Mighty Mixtape 1: Launch Party via Flickr
Alex Saenz …Entrepreneur, artist, visionary, parapsychologist.
For over eight years, Saenz owned and operated an independent record label/entertainment production service company and recording studio in the Tri-Cities, WA. His music business ventures stemmed from his love of music & film that he’s had since childhood. He is the co-founder of the Organization of Psychical Anomalous Research, with a background in psychology, audio engineering, physics, electronics, and music production.
In 2006 Saenz merged with fellow film maker and music producer, Bevon the Muse of the Lotus Media Group and became a major part of the NFN News Syndicate International team. In 2008 at the height of their transition between public and private entity, Alex found the perfect band mates in Balmore Rivera and Itzel Hueza and formed a metal symphonic/Gothic band known as Earendil.
What has the business part of music lead you to, and do you have any regrets?
Alex: I think I just came full circle and grew a bit wiser. I don’t have any regrets. Whatever suffering I endured, I think it was necessary. I learned a lot about people, why the music business is changing so rapidly and what my strengths and weaknesses were. It it was all a preparation to what we have going on now and I wouldn’t trade that for anything else in the world…
Would you say your efforts were well received?
Alex: Lets just say I learned how to invest my time and energy a lot better. A lot of folks used to tell me how badly Tri Cities needed our facility and our type of services, but in truth people just needed to lose whatever fear they had, become self motivated and do whatever they felt passionate about. Recording local bands and soloists became my source of bread and butter. And it was great at first… As time went on however, I found myself overworked, and with less and less butter and bread to show for it. I was no longer working on my music or film projects!
You mean instead of waiting for American Idol to come looking in the annals of the community.
Alex: Exactly. we had an idea and we ran with it. We got out of our basements and did the whole shabang….
Not everyone has the drive or courage it takes to see something through and artists need an outlet…
Alex: You have to have a dream because all the money in the world or approval from others is not going to be enough. A building, or instruments doesn’t make the art any more than a piece of canvas does. People with dreams make art. What is motivating us come from spirit first before mind and ego.
Why do you suppose its been difficult for the music scene across many communities to evolve or catch on to new way of doing things, such as marketing and coming up with creative outlets?
Alex: Most local communities just need an enema! A good hose down. And the only way to do that is to inspire, educate and share our own work and experiences as artists and producers. We don’t really need another place to hang out in order to be creative. I mean you can now make a movie on your i-phone!
What was the objective for building studios and starting a self contained label?
Alex: It was a very expensive institution is what it was! But the label was initially started for the sake of having my own vehicle to release music as an indie artist. That’s when it became very depressing. Working for people who wanted to “get the girl ” and impress people at bars just wasn’t cutting it. All that work fro 15 minutes of fame seemed like such a waste of potential talent to me. I became my own crutch by wasting time on things that were never going to go past the local bar scene or myspace. Everybody wanna go to heaven but nobody wanna die you know?
Was your goal to become a successful record label guy?
Alex: No, this was a way for me to meet and get to know other musicians and network with them. Fire Frost Entertainment was geared towards creative people and I knew it had to be a very different approach towards creating a label. I wanted it to be co-venture where me and the singed artists split the risks if I ever signed anyone.
When you say signed, you mean represent an artist and help produce a an album and promote them worldwide?
Alex: Yes, that was the goal. But I was also helping develop people with great potential who didn’t have a mentor or a place where they could nourish their inspirations. We had all of that. Unfortunately overnight success doesn’t always happen overnight and people lose faith once reality sets in.
You played for many different artists and soloists?
Alex: I also got hired to play or compose guitar, bass & synth tracks and even help arrange music for clients in different genres. To this day I produce and play on hip hop tracks and am doing movie sound tracks..
When did Lotus come into the picture?
Alex: Not long after I built my second or third home studio I met up with a couple of other producers form Lotus who were involved with a hip hop group that I was recording at the time. By then I was also expanding into video, graphic design and sound design. That’s when it dawned on me that I needed like-minded partners to help me establish a viable entity structured for artist by artists. Soon after, I met with Bevon the Muse and his Lotus team. We merged and within 2 years outgrew the old paradigm and traditional ways of producing & marketing music. Within 5 years we restructured. We built upon what we had and branched out, beginning with our first hip hop mighty mix tape and then with the up rise of the 509 Wreckerz, a local hip hop movement that is now taking the Northwest by storm…
You’ve said many times before that people seem to value most what they pay the most for.
Alex: Most of the time, I think so , yes. If you give somebody the plans on how to build a multi-million dollar business in under 5 years chances are the book will sit on a shelf and collect dust. It was free, no sacrifices made right? We have taken several people under our wing, and have developed a few artists which is also a positive experience. But even they have to perform outside their safe or comfort zone. Needless to say, there were aspiring musicians that truly believed they had something special going on, but did not realize they wrote , looked and sounded a lot like who they listened to. Innovation is what we were looking for because that is what we demanded of ourselves and depended upon.
