| Bradley Tatum |
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| Written by i j |
| Monday, 16 January 2012 09:59 |
Hace algunos días contacto conmigo a través de la página Web inglesa (www.gothic-culture.com) Bradley Tatum. Lo que sigue es una entrevista que le he hecho al respecto de su trabajo. Bradley compone, toca, edita y publica su propia música por lo que es un ejemplo a seguir para todos aquellos que queremos, de una forma u otra, expresar nuestro arte. De paso podéis escuchar una muestra de su música.
- (Gothic-culture) While I listen to your opening song “under the storm cloud” of your recently released CD album “It’s a beautiful world”, I just can´t stop thinking on: Who is Bradley Tatum? Let us know something about you.
(Bradley Tatum) I am a 27 year old musician from the Seattle area of the United States. I was born in the arctic wasteland of North America on the shores of the Bering Sea, in Western Alaska (Right across the water from Russia). I moved around a lot as a young child and settled in Seattle area (just south of Canada, on the Pacific Coast of the USA), which would soon after make itself world renowned for giving birth to the Grunge Scene (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Sound Garden) making it a musical hotspot and focal point of the rock world. From a very young age I was fascinated with horror movies and passionate about music. By the time I was seven I was writing lyrics to songs I didn’t yet have the skills to write the music for. I picked up a guitar by eight years old and went from there.
When I was eighteen I founded Blood and Guts Records, a Horror-Punk record label with my girlfriend at the time.
Blood and Guts Records over the next 8 years, grew into North Americas largest Horror-Punk Record label of the time. We signed contracts and released albums for around 10 bands in the USA, Sweden and Italy. This partnership with gothic and punk musicians permitted me to travel across not only the United States but also to Europe to assist with record release concerts, contract signings, to hang out with and befriend the members of the bands (whom quickly became more like family than business partners) and to participate in the creation of Horror-Punk culture at an international level.
It was my dream come true and a total blast. Eventually this phase of my life came crashing to an end when the co-owner and I (who were then married) got divorced and the record label was dissolved. The separation was not a pretty one and I was left in a dark place with very little to my name. At this point I had been conducting private Guitar Bass and Drum lessons for income for a few years on the side and I had built up a very loyal and solid group of students that all came to my aid in my hour of need.
Through the aid of my students, a few fiercely loyal friends, and a loving mother I was able to get myself back up on my feet and ready to continue the saga of Bradley Tatum. It was clear to me at this point that all of my musical enthusiasm and drive for accomplishment was to be focused on my own musical career now and that I was to let nothing stand in my way from then on. For years I had studied recording and studio engineering in my extra time that I was not teaching music lessons or conducting record label business and I decided it was time to put all the pieces together.
Tapping from my knowledge and experience from the record business, my own music prowess and my desire to create my own music I committed to becoming a self-made independent artist from top to bottom. “It’s a Beautiful World” was my third album released in 2011, but first album on CD. The first two were a kind of miscellaneous collections of my works that had been piling up with no place to go over the last few years. “Collection” and “Collection II” were released digitally only (find them on iTunes!) I write, perform, record and mix all of my own material at my in-home studio I have built.
- (GC) When did you released your creative skills and decided to start creating music? (BT) Like I said, I have been musical since I was young. I was in the early stages of “band” forming with other like-minded people by the time I was 11. By the time I was 14, I was the guitarist (and then later the bassist…) in a fully functioning, recording and performing hard rock/Gothic Punk band called the Humanoids (name taken in part from the ultra-campy horror movie “C.H.U.D.”) As an adult I played in various other rock bands and a handful of acoustic projects too.
Throughout all of it I have been writing my own music which really began taking shape in 2008 when I completed some basic stages of home studio building and was able to fully record all ingredients for the songs I was writing; Guitars, bass, drums, vocals synths and everything else. This is when I would say my creativity really came into focus and I began honing my own sound, which you can hear expressed very accurately in the latest album, “It’s a Beautiful World.”
- (GC) Your music is quite industrial, I´m really curious on how that music is created and what technical methods or equipment you use. (BT) I am an absolute fanatic and loyal user of Image-Line’s FL STUDIO. I would love to one day get sponsorship from them (Wink wink)! I was introduced to FL Studio by a few different friends and musical comrades and I took to it pretty fast. I had been using Cubase and Mackie’s Tracktion 2 before that, which both were fine for what I was using them for, but it was ultimately FL Studio that really let me take things to the next level. I have a Pod-Pro XT Guitar Processor that I use to record my guitars and bass, an Audio-Technica 2050 Microphone for live instrument and vocals recordings and I use a Mackie 1620i Mixing Board with Firewire for digital mixing and channeling into my computer for editing and manipulating in FL Studio. I have tons of Guitars that I have been collecting ever since I was in the fourth grade. - (GC) And your creative process? I mean, where do you get your inspiration for your songs? And how you turn that into music? (BT) I pull inspiration from so many sources. I listen to so many different music artists (most but not all with a metal, punk, or gothic feel to it). One theme you will consistently sense if not outright hear about in my music is HORROR.
