Making a Scene Presents

Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Willie Edwards Wille Edwards is a Cornwall-based musician, songwriter, and the driving force behind the internationally acclaimed band Wille and the Bandits. Known for his eclectic style and fearless approach to genre, Wille has built a career that moves freely between blues, rock, folk, and world music, creating a sound that feels both timeless...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Daxton! Daxton Monaghan is an Australian singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose music lives at the crossroads of grungy blues, psychedelic rock, and funk-driven soul. His sound is raw and adventurous, built on thick guitar tones, expressive vocals, and a fearless approach to songwriting that refuses to sit inside one genre. http://www.makingascene.org

Designing a Full Fan Passport System for Indie Artists A practical, real-world deep dive using tools you can use right now This is not a theory piece. This is a build guide. A Fan Passport system sounds fancy, but in practice it is just a way to stop forgetting your fans. It is a way to make sure that when someone shows up for you, buys something, or supports you in real life, that moment is remem...

Why Your Fan Data Is Worth More Than Your Music If you are an independent artist, this is a hard truth that cuts against almost everything you were taught. Your music is no longer the most valuable thing you create. Your fan data is. Even more uncomfortable is this reality: recorded music has largely lost its status as a product. http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Presents - Fender Steps Into the Studio World With Fender Studio Pro 8! For decades, Fender has been the company most musicians connect with guitars, amps, and the idea of owning your sound from the very first note you play. Fender has always lived at the start of the music chain, where hands touch strings and sound is born. What has changed is how far Fender now follows that sound....

Making a Scene Presents - The Home Studio Is Not a Shortcut, It’s a Strategy For a long time, the home studio has been talked about like a backup plan. Something you use only because you cannot afford the “real thing.” A temporary setup you tolerate until a label calls, or until you can scrape together enough money to book time in a flashy room with a massive console and someone else running the s...

Making a Scene Presents - AI Chatbots for Musicians: 24/7 Fan Engagement Without Losing the Human Touch There’s a quiet lie baked into the modern music business. It tells you that if you want real fans, you have to be online nonstop. You have to reply right away. You have to post every day. You have to treat the algorithm like your boss, ready to jump the second it whistles. And if you don’t keep...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Carley's Wreck and Ruin Carley’s Wreck and Ruin is a British blues duo with a dark, unmistakable edge. Their sound is raw, primitive, and haunted — a mix of gritty blues and trashy roots that feels like it crawled up from somewhere old and restless. http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Presents - SSL Auto Bundle Deep Dive Review If you make music at home, you already live with a constant push and pull. You want your songs to sound finished, confident, and professional. You want them to hold up when played next to commercial releases. But at the same time, you don’t want every session to turn into a deep dive into technical theory. You didn’t start making music so...

Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Dee Anderson Dee Anderson is a London-based actress and creative professional whose work is deeply shaped by a remarkable family legacy in British television and storytelling. She is the daughter of television pioneers Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson, the visionary creators behind Thunderbirds, the groundbreaking 1960s puppet-based action ser...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Andrew Clendenen Andrew Clendenen is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose music blends thoughtful storytelling with emotionally direct performances. Rooted in classic songcraft and shaped by modern influences, his work sits comfortably between folk, Americana, and roots-driven indie music. http://www.makingascene.org

Why an Indie Artist Needs Two Additional Companies, Not a Dream and a Prayer Let’s start by being honest, because this is where most music advice goes soft. If you are an independent artist releasing music without a record company or a publishing company, you are not actually “free.” You are exposed. You may feel creative freedom because no one is telling you what to write or record, but from a bu...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with The Lucky Losers The Lucky Losers are an award-winning six-piece blues and soul band from San Francisco. Since 2019, they have won six Independent Blues Awards, including Artist of the Year for vocalist Cathy Lemons and Song of the Year for “Godless Land.” The band is fronted by Lemons, a powerful singer raised in Dallas, and Phil Berkowitz, a New Jersey–b...

