Growing up, I started submitting recordings to major labels when I was 18... I learned to play guitar to Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Ted Nugent and maybe only 3 songs by Heart... I loved what Ann & Nancy Wilson represented but I wanted to be the girl Brad Whitford to the magnificant Joe Perry, the steady K.K. Downing in the shadow of Glenn Tipton.
I knew some songs had amazing intro's when I listened to my albums... but when my first bands tried to write intro's that were supposed to be moving and building an emotion or setting a theme for a 22 minute song... ours always sounded stupid when played aloud!! It was nothing like I heard in my head.
I begin to receive detailed critiques on my band's music. I soon found out that I wrote best alone, it was difficult for me to share my vision. After many of my songs were trashed by other members of the band, I started listening to songs and taking them apart - finding out what made them tick. I was told by a very kind A&R rep in L.A. that if the song didn't say something within 16 bars, they trashed it. And so began my own version of Nancy Formula Songwriting. I did embrace the formula writing of the '80s and I loved Mutt Lang's Producing but I also worshipped Beau Hill - I realized which engineers tracked certain ways with bands like Kix and Ratt, and then which producers gave backing vocals that big shout vocal sound, or was the vocalist so strong, their vocals were doubled by themselves and often, the bassist (why..? Why the Bassist? This is still a mystery of the universe....)
Today, I know that music has changed, the industry has changed, but there is much of the buying public that still needs to feel the band give you a few bars of teasing alluring intro. Not so much at first that you give away the secret of the song...
I began to think of a well-crafted song is much like an Exotic Dancer's performance. The situation must be set up for immediate intrigue! Quickly, before the onlooker/the listener can look away, you put out the bait, wait for the bite, and you set the hook... you get to a euphoric chorus that stirs emotions and invites participating... and whether you are a stripper or a rock band - money should come pouring out of the pockets of the audience! If not? You are doing it all wrong!
Haven't you ever wondered why strippers and rockers go together like the proverbial hand in the velvet glove?
So as a songwriter, plan your work and then work your plan! Because while you may only think of Delinquent as an indie label, I am the judge, the jury, and the executioner. I see how long it takes for the bands intro "to get on with it" - I listen for how the vocalist approaches the first words - are they smooth? are they choppy to create a desired mood? How long do they take to get to the chorus? What's the chorus like? Is it anti-climatic? after that... do we have a vocal fill or a mini guitar solo, or a creative bridge to link the chorus back to the verse? Guitar solo? No Solo? Either way was that a good or bad Idea?
If you do not have a strong lead player do not set the song up for a lead solo, build on the bands other strengths!
After I hit my 3 "must have marks," if I am still listening... I will go back and listen to the entire song if it is crafted well and if it intrigues me.
Sweeties! If Delinquent who toss your track after spot-listening, just think (WWC-D?) "What Would Columbia Records Do?"
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Delinquent Records USA / Blog
3 Double CD Projects from 1998-1999
"The Pink and The Black: a goth and glam collection" was the first of the 3 Double CD's that got Delinquent Records noticed in the USA and stepping up the indie ladder into US retail. It is now available on CD BABY as well as physical copies as well as "Industrial Baby!" and "More Black Than Black"
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Slowly Uploading the Back Catalog to CDBaby
So far we have uploaded Paradise Alley (UK), Hollywood Teasze (Germany), and Suicide Alley (Hollywood)... everything else is on it's way !!!
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Metal Contingency (Just got... darker)
From the Desk of Delinquent Records USA's NEW representative for Metal Contingency, Elizabeth Liztana Smythe: "Heavy Metal is a Contingency of its own… an Event that can never be predicted, nor should it ever. The Darkness of Metal, and the Men that have created it need celebration on unprecedented levels. Delinquent Records USA seeks to eliminate the boys that have infested the mainstream, and bring forth unsigned bands that are far more deserving of the spotlight! Enter only if you dare… This is not a journey for the weak. Hail, and kill!!"
