Accidental Light

The Music Industry: an interview with Sleeping at Last

With the rise of services such as Spotify and MOG, I have been thinking a lot about the future of the music industry. Such services are great for consumers; I mean, who doesn’t want to have over 10 million songs at their fingertips for only $10/month? But, as more and more people adopt such services, we have to ask ourselves what this means for artists. Does this undermine the perceived value of music? 

So, I approached Ryan O’Neal of Sleeping at Last with my questions. Ryan has, for a long time, been a songwriting hero of mine; the depth of his lyrics and the creativity of his arrangements are second to none. Furthermore, he is one of the many indie artists who has found creative ways to respond to the changing industry.

I caught him in the middle of the Yearbook project, a project where he committed to writing, recording and releasing 3 songs every month for a year (quite the undertaking!). He was very kind and responded in the midst of the insanity.

What are your thoughts with where the industry is headed? Thoughts on Spotify?

“Well, there isn’t really a way around it - music is le$$ valuable than it used to be, thanks to the Internet/technology…BUT it’s emotional value is still the same - people are moved by music, touched by it, need it as much or more than ever.

Services like Spotify are new and scary, but really it’s all part of the same thing. Yes, artists won’t make as much as they generated in past with album sales, but in all honesty, anyone can google search any album and find a link to grab it for free. So, with services like Spotify, at least artists are getting something.

For indie artists, just like all of these new, frightening things, it offers up a larger portal to new people hearing the music for the first time. So for indie bands, it is fantastic in terms of getting your music all over the planet.

As to my thoughts on where music is headed, I have no idea, but as long as music still has emotional value, folks will continue to interact with it and chances are, artists can still find ways to make money from their art: shows, merch, apps, who knows! It’s all not so scary, really…just new.”

How does today’s artist survive with dwindling revenue off of purchased music?

“Fitting into what I said above, there are ways! Most major label bands over the past however-many-years didn’t see a ton of moey from sales, the labels did; the managers did. The artists, more often than not, made their money from performances, merch, tv/film placements, etc.

So in a way, the only difference between then and now in that department is that there are core indie bands doing well from those things, without labels and mobs of folks taking their money.”

What do you see is the future for music distribution?

“Because of online distribution and the decline of the CD, we live in a time where anyone with a computer and a guitar can write, record and release music that is available in every corner of the planet in minutes. This is amazing and terrifying! It means that quality of content is going to be lacking, BUT it means that more undiscovered art has a chance to see the light of day.

The cream always rises to the top, so hopefully in the coming years that theme will remain. People do genuinely like good things. So I trust that the over-saturation will right itself eventually!

Things like turntable.fm make me happy - to see technology and music appreciation go hand in hand. But as for the future of music distribution - I’d say there will be lots more variations of the same idea - more music, greater availability, faster and simpler than ever.”

How has the Yearbook project gone for you? I know it has been the best thing that’s happened to me in a while, but has it been a viable way for you to make a living?

“It’s been incredible for business…on every level, really. It creatively kicked me in the butt, which I hope generates better music. Financially, it is the closest thing I’ve ever had to a consistent income…and thanks to extremely faithful and supportive listeners, the sales have been overwhelmingly positive and growing. It’s been a really wonderful experiment and it taught us more than we could have imagined. So yes, it has been a viable way of making a living for me - something I am so grateful for!

Thanks for asking!

Much love,
Ryan”

So there you have it! A huge thanks to Ryan for contributing his thoughts! Make sure to check out Sleeping at Last’s music. The Yearbook project is a great place to jump in. Also, his song “Turning Page” has recently been featured on the Breaking Dawn soundtrack. 

You can check out their blog here.

Pedals: Part 6, The Volume Pedal

So, now we make it to the volume pedal. Before I talk about the volume pedal itself, I want to talk about why I put my volume pedal where I do. 

Originally, I put my volume pedal at the end of the chain. After re-thinking my setup, I moved it after my compressor, boost, and overdrive. There were several reasons for doing this:

1. I gained the ability to use my volume pedal to cut the noise generated by my compressor and/or overdrive (the two pedals that tend to create the most noise). 
2. With this placement, I can swell in an overdriven tone. I don’t do this a lot, but it is nice to have that capability.
3. If it were before the compressor (or the overdrive), the volume swells wouldn’t be nearly as smooth. These two pedals (especially the comp) reduce the dynamic range…in other words, if I had it before these two pedals, they would increase the volume much faster when I would roll the pedal up.

I have it before the delay and reverb so I can swell into these pedals and also so I don’t kill delay trails when rolling back volume.

NOW, let’s talk about the gear.

There are a handful of good volume pedals out there. There are both active and passive volume pedals. Active pedals must be powered (they have a buffer or a preamp inside) and tend to affect your tone less. Passive pedals don’t require power. There is a lot of talk about the nitty gritty of active versus passive, and the placement of buffers, but I will defer to the “if it sounds good, it is good” rule.

