Singer/songwriter Natalie Gelman is quickly gaining acclaim and recognition for her music. Her passionate songs and voice have brought comparisons to Sheryl Crow, Tori Amos and Jewel. Upon releasing her debut album Natalie rollerbladed 1500 miles up the East coast from Miami, FL to NYC raising money for charity in concerts along the way. Currently the NYC native is touring the country in support of her album as well as performing in the NYC subway.
42nd Street Subway
Natalie, I was impressed with your debut CD, “Natalie Gelman.” You have made an amazing transition from being a decorated opera singer with two Carnegie Hall performances to your credit to become a folk/rock singer-songwriter who can hold your own with the best of them. You epitomize today’s “indie” artist in how you’ve taken your career into your own hands, right down to bringing your music to the people on New York’s subway system which brought you a lot of attention (a grass roots PR lesson for every artist!).
It was in The NY Times, NY Post, NY Press, Daily News, AM New York ad I think a few others.
Who has influenced your music the most and what factors have gone into how you’ve branded yourself so uniquely as you’ve evolved as an artist?
I grew up listening and studying classical music and I think a lot of that seeped into me and fostered an appreciation and talent for great melody writing, phrasing and singing in tone. I still love Mozart, Vivaldi, Bernstein, Gershwin and Rogers and Hammerstein’s music but these days I listen to Patty Griffin, Sheryl Crow and a lot of my peers’ (upcoming singer/songwriters) music. Its funny how music can serve so many purposes and I think a lot of the music people are writing today and have been for the past 50 years has been for the people. I can’t say for sure but a lot of classical music is unapproachable and academic. It was more about how technically difficult and impressive you could be and have it still sound beautiful.
It isn’t necessarily new to have music that revels in its humanity and in highlighting our flaws, troubadours were doing what I do hundreds of years ago but there is more of an expectation with the globalization of our whole society and the internet that someone is going to hear this. I definitely write with the idea in the back of my head that I will share the song with people and I hope it will move them. Creatively, I have a lot of stories and experiences accessible to me because I am connected to my fans and hear what they are going though.
All of that said, I think that I am definitely influenced by people that I meet on the road and in street performing. Playing live has made me sensitive to the humanity of a song and that there are feelings and experiences in there that people can relate to and that keeps the show accessible. I have done so much street performing that it naturally became what I branded myself as. It happened to work out really nicely because it’s a very accessible image and it represents the grit, soul and real-ness of my voice and songs.
You’ve got an aggressive schedule of appearances coming up. At what point did you transfer booking yourself to using Degy Booking International and what factors went into your decision?
Natalie Gelman
I am actually at the very beginning of making that transition right now. I was on the fence for a long time about signing with an agency because I wanted to stay completely DIY. I was doing really well booking myself at colleges and took a lot of time and money to break into the market. It came to a point though that I realized I was actually losing shows and opportunities, not planning great tour routing and generally not having time to do what I really wanted to be doing – writing music and improving the live show. The whole point of creating for me is because I want to share it, like I said. So adding someone to my team allows me more time to focus on creating better work and will hopefully pan out to more opportunities to perform and get those songs out there.
Getting into why I chose Degy: I want the best team I can put together and I had narrowed it down to my two favorite agencies. They both had great reputations with schools and the artists that they represented. I thought about it a lot and when I decided that Degy was who I definitely wanted to be represented by I reached out to them and showed them that I already had a lot of success on my own and would be an asset to their roster.
I turned down a few agencies that had reached out to me earlier and after the success I had because I didn’t think they were the best to represent me and offer my anything more than what I was doing for myself. I think the guys at Degy are very selective in the acts they represent, passionate about what they do and great at it. It was maybe a few minutes after they announced that I was going to be a part of their roster that someone from a school reached out to me saying congrats. They are very respected and having their name behind me will be a big help moving forward.
How do you manage and balance “live” appearances with building and developing a fan base online?
I think they go hand in hand. A lot of my ‘online’ fans are fans because they have seen me live. So that definitely had grown my followers in terms of numbers. I haven’t been great at blogging and posting enough footage and feedback after shows as I should lately considering how much I am playing live. My goal is to do that more as this transition into having Degy handle all the business of my college touring will save me a lot of time moving forward.
I think that is the key – to do them interchangeably so you keep engaging people and keeping your fans satisfied with enough content from you. I have been good about tweeting a lot on the road because I enjoy connecting with people on there and its easy for me to manage but I definitely want to get back to posting more videos, photos, blogs and making as many shows as possible also online shows.
I want to send you a big KUDO for being the very First Winner of Facebook Idol. That’s a huge achievement! As a true indie artist, you’ve embraced the social media to promote your music and build your fan base by establishing a presence at YouTube, MySpace, SonicBids, ReverbNation, Facebook, iLike, Twitter, StereoFame, Eventful, CDBaby, Music Alley, Music Nation and iTunes. Has there been a “master plan” you’ve built to market yourself online and how do you manage your social media activities with songwriting, performing and touring?
