“Revival Synth is a promotional Electronic community that has been running since 2010. The work they do has helped Electronic artists become a little more noticed. Like all forerunners, they were before our time, but now we work together in tandem with their effort to bring even more exposure to the unknown but talented indie artist. This is just one person who helps the indie artist come to light. Read below and appreciate the work that goes into helping musicians in a whole.”
First and foremost, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to conduct this interview with you. Andy, how do you find the time to run the daily inner workings of Revival Synth?
Andy: Hi Corbin. Firstly, thanks to you and Almark for the opportunity to take part in this Q&A for the WEATNU Music Magazine.
The site isn’t as time consuming as it used to be thanks to the artists, record labels & DJ’s that ping me the links that they want added to the site. I have a magic brown book that keeps note of all the artists who want promoting on a specific week. Bandcamp sends notifications of new releases and I find a lot of info from browsing through the social media sites, so once it’s penned into the book it’s a matter of one full day of updating and it goes from there. I must thank all of the above for their help, otherwise it would have become impossible to run on my own. Some people think Revival Synth is run by a few of us but I must stress it is a solo project fully funded from my own pocket. I did have a sponsor who funded my posts for a while but I felt uncomfortable having to approach him for money every 4 weeks so I pulled the plug on that. So if there are any generous musical life forms out there who would like to sponsor the site and own a page of their own then please step forward.
Corbin: With so many different artists and groups that you showcase and promote, do you find it hard to create music for yourself?
Andy:I don’t actually create music. I have been credited with lyrics to a couple of tracks but I’ve never composed a piece of music. The last song I wrote lyrics to was for a track called Au Revoir by Chatterbox. It was an instrumental I found on soundcloud. I contacted Aitor and I asked if he wanted to add my lyrics to the track and he kindly accepted. It sat dormant on soundcloud for two years until we released it as a charity single for Dave Charles justgiving page. It went on to raise £100.
Revival Synth is a music promoter not a music producer 😉
Corbin: The independent artist these days usually gets swallowed in the sea of the unknown. Revival Synth, WEATNU, and Pink Dolphin Ltd. all help to bridge the gap between the artist and the outside world through promotion. Would you care to let us know about some success stories that you have helped contribute to?
Andy: Scratches head! I wouldn’t know where to start, there are so many but I wouldn’t put them in the category of success stories. I’ve helped artists like Cloak, Martyn Bailey, Among the Echoes & Meter Bridge raise their profile, but they have gone on and doing the hard work and self – promotional skills themselves. It is important that any artist that comes my way has to be able to be able to promote themselves. So many think they can contact me and I do all the work for them and when they find it isn’t happening they disappear. I love that first contact with an artist/s and when they are being played on several radio shows. It’s pleasing to know you have helped in some way. I’m not in it to reap any rewards, I do it for the love of music and I get frustrated at hearing a track or album and it’s stuck in a musical wilderness when it should be out there for all to hear. I am basically just a middle man for the artists, I give them the links and details to whom I think will benefit them and once they make that connection, then I move on to the next one or two or maybe three. 😉
Corbin: A lot of electronic artists are unable to create live shows due to the nature of them being solo artists. Do you have a hand in hosting any live shows for yourself or others?
Andy: It has been mentioned about me hosting a show and rather than saying never, I watch and learn from people like Derek Anthony Williams of the Jan Doyle Band to see how he goes about organising such an event. I have great admiration for his passion to host live music events, but at the moment I don’t think I could handle the pressures of hosting one myself, unless I felt it was going to be financially viable. I say that as in, breaking even, and not making a quick buck.
Corbin: We at WEATNU are extremely appreciative of being affiliated with Revival Synth. How many different groups, movements, promoters are you affiliated with? Do some stem outside of the electronic music realm?
Andy: Thanks Corbin/Almark, I’m also appreciative of the support WEATNU has given the website, it is great to see some of your artists making contact and wanting to be featured on the site and I am happy to be of assistance. This is what it is all about, we can only help the artists by making the circle bigger and sharing the links. It is my opinion that the sharing of links is the most powerful tool we have on social media and we should use it as best as we can and encourage as many as we can to do the same and more importantly, do it together as a community. We don’t have the next Depeche Mode out there yet, so some folk need to take their heads out of their arses and leave their egos in the nearest bin and get behind the scene instead of trying to drown it in negativity. Back to your question ‘lol’ I tend to stick mainly with DJs and Record labels rather than groups. If a record label contacts me with a track and it gets played by a DJ to his audience then that works out fine for everyone involved. I would like to get more involved with groups but I wouldn’t have the time to keep up with so many things all at once, it would become too complicated, so at the moment I have a happy medium with the site.
