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Re-introduction to the artist:

Cab Driver are a four-piece band consisting of Leeds conservatoire students studying production in their first year of study. I originally chose them for the first assignment as they are heavily influenced by bands such as, Wunderhorse, Keo, The 1975, Fontaines D.C. etc, of which I listen to a lot as well, allowing me to properly give my insight and input into creative decisions suitable for a band with these influences. I also chose this band due to the talent of the members, all of whom are very skilled at their instruments, being able to craft very interesting melodies and rhythms that I believe hold a lot of commercial value. 

At the end of the previous assignment, the band had posted 2 songs on soundcloud, one original titled ‘For a while’ and a cover of the song ‘Favourite’ by the band Fontaines D.C. Furthermore, their social media had grown a following from a non-existent instagram account to around 60 followers, mostly consisting of friends and students of Leeds conservatoire. On the other hand, they were struggling with what direction the band should take and how to proceed. This was largely due to issues with the drummer who is in multiple other bands, one of which has been gaining traction, causing scheduling and attention issues for this band. Through this overview of my second time managing the band, and creating an electronic press kit, I hope to outline my successes, how I have had a positive and lasting impact for the band, such as their growth and development, as well as the struggles I have faced and dealt with appropriately. 

Planning:

In between the end of the first assignment and this one, the band had not uploaded any new content to social media, nor made any real growth aside from developing more songs behind the scenes. For this reason when it was decided I would use Cab Driver again for this assignment. I decided to make a concrete plan on what we would aim to do with this assignment. The first step for this was to conduct an interview with the band to catch up and discuss our next steps.

This interview was very useful as it allowed me to see their influences haven’t changed, any differences since the last time I worked with them as well as how far ahead they are looking. 

After conducting this interview, I summarised my findings into a more condensed format:

• Since forming, the band had been supported largely by the singer, Ben, who was providing most, if not all, of the original music. This has changed recently with two of the other band members, Ollie and Charlie, who have begun creating originals and bringing them to the others to be polished up and roughly ready to create a demo.
• They have not released any more music, social media content and have still yet to play their first gig.
• Their main goals are to have more songs released/ready to release, grow the following, play more gigs and before finishing uni they hope to play some of the local venues in leeds (such as hyde park book club, the wardrobe, belgrave, brudenell etc) and to hopefully support someone they listen to, such as Keo.

To try and attain these goals, I first tried to set up a schedule of when the band could practice together to develop new songs, polish their existing ones, play covers and record content. This is where I was re-introduced to the biggest issue from the previous assignment: the drummer’s busy schedule. This was a significant problem as the band was sometimes unable to practice even once a week which was really halting progress. Trying to work around this and progress towards other goals, I strongly urged the band to record more songs. Fortunately, this was during their assessment periods so they were equally inclined to do this. This resulted in two songs being recorded; Charlie’s original titled ‘old perfume’, and Ollie’s original titled ‘Your highness’. Due to these songs being used for their production assignments, I did not need to reach out for someone to record and produce these songs, however before the recording process, I reached out to multiple people asking for feedback and possible improvements to the songs on top of my own feedback. This process was quite difficult for one recurring issue however.

Struggles with recording the two previously mentioned originals:

Due to the drummer’s busy schedule, the biggest area for improvement I and the people I consulted pointed out was the drum pattern. As a drummer myself, I had a lot to say about what he was playing and about how hastily he had created the patterns. This paired with his lack of practice became a huge concern when we had our first studio session, in which the drum pattern was very clearly under-practiced and incomplete. Not only were we unhappy with using them for the other members’ assignments, but we were very reluctant to release them as Cab Driver songs, especially after how well constructed the song previously released to soundcloud was. This was the first moment I decided to make a creative decision, partly due to their assignment deadlines approaching but also because I knew how much potential these songs had and knew if they could be perfected, they could do really well on platforms like soundcloud and later spotify. Due to this, I decided to re-write and play the recordings myself. The bassist, Charlie, who I have played with before convinced the others that it was worth waiting a few extra days. At first, this might seem to overstep the responsibilities of an A&R representative/manager; however from previous lectures and resources online, I have learned that the A&R role involves guiding an artist and their career, helping them reach higher levels, so I decided to use my own skills to do this. This ideology is reinforced on the Berklee website which states:

“A&R reps act as an artist’s link to the company and are responsible for signing the artist, guiding the artist’s subsequent career, and representing the artist’s interests within the larger organization.” (Berklee, 2020)

After a second recording day 3 days later, we were able to produce two very high quality finished songs, attached below:

Attach finished demos of old perfume and your highness

After this process of re-recording the drums, I asked the band if they have thought about finding a new drummer as this seemed to be the only way for the band to move forward and begin to progress. This definitely lit a spark as they revealed they have discussed it before but did not want to fall out with him as he was a good friend who they were living with for their second year of uni. 

