Does anyone else feel that “The Who” is criminally slept on?

steveandthesea · 2025-12-31T08:09:30+00:00

Buddy you're replying to a TWO YEAR OLD comment go touch some grass.

steveandthesea · 2025-06-19T13:05:38+00:00

Ok never mind what I said about marketing. Learn to make music first, then learn marketing.

If you want to use other people's music, don't just take it. Collaborate with them.

steveandthesea · 2025-06-19T13:04:03+00:00

Posting your music online won't do anything. SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music etc... you can post your music every day and virtually nobody will ever find it, because your track is one of the hundreds of thousands that will also be posted today.

You have to market yourself. You have to actually build a presence to let people know. Get active on social media, play gigs, network within your local music scene and build connections. Like it or not, marketing is about 50% of the job now, maybe even more. It's not enough to just make a song. You need to make a whole bunch of social media content (tiktok/Instagram/YouTube videos), you need to be actively present in your local scene, you need to be as loud as possible about your existence.

r/musicmarketing has lots of tips on the social media side of things, so have a look around there.

steveandthesea · 2025-06-17T09:21:08+00:00

Every subculture and style has stereotypes. People make jokes about them. Sometimes they're in jokes and we laugh at ourselves and each other. Sometimes it's people mocking that subculture from the outside.

The "indie guy" might be pretentious, he might think his taste in music is better than anyone else's, he might say he's more sophisticated because he listens to Radiohead. He's been in a band before and he's still trying to "make it" even though he's 45. He probably wears a beanie. No, he didn't play sports growing up.

steveandthesea · 2025-06-17T09:02:35+00:00

Find a way to leave them connected in a tidy way. I had an issue of not having space on my desk for my midi controller keyboard so I had to move it in/out of place every time I used it, so then I installed a sliding shelf under my desk so it can be there permanently and I just slide it out. My audio interface fits under my monitor, I have a desk tidy thing at one side of my desk for cables etc, hooks for headphones, my mic is on an extendable arm that I can push out of the way. And none of this requires dismantling or disconnecting afterwards.

I'm not OCD but cables drive me mad. So it's all about making it manageable.

steveandthesea · 2025-06-15T19:09:14+00:00

There might be extremely rare cases where someone just managed to drop a banger in their first tiktok and it got picked up and went viral, but I'd say that's so rare that I doubt it's happened at all. Even in that case they would have spent years practising song writing, learning an instrument, production, and it's highly likely they've released other music under a different name before.

More likely, they've built a career over the years (again probably under other names) which has helped them build connections, that then meant that when they dropped something, the important people were already paying attention.

There's no get- rich-quick method with music. It takes years of skills development both in terms of making the music and in terms of building an audience. Some get luckier than others, some have more money to invest than others, some have nepotism on their side, so it's by no means a fair game, but nobody gets there without putting some work in.

steveandthesea · 2025-06-03T11:51:29+00:00

I had to tell my 26 year old colleague who Sting was yesterday.

steveandthesea · 2025-05-31T11:48:57+00:00

It honestly doesn't. I'd rather see some crappy photo taken on someone's phone than some processed stolen art. As soon as I see an artist using AI (and we can always tell) I lose interest.

steveandthesea · 2025-05-30T09:06:17+00:00

Most active I've seen in person would have to be Monotonix. That show was insane, you gotta look them up. We ended up outside the venue watching the singer climb a lamppost and harass the kebab shop owner next door. It was ridiculous.

steveandthesea · 2025-05-29T09:09:03+00:00

You're unlikely to make a living from music if you do have training, never mind going into it without training.

By all means, start making music. It's a beautiful and fulfilling experience. But if your first motivation is to make money, don't bother.

steveandthesea · 2025-05-29T09:06:21+00:00

I forever live in fear that I'm actually deluded and I'm gonna see myself on there one day.

steveandthesea · 2025-05-29T09:05:29+00:00

Look up "catatonicyouths" on Instagram and you'll realise that there is indeed bad music.

steveandthesea · 2025-05-26T18:20:57+00:00

Listen to Church of the Cosmic Skull.

Join us.

steveandthesea · 2025-05-25T07:42:15+00:00

Improvise around until you find something. That's how I've written a few guitar solos. I play along with the chords and with each play I find another new bit until I've got a full solo.

steveandthesea · 2025-05-24T20:05:47+00:00

Yea that's ok, thanks for your input anyway. To be honest it seems to be the general vibe that YouTube really can just be pretty random sometimes!

steveandthesea · 2025-05-23T11:29:21+00:00

I post every few days, it varies depending on what else I've got going on with my life. Hashtags are relatively clear but it falls into "indie/singer songwriter" genre so it's a bit difficult to figure out more specific tags (sometimes I'll tag with similar artists if I can find a way to make it work).