If you charge them 1200 bucks for the treasure map or a book, there is more than face value and 9 times out of 10 they wont let that go to waste. They know its expensive for a reason. the book cost 2 dollars to make but the information in it is almost priceless.
If you plan on making a living by doing what you love instead of pushing pencils or shovels then you have to know that you must make certain sacrifices and make the appropriate attitude adjustments. Making money doing what you love will allow you to have more time to do those things and spend time with people you love. Its simple. Nothing is going to fall out of the sky for you. Not everyone in your life is going to understand or want to support your dream or ambitions. The last time someone said, “hey Alex, here is 4.5 million dollars, go make an album and tour the world” ….was never.
If there is any single piece of valuable advice you could give anyone wanting to make it big what would it be?
Alex: Make yourself a mix tape of your own musical ideas and concepts. Release it via digital distribution and stop listing to radio. Start your network and never look back. create “singles” and let them out the door! Follow what NFN is doing. We laid down the gauntlet for others to pick up-we have the blue print right here. This is what it takes. You can reach more people this way than if you pay to duplicate 5000 CDs and try to sell them on your own. Unification of visionaries is the key, not “look at me, I’m the special one” mentality. Learn to play an instrument very well, and sing without auto tune. Learn to write and compose good lyrics. stop listening to the damn radio unless you want to be a xerox of what is on there.
What gives you the right?
Alex: If I’m a major or indie label executive and you send me a demo of you singing through the auto tune or singing somebody else’s songs or copying a style, I will dump it in the trash and never call you because you’re doing yourself and the music itself a great injustice. You are also boring me to death. I want to know what YOU are about. My question is this: Can you come up with something of your own that will move people that will take the listeners somewhere? So many people waste time trying to be someone else. That’s the other depressing part of the music biz…
How does your background in parapsychology and experiences with the paranormal contribute or effect you as a musician?
Alex: I don’t know if it does so much. In a way, I suppose it keeps me from focusing on only mundane topics that have already been written about and perhaps over done. Politics, religion, sex, violence, and materialistic things, the girl next door…aren’t my bag. I like songs that make you feel and think and question things. The world of the so called super natural gives me another avenue of life experiences to express and my findings inspire me in ways that other life experiences do not. Investigating paranormal activity is adventurous and yet so challenging and unlike what you see on tv. There is scientific protocol and discipline involved…and well, the mystery itself because there are a lot of things that I don’t think I will figure out or be able to prove before I die.
Why do you suppose such strange things like ghosts and haunting exist or occur in our lives and in our reality?
Alex: I don’t know. There are so many different classifications of what we call ghosts and so many natural things that we have yet to learn more about. I take them as little epic reminders that there is a lot more to what we know about ourselves and the entire universe. At least on a quantum level. It is very humbling and fascinating.
Will we ever find the answers to unlock the worlds greets mysteries?
Alex: I don’t think answers would quench our thirst for knowledge because we as human beings always want to know more. we want to understand what we might not have the capacity to understand. I think the whole point of our journey as human beings, is not to arrive but rather to accumulate experiences and evolve…
In the past you said you were disillusioned about forming or joining bands after years of trying to find like minded artists. And here you are playing in a band that has quickly emerged in many countries all over the world as a true Gothic metal, band.
Alex: Although I’m not at all about categories or labels, I understand where the attraction to what we do in this band (Earendil) comes from. But honestly I had already given up on looking for anyone willing to do a different brand of hard rock or metal. I was already happy doing my own solo projects that no one would be able to categorize. But Then I met Balmore and Itzel. The music we create is a combination of each of our shared interests in musicianship, story telling, philosophies and youthful energy.
Can you talk a bit about your upcoming tour and how that came about?
Alex: Things are happening so fast now and we’re excited and are now finishing up our album so we can have it completed in time for the west coast tour. I’m still not sure how everything came to be, but I’m simply amazed at the level of interest our music has generated because we know we are barely scratching the surface as to what we can really do!
What is the title of your guys’ debut album and where will we be able to find it?
Alex: The album is called, “At the gates of Solstice” and It will be available through the online digital retailers. You can go to earendilmusic.com and of course there are links all over the NFN site. Hard copies of the actual CD will be limited I’m sure. at least in the US. Most people in the USA only download specific songs off the internet these days, the ones they like or think they will like most. And people aren’t into carrying CDs around anymore. Its all Mp3 players or Iphones now. In other countries like South America, CDs are still very popular and sell a lot more because there is limited internet access and people -fans would prefer to have an actual disk with the artwork. Japan is the same way.
Related articles
- Aaron Saenz on Artificial General Intelligence (acceleratingfuture.com)
- Promotions for the Unsigned Artist (californiamusicindustrysummit.wordpress.com)
- Are Recording Artists the New Music Companies and Music Executives? (musicbusinessheretic.wordpress.com)
