#the most george merch I’ve seen at a track just generally

[totodilff]

There’s a man sat in the row behind me decked head to toe in George merch with a flag that says “it’s yabba dabba doo time”

[tomakeitbeautifultolive]

A message for disappointed Game of Thrones fans ready to give up on literature

Many of us are feeling a great deal of dejection or even betrayal at the hands of the very franchise we fell in love with. Here are some quotes from fellow fans I’ve found on IMDB, echoing the same general disappointment:

"Bring me my 8 years back."

"Watching season 8 made me feel sick."

"I can't believe I wasted 10 years of my life watching this garbage."

"You have ruined something I care deeply about."

"8 years watching it, craving for it, to get so disappointed."

"From a show I couldn't wait to watch to a show I couldn't care about."

"Seasons 1-7 meant nothing in the end."

"I wasted 73 hours of my life for this crap?"

"I can't believe I wasted 9 years of my life!"

I’ve talked to many heartbroken fans and I keep hearing the same things over and over again - Regret and shame in ourselves for ever having been invested in a fictional world at all. Feeling stupid for expressing sorrow or even shedding tears over the decimation of our favorite franchise and its characters.

Hell, this is a quote from yours truly after learning the plot to season eight:

"I feel like this is all some life lesson - not to like anything too much or get invested in fiction."

...And I almost fell for it.

But no. I'm not going to let to two talentless writers who managed to ruin the greatest series of all time in the span of at least three episodes... determine the fate of my future with literature.

And you shouldn’t, either.

What a writer's goal should never be:

Alienate their audience

Make the audience feel regret for having invested time in their work

Make the audience feel shame in having rooted for certain characters

Leave a trail of unused foreshadowing that led to dead-ends

Betray in-universe logic in favor of shock

Retcon entire books or seasons in the endgame

Leave the audience feeling apathetic upon reaching the conclusion

Destroy any desire for the audience to reread or rewatch their material

Drive them to throw out their merch and regret spending their money

What a writer's goal should be:

Aim for complete immersion and suspension of disbelief

Give the audience a cast of characters so rich that they feel represented by someone

Foreshadow. Plant clues and breadcrumb trails and provide payoff later

Inspire the audience to pore over their work for clues and extra detail

Remain consistent with the personalities of the characters they've created

Introduce the reader to new points of view

Avoid problematic tropes (and consider their ill effect on the audience)

Remember that every character, good or bad, is beloved by someone, and their ending should be handled with care (for better or worse)

Have a message. Have a point.

I promise you that while David Benioff and D.B. Weiss do not understand this, most writers and screenwriters do.

Now, on the other end of the spectrum, we've got fans who weren't quite so invested telling us to "shut up" and "stop complaining", insulting us by calling us "cry babies" and "brats" and belittling and dismissing our disappointment as "first world problems" (as seen here).

They’re wrong.

We are not stupid for becoming invested in literature.

To prove that point, I’ll leave you with a collection of quotes to remind you why you invest in fiction or literature, what it is we gain from it, and to help inspire you not to give up on ever falling in love with a fictional world again, because most writers are not here to shock or upset you senselessly, they’re here to inspire you, make you think and feel.

"The use of imaginative fiction is to deepen your understanding of your world, and your fellow men, and your own feelings, and your destiny." ―Unknown

"Literature offers not just a window into the culture of diverse regions, but also the society, the politics; it's the only place where we can keep track of ideas." ―Reza Aslan

"Literature plays a huge role in examining difficult real-life issues." ―Angie Thomas

"That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong." ―F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness." ―Helen Keller

"Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers." ―Carlos Fuentes

"Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person, to live another life." ―Barbara Kingsolver

"Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become." ―C.S. Lewis

"Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination and of the heart." ―Salman Rushdie

"Fiction is a kind of compassion-generating machine that saves us from sloth." ― George Saunders

"We don't read novels to have an experience like life. Heck, we're living lives, complete with all the incompleteness. We turn to fiction to have an author assure us that it means something." ―Orson Scott Card

[ibythetidepromotions]

An interview with Wormhole

Thank you for your time, Could you introduce yourselves to the readers?

Noni: Thank you so much for having us! I am Sanil Kumar, but everyone calls me Noni. I play guitar in Wormhole. 

Ansh : Hello, you FILTHY readers, I'm Ansh, I've been the vocalist for Wormhole for about two years now, as well as guitar for Noisays, Codex Orhova and Perihelion.

Sanjay : I am Sanjay, I play guitar in Wormhole as well as Equipoise and Greylotus

How did Wormhole come to be?

Noni : Wormhole started sometime in 2015 between Sanjay and I, but really this band has been together for a lot longer than that. We’d known each other and been playing music together for a while but stopped for a bit in 2015. At that time Sanjay and I just write and release some music of our own. We saw how other slam bands at the time were making music in their homes and were able to cultivate a cult following through social media and Slam Worldwide and we thought if we could get a small following like that it would have been really cool if we could manage to get a couple people into our music.

So Sanjay and I had some doodles from our old band(s) that we more or less put together for an album and released it under the name Wormhole. Since it was just the two of us at that time, we needed to find a vocalist. We ended up having Duncan Bentley from Vulvodynia do most of the vocals. This must have been right after he finished recording his parts for their album Psychosadistic Design. That resulted in Genesis which was released in 2016.

