GETTING THINGS DONE IN HEAVY UNDERGROUND MUSIC • SPRING MITCH HARRIS A grindcore pioneer discusses his new album, guitars and tone, and living a life on stages Transcending Records Rebirth, reissues, and Convulse Bandcamp Social Strategy Putting Bandcamp first Rehearsal Spaces 5 facilities, 5 philosophies Sonoran Doom Arizona’s desert scene Action! PR Working for press Dungeon Synth Dark Ambient levels up VOL. 2, ISSUE 1, SPRING 2021 • BETTER LATE THAN NEVER 4 Bits and Pieces News and whatnot 5 The MLC New non-profit has $424 million dollars of unclaimed royalties 6 Transcending Records Candid Q&A with founder Mike Ramirez 10 Arizona’s Sonoran Doom scene Chris Beck talks to members of several local bands 15 Action! PR Veteran public relations expert Carl Schultz 18 Mitch Harris Prolific grindcore guitarist is back home in Las Vegas 26 Dungeon Synth About the cover artist Electronic music takes a dark turn Tom Denney is an esoteric American artist whose lengthy 32 Room to Breathe client list includes Cannibal Corpse, Q&A with the owner/operators of five rehearsal facilities Deadbird, Soilent Green, Kylesa, Yakuza, Black Cobra, Rwake, 36 “Cut out the noise” Cephalic Carnage, Samothrace, A Bandcamp-first social media strategy Southern Lord Records, Lesbian, Metal Blade Records, Galdr, 38 End of the Line Raise the Red Lantern, Vessel Records, Editor’s notes Indian, Skelptarsis, Black Skies, Lair of the Minotaur, The Destro, Sourvein, and gobs more. tomdenney.com facebook.com/cyphlon Workhorse Magazine Free print www.workhorsemag.com subscriptions [email protected] forSubscribe US musicians. online at [email protected] com WorkhorseMag. Published quarterly by (or just email us) Harvester Publishing LLC PO Box 322, Hutto TX 78634 Contributors: Sebastian Gregory, Chris Wozniak, Suzy Bravo, Chris Beck, Zac Crye Bits and pieces The RIAA recently released their 2020 Congress passed the CARES Act at Bandsintown is offering livestreams annual report on music spending. the very end of 2020, including the through their PLUS program. Their pricing The splashy story was that vinyl sales Save Our Stages Act, which provides for fans is 25+ live shows for $9.99. It’s were up 23% and brought in $135m more roughly $15 billion in grants and assis- unclear how bands get involved, but than CD sales. CD sales continued to slide tance for music venues, theatres, zoos they have a full slate of shows on the hard (down 33%), but their revenue was and other institutions. Sen. Klobuchar calendar. https://plus.bandsintown.com only down 23%. So we bought less CDs, (D, MN) and Sen. Cornyn (R, TX) but paid more for them. Vinyl cost per spearheaded the effort with bipartisan US-friendly Canadian tape dupe house unit increased as well. “Other Physical” support. NIVA (National Independent Duplication.ca announced a new ferric sales including CD Singles, Cassettes, Venues Association) said 2.1 million tape type, Fox Type 1. They claim it’s Vinyl Singles, DVD Audio, SACD were emails were sent to US representatives in “richer in quality, with clearer audio and up 24%, but only up 3% in revenue. support of Save Our Stages. a lower noise floor.” It’s priced slightly But all these physical sales accounted above their standard normal bias tape for only 10% of total spending. Ninety Gibson bought Mesa Boogie, bringing on and well below their high-bias options. percent went to digital products, with Mesa/Boogie founder Randy Smith as They also have an unrelated note on paid streaming subscriptions up 25%. “master designer” for Mesa Boogie amps. the site about production times being All forms of streaming were up (11% delayed. “Orders will take an estimated combined), but SoundExchange royalty Gibson also brought Dave Mustaine on 4+ weeks before shipping, while orders payouts to artists only went up 4.3%. board as a “brand ambassador.” Four with pad print will take an estimated Paid downloads fell 18%. The full report guitars have been announced, including 6-10 weeks before shipping. Bulk orders can be viewed at https:/RIAA.com. two Gibson Vs, a Kramer V, and a with duplication will have shorter Gibson acoustic. turntime.” Plan accordingly. Discogs had a great 2020 with over 16 million physical items sold through Keisel Guitars has a new signature model Amon Amarth’s ex-drummer Fredrik their Marketplace, up nearly 36% over for Five Finger Death Punch guitarist and Andersson posted a lengthy “apology” 2019. Vinyl sales were up nearly 41%, all around virtuoso Andy James. to his old bandmates regarding their CDs up 37%, and cassettes up 33%. The lengthy legal dispute over earnings. discrepancy between those numbers and Bandcamp is rolling out a propriatary Band drama aside, he talks candidly the RIAA’s is likely due to Discogs trading livestreaming service, Bandcamp Live. about how they split income, how much largely