I Have Lots Of New Songs
- Category: Artists
- Published on Saturday, 03 September 2011 01:33
- Written by Mario
- Hits: 541
Additional Info
Daniel Ward-Murphy was one of the first artists who signed up to SellaBand in August 2006. He reached his target of 50k $ in April 2008 and about half a year later released his debut album "Until The Morning Light". I talked to him about what happened since then and about his further plans right before the summer break ... and here are his answers...
50K MUSIC: It's been a little bit silent from you over the last couple of months. Would you please update us?
Daniel: Yeah it has been a bit quiet hasn’t it! I took a break that was kind of half-enforced and half desired and needed. I lost another drummer (James Titshall) in about October and I played three sets with just Milo and Jen in November and December. The shows were pretty good, I thought we did the stage at the 100 Club justice, but those that know me will know I hate to play my songs watered down and some of the songs definitely needed other instruments on them. So I decided at this point to take a little time out from gigging and get things and myself together a bit. I had been unlucky with musicians in recent years, I kept losing a musician just when the band was starting to gel and then had to keep going back to square one. It was expensive for me and time consuming for the band to keep teaching the whole set to people, so I took stock and thought about what to do next. I wanted to think about practical things, the sound going forward and who to get in. In addition to this, I had only ever had one or two breaks from gigging in the last 13 years and I felt I needed one. In truth, gigs had lost a bit of magic for me, so it seemed right and it was also good to build a bit of anticipation for the next set of gigs. There are a few other personal reasons for not wanting to pick up a guitar much, but I will leave it at that – you got more of an update than most do ;-). In other news, I had one of my songs (I Think I Made You Smile) feature on Waterloo Road, a very popular BBC1 drama, which gained me a big number of new fans and I am pleased to say I have a new manager, which I will announce details of on my facebook artist page and website.
50K MUSIC: How about new music, new songs from Daniel Ward-Murphy? Do you have any plans for a next album yet?
Daniel: I have lots of new songs as well as other that would be new to most of your ears as well. I haven’t picked up a guitar and tried to write a song for about 5 years, but I just write them as I go about my everyday life - it’s just a natural thing that happens with a bit of silence and a bit of reflection. It’s part of the reason I have struggled when contemplating giving up my music – it’s not like I can put my guitar in the cupboard and that’s it, I know there will be lots of songs being written in my head and all I could do is try to forget them. I actually reckon I have enough material for two new albums. The songs I am most excited about are ‘Something’s Got a Grip on Me’, ‘Make a Woman Cry’, ‘Hope and I’ and ‘So Simple’. I would dearly love to record them and could make a second album to be proud of, but there is no feasible plan to do that at present . The only way you can hear them at present is to come to a gig when I start playing again from Thursday September 1st onwards.
50K MUSIC: You've funded your debut album through SellaBand a few years ago. There's a wider range of fan funding platforms now. Would you consider using one of them again to finance your music?
Daniel: There are other ways to make an album but sure I would yes... but only if I felt it was the right fan-funding model. I have spent some time looking but perhaps my fans could help draw my attention to some viable ones if there are any ..? There are a couple of major issues which I feel are problematic. Firstly, the reason such a high figure was raised before was that so many people bought multiple ‘parts’ in me for the first album. I wholeheartedly believe that £6 or £7 in return for a great album is worth it but I am guessing people would understandably be reluctant to pledge multiple parts which means 1000 people may only raise £1300 or so, which is not enough to even create a digital only EP. If I find a viable way to record an EP or album, believe me I will do it.
50K MUSIC: One issue on SellaBand was always the lack of promotion and marketing for artists and albums. Do you think there are more opportunities now for artists to promote their music on the internet?
Daniel: Haha, you are not making it easy for me to give you short answers! A lack of promotion and marketing was one issue but it wasn’t the key issue in my eyes. I heard a lot of people talking about Marketing as if having a massive budget to buy some billboards and adverts in papers/magazines/internet sites would have meant success was guaranteed. Sure, I would have loved to have had some money to place targeted facebook ads or similar but an artist needs more than that. It would have taken good vision for Sellaband to have got everything right the first time but in changing their concept a few times they muddied the water. A less than simple concept became complicated and it was hard to sell to a suspicious public. Perhaps more importantly than this they lost their passionate community. Perhaps they believed their own hype a bit too much and lost sight of the importance of community and the incredible devotion displayed by fans? An up and coming artist, having recorded a good album, needs a few things to be successful. They need good support slots/festival bookings (controlled by booking agents), they need some airplay on radio stations and needs their songs played in film/tv/adverts. If you can’t have significant success in one of those then it is game over and the truth is that (aside from spending a little of the promotion budget on radio plugging) Sellaband could not help artists with that. My personal belief is that Sellaband should have invested more effort in those three areas. I can’t say for sure exactly how hard they tried but I know publishing was not a priority for them and I know they were not interested in working to ensure the success of any 50k artists. If one or two had gone on to get quite-big-quite-quickly then it would have been the best advertising possible for Sellaband. (Now, if one of the early 50k artists go on to have future success the press won’t attribute it to Sellaband, they will put it down to the artists ploughing their own furrow or some other chance occurrence). As for the internet, as a consumer I love it as it has enabled me to listen to so much music and keep in touch with favourite artists/bands, but as a musician I am less sure of how much it has helped me in the long run. Of course Sellaband was a tremendous experience for me but the internet in general has made me become a bit of a needle in a haystack. There is so much music out there now and these artists do not have to be great live. I of course have to use what the internet has to offer in terms of promoting yourself and helping people listen to you and I love the way I can communicate with fans more easily, but I can’t say it is all been good for me.
50K MUSIC: What are your other plans for the next few months?
Daniel: Well I am rehearsing hard with a new band to make my live set as special as possible and I will be playing live to build my fan base further. I still believe in simply writing and playing good music but I am far from naive and know that more is needed. So I do have an overall strategy and I will be sitting down with my new manager to refine it and put it into action.
50K MUSIC: And last one thing you want your fans to know?
Daniel: I want my fans to know that I never take their support for granted and I appreciate every album bought, every vote clicked and every positive message sent. If all my fans were enthused and active in unison then I would definitely be successful and making them more music. My ambition is fairly humble, I don’t crave money, I just want to write, record and play songs for a living. When I check out from this life I want to feel I have been a positive influence on peoples’ lives and not just a troubled soul searching for something.
