Pomplamoose with Allee Willis
Music is supposed to be fun.
Someone sent me this video by Kyle Andrews:
It’s got in excess of one million views. It wasn’t premiered on "Ellen", he’s not on a "label", he’s doing it for himself. But the song isn’t that good. Yet he’s got notice. Notice used to be impossible sans the imprimatur of a major corporation. Now, indies are doing it for themselves.
The major label monopoly was distribution. Majors could get records in stores and get paid. Now anybody can get their music on iTunes and get paid. Only majors could get their songs on the radio, and everybody listened to the radio. Now, the hipper you are, the more you’re the maven of "The Tipping Point", the less you listen to the radio, it’s unsatisfying and uncool, you find your music elsewhere. And when you find something good, you and your friends spread the word to other like-minded individuals.
I heard about Pomplamoose from James Saez, a writer/producer/engineer who records my podcasts. Used to be you had to be rich to enter a recording studio, time was expensive and it couldn’t be wasted. But James has a fully-functioning set-up, far beyond a Pro Tools rig in the bedroom, with separate rooms for playing and recording, with the de rigueur couches and hanging bedspreads for a homey vibe. As we look out the window to the mountains, our conversation follows an uncharted path into nooks and crannies. We’re creative, that’s what you do in a studio, it’s a place separate from society, closed off so you can let your mind wander, so you can come up with something great.
James was telling me about making money on YouTube. Like Pomplamoose.
Huh?
Actually, I knew who they were, I just didn’t know their name. When I pulled up a YouTube clip, I recognized the girl.
It’s funny. When old wave media require plastic surgery, boob implants and nose jobs, you’ve got to be beyond beautiful to compete, there’s a whole segment of the population that has rejected this paradigm and is owning their bodies and identities. This woman in Pomplamoose, she’s so normal as to be charismatic, you can’t stop watching her, she’s anything but studied, she radiates humanity.
And it’s humanity that bonds us to artists. It’s when they exhibit the flawed existence of Homo sapiens that we identify. It’s hard to relate to a robot. And check out the Top Forty chicks, they seem to be manufactured in a plant, with no injection of heart and soul.
Anyway, today I got an e-mail telling me about a creation between Pomplamoose and Allee Willis. You know Allee, the eccentric who writes hit tunes. Does anybody need a hit tune anymore?
Actually, all the songwriters are bitching, that music is being stolen and they just can’t get paid. Tell that to BMG Rights Management, which keeps snapping up catalogs. If songs were worthless, would they keep doing this?
But what if those carping stopped worrying about their bank accounts and started pursuing fun. I’m especially speaking to those in Nashville, going from songwriting session to songwriting session, coming up with lowest common denominator crap to shove down the throat of a somnambulant population. That can’t be fun. Fun is taking chances, testing limits, doing something for the hell of it.
What if Diane Warren wrote with Pomplamoose, what would that sound like?
Well, for now, we’ve got Allee Willis. And the resulting confection marries indie sensibility with pop craft and the result makes you smile, and isn’t that what music is all about?
Watching this video makes you want to create yourself. Like so many in the business did in high school, tuned up their guitars and formed bands in the basement.
That’s the scene today. Not world domination, but high school. You remember high school, don’t you? When you cared not a whit about money, didn’t have a job and got deep into your passions, developed who you were? You loved the offbeat, you told your friends about your new finds, and you analyzed the lyrics endlessly.
The MTV era was an anomaly. When we all watched the same high concept crap. Those who said the Net would kill music couldn’t be more wrong. Music’s been set free, it’s being reinvented. Sure, a lot of stuff online is crap, but while Bono is appearing in ads for Louis Vuitton, there’s a whole new breed of artists who are focusing on the art more than the money. Hell, U2 just makes a new album so it can go on tour. Shouldn’t you make a new album because it’s fun? And why does it have to be an album, and why do you have to wait three years in between productions?
All those rules were written by a crumbling system.
Pomplamoose is the future. You just don’t know it yet.
It’s not about top down marketing, working with Dr. Luke to ensure a hit, it’s about fumbling around by yourself, mostly for fun, with only the most dedicated and creative ultimately succeeding.
Stop shooting for the moon. Worldwide success is an accident. Build your fanbase from the ground up. Pomplamoose exudes fun. You’re drawn to them. That’s how you build an act, not by getting a stylist and learning dance steps.
The tools of creativity are now in the hands of the proletariat. The only one who you can blame for your lack of success is yourself. Don’t wait for the green light from some fat cat who doesn’t get it, start by yourself. And know hype doesn’t work. I found out about Pomplamoose from a friend. That’s all we trust anymore, our friends. It’s us against them, the people against the corporations. Which side are you on?
