The Indigo Elephant Newsletter

With only five days left until The Art of Erosion releases, I wanted to talk a bit more about what it takes to release an independent DIY record. To clarify our position: Indigo Elephant is completely DIY and independent, where everything we’ve ever spent on the band came out of either our band earnings, or our own pockets. We are a self-managed, self-funded, self-releasing band.

There’s so many logistics beyond writing the music that goes into a record release, and I thought it would be interesting to see how many questions we needed to answer in order to create a successful album. I just got home from a 9 hour road trip, so I don’t have the brainpower to answer these questions at the moment, but maybe you could let me know which questions are the most intriguing and I could go in-depth on them in a future post!

This list is not exhaustive - I’m asking as many questions as I can in the span of one hour before I go to bed tonight. I’m sure if I asked my bandmates, we could easily balloon this list up. This list is comprised of questions that I think are directly related to creating an album. This is not encompassing all other aspects of managing and being a member of a band. Finally, this list is not encompassing any individual decision we needed to make while writing the songs themselves.

This list is understandably overwhelming.

Early stage planning

• What type / length of project do we want to release next?

• Is there an overall vision or theme guiding the project?

• How will we as a band collaborate on this project?

• What general time frame are we aiming for to release the project?

• What deadline are we giving ourselves to write enough material?

• How many songs should we aim for by the self-imposed deadline?

• Do we have a practice space to work on songwriting?

• How often can we meet up per week to work on songwriting in person?

• How much money does the band currently have to spend on a new project?

• How much money can we as individual band members afford to pay out of pocket on the project?

• How many shows can we handle playing in order to fundraise, while also working on songwriting?

Songwriting

• Which songs will we be focusing on week-to-week?

• Each week, does anyone have new song ideas?

• What online cloud data storage are we using to work on songs asynchronously?

• Do we have enough online storage to hold all our song ideas?

• Are there songs or ideas in our vault that we want to polish and release?

• If we were to create an album, could we order our collection of songs to create a well-paced and coherent project?

• What song types / niches are we missing to make a well-paced project?

• Are there any artists we want to collaborate with?

• For each song:

  • Who is writing the lyrics?

  • Who is writing which parts of the arrangement?

  • What direction or genre is each song idea / how will we take those ideas and make them our own?

  • Does this song differentiate itself enough from others in our catalog?

  • Are there other songs we’re working that fit the same niche?

Album Pre-preproduction

• Do we have enough songs to fill a full length LP?

• Are we happy with our current crop of songs to create an album?

• Do want to record at home, or do we want to spend money on studio time?

• Do we want to self-produce, or do we want to work with a producer?

• Do we want to mix the songs ourselves, or do we want to work with a mixing engineer?

• Do we want to master the songs ourselves, or do we want to work with a mastering engineer?

• Are there any local recording studios that we could record the album?

• What instruments do those studios have that we could use?

• What instruments do we need to bring ourselves?

  • When will we get our instruments serviced before studio time?

• Are there any local producers, mixing engineers, and mastering engineers who we could see ourselves working with?

  • Are there local producers that have worked with artists within our genre?

• What is our budget for a studio, producer, etc?

Album Preproduction

• After we pass our songwriting deadline, which songs will make it on the album, especially after consulting with our producer?

• What order will the songs be in on the record?

• What is the predicted overall vibe of the album?

• Do we have reference tracks for all individual songs + the overall album, so that mixing engineers, producers, and mastering engineers are all on the same page about the direction of the album?

• What stretch of time can we find to record songs?

  • How many days in the studio can we afford?

  • Are all individual band members able to take time off work if we need to book the studio on weekdays?

  • Are we all free to devote 8+ hours a day, each day, to recording?

• Who is playing which instruments and which parts when we record?

  • Will they be able to practice enough so they can nail it in 1-2 takes?

  • If parts change in the studio, will they be practiced enough where they can rewrite and record parts easily?

  • Are guitar parts going to be played with fingers or with picks?

• How are we spending each day in the studio?

  • Are we recording the album part by part, or are we recording it with mostly live band takes?

  • For any given day, what songs and individual parts are we aiming to record?

  • How many songs are we aiming to record for each day?

  • For each song, what parts are a priority to record in studio, and which parts are we okay with recording at home if we need to?

  • How much in studio experimentation does our budget allow?

Album Recording, Mixing, and Mastering

• Are we happy with our studio recordings?

• Did we send in every part of our songs that we had to record at home?

• After a few rounds of revisions, are we happy with how the album is mixed?

  • Do the songs feel like they’re achieving what we wanted?

• After a few rounds of revisions, are we happy with how the album is mastered?

  • Does the music sound good through multiple sound sources (airpods, car, headphones, speakers, etc.)?

• Now that all the songs are complete, which songs will be our singles?

• What is the name of the project?

Album Art Direction and Merch

• Who will lead the visual identity of our album?

• Who will be on the visual team for this record?

• Do we have enough direction for our art director to create a cohesive visual identity?

• Do we want to create new merch for the record, such as:

  • Physical CD’s

  • T-shirts

  • Posters

  • Photocards

  • Vinyl

• Do we have enough visual assets for our art director, artist, and graphic designers to work with?

  • Do we need to conduct a photoshoot for the album?

    • Do we need models for an album photoshoot?

    • Do we need models for our merch?

    • Does the band need to take new promo shots?

• What are the deadlines for each piece of art / graphic / merch / marketing / etc?

• Can we make a Spotify Canvas for each single?

  • Can we use those videos for live shows as well?

• Will we have all our our merch ready before album release?

• Will we be able to take photos of our merch before album release?

• Will our digital storefront have our merch ready to be purchased before album release?

• Do we have the budget to film a music video?

Album Distribution

• What music distributor are we using to release the record?

• Are all music and music-related graphics ready to be uploaded to our distributor?

• Which streaming sites will our music be available?

• Do we have access to all artist pages for those streaming sites?

• Have we proofread all our lyric sheets?

• Have we uploaded all our lyrics to the distributor?

• Have we synced up all our lyrics to ours songs on streaming services?

Album Promotion and Marketing

• What is the release strategy for the album?

  • When are we planning to announce the album?

  • When are we planning to release the album?

  • When are we planning to announce each single?

  • When are we planning to release each single?

  • How much time are we putting between each release?

  • Are we going to organize shows for each release?

• How can we promote ourselves on short-form content platforms so that we don’t burn out?

• Who is writing our band resume that we send out to promoters and industry professionals?

• Who is writing our band bio for all streaming services?

• Do we have the bandwidth to reach out to playlist curators?

• Do we have the bandwidth to reach out to music blogs?

• Do we have the bandwidth to do band interviews on podcasts and radio?

• Do we have the budget to run ads on meta and instagram?

• Do we have the budget to do radio promotion?

• Do we want to go on tour post-album release to promote the new record?

As you can see, a lot goes into creating a record, and I know for a fact that I missed some. When you’re a DIY band, loving songwriting isn’t the only requirement, it’s the starting line. I haven’t even talked about planning individual shows, or a tour for that matter. This blog post could function as as bible for any aspiring band that wants to create a studio record. All of the above is only part of what it took for us to get to the finish line, and we’re going to cross that finish line this Friday.

The Art of Erosion is the culmination of nearly two years of hard work, discipline, planning, and, of course, passion. We had a lot of fun making this record, but beyond that, we’re going to be oh so satisfied when this record finally reaches your ears.

Until next time,