Chapter 9.7 - Can we make a deal...? Part II..

Remember the band the "The Bushweeds", who got their first 'major' gig at Sofia and Palashs wedding a little over a year ago? I hope you do, because heres an update on what happened to them since then...

 The band playing at Sofia and Palashs wedding, about a year ago, which led to them getting a little more recognition and another gig a little later at the summer festival and potentially a deal with a record label..

..so a few days (or more like a week and a half) later the band had taken the trip to the mainland, to Orange Music Records, located in the business district of the county capitol of Cyme Ixotic, to have a meeting with the label, after sending over a few of their tracks..

Excited that they would finally get their music out to a wider audience, they gathered outside the building to already discuss all the new music they could make and include on their brand new future debut album..

 This, they hoped, would prove to be the most important day in the history of the band...

So.. they greeted the woman at the front desk, asking for directions before taking the elevator to the 8^th floor where the manager was set to meet them. They were then let into his office by his secretary before they were finally welcomed to sit down on the couches in his office.. They felt a little like superstars already. Imagine that, this small town punk band from an island almost in the middle of nowhere got an invitation to this fancy office in the city...

 

The conversation went well initially with the record labels representative even saying that he liked their music and that he thought their songs had.. potential. They just needed to, the way he saw it, switch their music up a little, perhaps tone down some of the punkier aspects of their music, maybe soften some of the lyrics a little and well... make the music have a more marketable appeal as he put it...

 

"So you want to turn us into some kind of pop group then?" guitarist and frontwoman Gerda asked him, not to pleased about what she just heard..

"Well... not excactly, but you have to understand that signing a new band that, let's be honest, nobody has heard of is a big financial risk for us and..."

 

"..and what? You heard our music.."

 ..and it all pretty much went downhill from here, with the representative from the label continuing to insist that they should "maybe tone down some of [their] lyrical content, and (...) make it a little more radio friendly" which wasn't at all what the band wanted to hear...

 

 It made Gerda a little agitated as she got up from the couch saying that "[it] sounds like a load of crap to me!" and continuing on to explain who they are and what their mission in music is... then she said something I'm not going to repeat here..

The tables now looked like they had turned and the manager immediately took a more defensive position, but still continued to insist on having things done the way the label wanted...

 

The situation began to look really locked in as Gerda also got support from the drummer Kajsa..

    "We're just not gonna do what you're saying. That's not us. We're not gonna accept that kind of deal."

"You're making a big mistake..." the represantive tried "I could turn you into big stars, give you a deal to record a music video..."

"Not at that cost" Gerda said pointing his finger at him "we just can't do what you're saying with our music..."

 It was pretty obvious by now that this wasn't gonna end up in anyone signing anything, and after some more bickering back and forth the band finally decided to march out of the office with Gerda still muttering a few words under her breath..

 ..but they weren't done yet. Kajsa had to leave behind a small signature as a last goodbye to the record label before they went for the elevator... "The Bushweeds was here.. and they thought it sucked!"

Now the band found themselves in a bit of a situation.. their first real meeting with the music industry wasn't excactly what they had hoped for..

 

Even though Gerda was the one doing most of the talking and being quite hard headed during their meeting with the record label, she was a little concerned now about the bands future.. how were they going to record their songs now? And how would they arrange and afford to go on tour when or if they even get to the point of releasing an album?

 

They didn't really know yet, so all they could do after discussing their situation over a meal at one of the citys cheaper restaurants there wasn't much else to do but for them to take the ferry back home to figure out some new game plan..

They were adamant to not want to change their sound, so after a while they did what they probably should've done to begin with... they worked at their day jobs to save up some extra cash to buy their own recording equipment and sort of set up their own little home studio in their rehearsal room over at "The Party House".

It took a lot of fiddling around with buttons, sliders and various settings to get a sound that sounded something like what they would want, as well as writing a few more songs here and there while they were recording..

They found it best to leave all the more technical stuff and messing around with the buttons to Gerda, as she was the most tech-savvy of the bunch...

 

..but even for her figuring out everything took a while, and there were a few occiasion where she forgot to press the record button or even managed to overwrite a previous recording...

 

---

 

And of course, the usual discussions and disagreements that often comes as a part of such a creative process.. but overall they agreed on the direction they wanted to go, and whatever argument they had were only about minor things... a little to much guitar here, not enough keyboards there, maybe these lyrics should be like this, maybe add a drumfill there, a bass solo here etc...

..and finally, after lots of hard work, blood, sweat and tears, they could finally proudly present their own self-released debut album and their first band merchandise and web shop to go along with it!

On vinyl of course, because nobody buys cd's anymore...

Backside with track listing.

They also made a new logo for the occasion, as they figured the old one wasn't very good anyway, and also had it printed on their first merchandise. They only had a simple tank top to begin with, available for both male and female, but eventually if they became a little more popular and perhaps even started to make some money on it, they would expand it to proper t-shirts, sweaters and maybe even hoodies..

Tank top design front. All the way on the left is frontwoman Gerda Botnen (guitar/vocals) with the standard black design. Next to her is the drummer Kajsa Tangstad with the army design. Then there's the bass player Sam Mæle with the flames design, and all the way to the right is keyboard player Merete Sagmo with the skulls and crossbones design.

Backside.

...............................

I can only congratule the band for making it this far, and hope that their hard work will pay off... Now is the time for them to use whatever channel they can to spread the word as much as possible... try to get a few concerts played here and there even. The last one is easier said than done without a label and a marketing apparatus support them, but they have to give it a shot.. if they want to make it big, they need to get off of this little island they lived on and out into the world..

 

I wish them the best of luck....

Previous | Next