Making a Scene Presents

Making a Scene Presents - Using AI Tools to Improve Your Mix Without Letting AI Take Over The New Home Studio Problem The home studio has changed everything for the independent artist. That little room in the house, the spare bedroom, the basement corner, the treated garage, or the desk with a laptop and a pair of headphones is no longer just a demo space. It is where songs are written, arranged,...

Making a Scene Presents - How To Use AI To Write Better Email Subject Lines For Fans The First Line Is The Front Door Every indie artist knows the feeling. You have a show coming up, a new single dropping, a fresh batch of shirts on the merch table, or a membership offer you finally got the nerve to launch. You write the email. You care about the email. You know the people on that list are not str...

Making a Scene Presents - How To Build A Simple Artist CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Without Getting Overwhelmed The Fan List Is Not The Boring Part Somewhere along the way, independent artists were tricked into thinking the “business side” of music was a separate, joyless dungeon where creativity goes to die under a pile of spreadsheets. The myth says the real artist writes songs, plays...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with The Silverteens The Silverteens are a Minneapolis band with deep roots in the city’s rock, punk, new wave, and power pop history. Long known for an eclectic live set that pulls from obscure 1960s garage rock, late 1970s punk, power pop, and other high-energy corners of rock and roll, the band brings together musicians who have been active in the local scen...

Making a Scene Presents - The Next Music Manager May Be A Workflow Designer The Old Music Business Loved A Gatekeeper For a long time, the dream was simple. Find a manager who knew the right people, could get the right meetings, and maybe knew which hotel lobby to haunt during a conference. The manager was the person with access. They had the phone numbers, the relationships, the mystery spreadshe...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Kaatwalk Kaatwalk is a Twin Cities-based singer-songwriter whose music is rooted in quiet honesty, emotional presence, and the kind of storytelling that turns everyday moments into something deeply human. Inspired by artists such as Brandi Carlile, Phoebe Bridgers, and Joni Mitchell, she writes with a reflective voice that values truth over polish and conn...

Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Trace Foster of Close Enemies Close Enemies is a rock band built on contrast: raw emotion and polished intensity, grit and melody, chaos and calm. Their sound blends hard-hitting guitar riffs, driving rhythms, atmospheric textures, and haunting vocals into music that feels both familiar and fresh. Rooted in the spirit of classic rock but shaped...

Modern audio mastering has shifted from a focus on sheer volume to a nuanced understanding of loudness normalization across streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. The provided text explains that LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale) serves as a vital measurement tool for human perception of sound rather than a strict creative limit. Musicians are encouraged to prioritize mix density and dyna...

Making a Scene Presents An Interview with Kyle LaLone Kyle LaLone is a roots-rock journeyman whose music lives at the crossroads of classic country, Americana, and heartland rock & roll. A guitarist, songwriter, and performer with deep roots in American music, LaLone writes songs built on grit, melody, and hard-earned truth. His sound nods to the guitar-playing storytellers who came before him, fr...

Making a Scene Presents - The Indie Artist’s AI Content Calendar That Actually Leads Somewhere Stop Feeding the Machine for Free Most indie artists do not need more content. That sounds wrong at first, because every platform tells artists the opposite. Instagram wants another reel. TikTok wants another clip. YouTube wants another short. Facebook wants another event post. Spotify wants another canv...

Making a Scene Presents - The Artist Revenue Ladder: How Indie Artists Turn Free Fans Into Real Income Over Time There is a dangerous lie floating around the music business, and it has been sold to indie artists for years. The lie says that if enough people hear your music, the money will somehow show up later. Get more streams. Get more followers. Get more likes. Get more views. Feed the machine....

