I spoke at the METal meeting.

METal International

Don’t worry, I hadn’t heard of it either. But its majordomo implored me to come and my shrink was on vacation so I decided to get up early and appear.

It was the opposite of the music business.

The music business is populated by uneducated hustlers, people who do their best to triumph on bluster, employing smoke and mirrors. Their main goal is to get you to believe they’re a winner, and to dedicate time to checking their effort out, whereas the METal attendees are the same, but different. Because it takes a lot more money and smarts to make an app, to play in the tech world.

It reminded me of nothing so much as the Homebrew Computer Club, where the two Steves made their debut, introducing the Apple computer.

Which got little reaction, by the way. Don’t be put off by jealousy. Your compatriots don’t want you to make it, to pull ahead, because that leaves them behind. Chances are if you succeed you’re going to get a whole new set of friends, the same way Howard Stern was invited to Jennifer Aniston’s wedding. You’re nobody and then the door opens. But it opens for very few.

Now the entrance barrier to METal isn’t nonexistent, unlike in music. You’ve got to pay $100 a month, and $35 every time you attend. Supposedly the latter fee is for breakfast, and they had everything from pastry to fruit, but the older we get the less we’re interested in carbs and the truth is I tanked up before I left the house.

The first thing I noticed was no women. And I was about to get on my high horse and complain about this but then someone clued me in, they can’t come. Well, once a month only. Because otherwise no work is done, everybody’s peacocking around to impress the ladies. But the ladies have their own group, that meets every couple of weeks.

And the goal of the group is to make investments. This one guy was an MD who was funding a microscope and I thought it was all kind of fantastical until he laid out the numbers. A billion dollar marketplace and his product was going to cost a fraction of those now dominating. And he’d had one victory already. And I wondered if everybody was a winner. I’m not sure.

First speaker was Nolan Bushnell. That’s right, Mr. Atari, Mr. Chuck E. Cheese. He talked about the future, virtual reality and augmented reality. He believed in the latter. He said the former made you sick, and you didn’t get over the illness so fast.

And then there was this guy who worked with Oliver Stone who talked about advertising. And I hated and loved him at the same time. Because I hated the manipulation, but I could tell it was real. He had it down to a science.

And then there was the run-down on new products. Most exciting was a camera. Who needs a new standalone camera, right? But this cheap device has sensors that not only help it decide what to record, but can automatically edit together a clip of everything you did all day. It was fascinating, it’s a winner.

And then there was the company that tells you what to eat based on your DNA.

But what I found most fascinating was FanGram.

What I love about Los Angeles is so much is happening right under our noses. Hell, I saw Bob Costas on Rodeo Drive earlier today, at least I think it was Bob… But while we’re focusing on celebrities, in Santa Monica especially is a whole bunch of unheralded techies who are trying to change the world. This guy put 150k of his own money into trying to make sense of social media.

So this is how it works…

It’s an app. Mobile is everything. It presently only works on iOS. All the apps start on iOS. You may love your Android, but not only are you susceptible to viruses, you’re one step behind in the tech world, trash it for an iPhone, immediately.

So, FanGram has scraped the web. Found every personality (even me!) And when you search and find them, there are buttons, for news, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, everywhere the personality plays. You click on the icons and you get the info.

And below this part of the screen is every bit of news about the personality.

And below that is everybody who’s related to the personality, who you might want to follow.

And that’s right, you can follow people.

But what I find most amazing is FanGram makes social media comprehensible. Puts all the services in one place. Because the truth is we want to follow people, that’s where it all starts. And on Twitter it’s all mashed up and it keeps loading and you’re overwhelmed. On FanGram it all suddenly makes sense.

This is the future. We’ve got enough services, how do we integrate them and make them comprehensible?

It’s what we’re looking for in music, but haven’t found yet.

Now METal is run by Ken Rutkowski, who’s got a radio show syndicated around the country that focuses on innovators. Ken gets cut into the deals, he provides his network and expertise.

And it’s all happening here in L.A.

And I’d love to tell you you need to go, but the longer I sat there the more I saw the difference between tech and art. Everybody’s trying to get rich in both, but when everything works the end result in art is so much more satisfying to me.

But art is a tsunami of product that no one can make sense of.

We need a FanGram for art.

I’m waiting…

FanGram – Get Invitation

Bob-

Jeff Stevens here, I thought I’d “part the curtain” and give you a look inside :)   When you said “The advantage of being Nashville’s biggest star is you get to play with the biggest and best players.” I knew I had to reply. My son Jody Stevens and I worked in studios on this album for 7 months straight, pretty much 7 days a week. Some of the songs were recorded and played totally “in the box”  by Jody in our little studio, like “Home Alone Tonight” and we brought in Jimmie Lee Sloas on bass and Adam Shoenfeld on electric guitar as overdubs on that one.

“Huntin’, Fishin’ and Lovin’ Everyday” however was as old school Nashville recording as it gets. We tracked it at beautiful Ocean Way studio A through the Neve 8078 with Derek Bason at the helm. We did have the best players in the world available to us and they came when asked. That’s Greg Morrow on drums, Mark Hill on bass guitar, JT Corenflos and Kenny Greenberg on electric guitar, Ilya Toshinsky on acoustic guitar and banjo and Mike Rojas on the Hammond B3. The album credits don’t give specifics on who played what so I’m thrilled to shine a light on these gentlemen.