Ansh: Back in the day we had a comedy slam band called Rotting Phallus that we all left except the vocalist. Later, Sanjay and Sanil used some of their Rotting Phallus tracks, wrote some new tracks, and released Genesis under the name Wormhole. Matt and I joined the band again and we started to really find our sound. New and improved, now with ugly-ol' BASIL, all has been smooth sailing!

Sanjay: Technically Wormhole was originally a ‘comedy slam band’ in 2014 called Rotting Phallus.  Noni, Ansh, Matt and I were all a part of this.  The band kind of died and we stopped being a band because we had a toxic asshole vocalist who we all hate now.  When the band died noni and I got duncan and recorded all the OG Rotting Phallus tunes under the name Wormhole.

On the start of 2020 you guys released ‘The Weakest Among Us’ the cover art reminds me of a boss fight about to happen in some Doom/Halo-esque battle, what is the story behind the cover art?

Noni: You’re kinda close haha. The cover was inspired by the Metroid Prime series. We are super inspired by those games in more ways than one. There is a cut scene before a boss battle in one of the games that we based the cover art off of. We’ve been really inspired by the soundtrack too. It sets such a cool vibe.Sanjay and I grew up playing those games, and we’ve played them over and over. The universe, atmosphere, character design, everything about those games is so cool to us. Pretty metal. If it weren’t for those games I don’t know what I would make this band about.

Ansh: Sanjay and Sanil are BIG and STUPID nerds who like SPACE and other SILLY THINGS like METROID PRIME and ANIME.

Sanjay: Metroid Prime is the main source of visual and lyrical inspiration, but I love Doom (especially Doom 3) and you can tell I think Mancubus looks brutal as fuck.

Since the world is at a standstill for the foreseeable future and you released  ‘The Weakest Among Us’ on the top of 2020 how hard has it been to get the word out about the album since no one can tour currently?

Noni: It has been really shitty having tours cancelled and not being able to promote the album properly, but we also know that we are not the only ones in this boat so there is no sense in complaining I feel. Social media is our friend though and people still seem to be pretty responsive to the album anyway.  

It seems like going forward, bands are going to have to figure out how to do this anyway. So, if Wormhole (or any band) isn’t really working out because we can’t tour, then we have to figure something out.

Ansh: In general I've been happy with the online support but not being able to tour is beyond frustrating. As tough as it can be at times, touring is kinda like the celebration of your music and all the hard work you put into it, so not being able to get that live show release is truly devastating. Compounded with the potential fans we could have made and merch we could have sold, it's more than a bummer. But all the love and support the record has gotten online has also been one of the only things keeping me sane whilst I'm stuck in my house.

Sanjay: It’s definitely not as easy since touring is one of the main ways to reach new audiences but it’s not as hard when you have some dedicated fans who genuinely love spreading some Wormhole gospel.  Those fans are the realest MVPs in these trying times.

I always find it fascinating when the band's cover art describes what the album is going to sound like, when talking to the artist how do you project your ideas out of your head coherent enough to be understood?

Sanjay: We kind of got lucky with Lordigan (the artist of both covers) on Genesis.  We were kind of winging it and knew we just wanted a slam monster album cover.  We had some help from my bud Ryan Wolanski on getting the colors we wanted as well.  With TWAU I had a general idea of the color scheme and setting we wanted.  Lordigan was very aware of the Doom/Space Marine aesthetic so it was not hard to communicate.  Our album cover is not really a reflection of the music I would say because we kind of just pick what we want because it’s cool and we’ve seen similar things work for other bands.

Ansh: I usually just get an artist I really love and ask them to listen to the music and draw whatever comes to them, but maybe that's why I'm not allowed to do merch for Wormhole. 

Noni: We just tried to be specific and nit-picky. The most important thing for our artwork was to have a center focus, the classic slam monster, with a few other things to look at in the background/foreground. The album’s production wasn’t going to be super futuristic and modern, so the color scheme kind of reflected that. We wanted more browns to dominate the image, to give a bleak and miserable vibe. We went to Lordigan Pedro Sana for both of our albums and he was super responsive to every change we wanted to make. The best thing for them is a reference in my experience, especially if you can find something in artwork they made to use as a reference.

I see the album artwork as just as big a part of the album as any of the songs or riffs. The way I see it, both the music and the artwork and song titles all work together to create a vibe and atmosphere. They need to feed into each other. Not only that, they need to somehow stand out from the other million extreme metal records being released everywhere. It’s really important and one of the places I see newer/local bands cutting corners or not going all in, and maybe settling for something that isn’t stellar.

Crowdkill Apparel has some of the most unique merch options I've seen from car seat cover to a shower curtain, when given the opportunity what would be the weirdest merch you guys would like to release?

Noni: I would love to see the Wormhole logo on a cereal box. I imagine our cereal would have marshmallows.

Ansh: A bong??? A worm shaped bong??? Like from the first album??? Or maybe a big spikey worm dildo/butt plug??? Done tastefully OBVIOUSLY.

Sanjay: Wormhole weed called “The Dankest Among Us”.  Any weed paraphernalia honestly like rolling papers and some Wormhole glass.  We did a small run of grinders before which was cool.

With the state of the world that it is currently, touring as you would of guessed is a no go, Suicide Silence they have the right idea about having a virtual “world tour” where the show is streamed has the touring bug been bad enough to where you’ve considered this?

