“Respect your manager, just as he respects you, because he takes on the same risks as you do,” says Syaheed of Bedsty Artist Management.

Whether you are an established act or an upcoming artist, engaging a good manager is probably one of the most important things you need to consider in building your musical career. Certainly, while hiring a manager doesn’t equate success, a great manager knows when to play different roles at different stages of your career, including opening doors, pushing you to level up your game while giving you a reality check.

But what should artists consider before hiring a manager? As Syaheed of Bedsty Artist Management explains, “Make sure they understand you, and make sure they understand what you need to do. It’s a two way street. The manager is only as good as the artist. If the artist sucks, even if the manager has all the contacts in the world, he’s not going to be able to do much. You must have a manager that respects you, but you must also respect the manager, because we partake in the same risks as you. We are not going to get on the train with you if we don’t like where the train is headed. Of course, there are many types of managers, so pick one that understands you, your music and your vision.”

Syaheed, Director, Bedsty Management

With four unique acts Sheikh Haikel, Wicked Aura, Sezairi, and Kevin Lester (now known as THELIONCITYBOY) under his care, Syaheed is a partner, visionary, mentor, parent and strategist all rolled into one.

This year, some of his biggest achievements include signing a major label record deal for Sezairi on the back of producing RoomToBreathe series on his YouTube; signing a landmark development deal for THELIONCITYBOY with Apl.de.ap's BMBX; turning Wicked Aura around financially to make possible their next record; and having Sheikh Haikel re-enter the Malaysian market, appearing on Maharaja Lawak Mega - with a weekly viewership of 1.5 million viewers.

He added, “A manager only truly becomes a manager when he has things to manage. At the very early start, the manager is a promoter and talent developer, but a manager also has all these other little functions and roles too. Once the artist becomes slightly more successful and in demand with more clients seeking for him, then the true manager roles starts to come in; because you’re managing the information in and out, delegating where necessary, and finding the partnerships where necessary.

So at the start, you will probably need a person who is more promoter and talent developer more than a manager, but of course unless he’s a friend, you’re probably seen as a commodity with so many other artists out there, and you probably need to pay a bit of money or cut him in. Meanwhile, if you have a best friend-type of guy who has ideas and can help you out, rope him in!”

MBIA interviewed Syaheed to share his thoughts on what makes a great artist manager, his relationship with his artists, his marketing strategies, and in particular, the long and hard efforts put behind THELIONCITYBOY which eventually caught the eyes of Apl.de.ap’s team and offered him a label deal.

How did you get started as an artist manager?

I stumbled into it. I really wanted to get involved with the band SIXX that Kevin Lester had started. Back then, I was producing Hip Hop & R&B music and was pretty successful at it. But handling live production for a band was not my immediate strength. I really wanted to see this band make it because they were so good, so I literally willed myself into their fold by making myself very useful by utilizing the relationships I had already in Malaysia and Singapore to get them seen. I landed them a spot on Sunburst KL Festival. From then on, it evolved.

I then realised I was pretty good at it. I felt I was adding even more value as a manager then I would as a producer. I had learnt a lot hanging around established Malaysian artists and their managers and that was my education, a class I am still attending

Describe what kind of manager you are. Are you a promoter like Simon Fuller? A mentor like Jon Landau (managing Bruce Springsteen)? A partner like Albert Grossman (with Bob Dylan)? Or an autocrat like Tom Parker (like how he visioned and shaped Elvis)?

I'd imagine I'm a hybrid of all four - playing different roles to the needs of my artist. If I had to pick one, I would believe I am a partner in their development, a part of the process. But one thing is consistent is that I always let my artist have their creative freedom, giving my two cents when needed, but they would have control of that. I just lay the facts and manage the expectations.

How do you manage their expectations?

Every artist has this dilemma. They want to do their art, but they also need money to survive and hopefully excel. They expect to make money from doing what they want to do. So managing expectations would be in the form of pointing out the bigger challenges and opportunities on a short and long term basis, and weighing for them the consequences of putting out music that would only serve themselves emotionally but not necessarily connect with the audience.

Do you face this problem with your own artists?

All the time, and it’s fair, because music is such an emotional product, especially to its creator, but there are artists that are slightly more business savvy and pragmatic and know how to balance that. But it gets a bit more dangerous if the artist does a certain type of music and expects to do really well when in truth the music may in fact be very difficult to sell. So that’s when I need to manage expectations, so that they don’t get completely let down. It’s also partly why we are still quite broke (laughs), but we’ve come to a consensus on what they are comfortable with. After all, I’m not managing a K-pop group where we have to stick to a certain formula. I believe my artists are talented. Maybe they would be more respected when they are dead and gone than when they are alive, like Van Gough.

It’s like a parent-child relationship, where you are constantly shifting and adjusting, and getting them out of their comfort zone to try new things and evolve. Some artists are open to adjusting but some are stubborn. But it goes both ways. I’m not always right, because if I was, I would be more successful than what I am now. I learn more from every mistake than from my good fortune.

Are you a road manager? Business manager? Legal advisor? Or all of the above?

Again, a hybrid of all three. I've played all three in different stages of my career. I needed to, because I had to learn it - from scratch. You could say I believe in starting by washing the dishes, or in the mailroom, and earning my place and proving my worth. I have to add I am not legally trained – I just read the fine print, and understand it enough to break it down in layman terms.

These days, I have a great friend and partner in Aboo, who is basically our Bedsty Artists' road manager. He is fantastic at what he does so I know our guys are well taken care of when they're on the road.

What is your biggest achievement as an artist manager?

For me personally, it’s being sustainable while doing it. We could do with some growth so I can build a bigger team to amplify what we want to do even further, and that’s the goal now. But to be at it year in and year out is pretty dope.

What are some of the biggest challenges you face as an artist manager?

Resources: Time & money. We never have enough of either.

