During my music career I have had managers, labels, radio promoters, radio promotion managers at labels blah blah, and anytime I asked them about why I wasn’t on radio the typical stockpile answer they would give would be to the effect of, “It is really hard getting on radio. You have to have a big single on radio, be on tour, have a video, lots of press blah blah blah”.

It was a strange answer to say the least. I need to have a big single on radio to be on radio? What? Is this the chicken or the egg question?

I have just realized a big pattern though. Anytime I was on radio it was because of something we in the band did, not something the pros did. The most recent example is when I was interviewed by Paul Cavalconte on WRXP.

I had met Paul months earlier at a James Taylor event and he had caught my attention because of his vast knowledge of music, bands, jazz, and recording techniques bands had used. So, I reached out to him to keep the dialogue going. There was no motivation on my part to be on radio. It was much more innocent. Like when you meet a kid at school who is interested in the same things as you.

Anyway, as it turns out we ended up getting together to hand out early last December. The first thing Paul said to me when I met him in the lobby of the radio station that snowy day was, “Let’s get something to eat and then after I want to interview you for a new segment I am doing called Vinyl Virgins.

Paul and I ended up talking about all sorts of cool things after lunch and he recorded everything I said. If I die in a plane crash tomorrow Paul is the man to see about my vault of interviews! Most importantly Paul got what he wanted which was a snippet of me talking about Radiohead and I, in turn, ended up on the radio the following week.

Moral of the story, in my opinion, is that radio people are just like other music lovers. They are people who do what they do because they love music and musicians. Reach out, be true to yourself and your art, and treat them like people rather than vehicles for your success.

So far I have had the pleasure of meeting Paul, Matt, and Leslie at RXP, and they are just very nice people. I hope all radio people are this nice and if they are not then their loss.

Thank you RXP

Tags: Buddahead, James Taylor, Paul Cavalconte, Radiohead, WRXP
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In the days when we had CAA book our tours life was easy. We would usually get a call or an email asking us if we wanted to open up for a national band on a national tour (that is how we ended up opening up for Glen Phillips, Everlast, James Taylor). Once we responded “Yes”, there was nothing else to do except turn up for the first show!

Life was equally easy when our record label, Sanctuary Records, would book the gigs for us. Usually, this meant one of the excellent young chaps at the label, either Eric Briner or Alex Hackford, would bust their balls getting us onto a bill such as Tegan and Sara, and again all we had to do was turn up and play.

Having an influential manager is also handy. It was the, by now legendary, Merck Mercuriadis, who put in a couple of calls and had the band booked and recorded at Bonnaroo. It was Jim DelBalzo who somehow got the band playing Tulip Fest in Albany.

So, what about now? We don’t have a booking agent or a label, and our managers hands are mostly tied because we don’t have big hit on radio. We book ourselves. Actually, we have tons of experience doing this. Even with a label and a booking agent we still booked over 100 shows a year ourselves – in case you were wondering, in this industry no one does right by you except for you. Yet, booking yourself is one of life’s major hassles predominantly because you end up having to work with some of the worlds biggest douche bags. It is the typical little guy in a little job who thinks he is in a big job and lets it all go to his head syndrome. Now, just for the sake of transparency, there are tons of great bookers out there who are super cool and we have been booking great shows with for a number of years. This is not a story about them.

This is a story about trying to book a gig in Brooklyn, the land of the hipster (let’s no go there as I have a whole slew of issues with the hipster). Anyway, long story short, we (buddahead) had a show planned for July 10th at Public Assembly in Brooklyn. This would actually have been our first Brooklyn show so we were super excited. We had worked hard on curating the night but, alas, in the last minute we hit a couple of stumbling blocks. ONE: Toby Evers our bass player who recently had a major back surgery has not been healing as well as expected and had to bow out of the show (the last time we played a show with out him the set sounded like someone had just tripped in the kitchen utensils section of Bed Bath and Beyond in the dark); TWO: Both other bands who had originally agreed to playing the show with us cancelled in the last minutes. Actually, one cancelled and the other did not bother confirm.

So, as soon as we realized the show was not likely to be a success I emailed the booker:

From: buddaheadmusic@mac.com
To: boyracerxxx@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: july 10 Buddahead @ Public assembly
Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:02:04 -0400

Hi Belvy,

Bad news! The other bands that were due to play on the 10th have pulled out last minute. I won’t be able to pull something together so close to the date. Let’s cancel this. I am so sorry.

