SHR4C007R~002 Option 2: Electronic Press Kit Template
Task 1: Electronic Press Kit
Oliver Washington is an active multi-instrumentalist and producer who has been based in Leeds for many years now, he mainly plays live with bands within the Leeds hardcore music scene but also travels, recently playing shows from London all the way to Edinburgh. He began playing guitar at a young age, studying music at Greenhead college in Huddersfield, it was his time at college that got him to develop an interest in music technology and production, going on to now be studying this at Leeds Conservatoire.
Oliver regularly plays in three separate bands whilst also commonly fills in for bands for one off shows, being able to learn music and pick up new projects incredibly fast really helps with this. He has been playing within the Leeds alternative music scene for 4 years now and is well known among local artists, producers and promoters around West Yorkshire and elsewhere.
Heres a review of one of Oliver’s bands ‘Knife’ from the Manchester based magazine, ‘NWHC Mag’. ‘Leeds based beatdown band Knife then took the stage, they whipped the room into a frenzy with their pounding riffs and energetic vibe leaving newcomers to the scene shocked’.
Oliver is also a practicing producer and live sound engineer, being involved in the recording and production of many different tracks, from singles to albums, Oliver has worked on multiple genres, from both his own style of music and that of music more unfamiliar to himself, he’s able to cover it! He has a lot of experience doing live sound for smaller venues such as Boom, which has unfortunately closed down, Mabgate Bleach, Wapentake and Yellow arch studios in Sheffield.
He recorded the sessions for this EP by local leeds band ‘Aperture’ as well as both recording and producing the demo ep for his own band ‘Knife’, both of which have reieved much praise both within the local Leeds scene and the wider heavy music scene in the UK.
Aperture S/T EP:
Knife Demo:
Oliver has also worked on and produced tracks for artist and fellow Conservatoire student Chloe Jacobs who focuses on a much more indie/folk style of music, showing his versatility, he was able to both record and produce these tracks to fantastic feedback from both the artist and the listeners. Chloe stated, ‘He was incredibly easy to work with, which is fantastic for people who could sometimes be nervous in a studio environment, the mixing and mastering process was also extremely clean and i had my fair share of input and creative control of how the track came out.
Oliver would one day like to go into the world of live sound engineering for large venues such as O2 Academy, Leeds University stylus or Manchester Academy. along with this he would like to continue playing with many bands across the UK and perhaps abroad as-well, with his sights set on an upcoming UK and Ireland tour.
Contact Oliver by email under oliverwashington2005@icloud.com
Instagram handles are as follows:
Personal contact: @oliverwash
Band contact/booking: @knifehc
Release collective contact: @evilmotives.x
Task 2: Supporting Commentary
My EPK is mainly geared towards acquiring temporary jobs either playing with my bands or as a session musician, and mainly about promoting myself as a producer and possibly gathering offers for projects as a producer whether that be recording, mixing or live sound and stage technician roles. this is why the EPK mainly focuses on past achievements and accolades drawing attention to mainly the work i have produced or the venues i have experience doing live sound in as to draw attention to my ability to work in this field in the future. This will heavily promote myself to my target audience and drive up my ability to find opportunities and increase revenue.
The EPK is structured to mainly draw attention to the images of my work and myself and testimonials, this works successfully for my intended audience as i am attempting to reach people with job offers and the fact they can physically see pictures of me and pictures of my work gives a good idea of what would be to come if they offer me an opportunity, it also efficiently breaks down an online barrier and shows people what it would be like to work with me as a person. The testimonials as well give a good impression of the main focal points that i gear my working style towards, such as a relaxed studio environment.
I intend to further develop this EPK with links to future projects i am currently underway with, for example a full length album that i am currently i the process of recording, this would effectively demonstrate my ability to stick with long running projects and maintain a high quality of work the entire way through. Also to be added is a schedule and plan i am currently in the process of creating for a UK and Ireland tour that hasn’t happened yet, this would show off my planning skills and ability to be versatile within the industry much better. I will also add in more graphic design elements to help make the EPK more appealing to read and less uninteresting.
