This%20Is%20How%20We%20Do%20It

Elsewhere in this issue LA-based Greg Johnson talks about funding his latest album by getting fans to ‘subscribe’ to buy a copy in advance. Using his considerable NZ media profile he found a few hundred willing fans, along with a handful of higher level investors, to reach his funding target. Although personalised, this pay-by-fans model is essentially that of Sellaband.com, the (now German-based) global site that has allowed more than 60 unsigned acts to record and release albums – funded by fans and without loss of any rights to record companies. 2010 APRA Maioha Award winner Maitreya, aka Jamie Greenslade, (who raised US$50,000 to record ‘Close To Home’) is most prominent among the handful of Kiwi artists to have made successful use of Sellaband since the ‘online record company’ site was established in 2006. Fair to say that Sellaband has itself struggled to turn a profit, the requiring a buy out at the beginning of 2010, and subsequent funding model tweaks, to avoid bankruptcy. Auckland musician and Kiwi FM radio host Fleur Jack is the latest local to reach her Sellaband target, a more modest US$12,000. She is also currently utilising creative project funding site IndieGoGo.com to raise video funding and offered to tell NZM readers how each have worked for her. ...more

Auckland rock band Decortica have recently released their sophomore album ‘Love Hotel’ independently and digitally using the ‘freemium’ model. Lead singer and guitarist Mathew Bosher (that’s him on the left, beside Tory Staples and Antoinette Lee), told NZM some of the whys and hows. ...more

Sean Kerrigan takes an obtuse look at the making of amps/pre-amps/effects. ...more

Jeremy Roake is the creative force behind a recent release from a Christchurch band calling themselves Rogue Giraffe. While the music playing has never stopped, recording this CD was something of a return journey for Jeremy which, being the creative type, he saw fit to document and provide to NZM readers as an observation on the changing of times and technologies. ...more

Late in 2008 Auckland four-piece Body Corporate delivered 'Howlaround', a strikingly diverse album of quality Sonic Youth-style noise meister-to-indie smart guitar rock - that came packaged in even more strikingly eye catching artwork, a monochromatic montage of historical medico imagery. Even better, it came in full glorious 12 inches of vinyl (with code-protected downloads but no CD version on offer), a real album with proper artwork from a clever band. This is the fourth and most significant release from Kingsland Vinyl Appreciation Society and it prompted us to ask just who and what is the KVAS? Is it bunch of old men who get together every second Tuesday at some scout hall in Kingsland to talk about the glorious black wax? We asked Will Waters if he wouldn't mind telling NZM readers some more about his mysterious society - and just how he does it. ...more

I arrived in Oamaru prepared to give my guitars to the kids and stow away my harps… just in case. Coming from London I wasn't overawed by the Victorian architecture and dressing up wasn't my scene. What I did find though was The Penguin Entertainers Club. ...more

008 has delivered an exceptional summer of weather and, by happy coincidence, an exceptional summer of outdoor music events, with new festivals surfacing and others dramatically expanding. ...more

This is intended as a checklist guide to organising your first gig/event/school lunchtime item, as an emerging band/artist. ...more

Peter Haeder (Phaeder), moved from northern Germany to New Zealand two decades ago, quickly establishing himself here as a leading avant-garde guitarist and composer for film and TV. ...more

Reality check: unless you're Fat Freddy's Drop or Bic Runga, the chances of getting your name in a newspaper are slim - ...more

As theory has it, promoting your band should be easy as pie in these internet glory days. Never before have musicians had such ready access to a vast, global audience with so few intermediaries. ...more