Detroit's Jackie Blue has just released a new CD. The band shares the inside story on why they chose the internet over traditional forms of distribution.
The meeting
Bass player meets bass player. Or rather, Tom Libertiny, bass player from Nailing Betty checks out a Pharmacy show and thinks the band, and in particular, bass player Chip Thomas, rocks. Especially when he jumps 5 feet into the air, continues playing as if he never left the ground, and everyone is quite uncertain where he's going to land (stage, floor, on his head). Fast-forward two years to May 2000. Both have departed their respective bands and started to jam together for the fun of it. But low and behold, Chip has swapped his bass for a Fender Strat. What's up with that? The beginnings of Detroit's funk & roll band, Jackie Blue. That's what.
What are we missing?
A drummer! But they're so damn hard to find. So to the web we turn. One day later, we find Todd Laucombe, our new drummer. East coast, west coast, this guy has played everywhere. Great attitude and he's John Bonham reincarnated. We conclude that the planets must have been aligned. In truth, there's no doubt in our minds that networking has become much easier with the web.
Vision
Very simply, our vision is to write great songs, have fun playing them live, and to crack as many inside jokes as possible. After our first rehearsal in an old shopping center in Redford, Tom coins the term "Funk & Roll" and names the band Jackie Blue. One part rock, one part blues, and two parts funk. Kravitz, Chili Peppers, P/Funk, and Zeppelin plus a healthy dose of just about every other type of music on this planet form our background. Fast-forward three weeks. With three people writing, the music comes fast and furious. Fifteen songs later, we're ready to find the last piece of the puzzle.
What are we missing, part deux?
A singer. It's off to Detroit's MetroTimes to place an ad. Thirty-one singers and a month later and all hope seems gone. Sitting on Todd's deck, down by the riverside, the three of us are contemplating life, while a campfire log that Chip rolled into the water is still burning, and when Todd's dog Jade is going to learn to drive the truck since she's bigger than we are, when someone named Brent McKay calls. He offers to stop by and even offers to bring us food and beer. Not a bad way to start an afternoon. Brent turns out to be the singer and song writing monster we had hoped for since day one. A fusion of jazz, funk, and rock.
The CD.
With the first 15 songs written, we pick 10 and start recording our first CD. Have we played any shows yet? No. Do we know any better? No. Trying to save money goes hand-in-hand with retaining creative control over our CD since we don't have the funds needed to hire anyone that would want to start a creative struggle with us anyway. What we do have, is a lot of energy, and two smokin' 'puters. It's amazing what you can do now days with inexpensive computers, sound cards, and software. Things that were almost impossible to do with a $50,000 Silicon Graphics workstation just a few short years ago are now easy to do with a $1,500 computer. But then those wonderful software glitches popped their ugly heads up. As many other musicians have found, by the time we're done recording our first CD, we're in the bizarre position of giving software writers and sound card manufacturers advice. We end up with two identical systems: One at Todd's house and one at Tom's. We believe we're onto a good system for recording but we're still unsure of ourselves. Ironically, we later find out that our recording system and methods are a less expensive version of what Steven Tyler and Joe Perry from Aerosmith used for the recording of "Just Push Play." Once the bugs have been eradicated and we've gotten a bit closer to mastering the computer software and hardware, the recording starts to go somewhat smoother. Of course, by this time, we've already recorded 9 out of the 10 songs the hard way. We learned many things from that experience…
Mix and master.
We read many technical journals, talked with people that have had much more experience than us and eventually learned that mixing and mastering are two very different art forms. After talking with some of the best producers, we realize that they're worth their $1,000 per track stated on their invoice for mastering. But, we just can't afford to pay them. We try the other end of the price spectrum but come away without an answer. It's December 2000 we decide to shelve the CD project and start playing some shows.
Shows
Fun at last! After the steep learning curve of recording our CD we're ready for some fun. With the band running on all eight, the excitement builds for our first show at Michigan's Scalici's. Prior to the show, we've decided to experiment with a stage monitor system that is set up to feed wedges and in-ear-monitors. The system works well during rehearsals and we can't wait to find out how it will sound on stage. The freezing December night rolls around as we find ourselves trucking our equipment to the show. We quickly discover that our setup time is about twice as long as we expected since we need to splice our monitor system into the house system. Fortunately, the sound tech is extremely patient and helpful. It's early in the morning (or late at night, your choice) and he's just spent 45 minutes explaining to us what equipment we need to add in order to get where we're trying to go with our stage sound. Hats off to him since he helped us to end the night on both a musical and technical high note January 5, 2001 and we're at Michigan's Token Lounge for our first official show. Our stage setup still has glitches but we're making progress…again thanks to another friendly and helpful sound tech. On a more important note, the night is one hell of a musical jam for us. We play our brains out and everyone has a great time. Over the Christmas holiday we've written more songs and "Wasting Time/Saturday Night Blues," "Shine My Shoes," and "Best Friends Girl" make their debut to an enthusiastic crowd. Courtney from "Face" joins us on stage to sing a duet with Brent on "Shame" and ends up adding her gorgeous voice to "G" and "Wasting Time/Saturday Night Blues." Unknown to us, the Token's sound tech records the whole show and we end up with a great CD of the night. Three more shows in January and early February at the usual Detroit suspects (Paychecks, Griff's, and Lili's) make the whole band tighter and gets us ready for our first out-of-state gig. On February 9, 2001 we play New York's Elbow Room. This place, coupled with CBGBs (which is about nine blocks away), is one of America's classic places to play. As we step on stage, we're all amazed that we're actually standing in front of a crowd, 600 miles from Detroit, and their groovin' to our music! We are definitely having fun. Back in Detroit we play Ann Arbor's Blind Pig and Paychecks again in February. Then in March it's off to Ohio to team up with our friends XIT187. Great hosts, great friends, and a wild crowd.
Mixing revisited.
In March, we learn about the Alesis Master Disk system. Technology can be awesome. With this system, we are finally able to master our CD. Frank Andreae and model Annmarie shoot the cover for "Behind Me" which is the name of our CD. Todd came up with the name and there are about 100 jokes behind the title as with everything else we write or play. He first got the idea while watching a speech that George W was making on education…
GarageBand.com and MP3.com
During December 2000 we upload four songs to GarageBand.com. For the next four months the reviewers on GarageBand.com as well as the response to music played at our shows help us to determine which songs will go on "Behind Me" and what the song order will be. The feedback is brutal but very helpful. Once the songs have been mastered on the Alesis system during March 2001, we rip them to MP3s and upload them to our website on MP3.com along with Frank's finished artwork. A week later the reviewers at MP3 are done checking the format and content of our music and graphic files and approve everything for sale. We purchase a CD to check the quality and on Monday, March 16, 2001 "Behind Me" is released for sale on our website www.jackieblue.com and MP3's website www.mp3.com/jackieblue.
CDs and Distribution
Why did we decide to release our CD on MP3's website? It came down to a decision on how we can affordably (for our fans and for us) get our music to our fans. We looked at pressing CDs as well as offering the CD online through various website stores. Bottom line, MP3.com offers the best bang for the buck. Which means that we can release the CD and keep it at a reasonable price. Our fans get CD access to our music as well as computer access to our MP3s, lyrics, and graphics. We make enough money to continue playing live and to record our next CD. And, MP3.com takes care of the sales transaction and burning the CDs while making a profit so that they can stay in business. A win-win-win for all. Next So what's next? Just wait and see… Jackie Blue, Detroit's Funk & Roll Band Click Here to preview or purchase the CD. Website: http://www.jackieblue.com E-mail: jackieblue_2001@yahoo.com Phone: 248-615-8960