"Artist Access" Winner Discusses Mentoring Session With Bruce Tyler

posted in: OurStage Updates

It’s not every day that a band gets personalized feedback after playing an intimate show for a music industry veteran, but in late June OurStage “Artist Access” winner Dusty The RoboDrum got the chance to do just that. After rocking New York’s Local 269 club, the band sat down for a mentoring session with industry professional Bruce Tyler.  We caught up with Dusty to discuss the band’s one-of-a-kind experience and how this meeting could help shape their future development as a band.

OS: What did you do to prepare for your performance and mentoring session with Bruce Tyler? Did you have anything in mind to ask him before you met with him?

D: Well, the biggest [question] I had in mind was to simply ask, We’re here, how can you help? Really all we did was rehearse like crazy for the performance, pack up the RoboDrum van, go to the Big Apple and play the 269 Bar. Mentally, all we did was just try to figure out what questions we needed to ask him”A) How can we help the people you have connections [to]? and B) How can you help us? Which I think is probably the point of the competition in the first place.

OS: What kinds of valuable advice did Bruce offer you?

D: Well, Bruce Tyler is just an extremely knowledgeable, very very experienced man.¦his experience consulting with artists like Beyoncé and John Mayer kinda helped keep RoboDrum focused and energized the way it should. The big thing that stuck with us was that no two artists, no two bands are the same. They don’t have the same goals. Some bands want to tour, some bands want album sales or CD sales and some, like the RoboDrum, want licensing. In fact, the song that I won the “Artist Access” Competition with was written for the movie Fish Story. Bruce and other industry experts know how to channel that music to the right direction. The artists themselves simply don’t have those connections and, in our case, that’s licensing, especially for our more instrumental stuff. That’s one of the big things that I took away.

OS: Did he offer you any strategies on how to do that or how to reach those audiences in the future?

D: There are a lot of different ways to get your music heard. We use some sites that are specific to licensing. OurStage offers licensing opportunities and gives artists a chance to take their music out for a test drive to see how well it performs. All of [OurStage’s] partnerships”Ernie Ball, Coors and MTV”[help] in a way that make it fun at the same time. So one thing we’re going to do is use OurStage licensing a little bit more. Step 1 is to take that music out for a test drive”see how well it performs. OurStage lets us do that. Step 2 is getting our music into the hands of music supervisors. That piggybacks on one of the big things that we took away from the meeting.

OS: So you mentioned you’re going to use OurStage more for licensing. Are there any other ways that you plan to apply some of the advice that Bruce gave you?

D: ….One of the important things that he told me to ensure that I do immediately is to update robodrum.com. Our main Web site is just not as up to date as some of the other sites that are easier to update while you’re on the road. Since we’re in the middle of touring festivals and Six Flags that’s kind of hard to do. But that’s imperative as it’s the final and ultimate web destination not just for your fans but for A&R people like Bruce and music supervisors. In fact, I’m going to set aside every Sunday and force myself to sit down and update robodrum.com. Even though Bruce would probably prefer we update it every day, at least this way I’ll be committed to doing it at least once a week.

OS:  That’s great. What do you think of this type of prize where artists are able to meet face to face with A&R and career building music executives?

D: It’s very, very different. There are tons of music sites and there are other competition sites everywhere. They are everywhere. One of the things that makes OurStage different is the fact that it does creative competitions and this is certainly one of the most creative competitions that I’ve ever heard of. Worst case scenario a band could get, essentially, a paid trip to New York. In our case we got a chance to perform up there for an industry executive. That’s the kind of thing that most bands work an entire lifetime to do. They want that one moment where they get discovered.¦ The creative contests really help artists with the motivation to do that. Unlike most of the bands on OurStage, we are a signed band. We weren’t going there looking to be signed. The RoboDrum is already on an indie label. The CEO of Melodic Revolution, that’s our record company, has always said, It’s all about the music. Bruce echoed that when he was sitting face to face [with] me when he simply said, Keep making good songs. Nowhere else can anyone get that kind of an opportunity, not that I’ve ever seen.