As an artist manager, I've focused entirely on the development of Singapore artists, original Singapore music artists. And that also means breaking stereotypes on how dope they truly are. It’s the mindset that "local" is not good enough that is my biggest barrier. So to overcome that, I find every opportunity possible to get my artists outside of Singapore.

On hiring interns 

Very often, these interns whom I work with want to be artists and musicians themselves. But I don’t have the heart to tell them that, “no, your talent is here” instead. Every person deserves to sail their own ship, and if they do find that their path is in management, it’s a bonus. Just like me, I started out as a music producer, stumbled into artist management, and only decided later that I wanted to focus my efforts here.

What makes a good artist manager?

I had a discussion with Denis Ladegaillerie, CEO of Believe Digital on this actually. He told me that the role of the artist manager is the most complex role in the entire music ecosystem... you need to have an appreciation for talent, be able to spot it well and help the artist develop, be informed of new opportunities and technology, be a risk taker as you are dependent on the success of your artist, understand legal intricacies that affects the artist and the deals that come, have business acumen and manage resources to make it profitable for your artist and you.. you name it, it goes on. And obviously, I agree.

Any difference between managing a band versus an individual artist?

Definitely. With a band, there are more personalities to deal with. Income wise, there will be more mouths to feed, but fund raising is also slightly easier. If I need ten thousand dollars to be raised, I can ask ten band members to reach out to their network of family and friends for a thousand each, which on the other hand can be much more daunting to a single artist to get that same amount.

The four acts under my care have very different directions, deliberately too, because I don’t want one act to cannibalize another when it comes to opportunities. There’s also egos to manage, because they are all competitive, and they all want to succeed, which is a good thing. But I don’t want them to feel like my capacity has been compromised because I favor one over another, because I don’t. I have a professional relationship with all four of them, and we have a friendship just as much, and we take care of each other’s families.

What do you look out for when signing an act?

My baseline is that they have to be able to do fantastic live shows. If they can’t do great recordings at the moment, never mind, but you really have to be entertaining when you’re on stage. All my acts can achieve that.

Sheikh Haikel

Sheikh Haikel educates me on that as he’s a top notch live performer. His presence is second to none. Wicked Aura – a no brainer. It’s such a shame folks haven’t yet come around to experience their full band shows as much. Sezairi – I hope after Music Matters, everybody who came to watch went away just mind blown because he just raised the bar, and he’s only just getting started.

Why I got involved with SIXX was also because they’re an energetic and infectious band. They have to sound and look tight. Now, even as a soloist, when THELIONCITYBOY goes overseas to perform, he would see some of the very best acts there and think, “How do I compete on this level?”

So pushing him out of his comfort zone was part of the process. He is a really hungry guy, and if something went wrong during the show, he gets more upset than anyone else, and he would be the hardest person on himself, and I would be the one instead to ask him to chill. I guess it makes it easier for me as a manager, because he’s extremely self-driven. On the flipside, if I need to give him feedback, he would listen, and it would be up to him to digest that process. But with all the artists to a certain degree, they appreciate what I say or don’t say, and we have a mutual understanding.

Do you wear different hats for different artists?

Yes. With Kevin it has always been partnership role, because when we started on the journey, we were really insignificant, and we evolved and grew together. With Sezairi, it’s more of strategy and positioning him differently. I would like to think I have come to a point that I fully understand his musical sense to know where he would like to go with his journey. With Haikel it’s very interesting because I’ve learnt a lot from him, just as much as he has entrusted in me in shaping things for him these last 4 years. He would share how he would do things, his preference, his set and sequence, and so on, and at the same time he would turn to me and ask, “So what is your take?” He would consult me on his ideas, and for someone as senior as that, he’s mentoring me as much as I’m giving back to him. He has plenty of ideas, and from my end it would be, “Which of these ideas make most business sense?”

With Wicked Aura, creatively they are pretty much set, but it was a matter of reviving them financially. So it was cut, cut, cut, let’s not have this and that, let’s do this instead, and put them back together again, so that they can carry forward and work on the project that they have been planning on for the longest time. And I’ve heard the raw recordings and it is amazing!

Wicked Aura

How do your artists remain financially sustainable?

Our paychecks come in spikes: there are months when we make money, and there are months that we don’t, but as long as they are continuously producing good music and great performances, we can definitely expect that we can keep growing. When we are in production mode, it’s a challenge to find funding, so we need to work out how we can spread out our resources evenly.

Make no mistake. All four of them – they are the best in what they do, but our economic situation means that even at that level, they all struggle financially. Wicked Aura is healthy, but I cannot get all thirteen members to commit full time to it, so they have other jobs, because there’s simply not enough money for each person to earn a decent salary for them to commit 100% full time. So there’s a dedicated structure and understanding that if we need to activate Wicked Aura, there’s a priority for everyone to come together.

Sheikh Haikel is a different case. He has regular gigs, he’s on Okto, he has started a wonderful school at Balmoral Plaza called School of Music, and we would try to find ways to fund his next album. It’s a chicken-and-egg scenario. We want to commit more time, but hey, where are we going to find the money?

There are government grants that can help. But we look at it as help rather than the first place to go to, because from my point of view, if at anytime they decide to switch that off, and we are only reliant on one source of funding, then we would be in deep trouble.

Wicked Aura already has a model that was generating some cash, but not in a way that I wanted them to, because they were not playing as a full band, but as a percussion troupe. Now we are in the midst of transitioning them into a full band, but they could still make money performing at corporate events. After all, they were the ones to make Batucada performances popular during corporate events, but with so many similar acts coming up - and these are the same acts which they helped to mentor and grow - they are now competing for the same business, and Wicked Aura will need to do something different. And because Wicked Aura is at this level, we will not reduce our price, even if it means accepting fewer shows, so everyone needs to bite the bullet.

I suppose this ties back with how you build them as a brand.