Noni: I think rather than trying to make “touring” work, we are going to try to put out content that is a little more practical for people to enjoy. Music analysis, lessons, playthroughs, stuff like that. Comedic or podcasty type stuff where people get to know the band members and develop some kind of a personal relationship with them despite not being able to meet with any of our fans in person. Not everyone who listens to this stuff plays an instrument or makes music, so we want to put something out that engages with that group as well.I’m sure we’ll do some full band stuff too, but not everything will just be us playing the songs. I think in this current era, and consequently the future, bands will have to do much more than just play their music to get out there. It was already kind of like that but now I think the big emphasis isn’t really on the music anymore. I think it will be kind of analogous to how gaming consoles used to be all about gaming. But now your Xbox or Playstation has to be able to have Netflix and YouTube and still regularly release and develop games over time.

Ansh: My other band Noisays was recently part of Mathcore Index Fest, the fest raised a reasonably sizeable donation for the Justice for George Floyed and Breonna Taylor Relief Fund, and it was sick to hang in a chatroom with a bunch of homies that i would be chilling with at the show. It was sick to do something good, share music and connect with friends and fans but virtual life is never going to be the same as real life to me. Whether it's teaching online, hanging out with people on video chat, or attending a virtual show, it's always just gonna be virtual and it'll never be a replacement for real life, to me at least. So please do everything you possibly can to make sure WE CAN COME PLAY FOR YOU ASAP.

Sanjay: I don’t think we can compare ourselves to Suicide Silence because our fanbases are vastly different.  I would hope we could do something like that but i definitely don’t think we are at a point where it would make sense.  Would be fun though.

Dream tour with Wormhole on the bill?

Noni: For the band obviously we just want to go out with the big boys like Obscura or The Black Dahlia Murder or Thy Art for our egos. But for my satisfaction I would want Wormhole to play with Dethklok just because Sanjay and I worship Brendon Small. Dude is a fucking genius and clearly has something figured out that neither of us do. Defeated Sanity would be on there too. If we’re talking defunct bands as well, I would want Necrophagist and/or Death in there somewhere too. But the real dream would for us to tour with Metallica and just play in Metallica and it’s also 1991.

Ansh: Warped Tour and we play right before All Time Low or some shit like that, Old Town Road guy opens right before us and does all the remixes. Miles Davis joins Limp Bizkit for the headlining set.

Sanjay: I would want to be direct support for Gojira.  That’s all really.  I think a bunch of bands (including Wormhole) have a lot to learn about the energy they project live and I would love to be a part of their show.

Anything else you would like to tell the readers before we go?

Noni: If there is some crazy guitar player or musician out there that you really admire and put on a pedestal you should understand that you are capable of literally anything that person is. That guy may have some special X factor but that is really only like 10% of it. The other 90% is the hardwork. Also thanks for reading and supporting and all that. It is really sick and cool and makes us feel good.

Ansh: Play and listen to lots of music, work stupid hard, and do whatever the fuck you want, the only people that'll say you can't do it are lazy as FUCK. Fuck'em.-ANSH OUT.

Sanjay: tech-slam

Wormhole Social Media:

Facebook

Instagram

Bandcamp

Merch

[onestowatch]

Jakob Ogawa Talks Prince, First Show Jitters, and His New ‘April’ EP [Q&A]

Photo Credit: Hedda Rysstad

Up & coming Norwegian indie pop musician, Jakob Ogawa is the man leading the soul-meets-synth lo-fi movement. He’s quickly climbing the ranks as a young musician, playing stages around the world like Lollapalooza Argentina and opening for LANY across Europe. 

On the heels of the release of his stunning new EP, April, we got a chance to hang out with the international breakout star and his guitarist, Georg Minos. We talked about everything from his first show ever, to working with Clairo, and even starting his own oatmeal brand. 

Get to know this talented tastemaker favorite before he and his band embark on the Pacific Northwest leg of their Teen Angel tour and be sure to check out April!

OTW: You guys have been tour all across America on your Teen Angel tour. What’s the best thing that’s happened so far?

Georg Minos: Lots of highlights. The stop in San Francisco was pretty great. The venue was so cool. It was a theater with an older style.

Jakob Ogawa: Yeah, San Francisco was the most beautiful venue I’ve ever been to. So many great artists have played there. We just felt an amazing energy that went into our music when we were on stage. The crowd was beautiful. It was really a transcending, sort of trippy experience.

OTW: Theaters do have such a different historic energy. It feels like you’re in something big. So you’ve got a whole set of Pacific northwest dates left. Have you guys played any of those cities yet? 

Jakob: No! We haven’t yet. 

OTW: Oh how fun, new adventures. There’s this donut shop you’ve got visit in Portland, I’ve heard about called Voodoo donuts. 

Jakob: Haha nice. We’ll have to check it out. 

OTW: Now I know you guys are from Norway. What area are you from?

Jakob & Minos: Oslo. 

OTW: Nice, I’m a huge fan of that city- well everything in Norway really.

Minos: That’s good! Haha it’s a very nice country. Very safe space.

Jakob: A bit too safe! (laughs)

OTW: So what’s the music scene like there?

Jakob: It’s very diverse. But at the same time it’s not because a lot of the time people are just trying to copy each other. And then it seems like everyone is just doing the same thing-

Minos: I don’t think there are many cities in Norway that have their own specific sound either. That’s not a thing. 

Jakob: We have some house music though! 

Minos: And disco, that’s a very Norwegian thing. That’s one of the styles that’s pretty distinctive to us. 

