Ska music today seems to be all about sound. Even new bands know exactly what effects they want and which equipment to use. They plug their Telecasters into their Twin Reverbs, hook up their Jazz Basses and make no mistakes. Producers like Vic Ruggiero and Victor Rice offer their services globally and set standards in rumbling elegance. Skip back 25 years and you get a different picture.

Equipment List

I found a sheet of paper the other day. Couldn’t help smiling. It was from the year 1987 and contained a list of audio equipment that was used at the studio where my first band The Braces held its first recording session. It was designed to impress. Today every recording software for 20€ offers more.

Flashback

The memories of our first time in a recording studio kept coming back. Little pieces of dialogue, visions of sweat, fear and the feeling of not knowing where to go (but being sure to be far off). What strikes me most today is the complete naivety we had when it came to SOUND. Basically, we had no idea about anything.

Enter Recording Studio

There we were in Bochum-Wattenscheid in the control room facing a recording booth. No idea who had guided us to exactly that place. And what were we supposed to tell Pete, the recording engineer: „Hi, we are The Braces. Let’s join forces to sonically bridge the gap between Dexy’s Midnight Runners, The Specials and the Skatalites”? None of the sound guys I had met before would have responded adequately to this kind of introduction.

Before Retro Culture

After all we lived in the small-town Germany of the mid-80s. Retro culture had not reached these shores yet. The sound technicians at the gigs we had played before used cassettes of either “Owner Of A Lonely Heart” or “Slave To The Rhythm” as a reference to adjust their equipment. Basses had to be snarling, snare drums received a Grand Canyon of reverb by default. Even if we sensed it to be wrong, we neither had the vocabulary nor the authority to make a stand.

My First Guitar

I know now that my gear was totally unsuited for my purposes. I played an Aria Pro II, my first electric guitar, pure rock, which I had obtained before knowing I would join a Ska band. It was 100% sustain and 0% attack. Which means, you could easily play chords that went on for minutes, but you were unable to produce any percussive Chaka, which is the central job of a Ska guitar.

Where We Came From

No wonder that these details had not come to my awareness before. My bandmates and I had spent most of our previous band life at a rehearsal room in bassplayer Lars’ basement. To be exact: at bassplayer Lars’ parents’ basement. An under-dimensioned hifi system served as the amplifier to our bargain vocal mics. At every meeting the singers, bass and guitar went into a war with the drums and the brass for audability. A war that everyone lost.

No Tubes

Distortion was everywhere. And the distortion I talk about is not the warm compression caused by skilled overdrive of tube amplifiers. Our distortion had more in common with the effect you get when you turn up the volume of your bath radio real high and tune to an A.M. station. Only much louder.

Large Membranes

Now being in a recording booth my experience was the complete opposite. Someone had given me headphones. A Large-Membrane-Microphone was put in front me and perfectly reproduced every detail of my imperfect singing. And more. I heard myself breathing, my heart beating, and even rubbing my sweaty hands on my trousers led to considerable eruptions in my ears. I was so shocked that I couldn’t be moved to sing but whispered my songs.

The Results

So you think we surrendered and burned the tapes right after hearing the final mixes? Glad we didn’t! It turned out that Pete actually did a decent job with us. And check this (it’s hard for me to take): No musical work I did ever since received as much attention as the songs from 1987. I say that with the uneasiness of a musician that has been active for more than 25 years.

Around The World

The songs from our first recording session have moved people (sprinkled) all over the globe. From Australia to Argentina: Young, (probably) good-looking people invited our music into their lives. They danced and sang, they fell into and out of love to what we had produced in our cold sweat. We know that because we received letters. Handwritten!

These Were The Songs

The five recorded songs served as our demo tape and were later used on three different publications in the coming years. Here is the list:
1. “Skank – Licensed To Ska” (Compilation), Skank Records/Link Records, England (“Julie, Julie, The Letter”)
2. “Prime Cut” (First The Braces album), Unicorn Records, England
(“No Reason”, “The Girls Of Today”, “Julie, Julie”, “The Letter”)
3. “Ska, Ska … Skandal” (Compilation), Pork Pie/Vielklang, Germany, (“Playing Darts”) I would recommend you to buy all of them, if I didn’t know that they’re all out of print.
In Ska Studio – The Braces first demo (1986) by joe.scholes

The Lesson

One lesson to learn here is that there are more important things than a cool guitar and a trained voice. In our case it all came down to being at the right place at the right time. Nearly no one was making Ska music in 1987, yet there was lots of demand for it. I’m not saying that we weren’t brilliant. It’s just that it seems way harder today to get recognized in the global Ska scene, if you want to call it so. I could just shut up and be thankful, but listening to the original version of “Julie, Julie” I still wish I had owned a Telecaster then.

You know what day it is today? The 4th of May 2010. It has been 6 months exactly since I published the first post on joescholes.com.

