We can look back and music and very often classify it by its decade. The 1950's were defined by very definite sounds, as were the 1960's, the 1970's and the 1980's.
But since then, things have started to move more swiftly, and now in 2010, things are changing more quickly than ever. How, as a remixer (or producer) can we keep on top of this continual change? Should we even try to?
The Winds Of Change
I currently have six main production projects that I am working on at once. They are in a variety of different genres, and there are another two that I am starting work on now. Some of these have been running for five years or more; I have been getting work consistently with my Soul Seekerz project since 2005. If a dance music project is successful, I would say that you could reasonably expect it to run for three years or more. If it isn't a success, then you have to decide whether to continue pursuing it or to drop it and move on.
Each of the eight projects that I have at the moment are at different stages of development: some are just starting out, others are building nicely, others are at their “plateau" stage, some are starting to slow down and some are almost at the end of their life. This didn't happen by accident. I always planned it that way!
Why juggle so many projects? A lot of it has to do with my competition.
Today, a relatively small investment can purchase equipment to make tracks that are high quality enough to get into the charts. As a result, there are a lot more people making music now than ever before. A lot more. And with the explosive growth of digital downloads, it is now very easy for virtually anybody to get their music into a digital store.
In other words, pretty much anybody can now get tracks out into the marketplace. And if they do their marketing right, they can start selling units and raising awareness of themselves and their sound. And because anybody can release records, and new kinds of music can gain attention much more easily than ever before, musical styles are changing so much and so quickly.
Keeping One Step Ahead
As a remixer and music producer, you have a few different options if you want to ride these waves. The first option is to continuously adapt what you do, try to change the sound and keep up with developments. The second (and in my opinion better) option is to have a number of different “brands" or identities that you work under in order to cover all the bases.
The problem with trying to adapt your sound to suit what is current is that you risk confusing people as to what you are really about. People that may have liked a remix that you did six months ago may hear what you are doing now and say, “Oh I don't like that...that's not Soul Seekerz." Following this first strategy, you risk losing your fanbase and, perhaps just as dangerous, you risk potential clients feeling that they never really know what they are going to get. Another potential problem is that, even for the most gifted remixers, it takes time to fully understand and become competent with a new style of music. If you try to keep up with trends, there is a very distinct chance that you will find yourself in a state of never really fully getting to grips with a style before it has changed and you have to start the learning process again!
The second option takes a slightly different approach in that you do a number of different projects concurrently. For any given “brand" that you have, you work explicitly within that genre and basically milk it for as long as you can. Of course it will evolve over a period of time but your ideas should stay in a specific place. At the same time you can be researching and developing other genre sounds which you feel are worth pursuing.
This way, you don't risk alienating your loyal fans, you have a strong and clear “brand image," and you can be building a new fan base for your new project at the same time. This is, perhaps, more work—multiple MySpace and Facebook pages, multiple Twitter accounts to maintain, plus more posts in multiple forums, etc. But I think it is also the most reasonable way to be able to keep yourself on the top of the pile.
Whichever approach you take, though, there is a very important thing to remember. If you are trying to keep yourself well informed of what is going on in the club scene, you have to be out there in the clubs, talking to DJs and doing your research. If you are relying on hearing songs on the radio and then jumping on the bandwagon from there, there's a good chance that your jump will land you hard on your ass. By the time you get yourself up to speed, that bandwagon will already have moved on! What you hear on the radio now was probably made a few months ago, which means it was probably conceptualised (style-wise) a few months before that, so you are starting six months late. That's never going to work. You need to get in at the grassroots level, find out what is working on the underground, and give yourself time to figure out where things are going before they actually get there.
It's a lot of work if you really want to keep ahead of the game, and even if you do everything that you should be doing, there are still times when you will get caught out. But if you have multiple projects going at once, at least you will be prepared, it rather than waiting until work dries up and then going, “Huh...what now?" Because once that happens, you'll have to spend another 18 months to two years re-branding yourself and raising your profile again!