Jakob: In Bergen, there’s a super tight group of musicians who collaborate together. Versus in Oslo where people are more competitive. I think there, people are not as fond of telling each other, “Your work was beautiful. Great job.” It’s more like that, you know? And I don’t vibe with that! I just wanna work with people.  

Photo Credit: Hedda Rysstad

OTW: Now you guys have been in the game for a few years now. I’m curious what was your very first gig ever?

Jakob: My first gig was in late 2016, I think November. I was super nervous. It was so heart wrenching. So intense. There were a lot of friends there, and some family too. I was just so uncomfortable going up on stage. And the lights were hot- I got sweaty! Everything was just off for me. But I think I did a good show still. 

Minos: My first show with Jakob was at a festival. He called me like a week before and asked me to play there with him. (laughs) And it was the biggest crowd I’ve ever played for. 

OTW: That’s insane. You gave him just a week in advance?! I could never. 

Minos: That was interesting. It was a good concert though.

Jakob: We had a great time! It was a really nice time.

OTW: Many of your newest fans were first introduced to you after your song with Clairo on “You might be sleeping.” How did this collaboration come about?

Jakob: That was funny. So I had two weeks before I needed to release a single and I wasn’t sure about the single I had in mind. So I just started making a new song, like why not? It had a great vibe to it but I felt something was missing. Then I went on Soundcloud and I knew Clairo from her music, but had never formally met her. And I just sent her a message on Soundcloud! She was a big fan, and we just hit it off. Then I sent her some lyrics and melodies, she sent it back and we had it done in like two days. I sent it to my label and done.

OTW: And they were like, “Yes!” What a cool origin story.

Jakob: Yeah we were lucky it was quite easy. 

OTW: I feel like people often have to pull a lot more teeth to get to work other really cool people.

Jakob: Right, it’s nice when it’s just personal. You know? It’s not management, you just contact them yourself. Like Instagram is perfect for that. 

OTW:  So who else are your dream collaborators?

Jakob: There’s so many good artists out there. Blood Orange is amazing. He’s such a special individual. He’s an artist. And as for bigger artists, I think it would be cool to do something with Noname. And of course Frank [Ocean]!

OTW: Speaking of working, your brand new EP, April, comes out tomorrow, what’s it all about?

Jakob: I actually have a lot of songs, and only a few of them are on this EP. More of them are going to come out next year on a bigger release. So this is like a “mini EP” I pulled out a few songs from this period. I started making it after getting into a relationship, and all these moments and experiences with this person made me really inspired to put words and music out and put that emotion into my music. It’s just based upon moments and these small things that you feel during a relationship: kind of sweet, kind of hard, kind of aching. But it has definitely been a really important experience for me to be in a relationship like that because we were together for over two years, and it was very intense. I’ve definitely had to face a lot of things within myself. And to be able to live with someone is -- I mean she was different from me in a lot of ways, so that was a big new challenge. 

OTW:  Of course, you’ve got to adjust a lot when you live with someone. 

Jakob: Right, and I’m a Gemini! So my sh*t is all messed up. I’ve got two sides! It’s not always that easy to see eye to eye. And sometimes it was hard, while sometimes it was so beautiful. But the EP is based upon that core theme. And there are a lot of new songs I’ve been making lately that are more direct and organic, almost more me because I’m young. I’m developing myself and trying to figure out where I want to go in life -- and I’m slowly getting there. It’s a beautiful process. Music is art and art is supposed to flux. If music is flat then it’s generic and I don’t vibe with that. 

OTW:  That’s great. We as listeners get to uncover more about who you are, and who we are, through your music. So tell me what’s your favorite track from the project?

Jakob: I would say it’s “April.” Or “Atari,” but “Atari” is much more of a hard song for me to listen to because I made it when I was in a very weird space. I almost felt alienated when I made it. I was sort of out of myself, angry, and frustrated. But I was still really in love with this person, so I guess I was just trying to find a way to express that. I was willing to sacrifice a lot for this person, but they wouldn’t necessarily do that for me. But this was pretty early on in the relationship and we didn’t really have a solid foundation yet. 

OTW: Now I know at one point you had a pet lizard called Jonathan…. And he once escaped. Is Jonathan still with us and does he disappear often?

Jakob: Jonathan is around. He’s definitely with us, spiritually. But he is no longer with us, in the physical sense. 

OTW: No! 

Jakob: He is gone. I ended up finding him behind a dumpster. So he was lost, and then found. I had to pick him up. I gave him some warmth and then buried him in my yard. It was so hard.

OTW: Jeez! I did not expect that ending! Truly was hoping for a happier story but- I guess he’s still around. 

Jakob: Yes he’s still “around.” He used to have such beautiful outfits. 

OTW: You dressed him up? 

Jakob: Oh yeah! You can dress up whatever! You can dress up a rat, you know? We were in New York, you know there are a ton of rats there. 

Minos: Tons of rats.

Jakob: And I met a girl there, and she told me she was a big fan of rats. (room erupts in laughter). But she was talking about pet rats, and I kind of understood where she was coming from. Have you seen them? They’re kinda cute! They’re not that big. And they’ll follow you around. They look like little mice.

OTW: No no no. I think I’d much rather have a pet lizard than a pet mouse!

Jakob: Yeah, they are weird. I would never have one myself but I kind of get why she liked them. And apparently they’re really smart like humans- they just eat garbage! (laughs)

OTW: This’ll be a fun set of questions then. I saw on Twitter you said you wanted to have your own brand of Oatmeal. What flavors would the oatmeal line include?

