08 May Pomplamoose

Posted at 15:10h in Money, music, Technology by

Two weeks ago, Contrarian featured a exceptionally funny and creative YouTube video by two dorky techno musicians from Leeds, comprising two-thirds of the Brett Domino Trio. I didn’t say so at the time, but these guys strike me as worthy 2010 inheritors of the 1960s folk revival. They make their own music, using an assortment of real and pseudo instruments. They exemplify the indie knack for using the Internet to bypass industry middlemen en route to fans (and, potentially, a living).

Here, thanks to James Fallows, is a similar but even more successful YouTube group, Pomplamoose, covering the sublime Chordettes hit, Mr. Sandman:

Pomplamoose doesn’t have a record company or a publicist, and has never produced a CD, but some of their YouTube videos have been viewed four million times. They’re making a nice little living* selling MP3s on their website and on iTunes. In an interview with National Public Radio, bandmates Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn explained the rules underlying the genre.

“There’s no hidden sounds, there’s no lip-synching, there’s no overdubbing. What you see is what you hear,” Conte says. “Sometimes, there might be two or three Natalys harmonizing with herself, and then you’ll see those three videos juxtaposed together on the screen.”
The video for “Single Ladies” was shot in Conte’s old bedroom, complete with blankets for sound dampeners. It’s an organic, glitz-free setting — which, according to Conte, is appropriate for their music.
“I guess I kinda don’t like how there’s such a pedestal for music culture and especially for band culture,” he says. “It just feels fake; it feels like smoke and mirrors. I feel like music doesn’t have to be like that. It can be something that’s very normal and very accessible.”
Pomplamoose is one of the first bands to be invited into YouTube’s Musicians Wanted program, which is an ad-revenue sharing program. YouTube places ads next to or on a video, and then shares the revenue for that ad, 50-50, with the artist. Income sources like this allow for bands to survive without the help of a major label.
“If you can’t just do … the production, the instruments and everything all by yourself, then you do need help. That’s something that labels are really good at,” Dawn says. “If, for example, you’re somebody who writes songs, like Lady Gaga, and you need everything that’s gonna make you Lady Gaga, YouTube’s not gonna be able to do that. You need a big fat label. But if you’re just a band, I don’t think we’re in an era anymore where you need that sort of major backing.”
According to Dawn and Conte, the process of creating a song, shooting and editing a video, and posting it on YouTube only takes about a week. The duo buys mechanical licenses for all of its covers online, which is a quick and easy process.
“That’s the thing,” Dawn says. “People think that all of these things have to be done by geniuses behind huge desks or at the top of skyscrapers, but you can just go online and do it yourself.”

“There’s no hidden sounds, there’s no lip-synching, there’s no overdubbing. What you see is what you hear,” Conte says. “Sometimes, there might be two or three Natalys harmonizing with herself, and then you’ll see those three videos juxtaposed together on the screen.”

“I guess I kinda don’t like how there’s such a pedestal for music culture and especially for band culture,” he says. “It just feels fake; it feels like smoke and mirrors. I feel like music doesn’t have to be like that. It can be something that’s very normal and very accessible.”

According to Dawn and Conte, the process of creating a song, shooting and editing a video, and posting it on YouTube only takes about a week. The duo buys mechanical licenses for all of its covers online, which is a quick and easy process.

“That’s the thing,” Dawn says. “People think that all of these things have to be done by geniuses behind huge desks or at the top of skyscrapers, but you can just go online and do it yourself.”

“If you can’t just do … the production, the instruments and everything all by yourself, then you do need help. That’s something that labels are really good at,” Dawn says. “If, for example, you’re somebody who writes songs, like Lady Gaga, and you need everything that’s gonna make you Lady Gaga, YouTube’s not gonna be able to do that. You need a big fat label. But if you’re just a band, I don’t think we’re in an era anymore where you need that sort of major backing.”

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* It can’t have hurt that Toyota tapped Pomlamoose’s Sandman cover for an Avalon ad.

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