When we began City Cat Collective, I knew I wanted to reach out to Nene's Butler Presents for an interview. Navigating the seas of self-promotion, one starts to get a sense of who's friendly, who isn't. The quality of the blog also becomes exposed. All of a sudden, submitting or avoiding certain blogs becomes routine. Being added to Nene's Butler Presents blog with an Everything But The Everything submission is something I always look forward to.
With further ado… Ladies and gentlemen, it's our interview with Nene's Butler Presents!!!
CCC - How did you get started and when was the moment you went all in on being a music blogger?
NB - I started to discover platforms like groover, muso, or submithub around 2020. As an artist, I often got rejected by “good song, BUT …” on these platforms. I wondered why they were all so fixated on one sound, one genre, etc. Why didn’t bloggers enjoy all the great indie music out there? This was the reason I decided to develop my own music blog, which was/is not based on specific genres, and which expressed my love for music. I wanted to give unheard musicians a chance to be heard.
CCC - Do you have a music background? If so, tell us about it.
NB - NenesButler presents is the name of my blog and Nene’s Butler is my artist name. The music I create is a mixture of minimalistic electro with touches of 80s/90s house and the early days of techno, and a breeze of electro body music. I am definitely influenced by Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, Front 242, but I also love to listen to Cure, Duran Duran, Oasis, Blur, Joy Division, The Prodigy, Everything but the Everything :) , … I love all the post-punk stuff, punk itself, Britpop was amazing, UK garage, indie pop, indie rock, … and do not forget my all-time favorite The Beatles (my first musical love) … and so on.
CCC - I noticed your website says to submit to your blog via Groover, why is that your go to and what do you think about the other services like Submithub, Musosoup?
NB - We find Groover to be the most effective for us. We have a dashboard with many music submissions that want to be on the blog. Muso is also good, but it takes a lot of time. It requires us to write an offer to the artists and then wait. I used to use Muso a lot in the past. Now, I use it to find new music and if I enjoy it, I put it on our playlists. We are also trying out mysphera and droptrack at the moment. Sometimes, we receive something from sharetoPro. Submithub rejected us :).
CCC - How do you feel about paying for PR from an artist perspective?
NB - As an artist, I have seen this side as well. I also invest in Groover, Muso, and in earlier days, Submithub. I think all the platforms offer a great opportunity to get your music heard. In my opinion, it’s part of the business to invest some time and money in PR. I always say 50-100 bucks per single are enough for my style of music. I would not want to spend more money, but this is a personal decision that every artist has to make for themselves.
CCC - What advice would you give to a young band who wants to get started?
NB - From The Blog view - Please do not contact us or any other blogger like this: This is our/my new single, it’s a banger! Nothing more or less (we sometimes get this). Or sending a “mass-mail”. The best chance to get featured on NenesButler presents is to include a short bio, something about the song, and all social media channels + streaming channel/link + 2 pictures (good resolution) (simply an EPK). The sound quality does not have to be 100% perfect, because this is, in my opinion, a question of money. But if you invest some time by yourself in mixing and mastering, it should fit for the first releases.
CCC - What do you do for fun (snowboarding, bicycling, beanie baby collecting, etc...)?
NB - I have a five-year-old daughter, that's fun enough :)
CCC - If someone gave you $10,000 to go on a vacation or go splurge at the fanciest restaurant in your closest major city, which would you choose?
NB - I would invest in music, rather than going on vacation or to a restaurant. I am playing with the idea of creating a Tape Label in the future to release a Sampler every quarter with the best Indie Artists of "NenesButler presents".
CCC - What's on the horizon for Nene's Butler Presents?
NB - On the horizon of the blog, there is definitely another playlist (currently, we have our "Best of", "electro", "singer/songwriter", "heavy guitars", "postpunk + indie rock", "femArtists"). Maybe we will add instrumental/chill or darkwave/gothic, let’s see. We will also invest more in ads to bring all the featured artists to the forefront.
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