Session Drummer | Studio Drummer | Touring and Worship Drummer for Hire | Dale Baker | Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, NC

Upcoming Gigs!

I'll be playing this week with Claire Holley...I've got the dates posted over on my MySpace site.

Maybe I'll see you at one of the gigs?

Other stuff I've been listening to:

Jets Overhead and The Perishers.

I was turned onto Jets by Bob Lefsetz in one of his mass emails where he wrote:

"Jets Overhead doesn't sound like there was ANY third party input.  That a group of people got together in a rehearsal space and got the sound down that THEY wanted.  And sure, they want people to hear their music, but they won't COMPROMISE IT in order to achieve this.

But the funny thing is, if you succeed at this game, of following your own muse, fans tell EVERYBODY ABOUT YOU!  That's what I felt as I heard "All The People" play on XMU last night.  I wanted to TELL YOU!  I wanted to be the bearer of the news.  Wanted to clue you in on something you were unaware of.  That would make you feel connected.  In touch.

This process has been eliminated by mainstream media.  Used to be movies grew by word of mouth.  Now there's saturation advertising climaxing in endless TV ads on Thursday night and all but the box office smashes are gone from theatres in three weeks.  And despite all the hype, the big records don't last long on the chart either.  They're momentary, of a time, and when that time is gone, they're forgotten. But GREAT music is timeless."

And my friend Dan sent me a link to The Perishers on eMusic where I promptly signed up for an account just so I could download this band's music.  My initial impression was that they sound alot like Travis...which is to say, "file under Coldplay" (which I thought was derivative of Travis as well...)  Here is what Dan had to say about The Perishers:

"its very pretty in a sad sort of way – which means I like it"

Recuperation Music

My friend Rob created a mix cd for me to listen to while I was doing some recuperating (it's a long story and has nothing to do with that link), and I loved it.  I probably played it over and over at least 50 times during that weekend I was laying down.  Because I loved it (the music, not the recuperating) so much, I thought I'd reprint the song list for you here, for those of you inclined to recreate the stellar mix yourself.  Here it is:

Title:  It's the Drums that make the Man...Feb 2006

1. Tjorn  Bjorn Olsson
2. Stadsuandrlngar  Dungen
3. Bahcelere Gledi Bahar  Mogoilar
4. Amour Fou   Vetiver
5. Soul and Onward  DoMakeSayThink
6. Diamond Day  Vashti Bunyan
7. Gotenborg  Fjorn Olsson
8. I Think I need a New Heart  The Magnetic Fields
9. Republique Guinea  Bembeya Jazz National
10. Belle et Sebastian  Belle and Sebastian
11. I Slept with Bonhomme @ the CBC  Broken Social Scene
12. Sleep Away Your Troubles  The Softies
13. Into the Freedom World  Mice Parade
14. I'd Rather Dance w/ You  Kings of Convenience
15. Instrumental  Bjorn Olsson
16. Wildwood Flower  June Carter Cash
17. Lufuala Noonga-Kononon
18. Original Demos  Rob Seifert

Weekend translation anyone?

I was thinking the other day how cool it'd be to have my Bio and other parts of my website transalted into another language.

Anybody up for translating my bio and my site into the following languages?

1. Mandarin Chinese
2. French
3. Cockney Slang
4. Swiss German
5. Swedish
6. Japanese

At some point, when I become a little more design proficient, it'd be fun to have a radio button or style sheet that could switch between the languages...anyway, just a thought. 

I should probably be spending my time thinking about more important things than this.  Hmmm.

Follow the Money part 2

As mentioned before, this post originally appeared in December 2005 on a message board related to Sixpence topics.  I reprint it here for your perusal and amusement and education (for those of you who are into such things).

Let me illustrate with a story.

Bob and Sue by Dale Baker

Bob and Sue (our fictional songwriting couple) start a band.  They decide they'll split all the profits generated from everything not related to songwriting.  They spend alot of time playing free shows promoting their (hopefully, soon to be hit single).  They're so busy in fact, they have no time to set up a viable business model for selling loads of merchandise.  All of a sudden the song that Bob wrote, becomes a hit.  He's making some pretty good money, paying off some of his debts and starting to buy some gear that he really wants.  Meanwhile, Sue is wondering when she'll be seeing some of this money but then is reminded by Bob that they agreed to split business related profits, not songwriting money. 

So they continue to promote their(?) music, all the while making Bob richer, and Sue curious as to when she will see any money from this.  Meanwhile, the record company is paying for all the promotion and salaries of band members with the money that the band (Bob and Sue) will have to recoup before they (Bob and Sue) start seeing any of their Artist Royalty money. 

Slowly, Bob gets fed up with touring and the business in general and decides to not play as many shows.  Sue is quickly realizing that she isn't going to be making any money unless she starts to write more songs (hopefully the record label realizes the importance of Sue's voice and works out a publishing deal to advance her some money for living expenses).

Sue thinks it must be nice to be a "hired gun" and just get paid to play.  But she is smart enough to know that the "hired guns" will only make the money they make from the gig.  Whereas if she writes a good song, maybe she'll end up as financially secure as Bob.

