Blues Asia Network

In the last few years, YouTube has emerged as one of the most important tools for bands wishing to make an impression on the world.  In the minds of many, if a band does not have videos, it simply doesn’t exist.

Consequently, YouTube and Facebook are littered with video of bands and musicians hopeful of discovery.  After all, if Justin Beiber can be discovered via YouTube, why not Blues Band XXX from Asia?

The bad news is that the novelty of kids singing in their bedrooms and fans posting videos of their favorite bands is wearing off.  Shaky hand-held video with bad audio is no longer sufficient to make a good impression.  In fact, much of the video now available on the internet does a disservice to the bands, because the video is so amateurish.  Bands sharing amateur video among friends is one thing — but sharing video with THE WORLD is quite another.

I have recently become acutely aware of this as I search for video of Asian blues musicians that I can share with the world over the new online streaming radio-TV show Blues Asia Network [ 8-10 p.m., Sundays, just search for UR Faceradio on Facebook ].  There are so many bands out there that I would like to help promote, but there are so few videos of sufficient quality.

Yesterday, I had a long online chat with Adrian, bass player with Orange Blues Band of Jakarta, a band that I’ve come to admire for its effort to promote its music.  This is a band that’s beginning to understand the opportunities and challenges of online video.  The chat was prompted by a video shared by the band on my Facebook wall.

Adrian told me:  “Video is a means of promotion.  It is very accurate and precise.  With a cost that is not much, we can promote our band so that people know of our band.  We are independent artists, with a minimal budget.  We are trying to make video that is simple but interesting enough to be seen.  YouTube is the best tool for an indie band.”

Adrian underscored that his band does not have a budget to produce video.  Of course, that’s the situation with most blues bands, in Asia and elsewhere around the world.

One solution to that situation is to work toward an appearance on local TV, making certain to ask for a copy of the band’s performance and permission to use it for band promotion.  Most TV stations will happily agree with that.  Fortunately, a local TV station in Indonesia heard one of Orange Blues Band’s songs on radio and invited them to appear last February on one of its shows featuring “up and coming” talent.  And the band received a copy of their appearance, with permission to use it for promotional purposes.  Here it is:

Video from TV appearances, of course, features multi-camera production, with on-the-fly editing, jumping from one camera to another to provide visual variety.  Perhaps even more important, professional TV pays a lot of attention to sound quality, probably the feature that most distinguishes good video from bad.  THINK ABOUT THAT: what your band SOUNDS like is the most important thing for your promotional video to convey.

The Orange Blues Band provides an excellent case study of harnessing video to promote one’s band.  The band’s YouTube Channel, as of 15 July 2011, contains 14 videos.  I suggest that you go to the Channel and follow me as I take a look.  Scroll down to the bottom of the list of videos.  The first one was posted 9 months ago — and it shows all of the limitations of most home video:  shaky, poorly lit visuals, with low-volume, unclear audio.  This video, frankly, is not going to earn the band many new friends.  Now scroll up the list, and click to catch some of each video.  You will see steady improvement in the quality of the video presentation.

As you scroll up the list, you will make several discoveries.

• First, the sound quality improves.  The volume level is mostly properly set:  loud enough and undistorted.  The instruments come through much more distinctly.  Real improvement!  Vocals, however, still get lost in the sound and are muddled and difficult to understand — I’ll return to the subject of vocals in a bit.
• As they go along, the band is definitely learning how to make their video more visually interesting.  In fact, I find some of them quite fascinating to “watch.”  And this visual editing is done by the band on a home computer using Magic Movie Edit Pro.  If you have questions about this, ask them in the comments below — the band will surely answer back.
• In at least one case, the band took a live audio recording, where attention was paid to the sound quality, and later illustrated the song with still pictures of the band in performance.  This is a “trick” that I highly recommend to bands.  Focus on getting the very best audio recording that you can, even going into a studio to get it — and then gather the very best still photos of the band for illustration.
• The band also begins shooting the video in a studio, rather than at live gigs.  This gives them more control, eliminates crowd noise — and no drunks walk in front of the camera.

