Counterstatement to "Small Music Groups In The Scene"

Written by Makke

The "problem" with the music-scene isn't the small groups. In fact it's the small groups that sometimes are the best. TSEC (The Solid Energy Crew, now known as Lagoona) consisted of only two active musicians, and they were (I say were because they've officially quit the scene as a group) considered one of the best. I too started in a small group called The Einstein Crew, consisting of Wolk / Comic Pirates, bARAKA / 020 and me. BARAKA never did a thing, so it was only Wolk and me who were really active. This little group led to that both Wolk and I joined Comic Pirates. The only feedback we got in the beginning was each other's opinions on the songs, and of course the placing of our songs in various compos. But we never got concrete words from anyone. Yes, it was boring to never get any feedback from "outsiders". But one thing I've learned is "if you want feedback, give feedback"!

If you give feedback to others they get interested in your work and might want to check it out, and as thanks for your feedback you get some feedback too. This is of course no rule. You might send feedback and not even get a reply. It depends on how "important" the guy you give feedback feels it is to thank you for your feedback.

But it can't HURT you to give feedback. Giving feedback will at least give you the reputation of being a nice guy - which I can't see any harm in.

One more thing small/"unknown" groups should think of is not to just sit tight in the same IRC channel every night, talking to the same people. Yes, close friends are great, but if you want to get well known you have to spread your name.

Good things to do is to enter compos, give feedback (as I said) and write articles for d-mags, which is very important. If people see your name a few times they'll soon remember it, and when they see on a news site/d-mag that you've released a new music-disk/tune they might just check it out. And here's an important thing.

Spread the news of your releases! Don't expect people to LOOK for your music. People might not even know you exist! How the hell are they supposed to know you release anything if they don't know you exist? And there are so many releases every DAY that a person can't keep track of all. So spreading the news is important.

Yes, this might take some of your time to do. But believe me it's worth it. And the more known you get, the more feedback you will get. A sad thing is however that the known groups get loads of feedback. In fact some get so much feedback they can't reply to all! And really - the well known groups are the ones who need it the least.

- Makke/Hugi/Trebel