What it’s like to be a Bedroom Music Producer (Video)

March 16, 2020 — Leave a comment

I can’t figure out how to promote my songs(!) I make Youtube Music videos that no one ever sees(!!)

So. This time I’m trying something different: Humor. It’s the first time I make a music video with an actual narrative, a story (sorta) that is told throughout the video, with a beginning and an end. This is the story of the Bedroom Music Producer and the pitfalls that await. It’s inspired by the last five years of my life really, years I have dedicated to putting self-produced, self-made music music online. It hasn’t been easy or lucrative, but it has been fun. There is hope. Enjoy:

I review my own song: “Ears On You” [Funk Rock]

March 26, 2019 — Leave a comment

I made this a few years back, but I only released it recently. I get a sense that this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a more mainstream rock form in that it has a chorus, verses, a solo and even a pre-chorus, which is something I’ve always liked in other musician’s songs, but had difficulty reproducing in my own music. The pre-chorus is the sort of build up, a bridge if you will, making the transition between the verse and until the chorus.

I would call this style: Funk Rock. Primarily because of two elements: The drum beat and the funky wah guitar. You may be reminded of Red Hot Chili Peppers or Jane’s addiction (But that could also be just in my mind). I’ve also heard from a fan that it has an 80s vibe, due in part by the synthesizer solo in the middle I would guess.

I was inspired to make this (and this is supported by the lyrics) by the sampling trend in the 90s. Artists like Beck took drum breaks from little known songs, and layered their own music on top (That is very true of his song “looser”). A lot of the time the end result was danceable, funky, heavy. When I started listening to these, I became transfixed. Maybe it’s because my primary instrument is the drums, in any case those break beats really spoke to me. In this song I don’t use samples (Because copyrights) but I try to replicate the funky, heavy beat of those days.

I’m a solo artist, and so I write and play all the instruments your hear. I also produce everything myself, and this includes mixing and mastering.

The vocals are run through an instrument called a Leslie amp, which is a mechanical revolving speaker essentially. It gives the vocals a vibrating feel. But don’t get too excited, Leslie amplifiers can get pretty expensive, so I only have the software version: a plugin which imitates the real thing.

The song is part of an 8 song album called “Cross Talk” released in January of 2019.

“Cross Talk” Album on:

Bandcamp

Spotify

itunes

My best foot forward

July 21, 2018 — Leave a comment

I’ve been (seriously) making music for about 3 years now. Along the way, I’ve uploaded tracks to BandCamp, Spotify, iTunes and Soundlcoud. I’ve made countless Youtube videos, tweeted about my music and tried to promote myself via Instagram and Facebook.

I haven’t made much in terms of money, yet. Some sales here and there, some Stream revenue now and then, but nothing major, or at least not profitable.

What I do have however are Statistics. Loads of them. Number of likes, shares, downloads, comments, listen or watch time average, subscribers, followers, re-tweets and everything else in between.

I haven’t made a full-proof, scientific analysis of all these numbers, but, intuitively, out of the 30 some tracks I’ve put out there, one, in particular, seems to stand out.

“Egyptian Wedding” is an Electronic Rock track, with a Middle Eastern inspired drum beat. It’s instrumental, but has enough melodic elements to catch the attention of listeners. At least, according to my stats.

I hope to bring more attention to it, by writing this post, maybe help it makes it’s way into your ipod or iphone, who knows. In any case, if you like it, you might also appreciate the “Best Of” album I put out, featuring this track and others, that all, have shown signs of movement, by topping my own personal statistics charts.

A number one hit you probably never heard (Unless you’re Australian)

June 20, 2018 — Leave a comment

So by this point, I think most people would agree that movies offer great opportunities to discover new music. In this blog entry, I want to share my latest such discovery.

I was watching the movie “The Dish” (2000) with Sam Neil. It’s based on real events, and is about a small town in Australia that happens to have a large radio telescope. NASA asked to use it during the moon landing in 1969, to relay television footage of the actual moon walk. Great movie if you ask me.

The movie opens with a montage and a soundtrack that immediately caught my attention. It’s a track by Australian Artist: Russell Morris, called “The Real Thing”

This was a hit in Australia in 1969, it reached number one there. What immediately got me was the opening guitar riff. Its a simple little thing, going between two chords on a acoustic guitar, but it’s beautiful. Also, the way it was recorded makes it extra special. I can’t explain it. It just sounds vintage, crunchy. I think music bloggers would call this style “Psychedelic Rock” (I’m not a big fan of categorizing music, personally, but that’s a whole other blog post) in any case, there is a overwhelming sound effect throughout this song, called “Flanger” popular in those days.

