As an unsigned, unmanaged artist who over the last ten years has recorded four albums and toured around the world the internet has been indispensable. Aside from allowing me to have personal relationships with fans, I have complete creative freedom over how and in what format my albums are released. It has also given me the opportunity to reach venues, festivals and booking agents worldwide and arguably most importantly run two successful crowd-funding campaigns. The most recent being for my third album The Banshee And The Moon, produced by Danton Supple.
At fifteen I was given my first electric guitar. I had been singing since I was a child but as I grew up my fascination with words and capturing a story through melody took hold, as did my curiosity with far away lands which led in later years to studying Latin American Cultural Studies and Literature at Manchester University. I spent three years absorbed by Hispanic culture whilst playing in various different bands, but I had yet to find my own sound; a sound inspired not only by the music of generations that preceded me but also nurtured through my life experiences and travel.
After my degree I returned to London with my focus on writing, recording and playing. I never spent time chasing labels or managers; it never really crossed my mind, all I wanted to do was write and play. Soon I found the support of a great band and a producer with whom I recorded my first EP, Without Time, and so began my introduction to the power of the internet.
My first distribution deal was secured through emails in 2006 with Pete, who runs Genepool Records. I would release my albums from my own record label Transducer Records and Genepool would distribute them throughout the UK and digitally worldwide. It is worth noting that Pete and I actually never met until late 2011! My elation on releasing Without Time, was soon crushed by heartbreak and my band falling apart. So I resolved to just get out on my own and play. I emailed as many festivals and venues as I could under the pseudonym of Sophia and around 50 replied and booked me. So that summer armed with a dilapidated old Volvo, copies of my EP, Pete’s support and a guitar I set out around the UK singing and sleeping in the back of the car. With each gig a new army of supporters added names to email lists and words of encouragement.
By 2007 through a mutual friend I was introduced to producer Marius De Vries and we began work on my debut album Libellus. I had become disillusioned with peoples relationship to music and it was becoming increasingly hard as an artist to survive through CD sales. I decided to find a way to address this!
As a child growing up in a household with a basement full of vinyl records, to me a album was best represented as an LP - not only was the sound quality infinitely superior but they were beautiful; real collectors' items. You really had a sense of who the artist was and took time to value what they had created. This was in stark contrast to simply downloading a track which not only sounded over compressed but also just became lost in the database on your computer. There was no opportunity to hold and savour the moment. This was the experience I wanted buyers of my music to have, but in a way that was practical at a time when so few people have record players. I decided to create a book the size of a 7in record. Each song would be represented with a piece of artwork, or photograph and a piece of text either telling the story behind the song itself or a piece of prose that I felt was relevant. The CD would be in the inside cover. I even tried releasing the first single from Libellus, Only You, as a 7inch single with a download code. This was a pretty much unknown idea in 2008. In an attempt to involve fans further, each of the vinyl singles had a download code on it, buyers were asked to email their individual codes to as many people as possible and the fan whose word had the highest download hits won a price – my mum came in top with 3000 downloads!
How The Web Facilitated My Dreams
Singer-songwriter, Tallulah Rendall, shares her story of internet success.
With a group of friends we made a video for the signature track on the album, Black Seagull. This combined with the artwork and Genepool’s online distribution network meant that countries all around the world were able to buy and see my album. For those countries that didn’t have physical copies of the book/CD available they were able to view and download a version of the book with turning pages! To see the artwork please visit my website.
Through the combined efforts of physical and digital releases support grew in Australia, New Zealand and Japan and in 2010 and 2011 I was invited to tour these countries. Again this was through people responding to my emails or stumbling across my work online. Either way it gave me a real sense of freedom. I was able to release my albums in both a digital format as well as a physical format that inspired both myself and others and later in 2011 made it possible for me to embark on my next album ALIVE.
Alive and Pledgemusic.com
To begin with it was really hard, as not many people understood the process of crowd funding; many thought I was just after free money. Essentially I was selling resources to raise funds to record my second album: supporters could hire me for performances, buy pieces of artwork, copies of previous albums, feature in music videos, the list went on.. But god it was full on. I really had to battle with my own self-belief. I promoted the campaign on Facebook, through my email lists and through various online blog sites. Because it was a fairly new concept a lot of journalists were interested in supporting it and so for three months my life revolved around the Internet and battling the fear that if I didn’t reach my target I would not receive any of the funds.