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Vampyre: Songs in the Key of Night
Now Open for Submissions - http://delinquentrecordsusa.com/vampyre-songs-in-the-key-of-night/
Press release from Delinquent Records USA: "Including bands from all over the world, “Vampyre: Songs in the Key of Night” is a tribute to the shadowy world of our favorite nightmare - the Vampire! Myth, monsters, mystery, mayhem - Delinquent Records USA plans to promote unsigned bands who have a song in their repertoire dedicated to the Vampyre archetype! Bands of all musical styles come together to pay homage to the myth, mystery, and magick of the Vampyre! The Vampyre is exotic, erotic, frightening, and enlightening and psychology tells us this is humanity's way of dealing with our "shadow self" or our fear of what lies beyond the veil of death! Well, whatever it is... One thing is certain: Everyone loves a Vampyre!" ---Nancy Chandler, Delinquent Records USA
This page has all the details - Thanks so much and stay Delinquent!!
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Maidens of Metal - 28 minutes to go!
None of us wish this amazing 2 CD monster of a collection of female fronted metal bands to leave the shelf with open spaces: Lilly Rouge, Natalie Chandra, Gypsy Flight, Derecho, Awaken Solace, Galactic Acid, Nothingness Theory, End My Sorrow, Schoolcraft, As Angels Bleed, Leah, Alhena, DAMA, Winter Haze, Pyrah, Skull and Bones, SiNFuL, As Night Falls, Edenice, Heaven The Axe, Onyria, Sweating Blood, RASH, and special guests FEMME FATALE featuring Lorraine Lewis.
Delinquent Records has 28 minutes of time space tracks to fill and we will not take "just any" female fronted bands, but please let us be the judge if your band will fit the needs of this title. Thank you so much!
Email: Nancy@DelinquentRecordsUSA.com
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Maidens of Metal - Please Hurry Up!!
Maidens of Metal is going to be a Monster Project - there is just no way around that with the line-up!! I feel so bad for the earlier bands that are seemingly waiting forever - but this project has become greater than all of us! Maidens of Metal - Rulez!!
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Songs that Set the Mood or Insite Boredom?
Growing up, I started submitting recordings to major labels when I was 18... I learned to play guitar to Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Ted Nugent and maybe only 3 songs by Heart... I loved what Ann & Nancy Wilson represented but I wanted to be the girl Brad Whitford to the magnificant Joe Perry, the steady K.K. Downing in the shadow of Glenn Tipton.
I knew some songs had amazing intro's when I listened to my albums... but when my first bands tried to write intro's that were supposed to be moving and building an emotion or setting a theme for a 22 minute song... ours always sounded stupid when played aloud!! It was nothing like I heard in my head.
I begin to receive detailed critiques on my band's music. I soon found out that I wrote best alone, it was difficult for me to share my vision. After many of my songs were trashed by other members of the band, I started listening to songs and taking them apart - finding out what made them tick. I was told by a very kind A&R rep in L.A. that if the song didn't say something within 16 bars, they trashed it. And so began my own version of Nancy Formula Songwriting. I did embrace the formula writing of the '80s and I loved Mutt Lang's Producing but I also worshipped Beau Hill - I realized which engineers tracked certain ways with bands like Kix and Ratt, and then which producers gave backing vocals that big shout vocal sound, or was the vocalist so strong, their vocals were doubled by themselves and often, the bassist (why..? Why the Bassist? This is still a mystery of the universe....)
Today, I know that music has changed, the industry has changed, but there is much of the buying public that still needs to feel the band give you a few bars of teasing alluring intro. Not so much at first that you give away the secret of the song...
I began to think of a well-crafted song is much like an Exotic Dancer's performance. The situation must be set up for immediate intrigue! Quickly, before the onlooker/the listener can look away, you put out the bait, wait for the bite, and you set the hook... you get to a euphoric chorus that stirs emotions and invites participating... and whether you are a stripper or a rock band - money should come pouring out of the pockets of the audience! If not? You are doing it all wrong!
Haven't you ever wondered why strippers and rockers go together like the proverbial hand in the velvet glove?
So as a songwriter, plan your work and then work your plan! Because while you may only think of Delinquent as an indie label, I am the judge, the jury, and the executioner. I see how long it takes for the bands intro "to get on with it" - I listen for how the vocalist approaches the first words - are they smooth? are they choppy to create a desired mood? How long do they take to get to the chorus? What's the chorus like? Is it anti-climatic? after that... do we have a vocal fill or a mini guitar solo, or a creative bridge to link the chorus back to the verse? Guitar solo? No Solo? Either way was that a good or bad Idea? If you do not have a strong lead player do not set the song up for a lead solo, build on the bands other strengths!
