Who are ya? – 1

Independent musicians are – in this technologically advanced era – blessed with a plethora of online resources (courtesy of the ever-present InterWebNet) by which means their musical lives and careers may be facilitated. This is especially noticeable to those who have been ploughing this particular furrow since – for example – the 1970s (Who? Me??).

I was reminded again of this fact just a week or so back as I was watching a most useful podcast authored by one of the many generous educators who now make freely (as much as anything is really free!) available their hard-earned wisdom online for the benefit of rest of us humble musical souls.

This particular lesson concerned what the author described as the second most difficult thing that aspiring musicians and collectives must do; explaining at the same time why it was critical nonetheless that they do it.

The most difficult thing is – of course – choosing a name under which to operate. Some bands split up before even getting started under the pressure of finding, agreeing and adopting a moniker that has not been used and abused previously elsewhere.

The second most difficult thing is – you will probably be unsurprised to hear – answering that inevitable question: “So – what sort of music do you play?”. The great majority of musicians – faced with this diabolical inquisition – will mumble on for a while about how their music really isn’t like anything else on the planet, before finishing with the imprecation: “You’ll just have to listen to it and judge for yourself (Man!)”.

Whilst I certainly sympathise (as would anyone who has found themselves doing the same thing… repeatedly!) I have to agree with the podcaster, whose strongly expressed opinion was that – if one really expects members of the wider public to lend an ear to one’s musical meanderings – the least one can do is to give them the best possible idea of what they might expect to hear.

Fair enough, say I!

There are – fortunately – a number of tools that go at least some way to aiding the recalcitrant musical categoriser. The InterWebNet can provide one with a seemingly comprehensive (oh that there were truly such a thing) list of musical genres, organised as a fairly shallow hierarchy. One starts with such basic categories as ‘rock’, ‘pop’, ‘blues’, ‘country’ and so forth, before moving on to a seemingly endless plethora of sub-categories that aim to add some detail to the broad generic groupings.

So – what might that mean in the case of Anam Danu? Check back shortly for part two of this posting to find out.