[00:00:01] Speaker A: I got you.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2. Yo, this is Charlie Tuna from Jurassic 5 live and direct here in Glasgow, Scotland. And you call that radio.
We're here with Andy Kettle of Steaming Kettle PR and Montau, which is your artist alias and you're just. Just about to drop it. By the time you've heard this, it will be dropped. Your. Your debut album, Echoes of the Cosmos. Yeah, amazing. And yeah, first of all, I just want to say thank you. The first time I've spoke to you properly, but we have spoke over the years, over. We've exchanged multiple emails over the years and just want to thank you for helping me arrange interviews with some of my favorite artists like Brother Ali, Slug of Atmosphere, Sarok, Apollo Brown and Fillmore Green. And there's probably more. So I just think what we're going to do today is we're going to speak about. We're just going to chat about it in two parts and I think. I think it'd be quite interesting because there's obviously a lot of musicians that listen or watch the show. So to kind of. It's the first time we've ever had anyone on that. Can I be. Gave us a little view of the industry through the PR lens and then we'll go. The second part we'll go into the Gerard and the album, which I'm thoroughly enjoying. It's great. It's right up my street.
So I. Man. So I suppose first question would be how did you get involved in music in general?
[00:01:41] Speaker A: I started learning music since I was a kid, really. So I went through learning piano when I was 8 and hated it and still stuck with it and went on to learn human strumming, stuff like that.
I've always played music. I did kind of like bands and jazz bands and orchids and stuff when I was a kid and then kind of grew up and then just. I've always played it my whole life and then I did music at uni, so I figured it'd be an easy thing to do.
And then I did work experience for a label in my final year at uni and from there kind of got a passion for wanting to work in the business as well and then went on from there.
I coincided at that point I got involved in like an indie band. We did pretty well alongside that I was doing like working in a pub five nights a week and then committing to London and doing work experience internships as well. So there's like a record label, PR company and basically they obviously they pay your travel, but I spent most of the time working pub in the night and then just commuting to London the daytime and work and working for place to get experience. I spent a good year, over a year, year and a half, maybe just doing that to get my foot in the door. So took a lot of hard work at the time to get myself, you know, started, so to speak. And that was like mid-2000s maybe. So I don't know how things have changed now if people want to try to do it now, but that's what I did back then. So it was just a lot of grafting, a lot of like, passion and wanting to do it and. Yeah, motivation. I mean, yeah, I was busy, but I was young, I had energy, I couldn't do it now.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the energies is harder to come by these days for myself as well. So, yeah, I reckon I was. I was probably the same about that, that kind of age group. And I remember like, you know, I. I dropped it to college, but I did do it briefly and I remember like lectures at the time, saying I had one really good lecturer. We had two actually. But what I found quite. Because the Internet was changing everything at the time they were given in order to pass a test, you were having to say things that were just clearly not true. I think off the top of my head, you know, things like how they were saying that MySpace was the most important thing to do online. And by that point, as someone who's young, I could tell that MySpace was already on its way out. So it felt like because I was actually getting physical experience in the scene, that a lot of it wasn't really relevant to me. Yeah, but, yeah, it was a bit. Yes, it was. The energy was there to just sort of start up. So at what point do you start your own company?
[00:04:35] Speaker A: Yeah, so, I mean, I. I got my foot in the door in London and then I got a job offer up in Liverpool to work for a promotion company to do their pr. So I moved up, I did that for a few years and then along coinciding with that, I had the opportunity, because a small company to actually start my own shop alongside it. So that's what I did.
And once I kind of had that secured, so I then start pursuing musicals into people I wanted to work with and stuff I wanted to do. And just, you know, half the time if you don't ask, you don't get. I just started contacting people, asking about whether they'd be interested for me to work with them and just.
I don't know it. I suppose a good Example is with working with rhymesayers. So some of those artists, like brother Eileen, it's like you mentioned before, I remember sending an email or two, probably heard nothing back. And then the email about four months later saying Jordan had like a conference call. Had a conference call. It's like a two hour phone call. Really good, really good chat. Both of those guys now really good friends of mine at the time.
And then it was about.
I kept in touch, you know, kept like keeping touch now and again. But it was about a year and a half later my brother Ali was doing a UK tour. This was like 2018. I think it was 18. No, I kind of mean would have been before that, maybe 2018, 17.
And I basically emailed and just said, you know, I've no, she's doing a few days for me to get involved. So basically they said, yeah, fine, got involved, do a really good job on it. And kind of things snowballed from there really. So I suppose it's the persistence thing as well. It's just contacting people, then keeping in touch, forming relationships, find the right moment and just keeping, keeping on it, I suppose, keeping on the case without being too intense, just finding that right balance, you know.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it seems to be what. There's a. There's a secret sauce to it where it is. You're what you've got to be persistent but not annoying. And some people are just really good at like. So from my point of view, not so much with the podcast but more with whether that's people trying to blag a slot on a festival stage that I'm running or, you know, get onto a gig that I'm doing. There's some people that are just really annoying and they can't help it, they just constantly bother you. And there's some people that are like, you said the word persistent where you're like, they're cheeky and I like it. And, and yeah, so I totally agree with what you're saying there with regards to your clients. Do you. What is the situation? Obviously you said rhyme says it was you that contacted them in general. Now did the people come to you or do you still see something that you would like to get involved with and then you, you start the conversation.
