Making a Scene Presents

Making a Scene Presents - Why Ownership Is the Only Metric That Matters Anymore The New Scoreboard for Independent Music For most of the digital music era, artists were trained to chase numbers that looked impressive from the outside. Streams. Followers. Views. Likes. Shares. Monthly listeners. Playlist adds. Short-form video plays. The whole industry built a scoreboard around attention and then c...

Making a Scene Brings you an Interview with PK Mayo PK Mayo is a native son of northern Minnesota, raised in the mining town of Eveleth, where music first found him through the airwaves of local college radio station KUMD. Born Paul Kennedy Mayasich, he absorbed a wide range of sounds as a young listener, later referring to those formative radio years as his real musical education. http://www.maki...

Making a Scene Brings you Gerry Casey's Interview with Ronan Gallagher Ronan Gallagher is proof that it’s never too late to find your real voice. A true late starter, he didn’t learn to play guitar or sing until his mid-fifties. That was just over five years ago—and instead of easing into it, Ronan hit the ground running, making up for lost time with the drive of someone who knows exactly what he...

Making a Scene Presents - Low-End Control: How to Get Tight Bass and Kick Without Mud Why the Bottom End Makes or Breaks the Mix Most beginner mixes do not fall apart because the vocal is terrible. They do not fall apart because the guitar tone is unusable. They usually fall apart because the low end turns into a swamp. The kick drum gets big, then the bass gets big, then somebody turns up the low...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Jump 66 Jump 66 are a lively six-piece band built for movement, joy, and a seriously good night out. Blending classic rhythm and blues, retro soul, jumping swing, and feel-good ska, the band brings a vintage-inspired sound that is full of energy, groove, and personality. With thumping double bass, honking saxophone, swirling keys, sharp guitar, tight drums...

Making a Scene Presents - The Collapse of Gatekeepers: What Happens When Artists Own Everything The Old Doors Are Still Standing, But the Locks Are Breaking For most of the modern music business, artists were trained to stand in line. Stand in line for the label. Stand in line for the radio programmer. Stand in line for the booking agent. Stand in line for the publicist. Stand in line for the play...

Making a Scene Presents - The Revenue Stack: How Indie Musicians Build Music Career One Layer at a Time There was a time when the music business sold artists a very simple dream. Get discovered. Get signed. Get played on the radio. Get into the stores. Get on the charts. Then, if the machine liked you enough, maybe you could build a career. That system was never as fair as people pretend it was, b...

Making a Scene Presents - The Tap Is the Door: How NFC Turns a Merch Table Into an Artist-Owned Revenue Machine There is a moment at every live show that most indie artists are letting slip right through their fingers. It does not happen onstage. It does not happen when the crowd cheers. It does not happen when someone posts a blurry video clip to Instagram and tags the band. It happens at the mer...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Lance and Lea Lance and Lea are Nashville’s definition of “two worlds collide”—and somehow it works so well it feels inevitable. Their story starts on opposite sides of the tracks: Lea grew up Amish, singing country and gospel hymns in church, while Lance came up as a rock musician in the gritty Texas club scene. They met in Nashville, booked a single song...

Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Chris Chalmers Chris Chalmers is a Belfast-based singer and guitarist best known as the frontman of The 2:19, a blues-rooted band that earned a strong reputation on the Northern Irish scene and released three critically acclaimed albums before Chalmers began exploring a new chapter under his own name. That next chapter arrives as Chris Chalmers...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Spike and the Gandy Dancers Peter VanDusartz (aka “Spike”) created The Gandy Dancers to bring the next chapter of his songwriting journey fully to life—louder, richer, and more expansive than a solo project could hold. Their debut album, What You Gonna Be?, is a dynamic set of 11 original songs written over many years and finally captured with the urgency...

Making a Scene Presents - Using Saturation for Warmth: The Digital Trick That Feels Analog Why This Matters: Character Without Expensive Gear There is a funny lie that keeps floating around the home recording world. It says that if your mix does not sound warm, rich, and expensive, you must need better gear. A better microphone. A better preamp. A better interface. A better room. A better compress...

Making a Scene Presents - The Attention Harvest: Using AI to Capture Fans Before the Algorithm Takes Them Away Most Artists Celebrate Views. Smart Artists Capture Relationships. There is a moment that happens every day in the life of an independent artist. A song clip starts moving. A short video gets more views than usual. A live performance reel catches fire. A comment section wakes up. A strang...