Raman

In case you missed it, please note my apologetic tone in the email!! What I received back from young Belvy was therefore somewhat shocking and, well to be honest, not bloody nice!

From: boyracerxxx@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: july 10 Buddahead @ Public assembly
Date: June 29, 2009 12:04:12 AM EDT
To: buddaheadmusic@mac.com
ugh.
after having the date for 3 months you give us 10 days notice???
fine.
fyi – we NEVER rebook cancellations.

Belvy/General Manager, Program Director
Public Assembly
www.publicassemblynyc.com

Is the “we NEVER rebook cancellations” a real policy? If yes, is it a good policy? Is it just mean? Nasty? Angry? Unfriendly? Is not like we just didn’t show or promote the show. We have been promoting the show through our website, myspace, and ilike accounts for weeks. We are even losing the money we spent promoting the show on ilike.

I think any absolute is a half measure. Thankfully, I have never before had an encounter like this before. In my opinion, this is very poor behavior by Blevy and the venue that he represents. Over exercise of power for the sake of it.

Tags: Alex Hackford, Bed Bath and Beyond, Belvy, Belvy/General Manager Program Director, Bonnaroo, boyracer, boyracerxxx, Brooklyn, Buddahead, buddaheadmusic, CAA, Creative Artist Agency, Eric Briner, Everlast, Glen Phillips, hipster, James Taylor, Jim DelBalzo, Merck Mercuriadis, Public Assembly, Sanctuary Records, Tegan and Sara, Toby Evers, Tulip Fest, www.publicassemblynyc.com
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Can you be at Electric Ladyland at 2pm? James is doing a few songs for RXP

That one line from Jim had me canceling most of my Tuesday afternoon and running down 6th avenue towards 8th.

“Hi, I’m here for the James Taylor thing,” I said to the receptionist five minutes after two o’clock.

“That is on Thursday. Today is Tuesday,” she replied.

In my excitement to meet James Taylor I hadn’t paused enough to notice that I was two days too early. So, two days later I made my way back down to 8th street, I walked past the line of ticket winners, down the stairs to the reception area and waited for James to arrive. Five minutes later he walked down the stairs with Jim by his side.

“Hey James, this is Raman Kia, he is a big fan, and his band Buddahead is one of my clients”

“Hey Raman, it is very nice to meet you”. Sweet baby James looked older in person, and thinner, and taller.

Jim then led us to the studio where James began setting up and sound checking. I then walked into the control room where I found myself interrupting a conversation between two strangers to tell them that Paul McCartney recorded McCartney on a 4 track at home.

“That is right, and you know he didn’t even have limiters,” responded the first stranger who later turned out to be Paul one of the RXP DJs.

“So what you are telling me is that Maybe I’m amazed was done at home?” Asked the other stranger, another Paul, who is the program director at RXP.

“Hey guys, stop talking, listen,” said the first paul as he pointed to the speakers, “that is James Taylor, voice and guitar, without anything done to it – how perfect”.

He was right, James was perfect. I remained in a state of awe for the next hour while James played some new and old songs as I sat about 6 feet away from him and used words like “Swell” to describe how he was feeling. It was amazing just to realize that I will most probably never be as good as he is.

Later he signed my copy of Sweet Baby Jameswhile I interrupted with useless facts such buddahead opening up for James Taylor at the Tweeter Center or me knowing his long time producer and manager Peter Asher. James didn’t care. Why should he? I ama bozo and he is a legend. Still, I was on top of the world.

On my way out I got to thank Matt Pinefield for laying Ruin on his morning show. He sounded less gruffy than he does on his morning show but then again, he does wake up at 4AM. That sucks.

Tags: Buddahead, Electric Ladyland, James Delbalzo, James Taylor, Maybe I'm Amazed, McCartney, Paul Cavalconte, Paul McCartney, Peter Asher, RXP, Sweet Baby James, Tweeter Center
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Hi All,

Last week Raman was interviewed by Collective Sound. Check it out

Tags: and Simon & Garfunkel. Later Zeppelin, ashes, BBC World Service, Buddahead, Cat Stevens, CLive Davis, Collective Sound, Crossing the invisible line, Guns & Roses, Interscope Records, James Taylor, LA Reid, Queen, Radiohead, Raman Kia, Simon Gibson, sour grapes, The Beatles, Toby Evers
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