Re: Who Needs Clothing? *LONG* Business Oriented

[AKASHMUSIC@aol.com]

Sorry about that empty Post from earlier in the day. 

I'm no Music Industry Expert, but These topics have been squarely in the 
center of my mind the last few weks as AKASH is about to perhaps move into 
a 
different realm of its commercial existence.

>From being mainly a performance art collective into an 
"Entertainment-Package", AKASH is now more or less positioned to be sorta 
inspire the experience and behavior which audiences displayed toward The 
Rocky HOrror Picture Show without duplicating rocky horror.

We want audiences to have the same repeat - over and over again experience 
with AKASH that people would have similar to like that they did have with 
Rocky Horror where relationships were built up around it and the movie not 
only was entertainment but the experince became the event and subsequent 
experiences were built around the movie...we want that type of experience 
but 
we want to make it more interactive and have an evolving story to be able 
to 
compensate for the amount of performers who come and go thru AKASH and 
also 
have stock characters who are available to individuals who can slip into 
them 
and both grow and adpat them quickly and professionally so that there is a 
continuity which can be counted upon by audiences to be deleivered and 
maintained by AKASH.

& that means we are now adapting away from 90% improv to a more "scripted" 
and a lot more narrowly defined set of musical landscapes with a lot less 
full frontal nudity and more of an emphasis which is deliberately set at a 
level of certain R-Rated Sexual Content which is fit to be printed and or 
on 
the level of a Howard Stern MEdia System...But Who Needs Clothing?

Try looping in a context-venue where 50 or more persons in your audience 
are 
having sex in front of you or all around you as they - the audience - are 
engaged in extreme Bondage or very explicit sexual acts...if you found 
yerself @ somethin like that, you'd have a gig that is very similar to 
what 
we have in AKASH.

But how many robert fripps are there out there already and how many more 
of 
them can there be in such a narrow market & how are they ever gonna 
sustain 
themselves regardless as to who they are and or how good they are or will 
be?

A lot of great musicians are understandably so wrapped up in the 
perspective 
of being a "good musician" as opposed to also simultaneously looking at 
what 
not only is contextual in terms of audience and performer relationships, 
but 
also in terms of the music industry where developing and connecting with 
an 
audience and also where both on the inside and outside getting paid etc, 
is 
all about and down to - meeting people who are going to put money in your 
pocket or getting a chance at connecting with people whom you can work 
with 
or encounter who will help you put money in theirs & your pockets.

But to blance the art commerce thing takes a certain energy in personality 
and disposition of which I definitely dont naturally have or care to 
engage.

but still I find myself improvising in that area and holding my own - 
sorta- 
but it is if you need 10 heads to talk together and also its challenging 
knowing you are reasonably intelligent person dealing with people in a 
music 
industry that think you really know nothing and treat you that way at 
times 
when for yrs before u met them you were the manufacturer, factory, sales, 
marketing, distribution, promotions, street-team and publicist all in one 
but 
suddenly you are dumb as you sit in an office environment - have not 
adapted 
to that one yet as we are also learning we dont have to like the people we 
do 
business with to do business with them and get what we need.

and it seems IMHO to likewise hold that any musical endeavor which seeks 
to 
go beyond the garage is about not where you are at as much as it is about 
where you in turn are willing to Meet people where they are AT.

That is something which you are either willing to do, conscious of or not 
able to do or motivated to not do.

But unless you willingly play to an audience who appreciates "obscurity", 
it 
seems that those audiences who appreciate obscurity don't have $ depending 
upon the level of obscurity you're at.

A hardcore "obscurirty" crowd tends to be other obscure musicians ( which 
is 
desirable and perfectly understandable)  and or the people with whom you 
will 
perform at some other time.

& I'm not saying obscurity is a bad thing as much as I am saying that 
getting 
paid for obscurity and seeing people make money while u perform at their 
establishment and not having them want to pay you is to be always expected 
becasue you have to have more to "show" for something more than than just 
your good performance-work when talking about pay in a commercial context, 
that all again comes down to perception and how well you mangage or 
direct-re-direct that energy or how you create a perception of value which 
is 
compelling to make someone feel that they shoud and need to pay you.

It is simply not a realistic expectation to get paid for having obscurity 
unless you somehow invert the obscurity around somethinng audiences and 
also 
promoters do get and or would like to have/get or want to be like 
themselves 
becasue atthat point you are guraunteeing something in large quantities 
and 
consistently so to where promoters-booking agents know that to get you 
they 
will have to be competitive and equal to or better than what other venues 
pay 
to get you as that their investment in you is small compared to what their 
returns will be for them.

And I'm not saying that you should expect to be treated unfairly..but 
rather 
I'm sayin that obscurity does have a price just as everything in this 
world 
does including te flip side of obscurirty - commercial - success.