Yes, in the performance space, your value is measured by how much entertainment you can bring. Usually it’s by word of mouth – that you guys are the best – and also pitching them actively to event organizers. I may not have the time to put in as much effort as I want to, but to overcome that, we work with various booking agents to refer them back to us. Every single live show is advertisement for the next gig. In Singapore, it’s all about how entertaining you are. There are times when we turn an event down because we can’t reasonably achieve a good sound from that show, so we had to respectfully decline. If we are going to do a gig that doesn’t sound good, that’s going to do us more disservice than anything. So maintaining that kind of standard would help us get the next gig or show. Very often, our potential clients see us on YouTube or live and then decided to hire us.

On Sezairi
When Sezairi first came to me, I told him that unlike with his previous arrangement, there is no safety net. There is no magical funding machine behind me. We had to start from scratch. After considering carefully, he took the leap with me. Sezairi is now on a completely different path. It doesn’t matter that he was a Singapore Idol any more. Sezairi has proven that he has the talent, capacity, charm, stage presence and creativity. If we open the right doors, I truly believe that he will be something legendary. He is not an artist that can be easily copied. He’s not just a musician, he’s not just a singer. He is an artist. He’s got a wonderful voice. His tone and style is unique. He can straddle between the English, Malay and Indonesian markets really well. He has the ability to appeal to the mainstream market, yet he also has an edge that the indie folks should appreciate as well. He’s got it in all these different areas, the challenge now is to take those ingredients and make it seen to his current fans, so that they love him more, and also to a new audience so that they can discover him.

What is your marketing strategy?

Our strategy is to refocus on the fans, using every opportunity to engage them and reach out to new audiences, getting them excited and to support us. For example, for Sezairi, the priority is to change people’s mindsets of him. He had an idea to take his music to really interesting locations and spaces, and we did it with this in mind: refocus on fan engagement and have them subscribe to him on his YouTube channel so that any future material that he’s putting out, people can engage with him. We wondered why is it that although he’s on TV half the time, he’s only had two hundred subscribers when we started his YouTube channel. This means that even if he were to put out any video, there won’t be much impact. So we had to start from scratch, pull his audiences back to his own spaces. It gave him the ability to present himself in his natural environment (as opposed to what people only see him as on TV), and also engage his fans on a closer, more personal level.

We produced our pilot with the help of No Average Joe, the one where he was playing in the living room of his grandmother’s house. We did a total of four episodes last year. In order to encourage people to subscribe to his channel, we did teasers, created a hashtag to engage them, and gave viewers goals to hit, like setting a target of 500 subscribers and promised to release a new video immediately. 

That was what we did for THELIONCITYBOY too recently. We started with about 300 subscribers during Music Matters week, and we put a goalpost of 800 for JAMA. Never mind if we don’t hit the target, we would release it on 1^st June. But if we do, we will release it earlier and reward those people who have subscribed. After that campaign we shot up to 560 subscribers. Not so bad for one week’s work. For THELIONCITYBOY’s channel, every week since last month, we dropped a new song. Sometimes it comes with a video. It may not be a full length music video, just a teaser or jif image for fun, so that they could be shared.

Currently we are shifting away from Facebook. Instagram is still very strong, but Instagram is quite hard to grow because it’s not an immediate sharing type of platform. What we try to do is to build a central point, which is the artist’s website that will aggregate content from YouTube, Instagram and Tumblr, which are our points of creation that feeds and populates the website. Twitter and Facebook are outpoints for communication and sharing. If folks follow us on YouTube and Instagram, technically they get the best of everything. We are also trying to build our mailing list. That takes a bit more thought, because we want to give more value to the user rather than just sending them updates.

Who manages the social media?

Some of the artists are more hands on in execution, but I think a lot about the strategy usually. The whole point of social media for us is to create and facilitate conversations. You want people to not only converse with us, but also to each other. That’s the ultimate goal – for fans to talk to each other and doing things for us, with us. That’s what they do for the very popular artists. Currently, it’s still heavily driven by us, pushing out content consistently. Sezairi is very good at it, THELIONCITYBOY content keeps getting better, Sheikh Haikel is always on Instagram.

Our current project is for Wicked Aura to synergize everyone. Individually they use these social media points, but they all don’t post to Wicked Aura’s accounts for now. They thought that the Wicked Aura account must only have official Wicked Aura stuff. I said, “No, no. Whatever rubbish and nonsense that you’re doing on your own, throw it into the Wicked Aura account too because it is who you are.”

Do you practice putting a budget to promote your campaigns? How do you decide when to spend and how much to spend?

It depends. I decide by looking at how much impact it can make; if that campaign can potentially reach out to 10,000 more people than we could before. For example, if Sezairi or THELIONCITYBOY is going to be on TV, or Haikel is going to drop something out; if there is attention on the project like if there’s a picture of them with another famous artist, so you can target not only your fans but also the fans of the other artist. It’s not about hijacking, but about creating conversations. Why were they pictured together – get fans to talk about that. Then it makes our artists and our pages more socially relevant in whatever algorithm that exists in the underbelly of these social networks, so you can come up more in search in future. Rather than posting for the sake of getting 1000 likes, which is not the goal, we want to seed the conversation, to share that moment with more people and fans so that he gets more exposed. Even if you were to get a question like “Who’s this guy?” That’s good enough, because he took notice, and hopefully he’s inquisitive enough to find out more.

On maximizing resources 

I have this theory which I share with everyone: because we have so little resources, we really have to maximize its impact. If I had $50,000 to buy a billboard ad, I wouldn’t choose to spend it on placing my ad on Ion in Orchard Road. I would choose to spend it on a billboard in the middle of Times Square, New York city where I can gain more eyeballs, and even take a photograph of that and send it back to the media press in Singapore and create a buzz on its own.

Could you share with us Kevin Lester's journey to being signed to BMBX and what role did you play in this whole journey?

It’s never a single moment that results in outcomes like this. It’s the 6 years we've put in together, investing in the music we create, the journeys and tours we broke the bank on to get overseas, to get better that gets you noticed, and respected, and worth other people investment in you, with their time, with their money, with their support.

