EPK Screenshots (created on bandzoogle)

Supporting Commentary

I chose to submit an electronic press kit for this assignment as I had wanted to create something where I could collate the various projects I have been working on throughout my first year at Leeds Conservatoire, with the purpose of using it to advertise myself as a session player, a pit musician, and an artist. I chose to advertise all three of these elements of my work as I feel that what makes me unique as a musician is my versatility and ability to deliver across a wide variety of musical styles and professional contexts (opening my bio with the adjective ‘versatile’ was a very intentional decision, as I really wanted to push this as a first impression). While I did consider the option of focussing on just one of these areas, I considered the idea that “a press kit should fully reflect the unique quality of your work and reinforce the fact that your music is extraordinary and worth listening to” (Musician’s Union, 2024). I feel that, while I have a strong sense of character and individuality as a session musician, as a pit musician, and as an original artist, the attribute that I value most in myself, and that which the people who I work with hire me for, is my ability to do all of these things. In the future, when I hopefully enter into a financially sustainable full-time professional career and I am advertising myself as a business, I plan for my unique selling point to be the fact that I can confidently play multiple instruments in multiple genres, whether that entails writing parts, reading sheet music, transcribing and learning songs, or improvising. This also allows my electronic press kit to target a wider audience, potentially helping me to get session work from artists and producers, pit band chairs from musical directors, gig offers from venues and promoters, and accompanist work from singers.

I structured my electronic press kit by beginning with my artist bio, which is designed to sum up the key information I would like people to know about me in order to create an intentional first impression and make it clear who I am and what I do, before they hopefully go on to read the rest of the info. I then opted to talk about my musical background and influences, where I noted some of my accreditations (grade 8 piano, electric guitar, and popular music theory) to establish a trustworthy source that I am technically skilled on my instruments. I also mentioned a range of musical influences from a number of styles: jazz, modernist European folk, minimalism, funk, musical theatre, and modern metal. I chose these artists/composers/instrumentalists specifically to further highlight how I draw from many different musical backgrounds and combine them in my work. I followed this section by discussing my live performances, session work, and original music; this was deliberately positioned after the previous section so that I could demonstrate how I have put all the skills and influences I mentioned into practice within the industry. I found it quite difficult to pick out just a few notable live performances that I have done, but I thought it would be better to keep it concise than to simply list them all, as the specifics likely aren’t really of interest to whoever might be reading it. Segueing from talking about a live performance with what would shortly after become Paper Crows, I worked in a short bio for that project to create interest from venues and promoters, and later on I may follow it with a link to a full electronic press kit specifically for that band, where they can go to find more details about us. Rather than going into lots of detail about specific performances and recordings, I decided to attempt to cover all of my experience in different fields in this section, to build an image of trust and reliability. Lastly, I linked some of the recordings I have featured on – I deliberately chose a selection of tracks which showcase my original work, session work where I have written and recorded parts, and session work where I have accurately transcribed and re-recorded parts. I also made sure to showcase each of my instruments across these tracks.

As I develop as a musician, there are some elements of my electronic press kit that I would like to change and/or add to. I am specifically hoping to gain more credits from continuing to work with my own bands and many artists, and I am aiming to be able to play as many gigs as I can in the coming months, so that I can mention these in my ‘live performance’ section, and get more press shots to use. I both of the original projects that I am currently a member of are planning to release music by the end of the year, which would allow me to expand the ‘links to music’ section and have actual releases under my belt, rather than just demo uploads. I also plan to be able to add in reviews of my original music, gigs, and musical theatre shows, and testimonials from more industry professionals.

Evidence of Group Work

Within the Working in the Creative Industries seminars, I engaged in group work by workshopping bios of varying lengths and levels of detail, and discussing which elements of my work I should include, exclude, and focus on within my electronic press kit. A suggestion I was given by a peer was to focus on one pathway (e.g. session musicianship) and stick to that, in order to keep it more concise and target a specific audience. I considered this heavily, and in the future I may look at separating the sections of the industry I hope to work in. I could do this by building a full website, which can include a bio and musical background section similar to this one on the home page, and then have separate pages for my original work, session work, musical theatre work, and accompanist work. This would also make it easier when it comes to professional rates, as they can differ drastically depending on which of these categories an opportunity comes under (I would charge standard Musician’s Union rates for each distinct type of performance or recording I may be asked to do). However, as this electronic press kit is currently the main source of information about me as a musician aside from my Instagram page (on which I post in a more informal manner), I was set on collating my various experiences into a single space.

Bibliography

Musicians Union (2023). Find Rates & Fees that Musicians Should be Paid for Their Work. [online] musiciansunion.org.uk. Available at: https://musiciansunion.org.uk/rates.

Musicians Union (2024). Press Kit for Musicians. [online] Available at: https://musiciansunion.org.uk/career-development/career-guides/marketing-and-promotion/getting-press.

Links to Music on Site