Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
Alan Read: I was born and raised in East London England, I have always been a creative person, so I guess it’s just a part of my personality.
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
Alan Read: I just go by my birth name I don’t use no stage name lol
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
Alan Read: My music is available on soundcloud, not as a download but it’s always their in full so if you go on soundcloud on your phone or computer etc
then I guess you can check it out any time you wish, so in a sense you kind of own it already, I have shared it for free on social network, what I notice a lot of the big name artists doing these days is only having a short clip of their song on soundcloud rather than whole songs, as we all know if you have the whole song available anytime without actually buying the music then the incentive to go and buy it is not there.
I don’t agree with people getting music for free, a lot of hard work goes into some people’s music, it should not be available for free no, but at the same time everyone else has been playing the game of sharing for free in a bid to get exposure and yeah I guess I have to play this game too at the moment.
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
Alan Read: To get gigs firstly you got to get tight as a band or solo artist, work on making your music sound good, then record it to a good standard, send links to music promoters online is the best way and more practical, if you google promoters you can find a lot of them.
Radio play is another ball game, you can look for internet radio stations that play unsigned music of your genre then send them your music, again make sure your music is good in terms of song and recording quality in a bid to get played, then hope for the best……..now national stations, well unless the big stations have an unsigned show where they play unsigned artists, which is very rare then it won’t happen you won’t get played unless you are signed sad but true, it don’t matter how good you are sadly you won’t get played unless signed by a well known label that already has a lot of dealings with that particular label whether its a major or a smaller indie………..
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
AlanRead:
I am inspired from life, though even if I am going through a tough period I try not to let my music reflect that, though to some extent you can’t really help that, unless I am writing an acoustic track I will usually try to keep it upbeat and positive, I want to uplift the listener, coz in a world in which we all have difficult times music can be a great way to just relax and escape into, forget your worries for an albums worth of songs kind of thing, coz thats exactly what I do, I will play loudly some Jimi Hendrix, or Oasis, or The Beatles, or Paul Weller, Lenny Kravitz, Bob Marley, Ian Brown, Marvin Gaye, Rolling Stones, lol I won’t play them all at once but those are the kind of artists that also help inspire me…….
Though Rock is my first passion as an artist I have a big taste in different music and I really am thankful that we have music to embrace, I could live without TV but not without my music no way……….I usually write on my guitar electric and acoustic, or if I am out and a lyric just comes to me out the blue I will write it in my phone notes and record hum a melody into my phone if the melody comes with the lyrics, they don’t always come together, sometimes I could write some lyrics, leave it for a while, look at it one day and think how the hell is that going to be a song then I will pick up the guitar, try something and go ahh yeah that sounds good that,
Other times I have to wrestle with the melody or chords or riff to make it work, but it usually comes together nicely in the end, for me though it usually has to start with a good lyric, sometimes I look back at stuff I wrote and think jeez thats good, and I feel impressed that I actually wrote it, but for me its got to blow my mind what I have written in order for it to stand a chance of blowing anyone else’s mind, but I also get that some people will get what I do and like it, but some won’t, but thats life, we can’t please all the people all the time,
but hey its gotta please me first lol……………
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
Alan Read: yeah sure as many online platforms as I can juggle really but here are the main ones.
https://soundcloud.com/
https://www.facebook.com/
https://www.youtube.com/
https://www.instagram.com/
https://twitter.com/
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
Alan Read:
I would spend it on advertising my music and raising awareness of me as a recording artist, PR and advertising its all about the promotion!
…….and maybe get some radio plugging for internet radio, and small outside the region FM radio,
Also I would hire a good well known established music lawyer to represent me and to approach well known and established indie labels and major labels to get them to listen to my music,
Coz get this people!….. all the big labels most of them don’t except what they call unsolicited demos, meaning you Joe Bloggs have got no chance of sending them a demo and them actually listening to it in the hope of getting signed that way………no way…..demos become unsolicited when represented by a legal professional such as a music lawyer or someone the labels know in the business such as a well established music manager………ain’t life a B**CH and then some lol……..
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
Alan Read:
In a world where so many things are dominated by the internet, I really don’t have much choice but to use that as my main source of promotion,
I wish we lived in the days of The Beatles where you could play a club like The Cavern that has a walk in crowd and you filled it out simply through word of mouth, these days everyone is at home hooked up to the internet, its a different world, you got no option as an artist but to try and reach out to potential fans through their computer screens or through their smart phones……………
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
Alan Read:
Yeah I just completed two songs for my fourth coming EP, these two tracks are available now on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, and most digital stores, these two tracks are called “I Just Want To Fly” and “In The Groove” these songs will also feature on my fourth coming EP which will include a total of about four to five songs once its complete.
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
Alan Read: I can’t embrace that concept sorry lol, music is my mantra, my yoga, I am music and music is me…………..
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
Alan Read:
I just do my best, sometimes I stress about getting stuff done, but hey just like everyone else trying to juggle what ever they got going on in their lives, I like sport and I find that sport keeps me healthy and focused and ready for each new day.
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
Alan Read:
They should look forward to my EP and songs online, buy them, embrace them, give us a like on Facebook, a follow on twitter or instagram, soundcloud, youtube, I will also be doing some acoustic unplugged gigs to promote my fourth coming EP……peace out people thanks for reading, sorry if there is any grammar mistakes in there lol………peace love & light 😉