[00:07:34] Speaker A: It's about a 5050 to be honest, mate.
I mean I get contact. I had actually had an email today from a Liverpool folk singer. She's amazing and I really want to work with her. So you get these things that come through usually every week.
I find every.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: Do you read every email? So I Try and listen to every single email, but I can't do it. So that's a timing issue as well. And as a lot of it is about luck, where someone without that Liverpool folk singer that you loved, if they'd send that email at a different time on a different day, you may not have had the same reaction.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I think generally what I do is I will plan the listing alongside what work I needed to do. So if I'm doing admin work or going through tedious stuff, I think this, this is the good time of the week. I will put on the music I've been sent, listen to it while I'm working. You know, if I need to write press releases, be creative in my mind, then happening. But then it depends on the time of the week. I generally plan my week out with how I'm going to do things. So Mondays, so usually people release music on a Friday, so the Monday, I'm usually catching up, I'm researching where results have come out, where things have come and I'll feed back to clients and probably those kind of times I'll just listen to music in the background. So people are sending me stuff, I'll listen then. So it depends the time of the week. If I'm being creative, I can't do it.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: That's a really good point because obviously from the majority of artists that I've. That I've seen you work with is pop. So you're obviously going to be into your lyrics. So for me, the only kind of music I can listen to is maybe like some lo fi instrumental stuff or whatever. But lyrics just totally distract me.
There is the right kind of boring, kind of more boring administrative type stuff. The kind of stuff that you could do in your sleep expenses.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: Expenses are a killer.
Oh yeah, I was putting it up.
[00:09:33] Speaker B: Oh yeah. The tax returns and stuff like that as well.
You need some proper guitar for that. And yeah, there's some amazing hip hop that you work where we know, we've mentioned earlier on and you know the, the people like, like Sarok and Slug of Atmosphere, who you introduced me to have on the show and now you've got them on your album, which you must be buzzing about as a fan. Yeah, I know an actual collaborator.
[00:10:05] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely, man. Yeah, I mean it's, it's about, I don't know, it's getting to know people and I think, I guess people always say, you know, it's about who you know, but I think also it's about forming organic relationships and really getting to know people as well. Forming friendships in whatever way you can. I mean, those two are good examples of people who just wouldn't just collaborate with anyone. They'd only deal with people that they know, people they trust, people they've got to know.
And that all comes from the first making contact and then just being cool, as you say, not being too crazy with, like being too intense. People also just trying to keep a good balance, you know, stay in touch. But also don't be too, like over the top with what you're, you know, how you're approaching them.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: So, yeah, and how does it. What's the overlap between. So say for example, one of the American artists coming over to the UK to tour, is there an overlap between you and the booking agents or like the management or. It's just because this is kind of sort of like an entry. Interesting to see sort of behind the scenes here. Is it. Do they. This management, the booking agent, do you sometimes speak to each other and try and help promote the tour or how does it work? I know it's mostly relations that you deal with, but I'm just wondering if there's any element of you getting involved in promoting a tour.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, pre Covid, I was doing a lot more of that.
I'm doing some now, but it's purely.
If one of those guys comes over here, I'm just trying to get them interviews on land.
I got sorok a few cool BBC things in the past, like, it depends. We're just trying to get them whatever they, you know, whatever can with them over here. But I mean, I don't book the tools or anything like that. It's purely just trying to promote it when they're here. So getting them onto certain radio podcasts, stuff like that, that I can get them onto. Ready so.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: And that's what a good PR person does. What would you say is how can someone tell the difference between a good PR person or someone who's good that's going to be helpful and someone that isn't? Because obviously I know that as an artist myself, you do get lots of emails from random PR companies that wanting to work. What was the kind of sort of pitfalls that people should try and avoid to get? Because obviously you're very good at your job. I get your emails and I answer them. You obviously you're finding a way to stand out in the barrage of emails.
But yeah, if some. For somebody that maybe can't afford PR or somebody that's considering getting a PR company, how do you know it's a good company?
[00:12:53] Speaker A: It's mainly first thing in genre, dude. So genre understanding what the style of music is.
I mean, if you're like a metal band and you're contacting a PR company who seems to do as a pop music and they get back to you like, oh, you know, well, blah blah, blah. I'd be freaking careful. Like just genre. I think style of music is the first thing. I mean I that, you know, I will generally do hip hop, kind of funk, jazz, indie, folk music, alternative. It's those kind of genres. You know. If a pop artist contacted me, I would just politely say no. Actually, some guy contacts to me the other week and it was some crazy.
It was like Apex Twin in Saturn. It was insane. The music was crazy, right? Like I couldn't get my head around it.
But I, you know, slightly declined. I was like, it's good, but I don't know what I'm gonna. What I'm supposed to do with it. But if a company just says, oh yeah, you know, we can do this and that. I'm just saying, you know, be careful with who you're contacting. Research their website, researching who they work with. Research what they do.
