Seminar Review: San Diego Music Foundation "Music 101" Seminar

Al Guerra and Tim Pyles, originally uploaded by catdirtrecords.

with panelists
Len Paul, SOMA
Tim Pyles, 94/9 & the Casbah
Robby Lloyd, Interscope(A&R) signed Rocket from the Crypt(?)
AJ Croce, Seedling Records
Dave Brown
Ben Moore


First off- thank you to the San Diego Music Foundation to putting on such a great event- even though I spent most of the time chatting in the hotel bar with Greg Wood (Asra Records), Tania Garcia (Croce's), Troy Johnson (San Diego City Beat) and Chad Waldorf(Belly Up)

Len Paul was AMAZING- not only will I never bad mouth him again, right now, I am going to go back and remove all the SLURS I've made against SOMA! I have new found respect for the man and his opinion.

Honestly, I'm a little fuzzy about what they were supposed to be talking about- I think it was focused on "getting your band out there." In a nut shell: be commerical, be passionate, be tenacious, be focused. With the significant exception of Len Paul, the oration was a trifle orotund, if you catch my drift.

Here is what Len Paul had to say about what he looks for in a band:
"What works is tenacity and presentation. I like to see tenacity and enthusiasm, bands that are camped out on my doorstop. The emphasis is not on quality, all I want to do is hear the quality of the music. I avoid juding demos on quality."

200 of 250 soma shows last year were local, we really don't have time to deal with out of town bands unless they are extraordinary. There has been a big evolution in the industry, a profound change. Bands with a half million myspace friends- bands that have come out of nowhere- panic at the disco, fall out boy."

Example of local success- Pierce the Veil (Warcon Records)- drew 1300 last night for record release party, spent a lot of time effectively developing the audience. They effectively communicated their message to fans.

Example of non local success: Job for a Cowboy, hard core band from arizona, 500K myspace friends, 67k in southern california, headlined soma, five bands on the bill, 1400 attendance, ken moore agency signed them for management, metal blade records signed them the enxt day, picked up five dates. etc.

Tim Pyles didn't speak enough. AJ Croce was sort of interesting.

There was some totally inaccurate rumor mongering bashing myspace at this event, stating that somehow putting your songs on myspace gives away your intellectual property rights (?)( huh?) maybe I'm just a simple country lawyer but posting your songs on myspace does not grant any other intellectual property rights than the permission to post the song while you have it up. I think perhaps the folks/folk who said this don't understand gow myspace works... don't be a knee jerk about large corporations. Some are good, some are bad. Do you actually imagine Rupert Murdoch or Myspace would use a song on a compilation or something without securing further rights? Wrong. Not how the world works.

Regardless of my minor trifles/quibbles it was great to see a packed room with a bunch of people I've never ever seen at a local show! It's good to know that San Diego supports such diversity in a local scene! Holla acoustic folk musician!