Corbin: If there were 2 things you could change about Revival Synth: due to money, time, or technology what would they be and why?
Andy: There is only one main thing I’d like to change and that would be to be able to promote the site more to a bigger audience, and to be able to buy more bandwidth for the site, but they aren’t on my ‘Urgent List’ as finances have to be sorted at home before being pumped on to the site or the purchasing of downloads. Maybe I should include that, I’d like to buy more downloads to support the artists but it is simply not possible to buy all the artists music. I’d be bankrupt 🙂
Corbin: The journey from the start of Revival Synth to present has been quite a long road. Where do you see Revival Synth in the next few years?
Andy: I think it’s safe to say Revival Synth will be around for the next few years as I’ve paid for the site domain for 5 years 😉 Whilst there is interest, it will continue to be part of our ever growing circle. I never plan too far ahead in life because one never knows what tomorrow can bring.
Corbin: The impact of social media levels the playing field for the independent artist that is willing to put in the time to promote their “brand”. Which social media platform do you find to be most effective for promotion?
Andy: The main 2 are Facebook and Twitter, even though on a personal level I detest both but for music promotion they are ideal. The key as I stated earlier is the sharing of links. It would all be pointless and ineffective if you posted links and no one shared them, but thankfully a lot of whom I promote, happily help by sharing links. There are some who want their links plugging but they don’t want to plug anyone else. As soon as I spot that, I disconnect from that artist/s.
Corbin: There are so many ways for the independent artist to distribute their music these days. Bandcamp, iTunes, and BitTorrent Bundles all have their advantages and disadvantages. Which seems most effective and do you have any predictions as to the future of music distribution?
Andy: All are effective in their own way due to the listeners having their own personal preference as to how they want to listen. It’s great to see the vinyl making a return but I doubt the vinyl revival will make an impact with the younger audience. Taking the vinyl out of the sleeve would mean them, having to put their mobiles down lol.
While we have everything at hand on one device I can’t think of any other way for music to be distributed. It’s a hard call, but no doubt there is a mastermind out there coming up with a new concept.
Corbin: You brought up a great point earlier saying “It is important that any artist that comes my way must be able to promote themselves.” At WEATNU we require artist members to have a Twitter account to get promotion. We also cannot stress the importance of the simple act of re-tweeting our news, artists works, interviews and events in Twitter. This simple act of participation is essentially an investment in themselves to get this news out there as it brings the awareness of WEATNU and more importantly the artists endeavors. Why do you think artists are reluctant to participate in their own promotion and leave or lose interest when they don’t participate in this action?
Andy: I’m unsure and sometimes it’s baffling to think that the artists wants to be noticed and heard, but don’t want to promote themselves. If that is the case they have to pull away from it and carry it on as a hobby. I can’t tell you how many have used me just to get their music on my site and then disappear never to be heard from again. It’s a waste of my time, I have to listen, find links, copy images, post on the site, post on facebook, post on twitter and whoosh! They’re gone as fast as they came because they want to sit back and wait for something to happen without lifting a finger. It goes back to the above answer, once I see it they’re gone and they will never be featured again. Baffling! Maybe they just want their music heard without any fuss and use the site as an outlet, that’s all I can put it down to.
Corbin: I really appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions, as you have been such an integral part in helping to shape a lot of WEATNU’s artist’s careers, including my own. Is there anything you would like to comment on or add?
Andy: Huge thanks to you Corbin and Almark for this opportunity, keep up the good work you do at WEATNU. I understand it is very frustrating at times trying to promote yourselves as well as your artists. I used to get very frustrated but now I just enjoy it. Keep plugging away and it does slowly come to you. I’d like to thank Rob Harvey who has been a massive support to me since Revival Synth was created. Without him, I doubt the site would have even started. He is always at hand to help in any way regarding Q&A’s, artists and promoting. I must thank the following too, they are great sources of support and information for the site : Bynar Johnny Normal Skerat Jason Older Greg Warum Dave Charles Derek Anthony Williams Paul Readman Paul Randall Dean Clarke Peff Soulsby Rusty Egan Tracy Perry Barbara Moser Izzie Voodoo
Onwards & Upwards WEATNU 🙂
Thank You
Andy
#WEATNU Digital Magazine – Interview by Corbin Roof
Intro written by Almark
Check out Revival Synth on Twitter