#02 – Your Music, Let’s Go! Episode 1, Nov 22

Along with the typical comments that populate the screen real estate underneath the videos, there are occasionally half apologetic hidden away remarks and self promotions of independent musicians and bands. Now, while I’m no record company that can change the fortunes of a struggling artist, I am as a result of my own curiosity keen to hear their music. I’ve been there. I know how ego destroyingly awful it is to pour your heart, soul and spirit, not to mention time, money and resources into an artistic endeavour just for no one to hear it.

A few months ago, I made a video showcasing the music of four artists who had approached me via the comments or email to give me the heads up on their own music. I had always planned to do a segment where I listened to independent music but had never really got my arse in gear to do it! But by November I realised I’d been sitting on music for too long and needed to start doing something about it. To be honest I didn’t really hold out much hope for either the quality of the music or the popularity of the video. I was very wrong on both accounts!

John Holden

The first artist was John Holden, a multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer from Cheshire in the north of England. I would love to have access to his little black book – the names of people he has collaborated with is mind blowing. He approached me in May last year and, as usual, it took me about 6 months to get round to listening to the music! The track I chose was Avalanche from John’s album Circles In Time. It is rather wonderful.

John was also very generous with his time and we spoke at some length on the phone about my own music and how and whether I could do anything with it. I’m still working on it John if you read this!

You can find all of John’s music on Bandcamp

Momentum

The next band is Momentum. I had a message out of the blue from Fons Flotman, the keyboard player / producer / co-writer of the Dutch proggy rockband Momentum. They released their debut album October 2021 and wanted to send me a CD of the album. He said “…Not expecting any mention or whatever, as I know you’ve got a lot going on anyway, but just as a small token of appreciation as I enjoy your channel a lot and have been listening to heaps of music that I probably would not have otherwise. So thank you for spreading the joy of music! Our lyrics are in Dutch so you won’t understand any of it but then again it might be another nice oddity in your collection!”

It really doesn’t matter that this is doing in Dutch, it really doesn’t matter that you haven’t heard of them. The music transcends language.

Get their music here! Bandcamp

Altesia

Clément from Altesia contacted me during the summer asking me to check out their tunes. “Now let me recommend you an awesome bombastic freaking hell of a band : ALTESIA. Well, ok… It’s my band, but it sounds cool, I promise 😀 We play progressive metal, we’re from France, we’ve got 2 albums out.” I was intrigued! We struck up a conversation and I was keen to include the music in the video when I got to make it. I’m so glad I did, A Liar’s Oath is an incredible track and I subsequently bought their album of Bandcamp. You should too!

Altesia on Bandcamp

Just Leo

The final track on this initial foray into independent music was from Just Leo. Leo’s Bass Covers has been commenting and interacting on the channel for about 3 years and he’s often uploading bass covers (funnily enough!) onto his YouTube channel. So it came as a surprise when Leo told me he was actually releasing some music. I was not really prepared for the quality that would be bestowed upon my ears when I pressed play. Haunting guitars and a voice like dripping honey had me floored.

You really need JUST LEO in your life!

Final thoughts

I started the channel in order to share and discover music with friends, but it grew into something bigger and with a life of its own. A community sprung up around the music, a positive, open minded and curious community of music lovers. Inevitably some of the recommendations and suggestions would be for smaller and under-the-radar bands and artists. As a YouTuber I feel both a privilege and responsibility to curate music of the highest quality and interest, and I recognise that like an iceberg, 80% of the music in the world is hidden. I fear that the way the music industry is geared in the world today, many artists struggle to get their voices heard. If I can do anything to help that then its a no brainer. These are the grass roots bands that will be providing the music of tomorrow. They need to be nurtured and promoted, they need to be heard. I am convinced more than ever that I need to do this feature regularly. Give them a chance, give them a listen. What’s the worst that can happen?