As someone who grew up with…and in many ways refused to move on from them, lately I’ve taken great pleasure in buying CDs from smaller artists on Bandcamp.
I remember in my drumming days the time spent painstakingly reproducing copies of our demo to send out to people, mainly record labels.
When you’re starting out you probably won’t have a record label to do the legwork for you, you have to do that yourself.
Lately I’ve bought two albums where a member of the band appeared on the shipping label. The first was Counting Hours. I love Ilpo Paasela’s voice, whether it be with Counting Hours or The Chant. So, I was tickled pink to see his name appear on the shipping label. Cheers Ilpo.
The second was from my latest obsession, the new album by Enshine, called ‘Elevation’.
If you can imagine that Tom Cruise movie ‘Oblivion’, but with a death/doom soundtrack, that’s probably what ‘Elevation’ would sound like. I loved it, so I ordered the CD from Bandcamp. Sure enough, Jari Lindholm himself appeared on the shipping label.
It could be that feeling of connection –music lovers reaching out to support the artists they enjoy, or just wanting to support those artists who are making their way on their own, but somehow that direct connection hits differently in a world that doesn’t value creativity nearly enough.