I have been thinking about preparing a jubilee post for today. Never came along to starting it. Not much time is left now. So let’s cut it short: I am over the moon how all this went (different from my mood on the pic). From November 2009 to May 2010 there have been lots of brilliant moments. I came in contact with a bunch of lovely people, learnt tons and was ready to write about lots of stuff that I wanted to write about for a very long time. In other words: It’s been great for me. From realizing that I am able to sustain a blog writing in English to the conclusion that my love for this music is still fresh. Thanks to everyone who commented, shared or just read the stuff. Keep doing so.

Today I would like to look back on six of the 30 posts that I published during these six months. Here is the selection.

1. Kick Off – Writing Songs For A New Album
It’s the first post, the article to get the ball rolling with an outline of my plans for the blog. Oh, how naive I was.

2. Ska Polls 2009
This series of posts did very well with Google. People writing keywords like “Best Ska 2009″ into their search engines regularly land on my page. And it was fun. I will definitely repeat this at the end of 2010.

3. Ballerina Valerie
In this post I elaborated on how a song of mine was conceived (as I did in a few other posts). How long it took to get the lyrics to “Ballerina Valerie” together and where I got the ideas. I recommend listening to the audio of the song while watching Eric Prydz’s “Call On Me” video.

4. Alpha Boys Are Dead
The story of the decay of a band. The post got great comments, discussions in forums, an honorable remark by Marcoonthebass. It was worth the effort.

5. My Personal 30th Ska Anniversary
Originally meant to secure a share of the buzz around “The 30th Anniversary” tour of the Ska band The Specials this post proved to be very popular with my family. My sister, who is not into Ska, read it and commented at a meeting of the generations. And even my father had a look at the post and was mildly impressed.

6. Should All Ska Music Be Free
The opus magna among the posts on joescholes.com. Three posts in one. With the potential to overwhelm. I hope it’s the start of a controversial conversation, though it hasn’t not yet taken off.

The next 6 months

There are lots of ideas for the next six months. More pictures, more audio, more posts with fewer words. The experience of the first six months shows me that most of it will turn out differently. But with some confidence I look forward to seeing which way this blog will be going.

Thanks, my gentle readers, for your attention. Stay tuned and sign up for the newsletter if you will.

These are exciting times for Ska people. Especially for the ones who like to look back on the golden days of the 2 Tone era. The Specials are causing a stir in the US with their 30th Anniversary Tour, as Marco On The Bass reports, while the UK sees the opening of the first 2 Tone museum.

I like to take the opportunity to share with you the first issue of the British magazine “Ska 80″. I have no idea how successful and long going this magazine was and have never seen a second issue. So you are probably looking at a rarity. If you click on the pictures, you get the chance to magnify them and the text should become readable.

Apart from the usual suspects like The Specials, Madness, The Beat and The Selecter, there are also other great bands like UB 40 and Dexy’s Midnight Runners included here. Enjoy, share and sign up for the newsletter if you will.

Here is something I am undecided about: “What to make of free Ska music offers on the Web?” That’s why I asked two experts on the subject for their opinions: a label owner and a blogger. As you can imagine they have views very different from one another. But there is evidence that both love Ska music as much as you and I do. I asked Matzge Broeckel from the much acclaimed German Ska label “Pork Pie” (more than 20 years and still running), and I asked the blogger and devoted sharer of Ska music, toneandwave, about the realities of music distribution today. You find links to the interviews below.

One thing that kicked off the two interviews was:

Before our first split in 1991, my former band The Braces released two albums, “Prime Cut” (1989, Unicorn Records) and Blue Flame (1990, Pork Pie Records). They have not been re-issued. Even if you wanted, you couldn’t buy them any longer. One day I found posts on toneandwave.blogspot.com offering links to free downloads of the album tracks. My first reaction was: Not liking it. What if we put into practice our vague idea of releasing a “Best Of” album one day? Any plans to offer mp3s of our old songs for sale also seemed obsolete after that discovery. Not that anything to that extent had been planned.

Then something else happened. Looking around toneandwave I was led to other rare Ska music from the 1980s. And using toneandwave’s blogroll even more sites with exciting music could be found. In the next months I had many pleasureable moments listening to wonderful podcasts and mp3 collections. I simply loved liamska’s post with demo versions of Dexy’s Midnight Runners songs, and stored rare stuff from different 2 Tone-bands taken from Sonchey’s “Life In Monochrome” just in case. The list of sites with links to free and unheard of Ska music is always growing.

These websites and their authors do the Ska scene a great service. With their enthusiasm and expertise they lead fans of Ska music to great tracks, they promote this music. Still, it could be argued that the abundance of free offers on the Web might lead to the idea that there is no need to pay for anything.

What are the consequences of all these free offers? If I remember correctly The Braces paid the equivalent of 15.000 Euros to record our second album in 1990. We had to play a lot of shows to earn that money. And, of course, the plan was to sell the records at the upcoming shows to leave the red figures again. Not sure whether that worked out, but that’s another subject. Today I see bands offering downloads of their own NEW recordings for free. Is that a good way to cope with the developments of the last years? Is recorded music not more than a promotional tool today, like music videos used to be?

