Techno for Luddites

I'm still feeling disillusioned after a brief encounter yesterday with a popular TV show asking Deprogram to perform one of our songs live. No need to mention who they are - they get enough good/bad publicity to win unlimited corporate sponsorships.

For these people, there is no respect for the artist, for individuality and self-expression. Whoever can fit safely into their formula is their friend.

It's made me realise that any musician trying to build up their public profile must play a media game. As an independent artist, I alone am responsible for getting my name 'out there.' So it's up to me to learn the rules and best ways of feeding my name into the public sphere.

A lot of industry types I've talked to over the years say it's all about image. Match an image to a name and you have a hit. Even though I love playing with video imagery, the thought of projecting a personal image to the media is a thought I'm still not very comfortable with.

All the experiences I've had with the media this year were affected by the context they chose to put me in. Odds are, if you have little money for advertising/advertorial, or a low media profile, your content gets pushed onto some back page that no-one ever reads, or your TV slot is radically edited so that you can barely recognise yourself.

Although I'd love to hand this all onto an agent, manager or publicist - part of being an independent musician is learning to use the media to spread the word about your new music.

Right now I'd prefer to retreat to my studio - back with the inanimate objects.

posted by deprogram @ 11:57 AM