Ask them for result sheets, you know, as in who they work with. Send, ask for examples, feedback, examples. I mean I. All the projects I do, I keep it simple. I use Google Drive. I have like a Google sheet. Then the end, it's a PDF. So if people ask me, you know, can you send me, you know who? What can you do for me? I send them, I send the result sheets. I don't say what I could. I don't say all this kind of crap like, oh, I can get you onto this, get you into that. I believe the proof is in the pudding. Not, you know, all this kind of. Yeah, some people talk bollocks basically. So I will send over stuff I've done and I will just send those results.
And within the genre as well. So I've had a couple come with hip hop artists recently as well. So I did like Rakim's recent album. I don't like. There's a few things I've done recently. So I've just sent them all the stuff I've done for the sim. The same genre with facts and it's cardhold facts. And they can contact the people, other people involved. They want you to, you know, to get proof that sort of. It's all about that, man. I mean, geez.
Or if you get this email back from someone, you know, we'll do this, we'll do this.
The package thing as well. So I don't do packages. I don't do, like gold, silver, bronze stuff. You know, I don't advertise budgets on my website either, for the simple reason. I just think, like, how can you advertise what you do for someone until you've actually heard the music, you know? Doesn't make any sense to me.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: Absolutely. And for people that. That don't really maybe don't understand the power of a good PR person, I suppose for me from the other end is you've already built up these contacts and these relationships. So that's why when I get an email from you, I'm going to open it and see what you've got, what you've got to offer. So is there anything else that for somebody that would be considering getting a PR company, is that the main thing, the fact that they've already developed these relationships and they're going to get an answer? Because, as you know, I mean, you're lucky if, you know, if I was to send 100 emails out to magazines, radios, podcasts, whatever, I would probably get. What do you think, 1%, if it was a cold call, what do you think the percentage is compared to what you could do in your world, compared to what someone just trying to do it themselves would get?
[00:16:28] Speaker A: Yeah, man. I mean, it is about who you know, it's about putting up the contacts. I mean, I've got a huge database, a gazillion emails, loads of people I don't even still really know.
It's a minefield. I think the other thing as well is time. So the time somebody like me is taken to build up those contacts, the time I've taken to get to know people, if somebody started from the bottom, you know, they. Some people I've known for, like, I've known for you, you for a few years. There's some people I've known for like 15 years maybe, you know, like not only for years and years. And even, you know, even then they'll sometimes respond about something, I'll be up for something after all that amount of time. So if you're completely new, it's, you know, they're that. And especially if also like being an artist email service, an email from an artist email from somebody that I know, then it's a lot harder to get that attention.
I mean, good example is so The Huey Show, BBC 6 Music on Saturday Morning. I know the producer, Tom, and I've known if he is as well. And yeah, I mean, maybe 15% of the time he'll get back to me. 10% of the time, he'll. They'll feature it on the Huey show. But then the other 90, 85%, he won't even respond. And it's not because he doesn't know me. It's just because that's that way it is. So. And that's for someone who knows him, if you see what I'm saying. That's a good example.
[00:17:58] Speaker B: But, yeah, that's a perfectly good example because I think a lot of people sometimes take it personally when they don't get featured on a show or they don't get picked for a festival. And I think that for people that are in the outside, if you're. If you are an artist starting out, it's. It's nothing personal. It's. It's to do with the saturation of music is. There's just so much music out there. It could be timing, it could be. There's already a similar artist already on the bell. There's. There's a. There's a million different reasons why that can happen. And that is interesting to hear that. You know, I mean, that's a great record, getting 10% of your suggestions on. On the radio.
Well, everyone else has just got. I would say, 1%, I suppose. I think. I think for, like, from a radio producer's point of view, they. They're looking to someday like yourself there. Like, even. Even though from a professional point of view, there's certain people on my Facebook feed who just really love music. There may be bookers or whatever, and when they start raving about something and you start feeling it or. Or if two people are raving about something, you're the right. I need to check this out. Just because we are swamped with so much music now that we need people like yourself, whether that's a PR person or a festival booker or. Or a manager. Just somebody that's going to lots of gigs that does have the earth to the ground and they're creating it for you. Because if they're saying it's good, they might not always be right. It might not always be to my taste.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: It's subjective, though, isn't it? You know?
[00:19:24] Speaker B: Yeah, but it's definitely not a lesson. It's definitely worth a listen, though.
What about for somebody who has just. That maybe doesn't have money to. To pay for pr? Is there any advice you would give to somebody who is just starting out as an artist, who is. Who's just hitting their head off the wall sending emails and nobody's responding to them.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: So email wise, first thing I'd say is create a professional email address.
So don't use like your Gmail hotmail. Does hotmail still exist?
[00:19:56] Speaker B: Well, but you know, I remember 10 years ago somebody saying that there was the top three rules of the music business and it was never trust a promoter with a Hotmail address.
I think, I think it's MSN now, but it does kind of exist. You see it occasionally in the wild.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: I mean, I'd say like get, get, get a domain. You know, buying a domain for email addresses like a few quid a year, it's peanuts.
