Kalle Wainio places his BlackBerry on the table at a café. The old Bell flip phone sitting next to it looks almost like an artifact. With a shrug of his shoulders he says he bought it recently because it’s a necessity if he wants to continue in the industry he loves: music.
“It’s inconceivable to me, how bands didn’t have the Internet to look up venues and email people,” says Wainio, lead vocalist in the band called Kalle Mattson.
The band, described on its website as an experimental folk-rock quartet, is originally from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Wainio is living in Centretown while he completes his first year in the music program at Carleton University, and some of the members of the band are still back home. Using a website, Facebook, Myspace or a Twitter page has become a must for aspiring independent bands, he says. “It’s like a crutch to us now.”
In a blog post heavy with exclamation marks, an excited Wainio announced the band’s recent nomination for two Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards. Only a year after the release of their debut album Whisper Bee, Wainio says it’s nice to know the public appreciates their music. “It’s a feather in our cap,” he says.
Mark Palumbo, board chair of Music and Film in Motion, says many of the nominees for the NOMFA are new bands that aren’t signed to major labels. “The old style of getting a record contract and going on a tour is not happening for the average indie artist.”
To celebrate, Wainio and his band decided to make their album freely available, from April 1 to the end of their tour in May. The farthest they have played live is Montreal. Providing online music will help promote the band as they venture in a van and a trailer all the way to Halifax, says Wainio.
The music industry has rapidly changed, says Paul Théberge, a music professor at Carleton University. With CD sales declining, a band’s profit comes mainly from their concerts, he says. But to draw crowds, artists also have to work hard between shows.
The disadvantage with a store is that it can only hold a certain number of records. “The one thing the Internet does that’s different from all other media in the past is it seems unlimited in its capacity just to hold stuff,” says Théberge.
The amount of online music is daunting, says Wainio. But “there’s no real science to it,” he adds. Artists simply have to put in some time.
“Bands don’t create enough success for themselves,” says Wainio. “They’re expecting to be discovered which isn’t a reality anymore.”
Wainio and his band’s hard work has certainly paid off. When they started, they would often send their album to bloggers for free, hoping they would write something if they liked what they heard. Today, it’s the other way around. Bloggers in Canada and across the pond ask to listen to the music from this new promising band.