And also where even with an "obscure" audience that has $$$, they tend to 
only come out to "name" shows for the few artists they see and already 
know.

But unless you are one of Those few who are already selling something you 
are 
almost intentionally shut out or you operate on how you are "PERceived" as 
being where that operative enegery is confirmed through others who are 
perceived to be doing or saying something...

But in these business situations which are really manipulations of 
illusions 
-  I personally still take serioulsy the illusions as they are all part of 
what ya encounter and have to be prepared to either respond to or react to 
in 
either a proactice or less than - leveraging - reactive manner.

And another way to view the whole art vs commerce thing is that you must 
either have your own money to finance your wrk and thusly live by what you 
set your intentions to be and or you compromise ...but to what degree? ( 
compromise is something we are all literally born Doing IMHO )

Personal & Shared Goals can be acomplished collectively or individually 
but 
seeing both sides of where you play in terms of not justthe venue but the 
arena you will be a laeger part of regardless as to whether or how much 
you 
like "it- the industry-audiences-tastes, etc" or regardless as to what 
degree 
you agree with something, it is IMHO empowering and a conscious chance to 
prepare and position youself into creating other opportunities for you to 
continue to do and expand-share your musical experiences with others.

But again, maybe if we were to consider where people are at and what we 
are 
doing and where we can at least meet them where they are at and then move 
them along to wherever weare at - that type of art is actually the most 
effective where in that process in addition to the time you spend 
crafting, 
developing or honing your skills you can not just preach to the choir but 
truly grow the flock and transform yourself without being swallowed up or 
lost or having to be marginalized.

& I firmly believe that people dont really listen to music the ways in 
which 
they used to in the sense where their listening is a lot more passive with 
critical fucntions largely absent or dumbed down or in most cases IMHO 
actively ambivalent where until awakened &/or redirected elsewhere, people 
mainly go humming along to what is immediately available for them and 
especially so today where there is absolutely more music than ever 
available 
to anyone to pick and choose from and less interest on listeners part in 
experiencing new music as much as there is an emphasis on reinforcing 
imagery 
which is very group and herdlike for the masses ( not bad or good but its 
aesthetic currency depends on the messengers and their intentions and 
ability 
to tell a story beyond the herds but still success or reaching the masses 
beyond the choir doesnt happen becasue of that often i think it happens 
despite that aesthetic).

People ( a commercial audience or an audience which would get 
entry-level-commercial-designation) could care less about the musical 
experiences we as musicians have had or what we seek to discover as that 
people's ambitions are not as great as they once were concerning listening 
and hearing music and in many instances, i dont even think they are aware 
of 
the dynamics of their relationship to music anymore.

Also, the amount of time that people have or consciously and deliberately 
give their attention to music is something which they only marginally do.  

Music is less and less something which people are seeking out as it now 
doesnt really pay to guide people to other outlets or newer outlets unless 
they are your own and no one listens or cares that much when you do these 
days unless you are like everyone else IMHO.

But to make all this stuff work ya (IMHO) gotta dumb down "marketing" of 
self 
and your complexities and speak and make others feel that you are on their 
simple and immediate-level and have the necessary tie ins which are able 
to 
be drawn to get others to buy "you" because thats how the message gets out 
today and with reptition and thru multiple Visual Associations you become 
transformed into a brand.

Thats nothing new i would imagine to a maturing music industry, but it was 
never as true as it is today with so much music being present and so 
little 
interest and demand for new music which you would pay to receive.

I'm also saying that today either you sell & are perceived as bankable or 
you 
have the perception of branding and an image which multiple people can buy 
into or rather you are perceived as a waste and marginal or worse IMHO 
labeled "experiemntaL" by people who woulnt know the meaning or experice 
of 
the word in 10,000 lifetimes.

And as a maginalized-"experimental" act today there is less and less room 
to 
play with unless you have other ways of generating income form filmt tv 
radio 
etc., but there are to my knowledge only a handful of people who do that 
consistently enough to almost barely earn a decent living for themselves 
let 
alone the smaller handful who are considered top dogs in that arena who 
get 
fees.

I also think IMHO any succesful commercial musical venture comes down to 1 
or 
2 things & the least of which is talent, copmetence and abilty :)

The main key ingredient to starting a sort of commercial success is a to 
develop a connection with a significantly sizable audience ( an audience 
that 
spends $$$) engaged by making them wanna be like you or making them wanna 
do 
what you do or getting people to covet something you have where people can 
feel themselves in situations which they perceive you to be inside of 
which 
they themselves desire.

But for AKASH having 5-10 naked female performers tends to always attract 
a 
crowd of at The Very Least, 150 persons and has also created a niche of 
sorts 
for us.