I chose to present myself and my work as being very closely tied to the local West Yorkshire alternative scene as that is the main things i work on and i do believe the professional aesthetic that comes with that is very useful and effectively portrays an ability to gel well in a number of different environments whilst still keeping core ethos points, such as supporting local artists, at the forefront of everything that i do. Another large part of my presentation was myself as a producer, showing that i create a relaxed, easy to work in studio environment by using testimonies from previous artists that i have worked with before.
Usually, in the field that i mainly work in and associate myself, instagram is a much more effective way of promoting yourself and the things you do due to the tight knit nature of smaller scenes like that of Leeds and West Yorkshire, it is also much more useful as people will most likely be finding you on instagram first and foremost and because of that initial first impression, an instagram has to be well put together in order to come across professional and employable. On the other hand, an EPK allows for a much deeper breadth of detail than an instagram does, and allows for you to concisely tell people about yourself whilst giving them the option to find out more via, for example, extra pages on a website or direct links to previous works showing evidence of your abilities.
My main audience for this EPK is people in the UK Hardcore scene and general alternative music scene, it is heavily geared towards this audience due to the fact i heavily cover accolades and show that i am established among this crowd, this is due to the fact that previous experience and knowledge within the genre is a massive advantage when looking to get booked for gigs or jobs by people also involved.
However, the standard practice in my field is usually people do not utilise electronic press kits, instead opting for promotion through the use of instagram or even just word of mouth. For example, local Leeds band The Flex have been touring and playing shows for over ten years now and only made an instagram a year ago, their entire popularity came from word of mouth and people seeing them live, this led on to them playing all over the world. i believe this is a natural yet unreliable way of self promotion, i believe that the use of more formal methods of promotion and marketing could help a lot of bands and professionals get more into a mainstream market.
An electronic press kit however is more likely to drive revenue from my standpoint of promoting myself as a producer and sound technician, this line of work is much more similar to regular employments and having professional documents such as an epk can heavily drive revenue by landing you roles such as an in house sound engineer, or landing you the job on recording and working on an artists music in a studio environment.
In terms of costs for this epk, there are many factors to consider, the photos range anywhere from £50 to £100 per gig, however this is usually paid out of pocket from the promoter, i gathered these prices from previous experience working with local photographers such as @niamhcapture and @dvm.jpg on instagram. Another factor is hosting the EPK on a website, the cost of holding a domain name usually ranges from about £10 to £15 a year, i searched on wix.com, a common domain host and seller, to see what the domain oliverwashproductions.com would end up costing which comes to £8 a year through wix with options to improve your yearly plan with more features. Paying artists for logos and music art to be used in an epk is a large expense as well, the cost varies with each different artists but usually, for a simple logo based on my previous experience usually costs around £50~. all together the cost of setting up, hosting and fine tuning an EPK is quite large, however the revenue that can be gained from an EPK’s influence balances out costs and in turn leads to much more profit.
In terms of group work for my EPK, i worked with and compared EPK’s with many people, for example, i talked a lot with my friend and Lcon graduate Will Venn who’s website venn productions (linked below) was a major source of inspiration and his ability to critique and refine my ideas helped massively.
Venn Productions
Will has a great insight into the industry, as a currently practicing producer and sound engineer he has put an epk and website to good commercial use within the Leeds scene. I also collaborated with my friend Chloe, who is a current Lcon student and also creating and EPK, this was due to the fact that we both work and operate in tight knit music circles, but incredibly different genres, comparing ideas with her to generate new ways of self promotion through and epk was incredibly helpful and showed a different perspective of what was important within an epk.
Moving forward, i would very much like to improve on the content that is in my EPK, as a lot of it isn’t currently at the standard i wish it to be, after this i will be using it as either a downloadable pdf document or hosted on a website for promotion in the future. this will help drive revenue and allow me to find myself more opportunities within my field.