Kevin Lester, now known as THELIONCITYBOY

On THELIONCITYBOY    

At each of his live performance, his fans would be there, but about 80% of the crowd has not seen him before. Regardless of that statistic, every time he performs, the crowd just goes bananas and it becomes a party at the end of the day, so there’s always that impact. He may not be part of the current Indie Rock trend, but the indie kids still like him. And they follow him on his socials thereafter.

I already have heard of BMBX previously because when they were working on a charity project for Typhoon Haiyan victims, they worked with JD from Pop Shuvit, whom I knew. Then I got a call a few months ago. They told me that they saw Kevin’s stuff, and have been sharing it with the whole team and everyone loves what they have been seeing. This was just after Overdrive had been released. They said the feedback for Overdrive was very positive.

THELIONCITYBOY has been to the US four to five times already. The first time was April 2012. We managed to get a couple of small shows linked up from a friend, Fiona Bloom, and that was his first couple of performances in New York. Subsequently, he performed at A3C (All 3 Coasts), a top hip hop festival in Atlanta, and moved on to CMJ (College Music Festival) in New York, and things were picking up. In 2013, we went SXSW (South by Southwest, Austin) and CMW (Canadian Music Week, Toronto), took a break, and this year he went back again.

As they say, and especially in the music industry, it’s very important that first, you show up. The more you’re there, the more people take notice. Showing up was half the job, and he was showing up at all these different places. He was doing very good shows, and had this little thing going on. We escalated our efforts with his EP Everything You Love, You Hate, released in April 2013 via Vertusent Music Group/Sony RED. By May, he had his new track called PYCO (Put Your City On), which he wrote and produced out of his love for the football team, the Lions XII, just before they won the Malaysian Cup. He first performed it at Music Matters in 2013. It generated some buzz and later in January, when it was used in the promo video for the football team, it won many people over.

With each solid song created and produced, there would be a strong idea or visual concept behind it, and each song would be released as a single about every 4-6 weeks, shared on YouTube, topping Deezer Singapore charts, shared on Spotify and other channels. The idea was to create so much content consistently that more fans will start to take notice.

I believe, that was also how BMBX got interested. They looked at the content, the music, the videos of him performing live, and they saw the potential he had. They wanted to invest in South East Asian artists, and we were in the right place, in the right time, doing the right things. And now the goal is to take it further, by developing him as a regional force. This includes putting resources behind him, getting interesting producers that we probably not have access to, to work with him, and this will help him expand creatively as an artist.

Ultimately, THELIONCITYBOY was engaged in the deal right from the start, because this is his life. My role was to make sure that we cross all the “t”s and dots all the “i”s when the deal seals. He has to look at it from “Hey this is my life, is this right for me? Do these people have the same vibe as me?” Ultimately it was his decision. Even if I were to convince him night and day to do it, at the end of the day, I would still hand the case over to him to make the final decision. Going back to the first point, and that’s why it’s a partnership between us.

The way I see my artists is that they are the value creators. They are the reason why all of us have jobs, right? And there’s a difference between if you’re an artist versus a musician. If you’re a musician, you’d still have to rely on the artist to make sure that you have a job, because it’s the artist that create the value, the fan following who would pay tickets to come through the doors. That’s why artists need to have that high level of control over their destiny. But the best artists would also know that there are some technical and legal burdensome things they would rather let folks like us handle.

On staying independent 

Even after signing the (BMBX) deal, we still hold a mindset that we should never depend solely on one party for support. There must be a way which we are working and giving just as much as we are receiving. It’s in everybody’s interest to make Kevin succeed. If I find funding sources to support this, I would bring it to the table too. It’s a two-way contribution.

About Syaheed

Syaheed is a central figure in the entertainment ecosystem in South East Asia. He has produced award-winning music, launched long running event franchises, and grown the careers of artists like Sezairi and THELIONCITYBOY.

Other than his role as Director at Bedsty Artist Management, Syaheed is also Country Manager & Trade Marketing Manager for Believe Digital and Vice President, SGMUSO Council for The Music Society, Singapore.

For more information on Bedsty’s artists, please visit http://bedsty.com/

This interview was conducted by Emily Haw. Reach out to her on Twitter @emilyhaw

Speech by NMP Janice Koh at Music Matters 2014

ON THURS 22 MAY 2014

1.             Distinguished guests, ladies and gentleman, a good morning to all of you. May I first take this opportunity to give a special welcome to all our friends who are visiting Singapore. It’s really wonderful to see so many music artists, producers, managers and thought leaders from the industry, both from here and abroad, at Music Matters today.

2.             Thank you, Jasper, for the introduction, and the invitation to make this welcome address. It is indeed a great pleasure to be part of this prestigious event.

3.             I have spent a good part of the last two years or more as a Nominated Member of Parliament, representing Culture and the Arts in Singapore. As an actor and arts practitioner for over two decades, working in theatre, television and film, it is a privilege to play this role in helping to shape the development of Singapore’s art scene. But today, I’m going to talk about Singapore music, and in particular, Singapore English-language music. I’m not from the music scene, yet I feel I have journeyed a little with the music industry over the last two years.

4.             This journey began in January 2012, interestingly enough, at the old Parliamentary Chamber, which had been converted into a performing venue at The Arts House. I was at a forum attended by a house full of freelance music artists, promoters and producers. They had gathered to discuss the state of the music industry in Singapore and the need to speak with one collective voice. I was probably the only non-musician in the whole room. That many talented Singapore musicians and indie bands were still largely invisible in mainstream media simply floored me. How do we even begin to talk about a sustainable music industry when there is so little awareness of homegrown music amongst Singaporeans themselves?

5.             Barely a few months after, at the 2012 Budget Debate, I gave one of my first speeches in Parliament about the need for a broadcast quota in Singapore. It was the first of many speeches and parliamentary questions raised on the issue of music development, and while the journey towards change has not been easy over the last two years, I can safely say that as a result of deeper consultation with government and advocacy on the part of industry, a significant amount of effort and attention is being placed on music development in Singapore today.

