Debut: University of Waikato's Dr Gareth Schott's first EP resulted from collaboration with other artists on the online community Soundcloud.
Waikato University screen and media senior lecturer Dr Gareth Schott ended a year-long research project on online communities by releasing a debut CD.
The extended play CD called The Darkest Dark Goes is the end product of a collaboration between musicians from across the globe, all of whom approached Dr Schott after he uploaded music onto Soundcloud, a part social networking, part community of practice website.
Soundcloud
“Soundcloud allows musicians at all levels to upload their own music and get feedback from other users,” says Dr Schott.
The CD features a folk singer and a musician from the US, and other musicians from Sweden, Germany, and Australia.
Dr Schott describes the genre as ‘Epic Lo-fi’, a mix of ambient drone and experimental but partly conventional, thanks to the vocals.
Two years ago Dr Schott was the guitarist for a local garage band. That folded but Dr Schott’s enthusiasm for creating music remained.
“I produced and learned to edit my own music and stumbled upon Soundcloud so decided to upload a few songs for fun.”
Collaboration
Soon after he was contacted by a producer from Boston who was interested in producing his songs and who knew a singer from New York.
“I would record a song and send it to the singer who would work with the producer before sending it back to me.” Dr Schott was then approached by a Portuguese record label, Feedback Loop, who were interested in releasing an album for him.
Good reviews
The Darkest Dark Goes has had favourable reviews since release including one reviewer saying the CD “has managed to capture fragments of the dream world and make them comprehensible in the real world – for that we owe them our thanks”.
“The momentum of Soundcloud is amazing; it’s totally changing the way music is produced and consumed,” says Dr Schott. “I started this project thinking that I needed to be an active participant for it to work and for me to be offered a record deal at the end of it is something I certainly didn’t plan.”
Soundcloud now has over 10 million users, made up of mostly amateur artists and bands with a few mainstream users such as Radiohead and Bjork.
Dr Schott
Dr Schott has worked on large-scale Marsden funded research projects, most recently looking at video game classifications and assessing the experience of play.
The Darkest Dark Goes wasinitially released as 100 limited edition albums and over 60 of those sold in the first week. A few remaining copies of the CD can be purchased online or it can be digitally downloaded.