Social Media:

Moving past this I tried to focus on further developing the bands’ social media since, as mentioned previously, there has been almost zero growth in terms of instagram since the first assignment. The band definitely has an image and a target demographic. In terms of image, the bands’ style definitely reflects bands from the 90’s and early 2000’s such as nirvana with their open flannel shirts. Symbolically, the flannel appearance seen in the grunge movement especially, has always represented ‘cheapness’ and a band being more grounded which I think is very true for Cab Driver as they are doing music for their own enjoyment and for their love for music. This is important as authenticity is an extremely important factor in gaining a fanbase. Similarly, the members of cab driver have recorded videos with an old camcorder which ties in strongly with these ideas of nostalgia. I decided to make this a central aspect of their social media after researching other bands taking a similar approach. One band in particular I found to be doing this is called Dog Food who have recorded a large portion of gig footage on an old camcorder. This band also takes a ‘retro’ and nostalgic approach to how they dress which has clearly defined their image. I think doing the same when Cab Driver has their first gig would be a huge benefit to them as, in recent years especially, most gig footage I consume online is in an extremely good quality. Obviously that is not a negative thing however seeing a band doing something different to this would clearly make them stand out. 

The band’s demographic is equally as defined. The main audience would consist of young people (16-29), with no real specific gender dominating the audience. These people would most likely be in the Leeds area, and largely connected to leeds conservatoire, who have either heard of the band through word of mouth, seen a social media post from the band, heard one of the songs currently on soundcloud or been and watched one of the bands (future) gigs. Thinking ahead, when the band does get a gig, posters around the conservatoire will definitely be important, and can be utilized as another way to represent the bands identity. I think a poster like the one I have attached beneath from a Jimi Hendrix concert would be very suitable, as the colour scheme, imagery and the whole typography really reflect a strong image. 

To try and combat the lack of social media presence, I also set up a live session and a photoshoot of the band. This photoshoot will be very important not only for posts but for setting up an EPK as it is a great shorthand way to convey imagery and genre and to reach an audience. For the live session, I reached out to a producer I am friends with from the conservatoire to record and mix the session, as well as two people who can record the video. One on the camcorder and one on a regular camera. This was necessary as over summer the band members will all move back home so creating content would be very difficult. By doing this the band is able to feature double the content on their instagram and tiktok from only one session. We recorded three original songs in this live session (for a while, your highness and another original titled part of the plan), as well as 2 acoustic versions, one of for a while and the other of charlie’s original, old perfume. I will attach beneath some cut up clips of the regular camera footage which have yet to be paired with the recorded audio, as well as the photos from the photoshoot. Furthermore, I strongly insisted in this session that the band posts a reel on instagram of the setting up process, with one of the songs in the background and after a day of being posted this achieved over a thousand views, as seen in the image below. 

Other things I have done during this process:

As seen in the interview, the band are starting to prepare to play gigs but haven’t really discussed or put into action how to get them in the local area. Due to this I reached out to the band Coal Mob, also from Leeds Conservatoire as I saw they were preparing to release their fourth single and hoped they were playing some gigs to promote this. I also researched the organisation ‘Not a thing’ who are a non-profit promotion company who can get bands gigs and appropriately pay them. Similarly I looked into the account ‘for.presents’ who spread new bands and music to their following.

I also wrote an artist biography which can be seen at the end of this overview. If I was to make an actual EPK for the band, this would feature on there. In terms of making the EPK, I decided to gather the resources that would be put on one in this assignment as there are still a few elements missing from the band to have a comprehensive and professional press kit, such as gig footage, references etc, however when they reach the stage where they are ready to make one, the resources are ready and prepared for it.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, I believe this assignment has been a success. Although the band has still yet to play their first gig, by taking a similar approach to the band Keo, who built up a following of soundcloud first to gain an audience and then started to play gigs, I believe I have helped the band construct a very solid foundation and have begun to build on top of that by preparing very essential elements like photos, live footage, and a plan for the band to follow. 

Artist biography:

Cab Driver are a rising indie rock band born out of Leeds Conservatoire. Their raw instrumentation and poetic lyrics channels reflect some of their inspirations; Wunderhorse, Keo, Fontaines D.C. Their sound is fresh, with a wave of nostalgia with their mellow vocal harmonies, lush and emotional guitar tone and solid rhythmic ideas. Their presence is a defining factor and as a band on the rise in the local area, you, the audience, are a core part of the movement as well.