The intended role of Stereo Stickman was to discover & explore the array of hard working artists and bands the world has to offer, and to represent them in the professional and respected manner they deserve. We began as we intended to go on, but the whole thing very quickly evolved, and since we started – the results have far, far surpassed any expectations. What a world we live in! The sheer level of talent and ability and passion lying just beneath the mainstream music radar is astonishing, and it’s a beautiful time to be alive.
This year has been a musical beauty, and we have high hopes for 2017. In the age of the internet, anyone and everyone can make music at home, and if at first this seemed like a deterring factor for fellow musicians – it now so clearly appears as something wonderful for us to embrace and be inspired by. The musicians we have listened to and written about have been of such an overwhelmingly high caliber this year, that it’s really starting to seem as though the mainstream industry is something driven almost entirely by man’s most attractive enemy – money. If you can throw a hell of a lot of money at something, you can market it to the entire world, and even if your fan base turns out to be just one in every ten who listens – that number will be big.
We can’t promise numbers, and we can’t make people like a certain release or a certain artist or band; that’s down to personal choice, opinion, unchangeable (for the most part) elements of individuality. What we can do, however, is shine a light on the things that matter – draw attention to the beauty in the music the world is making. And there is so much beauty in all of this. Regardless of genre, style, theme, instrumentation, ideas, origin – music is something that has always and will always bring people together. It connects us in a way that very little else can. And in all honesty, if the world is busy making music, if the world is busy being creative, being resourceful, being productive – being happy – who would want that to end?
Music deserves to be made, and once made – it deserves to be listened to, properly. These are the reasons we listen so intently when we write about independent music. The time it takes to make a record is extreme in comparison to the time it takes to listen to the finished project. There is so much more than meets the ear when it comes to music, composition and songwriting. We understand this, and we know how it feels. All we can do is listen, really listen, and write about the ways that it works. And hopefully, hopefully, the audience will respond.
This year has been incredible – for us, and for many of the musicians and bands we’ve written about and represented. We’ll be sharing as many of our discoveries from the past twelve months as possible over the coming week leading up to the New Year. We’d also like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who’s contacted us, read our features, listened to something new, taken part in an interview, shared us, re-tweeted us, left comments, told a friend – THANK YOU, to all of you – it isn’t possible without you – we’re building something wonderful and we hope to continue with all of this and more 🙂
Happy Holidays to all and here’s to an incredible 2017 x x x