Just the experience of seeing us perform in the venues where you would 
normally find us is keenly tied into the whole experience where by your 
just 
showing up becomes just as much part of the performance and relationship 
with 
existing and new memebers of our audience as does the performacne the 
musicians and Permers give on the stage.

The idea of AKASH began as a joke which was a reaction to taking the on 
the 
face - absurdity of something like Fripp playing Pizza Hut and using that 
very same idea in the context of playing solo guitar shows in adult 
bookstores and going on tour wsith the concept ust for the sake of saying 
you 
did it...well....it turned out to be the most significant musical endeavor 
of 
my entire life as it has now grown to include some of my all time faves 
from 
the philly music scene ( elliott levin has been an idol of mine for years 
now 
and he is a full fledged member of AKASH)

Our music doesnt have to be groundbreaking & it doesnt have to be profound 
or 
full of personal and shared transformations  ( though we do aim just for 
that 
and wo do try to bring a classic reference to the quality of music where 
from 
as many perspectives as possible, you can or could relate to what we do 
and 
or take away something different if in fact you would so choose to see us 
beyond the sensationalism). 

But we dont market AKASH that way and we dont say look at how good our 
music 
is and how well we have developed our art/craft and its overall 
perspective 
as we offer & push a "package" of music, sex and fun..and even though we 
dont 
really rock, I think what we are doing is more traditional - rock n roll 
than 
what you would see most rock n roll bands who  pump the power chords 
giving 
audiences these days :).

& for us AKASH just needs to be whatever it asks the performers to be 
prepared for delievering and it really needs to operate in the sphere of 2 
bubbles: creative intentions and commercial considerations ( Which is 
still 
part of your performance aside from the execution and creation of music 
from 
haed body, tool, etc) and where those 2 bubbles intersect or where we DO 
choose to Make them intersect as a Conscious Decision and how well we 
balance 
those decisions really is more or less where in the context of a 
commercial 
enity we try focus our collective considertaions and aim.

AKASH is undoubtedly commercial, sensationalist, Warholian and 
Unapologetic,  
 but it does make great marketing and tie ins & has gotten us great press 
locally here in Philly as well as providing us a vehicle where we 
definitely 
don't get paid by standard variable experimental musician wages...& thats 
not 
why we do it, but we sure don't play for free anymore and we are at this 
point, having the time of our lives and creating other opportunities to do 
other stuff which we want to do which is aside, separate and unrelated to 
AKASH.

& after 3 yrs of playing for free in coffe shops, sex shoppes, art 
galleries, 
adult bookstores to private sex parties to private swingers clubs, to 
really 
bad go-go-bars and up into maintream niteclubs and more upscale 
alt-lifestyles communities, where all around the USA, we now do charge a 
very 
high premiuim ( for the music we play) which is somewhere very north of 
$1k 
for a  whole evening ( but split that between 10-12 people and it is not 
that 
great though it is kinda - OK if you are playing out a lot and on the road 
a 
lot, which we dont do that often as we will pick up the pace in 2002 as we 
all say bye bye to day gigs ) and we now get that premium without having 
any 
airplay or hits and we can see a consistency developing where we are a 
brand 
now.

Also, I'm a firm believer that give anybody $5-7million ( i wish we got 
that 
in our deal!) in seed $$$$ for advertising and an effective 
promotions-street 
team and in the 21st centurey if you can get your music used to sell 
sneekers, clothing and or other products, i'm absolutely certain that 
better 
than 85% of the time you will get a return on that investment.

I'm a rigid believer that you can sell almost anything to anyone if you 
keep 
repeating a mantra ( regardless as to whther there is value or aesthetic 
merit to what you are selling ) and by buying up enough space where you 
can 
get other people to repeat your mantra that you will sell and be a huge 
success though not necassarily a long lasting flavor.

Again, it is real simple to determine what people are into: 

People like msuic they hear and observe other people liking and enjoying 
and 
they buy what they see other people buying. It is that simple or sad.

But if you realize that and consider where people are AT, it may have an 
impact on the audience you are connecting or about to connect to and how 
far 
you might be able to share/advance a dream.

For AKASH the way/path to grow and the way to take what is perceived as 
difficult music and "art" -  has been to co-brand and wheel and deal with 
fetish fashion retailers and sex toy vendors as well as various BDSM film 
producers, other Porn Performers and BDSM Magazines to market their 
products 
to our audience where they in turn use our imagery and name ( repetition 
and 
association again ) with their larger demographics which is a perpetual 
churn 
of sorts...& that has nothing to do with music but everything to do with 
reaching people and having what is as i'm told is having a credibility of 
sorts.