Get a professional email address for your brand, for your artist brand. Okay? So that then they don't get any. They're getting an email from something more professional looking. You have to have a website to do it, but at least get domain, get an email address.
And then the next thing is to make sure that you have everything ready. So don't plan a release, don't plan anything until you've got your assets, your masters, if there's any explicit, explicit lyrics in it, having cleaned, edits, artwork, your press shots. A press release. Now if you know the WordPress release, I think scares some people, Used to scare me when I was 20 years ago, whatever. So if you have problems with that stuff, I'd say it's tempting. But don't use AI to create a press release.
[00:21:14] Speaker B: You can see I'm a wolf.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: Yeah, man. No, absolutely, you go on to fiverr.com Fiverr.com is a great place. People on the advertise to write press releases. If it's something you really struggle with, you haven't got a friend who can do it. You can pay a few quid, like literally five or ten quid and somebody will write a press release for you. I'd say get your text, your presentation ready. So get all the assets. So if you got some good text, press shots, artwork, hard copies of your music. Don't attach anything to an email. Never attach big files to an email. Use Dropbox, don't use. We transfer is great if you're sending music to people quickly. But use something like Dropbox, like I always share with you, Mark. It's like, you know, don't freaking do that as well.
I'm trying to think. And don't do an essay in an email either. Keep it simple, quite short.
And I personally put the press release into the email below. I don't attach it, I just, I just try to streamline things as much as possible. Stream it, make it easy, simple, quick, because think about who's receiving it, I suppose.
But give yourself the best chances just to make things simple, simple, simple.
And think about.
[00:22:37] Speaker B: Yeah, we just want. Because from my point, I just want to see. I want to see what kind of music it is. Maybe a couple of quotes. Where is this person from? Just the main information. We don't need the life story. Although obviously, although that's great. When somebody says they attach an extended bio maybe to the website for more to read it. But we're scanning, we're scanning it to see whether we want to listen to the music and we want. And you know, I suppose if I've opened the email I will probably listen anyway. But yeah, you want to save the person's time. You've got to remember that the person at the other end is probably underpaid and stressed as well. So you just want to make it easy for them. And yeah, I suppose we touched on two interesting things. One was the domain name. Because I've got a Gmail account. I'm slagging the hotmail promoters. But here's me sitting where you call outradiomail.com but I've got a website. So can I just attach a website, an email to that? How does that work? I don't actually know this.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: Oh, so you're asking someone. He's not the most technical person in the world, but I think so I created my, I mean my website montage.com for my artist profile. I just went onto domain site and I paid eight quid for the year and I got that dot com.
I think places like GoDaddy and all that, you can get your first. I think you basically, if you buy a domain you can get the email address and then through your Google account. So my andy at Steve McKelle PR email is through Google Mail. Basically. There's a very simple way if you buy the domain, you can get the email address.
[00:24:20] Speaker B: I've got the domain. I've got the domain already. I've got my domain.
I'll Google that. But that's an interesting point. I just, I didn't even put that together. So I'm learning and so I thank you for that. And probably one last thing I was. You touched on there that very quite interesting. It's like as you correctly said, make sure you've got your masters and your artwork and all that stuff ready. You want it to look slick, you want people, you want to attract people to. You don't want to be sending a rough demo, you know that keep that for your friends. You Want to be sending a mix and master track. You want to have the artwork look popping and out.
But how long would you say, do you need a. Would you look for a run in? So say, for example, if an artist approached you, you really like the music that we're making, but they're like, my album's out next week. Have you got a line where you're like, no, that's too late or that's too early?
[00:25:17] Speaker A: Well, it would be.
My first question would be, is it already on up with the distribution? So with a distribution company, you know, these days, it's what everyone's doing. Whether it's Ditto Music Horace or Distrokid, whoever it is, an album needs to have been submitted.
I'd say, to be safe, eight weeks before, maybe seven weeks. Because they could ensure that everything is up and ready and out to go. If the artist said to me, you know, I got a week to. My album comes out, you know, and if it's already set up, if they've got everything sorted. But I'd say, well, what's the single? So really a week before you want to be pushing a singular track with that.
I would be panicking if they said that to me. Of course I'd be freaking panicking, mate. It would be a nightmare. But I would try my best to help them. But, no, I think really what you want to be doing is if you've got everything up with your distro, and if it's all been submitted and ready to go about, I'd say. I'd say seven, eight weeks before, at least.
[00:26:28] Speaker B: And then you need to have your plan that isn't. That is interesting, because obviously that's kind of what I was thinking about, but I noticed that you use the word at least. Obviously there must be a time limit. The other way. Too early. I mean, is there a too early, like for. If you were. If you had an album, say, 17th of October, just so as we're talking. So say, for example, somebody had an album out on December.
So ideally, obviously, let's pretend it's not Christmas, because that's another.
Since everyone.
[00:26:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Avoid Christmas. Unless the Christmas.
[00:27:02] Speaker B: Avoid Christmas. Buffalo Stalbag we released on Hug Me. Yeah, don't do that. Don't do that, guys.