What about the music labels? What is their place in this new order? Some have already died (most notably and bemowned Rob Hingley’s Moon Records), some had to change their business model quite a bit to survive. In the interview Matzge laid open how he sees the new role of Ska labels, “as competent consultants and service providers for the bands and as a brand for the fan that gives orientation…”.

If I wanted to sound melodramatic I could go on: “Will these developments one day prevent bands from recording exciting new songs?” And: “Will that again lead to the death of the Ska scene (among other scenes)?”

Or: “Will the “fall” of the record labels ultimately help the musicians to take control?” which would more be along the lines of the sharers’ view.

You get what I mean. Many questions come to mind. After reading the interviews with Matzge and Toneandwave some will be answered, some new ones can be asked.

Most of all I would like to know: How do you see the situation? Use the comments or contact me via mail. Maybe there will be more interviews to follow up.

Interview with Matze Broeckel from Pork Pie

Interview with Toneandwave

This interview is part of the story “Should All Ska Music Be Free – Two Sides Of The Same Coin”. For the introduction to the article go here. If you like to read Matzge Broeckel’s (Pork Pie Records) stance on the subject, follow this link.

1. When did toneandwave start sharing mp3s/links to mp3s? What made you start?

I started Tone and Wave at the end of December 2007. I had just had internet hooked up for the first time. Prior to that I was never really a computer person.

I started building my music collection around 1987. It was cassettes at first but then I discovered that local bands were still putting out vinyl. Back then (much like now) I really didn’t have any other interests in life outside of music so I built up a ridiculously large collection early on of all types of things that I found in thrift stores (charity shops). Mostly 30’s and 40’s jazz, big band, and swing which later lead to jump blues, Delta blues, and early rockabilly which lead to doo-wop and early r&b. I had friends that got me into punk when I was about 17 which lead to me becoming a regular at local clubs. Every so often a local ska band would play. Most of them were punk bands with a ska influence but the first real ska band I saw live was Let’s Go Bowling. I already had some Specials and Toasters on cassettes that friends had made me and I had a copy of Madness’ “One Step Beyond” that I found in a bargain bin for one dollar but “Music to Bowl By” is pretty much when I started collecting ska music. Anytime a band had something for sale at a show I had to have it whether I liked them or not.

My house was full of milk crates that were filled with records and tapes. It took several years before I ever bought a cd. Some bands started putting out cd-only releases so I had to give in at some point.

As 1995-1996 rolled around I started losing interest in the scene because of the third wave contamination. Of all of the bands that were out at that time it was impossible for me to buy something from each of them. The comfortable atmosphere of the clubs had faded. By 1998 I was done with it.

The times changed and the people I knew changed. I stopped going to shows and hanging out with the same people. Some of my old friends became addicted to meth and became thieves. My house was robbed on three occasions and, of course, they went straight for the music. The last time was the worst. Whatever they couldn’t take they destroyed.

I didn’t realize at the time everything that I had lost.

After a while things settled down, I got married, got a 9 to 5 job. Started living a life I never saw myself living and I began reminiscing on the old days and since music was the central theme of my past I wanted to hear all of those old songs again. Every now and then a song that I hadn’t heard in years would randomly pop into my head and it brought back memories.

I decided to find some of the things that I used to listen to but I never really believed that I’d be able to find it all.

I discovered ebay about a year prior to starting T&W but since I had no computer of my own I would have to go to other peoples’ houses to use theirs. I would often lose the auctions because they couldn’t be bothered to bid for me. But, in about a years time, I was able to build up a good percentage of what I used to have but some of it seemed impossible. Then I discovered file-sharing sites and made friends with some other users. We did a lot of trading and I decided that there has to be a better way of sharing these treasures. I had just met Gabe from Pressure Drop Soundcast and I set out to do a podcast of my own but I didn’t have a clue on how to go about doing it. I wanted to share my excitement of finding these long-lost songs with other people who also believed they would never get to hear them again. But a podcast is limiting. I didn’t realize at the time its capacity for interaction. I wanted to let the listener hear the music that means something to them, not just the song or two off the album that I think they should hear so I decided to podcast full albums. It was more complicated than I had anticipated so I gave up on the idea.

Then I met Soulfool who later started Reg-A-Matic Sound System and he pointed me to the blog Skankin’ ‘Round the World. I had seen other blogs before (like You and Me on a Jamboree) but it never really clicked yet that I should be doing one myself. I got to talking to Monica from Skankin’ ‘Round the World and I realized that it wasn’t beyond my capabilities and it was exactly what I wanted to do.