Jakob: Oh wow you really dug in! If I was to have a series brand of oatmeal, it’s gotta be good. There’s a couple of things you need to be aware of. Maple syrup, you need a bit of salt too. That combination right there. And not too much water- wow, then you’ve got a great oatmeal. You get the perfect amount of sweetness. You shouldn’t taste the salt, it’s there to balance the sweetness. 

Minos: There’d be one with blueberries too. 

Jakob: And another with cashews. That’s fire right there. We’d call it Jakob’s Oatmeal. 

OTW: This is a merch idea. I swear people would buy it. If your music was a color, what color would it be?

Jakob: Turquoise, that’s my color. And burgundy, yeah, pretty feminine colors. Oh and a really strong blue. Those three. But I do love light pink, yellow, and green. A lot of different colors.

OTW: You should come out with a line of crayons too, with only those colors. That and the oatmeal.

Jakob: It’s not a bad idea!

Photo Credit: Hedda Rysstad

OTW: Right now on Twitter people are doing a #concertchallenge. Can I do a quick fire round of those questions with you?

Jakob: Sure!

OTW: First concert?

Jakob: I think I saw Clipse, Neyo, or Prince. I can’t remember which was first, but it was one of them. And I remember all the shows, my mom took me. 

OTW: Most recent concert?

Jakob: We saw Patrice Rushen at a Jazz club in NYC. That was amazing. The saxophone player was beautiful, and the bassist was so groovy. 

OTW: Next concert?

Jakob: Well, that would be ours on Oct 17th in Denver!

OTW: Best concert?

Jakob: Probably Prince. He was standing on a piano, pulling people up on stage, and shaking his hips. Incredible

OTW: Who’ve you seen the most?

Minos: Dungen, there a Swedish band. Their show is also one of the best I’ve ever been to. They’re the main inspiration for Kevin Parker. 

OTW: Who do you still want to see?

Jakob: An intimate Frank Ocean show.

OTW: Who are your Ones to Watch?

Jakob: Kelly Finnigan, I think he’s amazing. He just dropped his debut album and it’s crazy good. It’s soul music made with exclusively analog gear, and you can really hear it. 

Minos: And Ric Wilson, that’s our dude. 

Jakob: We want to do something with him soon.

Grab tickets to see Jakob this fall here!

[argocitycosplay]

Last year around this time, I was off braving the frozen wastes of Chicago to head out and meet Clive Barker. I’d sent my buddy director Mark McKaye out to scope out the resurrection of the Dark X Mas convention. This year, I had an embargo against larger conventions like Days of the DeadI decided to head out to see Dark X Mas for myself. I’d actually quite enjoyed it’s summer counterpart Dark X Fest, but when I pulled up the map on my GPS I had to double check… The show had moved from the eerie hotel in the middle of nowhere, set against barren fields full of ghostly children. This time around, GPS was taking me to Mentor, and a familiar address at that. Dark X Mas has moved to the Holiday Inn that has hosted Lake Effect Comicon for the last few years. It’s familiar digs, despite being configured a little differently.

Once inside, I made a beeline for Marc Price’s table. Price is best known as Michael J. Fox’s best friend Skippy on Family Ties, but Dark X Mas had him here to celebrate the film Trick or Treat, where he co-starred with Ozzy Osbourne and Gene Simmons.That’s not why I wanted to meet him. I sidled up to his table and pulled out my convention bag.He spied the Troma autograph on it, and pointed excitedly.

“Lloyd Kauffman!, I know that name!” he turned and pointed to a particular poster on his banner… “He actually just brought up the rights to all the killer tomatoes movies!” Out of my bag I pulled the same DVD cover and presented him with Killer Tomatoes Eat France.

“Like this?” I replied smiling. I reached into my bag again.

“I also brought you a friend to meet you.” and with those words I pulled out a plush fuzzy tomato. He picked up FT In wonderment, turning him over and over looking for a tag. I informed him that these were handmade, a little something I’ve been putting together since watching the films recently. He shook his head in astonishment

“Seriously? I thought it was official merch!” I commiserated with him that there was no official merchandise for Killer Tomatoes, and even when the cartoon had been on there was very little. Price was excited to talk about the movie, and shocked that anyone had even seen it much less enjoyed it. He taken the role against the wishes of his agent, who was sure it would be a disaster. Price on the other hand didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to travel to Paris on the films dime. He still finds it mildly annoying that like trick-or-treat, he’s not on the cover of the movie – but he remembers all the lines and even knows about some of the other sequels, informing me that George Clooney is in one of them – “the second!” I exclaimed happily.

I pulled out my other killer tomatoes, Zoltan and Fang, and we grabbed a passer-by to take a photo of us with the tomatoes. Price pointed it to them and ask the cameraman do you know what these are? “The guy with the camera grinned and bobbed his head referencing “Part four of the tomatoes trilogy!” Price was flabbergasted that he had another person was familiar with this movie.

He wouldn’t take any money for signing my DVD cover but was selling autographed photos from Trick or Treat and Family Ties with all proceeds going to the Michael J Fox foundation. I cheerfully grabbed a Trick or Treat photo and got a second autograph so I could make a donation. We shook hands but I wasn’t done with Skippy yet!