(disclaimer:  any similarity to persons living or dead is merely coincidental and not to be taken seriously)

Follow the Money part 1

Below is an excerpt from a post I made on the 6pVine list (over at Yahoo Groups), I thought I'd reprint it here for those of you who are interested in these sorts of things...plus if you have anything to add...please add a comment below!  I'd love to hear from you!

Originally written: December 2005
As far as royalties...I guess it'd be good to distinguish between the  different types of royalties.  You've got Publishing/ Writing royalties  and Artist Royalties (I think that's what they're called). 

First I'll talk about my understanding of the Publishing/ Writing Royalty end of things...

As far as I know, when you write a song - you own the writing royalties for that song for a really long time - until it becomes Public Domain.  When you (as a writer) sign with a record label (like Squint or Word or REX) you typically make a publishing deal with the label for the works that you have written, because prior to you signing the publishing deal you owned 100% of your song.  You sign with a label so that they can (in theory and among other things) promote and publish your music. They'll also typically administer your copyrights and make sure you get the money that your PRO (performing right organization -ascap/ bmi/ sesac) owes you.  So you might sign away all your publishing rights to the song or some percentage of your rights.  I know that Squint was very generous with their publishing deals (or at least in the one deal that I saw), but for grins, lets say you sign away ALL of your publishing - that would mean you've signed away 50% or your ownership of the song.  You still own 50% of that song (your writer's portion).  So with every dollar that comes in related to the selling of your song, the label makes 50 cents and you as the writer makes 50 cents.  As far as I understand it, no one can take away your writer portion of a song.

Now, on the other side of the Royalty fence, lies Artist Royalties (I think that's what it's called...but I'm probably wrong.)  Anyway, this other royalty is what's used to "re-coup" expenses related to a specific record.  Now this royalty is what makes the music industry so much fun (and so evil), because it is from this virtual money pot that all kinds of expenses get charged back to the band (or artist who has signed the deal). 

First of all, in the contract you sign with the label it will specify how much of each unit sold you will make (un-related to publishing/ writing money)  So let's say you make 50 cents off of every record sold, with an upward sliding scale so that the more records you sell the more money you make...so once you hit the 100,000 mark for records sold, your royalty will increase to 65 cents off of every record sold.  Anyway, also in your contract it will specify what sort of things the label will make the band pay for.  Typically expenses related to a specific record have to be recouped before the band will see any of the money from this royalty.  What makes it so much fun, is that the band (once they're wise to the fact) can encourage the label to buy them things or provide things (such as tour support, clothing, dinners etc) that the label will then charge against this recoupable royalty.  If the band doesn't ask for it, the label will do it anyway...so much so that at the end of the day, this royalty ends up being a wash...the band never sees the money from this and the label covers all of it's advertising, marketing and promotional expenses from the income generated by the selling of the CD.  Realize, that the label is (again, in theory) paying for your record out of this 50 cents per record sold (or whatever the rate was that you negotiated).  This doesn't even include all the other money the label is making off of each CD sold...I mean they're selling the CD for $10 or more...paying the band 50 cents per cd sold and more or less pocketing the rest! 

So this is how bands (though I doubt Sixpence could really say this as Squint(Steve Taylor) had pretty over-the-top generous deals...let's say with the one deal I saw, it definitely favored the artist more than most deals that were being made during that time...)can say they're getting screwed by their record label...though they hardly ever admit that they didn't have to sign the contract (that legally allows the record company to "screw them") in the first place.  I would contend that the wise artist sees the situation for what it is, and tries to charge as much stuff back to their record as the record company is trying to charge back to the record.  So even though the artist will never directly see cold-hard-cash from this royalty, at least while he is out on the road, he can maybe get the label to spring for a van, or tour bus, or clothing or dinners or first class flights...etc.

Oh, btw this royalty is what pays the producer of the record his "points" (and his other fees as well) - which for the producer is pretty cool because he doesn't have to wait for the record to recoup in order get paid...typically the producer is paid from record one.  Whereas for the band, they may have to sell a million copies or more before they see any money from this royalty.

So to recap and hopefully make this long winded post shorter (not gonna happen):

At the bare minimum:  the songwriter can always expect to be paid the writer's share of the song he wrote. This can never be taken away from him, until the song becomes public domain.  This royalty, I believe is around 8 cents per song.  So at the very least everytime the song is played (both live and recorded), re-cut by a different band, seen on a commercial, quoted at a poetry reading, printed in a hymnbook...the writer will make 8 cents.  (but I may be wrong...it may be that the writer makes 4 cents and the publisher makes 4 cents...anyway, you get the idea.)

Artist royalties, on the other hand are a wash, unless you sell a gazillion records...

