My apologies. The past few months have been absolutely crazy! The great news is that I had a few things happen that were really awesome!
Nicholas Kade - The Drive As You Were - I'll Call You Back
Both of these albums were released on St. Patty's day!
As You Were is my band. It's me, Nicholas Kade vocals/rhythm guitar/piano/drums, Paul M bass, and David Van Tassell lead guitar/ukulele/drums/ vocals. We have been going crazy!!!
As You Were released its first music video, "Out of the Bottle" on Youtube just a few weeks ago, and it's already gone over 200 views without any advertising! Check it out below!
This music is independently recorded and not owned by a label. These artists did this for free and for the joy of playing music. Support the people who helped me and who i helped!
"I don't want to work. I wanna bang on the drums all day." -Todd Rundgren
Bad news, everybody. We can't just do that. Especially in music. Writing music takes, time, as with any sort of endeavour. You have to have the right stuff when you strike that first chord, a vision, an experience, an ambition. It's got to flow, and that can take days, weeks, months. Just to write one little song. So why are we going to try to work on the business side of this? We have no time.
A few reasons why:
1. Just because you wrote a song doesn't mean anyone will hear it.
2. People connect better with you if you make a conscious effort to do the same things they do.
3. Your music is truly special. Better for a thousand people to hear one song then one person to hear a thousand songs.
4. The more that know you, the more that will.
So put an emphasis on the basics with the business. These might help you:
1. Social Media, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Blogspot, various other websites.
2. Play live. If you can't play live, youtube and other sites can help you, just get a camera and start filming.
3. Stay organized. If you clean your guitar every other day and it's immaculate, then keep all of your information for contacts, websites, and shows the same way.
Finally, enjoy your music. My dry list of things to do sucks, but better that you're hating reading this from a brand new car you bought after signing a record deal than sitting on a tricycle you've been using to get to the nearest grocery store. Good Luck!
I had a little fun with some amateur filming. This song was written on request from a friend of mine. The verses are written about conversations we had, while the chorus is a love story I know she hoped to have at one point.
New Year's Day. Time to start living more in your dreams and applying them more to reality. I wrote a song a few years ago called "My People." It doesn't apply to any specific race, but rather to everyone in the world, every one is a brother or sister, and we will all continue to rise. That is the most important part about about the song, that we can only be beaten if we never rise and rise again. As much as we all preach peace, so do we preach it with a fighting spirit. We are never at rest if we are truly at peace, there is always something new to create, something new to invent. I have heard before that pain is the best way we know we're alive. My people, come to me.
I have been working on music now for years, singing since I was four years old, piano since I was thirteen, guitar since i was seventeen. I've played in four different bands, each with amazing musicians that i've learned so much from. The life of a musician is hard. Getting into the business is tough. You need either a lot of money, or a lot of talent. My own experiences make me want talent over money.
It's a hard road. I didn't have a lot of money at the end of college, I worked three jobs just to put myself through. My first guitar i bought from a New York sweatshop online for $40, and my fingers bled for two weeks while i learned my first chords and songs. After my third band, I started a solo project, ONX, where I managed to get my hands on professional recording software, and I started teaching myself how to professionally record. the first album had music that sounded wonderful, and music that i had no idea how to record correctly. So i released it among my friends and among a few fans and went back to work.
It's that long road ahead that i've been facing, it's the drive that i've kept pushing through. It was a car that i first had the next inspiration for my music, and a car that I talked to one of my closest friends about another solo project. "Be yourself," she said. "why try to be anything else?" I applied that same idea to my music, and started writing again. Now i'm getting to the end of that album, and it's my friends and fans that have encouraged me to be the best.
That same drive has been applied to a new band, with more music, more sound. Both albums are going to be released soon, the first for the band, the first for my brother Paul, who has taught me so much and agreed to play music with me. It's been a lot of work and a lot of time spent perfecting this art, making something out of nothing.