6.             Government has played no small part in this process by promoting dialogue between music makers, broadcasters as well as other industry partners, and there have been encouraging signs that some positive changes are beginning to take place.

7.             First. Radio has stepped up and listened. In this age of Youtube, social media and new digital technologies, I believe radio is still important. Culminating from meetings that were catalysed by Music Matters, Mediacorp radio stations have been playing 1 song per hour on English radio, and re-launched Lush 99.5 as an indie station, dedicated to supporting this cause with its “Lush loves local” hashtag and with regular programming of Singapore-made music. It may not be enough. But for now, it’s a good start, and we hope more radio stations will come on board.

8.             Second. We have been asking for greater consolidation within government agencies and a strong vision that would take a holistic view of the music industries’ needs. I believe they are listening, with recent news that the National Arts Council may transition to become the central agency to administer all music grants.

9.             Third, on copyright protection. Increasing online piracy is a global problem, which adversely affects the creative sector. In response, the Government is intending to amend Singapore's Copyright Act to enable rights holders to protect their rights more effectively against websites whose primary purpose is to offer infringing content. Alongside this, efforts will be made to reinforce the public's understanding of and respect for copyright in general, and to promote better availability of legitimate content. The music industry in Singapore has shown strong support for these objectives.

10.        Finally, music export has continued to be an intrinsic part for industry development due to the relatively small size of Singapore’s market. We welcome back Deon, Caracal and Kevin Lester from their recent shows at Canadian Music Week (CMW). Canadian Music Week is an important platform for us in the music event calendar, and with many Singapore artists regularly being invited to perform there highlights the ongoing interest in our talent.

11.        We’re also beginning to see industry success for Singapore artists. Sony Music Singapore has recently signed three acts - Sezairi, Trick and Gentle Bones, whom, I understand, will be making their appearance in the programme later. Cosmic Armchair was recently signed to Belgian EDM (Electronic Dance Music) label Alfa Matrix; Wormrot was recognised as one of Grindcore’s Top 10 bands worldwide by OC Weekly; MonsterCat’s debut album ‘The Violet Hour’ reached Number 1 on iTunes, and local labels such as Darker Than Wax are building a strong presence internationally.

12.        Many of these developments would not have been possible without the music industry coming together to speak with one voice. This happened two years ago, when the Music Society, Singapore or SGMUSO was born on this very platform at Music Matters. We know that industry associations have always played a big part in promoting music development in countries like Canada, Australia, the UK and the US, and it is no different here in Singapore. I would like to acknowledge the contributions of the founding members of SGMUSO and its current team, including Graham Perkins, Syaheed, Mike See, Danny Loong, Kevin Matthews and Sarah Sim, and all its 820 members, who have come together, and put their vested interests aside to tirelessly push for the promotion and advancement of Singapore-made music.

This week, over 100 members of SGMUSO have been given free access to participate in the Music Matters conference and the exclusive Music Matters Academy that begins tomorrow. This year, the Academy has been expanded to include all artists performing at Music Matters Live, which will enable a greater opportunity for learning and collaboration. For this, I’d like to thank Jasper and HP for their kind support.

14.        The Singapore music industry has made some good strides, but I believe we still have a long journey ahead of us. Deeper, more sustainable efforts are needed if we want to transform what is now just a Singapore music scene into a Singapore music industry. This can only be achieved if key stakeholders play a part to ensure the wider accessibility of Singapore-made music. For a start, I’m proposing three ideas: First, a radio broadcast quota to help build an audience and jumpstart the demand for homegrown music. Second, a strong export strategy that can tap into the commercial and soft power potential of our music talent in international markets. Third, a central agency to promote excellence, support the needs of the music industry and develop a strong vision for everyone to work towards. Hopefully, as I mentioned earlier, one of them is being looked into right now – so, one down, two to go!

15.        The government has said that it cannot do this alone. Well, I have no doubt that with sustained efforts from industry professionals and associations like SGMUSO, to promote and advocate for Singapore music, we will get there in good time. Singapore is young. But I believe we can make our music a part of the lives and memories - not only of Singaporeans but music listeners worldwide - and that, one day, like many countries all over the world, we too will have a strong music heritage to look back upon, and be proud of.

16. On that note, I wish each and every one of you a wonderful and productive time at the conference. Thank you!

Published with permission

Behind the Scenes with Kirk Degiorgio (Organized by SGMUSO)

Behind the Scenes with Kirk Degiorgio

26TH APRIL 
KYO
8PM

Moderator: Cherry Chan (Syndicate)

Kirk Degiorgio (2010). Source: Wikimedia Commons

Full transcript

Kirk: I’m a producer and DJ, and have written articles about Herbie Hancock. I’ve done many things, but everything I do is about music. I started DJ-ing in the early 80s, playing electro when it first came out in 1982. My friends used to breakdance – I couldn’t do that – so I was the DJ. One of my good friends from my hometown, Ipswich, was a professional footballer. Even though the wages weren’t like what they are today, you could still afford to buy two Technics. So we used to go to his house, and he would let us practice, and that’s how we learnt to DJ, with two decks.

Cherry: When did you start getting into producing?

Kirk: The same guy bought a Korg drum machine, and he did not know how to use it, and nor did I. I did not touch any other equipment for seven years, then I was invited by some more people from Ipswich, the Black Dog guys and Plaid, and they were break dancers in my hometown, to play with them. I went to the studio, and they had an 808 drum machine, mixer, sampler, and synthesizers, and that was when I first started trying to learn how to use a sequencer on a computer.

Cherry: As I understand, Plaid themselves can’t read music, and neither did you, so it’s quite interesting especially for those of us here who can’t play the keys. What was the process like for you?

