Nicholas and the Muse

K.O.N. - Talented Friends of Mine - Installment 1

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:35:00 GMT

If you are a friend of hip-hop and most of us are, you will really dig my good friend K.O.N. (Knowledge Over Nonsense).

He's an MC with SERIOUS flow. Full understanding of the culture, a sense of humor, stellar songwriting, and an ease on the mic that denotes a cat that is completely confident and at home being on record. And that doesn't even touch on the fact that this dude is an incredible performer. If you're around, you should go and check him out opening for Joe Budden at Public Assembly in Brooklyn THIS Friday, July 15th.

Before then though, go and download his FREE mixtape "Like It Or Love It" that he just released on konmusic.bandcamp.com/.

He and I will be doing some work soon too, and, of course, I'll let you know about that. :-)

Enjoy!

Like It Or Love It (The Mixtape) Mixed By: DJ Dyllemma by KON

A Dream Never Tainted...

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:37:13 GMT

It's what we all strive for, right? Whatever that dream may be, whether it's to find the right partner in this crazy world, have exceptionally bright and healthy kids, open a bakery, write songs, be loved for who we are, help feed the homeless, bring running water to a village without, play the meanest guitar riff EVER, or to simply be able to exist freely in a way that makes us smile everyday. Those dreams, however, get caught up sometimes, and sometimes their chance to be realized comes and goes and we never get them back. What's the secret then? I believe the secret to keeping your dreams alive is knowledge, understanding and a tireless work ethic commited to manifesting those dreams. People usually have the first 2 but the last one is an enigma to most. I think, remembering that these dreams are the Universes' way of telling us what we were put here to do is a strong reminder that we can't waste a minute on things that don't support those dreams. "I'll get it done tomorrow". "I'll make time next week". "I really can't do without 8 hours of sleep". "The person I'm with is good for now". "There will always be next time". These statements should never cross the dreamers lips, or even worse, fester in their brain. We are all capable, and should attack the day with that thought. Of course, life happens, and, of course, things arise that are out of our control, but they should never stop us dead in our tracks, no matter how horrible. There is TOO much inspiration in this world of ours to turn us away from living out the dreams we have in us. Go forward boldly, tell the Universe what you want, and hustle your ass off. The greatest thing about dreams is they aren't static. They can shift and mold, and usually do. That "Dream Life" only comes to those who are tireless, fight for every inch and NEVER give up. Here's to you and your dreams and here's me saying good night, because "Sonya" (my piano) will be waiting for me in the morning... :-) Sleep well and dream the greatest dream you've ever dreamt. Peace and Love

All of us are special....

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 07:00:37 GMT

With the advent of Twitter and Facebook, we are inundated with the thoughts and feelings of others (which I happen to enjoy). The most interesting thoughts and feelings (besides our own), for a lot of us, are those of the special, the elite, the celebrity.

A funny statement that I heard one of my friends say about social media updates is that "It makes ordinary people seem extraordinary and extraordinary people seem ordinary"

To me, that statement is right on, but maybe for a different reason than you might think.

I think that we are ALL extraordinary. We are all special. We are all stars, no matter how big or small our own personal universe is. We don't have to be under shining stage lights, in front of a Hollywood camera, on insane radio rotation, or sitting in high political office to be considered special. You could be a mother or father making your way in one of the 5 boroughs with kids who know you're a star because of the way you extraordinarily attack that position. You could be living anywhere, feeding the homeless, building houses, researching cancer treatments, smiling at passersby, adding light to some ones darkened world, offering your seat on the train, teaching a child, passing on a story, or just giving a hug.

We are all special. And we are that because we are human. There isn't one of us who is more or less human, or more or less a star, and we are all alive and should be living. I don't do music because if I do, some people might think me special, I participate in music because it, in itself, MAKES me FEEL special and that I am living how I should be, which makes it easier to see the "special" in others.

All of us are worthy of praise and others, deserve our praise, because we all have those special some ones in our own special lives.

With that, this goes out to my special people. You know who you are.

Peace and Love.

2011 and cat food.

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 20:51:31 GMT

So the holidays of 2010 met me with fluctuating schedules and work inconsistencies, on top of their general emotional rollercoaster. I had, until that point, held a certain amount of structure and planning in my life that started with the simple act of getting up at 7:30am every morning.

Then December 31st came, with its magical resolutions (insert sarcasm) and the promise of a great year (that part, I believe in full). Of course, you can't just turn on a dime, unlearning all your bad Thanksgiving and Christmas habits that have become sooooo easy to carry out. Sleeping until 10am, NOT working out and getting to my piano later in the day, when my muse had clearly moved on to more dedicated people, seemed to be the normal procrastinations.