I had just transferred some old records on my new usb turntable and I decided to just give it a go. I signed up and started posting right away. I think I made four posts that night. Nothing was planned out. I just posted things that I had on my desktop that I was listening to at the time. Skavenjah’s first cd, The Mangy Dogs’ “Itsy Bitsy” 7″, a local band called Low Pressure, and The Graduates’ “Elvis Should Play Ska” single.

I told myself that I’d be happy if 20 people download these things in the next year or two.

I honestly believed that nobody in the world listened to ska anymore.

2. Are you doing this on your own? Or is it more of a network of like-minded people?

I started out on my own and it remained that way for the first year or so.

I think the first thing that somebody else submitted was when Billy from Dave’s Big Deluxe sent me their first release. He sent me more of their stuff and then Ronan from the Irish band Gangsters started sending me lots of great things including the Baby Snakes EP. Somebody asked if I had the Baby Snakes 7″ which I did not. After seeing that post Rikard emailed it to me. Since then he has made many regular contributions. Ronan mailed me a parcel full of cds and cassettes – almost all of which I have posted. There have been several other people who have sent me things that have kept T&W going longer than I thought it would have.

It has certainly become a network. In the end though I am still deciding what gets posted and when. If someone sends me a number of things on the same day I space them out in the postings instead of putting everything up all at once. It gives me time to get other things together.

I originally started the Tone and Wave Myspace with the hope of people submitting things in the comment section but it didn’t work out that way.

I have recently started another blog with all of the things that I don’t have and the response has been incredible. Lots of people are submitting lots of things. Very few of the posts are from my own collection anymore so it really has become a group effort.

3. It’s quite a bit of work I guess. What motivates you?

I like doing it. There’s nothing behind it…I just like it. Knowing that I ‘have’ to post things means that I have to rip this vinyl that I haven’t listened to in a long time and I get to hear it again. If I wasn’t doing this blog I might never get around to transferring my music.

There have been a couple of times in the past where I didn’t want to deal with the blog at all and I was just going to let it go but then somebody submits something or comments on something and I get a second wind.

It is a labor of love. The passion is already in me but when it seems nobody else cares the passion fades.

I don’t mind so much whether or not people thank me. I don’t do it for that. But to get a sense that nobody is interested is discouraging. Any feedback is good. People being rude or insulting is better than them being silent.

4. How do you get material?

The greatest percentage of it comes from my physical copies. Some CDs and the occasional cassette, but mostly vinyls. There are some things that I have cheated on like the Del-Tones “Nana Choc Choc in Paris”. I do own the record but I wasn’t getting a good rip of it. I told this to a friend who had downloaded a cd copy from a file-sharing site and I posted his version.

There are some things that I bought MP3s of (Lancaster Band) but if there is a hard copy I’d rather spend my money on that.

I think everything that other people have shared came from their physical copies – just about all of it is from vinyl.

5. How do you select the stuff you publish?

It’s almost always random unless it’s something new that I just bought or something new to me that somebody contributed.

I try to fill requests as soon as I can but I have so much stuff that looking through it is an event. I’m very disorganized but that’s good in a way because I’m always stumbling across something that I forgot about.

Almost every time that I hurry to post new things that I’m excited about it’s with little ado. When I post something that I find less interesting people jump all over it.

I’m pretty bad at guessing what people want to hear so I just put it all out there.

6. Have you ever turned down to publish good/rare stuff? Let’s say for ethical reasons/for fear of prosecution?

The greatest part of my music collection has not been posted and it probably never will.

I play music myself and I have friends in the industry and we all agree that this day and age it’s a bit silly for a band to think that they’ll make money from their music. I do, however, want these bands to continue playing and if they can sell a few cds at a show for that little bit of money that will get them to the next show I do not want to interfere with that.

I was naive when I first started out by thinking that nobody listens to ska anymore anyway and it would be cool with the bands if I put their music out there. I was wrong and that’s a good thing. Ska is alive and well in the underground. As long as a band is still playing and selling their own music I will not post it. Not anymore.

I don’t really fear prosecution all that much. Realistically the worst that would happen is that the blog will be taken down. If that happens I’ll rise up again doing something else and make it well known why it was taken down.

I do intend to move in a different direction that is more beneficial to active bands.

7. How many links to mp3s have you put on the Web?

More than I can count. Not including all of the posts that I removed at the demand of Megalith Records I have 250 posts that are either 2-song singles or partial discographies so it’s really hard to give an exact count or even make a reasonable estimate.

8. How are the reactions by fans, bands?

The fans are great. I haven’t received a single negative word. It has all been positive.

I have posted some misinformation a few times and I have been corrected but that is not negative at all. As much info is on the internet there are still a lot of things I can’t find. I appreciate when people take the time to share information. That, and especially all the wonderful music people have been sending, is a definite bonus.

There have been only two bands (The X-Streams and Culture Shock) that have asked me to remove their music. X-Streams said I could stream it and Culture Shock made me aware that [at least one of] the bands members were still making money off the sales. It was posted later in the comments that not every member was aware that money was still being made.

