michael edwards [music]

At this point in the life of Genetic Engines, it’s become clear that we are going to have to do some promotion work to find an audience. I suppose that should be exciting to be at that point because it ideally means (a) we have some good music and (b) the band is talented and skilled. So the missing piece is getting ourselves in front of other people, creating a presence, an awareness.

I dislike this process.

I’ve been reading other bands’ press kits to get an idea of what other groups are doing, and the self-promotional text floating out there makes me feel ill. I prefer my music to speak for itself, and not have to self-describe it as “ambitious”, “muscular”, “poignant”, or any other over-the-top adjective.

Many of these press kits seem so desperate and reaching. Bands try so hard to make themselves look good through use of: claims of innovation, namedropping producers/musicians/associates, awkward hyphenated genres, improbable procreation metaphors of two dissimilar artists, and hyperbolic reviews from obscure blogs and zines.

As the line goes, talking about music is like dancing about architecture.

My boss (a former music critic here in Denver) has a rant I like about New York City. New Yorkers won’t stop telling you how great the city of New York is. It gets to a point where you wonder if there’s some insecurity underlying the overpraise, the way that psychologists have observed people will rationalize an expensive purchase by praising what they bought and criticizing the competing devices. (See: every kid in grade school who had either a Genesis or a SNES rationalizing why their system was better).

By contrast, I don’t hear people constantly praising Denver, even though I think it’s a damn good city. If you live here you know it’s good, and so let’s keep that a secret so it doesn’t get ruined!

I’d rather understate and surprise than overstate and disappoint.

So, I have this ambivalence about self-promotion. Of course, you can point at my website, twitter account, Facebook page, even this blog entry itself, and rightly accuse me of engaging in it. I get it, I have to do some of this to get my music in front of other people, but as much as possible I hope to let the music speak for itself.