Discographies, Hardcopies and T-Shirts

Suicide Seven's entire discography is availabel online for free download. You can get it by clicking on the Discography section to the right--------->

You can buy hard copy's of Suicide Seven's Cd's, which include additional artwork as well as the actual official CD here:

For Collectable Suicide Seven Hardcopy CD's 5 bones each!!!

Also I have opened a little T-Shirt/Merchandise shop at Printfection. You can buy Suicide Seven stuff as well as some other originally designed items as well.

B-Sides

T-shirts and Other Stuff

Come visit my merchandise store on Printfection.com!

Ups and Downs and Leaky Music

First..you might have noticed that I slipped the name of my new record out there. If not it's called "The Ups and Downs of Sunset". I posted a song from the new record just to promote some interest. It's an acoustic tune called "who wants to be a vampire?(nobody)" It also shows some album art.

Tonight I have been building a drum track for a song on the upcoming album called "The Furnace". Since I'm doing everything myself and my apartment complex isn't too hip to drums at 2am I'm using loops and samples. I use Beta Monkey Drum Loops. They are top notch.

Building drum tracks is tricky and tedious...I set in front of my computer with my acoustic guitar and bang out a rhythm to "the furnace" and then try to match it up with a decent loop fro that part of the song. Usually I have to mix a couple loops together to make the drum track sound natural like a real drummer. It can't be too repetitive. Once I get that part of the song done I move on to the next part...usually a bridge or a chorus. I then have to adjust the tempo if that’s needed, and the process starts over with the new part. Eventually you will have a decent drum track for your tune.

After I get this done I dump it onto my DP01 8-track and I start recording guitars and bass. Now I only have 8 tracks so I fill them up and then dump them onto the computer to mix in with my drum track in ACID pro.

After that I mix all that into one rough mix track and dump it onto my 8 track again. Now I have 7 tracks to record vox on. sweet.

It takes a little while to do all this. Especially when your doing it a few hours here and a few hours there.

It's funny when you start out in this business/hobby/scene whatever you want to call it...your full of ambition and dreams..years go by and you tell yourself this is my thing, this is what I want to be successful at...in the end though you really have no viable reasons why...only this...you just love it. You crave the ritual.

The old model for the music business is almost dead. I mean the one where artists sell cd's and make money. The new business model is based on material merchandise that cannot be uploaded and downloaded on the internet (i.e. t-shirts, books, stickers, buttons, coffee mugs, licensing, ect,ect,ect.)

Although this is the way it is and it is possible to make money and be successful with this new business model, I do find it more than a little sad that the actual music has been so devalued.

One of my favorite bands "Coheed and Cambria" will be releasing a new record next month. High anticipation right? wrong. This record is leaked all over the place. You can have it right now in less than 5 minutes if you have a high speed internet connection and a 5th graders understanding of Google.

That’s funny and scary at the same time. Those guys probably spent allot of time and money on that record and put allot of heart and feeling into it. As an artist I can appreciate that fact and the monetary value of this music gets reduced to almost zero if the masses can download it at will a month before it's release date.

Kind of makes me think...um wow I'm pouring time and effort and heart and blood sweat and tears into my record...if Coheeds record has a value of 0 (free) a month before it's even released then what does that make my record worth in dollars and cents? LOL

Now you see why I give my music away. I'm lucky though. I do this because I love it on so many levels, I never earned much from it to begin with. Life is funny. I guess if I ever get to a position where people are leaking my record a month before it comes out...I shouldn’t have too many problems selling t-shirts because you have arrived at that point for certain bro.

That’s my word

new suicide seven record 2010 "The Ups and Downs of Sunset"

Yesterday I let out a song from the upcoming Suicide Seven record "The Ups and Downs of Sunset". Yeah in case you missed it thats the title of the new record. The song is an acoustic tune entitled "Who wants to be a vampire? (nobody)". You can find it to listen to at:

www.myspace.com/suicideseven

Also yesterday I released an image of what the cover will be for the new record. This is tentative, so there is a chance that the cover art may change but this is what I'm going with for now. I like it because it's colorful and simple. Bright yet a little thoughtful and introspective. Now thats complete opinion. Some people might look at it and say wow thats complete garbage. LOL so yeah it's all taste.

