Local band manager Campbell Smith (also CEO of the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand, or RIANZ) talks baout what the job invloves, in the NZ Herald's Careers section. Best quote is below...
"... despite the day-to-day details of the jobs, Smith is still an avid music fan. On a recent morning, he cranked up a copy of David Bowie's Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) before heading off to the office. However, the tunes weren't on an iPod or a CD. The man who is looking at leading New Zealand music into tomorrow admits he has a preference for that old standby, vinyl.
"I listen to nothing but vinyl right now. I just think it sounds better." Link.
And if you haven't read it already, check Graham Reid's excellent response to the whoo-ha over Neil Finn's comments on NZ music.
snip... "The tyranny of a small country is that it is easy to exhaust the local touring circuit -- although bugger all bands have tried in my opinion.
So you need to go overseas -- and not just to play a couple gigs then come back home for a cuppa tea and lie down. If you do that I figure you're not that serious. You want success -- but still have mum do your laundry.
Bands or artists may need to base themselves offshore -- as an increasing number are realising. Greg Johnson is still slogging away in LA and every time I've seen him either up there or here it is always the same story: the breakthrough is just beyond reach but you have to keep trying. And you have to be there if it happens....
... My belief is that too often artists here -- and I am listening to two local albums at the moment which, while well intentioned, I wouldn't give you tuppence for -- don't have their work critiqued at every step of the process: in the writing, the recording, production, even the running order on an album.
Those who base themselves offshore are surrounded by so many more musical and cultural influences, so much more information, so many more points of reference or comparison. Music is an international game and if artists only want success in this country then that is fine. I think they, if they deserve it on merit, should have it.
But for those who see something bigger and better out there -- a career even -- then the sights must be set beyond the horizon. But not through rose-tinted glasses...
... I think [Neil Finn] was, in an off-the-cuff way, saying something that we need to hear more. The press releases about our bands at SXSW or playing a big Waitangi Day gig in London, or having a track added a TripleJ or flying to some Sydney-side MTV bash with a bunch of hangers-on need to be put into perspective."
Go read it now.
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