Interview in Hour Newspaper: Music + Film + Beer= Fun Job

I was interviewed this week for the Hour, a weekly newspaper in Montreal. Each week they profile someone with an interesting job. They chose me because apparently combining music, film and beer makes for a good story :)

Here’s the link to the interview: http://www.hour.ca/news/news.aspx?iIDArticle=20788

Cheers,

Dave

Part 2 of my Interview on Hypebot.com: Indie Artists Might Spend $2 Just To Make A Dollar

So Part 2 of my interview on Hypebot.com has been posted. In it we discuss the rapid evolution of online tools for artists, the industry that has been created on the backs of indie artists, and the future for indie artists:

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2010/11/indie-artists-might-spend-2-just-to-make-a-dollar-.html

Hope you enjoy the interview and please feel free to leave your comments either on Hypebot.com or here on my website, I try to respond to everyone as best I can.

Cheers!

Dave

Part 1 of my Interview on Hypebot.com: “INDIE” and File-Sharing

Hypebot.com is a great blog that discusses music, business, marketing, digital entertainment, promotion, and technology. I read articles and interviews on the site pretty much daily. So I was thrilled when Kyle Bylin, the Editor of Hypebot, interviewed me recently about my thoughts on “indie” and the new music industry. He asked some great questions that really got me thinking, and part 1 of the interview was posted today where we discuss the definition of an “indie” artist as well as file-sharing.

Do I even agree with my film’s conclusion? You might be surprised. And I certainly didn’t pull any punches with my thoughts on file-sharing:

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2010/11/what-is-indie-an-unsigned-artist-plain-and-simple.html

Enjoy!

Dave

Grant Applications Update: 0/1

Just a quick blog post this morning to say that I heard back from one of the two granting organizations that I had applied to for funds to make my new film, and unfortunately the news was not good. I had applied for funds to write a script for the new movie (essentially research and development) from CALQ and the Canada Council for the Arts. I received an e-mail from Canada Council this weekend saying that I was disqualified since I didn’t meet their criteria for the grant, which is that I had to be a “mid-career” artist to access scriptwriting funds. Being a mid-career artist meant that I had to have 2 films under my belt, but I only had one. I tried to pad my resume with past experience releasing CDs and working in the music industry to establish that I was a mid-career artist and not an emerging artist, but no dice. I’m actually not surprised, as I knew going in it was a long-shot, but I wanted to go through the process of applying for the grant to gain the experience, and I’m glad I did.

So I’ll wait to hear back from CALQ, and continue to prepare for the next round of grant applications in the Spring for the actual production of the film.

Cheers,

Dave

P.S.- Have you ever been rejected for a grant? What was the reason? Let us commiserate…