WMC 2008 Panels: Musicians Collaborative

WMC 2008 Panels: Musicians Collaborative

26 March, 2008 | 1.29AM

• Written by: Mr Tunes
• Filed under: Music News: wmc 2008 panels

There was a marathon two and a half hour session today at the WMC headquarters regarding some protocols that musicians and singers can go by when collaborating and finding new projects.

The celebrity of the panel was Pepper MaShay who was a backup vocalist on Tina Turner’s hit ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’.

It was sort of all encompassing to all genres of music, but it was nice to have spoken word artist Diamondancer [check out her ‘Rem’ track in the player below] and Monster Taxi on the panel to hone in the discussion a bit towards dance music.

There was strong representation from The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) with two panelists from this organization discussing the benefits of joining the union if you’re a working vocalist.

And luckily there was a rep from the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) who happened to be in the audience to field some questions regarding being a session musician on a track.
My observation is that in a country such as the United States where there is no Universal Healthcare, it’s probably a good idea to closely examine the benefits of recording under proper contracts with the union.

However, interesting to note, that a city such as Miami is fairly non-unionized overall compared the recordings done in say New York or LA.

One audience member was apparently a session musician on a track on Bob Marley’s Legend album and was asking about how to reclaim some income on work that was paid for many years ago.

By the way it was worked out, no dice for him was the panelists’ take on the situation.

Another audience member was a producer from Portugal who wanted to do a remix of a classic soul song from the 70s, but the fees for licensing the sample were too high.

He was given the suggestion to consider doing a White-label release and just get it out there.

I’d have to agree with that advice, seeing how difficult it can be to arrange for certain songs to get remixed these days.

But be sure to have an industrial-sized bottle of Pepto Bismal on hand should you go this route!

Pepper Mashay offered some sage advice that she broke into the industry by starting out taking on some gigs that didn’t pay well, if payed at all, and that was how she got some attention drawn to her for larger projects.

And to quote her in regards to whether or not one should join musician’s unions, she says “enough with the dumb stuff”, validating their existence and reminding people to use the services available to you whenever you can.

The session was good in all, but as I said above it was two and a half hours long and some of the questions from the audience were very personal and in my opinion boring.

I must say I had a hard time containing my laughter when an older woman who claimed to sing like Barbara Streisand asked a barrage of questions which ended with her being put on the spot to sing a few bars of music for the panel.

In closing, I’d say that a good story for vocalists to take note of is how Crystal Waters’ track ‘Gypsy Woman’ was a product of her going to a networking event such as this one and handing her demo out, as mentioned on this very blog not too long ago.

And that track had a major impact on the history of dance music, no doubt about it.

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