Any members in Seattle?

[shellsings]

Thanks Casey, I appreciate your response. However, for me at least, there is no replacement for flesh and blood and the immediacy of being within a physical collaborative environment. But thanks for expressing your viewpoint. Its a good one.

John

Hi There...

welcome to the forum, how long have you been a member? It is definitely a different perspective than writing in person. Took me a while to get comfortable collaborating on line but it does work well. There are TAXI hangs in a couple cities. I tried to start one up here in DC but people are a bit spread out. Like Casey said, if you can, come to the rally in November, you will meet a lot of people and music industry people that could help forward your music career.

Anyway, we hope that you give it a chance and come to the rally . Also I think there is a forum subject for Introducing yourself and people are pretty responsive.

Have a great day!

[pedrocosta]

Hi John, welcome!
How long have you been a member?
If your sole purpose to join was to meet people in your area then you are missing the main benefits of Taxi.
And likely there are better ways to meet locals, like getting out to live shows, local music industry events, etc.
Taxi is more about connecting you to industry people than to other artists. The second part just happens organically via the super friendly Taxi community. It happens here on the forums and at the Rally/Convention.
We may be able to guide you a little better if we know what your main goals are.
Best wishes,

Pedro

[feodorj]

Wow Casey, me admitting to being a newbie and then being accused of not making any effort seems a bit unfair. I could easily take issue with a few of your points, but you seem like too much of a zealot to have a thoughtful conversation.

[Casey H]

Wow Casey, me admitting to being a newbie and then being accused of not making any effort seems a bit unfair. I could easily take issue with a few of your points, but you seem like too much of a zealot to have a thoughtful conversation.

I apologize if I came off harsh. My bad. I should have taken more time to introduce myself, ask you your goals (as Pedro did) and explain how relationships tend to get formed among Taxi members. I was taken by your saying you didn't want to renew Taxi because you had hoped it would help you meet local people when it's not at all what Taxi is about or even says they are about. That wasn't me being a Taxi zealot, it was my not getting where you were coming from.

And I did think you gave a little dig to Michael with respect to community when the Taxi community is one if Taxi's strongest points.

But again, I did come off harsh and sincerely apologize. In fact, I would love to talk to you offline and see what help I could be to you.

Peace
Casey

[deankripp]

Hey John,

I am a Seattle guy. I didn’t respond to your post at first because I thought you were looking for a collaborator and since partnering in a Tech StartUp a couple years ago my music collaborations have been severely curtailed. ...if I had read your post more carefully i would have seen that you were looking specifically for female vocalists.... Doh!

I have met quite a few Seattle people at the Taxi Road Rally over the years so I know they exist. As for collaborating “in the flesh” I feel ya. That is my preferred method although I have had quite a few successful “online” co-writes and co-productions with maybe 10 - 15 Taxi members over the years. Most of them I met at the Taxi conference (Road Rally), and after sharing a few beers (or scotches in my case), and just hanging out, we found some common interests… Then, the online collabs were easy. (because we had history)

But I’ve also done it cold – with no face to face. When a writer signed to a major publisher calls up and says “let’s Skype a song” what am I going to say, no? Not on your life…, I get Skype up and running and although it was a bit awkward the first time, the flow soon came.

As for vocalists, I know a couple great female vocal pros in Seattle (depending what type of music you are doing).... But again I would mine the members on the forum. There are some awesome female vocalists here and many have the ability to cut a vocal track at home and send back to you. I always prefer the vocalist in the room when I am recording but sometimes that is not possible as there are a couple KILLER vocalists I use who don't live in town.... so I just send them the track and they record at their place....

So while I would say to keep looking for those “in town” collaborators, I would also encourage you to go to the RR in November and open yourself up to the possibility of country-wide and international collabs. Getting the perfect vocalist is critical and sometimes they don't live in our city.

I'm babbling - I'll stop

dean krippaehne

[pboss]

John,

Michael Laskow has often shown support for the idea of Taxi members in common geographic areas getting together. During at least one Taxi Live show, he showed not only support for such Taxi meet-ups, but offered to buy a pizza, and join a group event by Skype, if there were a certain minimum number of attendees, which is nice. Like the others were describing, it might help to attend the Rally, and meet members who may be not literally in your city, but not too far away. Good luck ~

[sethlit]

Hey John,

I thought I'd chime in a little here too even though I'm not sure I have anymore to offer, everyone else has already written great suggestions. I too live in Seattle and I'd be more than happy to chat with you. Send me a PM if you'd like, but I'm not a female vocalist (as much as I try when Kareokeing). I'm curious what kind of music you write and what kind of goals you might have for it (pitching? licensing? performing? etc?)

As others have stated here, the road rally IS amazing and it sounds like it might be exactly what you're looking for. You'll meet all kinds of musicians, performers, hired guns, industry folk, etc. I've even met new friends from, you guessed it, Seattle! Like Casey pointed out, there are some various meetups here in our town and yes there's nothing like the 1 on 1 collab, but I'm curious if you've ever tried a "long distance" collab? I think you'd be pleasantly surprised. On the other hand, if it's just a hired female vocalist you need, there are some greats living here as well (as Dean pointed out). Regardless, if you're looking to meet up and meet some of most inspiring, friendly, helpful, (sometimes wacky) individuals, then the rally IS where it's at. Hands down. Ask anyone who has ever attended.

Regardless, PM me if ya want to chat, maybe we can try to arrange a ML pizza hang or something.

Best wishes,
Seth

[feodorj]

Thank you to everyone who responded to my original post. I admit to being a bit miffed at one response, but I think the two of us ironed it out off-forum. Anyways, I am planning to attend the RR and I look forward to meeting all of you. I also appreciate all of your takes on working digitally over the web. I've tried it before, but that was several years ago, and my collaborators disliked the process even more than I did, but that was back in the dinosaur days. So, maybe its time to try it again?!

So, what is my goal? It was initially to see if I even had the talent to write the kind of music that had commercial appeal for licensing or for another artist. I appreciated most of the feedback from Taxi reviewers for some songs I submitted, even if not forwarded. I try not to be too attached to what I write so that I don't mind changing things around. Most of the comments were that they didn't fit the genre, so I no longer trust my judgment and have stopped submitting until I feel absolutely sure (which hasn't happened yet) that a song is in the ballpark of what the client wants. So, in the meanwhile, I will continue writing what I write and try putting together a band here in Seattle.

Any ways, I hope to be more sociable on these forums and such. But don't get me wrong! I'm not down on Taxi, I actually would like to become more involved, but I also need to figure out if its right for me, or if I'm right for it. That's not meant to be a criticism, just an honest evaluation. It might be that I'm not the right kind of writer for Taxi's clients. I would rather figure that out sooner than later, or worse, never.

Thanks again everyone, once again, I really do appreciate all your comments!

John

[eeoo]

I think you'll find posting songs on peer to peer with specific questions and even the text from the listing very helpful and enlightening. Everyone here is generous with their feedback and you seen open to constructive criticism so it should be a win, win.

Good luck, see you in November!

eo

[mojobone]

Hi, John, welcome to the forum! I don't want to overwhelm you with suggestions, but writing to the listings is a great way to grow and stretch your writing chops, and there's lots of great info in "Forum Rules" and under the search term "five year plan'.