"It's called Shameless self promotion"

Hello and welcome to the 3rd installment of my story.

Huge thanks to those of you who have been following so far, and for your comments, I am very happy you are enjoying it.
If you have just joined me, you may want to read my first 2 blogs to bring you up to date.


Now I am about to invite you behind the scenes of what I refer to as my "Internet persona".
Of course, this is my own personal experience...tears, tantrums, elation, achievement and let downs..the usual behaviour of a sensitive artist, it's all in there.

There are alot of opportunists and sharks out there looking to exploit music and capitalise on other peoples hard work and vunerability, and some who are just bad eggs, I have met my fair share, and very nearly been stooped. I wont be mentioning names, as much as I would like too, it is all part of the cut throat world of the unsigned, struggling artist !


Chapter 3

"It's called shameless self promotion"

Where was I, oh yes Pneumonia !!!! Sod's law became an apt cliche for me in a big way when I decided to take a break from the club circuit to concentrate on my music career and just as I retired I got pneumonia. Was a bit hairy there for a minute too, the pneumonia itself didn't kill me, but the antibiotics I was prescribed nearly did ! I had a bad allergic reaction and ended up being rushed into hospital. It didn't realise how long it would take to recover, for 3 months I was pretty much out.

I had been on line with my website for a few months, so I decided to use the time to start using myspace and a few other artist network sites and posted up a few of the cover songs I had recorded during the summer. Myspace had really starting taking off then, with the success stories of the Arctic Monkeys, Lily Allen etc. I was just learning how the whole thing worked, at first I admit I didn't have a clue what I was doing and how to best utilise the sites, but it didn't take to long to work it out. After I had posted up a few Jazz songs I starting receiving some great feedback, and met a few people who I am still in contact with today, this is the good part of the Internet, you can make some genuine friends and build a loyal fan base. The downside is there are a few weirdo's and nutters, for want of a better expression ! I cannot count the amount of times I was sent inappropriate messages and photo's, I shall leave it to your imagination ( but some were of naked men, which upset me greatly :-) .


At the end of 2006 as I was recovering from pneumonia, a huge opportunity came my way and I was offered some free time studio in a top notch studio to record a demo c.d
Even though I was still a bit poorly I knew I had to utilise this opportunity. I decided I would write a few original tracks for the demo as well as doing a few covers, so I got to work and wrote 3 new songs. I was lucky to have some good musician friends who agreed to play for me, so they learned my songs and we spent 2 days in the studio and got 7 tracks done. I was very chuffed, as that is alot to get done in 2 days !

After mixing and mastering the tracks I commissioned a 1000 hardcopies, and here started the arduous task of sending them out to radio, publishing, labels and people who had requested a copy, I spent most days back and fourth to the post office sending the cd's out to nearly every part of the world. Of course back then I thought the thing to do was to get a huge record deal, ha ha ha..yes I am genuinely laughing at my own naivety !
I also posted the tracks from the demo on myspace and various other sites, and my profile started to rise with more people visiting and sending my lovely comments. In amongst these new friends was a record label from America. I received a wonderful message from the label telling me how they loved my voice and thought I had huge potential, all the good stuff you love to hear when you are someone trying to their "big break". As you can imagine I was very excited when they asked if I was interested in signing with them. A person from the label called me a number of times, we talked about what the plans were as far as me going to the U.S, recording and the various musicians that would be brought in on the project, I can't mention who, but one or two of them were well known names.
I was nervous and excited, and started to get my head around the massive things that were going to be happening, making plans etc. I even had a meeting with a UK representative ( or so I thought ) here in Wales. I am not one to be easily led, at this point all seemed well.
Then the contracts arrived !
I have to tell you am very lucky to have some very good friends who have worked within the music industry who know their stuff, and I am also fortunate to have access to a media lawyer. On first glance the contract looked ok, to me anyway, but then I didn't understand alot of the wording. Basically when I had the terms of the contract explained to me in English I couldn't believe what I might have signed, it was a complete scam. I would have signed all my rights away, to my music , publishing, everything. This is what they were banking on, once I had signed the contract and was obligated under the law of their state I would have to pay £25,000 to get out, which I would have wanted to do once it dawned on me what I had signed, that is if I HAD signed. Of course when I asked a few questions about the contracts and it became obvious to them that I had been advised they withdrew the offer !

At the time I was devastated, deflated and disillusioned about the whole music industry, and my confidence took a massive blow, now I view it all as a learning curve, and it taught me alot ! Over the following months I was contacted by a number of UK artists about this particular label and it seems we were all subject to this attempted scam, luckily none of us fell for it. The more artists I speak to the more I hear about how much this goes on. They are very clever too these labels, PR people etc, they have websites and look very official, but beware because things are not always as they seem ! Though you really do want to believe it...but hey I believe in karma :-)

Reading back, this has been quite a serious blog, but as I said in the beginning I want to tell you the truth about my journey in music, even the not so nice bits !

In the next chapter I shall tell you about my first play on radio, and the really bad interview I gave..oh no, I still cringe when think about it now ! Plus moving on to more projects, and more ups and downs.

Thank you for reading, I look forward to next time.

Claire