mariamnazaryan-blog

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No stress | Burn-outs in the music industry

In the music business, nothing is more important than your network. Bookers, promoters, managers and journalists can not exist without each other. Therefore we visit festivals, parties, gigs etc.

But there’s a thin line between your private time and business. Our offices are often located at a festival, in a pop venue or in a tour bus, which makes our work fun and interesting, but also provides an abundance of incentives.

Because private and business are so mixed up, a lot of drugs and alcohol are being done in the industry. This applies to musicians and professionals. Drugs and alcohol are a socially accepted form of escapism in the industry and can be an indicator of someone's ‘shaky’ mental health.

In the first years of your career you barely take a noteworthy holiday. Seeing festivals and tours as vacation is dangerous. You are always 'on' and you can hardly ever relax. Even if you’re on vacation or sick at home you still answer mails.

People in the music industry are doing great things: a sold out headlinershow, an album that goes platinum, a successful tour, a five star review, endless views on YouTube and so on. You don’t want to let your company or your artists down. That’s why the pressure to produce results in the music industry is very big.

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Highway to Hell(p)

Since a couple of months I’m commuting to work everyday from Limburg to Brussels. It’s a long way travelling from the village of Meeuwen to Zaventem. But outside the rush hours it takes one hour to get to work. But what concerns me the most are all the traffic jams.

The government often points the finger to ordinary citizens: “You should use public transportation”, “You should take the bike” or “You shouldn’t live in the countryside and work in the city”.  We should take all these sanctions if we chose to work in the city.

I would like to take the train to work. But if you do not work close to the Central Station, you don’t have much choice than to take the car. So am I really the cause of the traffic jams? Or is our mobility plan the cause of this all?

To get to Zaventem from my house I would have to take four different means of transportation. In my opinion politicians shouldn’t pass the buck. They have the resources to solve this problem, so they have to take their responsibility or they should at least make the situation as it is now a little more bearable.

[mariamnazaryan-blog]

Are all those holidays necessary?

It’s almost December. Time to decorate the Christmas tree, buy unnecessary presents for friends and family and gain a few pounds. It's the time of the year we don't only get to celebrate with family. We organize a dozen of additional Christmas and New Year parties with friends and colleagues. Honestly we don't even like the holiday madness, but still we feel the obligation to go with the flow. It's also the time of the year you spent a lot of money on presents etc. Sometimes I ask myself if it's all necessary. Can't we reduce the things that come with holidays? What's also frustrating to me is people planning New Year's eve half a year in advance. I'm not concerned with the cheese fondue I will be eating when I'm laying at the beach in July. Don't misunderstand me. I believe holidays are a good thing. It brings people together. But sometimes I really think we're giving us a hard time by overplanning December and January. I don't know what the solution might be for this problem, but maybe we need to take a step back from all the obligatory things and enjoy holidays for the reason they really exist.

[mariamnazaryan-blog]

Music and religion

You might ask yourself why I wrote down this title. It’s not because I’m about to explain music through different religions, but it’s because I want to reflect it to a project of mine at school. A few weeks ago we got the task to organize a concert on November 1st at an Islamic cemetery. Normally I’m not that excited about schoolwork, but this project really intrigued me. As we learned through the project, combining our Western uses in another context isn’t that easy. The Quran says that the dead may not be disturbed and certainly not by music. Only Quran verses are allowed in this context. We got to discuss this with a muslim community in Genk. They told us organizing this project on a Islamic cemetery on a Christian holiday was not the big deal, because the muslims can honour their dead every day. But it’s what is written in the Quran that they have to follow. We do understand the differences in religions and don't want to disrespect the muslims. That's why we will hold Reveil at a Christian cemetery and invite the muslim community, imams etc. to make this conversation easier in the future. We're looking forward to see Folie Douce perform at the cemetery in Genk!

[mariamnazaryan-blog]

Radio killed the video star

Nowadays getting your song played on the radio is as hard as winning the Lottery. But still some artists do succeed. Is it because they’re signed to major labels? Or they’re just lucky to have the right song or the right promoter? In my opinion it’s a combination of all those things. But in most cases major artists are more lucky just because the group of people listening to their music is bigger. But what does it take for a promo manager to push music into a certain playlist? Well by just being convincing you won’t always get too far. You have to keep your contacts warm by creating goodwill. For example giving promo CD’s, confidential information, exclusive show tickets, merch for the radio stations to gift it to their listeners afterwards, organise listening sessions, or just bringing along cool goodies that will help you pitch your song better. But just like everything else, getting your songs played on the radio is two-way traffic. If the music coordinator of a certain radio station doesn’t like it, there’s little chance that your song will get picked up in the playlist. You just got to be in the right place, at the right time.

[mariamnazaryan-blog]

Why is modern pop music so terrible?

Why is modern pop music so terrible? It’s because the greater mass of the people doesn’t listen to music to get smarter. They seek pleasure and relaxation in music and don’t want to use their head too much to think about complex lyrics, rhythm patterns and soundscapes. We’ve got to realise: they’re not all musicians or music freaks. Of course I do agree that popular music (in general) doesn’t have the depth it used to have. But there are still musicians out there that love their craft and are nurturing a new generation that is willing to create music with the same progressive mindset like their ‘ancestors’. But we’ve got to face the truth: everything has been done before so standing out in pop music now is very difficult. That’s the reason why pop musicians / pop producers now use a formula that has been proven to be successful over a thousand times. And who’s there to blaim them? Some old music freaks? Well their threatened with extinction, because the kids seem to like it. Just look at all the dance festivals that have boomed in the past decades.There’s a big market, and for the entrepreneur that sees it, it means they’ve been lucky to win their lottery ticket.

