In September 2021 I was burned out and feeling super sad – so I decided I had to do something completely different. A one-off surf lesson led to my first outdoor swim…and in October 2022 I found myself in Marseille!
Clevedon Marine Lake Cromhall Quarry (Gloucestershire) Dosthill Quarry (Tamworth) Lake 32 (Cotswold Water Park, Wiltshire) Praia da Rainha, Cascais, Portugal (I also swam in Estoril…more on that in a future video)
Vivienne Rickman runs regular wild swimming experiences in Snowdonia – I highly recommend!
In Marseille I swam at:
Calanque de Podestat Calanque de Sormiou Plage du Prado
And I stayed at L’Appartement in Sormiou which is where I met my gorgeous guard dog friend Oknit.
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I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
I’ve never understood why artists shy away from setting up an email list. Musicians, photographers, visual artists, writers – if you’re serious about sharing your work online, it’s WAY more effective to set up a website and an email list than posting on social media.
If I hadn’t set up my mailing list in 2009 and invited people onto it regularly ever since, I simply wouldn’t have a full-time job making my own music. It’s that life-changing.
Seth Werkheiser and I met online a while ago, and I immediately knew we were on the same page with this stuff. His HEAVY METAL EMAIL is always useful and fun to read, so I invited him to nerd out / share exasperated facial expressions about email marketing with me.
Enjoy – and please ask any questions in the comments section. I’d be very happy to go deeper into how I do things in future videos so let me know what you’d like to see xo
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I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
My new album is OUT NOW – so I thought it was time for a chat about what happens in the weeks after a big success at work, plus what’s next for this channel and for my music-making.
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I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
Obey Robots is a creative collaboration between myself – Laura Kidd (Penfriend / She Makes War) – and Rat (Ned’s Atomic Dustbin).
Our album “One In A Thousand” was released on 24th February 2023 and went into the Official UK Albums Chart at #14 and the Official Independent Chart at #1 the following week.
This is fan power in action: we shared the album through emails, videos and social media. No press, no pluggers, no manager, label or agent.
Thank you for being part of this very exciting time!
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I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
“Albert Camus believed that the individual could change society. Kafka believed that society was too strong for that.
The problem is, Kafka never listened to Obey Robots.”
This is the absolute pinnacle of album releasing for me – Jimmy Watkins is a poet. I’ve never felt my work so well understood as when he runs along shouting into the camera, bursting with love and enthusiasm.
“Vocals shoot overhead like fighter jets – it’s like the Red Arrows turning up to your birthday party!”
“This is music rich in the confidence of their own skill…it’s fearless…it’s great for running to!”
“It’s kind of like having a rainbow in your spare bedroom.”
“This album really feels like optimism in the face of oblivion.”
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I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
Read on to find out why we have a few more copies of “One In A Thousand” available on vinyl now – including 20 copies of the “clear with black smoke” variant!
I wrote a few weeks ago about how poorly “One In A Thousand” fared with being stocked in record shops. After printing 500 special (let it) snow white vinyl copies for shops, only 150 were required by my distributor.
As I don’t participate in the trend of introducing new vinyl variants late in a pre-order, effectively asking collectors to buy again, I had a moral quandary on my hands: hope the white vinyl would be in demand from shops later on, or offer it to fans?
I opted for the latter, wrote this piece to explain, and offered all existing vinyl customers money off if they did choose to add white vinyl to their order.
After all the release week hubbub, I asked my distributor which record shops did stock “One In A Thousand”, and wanted to take this opportunity to send heartfelt thanks to those who took a chance on our album:
Record Culture, Stourbridge Longwell Records, Keynsham Banquet Records, Kingston Norman Records, Leeds Juno Records Rough Trade Diverse Records, Newport
Thank you for championing new music!
WHERE SHOULD I BUY YOUR ALBUM?
Record shops are havens – I have such fond memories of browsing Andy’s Records in Bury St Edmunds as a teenager, picking up life-changing Feline singles from the bargain bin, nervously asking for the new “Skunk And Nancy” album at the counter and not being laughed at… I know many music supporters have their own such stories, and these bastions of culture are doing their best to cling on just like the rest of us.
However, in the interests of showing a bit of what goes on under the hood: “One In A Thousand” is released on my own label My Big Sister Recordings, and distributed by SRD. This means that when it’s sold anywhere other than direct to fan through my shop or Bandcamp, I get paid a chunk less. The record shop needs to be paid for their work, and my distributor needs to be paid for their work.
This works out fine if the shop attracts new people to the music, those who haven’t heard about it through my mailing list, videos or social media…but if you have heard about my music from me I would love it if you’d buy direct.
When I wrote my piece a few weeks ago I was disappointed with the stocking situation, but was very careful not to point fingers. The system doesn’t work, in my opinion, but I don’t “hate the player”, and I only work with people I respect and trust.
So it was quite a shock to discover that someone from a certain Glasgow based record shop, upon reading my post, decided to call up my distributor and accuse me of slagging off them *and* record shops, when I did neither.
If that’s the price of being honest on the internet, bring it on – I’m not playing any games, and I won’t shut up to keep the peace with people who behave in this fashion.
Because we’ve chosen (couldn’t afford) not to pay (waste?!) upwards of £10,000 on PR and radio plugging to try and get glowing reviews and quotes (that don’t sell records), most shops are unwilling to take the risk – even on sale or return.
They don’t have the space, they don’t know (or care) who we are, and it doesn’t matter how good (we think) our album is. (It’s excellent, by the way…)
I get it. It’s tough times for everyone – and I’m thankful for the shops who have decided to take a chance on us.
In the days since our chart success, it’s been interesting to note the plethora of record shops who suddenly have “One In A Thousand” in stock (well, “dispatched when received from distributor”). Again, shops can’t stock everything, but it’s eye-opening to see how these things work.
I’ve also been alerted to some shops selling vinyl for way over the odds – £30-£45. This is not cool!
In my shop I sell records for £22, with 100% of the profits going to us, the people who made the music (after manufacturing costs, transaction fees, warehouse packing fees, Shopify fees etc).
Shops pay £12.99 per unit for vinyl, so these shysters are potentially earning more than we are for a direct sale.
No thank you!
Today I’ve requested all remaining vinyl copies back from my distributor to sell in my own shop. Running my own label is a major faff, but one of the benefits is choosing which music industry nonsense to participate in. I choose none of it!
➡️ We have fewer than 100 snow white records left, along with 20 x clear with black smoke records and 1 x classic black.
Thank you for supporting Obey Robots, Penfriend and independent artists everywhere. You’re the best.
I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
Watch me and Rat learn about the chart success of our collaborative album “One In A Thousand” – a HUGE win for independent artists and independently-minded music fans everywhere!
THANK YOU SO MUCH xxx
NEXT
I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
Look what you did! Rat and I made an album we love, and we shared it with you.
This is what people power looks like:
Rat says: “thank YOU, for the support and for joining our Robot Army!”
I say…well, for once I’m speechless. This is going to take a little while to process!
THANK YOU SO MUCH.
I’m going to keep sharing robot-shaped videos on my YouTube channel in the coming weeks, so do please subscribe here and (optionally) click the bell to get notifications.
Have the best weekend, enjoy “One In A Thousand”, and we’ll speak very soon.
I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
Rat and I talked to the very lovely Diamond Dave from TotalRock about how the pandemic affected the emotional core of our album “One In A Thousand”, as well as how we recorded it, I talk about why I’m SO super DIY and Dave quizzes us on our touring plans…
I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!