Yeah, so what I mean is that because obviously you see album in December 17th, forget about Christmas. Is it too early? Because obviously you don't want to get. You don't want to get the hype going too early before the album comes out. Or do you?
[00:27:24] Speaker A: No, I think if it was, that would be, that would be a dream. If somebody said two months from now, I, I'd probably start rolling out radio from mid November, start of November, about six weeks before, start talking to people about it because really you're building up and up to it. Hopefully they'd have a signature track or a single. So. But even like podcasts, if I like, you know, I want to be talking to podcasts a few weeks before.
So as long as it's up on distro, because if it's on distribution, if it's the releases up unlocks and loaded, then it's fine. There's not really so much time pressure.
But it's them making sure that they've also done their Spotify for artist pitch as well. That's really important. So, so make sure it's on release radar because that needs to be a few weeks before it comes out for like whatever track or single they're pushing. You know, that's actually.
[00:28:26] Speaker B: Yeah, the one. It was. It's actually a one week limit for release radar because I just caught it by the skin of my teeth last month with a single that I was releasing.
But yeah, the.
I've never had one of the editorial playlists, but.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: Nor have I. Nor have I.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: But there's, there's a secret.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: I know, I know, I know people who have though. I know people. They have.
[00:28:51] Speaker B: Yeah, no, organic, Organically, you know, I've got friends shows to Declan Welsh and the Decadent West. They were, they went, they went huge with a few editorial playlists and as far as I'm aware, they just put in a pitch themselves. A little tippet I actually got from Josephine Sellers, who does a bit of PR stuff as well. A great musician. She, she's. She got picked, what, once or twice, I think as well, and her advice is to basically tell the person looking at it what it sounds like. So basically what you. Rather than coming up all these adjectives and explaining it, it's just very simple. People that like this will like that. And I think a human looks at it and listens to it and goes, oh, that does make sense. And then I think that's how, that's what I heard. It's never worked for me, never worked for me at all. The playlist curators of now, I mean, now there's this kind of sort of a Peola type thing going on as well. I've noticed that there's people where I don't think they work for Spotify, but they've got independent playlists that get thousands of people. But then we started getting into the bots world, which we're just going to steal the boys, but. Because obviously. But there's no point in having like 50,000 plays and none of them are actually going to be fans.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: No, no, I mean, like, I. I know quite a few private players, curators.
So for clients, stuff that I push out is to organic playlists, people who built them organically over time.
And, you know, I do that as like an extra thing, you know, just like part of what I do. But yeah, man, there's bots. I mean, especially if you say you send those emails, you get the instant reply saying, oh, yeah, well, pay 60 quid to have this on the players. All this kind of crap. It's like, you know, 20 quid for lower down. And then like, it's a totally rather mixed genre genres, stuff like that. It's just. Yes, mad.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: But yeah, yeah, I've got. I've got a wee organic playlist that I do as well and I think we're up to about 250 listeners, which is. But it's real. It's real people that check out.
[00:30:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:54] Speaker B: So, yeah, it'd be good to sort of get. Get one more of those because people are actually checking them out. I want to go back.
[00:31:01] Speaker A: I want to go a lot. A lot of blogs are doing that as well now, you know, so I find. Sorry to interrupt, mate. Like, a lot of blogs, a lot of blogs do their own playlists and that's another great thing. So, you know, that's something else he was pushed for as well. So they. They connect playlists too because it helps them, but because of their. Their fans and followers, blogs use playlists as well and they're all genuine listeners, so.
[00:31:28] Speaker B: And it's a great way to keep the. The blogs to stay relevant as well. Because, you know, there's a few blogs, it says. But it's a strange. One of our blogs, you know, is it's kind of. The YouTube sort of podcast has kind of came in, but there's definitely still a place for it. What about the.
What's it. Is it Submit Submit Hub or something like that? Have you ever had any success with that? I think I tried. I think you get so many free submissions and then you start paying for it. But it does go to real blogs. But I've never had any success through that myself, to be honest. I haven't given it a crack, but I have tried it once or twice. I've never paid them, but I have tried to submit it A couple of times. Look at. It's kind of like American blogs and stuff like that. But I never really had any luck with that. Have you ever had any luck with those people?
[00:32:14] Speaker A: I mean I've not. I'm aware of it. I kind of know people have used it. I've been on it and checked it out.
I mean obviously for my work I don't use it. But it's.
Yeah, I mean I suppose because either through people that I know, blogs that I know, contacts that I can talk to alongside.
Most of the time I've just found contacts through blogs. There's you know. So my tips are if you have the time to do this. So you go into blogs, there's usually a contact form, you know, contact us without an actual direct email address. So then next thing you want to do is go into that, find their Facebook page, go to about, see if they have an email there and failing that go to their Instagram and then on your phone, not on your computer Instagram and contact and then you'll find an email there. So 85% of the time the Contact Us page, which is just like a generic, you know, non direct thing go Facebook find or sometimes the Twitter but not often sorry X whatever it is now but Instagram. So that's why I saw basically that's how I find contacts.