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VUURDOOP LOVE

Finally it was there, Vuurdoop 2017. We worked a whole semester with our entire class towards this festival that took place in Hasselt on Friday the 12th of May.

I was responsible for the main stage of the festival, the tents and the bow at the entrance. I started a week earlier with my production team to build the main stage and the tents. This was very exhausting but I learned a lot from it. For the bow at the entrance, we used some flamejet ‘magic’. We put two flamejets on top of the two front trusses. These flamejets produced a big flame effect. There were also ‘Vuurdoop’-letters hanging in the front of the bow. Thank god Lester doesn’t have fear of heights ;-) I was also responsible of the declaration at Sabam, Billijke vergoeding and the approval of the stage by a company called Socotec.

During the festival, I was responsible for the tokens. I had a long shift from 16 PM to 1 AM, but I was in good company of Hannelore. The next morning we removed the stage and the tents. I’m very proud of my production team that worked very hard with me that Saturday morning!

[mariamnazaryan-blog]

The Persistence of Memory - Salvador Dali

1931

Afmetingen:  24 x 33 cm

Materiaal: brons, olieverf

MoMa, NY

Tijd verliest alle betekenis in dit kunstwerk en dromen nemen de bovenhand. Dit kunstwerk heb ik ook bezichtigd in MoMa en trok me, buiten het feit dat het door Dali gemaakt is, ook aan door zijn thematiek.

[mariamnazaryan-blog]

Broadway Boogie Woogie - Piet Mondriaan

1942-1943

Afmetingen:  1,27 x 1,27 m

Materiaal: olieverf, canvas

MoMa, NY

Piet was gefascineerd door de Amerikaanse jazz nadat hij gevlucht was naar NY. Als ik naar het kunstwerk kijk hoor ik de muziek in de straten van NY weerklinken.

[mariamnazaryan-blog]

The Sleeping Gypsy - Henri Rousseau

1897

Afmetingen: 1,3 x 2,01 m

Materiaal: canvas, olieverf

MoMa, New York

Ook een werk dat ik in MoMa in New York heb bezichtigd. Toonde voor mij de liefde tussen dier en mens aan.

[mariamnazaryan-blog]

Fulang-Chang and I - Frida Kahlo

1937

Afmetingen:  40 x 28 cm

Materiaal: olieverf, canvas

MoMa, NY

Dit kunstwerk zag ik hangen in de MoMa in NY en trok me sowieso al aan omdat het van Frida Kahlo is, maar ook de manier dat je zelf in het kunstwerk wordt betrokken is verrassend!

[mariamnazaryan-blog]

The streets (and subways) have music

As I wrote in my blog last time, I visited New York in the Easter holidays. We’ve seen a lot of music-related things. Such as the Apollo Theatre in Harlem with a rich African-American history.We’ve also seen a lot of street and subway musicians along the whole trip. I always wonder what these people stories are when I pass them. 

This one woman we saw at Penn Station, comparable to Etta James, really amazed me. We couldn’t care less about her cheap and cracking microphone and amp because we were blown away by her amazing talent. And the thing that intrigued me the most was her great will and strive that you could feel from afar.

Then you also had the subway musicians with the Céline Dion covers and the electrically amplified Beethovens and Bachs. These people usually stood there to sell themselves as a music teacher.  

The last day we were in New York City, we made a short trip to Coney Island. The cold breeze was quickly forgotten when we saw street musicians playing Buena Vista Social Club-like music gathered by a large crowd of people dancing to these summery tunes. They really turned a smile on my face!

[mariamnazaryan-blog]

SXSW

Whether you’re working in the music industry, or you’re just a music lover, you’ve probably heared about South by Southwest (or SXSW). A media, film and music festival with conferences that takes place in Austin, Texas.

Each year, Pukkelpop festival and Disco Naïveté host their own stage during SXSW. Last year I discovered Sevdaliza because of their showcase. An Iranian-Dutch singer in the R&B and trip hop-genre. She has a very surprising appearance and, in my opinion, is a more accessible FKA Twigs.

This years edition had more media coverage in Belgium because of Coely and SX. They were rejected by the US Embassy because they didn’t have the right papers to enter the United States. Their management only provided an ESTA, a tourist visa. But they needed to have a work visa to enter the US, even though they would play an unpaid show.

Although SXSW assured the bands that they would pass customs because they would play a showcase, I think the management teams made a stupid mistake. We all know that unpaid work isn't supported by most governments. So I think both of the bands' management teams should get a work visa just to make sure. Unfortunately it’s too late.

[mariamnazaryan-blog]

Hot Bottoms - Kenneth Price

2005

Afmetingen:  28 x 24 cm

Materiaal: waterverf, papier

Louver Gallery, Los Angeles

De bizarre vormen die het landschap vormen trokken me aan.

[mariamnazaryan-blog]

Phobia - Kenneth Price

1995

Afmetingen:  43.2 x 58.4 x 47 cm

Materiaal: synthetische polymeerverf op klei

MoMa, New York

Titel en kunstwerk komen goed overeen. Gekozen omdat ik de schrik kan verstaan die de kunstenaar wil weergeven met zijn werk.

[mariamnazaryan-blog]

Crackhead- Rainer Fetting

1986

Afmetingen: 228,5 x 183 cm

Materiaal: olie en draad op canvas

Locatie: onbekend

Spottende weergave van een drugsverslaafde.

[mariamnazaryan-blog]

Kuss blau-rot - Rainer Fetting

1986

Afmetingen: 150,5 x 175 cm

Materiaal: olie op canvas

Studio d’Arte Cannaviello, Milaan

Homoseksualiteit, een cliché in de maatschappij waar Rainer geen schrik van had om te verwerken in zijn kunstwerken.