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Ghana / Vela / Titlow / Louth
The front page of the rock ‘n’ roll manual – historically given to artists upon their arrival – promises a life of sex, drugs and televisions thrown out of hotel windows, without guilt.
There is very little mention of job insecurity, funding requests and how to market the goods.
But these are just some of the concerns of modern musicians who want to keep their careers afloat in the era of streaming.
Prior to the 6 Camden Music Festival, we spoke to four of the group’s “chaotic” ups and downs in 2020.
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Pooneh Ghana
The Big Moon’s Soph Nathan (left) plays in another group, Our Girl, while she and her comrades (second from left) Fern Ford, Celia Archer and Juliette Jackson also worked with Marika Hackman
“Everyone knows it’s not the 90s anymore and there is no money in it,” said Fern Ford of The big moon.
“I got into music knowing what I was doing:” I hope it makes me happy “”.
The drummer recently found happiness playing with a box of “new toys” while The Big Moon recorded Walking Like We Do, the ultra-smooth follow-up to their first album nominated for the Mercury Prize.
But after washing the dishes and doing various other fixed-term jobs, making her hobby her profession, she takes nothing for granted.
“Whenever we do that, it seems like it might be the last time. Because you just don’t know what the lifespan of a group is these days.”
The London-based four pieces are part of a new generation of artists who believe that there is no longer any “room” for the tiring extravagance of the rock legend.
The most “rock ‘n’ roll carnage” they participated in was this time in Aberdeen when guitarist Soph Nathan accidentally introduced himself and broke a plastic bin.
“When you see bands breaking guitars, it breaks my heart, I hate that,” says Ford. “It’s like, ‘Oh come on, what a kid would do to get this.'”
Like many of their peers, The Big Moon pays a small weekly salary to get by. This is removed from the “pot” – aka the advance of their label, Fiction Records, and their publishers.
Once signed, the group was asked to withdraw from their day job in order to “throw it all away”.
But when they stopped filming their debut, Ford started to feel “isolated” and therefore started to manage other groups while the singer Juliette Jackson wrote the album number two.
“I don’t know who I am when I’m on tour,” she admits.
“You spend a chaotic life in a van all the time, playing the shows [with] no time to think … And then suddenly, you’re off tour and you say to yourself: “What am I doing?” “
In addition to missing key moments in the lives of their friends, the group had to reinvest its income in the group. They have just hired “a good lighting designer” to “visually represent what is heard” on stage.
These expenses are not cheap and, with fewer people buying records, the stall of goods has become increasingly important.
“It’s no longer just sitting behind the battery,” said Ford, laughing.
“You start to think, ‘Oh, maybe we should find newer and more interesting merch designs, because that’s how you pay for things. It’s just the reality.’
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Neelam Khan Vela
The Orielles are Henry Carlyle Wade, and the sisters Esmé Dee Hand-Halford and Sidonie B Hand-Halford
Ford band will be joined on poster at 6 Music Festival by Halifax groove grooves The Orielles, accompanied by a bongo and conga player “special guest”.
Their new album Disco Volador may sound like a blossoming space party, but it was created in their new ground base, Manchester.
“I think the north of England suits us,” said drummer Sidonie B Hand-Halford, who is responsible for changing the group’s time signatures.
“We are not really interested in being a big hype group. We really like to play live and write together.”
The Yorkshire band is keen to “travel to new places” with their music, starting with the United States next week, and is also “fully prepared to remix” songs from other people they love, as well as a DJ. The production of groups themselves could be another potential future source of income.
Former film students have always found their way through a cinematic soundscape – they “would love to do a Bond theme” – but admit that they had “no idea” of the commercial side of the music industry.
Without the help of their label, Heavenly, Hand-Halford thinks they would feel more comfortable in the pre-digital days.
“What it would have been like in the 70s or 80s is something we often think about because we listen to a lot of music from that time,” she adds, citing Stereolab, The Pastels, A Certain Ratio and Yo La Tengo as influences.
