Unboxed Records is pleased to announce that Hillary Hand has signed a deal with the label.  Her first EP entitled ‘Paper Doll‘ will be getting released later this summer.  To read more about her or listen to her music and watch her videos feel free to check out her Facebook page for now at www.facebook.com/hillaryhand.

We’re extremely happy to welcome such a truly gifted artist to the Unboxed Records family.  Hillary’s music is hauntingly beautiful.  She truly weaves worlds from words and we’re all beyond excited to share her music with the world.

We recently opened up for artist submissions as we look to expand our Artist roster. There’s a delicate balance of who you can and can’t work with though due to constraints on time and budget, but there were some great responses. At this point I’ve got my eye on three artists and they are all absolutely stunning. I’m absolutely amazed and humbled by the talent I’m coming across out there. It’s also interesting to see where people are on their journey to their destination.

Most artist’s don’t realize it but there’s a certain level you have to be at before you can do certain things. Before you can get 50,000 youtube views you need to work on your songs and audio and video production. Before you can get featured in a TV Show or even a feature film you really need to have a buzz and have the aforementioned youtube views. Before you can play to crowds of 15,000 fans you really need to refine your material and show on the road being an opening act. That’s not always the way it is, but it is the “controlled” way of doing things. You have to be careful not to grow too slow or too fast or it could hurt your career by making bad judgements. One of the most important things we do here at Unboxed is add fuel to the fire or coast when it’s appropriate.

There’s nothing wrong with being a one hit wonder, but wouldn’t it be more exciting and sustaining to have a string of hits? I think so. At any rate, I’m really looking forward to making some new artist announcements in the near future. Keep checking the site because we’ve got some great things in store.

-Ryan

One of my talents is the ability to hear someone or something that has the “X-Factor”.  To be completely honest, I think that means different things for different people, but I’ve made it my (our) mandate to take certain artists to the top of their A-game.  They won’t all be selling out arenas, but maybe their music will end up on TV, or maybe they will gain some Indie traction and make a lucrative career touring or being played on the radio.

So many artists think “getting signed” means that you’ve made it and the work is over.  I tell my artists that getting signed is just the first step. That’s truly where the work begins.  I love taking an active role with our artist roster though.  So many groups are just missing one aspect of their game and when you help them focus and get everything clicking it’s amazing what people can do.

I don’t offer people multi-million dollars contracts.  Unboxed contracts are very modest.  We build a very push/pull type relationship with our artists.  As we do things for the artist that further their career we both make money.  As the artist works to promote themselves based on the guidelines and plans we develop we both make money.

If you become the next greatest thing, that’s absolutely great.  If not, at least you gave it a shot and got your music out there.  If we’re talking to you it means you have that special spark…that “x-factor”.  If we’re not talking to you and you think you have what it takes feel free to contact us and let us check your stuff out.  I listen to each and everything that comes through.  We’ll let you know if a contract or partnership makes sense.

Ryan Sloan
President/Unboxed Records

While having a quick convo with my man Joe Gilder over at Home Studio Corner, he asked me what we could do for an artist that they couldn’t do for themselves. If Joe wasn’t curly haired, and southern, I may have been offended by his question, as it insinuates that a record label isn’t needed to make a successful career as a musician. He’s therefore insinuating that our new venture here at Unboxed isn’t worthwhile. The reason I wasn’t offended is because he’s absolutely right. I’ve been flying the flag of the DIY music scene long since forever. I practiced that when I was trying to make music my career, and later in life when trying to make recording, and live sound a career. I discovered that most things that I was paying others to do in the musical world could by DIY’d (is that a verb?) but, as I explained to Joe, it was never a question of could or couldn’t. The real question to ask is should and would. So, like a pretentious college professor, let me ask the questions aloud that I’m already prepared to answer for myself.

What could we do for an artist that they WOULDN’T do for themselves?

What could we do for an artist that they SHOULDN’T do for themselves?

The answer to both is a phrase our beloved CEO is fond of, everything and nothing. It’s all a matter of who you are as an artist, and as a person. Let me describe Joe Gilder, who is actually one of my closest friends. He is a guy who has written, recorded, mixed, and distributed all of his own albums, and they sound GREAT by the way! He needed to record the songs he was writing, so he learned how to do it, with extremely meager tools. He then managed to create an entire web empire, which we’ll call the wempire (cool, huh?), based around teaching people how to record, edit, mix, and master their own music at home, using the same meager tools as he does. He now sits around his house in old sweat pants from the 80′s, sipping sweet tea, eating curly fries, and making more money than most, by typing on his laptop. Or at least I imagine that’s what he does all day.

