Part 2 of 2 with lyricist and singer Cilette Swann, and multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer Roman Morykit, who came together to create Gypsy Soul over 15 years ago. In that time they have received more than 60 critics’ choice awards across a discography of 10 truly independently-produced CDs, and their songs have been downloaded more than 1.5 million times. In addition, their music has been featured in multiple TV shows and movies. Their 2013 release, “The World Is My Country” has already won both the Independent Music Award and International Acoustic Music Award.
Table of Contents
00:40 – What was your biggest failure or setback in the musicbiz and how did that change you moving forward?
16:42 – Tell me more about your fan-funding project going on right now
33:01 – Top 4 takeaways to support your success in the music business
What was your biggest failure or setback in the musicbiz and how did that change you moving forward?
Roman: While in England, I was signed to A&M and a band called Raising Cain. We had worked many years to get the record deal, this was in the late ‘80’s. I had this experience that was one in a million. We had a massive deal. We were recording at Olympic Records in London. Next door to me was Brian May, who was mixing the Queen record. Down the hall was Duran Duran, and the Rolling Stones had just been in the studio we were recording in. Robert Plant was doing some re-mixing. I was 23, and I just thought that this was the way it was and that this is what it was like to be a successful musician.
Six to eight months in, we get a FedEx delivery to each of our homes. Polygram had just bought out A&M and they dropped virtually the entire roster. We were in the middle of making our record, we had this incredible experience, and especially at that age. Man, that was a hard one to get over. It was like getting kicked in the head. I kind of stumbled around for about a year and a half, I just didn’t know what to do with myself. I was trying different things. I was still a session player in London, and that’s when I met Cilette. And that was the turning point. The musicians I was working with in that band were really, really good. And I thought, “how am I gonna find musicians like that?” Well, of course there are tons of musicians that are great on every street, it’s just that you don’t hear about them.
That was one of the big turning points in my life. Some of the effects of that experience took me a long-time to exercise. It took me a long time to recognize the successes we were having as an independent, but when you put it up against being signed to a major label, and having those kind of experiences, you feel like a failure. And that took me a long time to get out of my system.
Cilette: When we started, and we had a couple CD’s, and we wanted to perform, and we wanted to be in front of more people. We didn’t like the whole club-vibe in LA and the pay-to-play crap. It’s just unhealthy and soul-destroying. There is a very-known venue in Los Angeles where the band does not get paid unless they bring in 100 people, and we had 98 people on a Monday night, and my Dad has been a guest with his girlfriend, and when he realized that we weren’t being paid, he told the booker, “hey, I want to pay for my tickets, I didn’t want to be a guest tonight, let my kids get paid for their audience.” They refused us, and we paid our band on credit cards. Those are some of the soul-destroying experiences we had in some of the LA clubs. So we said, forget this, we’re gonna find another way to make this work.
And so we did art and wine festivals, we played the Orange County swap meet, where there’s something like 50,000 people on a weekend. For five to six years, maybe even more, we played virtually every weekend between gigs in Washington, Oregon, California, and Arizona. And that’s how we built our audience. We definitely have that spirit of, “if they are going to build a wall in front of us, we’re gonna bring a ladder. Or a wrecking ball.
Roman: But seriously, it hasn’t come without a cost. Cilette and I–a few years back–we split up for three years, because the pressure and the disappointments, and constantly having to pick yourself up, we lost sight of who we were. And this comes right back to something we said at the beginning of this interview: Losing sight of who you are and what you’re doing, and why you are doing it. And it took a lot for us to rediscover ourselves and thats when we came back together and wrote The World is My Country, as an exclamation of who we were again. And who we were together as a couple as well as who were as a musical couple.
Make no mistake, this is a tough business. If you are in the music business to try and make money, you are wasting your time. You better be doing it because you love it. It’s a hard road, and you have to find someone that is prepared to share that road with you, be they spouses or band-members.
Tell me more about your fan-funding project going on right now
Cilette: We are writing our eleventh CD right now, in between touring, and we realized that in order to take this CD beyond where our previous CD’s have gone, we needed to do something different.
Our first step is to win an Americana Grammy, and it’s not to have a statue on our mantle. It’s for the access, in an effort to play in the most beautiful theaters for the rest of our lives. It’s not the be-all and end-all, but it’s a part of our plan. A plan with lots of steps to get there.
Roman: It comes back to what you just said. There are so many people out there that are able to make music, that it has absolutely cluttered the airwaves. I’m being a little disparaging there, but it’s made it harder for real artists to get their music out there. That is why we are raising the kind of funds that we are trying to raise, because genuine Americana radio promoters are the ones that can really make a difference, don’t come cheap.
Top 4 takeaways to support your success in the music business
- Artists need to focus on creating great music and striving for excellence in all things. Your heart and soul as a musician should shine through to your business plan. Everything from your interactions, to your integrity, to your website needs to be congruent to what you do and who are are as an artist.
- Honor your agreements with band members, and insist they do the same. If rehearsal is at 5pm, don’t show up at 10pm.
- It is all about engaging your fans. The fans are your life-line, they are everything. It shocks me when I find out that a band is not signing CD’s at the end of the show. You are not performing for yourself. There is an exchange and the connection with the fans, and that includes engaging your fans after the show via social media. And your social media can’t just advertise your shows, let your fans get to know you.
- Be honest with yourself and true to yourself as a musician. Be realistic with your ability. And remember that everyone gets there with help. Learn how to say ‘no’ nicely.
The best ways to reach Cilette and Roman of Gypsy Soul:
On the web:
http://www.gypsysoul.com/
Cool crowd-funding campaign going on right now:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-get-gypsy-soul-to-the-grammys
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/gypsysoulmusic
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/GypsySoulMusic
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