I moved down to the next table where Angela Jones was sitting. She is probably most notable for a small role that she had in Pulp Fiction, driving taxi for Bruce Willis and chatting about what it feels like to kill a person. It’s a bit role, sure, but it’s a bit role in Pulp Fiction! She was nice enough to sign my VHS box and when it came time to take a photo, there was no one around. She grabbed my phone and waved Price over, asking if he could take the photo for us. This is not something I don’t normally do, asking one of the guests to do great work like taking photos seems a little gauche, but she was the one doing the asking. Marc framed us in the picture, then shook his head, unsatisfied with the angle. He moved to the left a little bit… Looked again and shut the shoulders and moved a little bit more to the left. Just a little bit more, and finally found the perfect angle and proceeded to take a photograph of the back of my head. “What are you DOING???” Angela chided Marc as we all laughed together. It was great fun and exactly the kind of goofy stuff you want to see at one of these events.

Shawn South was the last person I was there to meet, he’s been a bit player on a variety of productions, but I was interested in getting him on my Walking Dead poster. They had him seated next to Tim Proctor, another Walking Dead alumni, and he was every bit as friendly and fun as Proctor has been in the past. I caught him well he was chatting up a couple people who had brought him record albums to sign. He told them the story of how Norman Reedus didn’t believe Shawn South was his real name.

“That’s got to be a stage name! Show me you license!” Norman had teased him until he whipped out his driver’s license to prove it. Norman would continue to tease him through production – Shawn SOUTH!” enlisting other cast to run the gag. He recalled one time he had seen Andrew Lincoln pulling out of the parking lot and waved to him “Shawn SOUTH!!!”

I mentioned to him that The Walking Dead was one of of those few TV shows that my wife would watch with me. I told him the story abotu me catching up the first few seasons when they were marathoning it before starting the series in earnest. It had just always been on and Amy had wandered by enough that she started to get invested, and now it’s more her show than mine.

“Man, I know exactly what you mean,” South replied. “There’s so many shows I watch just so I can hang out with my wife. I mean stuff I’d NEVER have watched on my own. There’s this one Netflix show, it’s from Canada – it’s called Heartland….” My jaw dropped.

“I know Heartland.” I said, trying to control my laughter. “My wife is OBSESSED with it!”

We chatted for a while about the series and out mutual amazement at how it’s lasted 13 years. Then South paused and looked around the ghoulish wares surrounding us and shook his head.

“This is the last place I thought I’d be talking with someone about Heartland!”

Because this was a little smaller of a show I decide it would be a nice place to to a soft premier of my new Skeksis costume from The Dark Crystal. I’d been tinkering with it for a few months and Dark X Mas gave me a deadline to finish the main body (though I’ll still be working on accessories over the winter). I lugged the large costume over to an empty space across from the registration table. The wristbands for the show had been red, which would blend in nicely with my robes, but that also may present a problem getting in and out. So I walked over to the lady at the registration table and presented my band and explained that it may be obscured soon. She chuckled and nodded, then proceed to watch in fascination as I suited up. Tim Proctor from the Walking Dead stopped dead in his tracks as he was passing by.

“I saw all the red and gold and the PVC pipes and though they were putting up a tree r something!” He said as he gawked at the bird-like monster. “This is totally not what I expected!”

I wandered in, stopping for photos with people and I heard a voice nearby warn “You better watch out! Thanksgiving is days away!”. Inside I found monsters to play with. On group of horror hosts interviewed me asking “If you can’t find any gelflings to eat then what do you do? Is there like a generic version?”

“Lawn Gnomes.” I replied. then headed over to take a picture with Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Anne Robinson from the original War of the Worlds saw me and gushed.

“I have no idea what you are, but it’s amazing!” She cackled. “Look at the armature on the hands! The fingers even move!”

I had to run outside to grab something from my car. On the way out the gentleman from the Horror Hotel convention stopped me to tell me about thier show. “If you want to come out this year, you’ve got a ticket. I’d bet with all the indie filmmakers there, someone might even want to use that suit in a production!” I thanked him and let him know that Horror Hotel is one of those shows that’s been on my radar, but always seemed to conflict with someone else, but that I’d try to make it next year. I unintentionally freaked out some people trying to park in the hotel lot and retrieved my phone from the car, while sneaking some hydration. On the way back in I ran into Lisa Wilcox (from Nightmare on Elm Street 4&5) taking a smoke break and assured her I’d be in for her panel soon. She grinned. I’d see a dark elf out there later – not quite a gelfling, but close enough!

I do love hitting panels at these events. I managed to sit through Angela Jones talk as well as the Walking Dead panel in my street clothes, but had to sneak in the back for Marc Price and Lisa Wilcox due to the bulky costume. Tim Proctor and Shawn SOUTH moderated thier own panel, just having a talk between themselves and the audience, but apparently no one had been scheduled to do Jones or Wilcox. Joe Ostrica from Retro Invasion Weekend jumped in to save the day acting as impromptu moderator and asking excellent questions on the fly. Much respect to him for doing that.

If I have a complaint about Dark X Mas it’s the lack of organization. Not having moderators and kind of failing t keep the panels on time or on track shows a lack of planning and foresight. The panels kind of just lasted as long as they lasted. Maybe an hour for one. Maybe twenty minuets for another (and they NEED strong programming with the dealers room being on the small side). They advertised a costume contest, but no one knew where they were going to hold it or even who the judges would be. At the last moment they decided to hold it near the entrance of the dealers room and asked the horrors hosts to judge. In the future, I’d like to see a bit more planning, but I DO see a future for this show. It’s a friendly show with a fun atmosphere and I honestly had a better time here than I did at Days of the Dead last year. I’m definitely coming back to Dark X Mas in 2020.