I used to track down band members via Myspace or some other route to ask permission before I posted their music but only once did I ever get an answer back and that was from Mike from the band the Velvetones (and they’re not even a ska band). So now I take it upon myself to put the music out there and hope I have the bands’ blessing.

I have had numerous responses from the bands themselves that were in favor of people hearing their music.

Some of them off the top of my head: Dave’s Big Deluxe, The Suspects, Agent 99, Punch the Clown, The Sheds, Skavengers, and of course Ronan from Gangsters who has become quite important to T&W, etc…

9. Any negative comments from writers? Labels? Publishers?

I met a band at a show who gave me their cd and asked me to post it because they felt their label wasn’t doing anything to promote it. By the time I got home (about 2 hours later) I had already gotten an email from their publisher full of all sorts of cute little threats – and I hadn’t even posted it yet.

And of course there’s Megalith who gave me a long list of bands that they claim they own the rights to just because they put out a comp with one of the band’s songs on it. A few of the bands wrote to me giving me permission saying that they haven’t gotten a penny from Megalith in years.

Those are the two ridiculous ones.

I have been asked to take other things down and had it pointed out that they were still available for sale.

I don’t care much to promote record companies but when people are mature about it I will link to them.

10. And if: What would be your say on that?

Naturally I fully support the bands and I encourage people to buy directly from them.
Record companies, on the other hand, I have conflicting views about. Even if the head of an indie label is still a music fan their bottom line is to make money. Not to get rich, but to try and at least make back what they put into the music. Sometimes they’re able to sustain themselves on the meager profits that they do make but when that happens they put themselves in a desperate situation. The money aspect becomes their main focus. Not because they’re evil greedy corporate types, but because they really do need it to support themselves. At this point I don’t think they can relate to the bands the way they did before. They begin focusing on what’s going to make them money and they have to brush the others off.

That’s totally normal. I don’t think they’re bad people for hoping to make a living off of what was once a hobby. I would love to be able to do that myself, but I’m not foolish enough to try.

I just wish they were more honest about the whole thing.

I’ve heard the platitude “so the bands can pay their bills and keep playing” so many times it’s become a prattle. I’ve never heard one band validate this statement. Especially those that aren’t playing anymore.
I somehow doubt that my posting of the NY Citizens is what kept them from playing.
They like to put it all on the bands because they know the fans have respect for them.

When I post something there is the potential for millions of people to download it. That doesn’t mean they do though. I do have a few things that were posted for about 2 years with a total of 30 downloads. If anybody is able to sell something that nobody really wants for free then they are doing much better than they realize.
Not only that, but just because somebody downloads it it doesn’t mean that they were ever going to buy it. Most of the time the only reason anybody gave a band a chance in the first place is because it was free. Record labels have it in their heads that if people weren’t downloading the music then they would certainly be buying it brand new. They ignore the fact that most people buy used cds for a fraction of the price of a brand new copy.

There are a few record labels that I do support though. Asian Man is the most reputable label that I know of and I have bought so much from them over the years. It’s too bad that Mike seems to be losing his interest in ska. Do the Dog and Jump Up are good ones to deal with.

This interview is part of the story “Should All Ska Music Be Free – Two Sides Of The Same Coin”. For the introduction to the article go here. If you like to read Matzge Broeckel’s (Pork Pie Records) stance on the subject, follow this link.

This interview is part of the story “Should All Ska Music Be Free – Two Sides Of The Same Coin”. For the introduction to the article go here. If you like to read the blogger toneandwave’s stance on the subject, follow this link.

1. Since the foundation of Pork Pie (1989) more than 20 years ago, the music industry has been turned upside down. With the ever increasing circulation of mp3s the sales of physical recordings (LPs, CDs) dwindled. Today people mostly use mp3s to listen to music, which was confirmed for the Ska fans in a recent poll on joescholes.com. It’s easy to download mp3s from the Web without paying anything. Many record companies haven’t survived these developments. With which strategies did Pork Pie stay on top of things?

You have to understand that in comparison to other listeners Ska fans were quite slow in making use of mp3s. It took a FEW years until mp3s became widely accepted. Therefore we sold appropriate numbers of Ska CD’s and of course vinyl until quite recently. The strategy was to offer quality, in terms of sound and packaging. From included vinyl singles through LPs with grafitti stencils to CD booklets with lots of pages. By now there seems to be a new generation of Ska fans who exchange information about music with the help of platforms like myspace or facebook and generally take all their information from the Web. That makes informative CD booklets seem outdated now. When it comes to music we have adapted to the new ways of distributing. You can download all of the Pork Pie repertoire worldwide through platforms like finetunes, iTunes, musicload, Amazon etc. fast, in an excellent quality and legally.

2. Is it possible to tell how the sales have changed at Pork Pie? When was an album considered a success in earlier days, when today? Are legal downloads of any significance when it comes to sales?