Kirk: Firstly, in electronic music, when the first synthesizers were designed, they were designed without traditional keyboards. They had unusual touch controllers. Not only was it about a new electronic sound, it was also an untraditional way of creating music. So I was able to justify not being able to play an instrument like a traditional keyboard and just use sequences – no shame in that – I also think that it is to the advantage to anyone to learn a bit of music theory. I have taught myself some things on music theory. The biggest thing that I hear people ask me is that they can make a loop, but that’s about it.

Cherry: So when it comes to arrangement?

Kirk: Exactly, and a lot of that is to do with music theory, to expand that loop into a full arrangement and adding other stuff. I think it comes down to knowing a bit about scales and how you can add things that will fit the loop.

Cherry: Since we are talking about music production now, a lot of people when they first start making music, very often they will try to emulate the music that they like. From there, how do you create your own signature sound?

Kirk: I definitely have that process. I began by imitating Detroit techno records, and I think creating your own sound comes naturally. Someone at the Red Bull Music Academy, who is James Brown’s music director, said that the history of innovation in music can be traced down to bad memory. Everybody is trying to emulate somebody that they really like, but they forget or they get it slightly wrong, and that’s how you create your own unique sound.

Cherry: When you write, do you sit down and go like, “Oh today I’m going to write techno.”?

Kirk: Sometimes with techno, I would start with a particular bpm. I never sit down thinking that I’m going to do a melodic track today or I’m going to do a heavy, loopy kind of track. Never. It just goes wherever the music takes me.

Cherry: Once you finish the track, how do you know it’s good? A lot of producers will start on a track, and they might get it down to arrangement, but they keep meddling with it.

Kirk: Again, that is something that is very hard to explain, how you know when a track is finished. For me, it’s usually when I think the track is too busy, and there’s too many things going on and too many distractions so you start stripping it back, and that’s when you say, ok, if you start adding more, it’s too much. Also, when there’s not enough elements, you know that it’s not finished.

Cherry: When you were first starting out, do you send your tracks out to peers or people to get feedback?

Kirk: Yes of course. I didn’t send them to other people, I sent my first tracks straight away to Underground Resistance. I got a fax a week later from Mike Banks saying that they loved my tracks, but Underground Resistance is for Detroit Underground Resistance artistes only, but we passed your tracks to Carl Craig and he would be in touch with you. I didn’t think it would be true, but Carl phoned me and said that he loved the tracks and that was my first release.

Cherry: Since we are talking about getting in touch with labels, for young producers, what are the questions that they should be asking? How should they even be approaching the labels?

Kirk: It’s much more difficult now. There’s almost too many ways that you can approach labels. Obviously, when I did it, Underground Resistance probably had the address on the label itself. These days, you can probably send it to somebody’s Soundcloud. I myself receive so many emails or Facebook messages with download links, and I would say that the best way is maybe to do it yourself, to be honest. Nowadays, it’s so hard. Maybe for the first release, do it yourself or with some friends, because if it’s good, DJs like myself will find it and it’s better when the label approaches the artist rather than the artist going to the label. That was also how I did it. I had more tracks, and thought that I was just going to do it myself. I think that’s the best way.

Cherry: So you had your own label, did your own promotions?

Kirk: We didn’t even do any promotion. During those early days, I didn’t know what promotion was. This was 1991, and all I cared about is making music and put it out. All I needed was money to manufacture, do the artwork, find a distributor, and that was it. No promos, I didn’t even send them to magazines for review. They just bought it and reviewed it anyway.

Cherry: Ok. But since nowadays the market’s quite different. I think with technology as well, we get a lot more music, just like how you receive a lot of download links. What do you look for in track?

Kirk: Again, I have a very individual taste. I’m finding the same for other labels as well. I get asked to do EPs for labels, and they have very particular taste. In the old days, maybe labels will take a lot of my tracks. Now they are like cherry picking instead, they are more particular than before, because there is so much stuff out there, and labels have to have some kind of definite sound, whereas when we started out, we released a whole lot of down tracks, club tracks, home listening tracks, ambient tracks, now the vinyl market, especially for other professional DJs, they are looking for something that they know will keep playing in the clubs.

Cherry: So it’s a good label for producers to have their own little label, and write for certain labels that they want to get onto?

Kirk: I would make that the second stage. The first stage is to try to do it yourself and some friends, and get a buzz going on your label. Then you find that you will be approached. That’s how I found some of them on my label ART, which is mainly to support new artistes. One of them is a new young Dutch producer called Stefan Vincent. He had one release. I really liked it, and contacted him to ask if he had any more tracks, so that’s how it works. We do check things, I do anyway, and I like to work with young guys as well.

Cherry: For many new artistes, they sometimes get caught in a genre or find it hard to switch genre without losing their current fans. I was talking to an artiste the other day, and he basically started out with a lot of love songs, but he really wanted to diversify and experiment with more styles. How would you mange this sort of situation?

Kirk: I’ve done everything from hard techno to pop, and I think it’s because no matter what style I do, I have a sound, and I think it comes across when I DJ as well. I think you can start doing that when you find your definitive sound. You can then apply it. Say the guy with the ballads, if he wants to do more experimental stuff, he could still apply some of the musical techniques used for ballads and incorporate them into more experimental things as well. When I do different styles, it still sounds like me.

Cherry: You have a lot of different names under different projects.

Kirk: Yeah, I’m trying not to anymore. Now I just put it under my own name, for about five or six years now.

Cherry: So that’s not advisable these days?

Kirk: Well, the thing is, we did it in the beginning for legal reasons, because it enables you to release under different names for different labels, because if you do it under one name, you won’t be exclusive. In those days, that was the normal thing. You sign with one label for five albums, and that was it. You couldn’t write for anybody else. So doing things under different names was one way to work, and I think techno and house producers pioneered that approach.

Cherry: Back to the RBMA shows, which spans a huge variety of genres from jazz to Jimmy Hendrix to 70s movie scores  to techno, which is an amazing collection of music. How do you go about manning the shows?

