DANIEL WRIGHT
Daniel Wright is one of the best up and comers in the Australian music industry. You may know him from Melbourne band The Rollercanes or from running the label Main Offender Records. Hazy Days Music thanks Daniel Wright for taking the time out and sharing some tips and his experiences working in the music industry.
An old mentor (David Thor) once told you: "Never forget that you're a musician first over everything else", this advice has always stuck with you, and since you told me this over a year ago, it's always been in the back of my mind. You have recently finished up working at APRA after a year and a half. How was the experience working there? Do you notice this advice playing a key role in your decisions moving forward?
I’ve always wanted to work in the music industry whether it be as a musician, audio engineer or part of an artist’s team. Working at APRA was a good experience, you pick up industry skills that you wouldn’t necessarily learn if you were working at a record label or booking agency. I did feel like while I was there, I was not as in touch with my creative side, compared to when I was encouraged to be a musician while working at a label. I had a great job at APRA and I really enjoyed working there. My position, however, wasn’t a creative role and after a while, it starts to play in the back of your mind that you might be losing touch with your creativity. That feeling was made stronger by the fact that I was working somewhere that so many amazing musicians and creative people come into the office daily. It inspired me to make sure that once I got home from work, I’d be using that time to get creative and always look to make extra time for being creative. Seeing all those people would remind me that I have to keep working hard at being a musician and that at the end of the day my passion was song writing. Being a musician is important to me, so moving forward, I’m making sure that this is a key consideration when making decisions about my future.
Before COVID 19, your time management and prioritizing skills must have been elite – Being the Managing Director of Main Offender Records, playing in The Rollercanes (guitar/vocals), managing artists (DPRS & The Rollercanes), working at APRA and doing some mixing and producing on the side. With so much going on, did you ever find it difficult to prioritize? And now throughout the lockdown, how have you been using this free time?
Before COVID 19, it was hard, working at APRA 5 days a week 9-5, that’s a decent chunk of the week already gone, and then you start to think about the stuff you need to be working on like playing my own music, song writing and being creative in general. You need to put time aside to be working on and developing those skills, then there’s putting aside time for band practice and then on top of that I’m often working on a few mixes as well. For The Rollercanes, I’ve always got mixes and songs I can be working on, but I found it hard, I couldn’t be doing too much because I couldn’t give everything the attention that it deserved. When it comes to managing DPRS, that’s a bit of a different story, that band is an absolute machine, it’s more like a co-manage. There’s 6 of them in the band, and they’re all really hands-on and proactive. They’re good at setting their own roles for the band and they’re always in the driver’s seat, so when they come to me, it’s often around the time of release or the lead up to them playing shows again. I know when it’s go time that they have already set up the groundwork, the effort has already been put in, I’ll have everything I need and they’re ready to hit it hard. The thing for me that took the biggest hit was my audio stuff. I was really only left with the weekends to be working on it, so I might get only a couple of hours before a band practice to touch up some of the mixes.
For the future, I’m not too sure what’s going to be happening, but right now I get to put all my time and focus into production and mixing, and I have recently picked up a few other projects that I am currently working with. With Main Offender Records, I’m using this period to organise and set everything up a bit better, because life will eventually go back to normal and I don’t want the pressure of not having enough time to affect my dedication. I’m not too sure exactly where I want to take Main Offender next, and I’m ok with that. I’m happy and excited to see how it unfolds and where it takes me.
You have been building quite an impressive career so far in the music industry. Since the beginning, you have been involved in almost every different avenue of it. What have you found to be the most beneficial for you to learn the industry? (studying, The Push Program, internships, mentors and playing in bands). For someone trying to start a career in the industry what advice could you give them?
Being in a band has been extremely beneficial, you learn so much in such a short time and I learned a lot of experience firsthand. Going to Uni did help, completing a bachelor’s degree in audio production, you are just constantly surrounded by and talking to musicians. The most beneficial thing for me was just getting out there and being involved in the community, that’s where The Push Program was a really good reminder for me, that you just have to connect with people and you can’t expect that everyone is going to know who you are and just give you a shot. So, going out and connecting with people, not just for networking reasons, where you are clearly only doing it to get something out of it, but where you’re actually becoming friends. Having a real connection with someone where you get to learn alongside them along the way is so much more beneficial for everyone. That’s why I highly recommend The Push Program to any musician or anyone that’s trying to start a career in the music industry. It’s just a great experience where you make so many friends along the way, there are so many opportunities to volunteer and be a part of the music scene.
One of opportunities I had was volunteering at Melbourne’s CHANGES Festival. It was an amazing experience, so many important people are there and it was just great way to get your face out there and people will hopefully recognise you from it. The environment at CHANGES is super open and everyone is willing to have a conversation. It helps because you have all been hanging around all day, getting involved in the activities and everyone looks really familiar. My advice would be that it's important to see the industry as though you are all part of a big supportive community where everyone is willing to help out, rather than coming in only focused on securing employment or only talking about how the community can benefit you. It’s much more rewarding going in without expectations.
I'm not sure if you have been seeing these ads as well, but lately, I've been getting a lot about these services that boost your plays and follows on streaming platforms. You pay between $25-50(one-off or a continuing subscription), and apparently, they'll increase your plays by the thousand, gain hundreds of new followers, and you'll also be added to the hottest playlist. For a new band that might not have the knowledge or have someone they can ask for advice. Do you think it's a good idea to pay for this service? Or what would your advice be for a new band trying to grow their audience and the benefits of doing it organically?
I have seen them pop up, clicking on something like that and paying money for that service, I can’t see it being worth it. Yes, you can do it and get your streams up, and for some people that’s all they are after. Of course, when you have a single coming out it’s nice to have a thousand plays guaranteed, but doing it organically is so much more beneficial in the long run, plus you are building real fans. My band The Rollercanes, we aren’t one of those bands on Spotify with tens of thousands of plays, so I can see the appeal of getting quick plays, but you can’t underestimate how important it is to build a real and organic following. If you have the money to spend, spend it on promoting it to your fans and building long term listeners rather than paying for someone to up your streams that way. It’s hard to tell if anyone will actually be listening to your song through that service or if it’s just bots playing the song on repeat.
For me, I see going down that path and those numbers more as an empty statistic, I don’t really know enough about these services, but to me, it just doesn’t seem beneficial. I think it goes back to what I’ve been saying about building a community, growing real fans that will be long term listeners and who will come out to your shows that you can talk to and build a connection with, is the best way to do it. I know it can be a task sometimes to find the right contact information for playlists creators and it might take a bit of time for your band to get onto one, but there are no short cuts if you want to build a strong audience. I don’t see it as a wise investment to go down that path, like for your next single are you willing to keep paying for the plays? In the end, you don’t end up learning anything about your audience. It all ties in with how it’s important to involve yourself with your music community to learn and develop, the same thing goes for creating your audience.
“Cops on Bikes” is one of the latest singles by The Rollercanes - Stream it here.
