As a more interactive and direct way for fans to support their music financially Los Angeles-based hard rock band Bad Blood is allowing their adherents to literally purchase a piece of the songwriting pie. Partnering with an innovative new app called Vezt, the band is selling small portions of their songwriting rights to fans – almost like selling shares in a company. When the band gets revenues from streams, downloads, licencing or placement in other media, the fans participating through Vezt get a portion of the profits.
Hundreds of fans have already ponied up and are reaping the rewards of the money coming in already from the recent release of the quartet’s self-titled debut album. The band is confident in the quality of their music and its commercial possibilities, and thus thought Vezt (available for download from the App Store and Google Play) was a great way to mix entrepreneurship with the rock and roll creative spirit.
“Anyone who owns the song rights profits off this process. What we’re doing with Vezt is allowing our fans to buy an ownership stake in our songwriting and profit off the success of the songs with us. We get their investment to help offset the costs associated with recording, manufacturing and marketing, and it is in all of our best interests to promote the music and spread the word,” explained vocalist Chad Cherry.
“It’s great for the band and it also creates a stronger bond between us and our fans because we own the music together and we’re going to make it successful together. I have always believed that fans are the reason for the success of a song or an album. So, if you own something and you’re getting paid every time it’s played, you’re going to listen to it all the time and you’re going to tell your friends, ‘hey check out this new record.’ You’re going to post more about it on social media, because you’re also profiting off it.
“It’s like buying stock in our music. It’s not like a GoFundMe or a Kickstarter where you as the pledger don’t really get much out of it. With Vezt, you own the song rights, and we have already landed a few big licences for this record before the album even came out. So, in that sense, it’s already a successful album. It’s a go. Even though this is all very new, we’re already more than 25 per cent sold out. We’re very excited about the numbers because this is brand new, it’s never been done. A good buddy of mine hit me up when the App was still in its beta form and he thought it might work for us. I was blown away. This is the future of the music business right here, because people aren’t buying songs, they are streaming them, and this is the new model to monetize the efforts of the artists and have the fans monetize their efforts and their listening.”
Bad Blood brings together four veteran musicians of the Los Angeles scene: Cherry, bassist Chris Clemence, guitarist Chris Iorio and drummer Kenny Borill; artists, songwriters and players who have been around the proverbial music business block, have paid their dues and honed their craft to the point where they are firm in the belief that the music is not only badass and entertaining, but potentially lucrative for all concerned. More than that, giving the fans a sense of ownership and having them interested in promoting the songs and celebrating each placement or licencing deal, and helping push the streaming numbers up forms a much deeper connection than a simple download or even buying a physical copy.
“We are definitely going to get physical copies out eventually for those who want them, but I want all the fans and the people who are interested in our music now to understand what exactly we’re offering. It’s so much better than a piece of plastic. I know it’s cool to have and hold in your hand, but in time that piece of plastic is going to get scratched and is going to break, so you kind of threw your 10 bucks away in that sense,” said Clemence.
“Rather than doing that, put your 10 bucks into Vezt, invest in the band, stream it as much as you want on Spotify, Apple Music or whatever. You’re going to get paid for that, you’re going to be making money off the music rather than throwing it away. It’s going to appreciate as an investment rather than depreciate. And if you want to burn it on disc to play it in your car, if your car even has a CD player, that’s fine. But you own it, so the more you play it and stream it, the more you’re going to profit. We want people to be on this amazing journey with us, instead of just buying a CD, which is the end of the interaction. Royalties are so much better.”
Cherry said for artists and bands it lends a sense of value to their hard work and creative output. As much as the creativity is important, people gotta eat.
“We have all been playing music forever, for as long as any of us can remember. We have put our lives and souls into it. There has been a lot of sacrifice that has gone along with it, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. There will come a point in every band or artist’s career when they realize they need to become more business savvy about it and look at what you’re actually worth. We have been doing this for a long time, and I think it’s very important for everybody involved in making music to brand their own pile of stuff so you can profit from it. And if your fans can profit off it with you, that’s even better. It’s all about the future,” he said.
Bad Blood was originally just a studio project, where a group of musicians came together to work on some song licencing opportunities, when the proverbial light bulb went off in everyone’s heads.
“The songs were coming together so well; it was some of the best stuff, I feel that I have ever been a part of. And I talked with the guys and though that we should turn this into a band. I think everyone was on the same page from the start,” said Clemence.
“We all realized how good the experience was. It was all these really great players who were all focused on the same goal and the music we created ended up being really easy and fast for us to do. And it sounded really cool. We really liked what we were doing and there was just no reason for us to stop. It was too cool, why would we want to end it. Now we’re full on with Bad Blood and it’s exciting. We’re just a hard ass rock and roll band having a blast,” added Cherry.
“We all write songs. Once we get into a room, we start feeding off each other. The two Chris’s are like a dynamic duo, they can just come up with some amazing music at the drop of a hat. It’s actually really fascinating to see them work. Kenny is a producer in his own right and is a fantastic drummer and songwriter. I love to write songs too and we all just get together and come up with shit that just sounds badass ad that we all really like. We write the kind of music that we want to hear.
“I think what we do is create theme music for people. In this day and age people need to stand up, they need to question authority, and they need to question things that they don’t think are right, and I think it’s great to have theme music to go along with that kind of attitude, because you’ve got to just be yourself and that’s pretty much what this music is expressing. It’s pretty damn honest and is theme music for rising above.”
The lead-off single from the album is the infectiously riveting and riff-heavy Drug That I Need.
“Everyone, in their own way has their own vice; something that keeps them going, or something that motivates them or something that helps them escape. We all have our own, and we know everyone listening has theirs, so it’s kind of an anthem for that,” Clemence said, adding that the track We Are LA, is an homage to their hometown, but so much more.
Sonically it sounds like a melding of the city’s rock past, present and future, pulling in the vibe of The Doors’ L.A. Woman and Motley Crue’s 2008 album and album title track, Saints of Los Angeles.
“Living out in Los Angeles is a trip. It’s a fantastic place and its still looney tunes too. There are the craziest things you will ever see out here, right in Hollywood. And it’s true that on one end of the spectrum it’s nasty and gritty and dirty and on the other side there’s all this glamour and glitz and a massive fusion of both. It makes for an interesting, interesting city and we’re reflecting all of that in this song,” said Cherry.
“I toured opening for Motley Crue on the Saints of Los Angeles tour and that song, and that album was awesome – it really summed up the city from the point of view of that band and their era. We are all fans of that music and it’s where we learned our chops and I think we picked up some of that same attitude. We’re not necessarily directly following in their footsteps, but we are here as well doing the same crazy shit, seeing the same crazy shit, but in a different era and with a different approach. But it’s still bananas, and we love it. This is definitely our town.”
Bad Blood’s profile received a super heroic boost recently when actor Jason Momoa, best known for his roles as Khal Drogo on Game of Thrones and as Aquaman in the DC movie universe, tweeted out his support for the band to his social media accounts recently.
“Kenny is actually a friend of Jason. He teaches him how to play drums and they hang out, and Jason actually got to hear the album before it came out and said it was awesome. He was excited about what we were doing, and he put it out there for us and gave us a shout out,” said Clemence.
“He believes in the music and he didn’t do it for anything other than the fact that he enjoys the music and is Kenny’s friend. He is a very down to earth guy, and we’re just stoked that he thinks it’s good and he’s digging it,” added Cherry.
For more information on Bad Blood and the debut album, visit http://badblood.band.
For more information on the Vezt app, visit https://www.vezt.co.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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