Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The @WebCrawler Series: Searching out Talent on the Internet

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JennyM's album is available for download on her Facebook Page: Recordings from the Bright Side

in 2008 Ada released their studio album "Leave That Town", a very polished piece of work, definitely worth a listen - and also a free download. You can get it at the website

For a taste you can listen to selections from both albums on the Music Player on the Village Voice Hudson’s Main Page

Keep the Fire: Jenny.M

You can find many things on the internet - there's an old saying that goes "there's a lace for every old boot" but let's face it; crawl around YouTube long enough you'll get bored of the drab videos people upload of themselves doing various things - while everyone and their brother has a band on MySpace, and will spam you to let you know just that. This can sensitize you to the true nature of the talent that is trying to break through out there in the opensource cyberworld where anyone can publish anything they want.

Jen Mahon, a Barbadian artist who splits her time between Toronto and Barbados, is definitely a case for the latter; armed with rich songwriting she encapsulates the quick draw for metaphor and sublime rhyme, a style fluid and easy to listen to it takes the listener just for a little while hostage to enjoy the flow of her storytelling. Her voice edges effortless between the sultry and the sweet, molding the lyric to make the words entirely personal between her and her listeners.

I first came across her in the band "Ada", which was also based in Toronto. They came up on MySpace with their demo tracks as free downloads in their page's music player. They had an definite edge, and after listening for a while I knew what it was. Something quite clear in JennyM's new download "Keep the Fire", a whirlwind six song acoustic album made in only one day.

I asked Jen a few questions about her music and the music scene-

Tell me a little bit about the format you're choosing: releasing free music over the internet kinda flies in the face of all the copyright kerfuffle. What's the marketing strategy, and what are the future plans?

Seems like the industry has changed rapidly. though many people say its for the worse, I really think it's for the better. there's an even playing field for musicians like me now, who just want to share their songs with anyone who may like them, and i don't have to get past any record label gatekeeper at this point. I think that allowing free downloads is important for keeping up a fanbase , and cd sales of your first independent record are limited mainly to gig sales. I do plan on making the cd available as a digital download, and maybe even as a physical cd, but i'd like to keep the option open for free downloads. I'd like the music to eventually be shared for free anyways! Why be weird about it.

Obvious question: Record labels, or not?

I'd love to get signed! Who wouldn't? It's not my holy grail though.

About the Music: Tell me about some of the inspirations for the songs; the songwriting is fabulous, a sublime use of rhyme and melody I haven't heard in a very long time. Give me some of the backgrounds on where you all found music, what you like in today's scene, and maybe who inspired you along your way.

I'm very much inspired by growing up in the Caribbean, and it's wonderful to return to the basic sound of playing a beat-up guitar on the beach. I feel like I've gone full circle, where I left the beach songs as a teenager to seek the very driven environment of the big city rock scene for some years, and now I'm back to writing simple mellow songs. My musical influences for the acoustic album were rooted in folk and blues mostly, some classic artists would be Nick Drake, Bob Dylan, Bessie Smith, some newer would be Alexi Murdoch, Emily Haines, Josh Ritter, Mason Jennings. I also get inspired by the general vibes of some bands, especially of the cat empire, Beirut and Gogol Bordello...they're all about the good times

Any tour plans?

I'd like to start with playing shows again in Toronto, then maybe a tour down the road

j.c.

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