After I hit my 3 "must have marks," if I am still listening... I will go back and listen to the entire song if it is crafted well and if it intrigues me.
Sweeties! If Delinquent who toss your track after spot-listening, just think (WWC-D?) "What Would Columbia Records Do?"
Reply
PUT DOWN THAT REVERB, EUGENE!
New bands - Nervous Bands - OVERLY SELF-CONSCIOUS Bands! Please don't record in a well or in a cave or in a gymnasium... try using a recording studio instead, it will really make a big difference! And if you are in a recording studio, please don't ask the engineer "to sweeten up your track!" This is code for I can't sing this part add reverb and I can't play this guitar solo accurately, please give it a big cool wash of effects. Obviously, both are a mask.
My suggestion is to write the song in a comfortable range for the vocalist. Also, it doesn't take a million 16th notes played in rapid fire succession to be a lead guitarist - work on your finger-oriented tone, emotion and melody in your guitar part. Don't wash it in reverb, it's just not going to work in the long run.
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Drum Machines and Other Bad things
After a night of "oh my god! No F-ing Way? Wait! Did you hear that sh*t?" and my favorite, "Don't try to tell me that's not a [fill in the blank with any number of pieces of gear]!!"
Let me please suggest some Home Studio Options for bands using drum machines: leave the cymbals out of the tracking. If you have the kick drum, snare, and tom work programmed into your drum machine of choice - check out Craigs List and Pawn Shops for almost anything resembling a hi-hat, crash, splash, and a ride. Mic the hi-hat with either a SM7B condenser mic if they are smaller jazz hats or a SM57 if the hats are larger. Now channel Mick Fleetwood and track as the human metronome - quarter notes or eighth notes. Just remember don't lay off the hat every time you hear the snare drum unless you are influenced by Stewart Copeland of The Police, otherwise, it's bad. The only time you should leave the hi-hats is during a drumroll (visualize this in your head and it should make it easier). You cannot use two hands for the basic hi-hats & snare foundation, AND use both hands to do a tom roll - unless you are one of those blue Gods from India with all the arms - but that's a whole different thing.
Now, go back and use standard over head mounted SM57s and simply do a cymbal only track. AND DON'T go crazy with them either people!!... UNLESS you are in a Keith Moon tribute band and everything is out the window! Quite Literally!
This is one of the most common and most serious problems I am hearing from home studio's. I know finding a solid competent drummer that can count to four "IS" seriously a problem all over the world. So, for the perfectionist who wants to track all the parts themselves and who spends a butt-load of money on sound editing software, upgrades their computer hardware, gets all digi-audio-geek and then doesn't have the common sense to use an Alesis SR-16? Well, short and sweet: they need to be shot. Personally? I have always preferred the Alesis HR-16 drum machine as a rocker.
Just like a human drummer, the tracks laid using a drum machine are only as good as the drum machine programmer and the triggered sequencer. Attention techno-industrial artists, if I can hear your fruity loops not connecting... Why can't you?
I think I can speak for all A&R depts with any record label in any country in the world: "If I even remotely hear ANYTHING that sounds like an original Linn drum machine...? After 8 bars... I have a seizure with my own self-induced form of Tourettes Syndrome. I then toss your tape, break your CD-R, or viciously delete your band's URL from ever contacting me again - ever!!" Its not a pretty sight.
Seriously, live cymbals will make a wonderful compliment to a drum machine-driven song. Give it a try!
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Heads Up: A Night of Critical Listening
Danger Danger!! Warning Will Robinson, I will now start the brutal listening to submissions for the Resurrection Series Disks!! Much Cursing and Gnashing of Teeth is about to begin. All wired to our trusty studio near-fields and yes, I will be "A-B-ing" new submissions against "The Pink and The Black," "Industrial Baby!," and "More Black Than Black" for consistency!!
No worries on deadlines yet to anyone concerned. Several collections have bands who were quick off the mark to participate; these are the bands I'm checking the mix on... Various anonymous disclaimers and advice may spew forth over the next 8 hours - LOL!
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