I’m surprised I had never heard this song before, but it’s one of those. Those songs I like on the FIRST listen. In in this case, the first few bars. I’m listening to it as I type. The piano (comes in later) gives it a “boogie” vibe. I think the 60’s hippies would say “Groovy Man”

This Track was inspired by the Acid trance music of the 90s

June 6, 2018 — Leave a comment

“Inspired” Not a copy, not a remake, just a driving love for the crunchy bass used in Acid trance songs like Josh Wink’s 1995 hit “Higher State of Consciousness” just slower and more “Hip Hop-ee”

I read somewhere , someone called it “Acid Funk” which is exactly what is going on in my Youtube video. It is a slower pace, has a Hip Hop beat but the Crunchy, repeating bass sound is there. It is made using a Volca Bass and sending that through the BOSS loop station (RC-202) adding for some funky wah wah distortion effect. In this performance, I’m trying to replicate the “drops” heard over and over in the dance hits that I love so much. (You’ll be able to hear one at 0:30 and a slightly less impressive one at 1:25)

Be sure to stay until 2:51 where you can hear me go crazy “staccato” style with the Boss Looper’s Repeat effect. That Part really brings this song over the top IMAO.

“Hey Brother”, my Latest Song Out On Soundcloud

May 19, 2018 — Leave a comment

I’m adding songs with a little bit of singing to my Soundcloud profile these days, because I’ve got this idea in my head that people would rather listen to that than instrumental music.

This one’s pretty simple, the whole lyrics are: “Hey Brother, you’re doing it on your own” repeated, looped and cut.

At first, the lyrics came out different, it was “Hey Mother, I’m doing it on my own” but I changed it because I didn’t want people to think I had “Mommy Issues” (Which I do, but I’m working on that, don’t worry) Now I know what you are thinking, you’re thinking: “You shouldn’t be worried about what people think” and you’d be right, except, I am worried (I’m working on that also, don’t fret)

I have no idea what style of music this is. I want to say Trip Hop? I’m not sure. All I can tell you, is that it was made with an instrument called: The Korg Electribe Sampler. I made a video a while back, using the same song structure and lyrics and it got liked a lot, if ever you are interested to see:

A behind the scene look at making music with a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)

April 25, 2018 — Leave a comment

This is a music video for my latest instrumental song “Time Opera”. It offers a glimpse into how music is made, using a computer. Only the base beat is an actual instrument (The OP-1 synthesizer, from the Swedish company, Teenage Engineering) everything else is virtual.

I made this Instrumental Music Album Specifically for Programmers and Coders

March 9, 2018 — Leave a comment

Hello! I’m Roxton Fone. Before I started making music full time, I worked in tech. I remember how helpful it was to have a good instrumental playlist (Or a stack of CDs) on hand to listen to while coding or doing work that requires a lot of concentration. And so I used that experience to make this Science themed music album, I called: “Background Radiation”. Its clearly Electronic music, but NOT dance music. It’s rooted in Rock, Blues and Progressive-Rock music.

Track list:

0:00 Cosmic Rays

4:21 String Theory

10:15 Red Shift

14:46 Background Radiation

19:50 James Clerk Maxwell

23:51 Sun Spots

You can find it on Spotify too:

By only choosing songs that START with DRUMS, I, accidentally, made an awesome Spotify playlist.

October 14, 2017 — Leave a comment

All the songs in this playlist follow one simple rule: The song must start with drums, and drums only. I went a bit further in my selection though, rejecting songs that start with drum rolls, or snare intros and choosing the ones with at least one or two bars of the main beat.

I’m always looking for suggestions and ideas for this playlist, If you’d like new songs added, just leave a comment and I’ll have a listen.

If a song is from 1950 and I never heard it, then as far as I’m concerned, it’s a NEW RELEASE.

September 18, 2017 — Leave a comment

For example, when I was watching Davis Guggenheim‘s documentary it might get loud I heard Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin, Guitar) talking about one of his early influences as he put on a great track (IMO) by Link Wray, called “Rumble”:

Well, that was the first time I heard it, and I loved it immediately, so on it came into my regular rotation, like any other recent release.

Another example that happened years ago, was when I discovered the song “Born on The Bayou” from Creedence Clearwater Revival. I was watching Jean Claude Van Dam’s 1993 movie Hard Tagret when the song came on, during (If I remember correctly) a motorcycle chase scene. (Someone made a tribute video on Youtube)

To be honest, what immediately drew me to that song was the “Vibrato” (Or is is tremolo? I always mix those two up) effect on the guitar riff, but that’s a whole other post.

I became a die hard fan of CCR after I started researching their music a little bit more.

There are a lot of different ways to discover good music, no matter how old it is. You don’t have to (only) wait for your favorite band’s next album, or listen to the coolest radio station, or read the most current music blog. The world is full of (old) music you never heard of, look back sometimes, you’ll make new discoveries.