The ability to create is one of the hardest things humans have to do. Where there is Peace, so War will follow. It's the conflict within ourselves that we fight to succeed, the question of whether we will be good enough to handle all of the problems we face. So no matter what you are doing in life, find the drive to push though what you are doing, and get to that peace. It's not the scoring that counts all the time, but the game itself.
Music, like so many other art forms, is becoming a business. The question for artists is simple. Where does the art end and the business begin?
In retail, the power of your business is in selling. If you sell clothes, you look for the people who would be interested in buying those clothes, then attempt to convince them they need more of them. If the prices of the clothes drop too far, you need to sell even more to make up for what you're losing, just to make your profit margin.
In the service industry, there is a need for repeat customers who are satisfied with their service and willing to continue paying money for it. For example, internet industry fights back and forth between cable, verizon fios, and satellite. Which service is most reliable? Which service is most expensive? Which service gives you the most?
So for music, there are a few things you can sell. T-shirts, pictures, videos. Each article brings you closer to your fans and gives them the feeling that they're apart of something. People will like your music for the beat, the words, the sounds. You can use that to sell your t-shirts and cds, use that to gain popularity, and so be able to go farther and see more people than you saw before.
So which part can't you really sell? Which part is the real deal?
I think that part is you.
When you create your project, whether it's in a band or a solo project, everyone becomes a character that people listening can identify with. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Third Eye Blind, Britney Spears, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Eminem, each artist has a defined character. I believe they're more successful if they're real people that are presented.
More importantly, it's a journey, your journey that you share with your growing fan base. Your first music video might not be perfect, it might be an inexpensive camera and a few shots on a cell phone, but the question your fans will ask: Is there soul? Is there heart?
Better to start small and finish big, than to never give a piece of yourself that allows the world to grow.
Media. It literally tells us what's going on everyday, causing us to make decisions immediately that affect our lives so quickly. We love this vast network that we so easily get lost in, but we come together over some of the greatest moments in time, as well as the worst.
i have a twitter account (@kadesound) and i like to mix in both heartfelt emotional statements about what is going on around me with idiotic/comedic commentary about things that are affecting my life. So far my vulgar statements have been ignored, while my smarter moments also seem to be untouched for the most part. We all say stupid things, right? No big deal. Yet it seems to be a great deal.
After recording a video of myself playing guitar, i checked my account and saw a statement by Ashton Kutcher yesterday, saying he didn't quite agree with firing Joe Paterno, the legendary Penn State Lions coach. The statement was made without Mr. Kutcher knowing what was going on with the sex scandal at the school, and the issue of Mr. Paterno not reporting what he had heard to the police. Ashton Kutcher quickly apologized and noted that he had not heard the entire story. A day later, Mr. Kutcher then made a statement saying that he would no longer control his own twitter account after his mistake. I wanted to know why.
The backlash at Ashton Kutcher was intense, people from all over the country attacking him for his statement after he apologized and then updated himself on the news. I noted that so many people felt it would be alright to scream at a celebrity, yet why were they angry at a mistake? Mr. Kutcher literally had nothing to do with the actual sex scandal, but as a football nut, was merely remarking on losing a historical football figure.
Welcome to the fading times, where a person can't make a mistake. If they do, they're publicly humiliated and crucified for it. Look at the anger of the people directed at Ashton Kutcher and Joe Paterno, when neither of them were sexually assaulting children. If you want to be angry at someone, Jerry Sandusky was the architect of that moment in our lives, the moment when we found out children hadn't even been given a chance to keep their innocence.
If I recall correctly, Ashton Kutcher has been involved in helping people most of his adult life, being more of a humanitarian than people would believe him to be. Yet people would lash out at him. Times are fading. We're losing our focus on what matters most, giving in to attacking the nearest target instead of finding the RIGHT target.
Remember, we're all human. If YOU say something wrong, but have done so many good things in your life, how would you feel?
Above is the video I was filming. It's about trusting your friend to help you and having a good time.