Making a Scene Presents - The Return Of The Regional Music Economy Why the Future of Independent Music May Be Closer to Home Than We Think There was a time when every serious artist was told the same story. Get out of town. Get in the van. Hit the road. Go national. Chase the playlist. Chase the press. Chase the algorithm. Chase the booking agent. Chase the big festival slot. Chase anything that l...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Maura Dunst Maura is a Minnesota-based multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter whose work moves with ease through bluegrass, Americana, roots, and folk. Known for her expressive fiddle and mandolin playing, strong harmony instincts, and sharp songwriting voice, she brings both fire and feel to every stage she steps onto. http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Ghalia Volt No barriers. No boundaries. That has always been Ghalia Volt’s approach to American roots music. Born in Belgium and now based in New Orleans, Ghalia Volt is a blues-rock singer, guitarist, drummer, and songwriter whose music refuses to stay in one lane. Her sound reaches across borders, pulling from the flamenco and traditional Span...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Kat Blue KAT Blue & The True Believers are a blues band built on fire, feel, and full-throttle conviction. Their new EP, Clock Strikes Blue, captures a group locked into what KAT calls an “all asides, all the time” spirit: no half-measures, no phoning it in, just hard-hitting blues played with purpose. http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Presents - Mixing Quietly: Why Lower Volume Makes Better Decisions There is one home studio habit that can improve almost every mix without costing a dime. It does not require a new interface, a new microphone, a new plug-in bundle, or some secret trick from a million-dollar control room. It is almost boring in how simple it is. Turn the monitors down. That’s it. Not forever. Not so...

Making a Scene Artist Fan Passport OS: The Free Gateway To An Artist-Owned Music Economy The Music Business Needs A Middle Class Again The music business has never had a talent problem. It has had an ownership problem. Every town has artists who can move a room. Every scene has songwriters, bands, producers, players, DJs, engineers, promoters, and music lovers who are doing the work without the sa...

Making a Scene Presents - The Digital Campfire: How AI Can Create Community Instead of Content Somewhere along the way, independent artists were handed a job they never asked for. They were told to become content creators. Not songwriters. Not performers. Not recording artists. Not community builders. Not storytellers. Content creators. That phrase may sound harmless, but it changed the way artist...

Making a Scene Presents - The Indie Artist Playbook Is Being Rewritten in Real Time The Old Rules Are Breaking While Everyone Is Still Using Them The indie artist playbook is being rewritten in real time, and a lot of artists are still trying to win with rules from a game that is already gone. For the last fifteen years, the music business sold independent artists a simple dream. Get on the platfo...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Mare With gospel roots, classical training, and a powerhouse voice, Mare creates intimate, modern R&B that feels both timeless and deeply personal. Her music carries the emotional weight of church harmonies, the discipline of classical study, and the smooth confidence of contemporary soul. It is a sound that has taken her around the world, from the churche...

Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Vic Wayne of the Star Collector Star Collector is a Vancouver, British Columbia rock & roll band with a long history, a loud heart, and a stubborn commitment to melody, guitars, and the glorious mess of being in a real band. Formed in Vancouver and seasoned through years of touring across Canada, the United States, and Europe, Star Collector has...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Ron Hendee Ron Hendee has been playing trumpet professionally since the age of fourteen, building a lifelong career rooted in blues, soul, funk, and spiritual music. For more than four decades, he has been a permanent fixture in the Pacific Northwest music scene, performing with local, national, and international artists as both a musician and vocalist. ht...

Making a Scene Presents - Transient Shaping: Controlling Punch Without Compression There is a moment in almost every home studio mix where the artist reaches for a compressor because something does not hit hard enough. The snare feels soft. The kick feels buried. The acoustic guitar sounds flat. The electric guitar does not jump out of the speakers. The drums feel like they are sitting behind a bl...

Making a Scene Presents - Fan Loyalty Is Becoming The New Currency of the Music Industry The Future of the Music Business Will Not Be Built on Likes For years, independent artists were told to chase attention as if attention alone was a business plan. Get more followers, get more likes, get more views, get more streams, post more videos, feed the machine, stay visible, and hope the algorithm decid...

Making a Scene Presents - Fender Studio Pro 8.1 Review: AI Finally Walks Into the DAW Without Kicking the Artist Out of the Room There are updates that add a few fixes, polish a few menus, and quietly move the version number forward. Then there are updates that tell you where a company thinks music production is going. Fender Studio Pro 8.1 is the second kind. This is not just a maintenance releas...