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Scott
G.
Style:
Electronica, House, Commercial Music
CD: Grin
Groove
Go to site
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Indiespace Artist Review...October 2002
The music world is changing and The G-Man is living proof"
by Janis Amy
"My approach to making music may be a cool new way of launching a
career," says The G-Man.
"And some people say this method puts me in the vanguard of
changes that are about to overwhelm the music industry. Perhaps
it's both," he says with a grin. "I think that the
music business as we know it is splintering into a million shards and
is being built up into something new right before our eyes."
Six years ago, advertising writer and radio commercial producer Scott
G picked up a guitar and began trying to make sounds that would
accompany songs he was writing. In 2001, he started recording his
first album his music fuses today's dance beats with pop melodies,
and then adds sly commentary in between the verses. Some have called
it wordbeat or dancebeat poetry, some have called it Zappa-dappa, but
Scott, professionally known as The G-Man, calls it "grin groove
music."
Using "Grin Groove" as his album title, The G-Man did
several things that together represent the beginnings of a quantum
shift in the way music is created, marketed and disseminated to
listeners around the globe. . . .
First, he put up a simple, graphically clean, "100%
animation-free" Web site (hosted by Indiespace). Next, he combed
other Web sites for the e-mail addresses of media as well as DJs,
remixers, and those involved with raves, clubs, electronica, dance,
and drum 'n' bass genres. "This took approximately as much time
as it did to record some of the songs, but it was worth it."
Then, two simple e-mail messages were created. He followed the ideas
recommended by Indiespace's
Pete Markiewicz (Indiespace consulting - ed.), namely, put the basic
idea in the Subject line, keep the message short, and do not include
any graphics. One e-mail message announced his new genre of music to
the media. The other e-mail offered to send tracks for free to anyone
who wished to remix his music and that is perhaps the most
significant part of his approach, as you will see.
The results, just four months after the release of "Grin
Groove," have been spectacular, involving reviews, remixes, club
play, radio play, and licensing agreements.
Reviewers have compared his songs to such artists as Devo, Art of
Noise, Brian Eno, and Frank Zappa.
The G-Man is also receiving airplay on college stations in many cities
across the United States, Internet radio play around the world, and
most important from the business aspect his songs are being
licensed for use in radio and TV commercials. "I always make sure
to mix an instrumental version of each song," The G-Man points
out, "because that is requested for licensing far more often than
the version with the vocals."
Remixers have been using his tracks a great deal. "I have had
five songs remixed in Russia by a consortium known as Random
Distribution," The G-Man states, "and one of these tracks
went to #1 over there. Meanwhile, an Australian DJ known as Zero Point
Energy has done a remix that is now showing up on Web sites around the
world. A jazz artist known as il moroso has begun
remixing three more of my songs and we have now agreed to collaborate
on an album of acid jazz music."
Perhaps most interesting is the reaction from the European community.
"A consortium of remixers called The Allianz, lead by DJ Insane,
is now creating remixes of every song on 'Grin Groove,' with their
album scheduled for the Fall. It will be called 'Insane Groove:
The Allianz Remixes The G-Man.,' and already some organizations have
expressed interest in having The Allianz go on tour to support the
album's release. One of the DJ Insane tracks reached #5 on a European
dance chart."
All of this could be viewed as just a series of fortuitous accidents,
but The G-Man doesn't think so. "I believe that the music world
is fundamentally splintering into pieces and is at the same time
transforming into something new, just as is being predicted by Jeannie
Novak and Pete Markiewicz of Indiespace."
As seen in the presentations by Markiewicz and Novak in the Future
Of Music seminars, notes The G-Man, "the structure of the
music business is different now, and it involves several new methods
of working. One is cooperation in combination with competition 'coopetition,'
as Jeannie Novak puts it. It also involves an attitude of total
independence from traditional distribution, and a faith that the
business end of your work will play 'catch-up' to your art. You create
and market and interchange and share and compete with fellow
musicians," The G-Man says. "And only afterwards does the
business world come in to license your work for commercialization.
I love the fact that the business is totally being driven by the art.
And besides," he adds, "with what other set of circumstances
could I be collaborating on music simultaneously with people in
Australia, Moscow, Big Bear, and Amsterdam?"
BIO for The G-Man:
Scott G, The G-Man, was a music
critic from 1991-2002 but was inspired by the indie scene in Los
Angeles to create his own music. His work is a fusion of today's
electronic dance rhythms and the new wave melodies of 80s pop. Think
"Moby meets Devo." Songs on his first album, Grin
Groove, have been compared to Brian Eno, David Byrne, Frank Zappa, Art
of Noise, and Thomas Dolby. The
G-Man writes songs and commercial music from his Southern California
studio.
Syndicate. The G-Man writes songs and commercial music from his
Southern California studio. The G-Man site: http://gmanmusic.com.
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