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

I Believe That Good Guys Can Win!

He has done a lot of hard work to spread the word about his music over the last weeks - radio and online promo. His strongest and truest fans support him spreading the word. I have talked to Tim Bennett about the first single "Anybody" from his upcoming album "Miseducated" and his further plans ... 50K MUSIC: A few days ago you released the „Anybody“ video from your upcoming album „Miseducated“. It's got more than 1.000 views on YouTube within the first week. How do you feel with all this attention and support from your fans? Tim: It's been an incredibly rewarding experience to receive so much attention with the video. It did break the 1000 barrier within 5 days and it's now over 1247 in the first week! It seems that people are really enjoying the video and are passing the link onto their friends and families to watch also. If this continues then it might just go viral (a term given to youtube videos that grown exponentially through word of mouth) - fingers crossed it will do this. By the way here is the video: 50K MUSIC: Bambi Monroe, aka Taylor Horn, is starring in the video. Please tell us something about the work with her. Tim: Bambi aka Taylor Horn is a very talented American song-writer and singer and is building a loyal fan-base across UK, Italy and USA. Due to the constraints of the budget available for making the video, I could not afford a crew, camera-person, director, producer or actors. So I asked Bambi Monroe to help with the project. She not only helped me with filming but also co-directed and co-edited the video. She also offered to play the lead role of the 'Tragic Heroine' who is questioning her life. She hasn't really done many acting roles so it was interesting to see how she would cope with the role. As soon as I began filming I knew she had all the attributes of an actress and also a special chemistry with the camera. I was blown away and very very excited with the way she let all her emotions pour out. She felt a kinship with the role and I think it shows. 50K MUSIC: A while ago you have already written songs for Taylor. Please tell us something about this collaboration. Tim: I met Taylor / Bambi in London 2008 when she was visiting London to shoot with celebrity photographer Alan Strutt ( well know for pics of Madonna and Keith Richards amongst many others). She knew and liked my work with Civilized Tears and was eager to co-write some alt/rock style songs. Although she had worked with a few award winning writers in Nashville she wanted more edge to her sound. We clicked immediately, writing a huge amount of material on acoustic guitars. I introduced her to my industry colleagues including producer Steve Bush (Stereophonics). We spent a couple of days working with Steve in his studio in London on some new material which we still hope to re-work at some point. In 2009 Taylor and I recorded her first EP in England with the help of my band Civilized Tears who played rhythm and guitars. The EP gained the interest of a few publishers and BMI in London and was the beginning of a new writing team. One of the songs we wrote 'Tears' previewed on WAFB Television in Louisiana. We are now working on her second EP, to be released early 2011. 50K MUSIC: How did you find the executive producer for your video? Tim: The Executive Producer, Christian Schuett, has been a great supporter of my music both financially and motivationally, ever since he discovered my music on Sellaband in 2008. The relationship has become a very positive and industrious one and we have plans for more projects together in the near future. 50K MUSIC: What are your further plans with the single? Tim: I have just released 'Anybody' as the first single on Reverbnation which distributes to iTunes and Spotify amongst other on-line stores. The single will be available on iTunes within the next few weeks, perhaps sooner depending on their processing time. In fact, Black Rain was meant to be the first single but the video for Black Rain has been delayed due to scheduling reasons and so I decided to do a quick video for Anybody in the interim. The video was received with extremely positive feedback, including being picked up by various promotional sites and radio stations including award winning FEEDME MUSIC ( featured video of week) and COLLEGE UNDERGROUND MUSIC (featured artist and video of week). I therefore realised that by default it had become my first single. 50K MUSIC: Let's talk about your upcoming album „Miseducated“. When will it be released? Tim: It is now in the printers and manufacturing process. So depending on this it should be available within the next 6 to 8 weeks. 50K MUSIC: What do you plan for the album release? Tim: At first it will be an on-line release coupled with an intense promo campaign that I will orchestrate from my laptop ! and with the help of my wonderful friends, supporters and fans. However, I am in talks with a company about a full media launch for the album in 2011 and I hope to do a UK and European tour in 2011. Fingers crossed ! 50K MUSIC: Most of the songs on the album we know already, I suppose. Or do you have a surprise in store? Tim: There are ten songs, some that you will know and there are few that will be new to most people. 50K MUSIC: Will we hear Taylor on the album too? Tim: She won't be on this album, although we have plans to record a song we wrote in the UK called ' Right from the Start'. It's an acoustic rock song which we'll probably record in Nashville. She may appear on the next album. Let's see? 50K MUSIC: What other plans do you have for the next few months – gigs, online activities, ...? Tim: Basically it's going to be a non stop promotional blitz! This includes daily updates on all my sites, news feed, blogs, (currently getting around 5-6,000 views a week on Myspace - which is meant to be dead but obviously there is a healthy pulse still beating there), social networking, video up-dates and filming new music videos for the album. I'm currently in talks with my team about the next music video which will be a step up from the Anybody video. It will be more elaborate and I hope to have a proper crew this time :) I've already got the rough script drafted and it's.......okay, I'm keeping that a secret for now. LOL My other immediate plans include strategic meetings with my entertainment lawyer at Loeb & Loeb, more talks with my advisers and consultants, and this week I have meetings with potential manager/agents. I'm also talking to labels and publishers. Also, I intend to increase the radio exposure of my music over the next few weeks. I already have quite a lot of radio play going on at the moment both Fm and internet and this is thanks to 'fan-power'. I can't afford to pay a radio plugger yet and my fans, friends and supporters have been incredibly pro-active with getting the Tim Bennett name and music out there and I am so very grateful for their support. As I like to say - "there are no individual heroes in the music biz, it's all about the team effort." In addition, I'll be doing a live radio show on Reputation Radio in UK - That is set for December 13th. They usually get a few million listeners so that will be interesting! 50K MUSIC: How can we keep on supporting you? Tim: Please forward the links to my video "Anybody": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMOroEKExBM and let's see if we can make it go viral - i.e get it into the 'thousands-of-views" category with word of mouth and forwarding it to everyone we know! Also, please just keep doing what you are doing and spreading the Tim Bennett name and music. And also please buy the album when it comes out and tell all your friends! Also if you have any friends who are DJ's on radio tell them about my music and let's see if they'll play it. It's a really old fashioned way to grow an artist's reputation but it stands the test of time! In addition, please leave requests asking Vicki Blight to play my songs Black Rain & Anybody on Absolute Radio's facebook page - or their discussion page - http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=17208&uid=43384996273. 50K MUSIC: Do you think fan funding is THE way to finance an album? Would you go this way again? Tim: Fan Funding was perfect for this album and I'm really thankful to the team at Sellaband - the timing was great for me. I think fan funding could be right for the next album, but let's see when I get to that point. At the moment I'm thinking I might set up my own platform, rather than go through a third party, although I guess there will be a few twists and turns in the music industry landscape before then. 50K MUSIC: And last question: Anything else people should now about Tim Bennett? Tim: Ha ha - well I guess the most important thing is that I'm a very dedicated, hard-working musician always looking for the best solution in this minefield of an industry. I believe in team work, I believe in good ethics in business and I believe that 'good guys' can win! I also believe in taking chances in life and music and not being too safe with creativity. I am sure that "Inspiration comes from the risks and adventure of life". So Tim seems to be unstoppable now. And with the support of his fans his upcoming album will be a huge success, I guess. Keep on spreading the word and keep on listening to his music.

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