The Synthpop Artist Bitten By released her debut EP “Relations” in fall 2017, managed to get the single “Ruins” on well-kown playlists and played her first live show at the SXSW Festival in Austin / Texas, where she was accompanied via 360° live curcuit of musicians from the Vienna Konzerthaus.
We had the chance to talk to her about social media concepts, first steps when making a new track and the insights of running a smooth live show.
How do you deal with your visual concept on social media?
I am extremely passionate about that topic and see in visuals an important tool with which I want to put my viewers/listeners into a certain mood for my recent or future songs. I like to play with colors, fashion and experiment with perception and tbh take most of the pictures because it is extremely inspiring and fun for myself and not because I need content.
I have very precise visions of pictures or graphics and styles which is also a downside because they are so precise that I find it often too complicated to explain them to someone else and mostly stage/design the whole thing myself.
My personal rule of thumb is that good visual concepts:
- have to make you feel good/confident etc. about your project
- inspire you and your audience
- tell a story
When you start a new track – what are the first steps?
It depends on the song but what I definitely never do is start with the lyrics, it’s always instrumentals. Mostly I find some atmospheric sounds, very white pads, or a buzzing saw, and from that I start building. After that I will try some bass and drums until I find some tunes that spark my interest. On this base I will build some synth melodies.
But very often the start of a new track feels very organic and intuitive and later on I try to tweak the sound more strategically. Also good songs come quickly to me, the best ones come right away.
What are the opportunities and dangers of using Instagram as a musician?
I really like Instagram for showing people parts of my process and my life as a musician that they usually don’t get to see. Through Instagram I also got a lot more interaction with listeners than on any other platform which is a wonderful thing for every artist.
As for the “dangers”: I am quite aware that besides pictures and moods you sadly can’t share “actual” music with the followers very well. You can certainly upload videos with your music but those are very often watched without sound, and altogether videos are mostly not receiving the same amount of likes as pictures. Furthermore, the whole platform is still ruled by superficial content and you will find a thousand times more hashtags that are fashion, beauty or fitness related than music related.
Do you have some insights on running a smooth live show
For my solo shows or gigs with other artists, I often work with synths, software and Midi controller AND do vocals so the most important thing for me live is workflow optimization. One of my favorite tweaks I started using is a script I wrote for live shows that help me with small but important changes during the show like muting, arming tracks, setting the right scale for playing and so on. That way I can concentrate on my vocals and performance.
So good preparation is everything for me. My next project will be a more sophisticated in ear monitoring which can make such a difference for your performance and experience on stage.
Bitten By’s second EP is currently in the works and will be ready in the second half of 2018.
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