All posts tagged tim-shiel

  • April 28, 2010

    A Conversation With Faux Pas, Melbourne electronic artist

    An interview that I’ve published at Waycooljnr.

    Melbourne electronic artist Faux Pas a.k.a. Tim ShielLast week I wrote a feature article for Australian music website Mess+Noise about Faux Pas, a Melbourne-based electronic artist whose ‘digital DIY’ approach has intrigued me since Waycooljnr founder Nick Crocker pointed me in his direction.

    I’ve since found Tim Shiel – the man behind the Faux Pas moniker, pictured right – to be a great example of an artist willing to invest time in developing his online presence. Besides using his computer to write and record his art, Shiel offers his music openly and honestly with bloggers, and allows fans to buy and share his material with minimal fuss. Below is the unedited interview that I used as the basis for my Mess+Noise feature ahead of the April 2010 release of his new album, Noiseworks.

    Full interview with Tim at Waycooljnr.

    No Comments / Conversations /

  • April 23, 2010

    Mess+Noise story: ‘Faux Pas: Artist 2.0’, April 2010

    An interview feature for Mess+Noise.

    Melbourne electronic artist Faux Pas, a.k.a. Tim ShielFaux Pas: Artist 2.0

    Operating under the Faux Pas moniker, Melbourne musician and broadcaster Tim Shiel’s success hasn’t been played out among Melbourne’s live music venues, but online, writes ANDREW MCMILLEN.

    “I owe a lot of people a beer.”

    This is how Tim Shiel, also known as Faux Pas, jokingly describes his career so far. Unconfined by spatial constraints, Shiel’s success as an independent solo artist hasn’t been played out in Melbourne’s live music venues, but online. The beer-owing remark was a response to his experiences with community radio, which he credits, along with the internet, with disseminating his music to Australia and beyond.

    “I don’t play live shows, so radio airplay and internet exposure are really the two main ways in which my music gets spread out there. And the thing with community radio is – and I know this is obvious, but sometimes it bears repeating – in the majority of cases, it’s the individual presenters who make the call about whether they are going to put your stuff to air or not. So there are a lot of individuals who I’m heavily indebted to.”

    Full story at Mess+Noise. Visit Bandcamp to listen to Faux Pas – I highly recommended his work.

    I also used Tim’s perspective when ‘road testing’ online music service Guvera for Mess+Noise a few weeks back; read that story here.

    No Comments / Music Journalism, Published Writing /

  • April 8, 2010

    Mess+Noise story: ‘Guvera Road Test’, April 2010

    Contiki channel on music service GuveraFollowing my interview with Claes Loberg – CEO of new free, advertiser-funded online music service Guvera – for The Vine, Mess+Noise asked me to ‘road test’ the site. I also enlisted the assistance of Ian Rogers from Brisbane doom rock trio No Anchor, and Melbourne electronic artist Faux Pas (Tim Shiel).

    Road Test: Guvera

    A new service called Guvera promises free music in exchange for being willfully marketed to, but is it really the solution to illegal downloading? ANDREW MCMILLEN finds out.

    Guvera is a new online music service. It offers free downloads to consumers in exchange for the “pleasure” of being blatantly marketed to throughout the entire experience. Here’s how it works: instead of interrupting people with annoying ads, potential advertisers can inhabit a personalised channel that people will voluntarily visit (or, more accurately, tolerate) in exchange for 256kbps MP3s of their favourite artists. CEO Claes Loberg describes this as a “reversal of the advertising process”.

    The site launched on March 30 to widespread media fanfare including a spot on A Current Affair, whose audience might not have been aware that “the internet is the electronic equivalent of going to a record store”, as one of the show’s talking heads revealed. However, Loberg admits they’re targeting those who currently obtain music illegally.

    Guvera homepage“The reality is that the people who want to use those [illegal] services still can,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is implement a service that creates an option for the music industry to try and monetise the free stuff that everybody’s already getting, by getting advertisers to pay for it.”

    In theory, it’s an admirable endeavour. But how does the service rate in terms of usability and practicality?

    Full story over at Mess+Noise.

    2 Comments / Music Journalism, Published Writing /