in used items from owners and It will “allow artists to easily create money was coming in, and how their small sellers. https://discogs.com ticketed live streams...including a ‘virtual simple agreement fell apart because it merch table,’ an optional chat room, and didn’t account for what happens when Summer NAMM will be happening in the ability to notify fans when an artist someone leaves the band. It’s a rare person this year at the Nashville Music announces a show.” Bands can set their peek behind the curtain of a band that City Center, July 15-17th. Masks will be ticket price, of which Bandcamp keeps size, and a cautionary tale especially required, as will temperature checks at 10%. https://bandcamp.com/live for drummers. MetalInjection.com has the door. Frederik’s full statement. SIGNINGS Cruz del Sur (Italy) sign Adamantis (power metal, MA) Dave Ellefson’s EMP signs Hail Sagan (CA) Massacre Records (Germany) sign Catalyst Crime (symphonic/death/prog, USA/international) Metal Blade (US) sign Kardashev (CO) and Sanhedrim (trad/doom, NYC) Napalm Records (Austria) sign Untamed Land (black metal, OH) and Wolftooth (stoner/doom, IN) Season of Mist (Italy) sign Pessimist (death metal, FL) Blood Bath Distribution sign digital licensing deal with Goregäng (death metal, FL) » If your band gets signed, or your label signs someone, let us know at [email protected] 4 WORKHORSE • Spring 2021 The Mechanical Licensing Collective New non-profit set up to handle songwriter royalties from digital platforms like Spotify, Apple, Google, etc. has collected $424 million in unmatched royalties. BY JASON MUXLOW Really understanding this is beyond the scope of a one-page article, but the short version is that thanks to the Music Modernization Act passed in 2018, there’s a new MRO (Mechanical Rights Organization) in town, and they’ve collected a big pile of unpaid songwriting royalties from Spotify, Apple, Google, iHeart, Pandora, etc. Now they’re tasked with paying it out to publishers, including self-publishing songwriters, which includes a lot of bands who release their own material on platforms. What is the MLC? Do they have money for me? “Songwriters with publishing representa- tion should not sign up or register their From the FAQ: In 2021, a new entity called It’s hard to say, but If you have material works with the MLC.“ If you're on your The Mechanical Licensing Collective which isn’t covered by a publishing deal own to collect, the MLC requires everyone (The MLC) will begin collecting digital streaming on any of the platforms listed who wants to receive payouts to sign audio mechanical royalties from eligible below, you might have some pennies out up through their Connect to Collect streaming and download services in the there with your name on it. program on their site. Signing up is easy United States who elect to secure blanket enough, with the only slightly confusing licenses from The MLC. The MLC will strive bit being that once you create an to ensure that music publishers and How do I find out? account, you then create a Member to self-administered songwriters [emphasis represent yourself (a single MLC account mine], composers and lyricists receive Check your digital distros first. TuneCore can represent multiple Members). Once their share of the mechanical royalties states, “TuneCore Publishing will handle you’re set up as a Member, search their that The MLC collects from these services registration and collection of royalties on database of works (songs) and claim the accurately and as soon as possible. your behalf with the MLC.” CDBaby says, ones you helped write. Again, this only works if the song was written outside of a publishing deal. The MLC Public Work Search The MLC has also been tasked with creating a public database of Works. You can check that without signing up to see if any of your material is in there. Note that Works are songs, not albums. If it’s missing or erroneous, and you don’t have a publisher, “the MLC is working on additional ways to help you flag and report data errors to your publisher or administrator. We hope to launch those later this year.” Learn more at www.themlc.com How much various digital players paid in uncollected royalties to the MLC. Image taken from the MLC’s Feb 16, 2021 press release. WORKHORSE • Spring 2021 5 Mike Ramirez Transcending Records’ founder talks candidly about the label’s start, breakthrough, and increasingly focused global operations. BY JASON MUXLOW How did Transcending get started? and dark ambient. My hope is that the reissue, my plan was to press 1,000. In 2014, I was selling off my CD collec- folks that follow along with the label It was a number I assumed would be easy tion, as they were just collecting dust in can find things to enjoy in each end of to move, but as I talked with other label my basement.