There is a master plan in some ways as far as keeping track of where my fan base is building the most so I can keep or start investing more time into that media. I do what I call my Numbers Check-in every three months to keep me on track for yearly goals and make sure I am giving a fair amount of time and attention to people that can’t make it out to a live show but are still great fans.
I am fast to try a new website or promotion/connection idea and when I do notice that something is working I am even faster to make a point of doing more of it. There are definitely websites where I spend more time and there have been times where I decide off the bat that I just don’t have time to keep up with that community.
CC Chapman said a great thing at one of the Podcamp Boston conferences a few years ago which was that you should sign up for a website and take your name/url/email just so someone else doesn’t take it and pretend they are you. I had a little incident last year where someone put up a page on Facebook and was pretending they were me. I have a few places to connect on Facebook (Personal page, music page and a group that is ‘closed’) but someone decided to start their own Natalie Gelman page and whoever was managing it was actively promoting my music. This would have been great but some of my professional contacts would add that friend and not the real me. I asked them to change the profile and be clear that it was a fan or a fan site or take the page down and they were very agreeable and changed the name and kept posting updates about my touring and activities for a while but slowly stopped posting over time. My lesson in all of that is to always take your band’s name (url) if there is a new and popular website online, even if you don’t plan on doing something with it.
How does your website fit in with your overall marketing?
I always direct people back to my website primarily. That’s where I control their experience, there are no advertisements to annoy them and I can give them anything I think its fun or necessary (guitar chords to my songs, the crazy things I’ve been tipped on the subway or just having a store to sell my music and merch to those that want to support it). You can do that stuff on a lot of the social media websites out there but in general you can’t do much to change the design or your fans experience on the site.
I noticed your newsletter that you promote on your website. How has this helped you to promote yourself and what do you do to build your mailing list? Was giving free MP3’s to folks who sign-up your own idea?
It keeps anyone who wants to be up-to-date on the latest shows so they can make it out if I’m playing nearby or just forward the information to friends who might be interested and become a fan themselves. Giving away the MP3’s is in no way my idea or a new idea but I do think it’s important to immediately thank someone for joining and inviting you into their life and what better way to do that? The free MP3’s definitely sweeten the deal when I play at colleges because college students love free things and lately I even throw in some free cookies if they join. At shows I try to make it clear that they can unsubscribe at any time and try to combat the lazy/scared issue of coming over to the merch table to sign up with passing it around, the cookies or some of the other free swag they can pick up at the table. A lasting fan is so much better than a sale because that’s why I am doing this. I want them to keep coming out to shows and writing me so I know I have someone to write for and someone who will be listening at the shows.
You’ve done a great job of getting press attention for your music. It seems that you’ve found the knack for supporting your music and “live” appearances with press including Billboard and the coveted front page of The New York Times.
That is all work and preparation meeting opportunity and pure luck! The Billboard bit was because of a Famecast contest that I placed in and The NY Times (and NY Post etc) was because of a Music Under NY audition. There are two pieces of advice for any artist trying to get more press that have definitely helped me land some smaller exposure opportunities.
1. Have GREAT photos. If you have a picture that is interesting, clear, well lit you will get more press because of it. Not to mention that the photo will probably be put in the news outlet. This also has booked me more shows.
2. Highlight the important stuff in your press releases and bio and save them time. In fact, for anyone you want to help your career think about how they job is hard (or just ask them) and be the answer to their prayers by making their job easier. Papers often have very limited space and if you want your quote or story to make it in there you should serve up the juicy and important stuff to them with a big yellow highlighter or in bold font in an email.
What advice do you have for indie artists, in particular, those starting out, to generate the kind of impressive, total marketing approach you’ve taken and been successful at with your music?
I talk to so many artists that just sound scared to do anything and take chances so the first thing I have to say is just do it. You really don’t have much to loose. Even me, there is so much to be done all the time that I just have to keep moving forward even when, especially when everything isn’t in place.
I think people forget to be creative outside of the studio and writing songs. Seth Godin talks a lot about how every company and product tells a story and to decide what that is based on who your target market is. Your marketing and packaging should be especially creative and tell the story of YOU and your music. That is what you’re selling and what is going to separate you from all the other artists out there.
Co-write and network as much as you can. Lots of opportunities will come from your peers and not from the places or people you think they will come from. And, your best chance with those people is to impress the heck out of them as much as you possibly can and make their job easier when they work with you and just because they know you.
On behalf of the indie artist community, thanks for your time and insight, Natalie. I’ll be anxiously awaiting your next CD while I continue to indulge in the current one! Check out Natalie’s website for updates: http://www.nataliegelman.com/fr_index.cfm
Tags: Degy Booking International, Facebook Idol, Marketing, music, Natalie Gelman
April 10th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Love the sound Natalie! Great interview!