Taking music to the masses

Talk about band width! The sky's the limit for musicians making their way on the Web. Here's how some bay area musicians are doing it.

By MAGGIE COUNCIL Di PIETRA, Times Correspondent

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 4, 2000

Tampa Bay area musicians are well represented in the Internet invasion. For instance, about 350 artists in the bay area have uploaded their music to http://www.mp3.com, one of the largest of the Web sites devoted to song archives. The bay area is represented by 75 musicians on the Internet Underground Music Archive, http://www.iuma.com, where 15,000 unsigned artists display their work. And more than a few bay area people have created their own sites.

Some of the local artists are mainstream professionals trying for a break. Others are hobbyists with day jobs too good to quit to go chasing the dream of a music career.

Here are seven local musicians who have jumped onto the global cyberstage.

Annie Vox

Annie Vox, a Tampa resident and avant-noir performance artist, has her creative work available on her own Web site, www.sybil.org, as well as mp3.com and several European music sites. She only recently started to perform locally, at clubs such as the Orpheum in Ybor City and Club More in Clearwater.

Vox seems almost embarrassed that she knows how to convert her music into files her computer can understand and make them available to the world.

Vox put some of her friends' music on her site, too, including that of rocker Susy Martian with the cover band Ramona hates Pink and the originals-only band Ramona Ramonster.

"Sybil.org is about girls who have too much personality," Vox says with a shy laugh.

Vox, who is 31 and a Web designer for an Internet start-up company, says she makes "Slurpee money" from her art. She doesn't believe she is packageable for mainstream consumption, though she has achieved notice worldwide.

"My music career primarily takes place on the Net," Vox says, "since I don't really play out yet. Because of my site on mp3.com, I have received fan mail from Italy, Germany, France, Norway and North America."

She has also been interviewed by SirenMedia.net and the San Diego Union-Tribune and was featured in the Women of Mp3.com.

Vox plans to integrate her music with other art forms in a multimedia approach.

Susy Martian

Martian, who started out locally singing backup for the Johnny G. Lyon band, has played the cover scene steadily for the past few years. But she has greater ambition. Her eyes are looking westward toward Los Angeles while focusing on the original music of her band, Ramona Ramonster.

A single mother, Martian keeps a firm grip on the business end of her music and sees how the power of the Internet can help boost her career.

"Oh, it has been great!" Martian's energy spills out in an interview. "There is no way I can possibly explain the magnitude of the Internet in just a few sentences. Anything is possible. Anything. Anyone in the world can log online and hear one of my songs, look at band photos, send me an e-mail -- my next-door neighbor, my sister in Hawaii, Celine Dion in Canada, Prince in Paisley Park, Beck in L.A. or an A&R rep looking for the next hot band. The possibilities are limitless."

Although Martian is not computer illiterate, she relied on Vox's expertise to set up and maintain her Web presence.

Duality

Darius Jackson, a 14-year Tampa resident, met E. Magill in Gainesville while they were attending college two years ago. They wrote some music under the name Duality and have only uploaded to mp3.com.

Hard-line independents, the members of Duality seek to "give the people the choice of what's pop and what's not, thereby taking the decision away from the corporate machine that currently dominates the industry."

Their first release is in a "perpetual state of progress," and the duo hopes to play out for the first time this fall when Magill moves to Tampa. Although they have made no money from their online venture, Jackson says, "Having our music on the Internet has given us a music career. Before that, it was only a hobby."

The duo has received e-mail from fans as far away as Iran. Jackson is, no surprise, a Web designer at his day job.

Rooster Jones

David Artis, a Lutz resident and software developer, has been playing music since 1966 when he first heard the Beatles.

His band in the late '60s was signed to a major label and recorded two albums, "which basically went nowhere."

After serving in Vietnam, Artis says, he "gave up on the U.S. scene since it is so hard to break into. The return on investment basically sucks."

Artis writes all his own material for his own label and has it released in Europe through his distributor under the names Rooster Jones and Who Is John Doe?

