360 Degree Music began working with Inwits in September 2009, and the band have been busy writing and rehearsing ever since, breaking only to play the odd show, with a particular highlight being their stunning performance at the Stroll On Christmas Party in December.

On March 28th they head off to Edinburgh to play their biggest gig yet, supporting Idlewild in the 1500 capacity HMV Picturehouse. This gig is actually just one part of the Haddow Festival taking place in venues all over the city on the day, and promises to be a humdinger!

We caught up with the lads for a chat prior to this momentous occasion:

Q1: Where did you get the name from?

Ah well if we were to tell you too much it might defeat the object of its meaning. Our inner wit chose it really. Inwit is a word that’s fallen out of use in the English Language over thousands of years so it’s both old and new – a lot like our musical influences. A certain Irish novelist resurrects it in his novel Ulysses, quite possibly the greatest artistic statement of the last century. The plan is for our record to achieve that status for this one!

Q2: What are you currently up to, and what are your plans and goals for 2010?

Currently shooting the breeze, but the breeze has been colder than usual of late so also making a point of keeping warm in the rehearsal room and learning a few new chords. We’re now on C#m… Our plan and goal and dream will always be to make great music, then release it and hopefully play it to more people. The exciting thing about 2010 is we can actually realise that dream this year, so I guess that’s the first plan and goal. From there we just want to play our instruments more and more till we need a breather.

Q3: Tell us about the four guys in the bands?

Buskers. Schemers. Full-Time Dreamers. The sum is most definitely greater than its parts.

Q4: Who are your influences, musical and otherwise?

Anything or Anyone with Soul. It’s getting harder to find.

Q5: Jazz or Electro?

Both are extremely exciting and there’s nothing like a dirty electro beat to get down to. But programmed beats are one thing, “The Freedom Rider” by Art Blakey is quite another. Jazz was, is, and always will be the coolest genre of music known to man. That’s coming from a guitar band. Socially it’s as important to black America as the blues (and we love the blues), musically it pisses all over most things with still a fair bit left in the tank. Finally, and most importantly, it’s unquestionably the sexiest sound going. Getting sexy to a jazz groove takes the word living to a whole new level. Miles Davis over Little Boots any day.

Q6: England or somewhere else?

England is where we’re from, and is obviously important to us. As an English band you can’t help but inject an element of Englishness into the music you make, especially with the rich musical history Englishness entails, particularly over the last fifty years. We’re all products of our time and place so obviously our songs brim with references to London, because that’s our experience. But at the same time we’re all citizens of the world and there’s much to see! James Joyce wrote masterpieces about his homeland from Paris, Zurich and Trieste. We want to be on stage playing music wherever that stage is. There’s six and a half billion people scattered around this globe and we want to play to as many of them as possible, be they in England or indeed somewhere else.

Q7: On your MySpace page, you claim that ‘attitude breeds creation’. How so?

Attitude channeled in the right manner breeds creation, those who can appreciate that whatever they’re doing in their own life will understand the meaning of that statement. Those who can’t, well essentially their the type who channel their attitude into hitting people with bottles on a Friday night, and spend the majority of their adult lives doing coke in the toilet of the same pub they’ve been drinking in since they were sixteen. We stopped worrying about those people a long time ago.

Q8: Who is David McSherry?

We don’t care he supports Tottenham. Jokes Dave! He’s a good lad from the north side of town with an eye for a garment and an ear for a melody. He and his sidekick Michael Warren have hit on a type of melancholia most of these idiot fashionista bands would remove the entire stitching of their skinniest pair of jeans for.

Q9: Is there ever anything good on the telly? If so, what?

Depends what you’re into. In fairness though some of the documentaries that have hit the small screen in the last few months have been nothing short of superb. Berlin, Making of Modern Britain, The Bible and How Earth Made Us to name but a few. It’s been a while now since it finished but Bruce Parry’s Amazon showed us all what traveling should be about. (No offence to the millions of Brits on tour in Australia). James reckons Gordon Ramsey puts on a good show whatever anyone says about his wrinkles or extra-marital activities, where as Joseph is more of a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall man! But you can’t beat the political parlance of This Week with the unholy triumvirate of Andrew Neil, Dianne Abbot and Michael Portillo late of a Thursday night.

Q10: Name five great movies.

Citizen Kane - Stonewall classic.

Un Prophet – French gangster masterpiece currently up for an Oscar.

The Big Lebowski - Comedy genius from the Coen Brothers.

Apocalypse Now – Vietnam epic based on Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness.

The Last Waltz – Swansong of The Band, with greats like Dylan, Van Morrison, Dr. John, Clapton…

Inwits x

You can get a FREE Inwits download HERE

Back in the day, Slade’s Noddy Holder shouted it’s Chhhhhrrrrrrriiiiiiissssssttttttt-mmmmmaaaaasssssssssss! which, in 1973 became the year end Number 1 and stayed at the top of the charts for 5 weeks. It certainly was a glorious time for Record Companies who must have felt their Egg has tons of Nog in it and their chestnuts were well and truly roasted! Music was going from strength to strength and the CD was just a twinkle in the eye of Phillips!

But, forward 35 years and things look very different. The Cassette, The Walkman, The CD, The CD Walkman, The Minidisc, the DVD, The DCC have all been and gone or are going and the landscape for music and it’s revenue streams are now under extreme pressure. The Music Corporations are in dire need of a ‘Nog’ transplant and they are clueless as to where to get this.

Why wouldn’t they be?