Back then I told the bands: “Send the studio bill, I’ll pay for it.” Today I sometimes even have to leave the costs for the pressing to the bands. Fortunately the numbers of legal downloads are increasing at a two- or even three-digit rate. Still I guess we will not be able to reach the same figures as with earlier CD sales. Bands have to attune to the fact that a label is becoming a service provider that offers promotion, marketing, distribution but has to be paid by the band.

3. Are there other (i.e. musical/personal/organisational) reasons for the
changes in positioning (slimming down, if I observed correctly) of Pork Pie?

I don’t have the feeling that Pork Pie is slimming down (unfortunately neither am I myself [;-)]

Pork Pie has always released fewer albums per year than many other labels, just to make sure that we are not doing too much and getting into an assembly line mode. Now that I only have to take care of Pork Pie, after the end of mother company Vielklang, more is possible than it used to be. In 2009 alone I released albums by Spitfire, Ringo Ska, Yalkyrians and Liberator, plus the compilation “Pork Pie Spirit Of Ska – 20 years jubilee edition”. I also did the promotion and distribution for Boikot (Feier Mettel) and Blaster Master (BALE). To do more would be counterproductive.

4. What’s your impression: Are the shifts in the music industry similar in every musical style? Or does niche music in general and Ska in particular follow special rules.

Unfortunately Ska has become more of a niche product recently than other styles like Electro for example. But the sales of physical recordings are shrinking everywhere.

5. You are very active on the Web, searching for interesting bands via myspace etc. Where do you see other positive aspects for your work?

One thing that I did was start Noisy Cooking, a new form of event in which bands present themselves in a different light, to their music, image and origin: It’s a cooking show on the Web. The events so far have been a lot of fun. But the show needs to establish itself some more.

6. My impulse to ask for this interview was the fact that downloads of different albums released on Pork Pie (i.e. one by The Frits, one by my former band The Braces) are offered on the blog toneandwave.blogspot.com for free. What do you think about that? The LPs were not reissued, i.e. were unavailable. So no harm done. Or is there? How do you see that?

To be honest – even if it sounds unpopular: I think it’s out of order… Even if those people that upload the music don’t earn anything, you have to leave the decision to the musicians who, by the way, own the copyrights for the rest of their lives, even if the former label doesn’t exist anymore. Maybe the band have good reasons why they don’t want to see their songs being published anymore.

7. Have you ever contacted a blogger and/or provider of downloads and asked them to remove download links from the Web?

That could easily amount to an unpaid fulltime job with minimal chances of success. I would only do that in case of a gross rights violation.

8. Do you actively seek illegal download offers of your label’s bands on the Web?

No, see question above.

9. Which role does online radio play? Is it interesting for promo? Does it promote the attitude: “Why pay for it, if music is available for free as well?”

That’s a very problematic issue. On the one hand there are radios that offer outstanding services and present new bands, and whose slots might fall victim to budget cuts some day.

On the other hand there are thousands of web radio stations that make all kinds of music available for free 24/7. The listeners get the feeling that they would be stupid to pay for music voluntarily. A short time ago the headline on the cover of Computerbild (Germany’s computer magazine with the highest circulation) was: “Download 3 Million songs for free and legally to your computer with the software on the free magazine CD.” This is the modern version of “tape-recording from the radio”, with the only difference that you don’t have to crouch in front of the device, but thousands of songs are being stored automatically. That’s sellout and the effect is that there have to be compromises in the production of the music because the money is not there anymore. Music fans should consider supporting their favourite bands and labels by paying for music and products voluntarily.
I think the stupid ones are the bums that prefer to store terabytes of junk hard disks instead of buying something decent and giving something back to their scene.

10. How do you see the future of music labels in general and, of course, Pork Pie?

Like I already said, as competent consultants and service providers for the bands and as a brand for the fan that gives orientation, helping the fan to find the gems amongst the millions of the crap songs on the Web.

This interview is part of the story “Should All Ska Music Be Free – Two Sides Of The Same Coin”. For the introduction to the article go here. If you like to read the blogger toneandwave’s stance on the subject, follow this link.

Could you please help me out again? It’s easy to spend tons of time uploading your songs to all those music websites. Just to make sure that as many people as possible have the chance to hear it, provided that they are interested. You may start with myspace and Soundcloud, but where do you end? I admit that I am especially clueless about online radios. My expertise ends with lastfm. But I heard  there are many more. Now, before crowding the Web with more profiles and passwords I thought I’d rather ask you, my gentle readers, for your favourites.

The New Profile

The idea for this post came to me a few days back, when I was working on my myspace profile. For the first time after a year I guess. Maybe two. One thing I did was replace the songs that I had recorded in acoustic versions as Joe Scholes with Ska band songs I had written for my former band The Braces. I also changed the photos and some descriptions. For new colours and all Mashable.com helped me out with their profile editor, which I found very useful.

The next myspace?

