Business: What is an Evesound?

A New Word, New Label and New Music

I set up www.evesound.com to coordinate information relating to my musical activities. At present this includes recording my own music and working with others artists on live and recording projects.

Evesound provides a point of sale for my albums. In the world of literature, this approach is termed 'vanity publishing'. Fair enough I suppose. Well, I've now vainly released three albums through Evesound with the intention of narcissistically releasing at least three more penny dreadfuls in the next few years...provided I can tear myself away from the mirror long enough to get the recordings done.

As well as being available from evesound.com, my music is available at shows, via myspace and has been delivered to a number of on-line vendors:

Guitar Nine Records Guitar CDs Ltd Guitar Euro Shop Amazon Abstract Logix & CD Baby

CD Baby is currently handling digital distribution on Evesound’s behalf and has been busy delivering to iTunes, Napster, Sony Connect, Snocap, Spotify and the like.

The Music:

The music I make is principally guitar-based rock. However, rock allows for a great many wondrous possibilities and guitar-based for at least as many again. Rock is as much a way of thinking about music and relating to it as a style or sound in itself. The lovely, enlightened individuals who support me by buying records and coming to gigs will notice that the various strands of music coming out of Evesound may not have a great deal in common. This is the way I like it and, over time, I intend for those strands to wander further off in their own directions. So expect the music on Evesound to get heavier, more gentle, faster, slower, simpler, more complex, darker, lighter, louder, quieter and generally more everything.

Background, Foreground & Function:

With no particular intension of chasing a major label deal, I set up Evesound in 2005 as a means of releasing; publishing and selling my own brand of guitar-based rock music. I own the copyright in my works and license it exclusively to Evesound Music...which is me (maybe vanity publishing is right). This is a fairly common practice amongst independent artists. Evesound maintains a public presence principally via this website.

The growing number of record stores and vendors working exclusively with independent artists provide a means of 'shifting units', accepting that the finished product is of sufficient manufacturing quality. If the majors begin beating a path to my door I dare say I wouldn't turn them away, but for now I'm very happy with this way of working.

I provide the funds to record and press my own work in advance and, generally speaking, I'm wholly responsible for promoting my own work. Over time, my activities are becoming more self-financing and the first album begins to pay for the second, the second for the third and so on.

Without promoting my music in the real world I'm unlikely to sell anything and recover my initial outlay - regardless of the number of Internet outlets through which my music is available. The Internet is vast and, now that the majority of individuals with a PC have some sort of Internet persona, having a website is meaningless on its own, indeed one's anonymity is almost increased.

In order to maintain artistic freedom and to actually start getting things done I recognise that I may keep 100% of something very small as opposed to 10 or 15% of something much bigger. However, with hard work and good music, my exploits may turn into something substantial without the help of a major record label...its just a little harder to change the world.

Either way, the music listener is getting something different from mainstream choices.