Workshop – UnMixing

my  approach to mixing is, in the best case scenario, to let every instrument sound as natural as possible - the perfect recording should sound as close to standing in the room with the band as possible. Get the band in the room sounding as good and balanced as they can and your mixing is already half done. I'll be discussing how this approach applies to Ghost Notes' By Cover Of Night (streaming below), which is probably the most naturalistic recording I've produced. Recorded at The Old Museum in October 2010, it features a rock lineup performing decidedly non-rock music, augmented by piano, trumpet, whistling and bowed cymbals.

Get Connected at the UnConvention Networking Session

Supported by soundslikebrisbane, this years UnConvention Brisbane networking session will kick off at 8pm Saturday, upstairs at the Boundary Hotel in West End.

Reflecting on the various showcases that I've been to at these type of things it struck me that the conference delegates rarely go to listen to bands. It's mostly to get drunk, hang out and make new friends. So we've had a rethink this year and have decided to run our networking event as an informal quiz-night on local Brisbane music trivia. 

Teams are going to be lead by UnConvention speakers and we're going to mix everyone up together so they meet and chat with some new people. There'll be some great music from Jhonny Russel, Potato Masta and Pear and the Awkward Orchestra and we're putting on a bar-tab so it's going to be a lot of fun.

UnConvention Brisbane 2011 Program

Documenting Brisbane Music

musicians and the music industry can be a cruel and unkind bunch; Frank Zappa described music journalists as “people who can’t write”, Van Halen’s lead singer, David Lee Roth thinks most music critics like Elvis Costello because they look like Elvis Costello, Peter Hook, Joy Division’s/New Order’s bassist, sides with his lawyer in calling music photographers “morally bankrupt” and even the Splendour In The Grasses organisers wrote on their Facebook page to denigrate “aspiring music hacks” as “dysfunctional nerds who did quite well at English at school”.

And yet some people still just want to document their local music scene.  

Justin has assembled a panel of writers, bloggers, photographers and videographers with years of experience in documenting the local music scene to discuss what they do, how they do it, why they do it, whether they think it is important or not and what keeps them going in the face of adversity and apathy.  As documenters and mainstays of the local music scene the panel also intends to discuss the wider issues affecting Brisbane music as they see them. 

Workshop – Run Your Own: Setting up and Managing a DIY Music Event

Bringing people together for a good time is probably Annie Te Whiu’s favourite thing in life. Having worked in events for cultural organisations such as Woodford Folk Festival, Zillmere Multicultural Festival, Cirque du Soleil, Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre, Judith Wrights Centre of Contemporary Arts, State Library of Queensland and currently at Museum of Brisbane as Producer Public Programs, Annie has experience in a whole range of events.

Along with six other board members, Annie is also working voluntarily directing the upcoming inaugural Home Festival on Sunday 19th June (www.home-festival.com), a free festival which aims to bring people together to celebrate community and question what the concept of ‘home’ means to us all. Surely ‘home’ is more complex than simply the place we crash. Join Annie for a workshop to gain some hot tips on how to put on your very own event.

We Don't Play Guitars

Embracing the machine as a tool for expression has never been in the lime light of Australian music. Whilst Electronic music may be experiencing a slight surge in popularity, guitars still dominate the live and indie music scenes.

This year UnConvention Brisbane has asked Alex Yabsley (Dot.AY) and Ray Bourne (Rainman) to lead a discussion on how to build and sustain a career in music while rocking laptops, turntables, synths and bent circuitboards. Alex explains:

existing on the fringe I feel electronic artists and promoters develop ways and means
to sustain a career outside of the regular circuit.

I have been involved in electronic music performance, promotion and
recording for a few years and am constantly suprised that audiences
exist for the very niche and specific music I perform and promote. I
think a big part of it is a sense of camaraderie and unity within
electronic music communities, the fewer there are involved the more
passionate and driven people seem to become in promoting and
supporting it.

But how do you make such a thing sustainable, fresh, interesting,
approachable or non-elitist. Whilst these small communities are great
at holding themselves together how do they expand and innovate. I
personally have absolutely no idea but am hoping this panel will shed
some light on such matters. It's time for more people to start Raging
with the machine, not against it.

If you're an aspiring MC, DJ, beat-maker, producer or just prefer the sound of circuits to guitar strings get your tickets to UnConvention and have a chat with Alex, Ray, Sam Grace, DJ Butcher, Dan Cameron, Saint Surly and Monster Monster.

Sustaining the Chaos

For artists creating music - performance and recording is fuel for the artistic engine, yet how do you maintain the energy show after show? How do you keep it fun when sometimes it doesn’t feel like it?  What keeps you going in between shows? 

Kellie Lloyd will honestly explore these questions at UnConvention Brisbane 2011 with Dan Kelly, Jeremey Neale, Dom Miller, Julia Bridger and Chris Hunter. Kellie explains that

as a musician and someone working in the music industry, I’m intrigued by people who populate it and how they do the things they do. 

I am particularly interested by how people cope with post tour blues, how they maintain being artistic whilst work full time jobs.   It’s really hard being in a band. It’s not particularly glamorous and you really don’t make that much money.  However, what you find with artists and musicians is that they are driven. 

It’s why I chose to curate “Sustaining the Chaos”. 

The speakers on the panel all have one thing in common - a love of music - and we'll be discussing whether this is enough to sustain a career in the music industry.

How does Julia Bridger, a young emerging band manager working with a band on an upward climb, manage 10 people, a full time job and a life?

How hard was it for Dom Miller to put aside his own creative practice post-Rocketsmiths and help the careers of others as a manager for Ben Salter and Texas Tea?

What makes Dan Kelly and Jeremy Neal want to keep pursuing a career as performers in the face of overwhelming odds and tight finances?

Then there is Chris Hunter, dedicating so much of his life to supporting an underground scene with little to no fanfare, a lot of hours volunteering on community radio purely for the love of it. What inspires him when it’s other peoples creative output that he is dedicated to supporting?

I see this panel providing an honest and inspiring conversation with some very talented people about who they are and how they do what they do. 

To take part in this conversation grab your tickets to UnConvention Brisbane 2011 now.

Music and Geekery

To join Jaymis, Dan, Leigh, Chris and Hunz for a chat grab your tickets for UnConvention from Oztix.

So you want to run a live music venue?

If you've ever dreamed of running your own venue – from your lounge room to a 1000 capacity theatre – you need to be at UnConvention Brisbane this year. Our 'Run Your Own Venue' panel, led by Blair Hughes, features a stellar lineup of local venue operators: Joc Curran (owner/booker of The Zoo), Brett Wood (owner/booker of The Hive All Ages), Trina Massey (booking agent for X & Y Bar), Sara May (venue manager of The Hi-Fi), Nick Smethurst (promoter with In Finland).

Blair explains why he's running this session and what he hopes attendees will get out of it:

Music and Failure

UnConvention Brisbane 2011 will explode some of the myths around ‘making it’ in music and embrace failure as a valuable learning experience and a way to build a sustaining career in music, regardless of whether you work on or off-stage. Ed Guglielmino will lead a discussion (with Leanne De Souza, Rick Chazan and Ben Eltham) on how to fail better as well as the impact and value of failure on the creative process. Ed describes his relationship with failure and how it informs his view of success: