# Finally got a record deal down - first single out!



## IkarusOnFire (May 29, 2015)

Hey people

I think many of you here are struggling musicians in a business that feels extremely difficult to navigate - some are working hard to get out an album on a label. I've been working years to get there too; so I am stoked to have written an album with my band, The Vision Ablaze, that is coming out worldwide in September 2015 via Mighty Music. 

We made a video for the first single, Subversion, that I hope you'll enjoy. We decided to release it along with the press that we had signed, so people could get a taste of what was to come 

Music is for fans of Killswitch Engage, Strapping Young Lad, Machine Head and Mercenary. Contains both screams, growls and clean singing.

The album was recorded with renowned producer Jacob Hansen in Denmark (Aborted, Volbeat, Mercenary, Pretty Maids, Heaven Shall Burn and many more).

Here's the vid 



And for those who care about covers - here's the cover


----------



## eyeswide (Jun 1, 2015)

Boobs.


----------



## Sumsar (Jun 1, 2015)

Congrats on the record deal. Not my kind of metal at all, but not bad 

Not to spoil the moment or anything, but as a danish guy I have to ask: Is the record deal actually any good? Did you have to put up 10.000+ dkk to get it? Mighty Music is partly known for being one of those labels where any idiot can get a deal - as long as they put most of the money into the project.

No offence meant at all! - I am just really curious to hear from someone actually signed to Mighty Music.


----------



## IkarusOnFire (Jun 7, 2015)

Sumsar said:


> Congrats on the record deal. Not my kind of metal at all, but not bad
> 
> Not to spoil the moment or anything, but as a danish guy I have to ask: Is the record deal actually any good? Did you have to put up 10.000+ dkk to get it? Mighty Music is partly known for being one of those labels where any idiot can get a deal - as long as they put most of the money into the project.
> 
> No offence meant at all! - I am just really curious to hear from someone actually signed to Mighty Music.



Let me be as honest and blunt as I can 

No record deal is any good for a band that hasn't already made it. We've had about 15 offers from record companies around the world. None were anywhere near what we wanted - none were really anything like we could've hoped for. 

While this may be due to several factors - style, amount of hype, number of fans on FB, etc, we simply realized that companies don't take chances on unknown bands. *They're not making any money. We're not making any money. * Some deals proposed felt like a kick in the nuts. Other deals seemed cool, but would get us nowhere (i.e. what would we do with a completely unknown 1-man label in Greece?).

Over half the deals we were offered were more like distribution deals. 

In the end, for us it was about getting the record out and having a company that we felt comfortable with. I am not at liberty to discuss any detail about the contract, but I hope it'll be informative to say that we're happy with the share we're getting. 

For any band going on their first record deal I think "you get what you work for" is true. While a record company should be working their asses off to get you somewhere, the truth is many will have standardized/automated ways of doing it. We'll get from this contract, what we work to take advantage of 

Mighty will provide us with plenty of reviews, set up interviews, put us on all digital platforms as well as physical. They're helping out setting up some shows; they're providing access to a network we don't have ourselves.

To summerize: we had no huge deals offered. We had small deals, poor/rip-off deals and fair deals offered. The deal with Mighty Music is so far feeling good. They're local, they're specialist and they don't mind sitting down and chat with us about what we're going to do with the songs and the future. 

In all honesty, I cannot help assuming the rumors and speculations stem from people/bands that are not signed and have yet to go through the daunting process of finding the right company. 

Feel free to any follow up questions - while I cannot discuss details about our contract, I won't mind sharing the experiences gained in the process of finding a company 

//M


----------



## Djentliman (Jun 8, 2015)

WOW! wonderful job on the music! Those cleans are superb! Also, congratulations on the record deal!


----------



## IkarusOnFire (Jun 10, 2015)

Djentliman said:


> WOW! wonderful job on the music! Those cleans are superb! Also, congratulations on the record deal!



Thanks mate - we've always tried to let the strong vocals parts come to their rights in the dynamic range of the music - glad you like it 

//M


----------



## Sumsar (Jun 10, 2015)

IkarusOnFire said:


> Let me be as honest and blunt as I can
> 
> No record deal is any good for a band that hasn't already made it. We've had about 15 offers from record companies around the world. None were anywhere near what we wanted - none were really anything like we could've hoped for.
> 
> ...



I really appreciate your answer mate 
I am in the same kinda position that you have been in, we are just finishing our first album and with the finished product in hand are going to see what record labels thinks of us. I really understand that usually unknown bands are of little to no value for a label, I get it - and it is even worse for my band since we play death/black metal with even a more narrow appeal than your music.

About the rumors / speculations they pretty much fact from people I know second hand who are signed to Mighty (so yeah might not be 100% true but they had to pay lets just call it a big amount of money) (not calling any names btw.).

So next question I guess: Did you ever consider just saying ".... it" to the whole record deal thing and just putting your music online for free? (since you are probably not gonna be making a ton of money from it anyways?)

2nd question: How long did the entire process take from you actually contacting labels to get a response / offer? Did you already had your album recorded or was that part of the record deal?

Our plan is (before even going into it) is to see what kind of deals shows up, and if it is only poor / rip-off deals we are just going to release it ourselves for free online and promote it as much as we can.


----------



## IkarusOnFire (Jun 12, 2015)

Sumsar said:


> I really appreciate your answer mate
> I am in the same kinda position that you have been in, we are just finishing our first album and with the finished product in hand are going to see what record labels thinks of us. I really understand that usually unknown bands are of little to no value for a label, I get it - and it is even worse for my band since we play death/black metal with even a more narrow appeal than your music.
> 
> About the rumors / speculations they pretty much fact from people I know second hand who are signed to Mighty (so yeah might not be 100% true but they had to pay lets just call it a big amount of money) (not calling any names btw.).
> ...




Hey Sumsar

We know some of the same people  I'm an old friend of Johnny's from the time he played Drab. Your music's pretty cool, will likely have a good fanbase in Denmark 

Rumors about paying for distribution and press is not a rumor per say. It's no secret that lots of companies will put your record out if you pay for their time, their network and so on. 

We financed our album ourselves. It was not cheap. We're financing a lot of promotion ourselves too. We're also working hard to push Mighty into doing more for us - and if we're on top of our game, we'll get something from it. If we sit back and think a small record company will just put us forward, we'll lose. 

We're not hoping to make a lot of money on this, but we are hoping to stir up the waters: we want to make the world know we're here and that our songs are great. Our plan is that it will make possible a better deal with a larger company for the next record. 

We did consider releasing ourselves. We did so with the two EP's, and that didn't have any real impact. _We simply don't have the time and know-how to promote our material to the world._ We can back up someone who works with us to achieve acclaim, but doing so ourselves is extremely time consuming. 

We recieved the first offers within weeks of sending out the record. We spent months talking with the companies (and unfortunately spent months trying to help our other guitarist back on his feet unsuccessfully - that was a major setback). 

Our band doesn't do well in small clubs with poor PA and monitoring - if our singer doesn't hit the notes, it's a disappointment to the audience. So we've tried to record a great album and "skip" that first step. Not that we haven't played small clubs and poor shows - we've just realized that monitor and decent PA is absolutely crucial for our performance 

*To summarize:* we considered a lot of options, but felt more comfortable with a specialized record company backing us. I don't think releasing on your own is a bad idea, as long as you put the required effort into it. We hired Carsten Brogaard (revolution music) to help us find a company. 

*Advice?* Find the labels you would like to sign with. Read about them, check out what they stand for - and write them a personalized application. Getting a record deal is really not unlike applying for a job. Give them a ring, talk with them, tell them why you want to work with them and ask them what they can do for you (if they're interested). Know what your band wants (is it a really cool promotion campaign, is it mostly just bookings, or is simply to have your album available on major platforms?) 

I think this applies almost universally to newcommers looking to put out a debutalbum.


----------



## Rev2010 (Jun 12, 2015)

Not to be "that guy" but the album cover is NSFW and new forum policy disallows that I believe. I'm at work, but luckily I'm not out in the open so I don't stand too high a risk of getting in trouble for NSFW content.

That said, congrats man! And best of luck with the band and chasing your dreams!   


Rev.


----------



## kmanick (Jun 14, 2015)

congrats on the Deal and good luck moving forward.
I am not into Screaming (I still don't get it when you have a singer that can actually sing  ) 
I thought the clean vocal parts of the song were killer.


----------



## IkarusOnFire (Jun 14, 2015)

Rev2010 said:


> Not to be "that guy" but the album cover is NSFW and new forum policy disallows that I believe. I'm at work, but luckily I'm not out in the open so I don't stand too high a risk of getting in trouble for NSFW content.
> 
> That said, congrats man! And best of luck with the band and chasing your dreams!
> 
> ...



Hey Rev, thanks for the heads up. I just re-read the rules, and didn't find anything specific about nudity. I should however, had declared it NSFW - my bad! If any mod's see this, don't hesitate to change the headline to contain NSFW or let me edit original post to contain link only to the cover 

And thanks for the kind words!

//M



kmanick said:


> congrats on the Deal and good luck moving forward.
> I am not into Screaming (I still don't get it when you have a singer that can actually sing  )
> I thought the clean vocal parts of the song were killer.




We simply like the energy and emotion that is in screaming vocals. We use the vocals as an instrument too - it can be clean, slighty gnarly, screaming and growling. Since he doesn't do extreme gutterals, we don't use it, but I put in an occasional pig-squel when it suits the music 

So, we cover all the bases our singer is able to, because it makes sense in the feeling we want in the music  

Thanks for the praise on his clean stuff though - it is a big part of what we do!

//M


----------



## Sumsar (Jun 14, 2015)

IkarusOnFire said:


> Hey Sumsar
> 
> We know some of the same people  I'm an old friend of Johnny's from the time he played Drab. Your music's pretty cool, will likely have a good fanbase in Denmark
> 
> ...



Haha the world is a small place 
Thanks for the info and advice!


----------

