How do you make it in music? Diary of an unsigned singer

How do you make it in music? Former Virgin Red Room House Band artist Dominic Youdan blogs on the highs and lows of life as an aspiring singer-songwriter...

Right, I’m not entirely sure how to start this so I’ve decided to go with a short introduction. My name’s Dominic Youdan and I’m attempting to become a musician in London. These are my thoughts on what it’s like to try and make it as a musician in one of the most musically saturated cities in the world.

They’ll be highs and plenty of lows as I let you in on all of my activities, antics and aspirations on the way to what will hopefully be a happy ending. All musicians in London who are yet to be signed seem to use the phrase ‘up and coming’ to describe their situation - so I guess that’s what I am too.

I’m a singer-songwriter who fits rather nicely into the folk bracket. I’ve played guitar for just over two years and have been gigging for around a year and a bit. Becoming a musician was something that i decided to do after i finished university – which probably wasn’t the best idea but it’s too late to turn back now.

So far during my time gigging I’ve gone from having absolutely no clue as to what I’m doing to now having a vague opaque idea. Originally I played all my gigs sitting down. I did this for two reasons; one because I’d never played with a strap and was completely out of my depth and two because I used to get extremely anxious.

Over time however I’ve bought a strap, lost the Westlife-esque chair routine and really started enjoying gigging. And, the knock on effect of becoming more confident is that I’ve started marketing myself. Initially my marketing skills were atrocious – a poor MySpace account with two track demos and a picture of me playing pinball, while trying to look cool, were all I had to show for my efforts. This has improved somewhat with the recent addition of Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud and YouTube pages. 

When I see the online presence that some unsigned acts have I realise that there’s still plenty of work to be done... But still - it’s all very new, pretty exciting – and perhaps a little haphazard. The YouTube page involves me and my friend taking an iPad out to Clissold Park and singing in different locations while gusts of wind do their best to ruin each take.

But it was great fun – especially when a potentially homeless Turkish man decided that he’d like to get involved in the recording. We employed the classic ‘pretend he’s not here approach’ and gradually he drifted away. I think he liked the tracks though, which is nice. At least I have one fan nailed.

And that’s it - I guess the best thing to do now is have a little listen and see what you think. The music is still all a little rough but I’ll be writing pretty frequently so that you can get a good idea of what it’s all about. The gigs, song recordings, studio sessions and mental groupies are sure to follow, so please stick around.

Dominic Youdan

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