Liane Scholz

My name is Liane Scholz, and I’m a classically trained Composer who has been writing instrumental scores since the age of 15, but switched into the role of Singer-Songwriter after the death of my sister in 2010. To me, this meant abandoning the traditional medium of a score in favour of recording my music for the world to hear and to connect with my audience more directly. Thus, paired up with my husband and instrumentalist Michael Maughan (and sometimes backed by Graham Shaw of Shaw Percussion/ Sea Monsters/Nik Nak Studios), I started recording my music that same year and began releasing those songs online in 2012 under the name Tonesmith.

It wasn’t until March of this year, when I began taking an active role in promoting myself via Twitter, that my music started getting more than a handful of listens. The potential of internet promotion became clear to me. Through Twitter and connecting with other music professionals on the internet, I became aware of various online tools, including an independent artists’ dream: crowd-funding!

It occurred to me that if I could raise the money to make a professional music video, I could use YouTube to reach an even greater audience. So I created a crowd-funding campaign on IndieGoGo and successfully surpassed my modest goal of $1200 by 12%! It should be noted, however, that I have a friend in the film industry, Toronto based film maker Chris Jodoin, who volunteered his time for this project. I knew we could beg and borrow some equipment to keep the budget down. It was more important to me that we execute a relatively simple concept very well than try to shoot for the moon and risk squandering the opportunity.

Liane and mascot Ludwig The Pig

Crowd-funding isn’t as simple as setting up a page and expecting the money to roll in. You have to ask for funding personally and follow up politely (sometimes more than once), because often people just forget. And you need to have something to show for it, because you’re asking people who don’t necessarily know you to invest in you. I already had my music recorded and ready to go, but I also showed all the preparatory work I was doing for the video. After all, I wanted to instill the fact that I was fully capable of seeing this project through to completion if given the funds I needed.

Still, I suppose I should also give a little credit to our song choice for the music video, because it was a big aspect of our fundraising campaign as well. The featured song So Many Angels is my ode to the unsung good Samaritans who work very hard to make this world a little bit better for everyone. It was deliberately chosen because the entirety of the lyrics function in the framework of one extended metaphor and, furthermore, because that metaphor is concrete (not abstract) and based on a universal theme.

If the lyrical metaphor is tangible, it is already based in a visual concept that can be expanded, so both the musical element and the visual element enhance one another. Abstracts work very well in lyrics, but they are difficult to express visually. In our case, it was also important that the tone of the piece we chose be inclusive, because the goal was to gain a greater audience.

A goal I am proud to say we have clearly achieved!  My most played audio track has 182 plays and was uploaded (and promoted) 5 months ago. On the other hand, my Video received 404 plays in the first 48 hours and has continued strongly with over 750 plays at the halfway point of day 4. So, though I have to admit the making of my first music video, Tonesmith – So Many Angels, was an enormous amount of work, my first music video and crowd-funding campaign were a complete success! We’re currently #20 on the ReverbNation indie chart for Canada.

Liane Scholz
www.lianeshomestudio.com/lianescholz

To watch So Many Angels – The Video and hear our Music please visit: http://www.reverbnation.com/lianescholz