Professional Studies
As a guitarist striving to branch out into the live performance space, I designed my electronic press kit to demonstrate both my identity as an artist and my commercial readiness. All the elements of my EPK have been picked to capture the attention of venue managers, booking agents, and event organizers who are looking to book professional, high energy, and musically engaging talent. I wanted to create an EPK that was informative, concise, and stayed relevant, as this greatly increases the chances of standing out amongst the crowds. My EPK is a way for me to define certain elements of me as a performer, and to distil these elements into an easy to comprehend and digest format. Establishing my audience was imperative for constructing my EPK, as it needed to be tailored to specific people. I narrowed my audience down to a handful of key roles: Venue owners, event planners, festival promoters, and tour managers. These roles are fundamental in the world of live performance; they are all people that I would be wanting to look at my Electronic Press Kit as I pursue my career in this field. I included tour managers in the audience because their role would include going through what kind of shows I usually play, and what style of venues get the best response, and what type of spaces i can work within. This is further reasoning for why I added a venue list in my EPK, and shots from two venues I have played in, as the stages and general set up are very different. One video showcases me playing on a large stage in a college auditorium, with full lighting rigs and a sound desks. The other video showcases me playing in a much tighter space, with smaller amplifiers on stage, and less room to work with on stage.
I aimed for my artistic direction to lean towards authentic performance, a versatile playing style, and an emotional connection to the audience. I take lots of inspiration from all kinds of genres that I have grown up listening to and are deep rooted into my musical background: Rock ‘n’ Roll, Progressive rock, New wave, Mod revival, Punk, early pop, metal and many more. Artists such as the Stranglers, The Jam, AC/DC, Rush, Death Angel, Duran Duran, The Stone Roses, are all staples of the styles of music that have influenced my guitar playing, and having a selection of artists so diverse has 11allowed me to craft a sound that com0bines familiar with fresh and new. This is reflected in the audio and videos included in the EPK, which display my ability to adapt to different performance settings, whether small pub gigs on a cramped stage or high-energy electric gigs in a more professional venue.
The visual side of my electronic press kit, which is comprised of high-quality gig photos and performance footage, is designed to illustrate my stage presence and personality whilst in a live setting. These choices all have reasoning behind them and are deliberate: I want promoters to both hear my styles of playing and also see the high-energy and professionalism I bring to every live show. I wanted my EPK to be easily digestible and to highlight specific characteristics of my live shows, and this was always in consideration when choosing the pictures and videos. As well as this, it helped me decide where to place the pictures and to construct the overall look of the EPK, including text boxes in addition to the videos and the general layout. I was lucky to have excellent pictures taken of live shows, that effectively capture the energy and passion that I put into my shows, and it was an immense help when constructing my EPK.
From a commercial standpoint, my EPK includes content designed to make it easy for my audience (promoters, venue owners etc.) to find out more about me from various sources, and to decide whether or not I would be suitable for them to hire for events. I wanted the layout to be clean, user friendly, and intuitive, and wanted to ensure that all the essential information such as contact details, social media accounts, and my previous work, is easily accessible. As an added point of interest, I opted to make my EPK straightforward to view and navigate on a mobile device, as this just widens the audience that I can interact with.
I have included a list of venues that I have played, to highlight my experiences and versatility in different live environments, which is also a resource that promoters can use to research the style of gigs I have played. I have also added a social media link to a band Instagram account that I was part of in college, as it includes band pictures, and pictures from our live shows.
Below is the website with my EPK and the password to be able to access my EPK
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