50K MUSIC - independent.music.dedicated - www.50kmusic.com

Lindy - Jazz & More

50K MM: Who are you, where do you come from, ...? Please tell us something about yourself. Lindy: I'm Lindy Waldeck, I was born in Amsterdam in The Netherlands, grew up in a small but beautiful town called Enkhuizen and now live with my husband (and 3 children from our previous marriages) in a small village called Wervershoof in the province of Noordholland, situated on the banks of the IJsselmeer. Wervershoof is full of music, there are a lot of bands and singer/songwriters originating from this place! In day-to-day live my husband and I run a furniture company, we produce handmade wooden furniture for indoor and outdoor and kitchens, mainly from old (drift)wood and scaffolding boards. Next to doing all kinds of administrative stuff and marketing I also design furniture. Before we started this business in 2005 I have been working for different companies in the publishing and internet business in customer service, webdesign, marketing and project management. Music has been in my head for all my life, my own words and melodies were just waiting in line to come out. But only during the past few years with the help of computers I discovered ways of getting them out and turn them into real sound someone else can listen to and – hopefully – enjoy. The styles are diverse, but for some reason there mostly seems to be a jazzy touch or a bluesy note. As such I use the tag "Jazz & More" as that perfectly describes -IMO- my music. There is jazz, but also a lot more than that! Jazz&More is also the name of my band. We mainly play covers at the moment, lots of good old Jazz standards, next to more recent easy listening and popmusic, from Ella Fitzgerald to Donna Summer to Tina Turner and Amy Winehouse. We are just beginning to put some of my own songs on the repertoire, but we’re not ready to perform most of them yet, especially the last couple of months have been slow with the band, we are still looking for a (good) jazz pianist after our previous pianist left the band but it is really hard to find someone. We sure hope to find a replacement soon as I'm really looking forward to bring my music live on stage. And although my Sellaband profile is my personal one and not that of the whole band, I'd love to be able to record the CD with the whole band as these guys are great musicians. The band has 2 vocalists, me and Nico Veenendaal who has an incredible voice and I hope that I'll succeed in writing some songs for him as well and perhaps do a duet. The songs in my playlist on Sellaband are all home recorded demo's with computer based music. No fancy mixing or mastering, as I couldn’t find anyone that would do that for me free of charge :) And that’s where Sellaband comes in, as it’s been my life long dream to get a CD out. And with help of friends, family and SAB’s believers I hope to make that dream come true and record my songs in a professional way to take them to the next level, put them on a disc which hopefully then will find it’s way to the music lovers! 50K MM: How did you discovered SellaBand? Lindy: I discovered Sellaband already a couple of years ago when someone I know was (and still has a profile but is no longer active) fundraising through SAB. I visited from time to time, but it took me to end november 2009 to finally have the guts to sign up to start fundraising myself. Last summer I had participated in a contest from Buma/Stemra, who organised Dutch Writers Camp, open to worldwide songwriters and producers. Before that I had never openly shared my music with the world, but I got such good response (ended as #29 in the public vote among approx. 450 contestants) and that gave me enough confidence that I would be able to find other people liking my music and willing to prebuy my CD or support me in other ways. 50K MM: Your music is very influenced by Jazz, a genre that normally does not work out very well on SellaBand. But you have already raised 11% of your budget. What do you think is the reason why believers love your music? Lindy: I guess that is because it isn't pure jazz but pop music with a jazzy touch. If you compare the songs in my player you'll find they are all quite different, from electro pop to blues rock through new age style to jazz. That also perfectly fits with my personal taste in music which is covering I guess the entire musical spectrum from Classical to heavy rock. And at the same time I think it is also because I'm not sitting back and just wait what will happen, I'm actively promoting my music on Sellaband, Twitter, MySpace, Hyves and Facebook and also very important: offline ofcourse. I'm currently offering a demo CD for just two parts to online believers, and am selling it offline too and re-investing all the money from that into my Sellaband project. The demo was made on my own cost but worth every cent, I've already sold over 50 copies in just a few weeks. My mom is also actively making her friends and our family make donations. So far the investments come for about 50% out of my own network, and 50% from new believers, which is so wonderful! I just hope that more and more people will listen to my music and discover that it's more than jazz alone. I realize that the tag "Jazz&More" can perhaps influence people not to listen if they're not into jazz, but on the other hand, the "More" can trigger the curious. 50K MM: Please tell us something about your plans after you will have reached your target. Lindy: It will ofcourse all start before I reach my target, as right now I'm looking, asking and listening around to find the right studio, a good producer, some musicians in addition to the bandmembers for instruments we don't have in the band; I hope to be well prepared so that as soon as I reach target I'll able to deliver a quality CD as fast as possible. And then ofcourse make sure the CD will get sold, get airplay, also actively selling through gigs. 50K MM: How are you going to convince people to believe (and invest) in you to raise the rest of your budget? Lindy: That's a question I'm asking myself every day, which I think every artist raising funds should be doing. Make sure you do what you promise, be on the constant lookout for new opportunities to promote your music. I'm currently thinking of a plan to get believers on board on a more commercial side, but I cannot disclose that at the moment as it is in a too early stage. And next to that ofcourse deliver more music. My plan is to record a CD with about 12 songs, and I would love to have at least a double number of songs to select the best from for the album, and I'm currently very active writing and recording demo's. I wish everyone could hear how they already sound in my head! The demo's I have currently up in my player do not reflect half of what the songs would sound like when properly produced and recorded. And I hope that my believers will help me pick the right songs for the album! Next to that I have also put up my music on a couple of other international music sites, ofcourse with links to my Sellaband Profile. And last but not least, to have the band fully operational again as soon as possible, to play, play, play, play and play live and make the listeners aware that they can support us by buying parts! 50K MM: And how can we support you to speed up raising your budget? Lindy: Well, asking me for this interview already helps to spread the word that I am out here, so I thank you for this opportunity to tell a little bit more about myself! And ofcourse I hope that everyone who reads this issue and has not yet discovered my music on Sellaband will take a moment to visit my profile and listen to some of the songs. And if you like them, please become a believer! The target I have set is not so incredibly high, so I really hope that I can reach that in a foreseeable timeframe and that the believers do not have to wait too long to receive something in return for their investments. 50K MM: And at last: Something you want to tell your fans and believers. Lindy: I'm just overwhelmed by the warm welcome I have received from individuals and groups of believers and followers on Sellaband, from encouraging messages to generous investments and active support and promotion and review of my music on other platforms. And next to that I have found some great other musicians through Sellaband, all kind and supportive of eachother and with a lot of wonderful songs that deserve to be heard. I am not naming people/groups on purpose, too afraid to leave someone out, but a BIG THANK YOU to all of you! Lindy on SellaBand

• < Prev
• Next >