Brooklyn’s Akudama Generating An EP-A-Month
Know your audience. This golden rule of communications is perhaps more applicable to the music business today than ever before. Social media tools and customizable digital distribution platforms have closed the gap between artist and audience. We’re back to fans being the currency, and the challenge facing artists is how to win and nurture a fan-base that’s being inundated with new music every single day.
Akudama, a hard-working, young indie rock band based in Brooklyn, is leveraging affordable production technology, and social media and digital distribution platforms to put out new music every month, a schedule befitting today’s indie music hype-cycle.
Akudama is (l-r) Cayce Pia, Calvin Pia, Blake Charleton, and Eli Silverman. Photo by: Lana Dandan (www.lanadandan.com)
“We’re releasing a 2-to-5 song digital EP on the first of every month, and we’ve been doing it for nine months now,” says David Buivid, Akudama’s manager and owner of Endless Recordings, which put out the band’s first full-length record, Flying Over Morning in ’05 when everyone involved was still in high school.
“These guys are really prolific; they’re always writing and they produce all the music themselves — everything’s engineered, mixed and mastered in their home studio by the band’s guitar player, Calvin Pia.”
The “EP of the Month” is released via Akudama’s Bandcamp page, and is free for that month. When the next month’s EP becomes available, the previous EP becomes streamable and downloadable for $1-per-song.
“It’s a really cool way to keep fans in the loop on what we were doing, and provide new music they can put on their iPods every month,” says Pia. “We all really feel that the full-length record format has faded in importance, so we decided to cater to the short attention span of the iPod generation and give them the digital singles they want.”
Start With A Surplus and Stay on Schedule
It’s an ambitious undertaking for any band to produce a mini-EP, with unique cover art, every month. So, how does Akudama do it? First off, they began with a surplus of material, recorded while in creative retreat up in Western Massachusetts.
Akudama guitar player and producer/engineer Calvin Pia on stage at the Mercury Lounge. Photo by: Hernan Seoane
After a post-high school hiatus, Akudama’s founding members — Calvin Pia, his brother/drummer Cayce Pia and singer/guitar player Blake Charleton — reunited in ‘07, bringing bass player, Eli Silverman, into the group. “We found this barn up in Leominster, MA, and spent three weeks writing, recording and just getting creative again,” recalls Pia. “It was like a shot in the arm, to see if it was all still clicking for us.”
Since high school, Pia had enrolled in NYU’s Music Technology program, so by this time, he had new gear and chops to capture and mix it all for release through Buivid’s Endless Recordings. “Out of those barn sessions, we put out the Johnny Appleseed EP,” says Pia. “But we had so much more material that we didn’t release and didn’t like the idea of putting it out there all at once, so we decided to spread it out over these EPs of the Month.”
Subsequent sessions in Akudama’s Bushwick rehearsal studio and regular live gigs have generated the past couple years’ worth of new material, and a variety that seems particularly suited to the monthly release schedule. Akudama’s influences range from Fleetwood Mac to Wilco to Broken Social Scene and their sound is typically airy, if not reverb-drenched, filled out by ambient guitars and big group harmonies. Listen to “Sun (From Underneath the Lake)” off the July ’09 EP here:
Elsewhere, classically catchy pop-rock licks, snappy rhythms and the occasional Doo Wop ditty keep you on your toes.
The band’s development from the studio to the stage has also enabled the necessary faster production cycles for the monthly EPs, notes Pia. “We’ve become a strong live band in the past two years, which has really made a difference in how we write and record music,” he shares. “So, now I’ll record us playing live, set up in the same room, using gobos to minimize bleed, and try to capture that live essence which is what we’re all clicking on more these days.
“I’m using Pro Tools, a Digi 002 and some decent mics,” Pia continues. “I’m all about working with what you have. I admire bands like Nurses, who captured their sound really effectively just using GarageBand. I don’t think it’s always important to go bigger in production. The most important thing is that the songs are there.”
Building the Band, Growing the Brand
All of Akudama’s releases — they’re coming up on a year’s worth of EPs of the Month, and hope to put out a vinyl compilation this spring — help grow the band as a brand, which is Buivid’s main objective, over selling units.
Akudama playing at NYC's Lit Lounge in November '09. Photo by: Hernan Seoane
“I strongly believe that recorded music is just promotion for the live show,” he says. “Music is not meant to be locked up and calcified on some medium. That’s a very 20th century concept. Music has always lived in the air, and digital distribution is allowing it to return to that place. The music is just out there now, all you have to do is find it.
“For a smaller band (bands selling less than 10K units), the recorded music is the driver for other revenue streams,” Buivid continues. “If people like the music, they’ll go see the band live and buy merchandise, and that’s the only way we make money. But the fans need to have an impetus to continue to go see the live shows.”
Akudama’s “EPs of the Month” serve as that impetus for existing fans. “The music being released on a defined schedule allows fans to always have something new to listen to and, subsequently, a reason to go see the show, because after the first of the month, the guys will incorporate those songs into their live set. And, it allows us to evolve and try out new things, and see the reaction in real time.”
This is Where Bandcamp Comes In
Hosting their EP of the Month on Bandcamp enables Akudama to track the popularity of each song they release, and compare against releases past and future. “Bandcamp allows your fans to do a lot of the legwork for you,” says Buivid. “Fans can share the new release via Facebook, email and Twitter, and we can see what’s resonating with them. We can see where our music is being shared and embedded on blogs, etc.”
The band may even consider this feedback when developing new music. “We can look at the feedback and ask ourselves what is it the fans like about the most popular songs,” explains Buivid. “If we do something with an alt-country feel and people love it, then we know that this is an avenue we should consider exploring more. It’s not about writing songs that totally cater to these trends, but more to discover what’s most likely to make the band artistically happy and please the fans.”
And when the time comes to talk to labels, Buivid will have proof of the band’s growth and potential. “The best part of the Bandcamp platform is that I’ve been able to track release by release, and the band’s been gaining support behind each one,” says Buivid. “So, when I’m ready to put out the full-length, I’ll have options.
“I’ll be able to show labels: this is what our audience looked like 8 months ago, and three months ago and today. I can show them demographic information. They can actually see how it’s doing in the market.”
For more on Akudama, visit http://akudama.bandcamp.com and http://www.myspace.com/akudama; visit Buivid’s Endless Recordings at http://www.endlessrecordings.com. Follow @AkudamaMusic and @Bandcamp on Twitter!