just starting out in the business.
Aside from those reasons, another factor that plays a major role in promoting your band is your fans. If you are in an unsigned band it is particularly hard to acquire an audience and even if you do, only a few of them are willing to pay for your CDs or watch your live performances.
The music industry is a business. Not knowing the ins and outs of it can make one drive off course and lose sight of the goal. It is hard but important to learn the inner workings of the music industry but with helpful guidelines, you can slowly make your way to the top.
Prepare Your Demos
You have spent hours and hours in your garage trying to get your demo sound like an actual record though it does not seem to sound like one. Even if you have sophisticated equipments to help you create top-notch music…Click here to read more about band promotion
The traditional record labels dominated music market is coming to an end. If you haven’t noticed the latest MP3 download services on Amazon.com, you’re missing the beginning of the end of traditional music distribution era.
The big players now are teaming with social networking sites such as myspace.com to find new ways to sell music. Why? They can’t help it. People don’t want to pay for CDs anymore. Plus, there’s no need to buy CDs when you can download them for free somewhere on the internet. After several years of battling, the big labels finally realized the trend is irreversible.
However, this is not new for the independent/unsigned musicians. Indie musicians have long been promoting their recordings via unconventional channels. The entry of the big record labels on the internet music communities will have an impact on the indie musicians. But unsigned musicians still have one obvious advantage over the big labels – giving out music for free.
Why should you give away free music on the internet? One obvious reason is that people don’t need to pay. People I mean by teenagers and generation Y and beyond. Those are the audiences who don’t understand life without the internet. You probably can find a free copy of any given song on the internet if you dig far enough.
The latest proof to this is that big record labels are teaming up with the social networking sites to promote and distribute music. This is the marketing niche where independent musicians have had since the beginning of the internet usage. So how much impact will the indie musicians feel? Big. The social networking communities have been independent musicians’ marketing channel, the entry of big players will certainly push the small bands to the back burner. For independent musicians to achieve any form of success on the Internet, they have to take radical steps that big labels won’t take such as giving away music for free. At this point we don’t know how the record label/social networking music alliance will work out, but one thing for certain is that the music won’t be all for free downloading.