So you could use Submit Hub as well. But I find that's my way that I've got contacts over many years is going through those that that process basically because a contact form is a pain in the backside. It takes forever to actually find an email address. You can then email people directly and that's better. So.
[00:33:48] Speaker B: So Ed, go on to your your own album just now. So you've got all this years of experience to apply to your. Your album and which is Echoes of the Cosmos, which is an amazing album. Check out I've been. You sent me a private SoundCloud link which is great. And I believe there's probably a Dropbox download thing as well which is good to give the person the option because SoundCloud works really well. You can just click through it and then you've got the Dropbox option. If you want to do something like you are saying download a little playlist for you while you're doing your boring admin tasks.
So what's the difference now to promote your own stuff. So it's like I help promote other people's music but I always find this really difficult to promote one stuff because you know, I've got. I feel weird talking about Myself from the third person or the first person. So obviously you, you, you contacted me. Just saying, this is mine, by the way. So I suppose that's the advantage of already having the contacts. Yeah, but have you contacted anybody that you don't already have a working relationship with yet?
[00:34:59] Speaker A: No, no, I mean, there's people I know who. I mean, I've had some support because, like, I've had a few singles today. Actually, before I say this, I just say one thing about SoundCloud. That's really good tip to give to people.
[00:35:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:13] Speaker A: So if you're promoting a track before it comes out, SoundCloud is still the best tool to use that to have a private link.
So if you're pitching to radio, I'd always say pitch to radio before it comes out, have it privately on SoundCloud and then make sure. I think you have to go to share. Oh, there it is. So basically you have to go to share and then copy this, like big, long, long link and then in the email embed, embed it. Don't just share the link and email, embed it to like, you know, this is my, you know, whatever it might be, like song type, artist title, song title, and then email that over then. It's the best tool because media love it. Media love just having that quick link, quick listen link.
Don't, you know, you know, you can attach the files afterwards or whatever, but like, that's one tip I wanted to give.
But with me, with contacting people, I mean, it's just. I basically just done the job ID for other people, for myself. That's what I've done.
I've had no BBC success so far, but it's fine. I've had John Kennedy. XFM has featured at least one of my singles. Chuck D from Public Enemy on his rap station show is featured too.
[00:36:31] Speaker B: Incredible.
[00:36:32] Speaker A: So I've, you know, it's. I don't know, it's about who you know. It's also about the right people to talk to.
I've had various, I've had low support so far, like media wise from what I've done, but it's the same with everyone. It's like you can't expect everyone to do what you want them to do. It's not never going to happen.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: You know, Chugdy's an interesting one because he actually does seem to listen to everything. He's actually played Stanley odd Scottish hip hop. But it's quite, it's quite a niche thing getting Scottish hip hop getting played, you know, even in Scotland. Never mind Saving Scotland. And yet Chuck Deep. I remember Chuck Deep played Stan Lloyd and I think I cut a couple other Scottish artists. So you've got somebody there that actually loves music and is going to give everything.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:17] Speaker B: A fair crack of the whip.
[00:37:19] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:37:20] Speaker B: What with the. The album. So it's. So let's just talk about. So you've got. You've got River Nelson. Love that track. You've got Slug of Atmosphere Concept, Lane Schuler, Napoleon, the Legend, Sarok Master Killer.
Copyright.
Yeah.
[00:37:38] Speaker A: So what is copyright?
[00:37:41] Speaker B: Incredible. Incredible. How do you. How. What was the. The process of making this album and did you know from the start that you were going to have collaborations on it or did it start as a more instrumental type project?
[00:37:53] Speaker A: Well, I mean, I. I started doing everything over Covid, so I've always been a musician. I've always played loads of instruments, as I said before, but I can't write songs. I've never been a songwriter.
I can't do lyrics from melody. I can't do the whole sitting there with a guitar or a piano. Oh, this is a great melody. Here's some lyrics. It's not me I can't do. I can create music, but I can't create songs, if that makes sense. So I just started creating loads of songs. I'm sorry, loads of music over Covid.
And then it kind of sparked from a lot of those guys you mentioned, I already knew from working with him. So I just. I asked a few people, a few of my peers privately, you know, is this good, do you think? It's just. Is it all right? Is it crap? I don't know even, like. So. Yeah, but one of the one or two first track instrumental tracks I did. I asked like. I asked Evidence from Dialectic Peoples. I asked a few people who, like, know who know what's good, and they all said that was pretty good. So I just kind of took it from there. Luckily for me, having worked with people, I had the blessing of connecting and being able to ask them if they thought it was any good, you know, because when you do it yourself, I mean, we all know it's like you can do as much you can, but you don't really know is it actually good or they just be nice.
Like when I was in the band back in the day, you know, you do gigs, everyone's like, oh, it's really good, mate. Yeah, but they think. But do you. Is it good or are you just being nice? You know, so. But I actually figured out maybe it was quite good. Then I kind of Started just talking to people that I knew and built it from there, track from track from track.
And for me it was pretty much just getting ideas, the ideas that came through. Things I thought would be good to get to produce and create kind of just this how it's progressed. The idea of the album, after a few traps came to my head and, you know, it kind of starts quite cinematic and then it goes a little bit apocalyptic and dark and then it comes a bit more fun at the end, is how I describe it.
