In the last months, the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) through its radio channel Triple J, have run the annual ‘Unearthed High’ competition, a national music contest (open to any kind of music genre) that can only be attended by high school aged artists. A couple of days ago the final was held with, unluckily, not the triumph of our electronic deputy Spire, but the victory of the equally interesting Indie-Rock band ‘Mosquito Coast‘.
But, right before the ending act, the Triple J’s staff wisely managed to ask to the Unearthed High mentors, among which there is our beloved excellence Alison Wonderland, some hot career advice and guidance for emerging artists taking the first steps into their careers.
Since advice is always helpful, whether you are an expert or a novice, I recommend you to take a couple of minutes to give a look at the full list reported below.
Trust your own opinion, not everyone else’s
“Don’t listen to people too much… follow your gut,” The Jezabels‘ frontwoman Hayley Mary told Matt & Alex on triple j Breakfast yesterday. In other words: trust your instincts and ignore the haters.
“Sometimes I’ve definitely got a bit lost, there’s been a lot of voices – especially when you get a bit of momentum going and everyone has an opinion when you enter the public realm. I think it’s really important to remember what you got into it for – at all times.”
From Unearthed competition winners to ARIA-winning, international touring alt-rock band, practicing what they preach has certainly helped The Jezabels’ success thus far.
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Stay hella healthy
That’s the hot tip from metalcore titans Northlane, and in frontman Marcus Bridge’s case, that means looking after his main musical instrument: his voice.
“It’s really important while on tour… you’ll be playing shows almost every day and if you lose your voice one day, it’s very likely you won’t get it back for the rest of the tour,” he explains.
“I probably do a good 20-25 min of warm-ups before we play. It might seem a bit silly – a lot of people mock me for the noises I make while I’m warming up – but it really makes a difference and you can really feel it while you’re performing.”
Guitarist Josh Smith adds that while you’re out on the road “make sure you’re eating really healthily. Don’t eat a huge burrito before you go on stage; I’ve made that mistake before and it didn’t end well.”
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Protect your gear
Party-starters Art vs Science didn’t always have a full crew to rely on getting their gear from place to place, which led to some pretty poor travel choices, as drummer Dan Williams admitted to Matt And Alex this week. Chalk this up as one of those ‘what NOT to do’ situations.
“We used to travel around with all the keyboards in the cardboard cases that we got them delivered in – wrapped in bubble wrap and an armoury of gaffer tape – and then they just got broken a lot.”
“We had to do a couple of gigs where there were keys missing… so we went ‘I guess we’ll just re-write the song around to avoid those keys’.”
Moral of the story: those hard travel cases might seem expensive but it’s an investment your equipment (and your audiences) will be thankful for.
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Risk = reward
“I’ve taken a lot of risks in my life, I’m really happy that I did,” says Alison Wonderland, who’s risen from local DJ to a world class figure in the electronic music scene in recent years.
“All you gotta do is just care about what you do and love it and be true about it and you’ll be sweet, I promise you.”
“You don’t need a fancy studio to record your music. All you gotta do is think outside the square, don’t compromise yourself for anyone, and use your ears, your brain and your heart.”
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Make the most of your sound check
“Don’t put on a mini-gig for the sound man,” offers celebrated MC Illy. “You don’t need to rap entire tracks – he doesn’t care about ’em and nor should he. He’s there to make you sound good out the front. You’re there to make sure you sound good through the speakers facing you.”
He talks specifically about hip hop gigs, but his advice definitely has broader applications for all walks of music.
“Start with the beat: get it loud and comfortable. Next check your mic level so it’s loud without yelling or drowning out the beat. Hype man or DJ mics – they sit just lower than your level and any DJ scratches sit lower than that again.”
“Bang! Ready for show but remember, the sound man cannot hear your speakers if he’s out the front, dude! So get your soundcheck right. There’s no quicker way to f*** a gig up than to be a legend and yell: ‘turn my shit up, sound man!’ during your show. He’s not going to. It’ll just make you sound like shit. Keep it in mind.”
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Sometimes stopping is better than soldiering on
“It might be a really basic one but the amount of times I see this go wrong… make sure your instrument’s in tune,” explains Northlane’s Josh Smith.
“If it falls out of tune while you’re on-stage, it’s always better to stop playing and tune it rather than try and get through the song with a whole bunch of dud notes – it sounds terrible. So keep a tuner with you at all times.”
For the original source on ABC’s website click here.