But what could be done?

I remember in my super motivated days of 2010 (granted, most of them were warmer than these), I would take a brisk morning walk, first thing, to start blood flow and to drag me out of my sleepy eyed self in preparation for the day. It worked wonders! Of course, for the first week of 2011, I SAID I was going to do this, but just ended up sleeping through an overused "SNOOZE" button, and mildly attacking the day when I got to it. This CANNOT be the way I start this year. I have WAYYY too much shit to do.

Enter my 2 lovely cats, Cookie and Lucky, who, ironically, sleep ALL day. Without fail, Lucky will come in at 7:30am, when my alarm rings, and meow annoyingly every 3.5 seconds until I get up and feed them. I will do this, because feeding the cats is the right thing to do, and to stop my ears from bleeding to the horrid sounds that Lucky's vocal chords make. But I could feed these cats with my eyes closed (and sometimes I would), and just go back to sleep in as much quiet as my upstairs neighbors high heeled shoes would allow.

*Moment of Epiphany*

What if there was NO cat food in the house? What if walking to the store every morning would be the only thing that would stop Lucky from yapping? That would force me out into the cold and, in turn, force the cold out of my eyes. Brilliant! Sure the grocery girls look at me funny because I'm the only idiot buying 2 cans of cat food a day at 745 in the AM, EVERYDAY. And sure, I hate myself, on a day like today, when it's 19 degrees out, but I've found something that WILL get me back on track, and that's what it's about.

So what's your can of cat food? We're always relying on the big, superb, incredible thing that will change our lives, but what's the mundane thing that will help you reach your 2011 goals? Have you found it yet? It's probably closer than you think.

Thanks for reading! Oh, and thank you Fancy Feast!

Twitter Search Story (#MSI9W Wave 3 Post 4)

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 01:59:29 GMT

So to go along with Post 3 in this series, I wanted to tell a little story about Twitter and it's search capability. This function is incredible, and really gives you a way to target your audience and further your brands (bands) reach to an actively listening audience. I've used it before but haven't been consistent in revisiting the searches that I've plugged in, but now, after this story, you'll know why I will check it everyday. So here are my searches currently in Twitter search: "Soul Music", "Piano Music", Singer/Songwriter, SXSW All of these are worthy searches and have already helped to make connections with the people interested in those things, but I feel like somethings missing.. What could it be? Why do I feel I'm not getting enough out of this search as I should..... Maybe it's because, YES, that must be it....... I haven't searched for MY NAME! What could be more important to my brand than that? It's name, my name, IS my brand! So I searched for Nicholas Howard. Now I would like to tell you that thousands of searches came up with people talking about me, and maybe one day that will be true, but it was mostly (of the 10 or so strings the search returned) both of those names separate from each other having nothing to do with me (boring). But then, second from the last searchable tweet was....... "nicholas howard. why didn't i know of him before? "little morning" INCREDIBLE! One person, who I do not know at all had found a song from my first album "A Rip In The Sky"!!! It such an awesome feeling to have someone, who is not your mother, like what you do and go so far as to download it from my Bandzoogle site. It happens to be one of the free downloads on there. I promptly @'d her and thanked her for her support and said that there were more free downloads on the site if she would like to have them. On the flipside, I haven't heard back from her, but no matter... haha Like I said in the beginning, I will be checking these searches more and adding to them to find like minded, interested-in-the-type-of-stuff-I-do people. Sometimes all you need is a little reminder that you are doing well, to do more. ;-)

Website optimization and Social Media for busy people (#MSI9W Wave 3 Post 3)

