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WHAT IS GOING TO BE ON THE DEMO TAPE?
by: Stan Cullimore
Some of you may be familiar with what is required when submitting a demo, but it is still worthwhile to add more facts to what you already know. However, the first thing that has to be on any demo you ever make is your name, address, and telephone number! The second thing is some songs. However, before you rush out to start recording, think! How many of them should you record? Which ones should you choose? In addition, which order should they go in on the finished tape?
If you get any of these factors wrong, the demo tape can be a complete waste of time.
[For a brief while, after I retired from being a pop star I became an A&R man at Polydor (it stands for Artist and Repertoire). It means that you are the person at the record company who listens to all the demo tapes, and tries to find groups to sign up before anyone else can sign them up. It also means that you drink a lot of coffee - but that is beside the point.]
From my own experience, I can tell you that the answers to the above are as follows:
1. Put two or three songs on a demo - at the most! You see the people to whom you are going to send this tape receive hundreds of them. In addition, they do not have the time, or patience, to spend hours listening to each one.
2. Choose your best songs - not necessarily, the ones you wrote, or that your mum prefers, but the ones that go down best with an audience.
3. Always, I mean always put that song that sounds the best, when recorded, at the beginning of the tape, for the same reason as with (1) above.
The last thing I would say about what goes on a demo tape, again from my own experience in A&R is never ever make excuses for the poor quality of anything on the tape. (They do not care if the drummer had measles, or if your cat died, or if you ran out of money).
If you try to make excuses, it just means that your tape goes right in the bin, without even being listened to for the usual thirty seconds!
Right now, you can afford to go into the studio, and you know what you are going to put on tape! The last question is:
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH IT?
The correct answer, apart from “Selling as many copies as possible,” is simple. You are going to send every single Non-Punter whose name and address you can think of, because with demo tapes it is definitely a case of the more the merrier.
The wider you spread your net, the more chance you have of catching something ) in the nicest possible sense of the word, of course) or of being noticed by someone who can help you move on up.
[For example:
One of the people whom we had sold a tape knew Billy Bragg (who was himself at that time signed to the record label we wanted to sign to). Anyway, one day, when this person was around at Billy's house, our tape dropped out of her bag. Billy picked it up, played it, liked it (such good taste) and gave us a ring.
He then put in a good word for us with his record company boss - who eventually signed us up to the label. So we all lived happily ever after!]
Apart from that, the other thing you have to do with demo tapes is listen to them. And listen to them carefully. Once you have done that, you should start to identify your weaknesses, and your strengths - because everybody else will. (The Swines!).
About the Author: Stan Cullimore -- was the guitarist and CO-songwriter for a band called The Housemartins. This group was around in the mid-eighties, had numerous hits around the world (including at least one No. 1), and released several albums (which sold lots and lots of copies).
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