But it all just pieced together in my head, I suppose, you know. But all the people I did it with, I mean Napoleon the legend as well, like he's a good friend of mine, like he's an amazing rapper there. There's actually more things I'm planning to do. In fact, you mentioned Apollo Brandon FORMER GRADE INTERVIEW I've. I'm hopefully going to do something with Phil Green. There's a track, a new idea I have, which I'll do next year, which he's up for and it's about who you know.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: Man, Philore Green was lovely. We. We had a technical nightmare during that show. I don't know if it was hilarious.
[00:40:35] Speaker A: That was. I remember.
[00:40:37] Speaker B: Oh my God. I can't even remember what was going wrong, but everything was going wrong. I switched to my phone and tried to do the show and Fil. Green thought it was hilarious. I think he. He thought it was good, but I was just very embarrassed because it just. Everything went wrong that day.
[00:40:51] Speaker A: So his. He's got an album. It's either just come out or is coming out very soon. But he's been dropping loads of singles through Malini's group at the moment. But he's doing his album at the moment, which is amazing. Really good.
[00:41:05] Speaker B: Right.
With regards to your. You. You also were saying to me that you were doing your. Your DJ debut, I think he said, but it was a four hour shift. So how did that.
[00:41:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, amazing. Yeah, good. I'm going to do another one December, going to mix in. It's a luxury as well of just playing your own stuff, just playing stuff that you love. And I again with DJing, it's. I think it's all about. If you know the music, it's fine. You got to understand what you're doing, understand what the sound is.
I've basically done a mix of trip up hip hop, a bit of funk, a bit of like lo fi, but just understanding, knowing the music really.
And I'm going to be collaborating with someone else locally soon to actually Start some sort of show hopefully and just start mixing him, doing vocals over more of my music eventually and just see where it goes. But it's just good fun. It's good to get out there as well, man, you know, good even locally get out there and do things with people and. Yeah, well, I'm never going to DJ the Killers or Lady Gaga, you know.
[00:42:16] Speaker B: Although you will be asked, I'm sure by a drunken hen party at some point.
[00:42:22] Speaker A: No, no, seriously.
[00:42:26] Speaker B: No requests. So have you actually got a date? Do you want to plug the gig you're doing in December? Is it in the diary?
[00:42:33] Speaker A: I'm actually meeting Veni tomorrow, so I don't know yet unfortunately. Unfortunately I don't know yet.
[00:42:39] Speaker B: But that sounds cool. And it's. And it. So it sounds like the more you, you're going to be doing stuff like that then there could be potentially a light, a live show with this album. Is there is this kind of like a sort of part of the. The launch. You're going to be sort of incorporating this into sort of launch party of any kind or.
[00:42:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean I think what I'm doing again it's. It's time. It's you know, having nine year old kid who hopefully is in bed right now and all the rest of that reality of life. So it's like I found as well because really the problem with creating your own music and do your own thing, it's like fourth down the list. You know, it's like my actual work, my actual business comes first for the actual real clients and then it's like family. So by the time you get to your own thing, it's like finding the time as well.
So my music is already, I got it already and it's been on distro for like four, five, six weeks now.
I'm starting to promote it but I'm doing 12 track digital. I've also launched my website, montagetunes.com I've started my own merchandise line as well which is really exciting. But it's like that next year I'm going to do a physical release as well. I'm going to do a deluxe version with like maybe at least four or five new tracks. I'm going to put it on vinyl next year. My plans to just take it, take it steady. So I'm going to do digital release and then next year and I think if the life stuff's happening as well, I'm going to maybe, you know, maybe look towards doing that and then going all out there next year. I just Think some people get too panicky. They do too much at once. I just think it's good to spread things out. Just keep it. Keep. Keep the wave moving, I suppose, you know. So I'm looking at options as well for physical. At the moment, I want to put out a vinyl. I don't think 12 tracks is justifiable for physical. That's my personal opinion these days. I reckon you should have at least 16, maybe 17, 18 tracks to have it as, like a physical release. That's my plan.
[00:44:49] Speaker B: So that's a good idea. We were actually looking at vinyl. We've got an album coming out in March, so we've got a label, just a DIY label who brought something last vinyl, and they tell me that it's three months.
So apparently if I get the masters in by mid December, we'll have it for the album launch. Then the march, which is actually not bad. There was a point where I think it was. I think it went up to nine months at one point. I don't know if that was a lockdown issue or something, but.
Yeah, but I think three months. I think we can do that. I think we can do it. Finish up in December to be out by. By March. But, yeah, it's a. It's costly. It's a costly venture to do it. And it's. It's just like picking the right amount. We'll probably just go for 300, I think. Right amount for us.
Yeah, it's. It's because it's like if you. If you do too little, then the cost goes up. It's always difficult to get the right balance.
So. So the album comes out. Where is. Are you going to have it in Bandcamp? How can people support it?
