Finding Your True Fans

For the last episode of the first season of Finding Your True Fans we'll take a closer look at San Holo's actual strategy in practice, and how you can apply elements of it to accelerate the rate at which you build momentum, so you can meet your goals faster -- be that getting signed to the label of your dreams, finding a booking agent so you can play shows that pay better and tour, or even just use the momentum with the sole purpose of finding True Fans who will monetarily support you online.

I had the privilege of sitting down with Dutch producer Sander Van Djick, also known as San Holo, before one of his festival dates here in Oregon. He makes futuristic hip-hop influenced electronic music and has been growing very fast in the past year or so. He has a ton of valuable insight from the beginning to end of this interview, and is a great example of an artist who has absolutely found his unfair advantage, both in terms of his unique sound and how he and his manager market his music. We talk about his journey to becoming a producer from his humble beginnings as a guitarist and guitar teacher, how his life and journey led to him finding and amplifying his signature sound, how he met his manager Budi Voogt who helped to take his music to the next level in a big way, his biggest pieces of advice for any bedroom producers who are struggling to get their music heard and why you should just keep creating and releasing music consistently, as well as much more.

There's really no one-size-fits all approach to making incredible music and finding and connecting with new fans, so I want to focus on how you can take a more scientific approach to figuring out what works best for you in your unique situation -- and really taking those strengths to the next level, while also figuring out how you can fill in the gaps with help from others on a low or no budget, and making sure that you're taking care of the fundamental necessities until you can find help -- even if it's not something you're best at.

If there's anyone out there who is most definitely a pro, it's Hutch Harris. He's been playing music for 25 years, touring since 1996, and has built up a wealth of experience and insight over the years. He shares his thoughts on effectively using social media with an authentic voice as a musician today, the full story behind how the Thermals got signed to Sub Pop Records, how labels can help your career beyond just distribution, how their seminal album recorded over ten years ago is now surprisingly selling really well, how he and his bandmate Kathy, are able to play to each other's strengths and manage the day-to-day of band business together, his biggest piece of advice for artists who are aspiring to play music full time, and quite a few other useful and interesting topics.

We explore one artist's story of how he went from working in a factory to juggling being a full-time guitar and vocal instructor at the School of Rock, a studio musician who has worked with the likes of Christopher Lee, as well as an active audio engineer, all while composing and producing his own take on extreme metal with his project Davola. Although the artists I've had on have mostly been electronic focused, I keep an open mind and enjoy hearing all different genres. I really want to be as inclusive as possible on this show -- highlighting success stories across genres -- and regardless of what type of music you're passionate about, there's something any musician can learn from Aaron's story. I've been in touch with him since last year when I first launched Showspark, and he reached out to me when I started the podcast to see if he could share his story. I agreed because I really do think there's something you can learn from him. He may not have 100,000 likes on Facebook, but he is actually out there maki

I sat down with Sam and Billy Brouse, two brothers who play in the psychedelic electronic band Papadosio. As their bio states, Papadosio tours on a massive scale but maintains a close intimacy with their fans. This episode is exciting because so far I've only interviewed solo producers -- it's a bit of a different perspective being able to interview successful artists who are in a more traditional band configuration. Their story is very inspiring, because they're able to play large 1,000+ person venues as well as main stages at major festivals, all while never having been signed to a record label. They're a testament to the fact that if you're in a band of committed and talented individuals who bring different skills to the table, it's absolutely possible to build a fanbase with a combination of online outreach and heavy touring.

Having awesome music is maybe even less than half the battle these days. Even if you're able to get someone to listen to your music, the average person will need quite a bit more engagement from you on different levels before they become a True Fan. It's a process -- but by using social media correctly fans will be so much more engaged and invested if they feel they truly know you, even if you've never actually spoken to them in person. We'll dig into the five levels of awareness that fans can be on, and how each online platform fits into these levels.

This is part two of our interview with Alfred Darlington, also known as Daedelus. We take it back and talk about how Alfred got his start as an artist, what pivotal moments lead to his success, his thoughts on modern social media and technology as they relate to music, as well as his greatest challenges faced living the life of a full time musician.

Alfred's been releasing music for over fifteen years, feels just as comfortable in the Boiler Room as he does onstage with a full band, has done collaborations with the likes of MF Doom, toured with J Dilla, and even if you haven't heard of him, you might have heard his music sampled and resampled, as he created the original instrumentation of the Madvillain track Accordion, which has been sampled by a number of artists, from Kitty Pryde to Drake. We talked in the first part of this interview here about how the idea of true fans has allowed him so many freedoms of expression, the economic realities of touring with a band versus as a solo artist, how touring has so positively affected his life, and how he's able to channel those experiences and history into his creative process.

In this episode, it's just going to be you and I, and we'll talk about what is perceived as luck by most, is really the result of hard work and being able to recognize and take advantage of opportunities that arise due to that work. We'll also take a closer look at how Seth Haley, also known as Com Truise -- who I interviewed in the last episode -- really broke out, and how what he called luck was most definitely a process lasting years, and many different experiments.

In this episode, I sat down with Seth Haley, also known as Com Truise, before one of his sold-out shows. He produces a distinct style of 80s influenced electronic music, which he's dubbed mid-fi slow-mo synthwave funk. Whatever you want to call it, he's most definitely found his true fans and beyond, as he's been making and playing music full time for about 5 years now. He's also one of the nicest and most genuine people you could hope to meet. Despite his modesty, he's found a lot of success as he's put out a handful of well-received releases since being signed to Ghostly International in 2011, and, for what it's worth, he's killing it with 160 thousand Facebook fans and almost 30 thousand Twitter followers. But before finding success with Com Truise, he was working in advertising and had been making and playing music under various pseudonyms for a while before being able to make a living with it. We talked about the realities of touring for so long, whether or not he's actually making a comfortable living a

This episode is ground zero, I'll tell you my story and, most importantly, talk about what you can expect from the show and why you should spend your valuable time listening to it.