Making a Scene Presents - Focal Listen Professional Headphones - A Deep Dive Review Why Tracking Headphones Matter More Than Most People Think Tracking is where the music actually gets captured. This is the moment where a vocal performance is frozen in time, where a guitar part becomes permanent, and where mistakes either get fixed now or haunt you forever. Mixing can polish things later, but trac...

Making a Scene Presents - The Hard Truth: You Already Run A Business, You Just Haven’t Admitted It Yet If you’re releasing music and touring locally, regionally, and nationally, you’re not “trying to make it.” You’re already operating a real business. Money comes in. Money goes out. Contracts get signed. Taxes show up whether you feel ready or not. The only question is whether you’re going to run...

Making a Scene Presents -The Indie Artist’s Guide to Writing a Real Business Plan For independent musicians, the music business can feel confusing, overwhelming, and honestly a little intimidating. You make music because you love it, not because you dreamed of spreadsheets and contracts. But here’s the truth nobody tells you early enough: if you want music to be your career instead of an expensive...

Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Andrew Strong Andrew Strong was born in Dublin in November 1973 into a deeply musical family. His father, Rob Strong, was one of Ireland’s most respected rock singers in the 1970s and remains active in music to this day. Growing up around performers and rehearsals, Andrew was drawn to music early and naturally. http://www.makingascene.org

Making a Scene Presents An Interview with Ross Neilsen Here’s a rewritten and expanded version that keeps the facts, adds context, and smooths the story into a clear, compelling narrative. Ross Neilsen didn’t build his career in a straight line. In 2007, he quit his job, gave up his home, and moved into his car so he could follow music full-time. For the next two years he couch-surfed, slept where...

Making a Scene Presents - THE HITS ACT EXPLAINED FOR INDIE MUSICIANS (NO LAW DEGREE REQUIRED) If you’ve ever finished a recording project, felt proud of the music, and then felt sick when you added up the studio bills, this article is for you. Recording costs hit indie musicians before the money comes in, sometimes long before. The HITS Act exists because lawmakers finally recognized that problem...

Making a Scene Presents - Unreal Engine 5.7 For Music Videos A Deep Dive Review Epic Games built Unreal Engine to make video games, but that is no longer the most interesting use case. Over the last few years, Unreal has quietly become one of the most powerful tools for film, television, and music visuals. Version 5.7 continues that shift. It is not a toy, and it is not a filter. It is a real-time...

IPFS and the Decentralized Music Archive How Indie Artists Can Host Their Entire Catalog, Serve Every Kind of Fan, and Build a Real Legacy For decades, independent artists were handed advice that sounded helpful but quietly worked against them. Upload your music to platforms. Share a link. Trust the system to take care of the rest. On the surface, that sounds reasonable. In practice, it put your e...

Making a Scene Presents - AI Won’t Kill Music Careers—Starving Artists Will As we head into the New Year, it’s time to take an honest look at one of the hottest and most misunderstood topics in the music industry right now. Every few months, the same cycle plays out. A scary headline appears. A new AI tool gets released. A video goes viral showing a fake song that sounds like a famous artist. Almo...

If you’re an indie artist working from home, green screen might sound like something left over from old Hollywood movies. It can feel outdated, expensive, or disconnected from the way modern AI video works. That assumption couldn’t be more wrong. Green screen is actually one of the most important tools you can pair with AI today, especially if you want your music videos, branding visuals, and shor...

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Levi Platero Levi Platero is from the Navajo Nation in the Southwest United States. He first gained national attention with his family band, The Plateros, who emerged in 2004 as a blues-rock power trio often compared to artists like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Los Lonely Boys, and ZZ Top. The band spent more than a decade touring across the U.S., building a reputa...

Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Johnny Barracuda of the Soho Dukes SOHO DUKES won’t admit it, but they’re having a very good time. The band began in an unlikely way, not in a rehearsal room, but as a nineteenth-century–style drinking club roaming the pubs of London’s West End. On one of those legendary crawls, Bomber on bass and Johnny Barracuda on vocals crossed paths with Co...