  Dark X Mas Last year around this time, I was off braving the frozen wastes of Chicago to head out and meet Clive Barker…

[ulyssessklein]

“I’m well on my way to paying off my house with streaming revenue”

How one instrumental guitarist is earning significant money from his streams on Spotify and Pandora.

The music career of Lance Allen is a true DIY success story. He doesn’t tour. He doesn’t rely on merch sales to pay the mortgage. He isn’t a household name. And yet he’s earning a full-time living in music by balancing guitar lessons with streaming revenue. That money he’s generating from Pandora, Spotify, and YouTube is a pretty sizable portion of his overall earnings too. It’s enough to “buy a new guitar every month,” but instead he’s using it to pay off his house.

How’s streaming working so well for him? I asked.

An interview with Lance Allen, the Guitarlancer

CR: Your main focus is clear from the calls-to-action at the very top of your website homepage: drive action on Spotify and Pandora. Why those platforms? Why not… touring? iTunes? YouTube? CD sales?

LA: Spotify and Pandora Radio have the largest audience, and that’s the reason why they’re my main focus. Plus it has been a source of income for me.

In late 2015, I was lucky and one of my songs was chosen for the new playlist on Spotify called Acoustic Concentration. A Skype guitar student that I teach told me about this. I didn’t know what to expect really, considering most people in the industry complain about Spotify’s royalty rates. The first payment I received was somewhere in the tune of $700 and I was floored! I didn’t know how long it would last, but I held out hope. It kept going and eventually the playlist switched up songs and I remained on there. This stayed constant, but I wasn’t doing any research until earlier in 2017, when I accidentally stumbled on a short book called The Slotify Method by George Goodrich. This book and the CD Baby PDF on how to get added to playlists put a fire in my feet and I got started right away. I’ve done most of the things suggested in each of the pamphlets, and it has worked greatly.

As far as touring, I don’t need to do that. I have a successful guitar lesson business and a family at home. It’s quite nice to be at home with the family. I do the occasional gig at coffee houses, weddings, or corporate events. It’s at those type of things that I bring physical CDs. I have a box with a hole in the top and lay my CDs around the box and have a sign that says, “Pay the box, take a CD. Any amount is ok. Enjoy!” This seems to work great, because most people pay more for the CD than they would normally.

YouTube is strong for me. I started in 2006 posting videos of my arrangements on guitar. My camera got better, sound got better, and everything else fell into place. I do generate a little income from the AdSense. YouTube is very friendly with Google, so whenever I release a song I’ll make a live performance of me playing it and link to my Spotify and Pandora artist pages, as well as where you can buy tablature or sign up for lessons. Sometimes I’ll do multiple videos of the same song on various guitar brands to get more keyword juice going. Every little bit helps. You just have to keep the content going.

CR: What, if any, are the unique opportunities that Pandora and Spotify offer instrumental music?

LA: I have found that businesses all over the globe are using Spotify and Pandora to stream instrumental music in their shops and offices. Whether it’s a coffee shop, a boutique store, gift shops, or doctors offices, they use these platforms typically to play instrumental music. A lot of them use existing playlists, but some create their own. So there is a lot of opportunity for me in these areas. Still learning about them.

So, you currently have half a million monthly listeners on Spotify, but take us back to Day 1: How did you get those first 1000 listeners? The first 10,000 listeners? Can you walk me through the real foundational steps for driving interest in your music? And how much of your success was the result of engaging your existing audience vs. reaching out to playlist curators?

I can’t remember really what my earliest numbers were like as I didn’t pay much attention until I saw some income from being on Acoustic Concentration.

After reading up on how to get on playlists, here are some of the things I started doing:

Posting screenshots of my artist page to Instagram and using pre-loaded hashtags for reach. I did this daily!

Using Twitter to promote the playlist I was already on, as well as encouraging people to follow me on Spotify.

Finding playlist owners and asking them to add me to one of their playlists.

-Becoming acquainted with Spotify editorial departments on LinkedIn.

Speaking of, how DID you reach out to playlisters? What’s the method in terms of research, pitching, promoting, and so forth?

I did a search on Spotify using keywords that pertained to my genre of music (Acoustic Guitar, fingerstyle guitar, instrumental guitar, study music and so on. There are a lot!) I set about an hour each morning while I enjoyed my single origin pour-over coffee to do this. I searched out the creators of the playlist on Facebook and Twitter. I matched up photos, and requested them to be a friend, along with sending them a message telling them about my music and how it would fit nicely into their playlist. It’s very tedious work and some playlist curators don’t even get onto social media. The key is to stay persistent with it and then the ones that matter end up connecting with you and help you out.

I know from when I met you in person at the DIY Musician Conference that you have a confident way of promoting your music, without it seeming… cloying or arrogant. Is that just your natural demeanor, or did you have to work to acquire those skills of self-promotion? What part do you think that confidence plays in your career successes?

Confidence is one of my major strengths! If you have a dream or are very passionate about making a living doing something you love, you have to be willing to do what it takes to succeed. I’ve learned this through growing my guitar lesson business and meeting people. You never know who is going to be the next person to help you out. They may recommend you, buy a CD, or support your fundraisers. Or… put you on their playlist!

I’ve read a lot of books on self selling, and making friends and influencing people. One that especially got me going was The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone. After listening to that book on audio, I found myself putting in ten times the effort! There are a lot of great books out there on making yourself sellable and influential.