Upon taking his seat and picking up his famous among musicians, blueTele, JT Corenflos clicked on that wonderful throwback phaser tone and delivered the signature lick and subsequent direction of the track. Mark Hill’s simple bass line punctuates the lyric wonderfully in the choruses, sounding more like the bass player that wrote the song instead of a world class musician. Ilya Toshinsky’s banjo at the end of the track sounds like a four year old boy chasing a butterfly “through a field downwind”. We only took a second pass at recording it because everyone was having so much fun on the first pass we couldn’t remember if it was any good or not and besides that everybody wanted to play it again!

Luke sang his lead at “The Pond” studio at Starstruck (another beautiful facility) improvising many of the lyrics that you hear including “ya’ll close them eyes, let’s go there in our minds”  and “Mercury”. Perry Coleman stepped up to the microphone and after hearing Luke’s vocal track delivered an incredibly inspired background vocal. You can hardly call it a background vocal, he gave it more of a  group or duo feel. Again, like your brother was over there singing.

Derek Bason tore into it at his mix station which is also in “The Pond” using the SSL 9000J, tons of old school outboard gear and he rendered the world class mix that it deserved. Put on a good set of headphones and listen to Luke records, listen to Carrie Underwood records. Derek Bason is a genius who still knows how to make the big records.

I’ve loved recording with computers at my home ever since I did it first in the early 90’s but even the most talented musical programmer/musician with the latest plug-ins cannot model the feel and heart these folks achieved on this track. You are correct, you don’t get these sounds at home.

Have a great day!
Jeff Stevens

PS: I want to emphasize how fortunate we feel in todays market to have the budget to go in and record a track such as this.

 

From: Tom Gilbert
Subject: Re: Luke Bryan Live From Irving Plaza

Hey Bob,

Just wanted to share, that’s my father in law playing pedal steel on “Play It Again” – although it doesn’t really sound like your typical steel in that tune! You might enjoy this video: https://youtu.be/FdtvenGLWHw

Russ Pahl is an innovator on the instrument and can be heard on countless records.

Always enjoy your rants. Cheers.

Tom

No one can know all the records, but god forbid you admit this, you’re pilloried by the self-anointed cognoscenti who believe they’re single-handedly carrying the torch of credibility and without them music would die.

Ubiquity died in 2013. Everybody knew “Get Lucky,” “Blurred Lines” and “Royals.” Today a star is someone who appeals to few who gets their name in all the media to the point they annoy us and we hate people we have never heard the music of.

Brands kill bands. But businessmen love to commission and players are so angry no one knows them they tie in with corporations to get ahead but they’re being left behind. Your best hope is to align yourself with those who care, your fans, who will ensure longevity if you play it right. Best example, Wilco. The press loves them, their fans do too, and nobody who doesn’t care already ever will. This is the modern paradigm. Just as long as you’re willing to be Wilco. (And no amount of press about their free album in an era where everything is free and Jeff Tweedy’s album with his son will make anybody listen to the music who hasn’t been listening already. This is akin to Phish. It’s the same damn 20k at every gig. We know who the band is, we don’t want to go. But Phish is rich on the backs of these fans. And their business sustains without media attention. And both Wilco and Phish have never sold out and their careers have lasted decades when popsters can’t draw an audience a year
after their last hit.)

Executives have longer careers than the bands they champion. But no one under thirty with a brain wants to be a record executive because it’s a cutthroat business where you can’t make as much money as you can in tech or Wall Street and the main criterion for success is street smarts. Which is why book smart people without relationship skills never succeed in the music industry. This will sustain. Music cannot be quantified, so those into data and scale are doomed to the sidelines, to being peripheral players.

Say yes on the way up and no once you arrive. That’s the power of success. You’re hungry for any opportunity, any thrown bone, when you’ve got no status, but once you do…you hide behind your advisors. If you want to succeed in the music business align yourself with those on the bottom, no one on top needs your help.

Everyone is time-challenged. Realize this and deliver something bite-sized and instantly consumable that people can digest and testify about. Of course, you could turn this paradigm on its head, releasing one long “Tubular Bells”-type album, but what you do had better be revolutionary.

Records are the starting point, not the end point. Records are a way you hook your audience. Do nothing to get in the way of having people experience your music, make it available everywhere. It’s a privilege for people to listen.

No one cares about music but the players and the listeners. Be skeptical of the streaming services and the rest of the techies, never mind the brands.

If you want to be instantly famous you’ve got to get on the radio. If you don’t make music that is played on the radio, if you make this music but you are not aligned with a major label, you’re going to have a long, hard slog of a career. Don’t shoot the messenger. In an era of chaos, people look to filters. Which is why radio goes on music last and plays so few records. You may hate this, but it makes what’s played comprehensible to the audience, which finds there are other people listening to what they are. Only losers want to live in a Tower of Babel society.

