People are mad that an out of area musician named Mike Doughty headlining, “Live Local Legends”? Well after looking up each band booked for the festival, I have discovered that there are two other out of town bands that are booked for the festival too. The band Catching Cadence is from Wynanstkill, N.Y., which I believe is way out of the Capital District area and Happy Birthday Dr. Jim is from Cobleskill (I don’t think that’s a Capital District town either).

You see, the point I’m trying to make, your band can become well known and established in any city, and anywhere in the world. Don’t have to be just your hometown. So anybody that says that out of area bands/musicians can’t headline big shows when it’s aimed for “local” acts is absolutely absurd. Like I said previously, as long as a band or artist who is not from this area is making a name for themselves here, they can still be considered “local”. As long as they play shows around here on a regular basis, they are more than welcome to become an established act here.

You see, a local music scene is a public place. You can become big and iconic anywhere in any area. Another example, I remember the band Vesper won the first “Battle of the Bands” competition at SPAC, and they are a New York City band, but they played shows here constantly and they were still considered, a Capital District band.

I hope you get my point now? So even if Mike Doughty isn’t from here, and he plays here on a regular basis, he is still, a “Capital District” musician.

I’ll shut up about this now. Just had to get that off my chest.

Kev

Edit to add: When a band is serious about making it in the music industry, they must get well known everywhere as they possibly can. It seems to be the only way to get record deals these days, so I think it’s kind of cool that out of town bands/artists come around here. Local music is welcome for everyone, all over.

Over the years in this blog, you would see me turning down the idea of bands & musicians starting kickstarter projects or from other websites to get your fan base to help raise money for your album projects or tours or whatever. I would never do this. EVER. Why? Well, I’m about to explain.

First of all, I do want to make my own album someday, but I will try to do it with my own budget. You don’t need to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to get  your album made. Yes, I do know that economic times are tough, but there are ways of making a good quality album at low cost. You can make your album covers homemade and it’ll still look like a professionally made album. Plus, it will be cheaper to do it all at home, instead of sending your album through a manufacturing company to get it pressed.

Secondly, I disagree with fundraising from your fans for a few big reasons. I’m sure these fundraising websites do work, they are legit and proven successful but fundraising from your fans, makes you look kind of greedy and self centered. I also find it pretty disrespectful to take money from your fans. Yes, they are willing to help out and it’s their decision to help out, but the truth is, if you want to reward them for supporting your music, taking their money from them is not the way to go. Sure, when fans donate money to help your projects, on the website, the musician will offer them rewards in return. Like autograph CD’s or guitars or t-shirts, dinner with the band, drinks with the band, a meeting with the band after the show, etc. Sorry to say guys but you can reward your fans with all that cool stuff for free.

If you want to surprise your loyal fans for supporting your music over the years, you can still offer them autographed items, meet them after gigs or have drinks with the fans. You don’t have to have them pay money to do all that shit with. We’re not rock stars, ya know? Stop acting like you’re important.

I like to reward my supporters anyway I can. It’s why I like to give out free music ’cause it’s my way of giving my respect back to the people who supported me still. I don’t need to have them pay me anything to support me. This is just local music. I like to treat my supporters like they are my buddies, which is one way of me rewarding them for their support. Paying money for all those rewards is a crock of shit. It’s all a fantasy world.

Kev

I know I slammed the hell out of the site and said I was going to avoid it, but I decided I’m going to come back to it…but…I’m only going to use it to promote myself as a musician only. Use it to interact with other supporters or local musicians that are on there. I tried to get back into my other twitter account, “TheRealKevBrock” to deactivate it and start a new one but I forgot the e-mail I used for it. So I said, the hell with it, I’ll leave that other account alone and just start a new one. I wanted to make a twitter account that will have something to do with my website. My new twitter screen name: KBrocking.

I’ll prove that’s really my account in a little bit.

Kev

Since I have plans in doing two different demo albums soon, I plan on making one full band rock album, and the other will be all acoustic. I figure the new upcoming acoustic demo will have more slower ballad, folky kind of songs.

After that Whitney Houston tribute video I did a while back and since that video got a lot of good responses, I realized that’s the kind of songwriter I should be. That Whitney Houston tribute video got some positive feedback by some people which I’m proud of, made me realize I need to write more songs with heart and passion. That Whitney Houston video, clearly showed that I can sing halfway decent. I improved on the singing ’cause I’ve been practicing more. When I get back to the acoustic stuff, I’ll stay away from the rock stuff, and try to make serious songs.

I’m still gonna do the full band rock album but I want to do the acoustic album too. I just want to test myself out to see which one I am better at. I didn’t think people would like that Whitney Houston video at all and it seems like it’s the best thing I did musically. I’m hoping I’ll get that same kind of feedback with my upcoming original songs.

I really don’t want to be a romantic songwriter like I said before, but I’ll try to write a few, to see if I can do it.

Kev

In my youtube channel, I’ll try video blogging here and there, by speaking my mind on various topics on video, but I decided I’m not going to do that anymore. I’m not good at videoblogging, so I deleted most of my videoblogs, except for the vacation ones. I’ll keep the vacation videos up. It’s just that I want my “kevbrockmusic” youtube channel to focus mostly on the music which was the channel is supposed to concentrate on to begin with. If I need to speak my mind on something, I’ll just do it here on the blog instead of on video.

I want to start promoting myself as a musician more, and that’s the point of it.

Kev

Yes, I am committed to making the next demo album on CD, and am committed to making a full blown rock n’ roll record. I am planning the demo to have every song with heavy and upbeat rock n’ roll songs. I do have plans in recording a professional studio. First though, I need to write a bunch of new rock n’ roll songs. Enough that makes me want to find a band for studio recording. Once I have enough songs written, I’ll start looking for musicians to rehearse them with. I’ll still record full band songs in garageband, but I’ll just use that for song ideas, as a way to show other musicians what I want my songs to sound like.

A new demo will be coming sometime in the future, just taking small baby steps to make that happen.

I want to show people that I can rock in a full band and it’s time to make that dream happen.

Kev

My bio for this site is done, check it, here.

Kev

I think “K’brocking” will be the name of my band if I ever get it formed someday. Not only part of that name is part of my initials, I figure the name would be a good eye catcher by adding the “ing” after “Brock”. It’s just a little thing to describe me as, Kev Brock is rocking. So I put ’em both together, “K’Brocking”. Get it? Simple to understand. The name “K’Brocking” is to help give people a hint, that I am a rock n’ roller. Not a folk or country singer.

Kev

Edit: “Brocking” is not referring to the dance move you do with drum & bass music, to avoid confusion. “Brock” is part of my last name.

Well, I figured out how to move, “The Kev Brock” section of my blog to combine it with the “News” page of this site, that way I can use this blog section to announce upcoming gigs, projects, and stuff like that. Yes, I am planning a comeback to the music scene and this time it’s for real. Before I book a show though, I need to write a bunch of new songs which is what I’m planning to do. After I write a bunch of new songs, I’m planning on saving cash for studio time soon, so I can have better quality recordings. I will also look for a drummer and a bass player to record with so I can have real instruments. This is all being planned for the future, I’m just taken baby steps.

Will I release an official album on CD? Not sure. Can’t afford CD manufacturing as of this point, so I’ll just release all the new songs for free on the internet.

I know I haven’t been playing too many live shows, but I do want to get back out there in a big way. I love performing live and I do miss it.

Kev