OldGreyWolf
Offline
Wellington

Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to give some great advice!

I have been playing around with bands of other 'genres' for about a year now, but as jefftheworld pointed out this is probably doing more for myself than the scene itself, which I think is a totally valid point. It kinda sucks cos I can't really tell people to check out other chip artists cos others in my city aren't gigging yet!

I definately agree with lazerbeat about having accessable gear. I plan on buying a few spare carts (when I have the cash) so I can give them to people who show some interest.

I'm gonna have to whip everyone I know of into action. I think putting a blog or something together like 10k suggested is probabbly a good idea. I can see the benefit of having somewhere people can go to to find information on all the local artists and events as well as general information.

I think the first step I'm gonna take is to put together a NZ comp and just start handing it out at any gigs I play and just start talking to people about it and trying to get more people interested, use the power of word of mouth.

Thanks to everyone for the support and great advice, especially lazerbeat and low gain for taking the time to write so extensively.

Keep it coming, any ideas help!

celsius
Offline
Melbourne, Australia

True story : cTrix wouldn't be playing the shows he is these days or releasing all the music he does had I not lent him a Gameboy to take on the plane. I wouldn't have met cTrix had I not gone to his demo party and introduced myself. And what did all that lead to? An awesome friendship and a wicked artist to put on stage at my shows.

I think the idea of having hardware you can lend to friends or whip out at other gigs to see people jaws hit the floor really helps. cTrix and I went to a local DnB party and while we were outside having a smoke got talking to some random bros who where just hanging out. Chris had my Gameboy in his bag still so he played them some tunes. They got super interested (being producers themselves) and wanted to know more. BAM, new fans.

I guess my main point is that you need to network. Get out there, shake hands and create a crew. The best thing about having a crew is that it keeps you motivated. Even if you get bogged down with work you still can tap into the energy of your peeps to prop you up.

I couldn't do Soundbytes by myself.

Natty
Offline
FlashHeart

I think one of the best things you can do is have a monthly night at the same place on the same day every month. For example: Pulsewave in New York is at the Tank on the last Saturday of every month. 8Static in Philadelphia is at Studio 34 on the second Saturday of every month.

Once you get something that regular at a place willing to support what you do, and where people know where it's going to be every time, then building a community and organizing other gigs and visiting artists is much easier.

herr_prof
Offline
Unsubscribe

also i aggree with getting non chip bands involved if you dont have enough acts to make an interesting lineup every month or two.

Dot.AY
Offline
Melbtown, Lolstralia

The strength of actually meeting like-minded people face to face shouldn't be underestimated. As 10k mentioned we started a blog to try and centralise the Australian scene. But because at that stage we were the only two active artists that we knew of (except for little-scale in Adelaide) we decided to do a tour. This not only created a friendship between the two of us but really created a sense of community across the whole country.. I don't know what little-scale thinks of this but for me that tour was a turning point in making us all work harder on our own creative stuff and working off each other... Then we got on TV which always helps tongue
There really aren't that many artists in Australia but we make it work with what we have and in the space of a couple of years it has really become a solid tight nit scene.
So yes, network, meet people, make friends and keep creatively active .. the scene will build itself around that...

infradead
Offline
Tacoma WA
Lazerbeat wrote:

One thing which really seems to cement things where I live. There a monthly new music presentation night. A bunch of musicians (chip and other electronic genres) get together in a cafe with a sound system, listen to a tune an artist is working on, make a few comments, listen to another tune, make a few more comments. People play tunes off their mp3 players rather than bringing a live rig. Really nice night.

this is ace!  i used to have some friends who did this once a month.  such a nice get together.  its so inspiring to listen to other people's music and get idea from what they are doing.

OldGreyWolf
Offline
Wellington

Thanks heaps everyone!! So many great ideas! Keep them coming

low-gain
Offline
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

try to get one of the people performing to add " with live nudes" onto the end of their name...
that way you can advertise on the flier...

i.e.

Low-Gain with live nudes

hahaha. works every time! wink
Should help with the crowd turn out anyways.

