I was searching for artists for the upcoming NYC Artist of the Month Poll and I had Andrew Cedemark (former Titus Andronicus’ guitarist and keyboardist) on my short list – he had been sitting there for quite some time, so I decided to check out his music again. While listening to his tracks, I stumbled upon this blurb he has on his myspace page, and I thought it was incredibly sweet and honest, expressing feelings and thoughts which may resonate with many emerging musicians:
"I am Andrew C, and I write and record these songs. I then dress them up with several other sounds… I have only ever played one show. With some friends on the night I graduated from college. We covered "Tugboat" by Galaxie 500 and "Amen" by Spacemen 3, and I was feeling a little ill, for I had a cold. Regardless, ribaldry and mirth were the orders of the evening and much fun was had by all.
I will probably play some shows at some point, but I do not know if I would like to now that I am older. It was very easy in high school, when friends hosted rock and roll shows. Then, one could get by on chops or charm alone. Now people demand both. And also, back then, if nobody showed – hey, no big deal… Now if I play any show it will probably be at some bar, where many people will lose much money. We might all go home having spent too much on drinks, having had a very sad evening… I struggle with the dual imperatives of promoting my music and respecting myself!"
The final thought expresses a concept I’m very familiar with – lots of indie artists have a problem with self-promotion. I was in the same boat when I was a musician, and even though I can relate to that feeling, it seems to me that the music business as we experience it today is already in a place where DIY style self-promotion is the only free option for emerging artists to spread the word about their music – since nobody has money to do that for them on a bigger scale. – A Cedemark will be playing at Maxwell’s with Real Estate on July 24th – PDG