Kirk: Since I was eleven years old, I have been obsessed with music. It’s all up here. It’s all digitized now, it makes it so much easier. I digitized all of my vinyl collection. I just got so many ideas for shows that I can keep going and keep going. The latest one is a two part electric blues. It’s Muddy Waters, Johnny Walker, Howlin’ Wolf, that kind of stuff. It’s never been played on RBMA radio, so I’ve done four hours of this.

Cherry: How long does it take to do this?

Kirk: It takes a long time, so they’d really appreciate this, and I love doing it.

Cherry: So with touring, producing the music, running the label, creating radio shows, what’s your secret to time management? I asked that question because a lot of us here tend to hold a day job, and at night we would do music, and there’s just so many things to do, from promotion, to creation, and networking. How do you decide on your focus?

Kirk: You won’t believe this, but actually I’m quite lazy (laughs). I do all this stuff, but I’m a lazy person. I really don’t know. Working nights?(shrugs) I think it’s attributed to the fact that I do this and nothing else. I’ve done nothing else since 1994, I started making enough money making music to leave my job at a record shop. I was signed with R&S records. My label is doing well, and with DJ-ing…  It’s been quite hard for some other people who I think are very talented, and they say to me, “I never get the time”, but I would say to them, “Do you love the music or not? If you do, leave your job, and just do music.”

Cherry: Is there any particular focus that they should be doing first?

Kirk: The most important thing to survive as an artiste in electronic music now is DJ-ing and performing.  To do that, you have to have some kind of musical profile. I would say, making the music, making a name for yourself, and if you are a good producer, kind of work out how you can transform that from the studio into a good live performance. Only DJ if you are a DJ. There are so many producers and for some of them, it might be impossible for them to do a live performance. Their studio technique might not suit a live performance, so they DJ instead, but everyone is a DJ.

Cherry: Yes. Because what you write in the studio might not work for the floor.

Kirk: Exactly. And there’s equipment. There are some people who have so much equipment that unless you have some kind of touring crew with you, you couldn’t really perform it as it should sound. That’s the most important thing financially for a musician to survive at the moment is the live performance, because there’s not much money in releasing records.

Cherry: What’s the most exciting live performance that you’ve seen recently?

Kirk: It’s a band actually. I don’t know if anyone knows the American band called Midlake. They were amazing. Their music was Americano, in Austin Texas, so they had influences from Joni Mitchell, and maybe Crossby, Stills & Nash, but more up to date. They had synthesizers as well, guitars, drums and harmonies. They were amazing.

Cherry: How about electronic music? ‘Cause it can get quite tricky, when it comes to performing.

Kirk: Moritz von Oswald. I saw the three of them at Fabric. Moritz was nervous. They scheduled him in the middle of the night, and he said, “This isn’t going to work.” It’s quite a deep thing that he was doing, but everyone loved it. It was one of the best things I’ve seen recently, how he managed to pull off quite deep, but not necessarily full on dance music in a club. It was recently he had his illness, a stroke, and he had to sit to perform, but the show was fantastic.

Cherry: You make and play a lot of different types of music, but more for techno. What attracted you to techno?

Kirk: It had an energy, and the links to funk music, which I liked, like Funkadelic, James Brown, those kind of bands, it had that kind of black music element, and my history is black music, funk, soul, electro. One of them is Juan Atkins. I had his Cybotron record as a kid, years before I knew what techno was.

Cherry: Do you have any advice for musicians when dealing with media? Especially when they start putting their music out there, they start to feel vulnerable when they get bad reviews. In your years of experience, how do you deal with this sort of situation?

Kirk: Completely ignore them, whether it’s good or bad. It’s just somebody’s opinion. Never take any notice of them (laughs). Most of the time, they have only probably listened to it once, they have to think of something clever (to write). I have never enjoyed reviews, even if they are really good and they give you five stars – it doesn’t mean anything.

Cherry: What about working with collaborators?

Kirk: It’s not my preferred thing actually, because I’m not a musician, so I have my own weird way of making music and I prefer it if I’m on my own. Doing The Beauty Room was a real learning process. I learnt that it’s more other people’s egos and personalities that are much more difficult to manage than the music side of things. The music, people can understand and it just comes naturally, but you get all kinds of feedback, like “My instrument isn’t loud enough in the mix” or “There’s not enough reverb on my vocals” or something like that. It’s all about egos.

Cherry: But you do have some nice releases which features collabs like The Beauty Room…

Kirk: I think I’m quite tolerant. But I feel more relaxed when I’m on my own. Right now I’m working with another artiste, on her new album, and I’m really doing it the way I prefer, and she takes time in the studio and sends me tracks, and then I work on them and send them back. It kind of nice because I can really take my time, experiment a bit more, and it works well because the technology allows that.

Cherry: A bit about Ableton. You are pretty much one of the first artistes to start using Ableton as your DJ set in 2002?

Kirk: Around that time. I don’t know how many of you remember that the late 90s, maybe a bit earlier, when CDJs first came around – I hated them. You put a CD in, and it would either spit it out because it didn’t recognize the tracks and I couldn’t get off using vinyls after so many years, so I just felt like it was going to run away. So CDJs are not for me, but I wanted to do something different. When Ableton first came out, I was looking to do a live show. It was called Ableton Live, so obviously it was geared towards live performances. I bought the software. The first thing I noticed was that it had a yellow cross fader on the channels. Cross fader is a mixer thing, it’s a DJ thing. And I realized, hang on, this thing recognizes where the beats are. If I put a track here on A, and another one there on B, maybe I can mix and you can switch A on B. I thought, “Oh my god, it works.” I’m not beat matching. This is weird , then I thought “Hang on a minute. Maybe I used the cross fader, I can put a loop on track number three and place it underneath them and mix them like three deck mixing. Or maybe I could filter out the kick drum of that track and put my own kick drum on track four.” And then I knew the future of DJ-ing. It was right there.