What have been some of the letdowns or failures you’ve experienced along the way, and how did you pick yourself back up?

The letdown is not being able to reach someone with a user generated playlist I know will help me. I’m focused on getting onto the playlist that users create because that in turn gets my name on the Spotify curators’ radar.

Something that I do to help with keeping persistent is having a goal sheet written in bold sharpie just above my computer. I try my best to keep at it, regardless of a failing outcome. I have seen results from my efforts, so I just keep with it. I find that I learn new things and techniques along the way. This hasn’t happened yet, but getting pulled from a playlist would be a disappointment. Especially a Spotify playlist, as their independent curators are ghosts and difficult to have direct contact with. However I would keep pushing, because it is my goal to succeed with my music.

Taking a look at your discography, you put out albums every few years, with two related albums in 2017, but you also started dropping a bunch of singles over the past year. What effect did putting out music more frequently have on your music’s streaming performance?

Releasing singles has been the best thing for me. It keeps listeners engaged with my artist profile. I started releasing covers too, because CD Baby makes it so easy to do. That has been a game changer! People love hearing cover songs. And because mine are all instrumental, they get put on big playlists, like Instrumental Pop Covers.

The two related albums are String Poet and String Poet Guitar Solos. One of the releases has the violins and cellos in the mix and the other is just solo guitar. I did this because of a playlister who only wanted solo guitar. It got me on the playlist, so it was worth releasing them that way.

In August 2017 one of my songs got placed on the Peaceful Guitar playlist, which is a Spotify playlist with half a million followers at the time. I’m quite confident that this happened as a result of being prolific on the platform. The pay from Spotify streams is big for me. I could easily buy a new guitar each month if I wanted, but it’s paying my house off!

In October I decided to record a song just for the Peaceful Guitar playlist. I didn’t know how it would go, but I did it anyway. I listened to the playlist and created a song that would fit. I took into consideration that most of the songs on there were nylon string and quite peaceful, so I got some new strings and went to work. I even gave it a title in the same manner as the other tracks in the playlist, “Raining Slowly.” It wasn’t a lot of work really. I sat in my living room with my laptop, GarageBand, a single AKG microphone, and a Focusrite preamp and recorded one take of an idea that I had. I took an iPhone photo of my guitar and used Font Candy to make a title on the photo. This ended up being my cover for the release. I got the song uploaded on Spotify and on day one it was placed on the Peaceful Guitar playlist!

Took me about 1.5 hours to do this tune and now it’s a part of my income. Holy Cow that was awesome. I’m doing what I can now to replicate that.

What’s the basic checklist of things you do to promote each single?

Make sure you are ready to post in every social media outlet, tagging people, messaging your friends who have created playlists (you know, the ones you met from doing the research).

Make a YouTube performance video, linking everything together. You can also make a video with the audio layed underneath your cover photo of the release. That seems to help as well. Don’t forget to put links in every video.

Besides frequent releases and pitching to playlists, what else are you doing to drive Spotify engagement?

Creating and promoting my own playlists. I’ve created a playlist that is growing quickly called Acoustic Guitar Cafe.

It’s a lot of my friends who play guitar similar to me. I just recently asked every artist on there if they would be interested in chipping in $20 for a Spotify ad to promote the playlist. I was able to get a decent budget on a Spotify ad to promote the playlist. This will hopefully help find new followers and listeners of our music. It’s also started a discussion with some of the artists where we’re sharing stats and techniques of what is working to get our music heard.

What are you doing to drive Pandora streams? Are you using AMP?

I use AMP every day or every other day. I try to post artist messages that are personal, sometimes funny. The key is to connect with people that are listening. Being that it’s instrumental, I can provide a short blurb about why I wrote the tune. Things like that generate thumbs up, which in turn brings your music up more often.

What role does data play in shaping your strategies? Do you make a habit of looking at analytics?

I look at the analytic all the time. In fact I can’t wait until 11 CST to see the artist.spotify update. That tells me if I’ve gotten on any new playlist. I also used the data when creating the Spotify ad to promote my playlist. I’m eying the AMP data as well, to see if my artist messages are working and possibly making conversions or new listeners and fans.

So what are some of your big picture goals?

I’d love to earn a complete living with streaming revenue, and in fact I’d love to say that I paid my house off with streaming bucks. I’m well on the way.

Also, I’d like to see my music in the movies or TV eventually. I know in the music business it’s all about who you know. I’m already in a library, so just hoping a music supervisor picks it up and hears it.

I didn’t quite make it, but I tried to get nominated for a Grammy this year. Although I don’t need a Grammy to succeed with this, it would be neat to get a nomination. So I will continue to submit every year I do album.

Who are your musical idols — and have your songs appeared alongside some of theirs in curated playlists?

Yes! One is Phil Keaggy, and it was a dream to have him on one of my songs, “Blue Ireland.” Tommy Emmanuel is another big influence, and I hope to one day record something with him.

What’s the next year look like for you?

Next year Pandora will have increased, as well as Spotify numbers. I will be releasing more Christmas music for the holidays as well as an album of cover songs. I may even do an original album of peaceful guitar music or possibly a Volume 2 to my String Poet album that everyone has loved. I may even look into doing an electric guitar album or something in the smooth jazz style of music. That elevator music pays too!

Download CD Baby’s free guide to getting your music on Spotify playlists.

Check out more information about Lance Allen on his website.

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