OwenMcGarry
Offline
Wellington, NZ
low-gain wrote:

try to get one of the people performing to add " with live nudes" onto the end of their name...
that way you can advertise on the flier...

i.e.

Low-Gain with live nudes

hahaha. works every time! wink
Should help with the crowd turn out anyways.

Also add "free beer"

Star Fighter Dreams
Offline
San Antonio, Texas

I wish I had a crew here in S.A.

The chip scene in Texas is pretty good. Low-Res is a new monthly chip/electronic/experimental night going on in Austin, Bible Belt Bitfest is a bi-annual/annual chip event, and with the success of Datapop 3.0 during South By South West I see great things for Texas...Austin perhaps being a new "hub" for chip fans.

But the big problem with Texas is the sheer size of it. PixyJunket in Plano, IAYD in Corpus Christi, Sievert in Houston, I, Cactus in Austin...we're all spread out.

Last edited by Star Fighter Dreams (Aug 16, 2010 4:27 am)

cheapshot
Offline
Tokyo, Japan
Lazerbeat wrote:

Start a podcast

shall we? big_smile

cheapshot
Offline
Tokyo, Japan
Dot.AY wrote:

The strength of actually meeting like-minded people face to face shouldn't be underestimated.
So yes, network, meet people, make friends and keep creatively active .. the scene will build itself around that...

Indeed. For me, Twitter was good for getting in touch with people, but for REAL freindships and a sense of community, you HAVE to meet up and hang out.

real-life interactions FTW!!

smiletron
Offline
Nashville, Tennessee
cheapshot wrote:

real-life interactions FTW!!

the internet =/= a scene. i guess Rainbowdragoneyes and myself and anyone else around here have been working on getting some stuff going here in nashville. The most important part has definitely been getting the word to the right people, and the only way to do that in a city that is constantly bombarding everyone with music of all kinds is to actually become their friend. cheesetastic but oh so true. there's a lot of interest from the rave scenes i've encountered and from a lot of the indie glitch/noise/whatever hipster stuff. just keep in mind that not everyone is going to understand all of what you do, or frankly even care; they're there just for the hell of it a lot of the time at first. be funny, break the ice, get people to want to come back even if you suck because you are cool people.

Either that, or you can completely rape/pillage/destroy everything like magic hammer and rainbowdragoneyes. big_smile

Last edited by smiletron (Aug 16, 2010 11:44 am)

IAYD
Offline

.

Last edited by IAYD (Feb 21, 2017 6:20 pm)

egr
Offline
Abandoned on Fire
smiletron wrote:
cheapshot wrote:

real-life interactions FTW!!

the internet =/= a scene. i guess Rainbowdragoneyes and myself and anyone else around here have been working on getting some stuff going here in nashville. The most important part has definitely been getting the word to the right people, and the only way to do that in a city that is constantly bombarding everyone with music of all kinds is to actually become their friend. cheesetastic but oh so true. there's a lot of interest from the rave scenes i've encountered and from a lot of the indie glitch/noise/whatever hipster stuff. just keep in mind that not everyone is going to understand all of what you do, or frankly even care; they're there just for the hell of it a lot of the time at first. be funny, break the ice, get people to want to come back even if you suck because you are cool people.

Either that, or you can completely rape/pillage/destroy everything like magic hammer and rainbowdragoneyes. big_smile

You guys are doing a great job in my opinion but since I'm not in town I don't see any promotion except on the net.  RDE mentioned that he'd be willing to help people learn how to make chipmusic at the last show... workshops planned?  Non-show meet-ups?

smiletron
Offline
Nashville, Tennessee
egr wrote:

You guys are doing a great job in my opinion but since I'm not in town I don't see any promotion except on the net.  RDE mentioned that he'd be willing to help people learn how to make chipmusic at the last show... workshops planned?  Non-show meet-ups?

yeah, actually fakebrad and i have been working on doing some of just that. there are a few people who are really interested. just few and far between.


its just rough cuz its literally just the three of us.

Last edited by smiletron (Aug 17, 2010 9:25 am)