I used to have an Ernie Ball VP, which was alright; I did notice it rolled off the top end of my tone, and also reduced my overall gain. Then it broke (as most Ernie Ball VPs tend to do over time). At this point, I went to the Goodrich L10K.

When I got this guy, I was instantly impressed with the increased clarity of my tone (believe me, it wasn’t subtle). This is an active pedal, adding a little bit of extra gain to your signal, which does a great job of compensating for any gain lost through other pedals or cables. It is a very smooth pedal, allowing super even volume swells. On top of all of that, these guys are extremely reliable. They were actually originally built for the pedal steel crowd, so they are built to last.

If you are up for a volume pedal purchase, I would encourage you to save up a little longer and go with a Goodrich — their reliability and tonal advantages make them a very wise long-term investment.

Pedals: Part 5, the clean boost

Clean boosts! How I love clean boosts. I actually spent years with a clean boost and no overdrive (imagine that!!).

So, at some point, I talked about how I approach setting my amp, but I’m going to go ahead and review, as this is very important to this part of the discussion. I tend to set my amp at the point of breakup. It is at this point where, if I play soft, I get a nice clean tone…or, if I dig in, I can get a nice overdrive. The reason that I do this is that I like to be able to get as many different tones as possible using only my pick dynamics. By doing this, I lean into the strengths of my amp while also having as many tones as possible literally at my fingertips. I love pedals, but I’d rather not be completely reliant on them.

So, a clean boost is exactly what it sounds like: it boosts your signal without coloring the tone. So, when I turn on a clean boost, I am just driving my amp harder, giving me a very natural and clear overdrive.

If I want to push my guitar into the front of the mix (on a solo, for instance), my first stop is a clean boost; it will push me over the top without dramatically changing my tonal balance (which an overdrive would tend to do). I have said it before: premixing yourself is so important. A clean boost gives you that ability.

I tend to only use an overdrive if a clean boost won’t quite get me “there.” If I’m going to spend money on a good amp, I want to hear it in its full glory, unclouded by colored overdrives. Sometimes, though, I want a different “color” to my tone, which is when I’d reach for an overdrive (as mentioned in an earlier post on overdrives).

At this point, I am using a clean boost made by This1smyne (clone of a ZVEX SHO).

Very very simple and unassuming. I like it - very transparent, but has an added tone control. This may seem counter-intuitive, but actually makes a ton of sense. Why?

Well, when you push an amp harder, its tonal balance sometimes changes. A lot of times, when an amp is pushed harder, the high frequencies will become more pronounced (this tends to be the case with a lot of Vox-style amps). So, I usually roll a little bit of the top end off to prevent shrill-ness.

Clean boosts are a super effective tool to have in the chain, and I cannot imagine going without one.

Pedals: Part 4, Overdrives

…now, on to overdrives.

I probably approach overdrives in sort of a purist fashion. That being said, your own experience may lead you to different conclusions, so treat this as one man’s opinion. I try to approach my tone very intentionally; I try not to do things flippantly, but have a reason for every gear/tonal decision I make.

So, this affects the way I view overdrives. A billion things affect tone, but I believe that good tone starts first with the player (more on that later). After that, I view my guitar and my amp as the primary source of tone. So, I like to rely on my amp for most of my overdrive and grit. That said, I use overdrives for two things:

• To get an overdrive tone that I normally wouldn’t be able to achieve with my amp. For example, a Vox-y type amp will likely have a hard time getting into Plexi territory. To me, this seems like a reasonable place to rely on a colored/non-transparent overdrive (like the Box of Rock).
• To add more grit to an overdrive tone that I already like. In this case, the goal would be to push my amp into overdriven territory that would otherwise not be possible with the use of clean boosts. To embellish a tone that I am already pleased with, I would choose a more transparent overdrive (like the Tim or Amp 11).

A lot of guys set there amps very clean and rely on overdrive pedals alone to get their grit. This is a bit confounding for me; I tend to think that a good tube amp will almost always have a more natural, complex and responsive overdrive than a pedal (I may be wrong).

Important note: Overdrives tend to thin out your tone, so use them sparingly. Contrary to popular belief, more gain does not always equal “bigger tone.” This is another reason I try to lean into the strengths of my amp instead of a pedal.

So, my current overdrive pedal is the Lovepedal Amp 11. It is very much like the Tim, in that it is a transparent, low/mid gain overdrive with an additional boost. It is a pretty cool pedal, although I will admit that I have a hard time really falling in love with an overdrive pedal because it always feels like a compromise compared to natural tube amp overdrive. What I do love about this pedal, however, is its bass control - this is super useful, and helps your tone retain body when pushed into overdrive.

I place this immediately after my compressor, but before my clean boost. The reason for this is that the boost in the Amp 11’s circuit is placed before the overdrive. This placement allows me to have a clean boost before and after the overdrive; the two tend to sound quite different, so this affords me quite a bit of tonal flexibility.

So, there it is. Overdrives.