By Marc Olson | Denver Original Music
On Sunday, 5/16, COMBO held their monthly education meeting at Breckenridge Brewery. The topic was “Covers vs. Originals”, featuring panelists Andy Ard, Chris Kresge, and impromptu guest panelist Chuck Hughes.
Andy Ard is a local singer/songwriter that plays in a band called PJ Zahn. He is the VP of COMBO’s board of directors and is also part of an organization called Artist in Sync. Andy moderated the event and pulled double duty as a panelist.
Chris K. is a well known personality in the local music community. He is a producer and radio host, buys talent for many music events, including Bohemian Nights, is the author of the Colorado Sound, and is also head chair for the People’s Fair.
Chuck Hughes is another music veteran, perhaps best known for his rockabilly group, the Hillbilly Hellcats. Chuck has toured all over Europe and America, with both cover and original bands.
Chuck kicked the discussions off with a fact about the movies. He said that music budgets in movies have been cut from 3% down to 1% in recent years. This leaves music supervisors scrambling to cover their needs on a thin budget. He cited the trend of covering someone else’s song as a good strategy here. The film companies can afford to pay a lesser known artist (and still get the originally desired song in their production). Creating a youtube video of a cover song is one way to get some notice for this.
Chuck started his own career knocking out covers and traveling extensively. This was very do-able as Denver was primarily a cover band town in the 70’s, with bands often setting up shop for multiple days in a row at the same venue. Pay was good and you basically just had to play whatever was popular at the time to get lots of stage time.
Changes in the 90’s
Chuck said he started noticing the changes especially by the mid to late 90’s. Six gigs in a row turned into 4 then 2, and eventually one night with multiple bands. He started focusing more on his original songs and publishing. If you could sell 20 CD’s from the stage you would have a nice night.
But those days started to become a distant memory. He says touring is harder now and budgets are harder. You need to be willing to tour on a break-even basis these days. But he still advocates for writing your own original music.
“Covers are short term money. Originals are intellectual property.”
Chuck added that covers are good training for imitating a certain sound and developing your chops. A vocalist will probably also expand their range by pursuing a variety of covers. But his net advice was to write your own songs if you can.
It Doesn’t Matter
The original thrust of this COMBO meeting was to discuss a comparison between playing covers and originals. Andy asked the panelists their thoughts on what might make the environment more favorable for both types of musicians. And here, Chris K. went for the pre-emptory strike, saying “It just doesn’t matter. There are no rules”
Lots more – read the whole article here:
http://denveroriginalmusic.com/2014/05/22/combos-covers-vs-originals-education-meeting/
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