"The Ups and Downs of Sunset" is scheduled to be released on October 15th, 2010.

-KAM

The idea of selling your music is over...

Why would your target audience buy your CD? Your a local/regional act who is striving to fit into some genre right? That way you have some semblance of a target audience? some semblance of a marketing strategy to sell those Cd's your band blew all that money on?

The day has come when all of your target audience can simply download every album by every artist who ever influenced your band in less than 5 minutes on the Internet. Albums that were recorded in multimillion dollar studios by big name producers and engineers. All free for the average kid with even half a clue and an Internet connection to download. There are even free programs that let you record directly to your computer anything that you can stream (play) on the Internet. basically if you have whole songs up to listen to anywhere on the net, people can get copies of it for free pretty easily.

Thats pretty stiff competition for the local band trying to sell the EP they recorded down the road and barely mastered for 10 or even 5 bucks a pop. You wonder why you are selling less and less?

Here's what your selling now...the idea of patronage, the package (i.e. cd booklet), what i like to call slice of the local scene, culture.

So now where are we? We aren't in a bad place man. Just different. The new deal is your selling the style of it, the culture of it, the collectability of it. There is no collectability in digital downloads in case you haven't noticed.

You might have noticed all of my music is available for free at:
http://suicideseven.bandcamp.com

Why would I sell you something you can find for free? I wouldn't. What I will do is make all my albums available to you for free in the highest digital quality I can. I will hope you listen to them and like them. I hope you find a song that moves you. I will make available T-shirts, stickers, buttons and whatever else seems relevant to the music listener. maybe coffee mugs?

My motto is give the music, build the culture. sell the merch. I'm not Steve Jobs but it seems a little stupid of me to try and sell you my new record for 10 bucks when you can download the entire pearl jam discography in 20 minutes for absolutely nothing. Not that I'm pearl jam or trying to be any of those artists I have names in this article but still...


Thats my word,

-KAM

Just saw that movie 2012...am I the white devil?

Hey hows it going people? I just saw that movie 2012 yesterday. Rented it on video. I thought it was pretty cool until right at the end when everything faded away to a big picture of the whole world underwater accept the continent of Africa.

Then it started to hit me. All of the minority characters in the movie were golden, they were really good people. All of the white people in the movie were corrupt in some way shape or form. Even the main character who was separated from his wife and kids because he spent too much time writing his book and shut them out.

This stuff didn't start sticking out to me until the very end when the whole damn world was obliterated except Africa which was completely untouched. I don't know it seemed a little biased against white people when you start looking at everything.

That aside I cannot say I didn't enjoy the movie because I did. It was really edge of your seat through all of those stunts and special effects. Very long too. It was like 2 and a half hours long. I think most people who like action type movies will get a bang out of this. You might be a little put off at the end because like I said the ending kind of ties in a lot of little symbolic things that they did through the whole movie that the average person who isn't too sensitive to racial issues probably isn't going to catch until the end when they slam it in your face. But even the weird ending aside I still have to say it was a fun movie.

...but why I gotta be the white devil? that's all I'm sayin' heh heh

I feel a little like that guy in Chasing Amy that said Star Wars was a racist trilogy designed to keep the black man down. That was a funny bit. And maybe I'm being ridiculous but I don't know you'll just have to watch the movie for yourself and see what you think.

-KAM

Lo-Fi - a term which is used to describe music in which the sound is of a lower quality than the usual standard.

I want to take a minute and talk about the rising genre of lo-fi music. It's a beautiful thing really. If you look closely around the Internet...if you do some snooping around off the beaten path, you will eventually stumble upon some guy who made a recording of songs in his basement or bedroom with his guitar or xylophone or Casio keyboard and a cheap mic. The sound quality will leave much to be desired and this guy will probably be giving his records away for free. And presto dead bang you just found another gem for your music collection.

