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Submitting music to the show: dos and don'ts #1

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Adam Walton Adam Walton | 16:14 UK time, Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Now that my Sunday night show for new Welsh music has been fully assimilated, Borg-like, into the future technology of the BBC Introducing Uploader, I thought it would be a good idea to offer some tips and advice to artists intending to send me their music.

And, just to emphasise, these loftily-offered words of (intended) wisdom are for music submitted to 'my' show. Music absorbed by the Introducing Uploader (and directed towards Wales) lands not only in my inbox, but also Bethan Elfyn's and Jen Long's too. We all have different tastes, different approaches, different remits and different audiences... almost as if we were individual human beings. What I write below might horrify Jen and Beth. Their mileage will, undoubtedly, vary.

So, my first piece of advice - and it's a key one - is to check out the shows you're submitting your music to. This applies equally to whoever you send your music to - whether it's labels, blogs, promoters or venues, as well as radio shows. Find people who already have empathy, or a leaning, towards the kind of music you're creating and doors will open more easily. If you scatter your music at random, without researching the tastes of the recipients, most of the doors you push against will be immovable.

Last week I received a couple of Auto-Tuned-to-hell-and-back, pieces of slick, modern R&B. My tastes are broad, and my show isn't concerned with fitting music into boxes, but even a cursory listen would have told the artist concerned that his music was unlikely to find a welcome on my show.

"What, you don't play R&B?" was his rather surprised response.

"No, I don't."

That's no one-off. It isn't a problem or an imposition for me but it is a waste of an artist's time and focus. Of course, if the R&B in question had been brilliant - more Janelle Monae than R Kelly in Auto Tune Hades - then I'd have played it. Which is rather contradictory, I know. This isn't an exact science.

It is difficult to write guidelines and recommendations like this without coming across as a pompous ass, especially as I am a pompous ass. My role, as I see it, is to gather together fascinating Welsh music and present it to whoever is kind enough to listen with enough relevant information for the audience to find out more, if they're as inspired as I am. My key responsibility is to enthral that audience. Some artists think a show like mine is there to provide them with a platform regardless of my opinion of their music.

"You might not like it, but someone out there will," is an understandable (and common) response to my rejection emails.

But I have to filter hundreds of pieces of music every week. I can only play 40 or so in any given show. So I have to make the best judgements I can. Hopefully the remainder of these articles will give you an insight into that decision making process.

I thought it would be most useful to do this as a list of Dos and Don'ts, spread across a few different blog posts (I have a LOT to say on this matter!). So, to end this first piece a very important DO.

DO be brilliant. This is national radio, here. Wales is bristling with inventive musical minds. Since the start of the year I have played 400+ different, new, Welsh artists. That's a mind boggling number for a relatively small country. And there are double that number who I've rejected. So, what constitutes 'brilliant'? Well, I'm after fresh and interesting sounds, put together with joy, passion, fury and imagination. I hate the pedestrian. I hate badly wielded cliches (except when I write!). I get turned off by pomposity.

These are the new artists who - I feel - have sent me brilliant music this year. Check them out. They provide the benchmark: Saturdays Kids, Georgia Ruth, Ifan Dafydd, Trwbador, Sweet Baboo, Dauwd, Joy Formidable, Gallops, Houdini Dax, Y Niwl, Pete Lawrie, Wolf Curse, Jewellers, Plyci, Chloe Leavers, Mudmowth, Falls, EVM, The Gentle Good, Koreless, Winter Villains, Shy & The Fight.

Add to that the music from such established Welsh geniuses as Future Of The Left, Gruff Rhys, Jonny, Colorama, and you'll have a better idea (if you weren't familiar with the programme already) of the level of brilliance that is already out there. If you send me a pale imitation of Funeral For A Friend or Sum 41 you're not going to pass muster. Really.

Of course, being brilliant isn't possible for everyone but aiming for brilliance - and having high standards - indubitably is.

This is the most subjective factor at work in my decision making process. I promise you I love music. My only motivation is to find the good in the music that I hear. I'm no cynic. I get dizzy, hot, excited and froth like a capuccino maker when I hear something with merit. I'm not out to criticise you, to find fault with your music, to not play you on the radio. I want to shout your praises from the radio rooftops until I'm hoarse.

Tomorrow, another DO. A good one, too.

If you have any questions or comments about these blogs, feel free to leave them below. I'll answer them at the first opportunity.

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