The reason for the changes: When I first set up the page I had established the name Joe Scholes for my acoustic escapades, but now I am using the profile on myspace for keeping and making contacts in the Ska world. I don’t really love myspace (it’s just no fun, adjustments take too much time, I get many unexpected error messages), but it still seems to be the best site for bands/musicians to present themselves and their stuff. If you have heard of any better sites, please let me know.

So many stations, so little time

But myspace is only one thing. How about online radio stations? Which are the relevant ones? Instead of testing them all, it might be a good idea to ask the people who know best, you.

So here are two polls for you today.

What’s in it for you?

The only reward I can give you for taking part in the poll is seing for yourself what the others are doing. If I have forgotten any stations that should be mentioned, please tell me in the comments. I will check and add them to the polls as soon as possible.

You know what the thing is with these polls. The more people take part, the more representative they get. So if you have a way to share, don’t be shy.

What happened in the last weeks after the end of the Alpha Boys? Just to give you a quick update: More changes are there to report. I had to move my office, too. Not to another town, and not even to another part of Cologne. But still a move with a change in communication set up and all these lovely things to keep you busy. I have some instruments with me to record in my computer, recording software (Cubase), keyboard, bass, guitar, microphone. Everything to get going again. Since it is a regular office (with a colleague in the same room) I can’t work on the microphone etc. during working hours. Only on weekends and at night, at times usually reserved for my family. Let me take it as a challenge.

The other thing: My mind is not in it yet. Remember the byline of my blog? “Writing songs for the next album”. But for whom? For the time being I think of it as a solo album. Write the songs, present versions here. Maybe some Ex-Alpha Boys will be involved. Great. It would also be exciting to find some of the musicians with the help of this blog. A great horn section from Japan? Female duet vocals from the UK? I’ll send you the mp3s, you record to them … that would be something. Let me just dream a bit to fill the void.

Anyway, I have some more musical memos to post. And I have a very MIDI version of a song that I am writing: It’s called “Let’s Reform The Band”. It was for the Alpha Boys, but could be good for Joe Scholes as well. I’ll put it in another post.

Another quite new thing is: I changed the framework of my blog. It’s now on Thesis, which allows me to make alterations in the design without coding. As far as I see it can become a great help.

I thank everyone for the feedback on the alphas are dead posting, at ska-talk forum and marcoonthebass.blogspot.com. Hepcat are coming to town this month. If none of the girls is ill, I will be there and report.

Cheers for now.

When I started this blog it was supposed to be about writing songs for a new album, “hopefully by the Alpha Boys feat. Joe Scholes”. This hope is gone now. On Saturday, 27th of February 2010, the name Alpha Boys feat. Joe Scholes was buried. What happened? I will get into that later.

First here is a quick recap of how the project came to be. In November 2008 the singer, guitarist and songwriter Karsten Riedel left Alpha Boy School, one of Germany’s most active and successful Ska bands of the last years. From 2002 to 2008 they completed four albums and toured throughout Europe and Japan. Karsten was undisputedly the driving force behind the band. With his wild tatoos and the slick brilliantine hair-stylings he was not only responsible for the band’s rough image, but also wrote all the songs and most of the arrangements. After Karsten’s leave the rest of the band began looking for a new singer. Fans may remember the call for female singers on their website and myspace. After a few months without any results the end of Alpha Boy School seemed near. That’s when the contact between me and the band intensified in such a way that we talked about joining forces. I had known Alpha Boy School from doing shows together with my former band The Braces and from the Alpha Boy School tourthrough Japan in early 2007. I had invited myself to that as their tour DJ and guest singer. And after two years of father’s leave I thought it would be a perfect time to return to the game.

Japan Video Diary

Alpha Boys feat. Joe Scholes | MySpace Musikvideos

Two weeks ago we decided not to walk that road together any longer. After seven months with about ten rehearsals and five gigs. You are not getting a place in the history of Ska music with these data. It wasn’t meant to be. A few questions can be asked in this situation. I try to answer them in this interview with myself.

What are the reasons for the untimely death?
There are quite a few.

Reason no 1: the name

We realised that the project name we had chosen – Alpha Boys feat. Joe Scholes – promised something that could not be kept. When we started out late last summer we wanted a name showing that we were a new band. But not that new. The name was supposed to also transport that we had a history in other bands/acts that fans could relate to. Looking back a more obvious cut would have served everyone better. Why? Because some promoters just ignored the name change and announced us as “Alpha Boy School” on their websites, posters and flyers. It wasn’t any help that we operated from the band’s old domain “www.alphaboyschool.de” and played our shows around Bochum, the homebase of Alpha Boy School and also the home of their most devoted followers. We underestimated the pressure that came with the decision not to let go of the name. I am not talking about the criticism of one fan or another about the changes in line-up, our attitude on stage or the songs being played. The pressure came from within. The subconscious expectation was that apart from the line-up changes everything just went on as before.

