Making Music in the Internet Age

In a godforsaken time before Twitter and YouTube, my five year old self would roller-skate down the garden path before beginning a frantic performance of ‘Mary Poppins on Wheels’, just in case the person in the aeroplane flying by was Steven Spielberg.

The ‘logic’ behind this was that he would hear my voice, see my talent and scoop me up as the latest addition to Disney’s ‘Mousercise’, and my new found fame would eventually secure a play date with Drew Barrymore … and ET.Blossoming lunacy and abysmal geography aside, the early 90s in Namibia was a time in which one could only appreciate and be inspired by the American talents seen on television and by the consequential caterwauling emanating from the garage next door. Fast-forward to 2012, however, and we can choose from an international mire of singers, rappers, actors, comedians, writers and personalities all contained in the wonderful world of the internet for our reverence or ridicule.It is in this cyber sea of possibility that a young rapper from the United States can make music with a producer from Namibia with neither ever having set foot in the same room. This proves that though Twitter, Facebook and YouTube can easily be described as sites of rampant attention whoring, there is an enlightened faction among us who use the super sites’ powers for good. Eager to discover and engage with like-minded, inspiring or avant-garde creatives regardless of where they rest their physical bones, people like Windhoek’s Becoming Phill (BP) and Los Angeles’ Malkovich have chosen to defy locality and use technology to make the kind of music that disregards distance.Like anything worth its weight in views, their story began on YouTube after BP’s sister, Niita, stumbled upon Malkovich’s Iranian themed spoof of ‘I ran so far away,’ by A Flock of Seagulls. Impressed and entirely sound of 21st century mind, BP soon found Malkovich on Twitter and after a series of tweets and an invitation for the rapper to check out his beats on the music sharing programme, Soundcloud, it wasn’t long before the two began creating music cross continent. In a nutshell, their process involves Malkovich choosing beats on Soundcloud, BP sending mp3s via Gmail, Malkovich writing and performing the rap and sending that to BP who makes any necessary adjustments in a rough mix with a penultimate stage that sees BP creating a suitable multi-track and sending Malkovich an editable multisession that an engineer can then mix and arrange before it is mastered.In terms of the social media that proves most handy for a musician, Malkovich believes Twitter definitely has one up on Facebook.’On Twitter there are no barriers to communicating with someone and when you engage with the site you actually find people who care about your trade,’ says Malkovich. ‘Facebook is for a limited amount of friends who may not give a rat’s ass about your trade.’For local beat-maker BP, his Twitter, Soundcloud and Facebook pages are a way for him to build his business without having to compromise on its hip hop aesthetic. ’95 percent of the music I make is hip hop and the music I really want to make is not popular here,’ says BP. ‘After getting Malkovich out here to record, I’m starting to realise the potential of marketing my music on these online platforms which will give me a better chance of working with international customers who want make the kind of music I’m making. Malkovich coming out here is the perfect opening.’With regard to releasing music internationally and reaching as many potentially interested ears as possible, Malkovich makes use of a site called Bandcamp where his personal page features music videos, links to his Twitter and Facebook as well as song downloads.’Bandcamp is a site where you can upload your stuff for free and where people can listen to music and download your stuff,’ says Malkovich. ‘I am about to release an album on New Year’s day and I am sending them to Malkovichmusic.bandcamp.com to get it.’With the potential for collaborations, free distribution and cross-continental production literally at ones’ finger tips, it’s not surprising that Malkovich and BP have pulled their productive professional relationship into the real world. ‘It’s gone into a different phase,’ says Malkovich who is currently working with BP in Windhoek. ‘We’ve spent time listening to music we can sample and just talking about music and we both realised that that was necessary to make the creative and quality album we have the combined talent to make. We wanna make music that we couldn’t make alone. Since I’ve been here it’s nothing we could have done separately.’No doubt using the potential of Twitter, Bandcamp, Soundcloud and Facebook capably and creatively, big ups to these guys for swopping the posing for productivity. See how these globally minded musicians are marketing their music in the internet age at the following sites:www.malkovichmusic.bandcamp.comwww.twitter.com/malkovichmusicwww.facebook.com/malkovichmusicwww.soundcloud.com/becomingphillwww.twitter.com/becomingphillwww.facebook.com/pages/Becoming-Phill/38290715813

In an age of information overload, Sunrise is The Namibian’s morning briefing, delivered at 6h00 from Monday to Friday. It offers a curated rundown of the most important stories from the past 24 hours – occasionally with a light, witty touch. It’s an essential way to stay informed. Subscribe and join our newsletter community.

The Namibian uses AI tools to assist with improved quality, accuracy and efficiency, while maintaining editorial oversight and journalistic integrity.