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Deeper connections

There seem to be two fundamental tendencies in music today: On the one hand, a move towards complete virtualisation, where tracks and albums are merely released as digital files. And, on the other, an even closer union between music, artwork, packaging and physical presentation. Where do you stand between these poles?

The world is big enough for both, and we need to embrace both. Physical media is a beautiful thing, but likewise digital media has its merits. Shutting yourself off to either one of them makes no sense other than a financial decision calling the shots. There will always be a niche market for vinyl; not so much for CD, but at the end of the day, I would much rather have a physical product in my hand of a new album I've just made than an mp3 sales statement.

The role of an artist is always subject to change. What's your view on the (e.g. political/social/creative) tasks of artists today and how do you try to meet these goals in your work?

My role as an artist is to make the best music I can make and I don't actually give a shit about any of the politics involved in it. I'm given a gift to make music and that's all I'm interested in. I'll leave the politics to the pop bands and publicity companies accordingly.

Music-sharing sites and -blogs as well as a flood of releases in general are presenting both listeners and artists with challenging questions. What's your view on the value of music today? In what way does the abundance of music change our perception of it?

File sharing sites offer a poor end result - for everyone. Sure, you might get that album for free with no artwork and crap audio quality, but what happens is that the artists just disappear and then what do you download? The challenge for the artists is to evolve and change the way they not only sell music or connect with fans, but the communication and links to the people who are downloading or buying your music needs to be developed. Bandcamp is an example of artists trying to do something more personal, but having an audience who are involved in what your doing at every level possible is vital now. Facebook helps, but connecting to fans is deeper than that.

How, would you say, could non-mainstream forms of music reach wider audiences?

I'm going to guess...How about a US media tycoon buys the biggest digital music download site for the purposes of making something called EDM bigger, but by the magic of the known universe, after 25 years of hammering quality house and techno music to them, the Americans reject EDM and start listening to it … nah, didn't think so!

Usually, it is considered that it is the job of the artist to win over an audience. But listening is also an active, rather than just a passive process. How do you see the role of the listener in the musical communication process?

You need to relate to the audience. It's our job to make music that attracts a certain type of individual. You will naturally tell a story from your own mind that they can relate to. This will be the same frequency that you're operating on. If you do something that is really quite different from the norm, it's the job of the listener to at least judge it after giving it a proper listen. Opening up closed minds is a difficult thing to do, but there is something great about achieving it.

Reaching audiences usually involves reaching out to the press and possibly working with a PR company. What's your perspective on the promo system? In which way do music journalism and PR companies change the way music is perceived by the public?

It depends how much money you have or how cool the publication thinks you are, end of story. Lots of great music gets missed and paradoxically lots of average music is being put on a pedestal. You can only do so much with DJ promos, it is in fact nothing more than a chart gaining exercise, because the likelyhood is that you will send to all your music peers who want to play it anyway. The days of sending out 300 promos to DJs across the world should have ended years ago. I certainly don't do it anymore and my sales have increased…go figure. Music journalists are no different to any other journalists. They have a job to do and look for the angles and I respect that. What I detest is words being altered and put into headlines to gain personal notoriety from, that's just wrong. There are too many bloggers out there and not enough quality journalists.

To read and hear more Vince I Watson, visit www.vincewatson.co.uk

 

 

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