Horror has been a part of my story since the get-go. I just can’t hide my total infatuation with horror movies, Halloween and the artistic expression of the ever-alluring dark side of life. On the other side of that coin, I trip out a lot about the Human Experience we are having, the point of it, the elements to our existence that we can only intuit or feel, the bigger picture, and the responsibility we have in it (or to it maybe…).
I feel that we humans have been placed (and manifested from) somewhere in between on the spectrum of total light and total darkness, and it is our plight to endlessly maintain a balance of the two that we can sustain to avoid our physical and spiritual destruction. I think that is why I am (and so much gothic artwork is..) so prone to black and white, high-contrast imagery.
Everything boils down to the light and the dark and nothing portrays our beautiful but morbid existence better than black and white does, in my opinion.
- (GC) I suppose that you edit and produce all your albums. I understand that you don´t work with any music label. How is the life of an artist who has to do all the work by themselves? (BT) Well I like how I do things and I am used to it. It took me a long time to learn to do what I do but every second of difficulty has been worth it. Don’t get me wrong, it would be really nice to have the financial backing and promotional support of a record label, and that will probably come to pass in the future, but for now I am happy with how things are. It is a good discipline for me to have to be able to do (and pay for) everything. Things that are given for free aren’t valued and cherished like the things we must work for.
I have committed to myself that I will do everything in my power to progress my career musically and I expect to, so anything that wants to be a helpful source of aid to that cause will be welcomed, but never expected. My goal is to bring my music as far as I can. Any amount of toiling, blood, sweat and tears that I have to put into it to get where I am going is irrelevant to me because none of those variables are going to change my game plan or deter me from my vision. I believe the Universe rewards hard work and as the saying goes, “Luck favors the prepared.” - (GC) And what would you say to other (probably young) artists or creators about that. Do you think is better to work on your own or better to work with a strong label behind you? (BT) I think if you are a young artist that is presented with an honest and legitimate deal offered to you from a label, you seriously should consider taking it. Labels offer artists financial and promotional help which can be extremely beneficial to one’s career. That being said, I think that you can measure how important your dream is to you and your own determination by your willingness to work for what you want. Don’t wait around for someone to hand you your dream on a silver platter. That which is given can be taken away. If you put in your own work you never risk the stagnancy of your dream coming into fruition. Besides, if you are really passionate about making something happen, who can do what you can’t for yourself anyway? - (GC) What are your short term plans? You planning on keep releasing new albums? (BT) I have just begun rehearsing with an old friend who plays drums. I love being solo but I also miss the camaraderie and ability to perform live that comes along with playing in a band. For now it is just he and I but I suspect we will be recruiting a bass player and probably second guitarist before long, because all of the songs I write call for those roles. In addition to the band I will continue to work on solo albums as well, and actually have already completed a few songs for the next coming album. Music videos are in the immediate future also. I have just made some purchases for equipment needed to start shooting videos and have a lot of ideas I want to turn into reality. I have been thinking about doing this for a long time and right now feels like the right time to do it. - (GC) The people who are reading this will probably be listening to the song you raised on youtube, so they already have some short of opinion on your music. But if you had to describe your music in a few lines so they have a deeper understanding on your work, what would you say to them? (BT) Dark and Gothic Melodic Hard-Rock with undercurrents of Electro and Punk. - (GC) Well this is getting to an end, just one question remaining on my side, one I like to make: whats the thing you more detest related with your work? (BT) Oohh…that is a very good question. It is very hard to get publicists and editors to give you the time of day and take you seriously if you are without a record label. I sent out a ton of copies of CDs for review and only a handful of sources even acknowledged me at all. That is really frustrating. I would like to thank you for your interest in my music and for featuring me on your site. I hope you readers out there give the album a listen and enjoy it. \m/ Bradley Tatum
Until here the interview with Bradley Tatum, at first I thought that It was too long for publishing and started reading it searching “where” to place the scissor for not boring anyone, but while I was reading I realized that the experience of someone who do all the work from composing a song to publishing it was really interesting.
Just for inspiring and demonstrate people that like me have problems for making editors, publishers etc paying attention to your work that there is always a way to do it.
Hope you liked it as much as I did, here are some links:
http://www.facebook.com/bradleytatumartist http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/its-a-beautiful-world/id471400857 (Enlace al album en iTunnes)
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| Last Updated on Monday, 16 January 2012 10:07 |