Making a Scene Presents - The Real Bottleneck in Music Isn’t Talent—It’s Attention Why the Fight for an Indie Music Career Has Changed There was a time when the hardest part of building a music career was getting access. You needed access to a studio. You needed access to a producer. You needed access to a label. You needed access to radio. You needed access to a distributor, a publicist, a bookin...

Making a Scene Presents - Stop Feeding the Algorithm: The Indie Artist Content Strategy That Brings Fans Home For years, indie artists have been told that the answer to every career problem is to post more content. If the song is not getting heard, post more. If the show is not selling tickets, post more. If the album is coming out, post more. If the merch is sitting in boxes, post more. The advic...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Stacy Mitchhart Stacy Mitchhart’s musical journey began in Cincinnati, Ohio, in a house where jazz guitar masters like Wes Montgomery and Johnny Smith were always spinning on the stereo. With that kind of soundtrack in the air, it was only natural that he gravitated toward the guitar. But it wasn’t just the notes that grabbed him early—it was the performan...

Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Grainne Duffy Gráinne Duffy is an Irish singer, guitarist, and songwriter from Castleblayney, County Monaghan, who has built an international reputation through powerful live performances, soulful blues-rock songwriting, and relentless touring. Raised in a family of seven, she grew up singing in her local choir and performing in a family band wi...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Sawtooth Witch Sawtooth Witch was born out of restlessness and the open road. After years of crisscrossing the country with a string of bands, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Pat "Doc" Dougherty found himself chasing something he couldn't quite name — a sound that lived somewhere between the genres he'd spent a lifetime soaking in. He found the...

Making a Scene Presents - Bus Routing 101: How to Mix Like a Pro Without Overcomplicating It The Mix Is Not Just Sound. It Is Traffic Control. Most independent artists start mixing with one simple goal: make every track sound better. So they open the session, click on the kick drum, add an EQ. Then they move to the snare, add a compressor. Then the lead vocal needs help, so they add more EQ, maybe...

Making a Scene Presents - TikTok Is Still Music Discovery, But the Money Is Moving Behind Closed Doors TikTok Is Not Your Fanbase. It Is a Discovery Tollbooth. For the last few years, the music industry has sold artists a simple dream. Post the right clip on TikTok. Catch the algorithm at the right moment. Get a sound moving. Watch the streams roll in. Maybe a label calls. Maybe a playlist adds yo...

Making a Scene Presents - Building a Self-Sustaining Marketing Machine: The AI System That Runs Your Career The Artist Should Not Be the Entire Marketing Department There is a dirty little secret in the modern music business. Most independent artists are not only expected to write the songs, rehearse the band, book the shows, record the music, mix the tracks, post the videos, design the merch, ans...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Robin Batteau Robin Batteau is a Grammy-winning, Emmy-winning, Clio-winning, Oscar-nominated singer-songwriter, soloist, and producer whose career blends fearless creativity with world-class musicianship. Remarkably, his first record deal came just six months after graduating from Harvard with a degree in biochemistry—when he signed with Columbia Records a...

Making a Scene Presents - The Rise of Micro-Fanbases and Why 1,000 True Fans Is What Really Matters The Old Music Business Wanted Everybody. The New Music Business Needs Somebody. For decades, the music industry sold artists the same shiny dream: reach the masses, get famous, get signed, get played everywhere, and somehow money will fall from the sky like confetti. It was a beautiful story if you...

Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Marty and Jenni Powell of Riff Raiders Riff Raiders have been cooking up their own loud, hook-heavy flavor of rock ’n’ roll since 2017—built on crunchy guitars, tangy riffs, and choruses that hit fast and stick hard. Their music lives in that sweet spot where modern hard ’n’ heavy meets classic swagger, and they’ve earned a reputation for face-m...

Making a Scene Present an Interview with Chris Murphy of Seven Crows! Seven Crows is the visionary project of Los Angeles–based violinist, composer, and producer Chris Murphy. Built around shimmering sustain lines, fluid legato phrasing, and live looping, Seven Crows creates music that feels both cinematic and deeply personal—like a wide landscape that still speaks in a whisper. His 2025 album Pow...