[00:45:55] Speaker A: Absolutely, mate. Yeah. So it comes out a week tomorrow, Friday, 20 October, whenever this comes out. And yeah, everything is under Montau Tunes, so any social media anywhere is Montau Tunes.
That's. I thought about that before I launched as well, back in the day. You know, having the same handle for everywhere. It does help a lot.
[00:46:22] Speaker B: It makes a massive difference because it does put that saying under everything you're doing. Every little. Any artwork that's going on. I. I tried to do it, but it's not. It was. It was too late for me for some of my projects by the time they came out.
But, yeah, I'll put the links for anyone. If you're listening to this audio podcast or you're watching YouTube, there'll be links and the info, because we'll drop it after it's been released. So we're actually in the past. It's the 17th of October, so we'll drop it maybe on the day of. Around about the release date. Check out. I love the album. There's some. There's some. Really. Anyone who's in hip hop, you'll definitely recognize some big hitters there. And yes. How would you. How would you describe it? So it's got a wolf I kind of dreamy sound to it. Have you. Have you thought about.
[00:47:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean like it is kind of. I'd say combination of hip hop trip up cinematic either. Even a couple of elements of classical. There's like a bit of lo fi electronic. Is how I describe it.
Having people like Sarok. I mean Sarok's incredible. So. So just, you know, having. Having. Having people like that is really obviously master killer. So Master killers. Just.
I don't know. I think he's so freaking underrated from Wu Tang. I think for me personally, like, he's probably not my number one Wu Tang mc, but, you know, I don't know. Sometimes we all get. We all get bogged down in the whole, you know, the top. You know, the. The list. The dreaded lists. Masterclass. Always near the bottom. I think he should be about halfway. Like he's underrated is. Yeah, he's really freaking good. There we go. That's my personal opinion.
[00:48:07] Speaker B: Absolutely. 100. And would you like to pick a song from the album that I can play as out with to get people a taste?
[00:48:16] Speaker A: Oh, I'd say do Descendant of a Greek God featuring Napoleon the Legend and Sarok.
[00:48:24] Speaker B: Excellent choice. Okay, we'll play that just now go and get the album. The best way to support the artist these days is to buy it on Bandcamp and then stream it all the time in Spotify, I think. Is that. Would you agree with that?
[00:48:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I'd say so, man. Yeah, definitely. Obviously. Bandcamp. Yeah. 100%.
[00:48:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh yeah. Bandcamp Friday as well. That's the best thing about it is actually they'll be Friday the 1st of November actually. That'll be the best of me. Buy it. Thank you so much, Andy. It's been great chatting to you. I love the album. I'm looking forward to get given a few more lessons as well. And thanks for all that, really. I think that's really interesting advice you gave to. For musicians that may be starting out as well. So I really appreciate you giving me your time today and I keep sending me anything good that pops up. Mate.
[00:49:12] Speaker A: Nice one. Thanks a lot, man. Will do.
[00:49:14] Speaker B: Thank you Andy Kettle there. What a legend. Sharon, that great advice. And you may have also noticed something, that there's no adverts on our podcast, there's no sponsors, there's no funding. So if you enjoy the show and you think you're getting value from it, then please consider joining the
[email protected] forward slash. You call that radio. And now let's listen to a tune from Andy's new album, which is out today under the name Montau. This is Descendants of a Greek God, featuring Sarok and Napoleon the legend. Enjoy.
[00:50:11] Speaker C: Yo, the pharaoh is God remember the father the king of Siddhartha the pinnacle kin to the star Replenish my chemicals knocking them off of a pedestal Kingdom of czars Pyramids built in the image of Anunaki and the strength of his parts Engineering the DNA of the inner brain which we be dripping his arc manipulate particles poly like Spartacus particles suck Artists and chemists you honest pretenders we spearheaded genres and it's not a skunk Line up our chakras polish my karma bomb and prima donnas you dummies are done Natural alchemist Pender Corbin Teaching savages algebra challenges is just one live in the box you leave in the box what I speak is a testo Amethyst, sapphire, topaz and emeralds perching with gemstones Ending is imminent for ops primitive juggernaut Prince Bo demonic is sacred curses I break and bring fire and brimstone FEMA the God with the dominant squad every day for my kids.
[00:51:34] Speaker B: Honor the gods only spartan women give birth to real.
[00:51:42] Speaker A: Men.
[00:51:44] Speaker D: I'm the beginning and end the alpha omega implanted my ink and created obsidian skin primordial born and tigress I pray to Euphrates or drip on my chin, my shin and them queen my edicts creating new Edens out slithering in while I'm bathing in roses and golden milky for criminal like crim I'm the blueprint y'all the rhetoric A copy of Colin he's black features is etched to the marvel predator I consolid with my royalty stash Y'all are my seeds by the cons of evil My uterine L full of Adam in hand my nuclear family is who set the standard for cultural shift Watch the planet react I'm a tenth wonder My underground brilliance influen that y'all pitching tents under they can't send the crazy applause while I cook these clap backs like a mint thunder Put some respect on my pants and black gods in each a my pink con place you with F for rousing the dragon. Away for my r slumber rock.
[00:52:45] Speaker B: You call that raven?