“There has been an increase in social media and the promotion of online concerts – some bands are nailing it – instead of just having a few posters and flyers in record stores. But I like the idea of that! “
To help them wrap themselves around this brave new world – and to make sure they get paid for live shows, radio plays and streaming – emerging artists are invited to seek help from ‘Organizations such as the Performing Right Society (PRS), the Mechanical- Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) and PPL Music License Company.
Claire Rose, awareness officer for PRS for Music confirms that many acts heard on 6 Music and Radio 1 will continue to balance the group’s tasks with day jobs.
“Creating sustainable career music is really difficult,” says Rose. “It’s a huge amount of work.”
The PRS Foundation is helping to reduce this burden by funding new musical talents and recent beneficiaries have included Anna Calvi, Sam Fender and 808INK.
And despite the Brit Awards and major British festivals, including Leeds + Reading, accused of a lack of diversity at the top, Rose is optimistic about the possibility for everyone to go up.
“I think if something becomes so much more inclusive, which is great.” She adds.
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Dominic Louth / Universal Music Group
Jack Steadman (aka M. Jukes), Ed Nash, Jamie MacColl and Suren de Saram of the Bombay Bicycle Club
Like Ross and Rachel from Friends, Bombay Bicycle Club were officially on break from being independent rock heroes after finishing their promotional duties for their fourth album, So Long, See You Tomorrow.
During the four years they had left, Brexit occurred and the different members of the group worked on solo projects, as session musicians and / or went to university.
Sticksman Suren of Saram, who spent time playing drums for Jessie Ware, tells the other BBC that he initially “struggled to adapt” after being at the Bombay Bicycle Club since the school.
“The four of us had never really lived life outside of the group and we realized that the four of us had to find our feet individually,” he says.
“I think if we had gone straight to another album cycle, that would have been the end.”
Ivor Novello’s new and exciting album, Everything Else Has Gone Wrong, rose to fourth place in January, which is no small task at a time when streaming sites favor solo pop and hip artists -American shop.
De Saram believes that Bombay Bicycle Club benefited enormously from the break, both “individually and collectively”.
“We are all much more confident and we have regained this energy, this enthusiasm and this excitement.”
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Jamie macmillan
Sports team Alex Rice descends The Nag’s Head at Camberwell for a quiet half
Noel Gallagher recently said there had been little reason to get excited since the end of the analog “old world” – in a soaring glory Oasis soaked in champagne sold for a million dollars – in an interview for the documentary from the BBC Four What Happened to Rock ‘n’ Rouleau?
Another 6 Music Festival singer Alex Rice from the alternative rock band Sport Team, think Gallagher Senior is “far away”.
“You go to these shows and it’s just the most vital spiritual movement I’ve ever seen,” he says.
Rice and her five comrades have an “open door policy” in their new shared home in south London and have released their infectious and disrespectful debut album, Deep Down Happy, with a short notice concert at the pub down the road . Fans came from several miles for a night of untouched interactive millennial joy.
It didn’t stop until drummer Alex Greenwood “opened his head.”
“It sounds like a real sense of community,” says Rice, who also organizes an annual coach trip to Margate for their fans, who even have their own WhatsApp group.
“They must have made a thousand memes on this album!”
During their free time, the sports team also runs its own mini-label, Holm Front – a subsidiary of the big label Island Records – and publishes records from other groups, including their Dutch friend Personal Trainer.
Another factor that could affect band finances is the impact of Brexit. Last month it was announced that EU acts will have to buy tour visas to play in the UK from 2021. It is not yet clear whether groups traveling in the opposite direction will need to their own visas, but Rice hopes politics won’t spoil the “spirit of collaboration.”
His group is determined to “give back the feeling” that he had felt during his first concerts at the age of 16.
“I think guitar music has lost a bit of self-confidence,” he suggests. “When we started playing, our friends were like, ‘Oh, I’m not going to a guitar concert, I’m going to dance in a club’. Now he’s ready to pop again.
“I think we all feel ambitious and encouraged. Why not Wembley? Why not Knebworth?”
The 6th music festival takes place in Camden from March 6 to 8
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