Band Wagon with Daniel Prendiville

For todays post I talked to Daniel Prendiville. Enjoy!!

Q: First things first. Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Daniel Prendiville. I am an Irish-based songwriter, composer and producer. I run a netlabel – Reincheque Recordings (http://www.reincheque.net) and I release music principally, but not exclusively, via my Bandcamp page – http://danielprendiville.bandcamp.com.

Q: How long are you creating music?

Strictly speaking since the early 1980s, although I have been writing songs, but not playing them, since the early 1970s.

Q: I counted 38 albums on your bandpage. That’s a big number, how did you manage?

It helps when you don’t have a record label telling you what (and what NOT) to release, and when you don’t have bandmates to keep happy and occupied. My albums cost practically nothing to record, so I am free to record what I like and release it when I like. Because I only release digitally nowadays, I don’t have an inventory of releases that I have to sell before I can afford to release a further album.

Q: I noticed that in your interview with QRD, you said that you don’t play your music to your children. Why not?

They wouldn’t have understood the music at the time. Now that they’re adults, they still wouldn’t understand it…;-).

Q: What inspired you to become a music artist?

Music caught my imagination in the early 70s and I always wanted to do “something” in the music business. The fact that I couldn’t play a musical instrument at the time (and strictly speaking, still can’t) meant that live performance was never a big goal for me. I played some gigs in the 1980s, but never fully enjoyed the experience of performing. I always found rehearsal situations rather frustrating. I was always more interested in the songwriting/composition/recording process, and as soon as I could, I got myself into that situation. And here I am, still at it…:-)

Q: They say that every song have a secret meaning, only known to the creator. What’s the meaning of your last song?

Not my last song, strictly speaking, but the song MY TROUBLES ARE AS NOTHING COMPARED TO YOURS (http://danielprendiville.bandcamp.com/track/my-troubles-are-as-nothing-compared-to-yours) from my current album D(O)UB(T) (https://danielprendiville.bandcamp.com/album/d-o-ub-t) has two lyrical themes. The first is that no matter how bad things are going for you, there’s always someone out there for whom things are worse. The second theme is that no matter how bad things are going for you, there’s always someone out there who will *tell you* that things are going worse for them. “You think that’s bad? Wait till you hear what happened to *me*…” Competition in misery…

Q: How do people usually react to your music? Were there any bad reviews?

I get good reviews mostly, but it would be nice if more people backed up their positive support in a tangible manner. The bad reviews are so extreme, they tell you more about the attitude of the reviewer than about the music. They’re good for a giggle. The worst type of the review is the “almost” review, the “nearly, but not quite” review. Damning with faint praise.

Q: How did you manage to stay so ‘underground’? I honestly never heard of you before.

I never heard of you before, either. Funny, that… It was never my intention to stay “underground”. I had always wanted to be recognized in the accepted sense, but things never worked out. Maybe for the best, who knows? The internet and the digital revolution has changed everything now, of course, and it is possible to be a credible DIY artist on a shoe string budget without getting “industry” backing and “recognition”. And there is a lot of freedom in that. Artists can now control the means of production and distribution, but the means of promotion is still very much in the hands of others You can publicize your work as much as you like on social media and other vehicles, but you can’t guarantee whether people are going to take any notice of it. That is very frustrating.

Q: What would you tell to the young artists, who just started making music? What’s the best way to success?

Unless you have a very strong urge to create music, don’t get involved in it directly! Seriously! It will cause you nothing but misery and heartache! However, if you insist in having an association with music, try and get into an aspect of the biz that doesn’t require you to make a major outlay in terms of buying equipment and training. And try to get into a situation where you have to be paid for your work before others can use it (e.g. a photographer not releasing jpgs until payment has been made). And for heaven’s sake, don’t fall into the trap of believing that *everything* has to be given away for free, especially on the basis that a freebie will be “good exposure for you” starting out. That’s just greedy, tight-fisted people preying on the insecure.