SEATA – Sarah Elizabeth Mills Allergy Treatment Appeal
Crowd funding gave me the opportunity to communicate one on one with hundreds of fans. This was amazing and a chance for me to really engage with people who were passionate about my work. One of the first people to pledge was a lady called Sarah Elizabeth Mills. Sarah suffers from extreme and life degenerating allergies, her battle to be well is an inspiration to all. When I found out she had pledged whilst also trying to fund raise herself to buy the medicines she needed to try and live a normal life, I was totally overwhelmed and we had a very teary phone call. I am extremely honoured to have met her and have since been asked to be the patron of her charity SEATA please take a moment to visit her website and if you can donate to help please do. https://seatafund.wordpress.com/
PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL RELEASE
For my second I wanted to continue exploring the medium of books. However I also wanted to expand the project and push my own boundaries. I decided to collaborative, not on the music side but for the album’s artwork and so I began approaching friends. The result was eleven songs with eleven artists, each artist creating a piece of work in response to the music. We filmed each artist as they creating and edited this to footage of us recording at Hookend Studios. The result was 11 music/documentary videos showing painters, dancers, jewellery makers, animators, and sculptors. The final album was a 150 page hardback book sold with the cd and a DVD of all the films, distributed again by Genepool. Online wise once again we created the digital version of the book, plus for online promotion I used all the videos showcasing the music and the artists; it was a really amazing experience and one that was only made possible because of all the fans who were involved in the crowd funding project.
Alive ‘title track’ collabating with The Music Painter – Kilford
Go Bathe In The Light – collaborating with jewellery designer Bex Rox
EUROPE
Interestingly whilst the reception for the project was good in the UK it was in Europe that the support for Alive received a stronger reception. Invitations from Germany, France and Spain came in and lead to tours in these countries and the opportunity to curate an art installation exhibition as part of my show.
Alive art installation and performance in Berlin
Once again this process of touring, selling books, receiving online reviews for shows and collecting email addresses all supported the campaign. Another significant response was that Pledgemusic were really impressed with my campaign and the final album and offered me a publishing deal for ALIVE, I also secured a sync placement for my first single Blind Like A Fool in the UK film Tooting Broadway. After the installation show in Germany, I decided to settle in Berlin to write my third album. On returning to the UK briefly to spend time with my family over Christmas my life totally changed and two months later I found myself high among the snow capped mountains of the Himalayas exploring a country I never thought I would and writing the last few songs for the album in a small house overlooking three skinny cows and under the mountains gaze.
CROWD FUNDING FROM MY OWN WEBSITE
By May 2012 the album was written, but I had no one to produce the record when I wrote an email on the off chance to Danton Supple who immediately responded yes! But I had no money to pay for the recording. So I worked in an office to try and save as much as I could towards the record costs but I knew that really the only option was to run another crowd funding campaign. Could I do it again? Would people pledge again? Could I do it independently? Whilst my affiliation with pledge had been fantastic I was aware that I had a strong and active fan base and that perhaps it would be possible to run the campaign off my own website and thus save some of the third party admin costs.
The Banshee And The Moon Crowd funding video
I wrote emails to past pledgers asking whether they would be happy to pledge again through my site. Nearly all replied saying yes and so with the support of a very kind and patient polish web designer called Marcin, and Mel Gow, the site was built and the campaign began. Unlike the previous one in 2010 I was now fundraising at a time when a lot of people were suffering financially and so without a doubt it was more challenging but nevertheless I raised the £22k needed to cover the costs of making the record. It took much longer than I thought and the result was by the end of the year I was really burnt out.
A two-week break then Danton and I set off for three weeks to Osea Island to make the record. Unlike the previous three recordings this one has been a challenge in a totally different way. I had played everything on the demos I recorded in Berlin and had created a unique sound, and so we decided that we would record without a band and that I would play all the parts aside from some wonderful playing by John Blease on drums. The result is in my mind a true record of who I am as an artist at this point.
RECORDING AT OSEA ISLAND
Unlike the previous records I have decided not to self-release The Banshee and so I am putting my focus into finding a manager, label and booking agent. After ten years on my own, I have reached a limit of what I, as one person can achieve and I really want to find the right team to give this record the chance it deserves to be heard.
Saying that I can’t help myself and after putting a spontaneous message on Facebook saying ‘Tallulah Rendall Coming To A Living Room Near You’ – Who would like to host a show?? In 24hrs I have over 20 dates booked around the UK in September and with the support of a local tech friend am now looking at doing live stream events! But I mustn’t get distracted! I have to finish the artwork for The Banshee And The Moon and get the vinyl pressing sorted.. Watch this space..
By Tallulah Rendall July 2013.