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 12:52:13 GMT

So being busy and completely consumed with what you are busy with, sucks for certain things, like sleep, and anything else that involves time. I've made a promise to myself to get this Music Success In Nine Weeks blogging challenge done on time and in focused fashion so that is what I'm doing. ;-) For me, weeks 3 and 4 of the challenge ran together in the same wolfpack, and it's hard for me to make a distinction between them here on my blog, so I will just combine both weeks. Week 3 Recap: After my perfect pitch was perfected, I placed this poignant paragraph on every page that I post pieces of my life on. (I love alliteration!) Having a common theme throughout your webspace is crucial and reading it in "Music Success In Nine Weeks" just made that point even more real. "Nicholas Howard's is New York City Soul that sounds like John Lennon and Gnarls Barkley jamming in a smoky jazz club" is now everywhere and I must say, I am pretty proud of that... ;-) Week 4 Recap: Having been a CyberPR artist and running a full campaign for my last record "God Is In The City" I've been using Twitter and and Facebook since it's release. Even though I was a little wary of Twitter in the beginning, I have come to love it for it's little 140 character messages, and that has nothing to do with Ariel Hyatt yelling at me (possibly threatening me) to post 3 times a day (or else!). Facebook artist pages are rough things to actively use for me because for some reason when someone posts a message on it, I do not get notified... It's taken me a lot of conscious decision making to go and check this page to see if anyone has left me a message and to post updates. I've actually been toying with the idea of just creating a "Nicholas Howard" group so I can message ALL people in the group at one time about something that's going on or start a discussion about a mutually interesting topic. Artist pages, "like" pages, "fan" pages, or whatever you want to call them don't allow you to do this, and people rarely check the updates that an artist page has. I know I don't. That being said, my facebook page and twitter have 396 likes and 789 followers respectively, as of this moment and growing everyday. I am looking forward to enlisting some of the new techniques outlined in "Music Success In Nine Weeks" to grow these numbers. I do feel, however, that the biggest way to do this is to get into "THE REAL WORLD" and gig and tour and shake hands and kiss babies, but this coupled with a strong online presence will definitely help to bring these numbers up. Flickr and Music Alley are new beasts for me even though I have accounts on both. CyberPR ran these accounts for me during my campaign and I've never personally logged on but I plan to get much more involved in these now, and see the benefits of both, especially as I start to embark on my new blogging journey. I've got a few pictures on FlickR that have been viewed and 4 songs on Music Alley that have been picked up by Podcasters. I look forward to syncing my Flickr account to Facebook and getting my music out to more podcasters! See you on the next post!

Addendum to post 1. PERFECT PITCHES are the hardest. (#MSi9W Wave 3 - Post 2)

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 11:05:00 GMT

Soooooo, I am a total perfectionist. Sometimes to a fault. So using the word "PERFECT" in any challenge is almost debilitating. This is part of the reason that this post is late. The second chapter of Ariel Hyatt's book, Music Success in Nine Weeks, IS "Your Perfect (AHHH!!! THERE'S THAT WORD AGAIN!!) Pitch" and it describes and guides the process of creating and honing your elevator pitch, or your 15 second pitch, or your unique selling point (USP) or that statement that properly identifies your brand (you and your band). This is difficult. I've used one brand identifying statement that I have on my "God Is In The City" flyers that are handed to various people when I am out and about. It reads "Urban Soul that blends a touch of smooth, a fistful of groove and a whole lot of New York City". Now, although fun to read, or say to yourself, I could never get past feeling like an utterly artsy fartsy airy fairy TOOL when I said it out loud to people. To me, it sounded like I had NO IDEA what kind of music I was creating. Plus no one really got it, I don't think. I always got the, "Oh, that sounds..... cool?" look, and then got hit with the "Ok, but who do you sound like?" question. Obviously not the most PERFECT pitch. It was a rush job, if you must know. So after about a year of field testing what I believe is a pretty solid pitch, and NOT feeling like a tool about saying it out loud, I have come to this one. "New York City Soul that sounds like John Lennon and Gnarls Barkley jamming in a smoky jazz club" Does it work? Do you get the visual? Do you hear the soundtrack? That's MY music! ;-) WAAAAAAYYYYY more PERFECT for me! I will say this though. All things must bend like the reed. Depending on the conversation you're in, you have to tailor the wording of the pitch to organically fit into the rest of your sentences. People, these days (for always probably), want to know that you are human, want to know that you are as down to earth as they are, want to know that you are genuinely interacting with them, not just selling them a line of self serving BS. I think I would only say the above pitch exactly as worded if I put a disclaimer out there like, "oh? So you want to hear the OFFICIAL Pitch?". Maybe this is the way that I feel most comfortable. Maybe, no matter how PERFECT the pitch, I am going try to figure out, to the best of my ability, the person that is watching my eyes as I speak, and listening to the words that come out of my mouth, so that we can, as CO-communicators, be on the same plane as PERFECTLY as possible. Well, this has been a PERFECT way to end a PERFECTLY quiet Halloween Night in NYC for me. Goodnight and thanks for reading! I am going now, to add my perfect pitch everywhere possible in preperation for Chapter 3 of Music Success in Nine Weeks and the "optimization of my website" post... ;-) Peace! Nicholas Howard