Now what becomes interesting as you become a band (aka: a small business) you get to decide how to split this money up between you. So for example, if you decide that you will not split the money made from writing and publishing songs and will only split the profit from Live Performances, Merchandise and Artist Royalties.  Then you better do a bunch of live shows and sell a bunch of Merch...because typically you're going to make "nada" from the artist royalties. If you don't play alot of shows and sell a bunch of Merch your company may not be making any money - though the people who wrote the songs will be defintely swinging towards the more profitable end of things.

Technorati

<a href="http://technorati.com/claim/zrzqmfqnrr">Technorati Profile</a>

Not sure why, but now I have a Technorati profile.  Yay?

Technorati Profile

Hmm. bad link...it was working last night, I swear.

My kind of video game...

Lou Reed and Debbie Harry in a video game?  Apparently so. 

I heard about this video game by Penn and Teller part of which involves driving a bus across the Nevada desert in real time.  If you make it across and back, I think you get like one point.  I followed the link on Kottke.org to Waxy.org that ultimately led to this post about the game.  You can read the press release related to the game here, excerpt below:

"Desert Bus(TM).  Get behind the wheel of Desert Bus for a first-person,
hands-on view of the endless, interminable desert highway.  No zillion dollar
sports car with leggy blonde in tow.  Not at all.  It's a bus.  And it's an
eight-hour drive.  In real time.  No pausing.  Another stunningly realistic
simulator in the great Absolute tradition.

Buzz Bombers(TM).  The coolest, meanest competitive two-player action space
alien game yet created.  You'll want to play it again and again, because
you'll never lose!

Smoke and Mirrors(TM).  A one-of-a-kind action/adventure game that pits Penn &
Teller against evil Las Vegas magicians Stinkbomb and Rot and their loyal
minions. Penn & Teller will interact with a wild assortment of live-action
characters as they      set out to prove once and for all that real magic
doesn't exist!"

Funny and subversive in a harmless way don't you think?

 

Sea Shanty Films

A while ago I put together the soundtrack for a short film entitled "The Wingnut and You" which was a spoof of sorts of 1950's educational films.  It was my first attempt at "scoring" a film and I have these guys to thank for the opportunity.  And now to brag a bit (taken from this website):

"In January of 2004. "Wing  Nut" won the Audience Choice Award at the 2004 WARP festival in Durham. Time Warner Cable's "Second Cinema" program chose"Wing Nut" for statewide broadcast in May of 2004 and has aired it numerous times since (including a featured place on the program's anniversary special during the summer of 2005). In July of 2004, WUNC-TV (the North Carolina PBS station) selected "Wing Nut" for its "NC Visions" program. The film first aired on WUNC in October of 2004 along with 3 other short, comic films."

Though I didn't work (due to time and schedule constraints) on the latest film these guys have done, I'm still excited to see what success and accolades their newest work brings.  You can learn more about this film, X-Gen  and keep up with it's progress as well at Sea Shanty Films.

Share a cabin with Cheap Trick

Or go canoeing with Neal Schon from Journey!

Just think:  You could sing campfire songs with Mickey Hart and eat S'mores with Roger Daltry while learning the finer points and secrets of how to "Rock and Roll" at this years Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp being held August 13-17 in New York City.  Last years camp was apparently a great success.  So you know what that means campers, be sure to get your application in early! 

Straight from the Roadies mouth...

I found some blogs today written by two touring professionals. From those intial blogs I have since found a few more. 

Since I don't travel as much anymore, I thought I'd pass along the sites I found for those of you who want to know what life on the road is like.

• Roadie Blog is written by Guitar Tech
• StyxCrew for all you Styx fans out there - you know who you are...
• Modern Roadie
• Bobzilla's Adventures chronicles the life on the road of this guy.
• And for those of you thinking that a Roadie Job might be something your interested in you can always check out RoadieJobs.Com

Read, learn and enjoy!

Galileo's Hope

"Galileo's Hope" is one of my favorite tracks to have recorded in recent memory.  You can find it on Karl Ruch's latest release.  You can hear a portion of the track over at CD Baby. 

We tracked the djembe and percussion stuff  while I was tracking the drumset stuff and at some point, I switch over to sticks...I'm especially proud of how I play the outro on this song...but alas, unless you purchase the CD from CD Baby I guess you won't hear it...

No, I haven't become a rapper.

Just so everybody is clear here...I HAVE NOT become a rapper.  This video is not me.  Just so we're clear here.

New Josh Rouse

I heard a few snippets of Josh Rouse's new record, "Subtitulo" last weekend.  The few songs I heard I really enjoyed.  I think I'll have to pick up his new one when it "hits the streets" towards the end of March.  Apparently Josh moved to Spain and started writing songs that sound a tad bit brazillian.  His girlfriend sings a duet with him on one of the songs and it's pretty cool.  Her voice sounds like Astrud Gilberto, untrained, unpracticed and divine.

You can check out his Filter Magazine Podcast or go to the NPR site and hear a couple of his songs there and check out the interview he did with Scott Simon. 

Interview snippet:  Apparently the best way to learn Spanish (according to Josh) is to take a spanish lover.  (Keep that in mind for those of you needing to learn spanish.) And I'm pretty sure he wasn't talking about this train trip...