We have been very very very fortunate and blessed to recently come into 
significant seed $$$ from a Porn Producer - GASP- of all things :) ...

This backing company has paid for our 1st video "The ABC"s of Kinky Sex" 
which was recently shot on location @ NYC's legenday HELLFIRECLUB.

The realtionship and $$$ and distribution and tie-ins we will get out of 
the 
association means marketing and distribution is not coming out of our 
pockets 
anymore but being split as we are now in effect a subsidiary of that 
company-backer and that we can now reach a larger - but still very 
targetted 
audience - and significantly expand our web presence with people who 
already 
know how to break and sell products of a competitive niche variety.

But our demographic is and was deliberately and somewhat calculatedly 
chosen 
( nothing too magical in that revelation & definitely not too artful it 
would 
seem but it was where we all were and have been as individuals and as 
being 
part of that demographic, we all know it quite well: Straight-Gay-BDSM 
Male 
and Female - Couples 25-50 who have incomes of over 50k+ and who are also 
inclined to be members of private-exclusive clubs and or pay high premiums 
for their fetish indulgences as well as actively engage with other people 
in 
public in dwtwn areas of major USA cities. Subsequently, there is a 
Huuuuuuuuuuuuge market there with that as with the demographic we have 
chosen 
they are cocnsistent, loyal and willing to pay premiums for perceived 
value 
and we also get a currency with Goth Kids 18-24 who have all the traits of 
the older folks we appeal to. But also note hat the 25-50's like to 
consider 
themselves hip but arent ready for smooth jazz or celine dion and dont 
wanna 
listen to the cure over and over again and they are child-free and not 
ready 
to blend into the backdrop of surburbia or picket fence living - at least 
not 
completely as they are looking for enertainment which is decidely adult, 
adventurous and also different from the choices they have made for them by 
other media; this crowd actually does care what they listen to and is open 
more so to more adventurous stuff - even though we are not really that out 
there - contextually and based upontheir experience we are the most 
radical 
musical things they have heard in a long time - we dont lecture or play 
history professors to our audience becasue that is not what they want or 
what 
we need to do for them :)

So the key thing for AKASH was to create a demand and develop a niche 
which 
we could be able to plug into and get cocnsistent responses from and get 
paid 
considerably better ( having a team of 7-12 persons is high overhead) than 
the local pubs or venues where everyone else plays and where they shaft 
you 
with charges here and there regardless as to how many persons you bring 
out 
to the venue.

Also by getting press but not being as accesable as other Bands we created 
a 
demand by being around Philly all the time without being in the usual 
places 
which kinda has spared us from the lenegdary Philly Backlash as thatwe are 
from a very small town City which is extremely tough on outsiders but even 
tougher on its own kinfolk.

But i would say our stuff is definitely more of an entertainment oriented 
perspective/vehicle where the emphasis is directly on the strory telling 
aspects of visual performance and within the venues alongwith the music 
which 
is used as a backdrop to the overall AKASH experience we provide.

Others here would choose a more purist route and decry the 
commecialization 
we are doing of certain elements of the avant garde ( of sorts ) , but we 
constantly love to mix the mudance, serious, sexual, religious, absurd, 
purient, as well as commercial and contemporary with satire, subversive 
inversion as well as ritual where both the goddess & whore think as one.

The clothes or lack of clothing do make the audience show up in many & 
most 
instances.

But even with that lack of clothing & with crass sensationalism in place, 
there still has to be something there of which a 
perforner-entertainer-musician has connected with a Story - where in turn 
a 
performer can effectively translate and communicate that dialog with 
others - 
other than themselves or the un-initiated.

Again, I'm no music industry expert,  but part of the tricks to the 
art-commerce thing seems to be able to pull of a delicate balancing act 
which 
is conscious but not self conscious and to strive to be Perceived as 
Relevant 
without being marginalized and still Creative without making people feel 
they 
have been left behind by you and ultimately coming down to you being who 
you 
are and the person you need to be as you are only & always who you are, no 
matter what mask you use to hide your face.

My best and funniest moment doing all of this was last year at a swingers 
club  where a very beautiful - natural bodied ( rare these days ) Blonde 
Porn 
star came up to me after our set and said that her orgasm rode the waves 
of 
the guitar solo i had played...and shucks, I just blushed and said to her 
- 
"thank you" as I  thought to myself that it was really "A Hard Days 
Night", 
and I chuckled to myself as we broke down our gear and went home and said 
goodnite.

Warm Regards,
JP/AKASH
BUY THE NEW AKASH CD:
"THE GIFT OF PUNISHMENT"
www.akashmusic.com
www.mp3.com/akashmusic
REMEMBER TO ALWAYS KILL YOUR EXPECTATIONS