That's the greatness that is the genre of lo-fi. It still has a wild west adventurous feel to it. Your never quite sure what your going to get but chances are it will be quirky, obscure and without a doubt possess some charm that will end up in your car CD player and your mp3 player.

So if you think you might be interested in this cool underground genre we call lo-fi try searching around myspace or bandcamp or one of the other countless music networks. It's out there for you to find. Have fun exploring.

P.S. alot of my music is Lo-Fi and it's all available for free download at Bandcamp.

That's my word,

-KAM

How To Put Together a Good Set List For Original Rock Show

Okay so your in a band. You guys have a handful of songs, you've rehearsed hard for 3 to 6 months (whatever) and now it's game time. Tonight is your first show! How should you arrange these songs for maximum impression on audience.

Well there are a few options. To figure out which way you want to go, consider the venue you will be playing at. Is it going to be jammed packed with rowdy punk rock kids? Is it going to be wall to wall with scenester emo goth types? Is it unknown territory in a state you've never played before? Are you the first act of the night? Are you the closing act? If so how did the last band end there set?

All this matters. Do you want people to give you the "pity fuck" nice job when it's over or do you want them asking you to play at their party and trying to hunt you down for a CD. Do you want the bar owner to give you the cold shoulder and no doe or do you want him schmoozing up to your guitar player trying to get the band back there.

Yeah you know what you want. you want to be the shit.

So lets break this down into song types. Yeah your playing original songs that no one outside your circle of friends and family has heard of but all songs share characteristics. You have a few types:

• slow power ballad type
• slow creepy dark ballad type
• driving rocker (moderate tempo)
• balls to the wall rocker (fast tempo)
• off time strangling (trying to be different type)
• well known cover
• progressive masterpiece (little bit of everything)

So there are a few models there but to simplify it even further lets just say you have some slow songs some medium speed songs and some fast songs.

• slow
• medium speed
• fast

If your playing last or second in a 3 band show usually that means your in the prime spot. All the people that were coming are now there and it's not too late and their not too drunk. How did the last band end their set. They were the opening act...they want to show stop the place have no doubt. Its usually pretty predictable. Alot of bands save their epic power solo 10 minute masterpiece to close on either that or a well known heavy metal type cover that makes the crowd like them like "walk" by Pantera.

So if they go 10 minute power solo blow out. Attack the audience in a different way. Appeal to a different sense. Pull out your creepy slow clean song to start. Draw them back in by not over stimulating them right off the bat. Try maybe something like:

1. slow creepy ballad
2. driving rocker (if possible medley from the ending of 1)
3. strangling (off time trying to be different song)
4. balls to the wall rocker
5. power ballad
6. progressive masterpiece
7. well known cover

Or in layman's terms

1. slow
2. medium
3. medium
4. fast
5. slow
6. slow to medium to fast
7. something the audience is familiar with (preferably something they can jump up and down to)

That's seven songs say about 3 to 5 minutes a piece, you probably need half hour to 45 minutes for a 3 band bill so you might need a couple more songs depending on how long your songs are.

The point is there are endless ways to arrange your set list. The moral is some work and some don't. It's like a date with a hot girl. You need to impress this girl so you use every tool at your disposal to accomplish that. With a set list, it can be a well planned calculated date. This girl (the crowd) is in your house. You have the stage literally.

If your an opening band. You want to have a strong opening song. You want to come across like hey look bitches...were here and we came to run this town. That song can be slow fast or medium as long as it's awesome and you performed it well.

GOOD IDEA NUMBER ONE:

don't let a stupid sound man talk you into doing a sound check and then going right into your first song. He basically just screwed up your mojo with that shit ass sound check. Now your first impression on the crowd was " kick drum please?" "right mic please?" stage left guitar please?"

no no no, whatever he says tell him after sound check we'll be back in 5 minutes. Go out back and chill for 5 or 10 minutes if you have to. But when you come back on that stage make sure the first sound the crowd here's is the first note of the first song from your calculated set list.

That's my word,

Peace,

-KAM