Reason no 2. the concept/the realisation

The plan was to play a few gigs here and there, with a set consisting of one third of the songs taken from Alpha Boy School, one third from my former band The Braces and one third cover versions. In the course of time we would replace the old songs with new songs I would write. That made some sense, but looking back it’s obvious that we fooled ourselves. The reality was, the cover versions we played had already been part of the Alpha Boy School set: songs like “A New England”, “Boys Don’t Cry”, “One In Ten”, “Rat Race”, “Skinhead Girl.” To us as well as the audiences (familiar with ABS) they were Alpha Boy School songs. That was a good way to be ready to play without rehearsing a lot, but it didn’t help transmitting the idea that we were doing something new, or at least different from the old band. You couldn’t blame anyone attending our shows to get the feeling that this was Alpha Boy School without Karsten (and the second frontman Torsten (sax, backing vocals) who also didn’t show up for the rehearsals). Maybe even the band felt so. Now, what about the new songs?
That leads to …

Reason no 3: work (or lack of it)

As I said before, in the last seven months we got together for only ten rehearsals, maybe twelve. The number of meetings would have been even smaller if we only counted those rehearsals where all of the band were present. Many times, one or two of us couldn’t make it. The remaining rehearsals usually took place in the week before a show and we used them to play the whole set which can be quite annoying. In our band meeting in the middle of February we agreed that we would have needed more new songs (than the one we got together) to move on. I had promised those new songs from the beginning but didn’t come across with them. Which fueled the sense of stagnation in the band. What had held me back?

Reason no 4: musical direction

After I had spent my first weeks with the Alpha Boys learning old songs by Karsten (and those cover versions) I started collecting new ideas. As I stated earlier it was clear to me that I would have to change my style. Songs for the band had to be definitely rougher than the stuff that I usually write. From playing live I tried to get a feeling which type of rhythms suited us best. Trying to come up with new stuff and to meet the expectations of the rest of the band I filtered so much that I began asking myself whether the remaining songs represented a special side of me or whether I was trying to impersonate someone else.

Reason no 5: approach

I had been told the band’s modus operandi used to be that Karsten basically had the whole song and arrangement in mind when he presented something to the band. This is a very efficient way to work. I work in a different way though. Nowadays I like to come to the rehearsals with some ideas in my mind, a few chord progressions and a type of groove everyone plays on for a while until a rhythm develops that fits. Then record that, go back home and write some more. In my experience this is a good way to involve the musicians in the song writing process. The result is that everyone feels comfortable with the songs/tracks/tunes. My imagination was also that the musicians would embrace this appoach because I think it is just more fun. But the reasonable argument against it (especially given our tight schedule) was that it is not effective enough. The next option we could think of is to build small units of musicians (two or three people) who prepare ideas for the others. But it did not come to that (yet).

Reason no 6: band dynamics

Maybe it all comes down to band dynamics. When a band has been together for a few years it gets harder to change the system. Comparisons between bands and relationships are as common as they are appropriate. After the infatuation phase the work begins. It’s very hard to make adjustments when everyone has settled for their role in this constellation of people. It’s even harder when you get the feeling that you are not going anywhere. When you reached a certain level of success and realise you can’t take it any further without making substantial changes. Maybe the sense of stagnation had already been a reason for Karsten Riedel to move on from Alpha Boy School.

Is this the end of it all?

Not sure. What we decided on is: The name Alpha Boys feat. Joe Scholes has to go. The next thing that will happen is: I will record the songs that I have written, without filters in my head. When new material is ready for play, Bassman Dirk, drummer Sven and maybe Andi on trombone will give some input. Should we think we are onto something good and have enough material, we get in contact with the people who can fill the ideas with life. Apart from you, the other former Alpha Boys will be the first to know. But my premonition is that the line-up of the new project will not be the same as Alpha Boys feat. Joe Scholes. Anyway, there will be a new name and we will hopefully be soon past the situation that on every poster and flyer it says “Ex-Alpha Boy School, Ex-The Braces” . No deadline was set for handing in new songs.

Anything good about the situation?

We were quite fast at realising our situation and changing our plan. It could also have taken years. Maybe the new situation also helps me to get rid of my song writing filters. Let the words and music flow.

What about joescholes.com?

I will definitely go on writing this blog. It’s too much fun to stop now. In fact since starting joescholes.com the ideas for new blog content keep coming to me, and the challenge is to find the time to write. Some may argue I should just focus on writing the songs. They might be right. They might be wrong. Failure or victory? The future will show. I recommend you to stay tuned.

It used to be so simple when I started making music with my band The Braces in the early 1980s. You wanted to send a promo package with music to a local promoter? Just record a compact cassette. You’ve been to the studio to record your stuff? Press it on vinyl! You did not have to think a minute about formats and media. Nowadays you have so many options once you want to spread your music. Vinyl? CD? mp3? Only one of those? Two? Or maybe all three? I think everyone involved in making Ska music would like to know from the Ska fans:

Let’s hear it. Tell your friends to take part in the poll, too. And leave a comment if you will.