I did some practices, and I also took it with vinyl. For the first couple of times, I was mixing vinyl alongside with Ableton, so it did look weird to the crowd. Then, I decided to just take a laptop and nothing else. The only negative comment were from a few other vinyl DJs. The crowd was like “Wow! What’s this? How are you doing this? How are you mixing three or four records? How did you put the melody from one onto another?” They were really open minded. Vinyl DJs were like, “You don’t need headphones? You’re not mixing? That’s cheating.” This was just something different. Some people like Surgeon or Ritchie Hawtin picked it up, but this is my boast. I emailed Ableton saying I don’t know if you meant it for this, but I have been DJ-ing with it. And they said it’s the first time they’ve heard someone just using it for DJ-ing. They said it was truly interesting, and I kept sort of giving them little ideas. The really big acceptance of it came when Sasha started using it as well.

Cherry: So it has become quite common to use it for DJ-ing now.

Kirk: It’s not as common as Serato and Traktor, but yes Surgeon still uses it. What you see now is that a lot of people are using Ableton to do hybrid DJ-ing and live shows as well, whereas I use it solely for DJ-ing.

Floor: How important was the scene and community to the development of your career? Because in Singapore, we tend to have a more limited market. How would you deal with that?

It’s really important actually. The way we got together was in record stores. Obviously that’s disappearing these days, but people now have their equivalent online. I think music forums… I surprised there’ not a more dedicated one. I mean you have Resident Advisor, obviously, but it’s not a tight forum. There used to be a one called Little Detroit I think, but once Facebook came on, it killed all these little ones off. I think social media is the equivalent of how we used to do it. We used to meet at record shops, and just stand at the counter and be the guys talking about every new release, and the guy behind the counter said, “Buy this, buy that.” That’s how we did it. Those days are probably gone.

Floor: Do you have any opinions on the iPad apps scene?

I only use the iPad for controlling. I’ve only tried the Lemur controller, and I’ve messed around with Animoog, which I really love. But I find touch controllers quite difficult. It’s why I prefer to use an APC Akai controller. I like to slam faders and have that kind of tactile thing. I’ve seen live DJs use the original Lemur and they tend to do things very gradually, so I haven’t really used the iPad much. I don’t have a media deck or anything much yet, but it makes sense because they are going to be so powerful. It’s just like having another laptop I guess. So I’m going to watch it, because there are a lot of innovative things that don’t make it to the computer for some reason. Is that something that you’re involved in?

Floor: Yeah, I’m exploring that. I think the current iPad Air is at a performance level that is suitable for live and for studio, with the interapp audio and Audiobus 2, there’s labels that built around iOS music and I think with the multi-touch gestures, it can really expand its potential.

Kirk: With the gestures, I think that could the way to get over the tactile problem. They could become more sensitive and you could do those dramatic gestures when you DJ. You need those things for the crowd. (laughs) Surgeon uses Faderfox. Those little things, they are too small for me. If I did that, it would end up somewhere in the dance floor.

Cherry: One interesting app is Konkreet Peformer: after you load in everything, you can port the screen onto your visuals.

Kirk: One of the things I like about the iPhone, is an app when you have the headphones with a little microphone, and when you play the music, it would change as your environment changes. If you’re running, it would sense your body movement, and the music would get more intense, so it’s really interactive.

Floor: You use Ableton for DJ-ing. Do you use it for production as well? Do you start with the beat first, or a melody first?

I don’t follow a particular rule, but it helps if you start with a certain bpm. I usually start by having a kick drum just as a reference, and then it could be adding more drums and working on drums, or it could be a bass or melody. I don’t have any methods, and I don’t save any of the sounds, because I usually use a modular synth, once you’re on touch the sound is gone anyway. I save the Ableton sessions in case I’m going to take it on the road, I don’t have a library of sounds. If I come up with a bass on Reaktor, I don’t save them. I don’t like saving sounds because I don’t want to use them again and again like a formula where you become lazy and say “Oh yeah, I liked that bass sound that worked in that track, so I would just use that.” That could work for some people. They might have a big hit, and might want to do something similar, but that doesn’t really inspire me musically. I like to come up with new sounds for each track.

Floor: How do you make your live performance physically interesting?

It’s down to visuals at the moment. I can’t see any other way with electronic music. When I saw that Moritz show, the visuals were the only thing to look at, really. I think that’s where new technology would come in and be able to sync visuals with bpm. I’ve used this guy, who doesn’t do visuals now because he’s gone pretty big, signed on to Rush Hour, so now I need to do my own now, as he’s too busy DJ-ing.

Floor: Any favorite program for visuals?

No, I do everything with Final Cut, and you can sync it to Ableton. I would pre-render it, and it would probably be synced somehow. I’ve done TV work, so I know about scoring and having key points. It’s going to be an old school approach.

 BEHIND THE SCENES
A brand new SGMUSO initiative, is a series of workshops/talks designed to give members exclusive access to key players in the music industry. Our special guests will provide an insider's perspective with crucial insights on a variety of relevant music industry matters.

KIRK DEGIORGIO
A cornerstone of UK techno, Kirk Degiorgio (aka As One) is one of the most sought-after mixer/producer/DJ in today’s eclectic dance music scene and has been tirelessly delivering Detroit’s original message to British crowds for years. Regarded as a heavyweight producer with a unique electronic sound that combines elements of jazz, soul, techno and funk, Kirk’s also lectured extensively at Red Bull Music Academy and is a famed user of Ableton. 

Kirk Degiorgio Red Bull Music Academy lecture: 
http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/kirk-degiorgio--planetary-folklore

CHERRY CHAN
A pioneer in the Singapore electronic music scene, Cherry Chan’s accolades includes championing Singapore's first all-girl DJ night- PopMyCherry and co-founding the FFF Girl DJ Bootcamp and Syndicate.SG, In 2010, Cherry was handpicked to attend the exclusive Red Bull Music Academy in London. In that same year, she co-founded Syndicate, Singapore’s first audio-visual label aimed at growing a culture of visual & sound making, encouraging audience exposure to original experimental content.

This session was transcribed by Emily Haw. Reach out to her on Twitter @emilyhaw