When/How did you first start playing music?
My mom took my brother and I for piano lessons. I didn't like the piano very much at the time so I switched to Spanish guitar after a few lessons and took those with a friend. I stuck with it until I was 11. Then I quit for a year. When my parents bought me an electric guitar for my 12th birthday I got back into it!
What's the best gig you ever played?
That's difficult to say. I've been touring since I was 18. I've played over 1000 shows in my life so I can't recount them all. We have recently played some really great shows on our last tour (Jan/Feb 2011). I think our sold out show at Schokoladen in Berlin was a really magical night. So, for now - until someone reminds me of another great show - that's my favorite.
How has social media effected the way you market/promote your music?
I think we're a pretty good example of a band that uses social media and internet self-marketing in a way that is beneficial and positive. We released our album digitally for free with the help of our friend's label Beep! Beep! Back up the Truck. They put the album up on the torrent website www.mininova.com as a featured torrent. It was downloaded 30,000 times in the first week and the ball kept rolling after that. We've well surpassed 100,000 (free) downloads of the album now.
We've collected quite a large mailing list through giving away our music in exchange for an email address. This allows us to stay in touch with our fans/friends directly and we really cherish that. In combination with our full-time touring it has really paid off for us. We're actually making a living off of playing music full-time and we're not on a big label. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a lot more indie bands who can claim the same.
We plan on doing even more with that and will be building a website that will, in essence, be a social media/community of its own, for ourselves and the people interested in what we do. We're really excited about all of the possibilities that all of the new technology has to offer.
What's your prediction for the next big advancement in how we find/listen to/share music?
Within 5 years the majority of music will be available for free and it will be completely embedded in our social interactive media. Most major labels will have collapsed. Live audiences and concert attendance will increase, although huge arena shows will be probably become scarcer; attendance at smaller shows will increase. There will be a new industry built around all of this (interactive media, more concerts) and that's where the money to finance new music will come from.
The production and consumption of music will be financed indirectly. The whole current industry model is outdated and it's based on the complete misconception that bands need this current label-based industry model to have a career. Right now, the music industry is label-centered but you can already see the shift to a more musician-centered model. And, it's about time! Musicians make the music. They should dictate the terms in how their music should reach an audience. They should also wake up and stop sticking their heads in the sand when it comes to being entrepreneurs.
Any other big gigs coming up? When/Where?
Lots of touring. Some recording. We’ll be in China in late March/early April. Then our first headlining shows in our home country of the Netherlands. In May we're going around the Baltic Sea to play in countries like Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Poland. I plan on visiting Arvo Pärt's home while in Estonia. In June we're recording a new EP on the island of Sardinia in Italy, in some organic farm out in the middle of nowhere. Then we tour more across Europe hitting up as many festivals as we can. We plan on coming to the US and Japan at the end of the year!
Check out more on The Black Atlantic here.