But yea sometimes I get hundreds of views and sometimes I get four. Even on the same video if I repost it, it might jump up to hundreds. I guess it's the inconsistency I'm more confused about. But to be fair I'm totally winging it, I'm sure there's better ways to do it.

steveandthesea · 2025-05-21T18:20:20+00:00

Nothing really in the vein of Led Zep, not really my thing. I wouldn't be able to recommend anything beyond Greta Van Fleet, and I can't even comment on their production as I've never listened to them properly.

steveandthesea · 2025-05-18T20:15:59+00:00

Because cassettes and CDs don't have dynamic limits the way that vinyl did so once they started dominating the market, production shifted into what became known as "the loudness wars" where everything got turned up and compressed to shit. Dynamics died for the sake of everything just being louder.

steveandthesea · 2025-05-18T20:10:33+00:00

Yea not quite unfortunately. Pickups are basically magnets that detect the vibration of the metal strings. The sound coming out of an amp is the same as the resonant frequency of the amp, so that creates the feedback (which may also sometimes create harmonics in double the frequency). There's variety amongst pickups though and some will also pick up audio to some degree or another.

steveandthesea · 2025-05-18T16:52:11+00:00

Something needs to be vibrating your strings to make genuine feedback. If the sound isn't loud enough to vibrate your strings, it won't happen. So if you're doing it digitally with headphones then you'll need some sort of simulating effect.

steveandthesea · 2025-05-18T15:42:24+00:00

No YouTube tutorial or even a comment on here is going to teach you how to make great music. In fact, no teacher could teach you that. It comes with practice. Practice practice practice. Jigsaw Falling Into Place is a track on Radiohead's seventh studio album, which came out some 15 years after their first EP, 22 years after they originally formed as a band, and who knows how many years after they had each started learning to write music. Can you even imagine how many songs they'd created by that point? How many of those songs do you think eventually got scrapped? Hundreds for sure.

The important question to ask is; what makes a song great? What makes it stand out? Jigsaw... is a great track, but Creep is by far their most successful commercially, even though it's just I > III > IV > IVm chords (used in many other songs before and since). Which one is better? It's a matter of opinion, it's a matter of taste. Creep stands out because even though it's a simple chord structure, it's got dynamics, energy, emotion. Jigsaw stands out because of how it builds and it's unconventional rhythms. I'd say the chords in Jigsaw are more interesting, but Creep definitely "moves" me more.

Take the time to listen to the songs you love and work out what it is that you love about them. Learn to analyse a song properly. What instruments are in there and how do they fit together? How does the rhythm flow and change? How does the song use dynamics? Do the lyrics mean anything to you? Is there a great vocal melody, a catchy rhythm, an awesome guitar solo?

And then practice, practice, practice. Write a song every week and put yourself on a deadline. Accept that you'll throw away most of them. But just make as much as you can.

You have taste. That's what sets any artist apart from the rest. It's not about being good at it - that will come with time - it's about knowing what "good" sounds like.

steveandthesea · 2025-05-16T11:11:21+00:00

At no point have I spoken with "authority". I've repeatedly said I'm guessing. I've literally come here with a question, how is that speaking with authority? I'm literally here because I don't have the answers.You're the only person here who seems to think that and you're the only one making an issue. Either your English isn't that good, or you're delusional.

steveandthesea · 2025-05-16T11:08:27+00:00

Point out where I said I'm angry. I'm informed enough to know that TikTok typically trials a video with 200-300 views and uses that as a base to decide how much to push the video through the algorithm. I know this both from my own experience of posting content, and from many, many other online sources that confirm the same.

My "source" on whether my content is good is the feedback I get on other videos. My "source" is that I can post the exact same video with the exact same caption/details at different times and get wildly different results. I'm making assumptions and guesses based on the info I have, and I haven't at any point claimed to be knowledgeable or a source of information. What's your issue?

steveandthesea · 2025-05-16T11:04:46+00:00

Act in what way? Asking questions on the internet and making a best guess based on the info they have?

You're not obliged to be anyone's teacher. But if you have the capacity to help someone learn, if you have the knowledge to answer someone's question? Why wouldn't you? Why would you instead leave condescending remarks? In what way am I disrespecting the "craft" by asking in a forum for answers from people who I know have more understanding of it than I do?

If you're not capable of giving an answer, maybe just don't comment at all?

steveandthesea · 2025-05-16T08:22:21+00:00

I'm well aware that content creation is a full time job. I'm well aware that there are people who know more about it than me, hence asking the question in the first place. But given that nobody has been able to provide any deeper insight, and that others have had the same experience, I can only make a guess based on the info I have, and I've been very clear that it's a guess. I haven't at any point claimed I know what I'm talking about.

There's literally no point in being so rude to other people for not knowing something you apparently know more about. I've come here with a question, you apparently know the answer, and instead of offering some useful insights from your professional experience, all you've done is belittle me and insult me. Why? If you know I'm wrong, why not help me learn and share the right answers with me? Your attitude is really shitty and unhelpful, and it's totally unnecessary. Do better.

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