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Shimmering & Shining with The Black Watch

07.18.2024 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

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It’s easy to get distracted by the number 23. Not only are we told it’s everywhere by thinkers as prestigious as Robert Anton Wilson and Jim Carrey, but those two digits look and feel special. How about a 23rd album? Perhaps that’s magical in some way (especially if the KLF ever got there), but to most, it just sounds like a lot of albums. Twenty-two is a lot, too, not to mention twenty-four. But I don’t want to get hung up on the 23rd album because it doesn’t matter to John Andrew Fredrick of The Black Watch. Weird Rooms is the band’s album number twenty-three, but John isn’t counting or accumulating. He’s persisting.

John may be aware of the potential baggage in musical prolificness. Quantity sometimes counterintuitively means stagnation: running in circles, repeating the comforts of an established sound or workflow, or releasing the same record ad infinitum. I can testify that this is not the case with The Black Watch. Not only does John profess an incapability of stopping rather than an effort at ‘building content,’ but also of directly reacting, in a sort of dialogue, with his preceding albums. Changing line-ups, songwriting styles, producers, and, as is the case with Weird Rooms, city locations (Austin, this time) enforce a variety of textures and execution. There’s no sameness here—The Black Watch’s twenty-third record probably sounds as fresh as 1988’s debut.

John and I planned an interview session for a long while, with my delays a glaring (to me) contrast to his musical productivity. Weird Rooms was finally the excuse to get our screens together. John is a delightful conversationalist, an obvious fan of wordplay and language (he’s also an author), and inspiringly enthusiastic about his creative work. We discussed so many things: creating music for personal satisfaction, writing from the subconscious, the unexpected perks of a Lutheran upbringing, what focusing on singles says about your band, and so much more. I tried talking to him about the number 23, but he wasn’t having it.

I mentioned how The Black Watch, and especially Weird Rooms, wears its influences on its sleeve. I likened this to a recipe in that the album’s sound takes things from different, identifiable artists without sounding directly like any of them. I suggested that that recipe includes a heaping tablespoon each of My Bloody Valentine, The Cure, and The Beatles. John agreed, adding Syd Barrett, who is probably floating around like a bay leaf. It’s a great mix of ingredients, making songs like “Gobbledegook,” “Swallowed,” and “Miles & Miles” achieve Michelin-star tastiness.1My metaphors aren’t getting any better.

And though Weird Rooms was the inspiration for our conversation, John was especially excited about The Black Watch’s next record, (tentatively?) titled Bye. “With a pun on saying goodbye and a bye in a tournament,” John explained. While John was understandably bubbling over with thoughts on this 24th effort—to him, it’s the fresh new thing, of course—I’m trying to hide my astonishment that we’re on the heels of Weird Rooms‘ release and the next album is already in the hands of a mastering engineer. At least John admitted it wasn’t a good idea to release it immediately.

But I can’t get over the as-yet-unreleased album’s title, Bye. Does John give it a double meaning because it’s a fork in the road? Is it a goodbye, as Pop Matters recently wondered? Or, as in a tournament, will it mean The Black Watch is ready to advance to the next in a long, long series of rounds? John told me he couldn’t stop, even if he wanted to, so I’m optimistically embracing the sporting option. I doubt 24 is The Black Watch’s idea of a final score.

Here’s the extended audio of my conversation with The Black Watch’s John Andrew Fredrick, with an excerpted text version below the fold. At the bottom, John answers my “What’s something you love?” inquiry with the aplomb worthy of someone with a PhD in the art of words. Dig it!

❈ CLICK FOR MORE ❈

Categories // Featured, Interviews + Profiles Tags // Albums vs. Singles, David Sylvian, My Bloody Valentine, Samuel Johnson, Songwriting, The Beatles, The Black Watch, The Cure

Albums, Singles, and Setting Fan Expectations

10.14.2019 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

A reader emailed asking about albums vs. singles and whether it’s now an accepted strategy to release a single every couple of weeks. These singles could lead to an album (a collection of the singles) or maybe not. Perhaps in 2020, the reader posits, the steady stream of singles is the new album.

I often talk about branding as a shared expectation among fans. That’s important to keep in mind as I answer this question. The frequency, format, and timing of a release is part of the artist’s branding and plays a significant role in setting expectations.

If a single gets released every two weeks, then the act becomes a ‘singles’ band, probably lumped into the pop space. Any extended break in this routine creates disappointment. A frequent release schedule also requires constant engagement with fans. Without the month-long build-up of an album, the days before and after multiple singles need a repeating but unique promotional ebb and flow.

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The frequent single is a by-product of social media — it exists to feed the newsfeed and keep the artist in the online spotlight. If the artist (or her team) isn’t on top of online engagement, then the creative effort of regularly releasing singles is wasted.

Albums also say something to an audience. While singles are an invitation to melody and hooks, albums promise distinctive instrumentation and production qualities. Of course, albums can have catchy choruses — and singles are allowed to blow us away with incredible production — but the format the artist relies upon implies a prejudice to the fan. One wouldn’t expect Radiohead to turn into a monthly singles-only band, but this branding wouldn’t be out of place for Taylor Swift.1This sentence seems outdated as I revisit it now in early 2021. The pandemic has turned Swift into quite an impressive album artist!

Albums are less exhaustive to promote. However, there should be a supernova of activity in the weeks leading up to the release date and the following period. Album strategies welcome preparation, a steady build in hype, and extended reminders of the project post-release.

The artist often takes a break from heavy promotion while in-between albums. Consistently released singles, on the other hand, are here and gone, but the artist remains focused and in the spotlight.

Albums can have a defined press strategy. Prominent press outlets — online and print — are biased toward albums. An artist promoting an album or on tour because of an album is more likely to get featured. Singles artists should concentrate on premieres with influential blogs. A good relationship with a blog or outlet for regular premiere appearances can break a singles artist.

As for outsourcing PR, an album artist can hire a publicist per project for a few months at a time. A singles artist, on the other hand, would hire a publicist on a retainer to work each release and the artist’s profile in general.

As you can see, your release format signals the type of artist you are. This decision helps target a fanbase, influences the music, and determines the strategy. That said, the beauty of digital formats is that they don’t have firm boundaries. You’re free to play with expectations. For example, you can release surprise singles with experimental ‘b-sides.’ Or an occasional series of singles eventually collected on a forthcoming album — except the album versions are entirely different. And EPs can be a lot of fun, too. EPs allow more frequency than albums but retain the accepted qualities of a long-player. Then there are cassettes. We’ll be talking about cassettes on the blog later.

These choices, including the bending of expectations, transmit branding messages to your fans. Thus, the album isn’t dead, nor is the bi-weekly single the way of the future. Look closely at who you are as an artist and the type of fans you aim to attract. The nature of your next release resides in that reflection.

🔗 previously → The Album, If You Want It

Categories // Commentary Tags // Albums vs. Singles, Branding, Fanbase, Radiohead, Release Dates, Release Strategy

8sided.blog

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8sided.blog is an online admiration of modernist sound and niche culture. We believe in the inherent optimism of creating art as a form of resistance and aim to broadcast those who experiment not just in name but also through action.

It's also the online home of Michael Donaldson, a curious fellow trying his best within the limits of his time. He once competed under the name Q-Burns Abstract Message and was the widely disputed king of sandcastles until his voluntary exile from the music industry.

"More than machinery, we need humanity."

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