Their most recent video was uploaded just a couple days ago.  It was shot with a Sony Handycam, just using the camera’s internal microphone.  A lot of editing effort has gone into this video, and one can begin to see the band’s own distinctive visual style emerging.  This is so much better than most of the amateur video that bands are posting, and I think that this video will help Orange Blues Band to stand out among the crowd.  The band certainly deserves commendation for its steadily improving video efforts — and I’m sure their work will continue to get better and better.  Here’s their most recent video:

MORE ABOUT THE BAND: Orange Blues Band was organized in July 2007.  The core band is composed of four members: Febi (vocals), Adrian (bass), Dani (drums) and Fatamorgana (guitar).  All of them have day jobs, but gig as a serious hobby. Currently, the band gigs regularly at Oldies Cafe and UNIGRAHA Hotel in Jakarta.  While billed as a blues band, it also does classic rock, and even country on occasion.

The band is very good about sending out announcements of upcoming gigs via Facebook.  A visit to the band’s Facebook Page is certainly worthwhile — you will see that the band has really tweaked the page for maximum impact.  Also check out their Reverbnation page as well.

MY OBSERVATIONS ABOUT AUDIO: Most amateur video is shot using the camera’s internal microphone.  The quality of the video really suffers with the sound recorded by such a meager mic.  Most [but not all] video cameras have an input for an external microphone.  USE IT!  Do some online research to find mic’s that work well with home video cameras.  Most likely you will need a stereo mic.  Get one with a long cord so that the mic can be placed where it will pick up a strong signal from the PA.  This positioning will help to bring the vocals to the front, and the mic will still pick up the sound from guitar amps.  Play around with mic position.  If possible, see if you can get a feed off of the PA mixing board — this will require getting appropriate cables and connectors.  You might even want to invest in a small portable mixer and several mic’s.  REMEMBER:  the quality of the sound is very, very important.

I think one reason that vocals seldom sound good in home video is the fact that most bands do not give the singer proper amplification in live settings.  The instruments usually drown out and overpower the vocals — lyrics are seldom intelligible.  The video often just illustrates how bad it is.  Now put a band in a recording studio, and listen to the difference:  the vocals are out front, clear, distinct, with instruments providing backing.  That’s why illustrating a studio recording with still pictures often produces the best video for a band.

MY OBSERVATIONS ABOUT VIDEO: Few people can hand-hold a video cam well enough to get a steady shot.  I recommend a light tripod, or at the minimum a uni-pod.  Be judicious about zooming in and out and excessive panning.  Consider occasionally moving the tripod to get different shots.  Also be sure to take shots of the audience, venue signage, etc, which you can edit into the final video to cover camera movement from one angle to another, or even to cover jerky zooms and pans.

MY OBSERVATIONS ABOUT LIGHTING: Proper lighting makes a huge difference in the quality of a video.  I recommend that bands search out venues with good lighting.  And then do anything necessary to be able to play there.  Maybe it’s not even for a real live night-time gig.  Venue owners will often allow ambitious bands to record a video on a slow afternoon.

FIND VIDEO ENTHUSIASTS: There are many video hobbyists who would love to work with the band for little more than a beer or two and some lavish praise.  I have myself, from a distance, already found such videographers in Bangkok, Singapore and Australia who are actively working to documenting all bands in their location who perform music that interests them.

FINAL THOUGHT:  ONE GREAT VIDEO IS BETTER ThAN A DOZEN BAD ONES.

*****

Please take this opportunity to register your thoughts or ask your questions — in the comment section below.  AND, if your band has a video or audio recordings of decent quality, and you have Asian roots, please let me know — perhaps it can be shared on our new online streaming radio-TV show.  Contact me at:  bluesasia [at] gmail.com.

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