The music business is more exciting than the music. It’s got twists and turns and revolutions. Whereas the music is me-too pop or substandard mediocrities played by people who just don’t understand that the way you succeed is to have all the skills yet do something different. Jackson Pollock didn’t start out with abstract expressionism, he jumped off from the basics. The Beatles couldn’t cut the White Album, never mind “Sgt. Pepper,” back in ’64.

No one wants to hear complaints. Life is tough for everybody. You chose your path, make the most of it.

1. Money changes everything.

If Donald Trump were poor, he’d have no traction. He gets attention, and in many cases a pass, because he’s a billionaire. That’s the nation we live in, one in which the rich have the power and the poor believe the loaded are better than they are. Or, that they too can become a billionaire, if they just work hard enough, even though statistically odds of upgrading are better in Canada and Europe. The rich have been crapping on the downtrodden poor for so long they believe it. We watch the Kardashians, we believe Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are saints, is it any wonder people look up to Donald Trump?

2. Television is the most powerful medium in America.

It turned Howard Stern into a household name and it did the same for Donald Trump. If you’re on television you’re a star. What is the goal of the YouTube and Vine stars? To be on TV! It’s a hurdle that’s hard to jump. If Snooki and Kim Kardashian could be built by television, it’s not hard to understand Trump’s mindshare/traction.

3. Runaway media.

Insiders control the story, at least they believe they do. They said Trump was dead after his comments about McCain, ditto regarding his comments about Megyn Kelly. But what the internet era has taught us is that stories outside the usual narrative start online and traditional news media is the last to come on board. And that traditional news media is often wrong. And that what it likes best is ratings. Trump is irrelevant, soon to be forgotten, a footnote in history, even smaller than that of Ross Perot and Ralph Nader, but don’t expect any perspective from the media.

4. Media lasts longer than those it covers.

Trump will long be forgotten whilst Megyn Kelly continues to testify. Keeping the story going is nearly impossible, which is why Kim Kardashian tweeted a naked pregnant photo today. She wants to stay in the public eye, and it’s hard to do this if you’re not outrageous. Want to get mindshare? Create a new story every day, the crazier the better. Drake drops mixtapes while old wave acts work the same album for years. That’s a great way to be forgotten. What Taylor Swift does best is keep her name in the news. You should follow her example if you want a lasting career. Then again, getting started is so difficult, it’s best to be on TV! (But don’t think being on late night shows, certainly other than Fallon, makes a difference. And never forget that YouTube is narrowcasting, you may have a 100 million views, but it’s to a self-selected group, TV allows you to reach beyond them.)

5. Fox News is not as powerful as you think.

It blinked. Trump brought the outlet to its knees. Fox only mentioned Trump’s Megyn Kelly blood comments once, CNN more than 50 times. Read here:

Why Donald Trump got the best of Fox News

(Furthermore, ever since Jeff Bezos bought the “Washington Post” it has greatly improved. How did he do this? BY SPENDING MONEY! Our entire nation has a hedge fund mind-set. Reduce head count, strip the assets, take out your share and then pawn whatever’s left on the next loser. You make money by spending money, and he who is cutting back is ultimately losing.)

6. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Sports is the best example, there they call it “working the ref.” That’s what Trump has done here, he’s bitched loudly to get the media to blink, Fox certainly has (once again, read that WaPo article linked to above). Trump has belly-flopped like an NBA player, he’s bitched and whined and has refused to go away, has refused to apologize, he’s the perfect American, where no one makes a mistake and bluster is everything, and you wonder why our nation is in trouble…no one can learn anything, no one can adjust their opinion, no one can say they’re wrong.

7. Don’t blink.

It may be a suicide mission, but you can’t give up, you can’t question your desire and your goal, that’s how you break through the noise. Once you’ve made it you may be revealed to be a buffoon, but few make it. Trump has been trying to run for President for decades, this is the first time it’s worked.

8. Gimme some truth.

Actually, I don’t believe Trump believes all of what he says. He’s looking at endgame, and he knows people are frustrated by politicians and want to hear something that sounds passionate, from the inside. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat but when Hillary Clinton said her favorite book was the Bible my eyes rolled and I prayed someone else would run. Trump appears to be telling his truth. Clinton appears to be triangulating. If you want to succeed today you must have the appearance of authenticity, credibility is even better, but that’s even harder to achieve. Trump resonates with a minor part of the public which is sick of being cast aside, which knows its reality and wants to believe someone else is talking about it.

9. We live in a star economy.

I watched the debate because Trump was on it, without him I’m passing. And even though he was belligerent, he had a patina of real, he didn’t seem to be adjusting to placate a theoretical voter who might not even exist. His competitors were so phony and so FOS that I was rolling my eyes.

10. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

Trump may have a bad hairstyle, but he looked more put together than so many of his compatriots, who were not wearing expensive suits and furthermore had worse hair, transplants and combovers and what exactly is that on the front of Rand Paul’s head? If you want our respect, dress for success. Nixon lost to Kennedy because he looked like a schlump, and these guys don’t even get a stylist. I don’t want someone who doesn’t understand the game they’re playing. Schlumpiness is Bernie Sanders’s shtick, but aren’t the Republicans supposed to be the party of the rich? And put together?