The point is, Joe is the type of guy who sees what needs to be done, figures out a way to do it himself, and then does it! Let me give you another example. It’s yours truly. The bearded man himself. Similar story to Joe, I had music that needed to be recorded, and I figured out how to get that done myself. I noticed that a packet of carrot seeds cost the same as a bag of carrots, yet could produce dozens of bags of carrots when grown, so I started gardening. I noticed that wood costs a fraction of the price of a piece of wooden furniture, so I started building. I saw that buying children online was REALLY expensive, so I started making them myself. Or something like that. You get the point though. I’m a DIY kind of guy. Not everyone is.

So let’s answer the question of Wouldn’t first. For a DIY guy like Joe, what can we really do for him that he wouldn’t for himself? Absolutely nothing. If he wanted to have his music more widely distributed, or wanted to start playing shows around the country, or move his musical career in any other direction, he would find a way to do it, and then do it himself. I can only assume sweet tea and curly fries would be involved (if you’re from the south, maybe you can explain Sweet Tea to me someday). If you’re NOT a DIY guy though, then the answer to this question becomes Everything. More than likely you are the type of guy who is writing amazing music, maybe getting it as far as a demo, some small local shows, and that’s where things end. Your personality type isn’t the kind that’s going to push you to figuring distribution, management, publicists, licensing, merch, etc, etc, and some more etc’s after that. You want to focus on the creative side of things, and leave the rest of this up to other guys. That is where we step in.

On to the question of Shouldn’t. This one becomes a bit trickier because it’s very individualized. When it comes to music, DIY’ing it has one major disadvantage, and that’s that you’re far too attached to the product. These songs are your babies, but in order to really turn them into a viable commercial product you have to look a them objectively. You wrote 37 songs in a year, and they’re all your favorites, now it’s time to make some cuts. Not too many people will be a 3-disc debut album from an unknown artist. Objectivity is what will lead you to cut 25 songs. Not everyone can do this. You need an outside view to tell you which songs really mesh together, which songs will appeal to your audience, and which songs are best left for campfire singalongs.

Let’s go back to Joe as our example. He tracked, edited, and mixed his entire album “Out Of Indiana“, but he did NOT master it. He had several reasons for doing this, but one of them was that he wanted to get another set of objective ears on it. Someone who wasn’t attached to the songs themselves to make judgments about the sound of the album. Objectivity is crucial, but not just from a musical standpoint. Maybe it’s a question of album art, which song should be your first single, where you should play a show, etc. Having someone who isn’t so closely attached to the music will give you an objective overview, that can guide you into potentially great directions that you would have never gone yourself.

Another example of where Shouldn’t comes up is when you’re trying to shop your music around. Booking agencies, record execs, licensing agencies, and any other office that sounds official in this industry is getting piles of demos sent to them every day. It’s gotten to the point where the majority of these albums are never given a second glance because there literally isn’t enough time to do it. If you want to get the attention of someone higher up in the musical food chain, more often than not, you’re going to have to funnel your music through a trusted channel of the bigger musical fish. As it gets fed up that food chain, more and more music gets filtered out, until you reach the top and only a few select pieces remain. Those pieces get heard, and that is the new process of “discovering” talent. We can help get your fish food in the tank (how’s that for metaphor!!!).

You’ll notice I said, “If you want to get the attention of someone higher up,” and that is very critical. What we’re talking about here is for those who want to make it into the commercial side of music. If music is your passion, but you don’t want it to be your career, then more power to you. Write your music, play for whomever you choose, play where you want, if anywhere, charge what you like, and be happy. But if you’re looking to turn your music into your living, then you’re the one who should be asking himself the two questions above. If your answer to both questions is nothing, then stop reading, and get to work. If your answer to both questions is anything other than nothing, then contact us. We’ll chat. We’ll figure out how, and most importantly if, we should work together.

Luke Herian

The Unboxed team is extremely excited to be working with Angove and are looking forward to this partnership.

Unboxed founder Ryan Sloan had this to say, “Jayson is an extremely talented musician.  It’s so rare to find someone who not only writes good songs, but also find someone who can cover so much ground in terms of the genres they’re comfortable working within.  I think you’ll be hearing a lot from this young talent moving forward and I can’t tell you how excited we are to help introduce the world to Humble Wolf.”

For inquiries or questions please send a message to PR@unboxedrecords.com