Making a Scene Presents

Making a Scene Presents - Phase Issues Explained: Why Your Mix Sounds Thin The Invisible Problem Hiding Inside Your Mix There is a special kind of frustration that happens in a home studio. You record the part. You play it back. The performance is good. The tone sounds fine by itself. The mic was not cheap. The interface is working. The meters are healthy. Nothing is clipping. Nothing looks broken...

The Music Industry Does Not Hate AI. It Hates AI It Cannot Control. Why indie artists should stop fearing the tools the major players are already using The music industry has always been very good at one thing: warning artists about the future while quietly buying stock in it. That is the part nobody says loud enough. Every time a new technology shows up, the official story is usually fear. The in...

Making a Scene Presents - From Data to Story: Using AI to Turn Analytics Into Compelling Fan Narratives Transform boring numbers into emotional storytelling that connects with fans There is a funny thing about music data. It looks cold when it is sitting inside a dashboard. A city name. A stream count. A spike on a graph. A merch order. An email click. A replay on a video. None of that feels very...

Making a Scene Presents - AI as a Bandmate: Where It Helps and Where It Hurts There is a strange new player walking into the rehearsal room. It does not carry a guitar. It does not complain about the van. It does not forget the bridge, show up late, drink the last beer, or insist the snare is too loud when the snare is clearly not the problem. It sits on a laptop, in a plugin window, inside a webs...

Making a Scene Presents - Panning Strategies: Creating Width Without Losing Focus Panning is one of the most powerful tools in mixing, but it is also one of the easiest to treat like an afterthought. A lot of indie artists open a mix, throw the vocal in the middle, push a guitar left, push another guitar right, maybe slide a hi-hat somewhere off to the side, and call it a stereo image. That is not...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Andra Suchy Andra Suchy is a North Dakota native with a voice that stops people in their tracks. Classically trained and a veteran of musical theater, she grew up in a talented, music-filled family and developed the kind of vocal control and emotional range that only comes from years of disciplined performance. Over time, that foundation has made her one o...

Making a Scene Brings you Gerry Casey's Interview with The 100 Watt Vipers The 100 Watt Vipers are a powerhouse blues-rock duo hailing from Jacksonville, Florida. Known for their raw, gritty sound and electrifying performances, the band is a fusion of classic Southern blues and hard-hitting rock ‘n’ roll. With J Burton on vocals and guitar and DJ Riddick on drums, The 100 Watt Vipers have carved o...

Making a Scene Presents An Interview with Mark W Winchester Mark W. Winchester is a Grammy-winning bassist, award-winning songwriter, independent recording artist, and live performer based in Nashville, Tennessee. Originally from Monroe, North Carolina, Mark moved to Nashville with his wife in 1988 determined to figure out how a songwriter gets noticed in Music City. Ironically, he got noticed fir...

Making a Scene Presents - The AI Feedback Loop: Using Fan Behavior to Train Better Marketing Over Time Your Marketing Should Get Smarter Every Time a Fan Clicks For years, indie artists were told to market their music by guessing. Guess what time to post. Guess what subject line sounds cool. Guess which city cares. Guess which merch item might sell. Guess whether fans want vinyl, shirts, livestrea...

Making a Scene Presents - The Myth of “Exposure” in the Modern Music Industry The Most Expensive Free Thing in Music There is a word that has haunted musicians for decades. It shows up in emails from promoters, club owners, playlist curators, content creators, brands, festivals, podcasters, bloggers, and random people with ring lights who say things like, “This could be great exposure for you.” Th...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Zac Harmon Zac Harmon is an award-winning guitarist, singer, and songwriter from Jackson, Mississippi, whose sound carries the deep lineage of the blues while pushing it forward with soul, funk, gospel, reggae, and modern blues-rock energy. Critics have praised his “masterful” musicianship and his mix of Bobby “Blue” Bland sophistication with Freddie King–...

Making a Scene Presents - Stop Sending Your Fans Back to YouTube: How Indie Artists Can Embed Token-Gated Video Inside Their Own Website Your Website Is Not a Poster. It Is the Artist’s World. For years, indie artist websites were treated like digital flyers. You had a homepage, a bio, some tour dates, a few press photos, a store link, and maybe a YouTube video dropped into the middle of the page....

Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Ben Reel Ben Reel has always made albums that carry an undercurrent—something deeper than the surface of the songs. His twelfth studio release, Spirit’s Not Broken, continues that tradition with a record that speaks directly to the moment we’re living in. In a world shaped by conflict, climate anxiety, and constant noise, it’s easy to feel power...

Making a Scene Presents - Automation: The Missing Piece in Most Indie Mixes Why the Mix Does Not Come Alive Until It Starts Moving A lot of indie mixes do not fail because the artist used the wrong microphone, the wrong preamp, the wrong compressor, or the wrong $29 plugin they bought during a midnight sale while questioning every life choice that led them into home recording. Most indie mixes fai...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with GB Leighton GB Leighton is the kind of artist the music industry talks about but rarely knows how to manufacture: a relentless road warrior, a natural frontman, and a songwriter who can make a room full of strangers feel like a community by the second chorus. http://www.makingascene.org

independent musicians must shift their focus from accumulating social media followers to cultivating a direct ownership economy. The author contends that high visibility on digital platforms is often a vanity metric that fails to translate into financial stability because artists do not own their fan data. To achieve true sustainability, creators should treat social media as a preliminary funnel d...

a strategic manual for independent musicians to reclaim control over their audience relationships by moving away from platform-dependent social media. It argues that artists should build owned community forums using tools like WordPress, BuddyPress, and bbPress to escape restrictive algorithms and data silos. By establishing a central "digital house," creators can integrate direct-to-fan commerce,...

Most independent musicians are stuck in a cycle that feels like it never ends. They release a song, promote it, play a show, post on social media, sell a few shirts, send a few emails, and then start all over again from zero. Every release feels like a brand-new mountain to climb. Every show feels like a separate event. Every post feels like it disappears in a few hours. That is not because indie...

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 an Interview with Turn Turn Turn Turn Turn Turn is a Minnesota-based trio built around one irresistible idea: great songs sound even better when you can sing them in close harmony. Bonded by a shared love of 1960s and 1970s country, folk, and pop, the band began by exploring classic material together—and quickly grew into a fully original Americana project with its own brig...

Eleven Years of Making a Scene: Still Independent, Still Publishing, Still Building the Future A Milestone Worth Making Noise About On May 1, 2026, Making a Scene celebrates eleven years of continuous publication, and in the fast-moving world of independent music media, that is no small thing. Websites come and go. Blogs burn bright and disappear. Social platforms change the rules. Algorithms bury...

Making a Scene Presents - The Live Show Is Not Just a Night Out. It Is the Front Door to Your Whole Music Business. For too long, indie artists have been taught to think of the live show as a single transaction. A fan buys a ticket. The artist plays the set. Maybe somebody buys a shirt. Everybody goes home. The venue sweeps the floor, the bartender counts the drawer, the band loads out, and the wh...

Making a Scene Presents - The Hidden Economics of Being an Indie Artist in 2026: A Survival Guide to Lower Costs, Increase Revenue, and Own Your Fans For years, independent artists were sold a dream. The pitch was simple and powerful. You no longer needed a label. You no longer needed permission. You could record at home, upload your music worldwide, build an audience online, and create a real car...

Making a Scene Presents - Delay vs Reverb: When to Use Each (and Why Most People Overuse Reverb) There is a sound you have heard a thousand times, even if you never knew what caused it. A singer enters on the first line of a chorus and suddenly feels larger than life. A snare drum explodes through the speakers and seems to live in its own perfect room. A guitar line trails into the horizon after t...

Making a Scene  Presents an Interview with Flutes and Low Flutes & Low is the folk duo of Ben Pichler and Cambria Haen, two musicians who first met and began playing together in Duluth, Minnesota. From the start, their chemistry leaned toward atmosphere—songs built on close harmony, patient storytelling, and melodies that stay with you long after they end. Deeply shaped by the Midwest’s wide-open...