Collected Animals

Deakin: Hey man,

since I was the one that did a lot of this I guess I can try and answer your questions. I preface this with saying that I don't really know how much any of this matters and I really only worked on the label with the very first Panda Bear record and with our ANimal release of Spirit they're Gone which had the advantage of being strongly supported by Other Music and Time Out NY right off the bat. but this is how I did it.

You need to send what is called a "one sheet". this is a single page document. Some people I know fit all of the info on a small postcard size jam, but most people that I know use a regular 8 1/2 x 11 sheet. You want to have in some form:
1. a print of the cover art. I would usually put this in the upper left hand corner maybe about 2 1/2 inches square. below that put your catologue number in very small print. something like ANI001 (the 1st (001) release on ANimal (ANI))

2. YOu want to throw on the name of the band and the album title in large bold print. PRobably at the top really big "AVEY TARE AND PANDA BEAR" and then just below that in slightly smaller type but still bigger than the rest of your text "SPIRIT THEY'RE GONE, SPIRIT THEY'VE VANISHED".

3. Track listing. so i would have put it below the album title in considerably smller type (probably 10-12 point) and just go "1. Spirit they're GOne". next line "2. April and the Phantom" and so on.

-all of that should have fit into the top 1/4 or so of your page (At least how I did it and I think it is a good model). then i put a line all the way across the bottom of that info.

4. the next session is your text. Usually you don't want to overload people with info here but it is important to hit a few key things. I think two paragraphs is a good length. the first should be a description of the band…maybe the history. “Avey Tare and Panda Bear are two friends who began playing music together…” etc. It is good to throw in a bit of personality but you should focus on the fact that you are trying to give people something that they would probably use as a template in a print review or something. so…the first paragraph talk a bit about who you are are whatever. the story of why you are doing what you are doing. and then in the second paragraph you want to talk about the record. one of the most irritating and yet apparently necessary elements here is to draw comparisons with things people know. SO you might be like (and here I deviate from the spirit sheet because I forget): “Though [YOUR ALBUM] is clearly striving for something new it is not hard to hear the relationship with the whimsical song writing of The Kinks. blah blah…” anyway…you can be creative and personal, but you are trying to give someone some reference points. It sucks to compare your music to other things, I hate it. But it is necessary.

- here I would thow in another line across the page. below you probably have about 1/4 of a page left.

5. here you want to throw a few bullet points. literally come up with 2-5 points that make it notable. ex.: - [your band] is doing an extensive west coast tour this april. –[your album] was on the emplyee’s picks shelf at [your local record store] for 1 month. –[your band]’s myspace page has received 8million hits since the 1st of january. – currently distributed by carrot top distro. really anything that you can think of that will show someone your band has already or might make some sort of impact on the world at large. this can include anything related to playing live or print/internet press.

6. Then you want to put something at the bottom like this:
for all inquiries related to this album please contact:
Mike Heron
po box 11111 abingdon place
astral plane, Arizona
33333
usa
[email protected]
999.999.9999
http://www.myspace.com/ahwelljackson

7. If you have a label name/logo down here in this section. i would usually throw it over to the bottom right hand corner.

------------- whewwww….
so that pretty much lays it out. so I would make up a package with the album. the one sheet. if you have received any press already then put together a composite and throw that in there too (no more than 2 pages of press at the most and only stuff you feel is really choice). I was also a fan of trying to make the package visually grabbing in some way. We drew little pictures on the outside of each package. BUt you also don’t want to make the package annoying. for example spray paint invariably flakes all over the desk of someone that gets a package covered in spray paint. It is really important to understand for you own mental health that if you send out 100 of these there is a good chance that a large portion of them may in fact get thrown out before it is even opened. this is just the way it is. people that receive demos or submissions for reviews get hundreds of these things a week or more and could not possibly go through all of it. This shouldn’t discourage you, but you it should be something that you always remind yourself of. primarily because it helps you put together the most effective one sheet (focus on being as clear as possible, as provocative as possible and as minimal as possible) and secondly because when you don’t hear back from David Fricke you don’t want to take it personally.

So come up with a list of people or stations or publications you want to send to and then email all of them very nice and comfortable like. Clear and succinct. and say that you are so and so and you would like to submit your record to them and who is the best person to send to and what is their address. if you don’t hear back within a week then you can write one more time. if you are ignored twice then let it go. You can still send a package to someone that didn’t get back to you, but you should really be clear that you have the right info. if you do hear back then send according to their specifications. if you drop the package in the mail on a monday, maybe wait until the following monday and write another email politely asking if they received your package. Actually, don’t e-mail people on Monday. Monday is like a catch up day if you took the weekend off. write on like wednesday or something. If they respond, awesome, if not…let it go. maybe in another week you can try and touch in again. Generally you have to use your judgement. Realize that some people are really friendly, some are total dicks and almost all of them are way more concerned with getting their review of the Shins record together than they are of checking out something they have never heard of before. don’t take it personally just realize that if you push too hard you will probably irritate them more than get their attention in a positive way. From there on out it is really out of your hands.

I hope that most of that is helpful and not too discouraging. I actually really want to encourage you. I think it is a very valuable thing to go through the process of dealing with the industry on this level. It teaches you a lot of what is actually going on and what it means to promote yourself. Understanding the relationship between Touring, Press and Distribution is kind of key. But go for it. Pay attention and learn.

if any of that is unclear or you have more questions, write back. i don’t mind.

Be well,
joshmin