"I usually sell 30,000 to 60,000 units per release," he says. "I get a complete set of different musicians for each product."

Artis owns Studio 2000 in Lutz. A home page for his studio is in progress.

A few months ago, Artis put some music up on iuma.com. He says it hasn't affected his career much. "Several labels have expressed a desire to handle my material, but so far my sales probably exceed the average band by using my own label. If you can keep control of your music, the better chance you will have of succeeding in the current marketplace."

The Blessed Virgin Larry

The artist currently known as "Gamma" moved to the bay area in 1997, when he was hired by Roxx Gang as bassist. Two years later, he split to record Canyousaytanic, around which formed the Blessed Virgin Larry.

A self-taught Macintosh "geek," Gamma designs and maintains the Web site for the band. He has also uploaded music, photo and video files onto IUMA.com, MP3.com, Virtualtunes.com, farmclub.com, soundclick.com, riffage.com, in2tv.com, audiogalaxy.com and worlwidebands.com.

If this sounds time-consuming, it is.

"I was spending 15-hour days just uploading things," said the soft-spoken Gamma.

With a goal of a large-label record deal, the pigtailed shock-rocker has also educated himself on ways to market Internet sites, resulting in 20,000 hits on his main page within the past year.

Shows in Dallas and Atlanta came directly from this exposure, and CDs have been sold from his site to people in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Russia. Future plans include another video and a new CD to be released in September.

"Truthfully, we make most of our money in merchandising: CDs, shirts, coffee mugs, mouse pads, stickers and pictures."

Jennifer Shaw

"I'm half geek," Shaw admits in a phone interview. The Manatee County resident also speaks "fluent geek," which has enabled her to digitize her musical dreams. Shaw not only plays herself on the Internet, but is the woman behind the curtain for a handful of "virtual bands" that play her songs on her Web site.

The songs are created and arranged by Shaw with Band-in-a-Box software. She adds vocal tracks and then credits each song to one of the bands she created to act as vehicles for her diverse material: pop, country, rock, novelty and more. "Photos" of the bands on her Web page make the illusion complete.

Shaw's material is available on half a dozen other sites as well. Her song Chuck, the Bungee Jumping Spider of Doom, was in the Top 20 on mp3.com's comedy song charts last year.

Shaw makes about $100 a month online from royalties and CD sales. The 34-year-old plays trumpet, mandolin and bass. She is a veteran of a variety of musical acts, including an Andrews Sisters tribute band and a California "country punk-a-boogie" outfit.

Shaw says she has fun self-producing material but won't be leaving her day job in the acquisitions department of a large company to pursue a musical career. Her goal is to write songs for others to perform.

She has three CDs available and more to come. "I have sold albums to complete strangers, and that is always a thrill."

Dr. Rob And The Blues Specialists

By day, Rob Norman is a dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon. At night, he teaches creative writing and plays the blues.

The Town 'N Country resident has had a long affair with the blues, working his way through medical school in Chicago partly by playing out. He has also been onstage in Boston, New Orleans and Memphis and at local clubs such as the Blues Ship in Ybor City. Dr. Rob also entertains at hospitals and nursing homes.

"I was playing impromptu harp at a nursing home to about 20-30 people in an Alzheimer's unit, all clapping and enjoying it, and this old man and woman got up and danced," Norman said. "It was great. Later the social services director told me she had never seen those two show much emotion. Music is a mysterious thing."

Dr. Rob's first CD, Florida Blues, is soon to be followed up by Florida Blues II. Where does he find the time?

"I bartered with a patient who put the tunes on for me. I have a site manager who is supposed to drive CD sales."

He jokes about withholding prescriptions from patients until they buy, but it is evident that he plays the harp for the love of sharing the music rather than for his supper. He promotes his Web site by putting it on his business card.

Only online for a month or two, Dr. Rob says the best thing that has happened so far is "a long e-mail from another doctor/musician."

Maggie Council Di Pietra also is a local musician with her works on the Internet. She thinks if she can do it, anyone can.