They have built their whole business model on exploitation. Exploitation of artists by not accounting to them fairly and exploitation of loyal fans by re-selling them the same music under the guise of new and better (mostly overpriced) formats.

The old game plan of “throw enough shit at the wall and some of it will stick” has no merit now in this single track world. It has been replaced by Industry Bigwigs flinging blame about and asking “who spoilt the party and put that fan there?” The traditional Music Industry is stuck firmly in a downward spiral and if you need more proof (and there are many places to look) look here.

This strain that the traditional model is under presents a great opportunity for forward thinking individuals and Companies. Bands are now empowered. Managers can shop around for deals or go it alone and find good, like-minded partnerships with dynamic Companies to get their vision and music heard. Majors are tired and slow and Indies are quicker, but bands and managers are the slickest and most versatile creatures of all.

2009 is your time.

Oh, and what makes a good band?

Write good songs, connect with your fans, be honest and above all…

Don’t split up.

You know who you are!

Laurence

If you liked this post please spread the word and Click to Digg it.

I felt the atmosphere change at the majority of Record Companies about three years ago. The black clouds were well and truly above them at this point and they’d left their umbrella’s on the tube. Sure there were some perky personnel within who were in denial about the sea change that was inevitably coming. Some were aligning themselves with statistics that (without thinking forward) looked reasonably safe. The value of digital sales as opposed to the value of physical CD sales etc. but these were flawed.

For many years now Corporations across a multitude of Industries have, what they call ‘planned obsolescence’ built into their products. Old phones give way to new (and better) models, Cars, PC’s, Games Consoles etc. In this instance the Record Industry was suffering ‘un’planned obsolescence. They had failed to adapt. Failed to think about the future.

The old ‘throw enough shit at the wall and see if it sticks model’ had turned to diarrhoea and had  began to slide down the walls of their boardrooms.

Then what followed over the next couple of years was a number of big Industry figures blaming everyone but themselves. Most recently, Seymour Stein VP at Warner Music Group and founder of Sire Records as quoted by the Globe and Mail said, “We blew it. The first major music labels were all phonograph manufacturers, but by the time the Beatles came along, most companies were no longer involved in the hardware. Had we remained in control of the hardware, we wouldn’t be hurting as much as we are now. And the iPod would be ours”

I think this quote says everything you need to know about the mentality of Record Companies. They see themselves as blameless. That they are purely victims of circumstances that they had no control over. Quite frankly this is Crap!

Record Companies have exploited artists forever – using them and tossing them away like old tissues. Whilst a few artists may have navigated their way though this vipers pit and held on to some dignity, most did not. But now the power has shifted to the Artist, Managers and few forward thinking Companies, but you need to be equipped to succeed in this brave new world. You can be an employer not an employee, but with this power comes great responsibility. It is now not possible to hide behind someone else’s decisions. You need to step up.

For a refreshing and thought provoking article about the new Industry take five minutes to read this.

If you are an Artist or Manager and want any advise or would like to work directly with a forward thinking Music Company. Click Here or contact me.

Futile of Fertile, it’s in your hands.

Laurence

I have been periodically watching Orange Unsigned and think there are actually some good bands/artists appearing. I am unclear however how being on this show will be beneficial to them in the long term? Maybe someone can explain why you’d think playing in front of a Cheese Farmer and Lauren Laverne is a positive step. Surely every sane musician knows the only way to succeed (and it ain’t quick) is to build your audience by playing gigs, work hard and craft your songs and engage with your fan base. Don’t take the devils money and Don’t give away your rights!

Be like Robert Johnson CLICK HERE!

You might as well take those Morgan Stanley cheques they send you in the post, (at 105% interest) cash them in and pay for some recording. At least you’ll keep your rights… Forever.

I guess being ‘Unsigned’ still has a stigma attached to it.  I for one am not sure what unsigned means. If you put a single out yourself, on your own label are you signed?  Lawyers find bands these days before the majors, which leads me to use the words Frying Pan and Fire in close proximity. Just visualise it. It’s you, standing at the Crossroads but now you’re flanked by two devils with Nokia and Orange waiting in the wings to delivery the fruits of your work to every phone users under the ‘everything-you-can-listen-to-and-we-may-pay-the-record-company-a-chunk-who-might-pay-you-if-you-have-filled-in-the-right-ppl-prs-mcps-forms-if-we-remember-to-tell-you’ tarif.

I hope I haven’t lost you.

Orange Unsigned had a band on called ‘Glass Shark’. I know these guys and have seen them play many times and think they are awesome. I was lucky enough to get a copy of their self funded album in the summer and it is chocked full of great tunes and really deserves a wider audience. The single ‘model’ is available through iTunes, but this is only one of many great tracks they have written . Go and see them live, enjoy the show and make your own mind up.

The panel loved them, but I think the cheese farmer said they were too old. Someone didn’t like the ties they were wearing or something. One of them looked like someone else. The drummer, Tam sings, so he became Phil Collins!

Advice like this you can do without?

Just touching on the age comment for a moment. I am not sure in law whether you can discriminate against age in this way and not have your cheesy digits rapped. But is the ‘cool’ Industry outside such remarks?

It’s OK  to be old and play as long as you started when you were 14.

Colonel Sanders never got his ‘Finger Pickin’ sauce right until he was 49.

John F. Kennedy never became president until he was 43.

If I ever need an appendectomy please can it be at the hands of a 50 year old surgeon.

Blessed Are The Cheese Makers.

Laurence