First Steps are the hardest. (#MSiNW Wave 3 - Post 1)

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 10:37:07 GMT

That's why I've sat here for 30 minutes without writing anything on this blog post. I've talked on the phone about potential music video shoots, thumbed through the "Week 2" portion of Music Success in Nine Weeks by Ariel Hyatt, mused/fretted over Fridays show that I haven't fully prepared for, wondered, as I looked at the clock, whether it was better to just let today go to bed and start fresh tomorrow, all while occasionally staring at this blank screen with my mind VERY aware of the white space that SHOULD be filled with little black letters. That was before I wrote the first paragraph. This is NOW. And now is Monday of the 2nd week of Wave 3 of the Music Success in Nine Weeks Blog challenge. I procrastinated all the way through the weekend at the end of the 1st week of Wave 3 KNOWING that all I had to do was write one little entry on my experience on the journey thus far. Why am I doing this blog challenge? It's not because of the free stuff that comes with winning it. It's not because Ariel Hyatt and the Cyber PR staff, all of whom I know and respect, are great people and really know what they are doing when it comes to online, indie PR. It's not because of the 2 independent albums that I have put out already, the last ones (God Is In The City) PR campaign being managed by Ariel herself. It's not because I have another project to promote at the moment. And it's not because I'm long winded and want everyone to read my thoughts. Welllllllll, maybe the last one. It's because of exactly what "Week 1" talks about: Goals, and the achievement of those goals. The race of reaching the finish line for this "blog challenge" goal started in April 2009 when I released my last record, wanted to promote the hell out of it, and had met Ariel at a BMI sponsored talk on publicity and how the game has changed. I exchanged numbers with Ariel and followed up with her about her running my PR campaign. In the 4 months that followed, I, to her credit, recieved a bunch of press and radio play from her list of bloggers and online radio affiliates. All this happened and it still didn't motivate me enough to fully commit to the steps that this book lays out. Truthfully, I think, I only made it through the first four weeks (if that) before getting overwhelmed by other things in my life that seemed to take precedence. I let the campaign slip away when it was in my hands to control and probably only did 40% of what I needed to do to have a successful campaign to the 150th percentile. Let this not be a sob story though. In the time since then, the goals that I have accomplished are; 1. Started playing piano and singing at the same time in an attempt to become a solo act when I couldn't afford to play with a band. 2. Written songs that will probably end up on my next album. 3. Started collaborating with fellow songwriters and writing tunes that have been submitted to major label artists with promising results. 4. Started an intense workout program that has led me to be in some of the best shape of my life. 5. Booked 3 shows (2 upcoming) in a 3 month period (more than I have ever played in that short of a time) 6. Play 3 open mics a week in NYC (reference number 1) 7. Understanding the need for structure/ritualistic behavior and making that a part of my everyday routine. Sitting down at the piano at 10am every day to work being one of those rituals. I'll stop there before it gets annoying. The point of all this, one that is laid out in the first pages of Ariel's book, is that I made up my mind to do some things in this past year and a half that I have accomplished and am STILL accomplishing because they were written down so many months ago when I first read the first chapter of this book. I write in a journal because of this book. I write down my 5 tiny successes of the day that's just passed in that journal because of this book. I make lists of no more than six items before I go to sleep that have to be accomplished the next day because of this book. I have long term goals written down that I WILL accomplish because of this book. So why haven't I actually followed through and finished reading and executing the stuff in this book? This moment of realization, as I thumbed through my new copy of Music Success in Nine Weeks, made me feel that I owe it to myself to accomplish the goal of finishing the race that started in April 2009 when I set out to gain and nurture a fanbase online, "supercharge my PR", and make more god damned money in the process. Thank you Ariel and Cyber PR. I am excited about what the next 9 weeks will do for my business brain. The next post will be more timely... ;-) Peace. Nicholas Howard

Back into Blogging!

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 09:18:55 GMT

I have been so involved with my beautiful piano "Sonya" that I haven't done anything that makes any sense in the world outside of that relationship. Thank God I am single, because if I wasn't, I would have one jealous girlfriend. "You're spending so much time with that piece of wood in your living room!", and then I would have to break up with her because she happened to say such vile comments in earshot of my beloved. It would definitely be messy. ;-)

Anyway, putting my personal life aside, I am more than happy to announce that I will be talking my face off on this blog for the forseeable future, and won't have to worry about a girlfriend telling me that I am spending too much time with a machine made of glass and plastic on my desk... ;-)

Happy reading!